by marino
I've kinda wanted to do this for a long time just as a personal experiment. I doubt anyone will care about my list, but I wanted to see what I would come up with. I had a birthday yesterday (April 16), so it felt like a good time to look back and give this a shot.
I own close to 1500 games and I keep a collection spreadsheet (big surprise), so I just took the list and started chopping. After the first run through the list, I still had over 200 games on it. The only flaw with this method is arcade games. I don't own any arcade games, so I feel like there might be a couple I'm forgetting that would've made the list. I'm sure that if I somehow lost the list that I ended up with here and redid it tomorrow, not only would they be in a different order, there would likely be 10-15 different games swapped out. But, that's irrelevant. This is what I'm going with. Feel free to yell at me in the comments.
If you know me at all, I like making stats and charts. So, here's a couple before I get to the list.
Showing 1-10 of 100 items
1999 (PC) - EverQuest is more than just a game. For better or worse, it was kind of my life for a few years. I haven't played it in about 15 years, but I think about it almost every day. The good times, the bad times, and most importantly the people that left an indelible mark on me. Endless stories could be told. It is the most fun that I've ever had playing a game and likely always will be. It took me years to realize that chasing that high in other MMOs was a fool's errand. EverQuest is without question my #1.
1992 (SNES) - No game is perfect. But, A Link to the Past is the most perfect.
2010 (X360) - One of the most well-told stories in the history of games.
2017 (NSW) - I honestly didn't think anything would ever come close to knocking A Link to the Past out of the top slot for best Zelda, but this almost did it.
1995 (Arcade) - The height of Mortal Kombat fandom. Having access to internet in its infancy was a like adding fuel to a fire too. The hunt for secrets and moves was intense. My friend Christopher and I used to make move lists and code booklets out of index cards and take them to the arcade to test them out. We were such nerds.
2004 (PS2) - The best "arcade" sports game ever made. Most people will say they loved SSX and name Tricky their favorite, but Tricky was basically just a special edition of the first game. SSX 3 took everything to the next level and introduced an enormous mountain that linked every level/stage together and let you ride the whole thing in one go with no loading. It's the complete package.
2012 (Vita) - Obviously this game holds a special place in the hearts of the majority of us here at Giant Bomb. I didn't play it myself until P4G, but it still became my favorite RPG of all time. It's funny trying to imagine how vanilla P4 worked without Marie's story though.
2018 (PS4) - Easily one of the best action adventure games of all time. It's just astounding that they were able to evolve the franchise into this masterpiece.
1999 (N64) - No Mercy is probably "better" but WM2000 gets my spot as best wrestling game of all time. It would've already been high on my list, but it definitely gets boosted thanks to League of Heels.
1999 (PS1) - No, this is not a typo. Final Fantasy VIII is the best Final Fantasy. I played through it again in 2020 and it still holds up. Some of the cutscene to gameplay transitions are still kinda incredible.
