5 – Need for Speed

Need For Speed was one of the first gaming franchises that I really took note of. I’d play it on the computer a lot with and it was always a ton of fun. I like how it’s not that complex a racing game, and they have kept that for the most part. Some of them, more recent ones, try and add in too much story or complexity for kitting out your car, making it more like a Fast and the Furious movies than like original Need for Speed, and it just loses something. I want to go and race immediately, not have to drive around to find the next event, hope it’s a type that I have my car kit ready for. But the game is just a classic at this point, and some of them, Hot Pursuit 2 in particular are just awesome.

4 – Mario Kart

Needless to say, I like racing games. This goes back to what I said in the open, I like games that aren’t going to take multiple sessions that are hours long to play. I can sit down with a group of friends and knock out a Mario Kart tournament in a few minutes, and that has a group of people with it. I like Mario Kart slightly better than Need for Speed because while both are fun, Mario Kart can be more social, and while Need for Speed isn’t highly realistic in damage to your car or it blowing up, Mario Kart is less so, which just makes it that much more fun.

3 – Tales from the Borderlands

This is a kind of bigger game, but mainly it’s a kind of silly game. I love the Borderlands franchise and this is obviously completely different than those looter/shooters, but it is still a blast. Tales from the Borderlands tells a good story set in that world, and even ties into the 3rd (4th) Borderlands game. It does a good job of keeping the humor and tells what is a very traditional Borderlands story in a condensed and faster game play. I like that I can pick my story decisions and make changes to the world because of them. It’s not all amazing because there are some quick time events that are just annoying and feel like they are there so you, as the player feel like you’re doing something, if it’s been a bit between choices, but generally, like I said, just annoying. Great story overall though, and a lot of good choices.

2 – Borderlands Series

Next up we have the whole of the Borderlands series, Borderlands, Borderlands: The Pre-sequel, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands 3. These are just fun looter shooter games. This is a bigger series of games, and the 3rd one has been harder to get through because I just don’t have the time to sit down and play a ton, but I do really like that they are couch co-op and not that difficult to play. They give you a good silly time as you run around, blow up monsters, get crazy guns, blow up bandits, blow up bad guys, get more guns, and did I mention blowing stuff up with guns? That’s basically what the series is about, and the silly humor that it has to go along with it. Such a good time and easy to get into without having to be that good at the game, you can always just go do something else, shoot and blow up something else, and come back when you’re at the right level.

1 – Dragon Age: Origins

Finally, Dragon Age: Origins. I do like the 2nd one as well, but the 3rd one lost me a bit for a few reasons. What I like so much about Dragon Age: Origins is that it’s an “open world” game. By that I mean that you can do stuff in different orders, and explore different sections, but it is a pretty limited open world game. You can’t just wander off in a direction to see what is there, you’ll run up against how far you can go pretty quickly. And you can’t just randomly stumble into a late game quest. This is just an interesting story of a game that is told while giving you a lot of choices but you kind of work in quest batches that you can pick the order of but will always end up at the same ending spot. Now that might seem like your choices don’t matter, they do, some, but the dragon must be slayed no matter what.

Those are some of the top ones for me, a few that just missed the list would be Powerstar Golf, probably my most played game, because I can sit down and play it so fast, and couch co-op. Jazz Jackrabbit, Alpha Centauri and Tony LaRussa Baseball which I grew up with. 1943, a top scrolling flying game, and then stuff like Mortal Kombat and Super Mario, that I can play, but are easy to pick-up and set down.

What are some of your favorite games, with my taste, what games should I checkout?

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10 – 1942

There will be a number of older games that I really like on the list. One of the reasons that I like a lot of these older games is that I can sit down and play a few minutes. 1942 is a WWII flying game, but in classic arcade, it’s top down so you’re just moving up and down and left and right on the screen while firing non-stop. I really enjoy that type of game, whether it is WWII or some crazy sci-fi adventure or alien world, it’s a good time to just sit down and play through a few levels trying to blow everything up and usually failing a lot. A simple game that I can really enjoy.

9 – Jazz Jackrabbit

You’re a crazy rabbit in this side scroller who can jump, and fire a wide array of guns. This was one that I loved and played so much of, even if it was only just the demo version (I’m not 100% convinced there was a full version, I could never find it as a kid). It’s your classic game kind of like Mario, but while Mario tended to be more linear, this had more ups and downs and backtracking and going under what you’d done before. The guns were a lot of fun, and it was a good one growing up that I could again, just sit down and play a level or two and eventually I got really good at those early levels. Definitely a classic style of game that I could have picked a lot of different games from, but I really enjoyed this one a lot as a kid.

8 – Myst/Riven

One thing I like a lot in my video games is puzzles, and while there aren’t many puzzle games on the list, there are some like Chip’s Challenge that just missed the list. Myst and Riven are two of the biggest puzzle games from my childhood out there, and I believe I have at least Myst for steam. They are really though games, but I love their complexity and their story. The puzzles all make sense, but you really need to search and think to be able to figure them out, because a puzzle might be based off of a sound in a whole different part of the world. Definitely challenging, and very hard to get through without hints, but if you want to spend hours on puzzles this works well, and you could save so you could get through a puzzle and then come back later to do more.

7 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Another of those side scrolling games. I like TMNT because it’s TMNT, also because it’s not that difficult a game. I played this at an arcade probably eight to ten months ago, and it was just a blast four player. We were able to get through the whole game in not that much time and without that much money sunk into it. But it’s just a good time. I love playing as the turtles, and I like taking on all the crazy bad guys that they throw at you. I’m not that great at the game, probably died more than the other people I played with, but who cares, it was a fun time and the game is just about a bunch of button mashing.

6 – Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Another genre of game that I really enjoy are racing games, and in particular the Need for Speed franchise. I started playing with Need for Speed 2, I’ve played the rebooted Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, and others as well, and as long as they are just straight up racing games, they are awesome. There was one that got too bogged down in cut scenes and random locations to go to and that one wasn’t that great, but give me a standard racing game and I love them. Street racing is even more fun because you get to outrun the cops or you get to be the cops trying to keep in contact with the racers, deploy spike strips and do other things to knock them off the road and arrest them. The game is a blast and again, it’s one that you can just sit down and do a couple of races and call it good.

5 – Mortal Kombat

This is kind of a placeholder for a number of games, DC Injustice, Street Fighter, Capcom games, all of those games that just have you moving left and right on the screen, kicking, punching, jumping and trying to figure out the combos, I really like those types of games. Again, it’s just fun to face off against your friends in a few small battles over time and just see who is the “better” fighter or button masher. Mortal Kombat just has some more of the games that I’ve played recently with the Retron system, and always a good time to just sit down and play for a little bit and then give up when I start to run into the computer using logic and then try again.

4 – Super Mario World

So more of that side scrolling action, though last one on the list, it’s hard not to have a Mario game, and I picked Super Mario World as probably my favorite. I have put more hours into the Wii game but this one is probably preferred because I like the older and a bit slower games, more my speed. Though, any game that I can play as Luigi is good as well. A placeholder really for most Mario games, I again like being able to pick it up and set it down easily just to see how far I can get into it and find where the water levels are and figure out if I can avoid them.

3 – Powershot Golf

Kind of different than the rest of my list which is a bit more retro, at least at parts, Powershot Golf is another one of those games that I can play 18 holes of golf in 30 minutes and then be done if I want. And it’s a silly golf game as well. I don’t mind a more serious golf game, but this one is just more enjoyable because who doesn’t want a golf ball that looks like a skull and moans or an enchanted putter. The game plays fast and is pretty simple, I’ve gotten pretty good at it and it’s one that is easy for new players to get into as well. And there are a lot of fun unlocks you can get, overall just a good and relaxing game to play.

2 – Dragon Age

As I said at the beginning, I do like bigger games, it’s just hard for me to get through them. The top two here are bigger games, and even franchises of games. When I say Dragon Age here, I’m talking about the first two games in the system, I was less of a fan of Dragon Inquisition. The main reason is that was too open world for me, Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2 are both open world enough that you can run around and do random side quests, but you can’t just accidentally wander into a whole new area that you maybe shouldn’t be going to yet. I like the story, I like the combat, and I like the way you can build up your power throughout the game. I’ve beat the original game a three or four times now at this point, but doing it the first time took a long time because I’d get distracted, play or do something else for a few months and then come back and restart because I had forgotten where I was and how I was playing my character.

1 – Borderlands

Now, is aid that I don’t love long games, and I don’t love FPS, and I don’t love open world games, but Borderlands, I love. Firstly, I love it because I can easily play it couch co-op or online. With it being couch co-op, it just gets to be a good afternoon or evening sitting around, playing a completely absurd looter shooter and drinking beer. And while it does have a story, I don’t care that much if I’m on the main quest or if I’m doing a side quest or whatever is going on because I’m there for shooting things, dying, respawning, shooting more things, getting crazy guns, leveling up, but really, mainly, the crazy characters who say absurd things. Borderlands, all of them are just a blast and games that even if you don’t love FPS’s I really do recommend.

Ah, so many games that just missed the list as well. The classic arcade Track and Field, I could probably spend a day at an arcade playing just that. The original Final Fantasy is great. Sports games like Madden or Tony LaRussa Baseball 2. Racing games like Mario Kart or Speed Racer (such an awesome game). But I only had room for 10 on the list and I think that those are really my top few. I could have even said something line minesweeper, I got very good at that game.

What are your top video games? Are there any based off of my taste that I need to try, are there any classic games that are a must track down for NES or SNES?

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