Meme time: Top 5 Favorite Video Games

Ok, ok…I haven’t been writing on my blog very much. I’ve been sitting at home, playing the XBox. Because of this, I haven’t had much to write about. So let me ask all of you: What are your top 5 favorite games? Here are mine, in random order:

Pac-Man–Arcade. This was the first arcade game I ever played, back in 1980 or so. I remember clearly: It was at Fisher Foods, a local grocery store. My mother had to lift me up to see the screen. I was running from the ghosts, and I suddenly reralized that “the big dots” made you eat ghosts! For my 3-year-old mind, this was the greatest thing ever. I have this game on my cell-phone, and I still play it (I beat my cell-phone highscore on friday!). Ahhhh, memories.

Gladius–PS2, XBox. I’m playing this one again. It’s a fantasy, Roman-Gladiator-style turn-based-strategy role-playing-game, that, while complex in the abilities charactes can have and in the strategy of puting those chaacters together, is actually easy to learn to play. I’m over 20 hours in the game now, and it only gets better as you go. The basic idea is that you must lead your gladiator school to the championship in Caltha, the capital of Imperia. To do this, you must travel the world, fighting the best that each region has to offer. This game is endlessly replayable, but a little too easy to save over your game (my ex-wife played for over 100 hours before accidentally erasing her game. She then played at least an additional 80 hours!).

Sid Meier’s Pirates!–XBox,Genesis,NES. This game is one of the original sandbox, or open-ended, games. there is a main plot, and you can finish the game without even touching on that plot. I played this game on the NES fiorst, and it was my favorite game for that system. The Genesis version was better, with improved graphicsa and sound. The XBox game added features, like the ability to take the daughters of the governors to the Ball (where you hit certain buttons in rythym to dance well and impress them). I think any version of this game holds up well, but the XBox version manages to improve on the game without changing what made the early versions so great. You can play this game from beginning to end in a few hours, just blowing up enemy ships and stealing their loot, or you can get into the story and hunt for your missing family. You can decide to call yourself a pirate-hunter and kill the 9 most notorious pirates on the Spanish Main. If you like, you can even do nothing but buy and sell goods, only fighting to defend yourself from pirates. Come on, though…who doesn’t want to be a pirate?

Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight-PC. This game is not the best 1st person shooter. It’s not the best Star Wars game. It doesn’t hold up well against games today. So, why is it a favorite of mine? Well, it was the 1st game I played online. I met lots of friends (with whom I have completely lost touch), I honed my online gaming skills (although, really, what skills do I really have?), and hey,I got to play as a Jedi. How cool is that?

Marvel Ultimate Alliance-XBox. I know, this game’s a little new to be called one of the best. However, it has many of my favorite characters (Dr. Strange!!! Spider-man!!! Silver-Freaking-Surfer!!!), and though pretty mindless, is pretty much infinitely replayable, as you can go back through the game, levelling up to get every power for every character. I’ve beaten this game 5 times, in some cases making my own teams (S.H.E.I.L.D. Black Ops:Nick Fury, Electra, Wolverine, Deadpool; The Mystic Avengers: Dr. Strange, Ghost Rider, Elektra, Blade, with Thor in reserve), and other times using pre-designed teams (The Defenders: Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Luke Cage, Iceman). It’s a great game that does everything that the X Men Legends games did right, and corrected the mistakes of those two games.

So, what are your favorite games?

I’m looking at you:
Amuirin AND Imtay (I want posts from both of you!)
Matt
Zach
David B.