My 25 Favorite Video Games of All Time

As I'm sure I've mentioned time and again, I'm not really a video game guy. I find them unusually frustrating and hard to deal with; it's been a problem ever since I was about 11 years old, actually. But that said, I've certainly enjoyed my fair share of games, enjoyed them, and have fond memories of many. And since there is just nothing to do today, I decided I'd make a list of my favorites.

So these are the 25 games I've enjoyed playing the most. They're not necessarily my out and out faves (from a pop culture standpoint, those would be Pac-Man and Space Invaders), but the games I've had the best times with. So, in ascending order...

25. Gauntlet (NES)
My sister and I used to get into this game and play it for hours and hours. It looks so simple, but it had its overwhelming moments, especially in 2-player mode, where any mistakes you made could get the other person killed. This game may actually be a huge factor in the fights I had with my sister; we both get frustrated pretty easily, and this game could get you like that.

24. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PS2)
Kind of like a more fully-animated version of Gauntlet, in a way. Becca and I had hours of fun getting lost in this game and journeying through Middle-earth and killing lots and lots and lots of orcs. I like games where you just get thrown in and have to fight your way out, and this was one of the best times I had doing it.

23. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
I liked all of the Mario games for NES, but this was far and away my favorite. Frustrating as hell in some places, but really fun.

22. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game (arcade)
I don't know how much money in quarters I must have fed into this machine. I remember playing this game with my sister at the arcade over and over and over again. It was one of those sideways scrolling action games, and we just played and played and played until we'd won the damn thing. Carl and I played this game, too. Konami also made an X-Men game like this, and it's still the best X-Men game I've ever played (although I haven't played any since the Capcom arcade games and Sega Genesis).

21. LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game (PS2)
All of the LEGO games will be on this list. Are they all the same game? Sure. But they're also all fun. They're the perfect combination of an action game and a puzzle game.

20. Metroid (NES)
Another game I just loved to play for hours at a time, even though I wasn't always as good at it as I wanted to be. I played this at a friend's house and then took off and bought my own copy of it.

19. LEGO Batman: The Video Game (PS2)
Easily the most fun I've ever had with a Batman game.

18. Galaga (arcade)
When I could get my mom away from it, this was always a neat game to play.

17. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (PS2)
I like these kinds of first-person shooter games. I especially enjoyed this one just because Becca and I got so into it. She was on vacation from work and we just sat and played this game for a few days until we beat it. I enjoyed the heck out of that.

16. Tetris (PC)
Well, come on, who doesn't love Tetris?

15. Pokemon Snap (N64)
I generally found this to be a relaxing (if sometimes difficult) game. It was a neat premise; you got in a cart and went through a Pokemon habitat and tried to take really good photographs of them. A charmingly simple concept that took a surprising amount of skill to master. And it was a nice break from action games.

14. Army Men: Sarge's Heroes (N64)
Damn, I enjoyed the hell out of this game. This was just a fun game. It was one of the few video games to teach me the value of patience, too. I tend to overreact.

13. LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2)
The major reason this scores over the other LEGO Star Wars game is that you can import the characters from the first game and you can play bounty hunting missions. The most fun I've ever had with a Star Wars video game.

12. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64)
This and The Ocarina of Time are my two favorite Zelda games ever. Appropriately epic, the way I'd always imagined them to be in the eighties.

11. Mario Kart 64 (N64)
I'm not usually a fan of racing games, but this one was a lot of fun. Plus, I dig all the Mario characters (nearly making this list: Super Smash Bros. for the N64). I don't know, it was just a lot of fun to play. Is it true they've added Pac-Man to the lineup for the Wii version? Because that's just too freaking awesome for words.

10. Dr. Mario (NES)
I got lost playing this game during the summer of 1993, when there was all the flooding. When I wasn't working, I sat and zoned out on Dr. Mario. It was very relaxing. Well, focused, maybe. Took my mind right off of how tired and annoyed I was.

9. Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
This game was really weird and really neat. A lot like the puzzle/action combination of Mario or the LEGO games, but really, really bizarre. It was a little extra neat because the main character, Banjo the Honey Bear, reminded me so much of Billy Bob from Showbiz Pizza. I can't explain it, but playing this game made me feel like a little kid in a really good way.

8. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GameCube)
This has the distinction of being one of only two games I've ever played on GameCube. It's also, in my experience (so far), the Zelda game with the best animation. It looks like a cartoon, and I love it for that.

7. Ms. Pac-Man (arcade)
All due respect to my beloved Pac-Man, but Ms. Pac-Man did have way better game play. This is the first and last arcade game I was incredibly good at.

6. Space Invaders (arcade)
The experience of playing this game at a loud arcade is something everyone should enjoy at some point or another. I remember when this game was so popular there was a line to play it.

5. Super Mario 64 (N64)
After getting the NES around 1987 or 1988, I didn't make a major platform upgrade until Becca bought the Nintendo 64 around 1997. It was a real jump in quality, and I have really fond memories of that platform because it was mine and Becca's first together. It came with this game, and we sat and played it together for hours and hours during a particularly heavy winter. I will always have fond memories of this game, no matter how much it frustrated me.

4. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time (N64)
I've always loved the Legend of Zelda games, and this was such an improvement over the last one I'd actually played, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, that I was blown away. I'd always wanted to see Link fully formed in an epic landscape, and this was certainly it. What I love about the Zelda games is that you can just play these things forever and ever. There's so much to them that it's not over and done so quickly. Of all of the Zelda games, for whatever reason, this one is my favorite.

3. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (PS2)
The perfection of the LEGO game, at least for me.

2. Sid Meier's Civilization III (PC)
It caters to everything I want: it's long and involved, it takes strategic planning, it's a world-building game, and it's based in history. There are entire days of my life that have gone missing because of this game. I played it so much that I had to take it off of my computer. But it's just sitting there, waiting to be reinstalled...

1. Centipede (arcade)
There was nothing to this game but a rolling ball and a button. And yet, it was awesomeness in video console form. Sometimes the simplest things are the most wonderful.