Video games have been plentiful in my life. Games have made me think about how I treat people in my life, how I treat myself, and how I view the world around me. So coming up with a list of ten of my favorite games was a difficult task. I thought of games that made an impact after I played them, games that had a lot of nostalgia, and games that had a profound time in my life.
Here are my ten favorite games in my entire life. These are not in order because that would feel too difficult to choose between some of my favorites. There might be some spoilers in here, so SPOILER WARNING!
1) Super Metroid
I enjoyed the original Metroid for the adventure that it was, but never really loved it due to it’s sometimes aging systems. It is a three-decade-old game after all. But, when I started up Super Metroid, I fell in love. The environments were far more atmospheric than the original, due to the graphical improvements. They felt they had a history other than the previous game told. They all had a story to them which exudes through the atmospheric storytelling the game tells. In the opening, the game doesn’t tell you what is happening, the environment does. The bosses that you fight are far more menacing. Some take up two rooms with their scale, which makes them all the more tough to fight. The gameplay makes you learn every part of your arsenal which I love. It makes you feel more like Samus, the Bounty Hunter that she is. The ending is impactful, and I am sure it would be more if I played Metroid II. However, even without playing it, I felt the emotion in that scene. With the amount of Metroidvania games there are in the world today, you realize how vital environmental storytelling is to them in part for the influence this game had to them. I am ready for more Metroid stories to be told when Metroid Prime 4 comes out in a who knows how long.
2) The Last of Us
The opening of The Last of Us is pretty classic. However, just the opening is not what makes this game amazing. The power of the storytelling makes this game one of the best in the history of PlayStation or just games in general. The choices this game makes you have are compelling in ways that I did not think a game could make before, even with the Walking Dead series just finishing the previous year. However, the character dynamics also makes this game enticing, not just between Ellie and Joel. However, also between Joel and the characters he interacts with throughout the game. The gameplay is challenging, but not throw your controller challenging. It makes you learn from your mistakes, whether that be too little ammo, or you just made a bad mistake. I am truly ready for whenever The Last of Us Part Two is released to bring me on a rollercoaster of emotions with Ellie, and maybe Joel.
3) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was the first Metal Gear game I played, as it was the first chronologically. So this was my first exposure to how great Hideo Kojima is at what he does; tell crazy, cinematic, and emotional stories. The boss fights are memorable with how you take each boss on; stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and sometimes unusual ways. The Cobra Unit; The Boss, also known as The Joy, The Sorrow, The Pain, The Fury, The Fear, and The End, all beautifully signify their emotion. Each of these bosses shows a unique storytelling experience that I never had with a game before, which helps me appreciate this game even more today. This was my first foray into a pure stealth game, so I was not very exceptional at being the most stealthy Naked Snake I could be, but I learned and enjoyed myself customizing Snake to make him blend into the environment to make him less visible to the enemies. All of the Metal Gear games make me wish I was better at stealth-centric games, but my gosh do I love this series.
4) Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Two Naughty Dog games on the list! Uncharted was one of the very first series I played when I received a PlayStation 3 and that also capped of my time with high school quite well, with massive action and adventures. When Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End came, I did not expect at the end that I would walk into my roommate’s room explaining why my eyes were tearing up. Uncharted 4 was the culmination of everything that made me love the Uncharted series; the character arcs, gameplay mechanics, the overall story itself, and the world that Naughty Dog built. Uncharted 4 was a great capstone to this series that I’ve been playing for half a decade. Bringing a character that is so important to Nathan Drake, his brother, Sam, feels like a natural inclusion. Their story did not feel superficial. Naughty Dog gave us a reason to care about Sam, by giving us his own backstory and how he got to where we meet him in the game. The overall adventure itself was a tremendous mysterious part as well, making pirates a significant theme of the adventure. The game that was set alone from Uncharted 4 after, The Lost Legacy, was a fun game that I enjoyed and was glad to be back in the Uncharted universe, but was a good side story that made me want shorter adventures like this, since we will not be getting an Uncharted 5 in the near future.
5) Life is Strange: Before the Storm
The first Life is Strange was one of my favorite games of my college experience when it was finished. Max Caufield was very relatable. She was an introvert, she loved photography, and she was embarking on a new journey to college. Chloe was another standout for me. So when Before the Storm with new developers, was announced I was optimistic about it. The game focused on her past, the part I was most intrigued by in the first game. Each episode made me feel some emotional attachment to Chloe in some way. By the end of it, I would say, I had a more emotional attachment to Chloe than I did to Max. The emotional hooks of Chloe’s story were gut-punching and left me wanting to play the next one immediately each time. The third episode was weird in its final moments drawing to a more left-field ending than I was hoping for, but the bonus episode, Farewell, really elevated this season for me to like it more than the first Life is Strange season. That episode brought so many special moments and still felt central to Chloe. Max was just part of the friendship and episode. That episode showed so much friendship between the two characters and it added to the emotional level of the entire season. The sequel to Life Is Strange is beginning in a few short weeks, and I cannot wait to see DontKnod Entertainment go back to the series they took a break from after the first game. I do wish Deck Nine, the developer of Before the Storm, can come back to this series one day.
6) God of War (PS4)
God of War on the PlayStation 4 makes it on the list only being available since April. I played the original God of War games as a high schooler and I enjoyed them. They were fun for the spectacle; killing Greek Gods and Titans. However, no real story captivated me in those games. The gameplay of them was great for the era. However, when God of War came out on the PS4, that all changed. The story between Kratos and his son, Atreus, was a blooming dynamic between a struggling past for a father and be the dad his wife would want him to be. The music is engrossing and creates a sense of a Norse epic that the story is telling. The bosses were challenging but felt like a giant accomplishment when they were finished, especially the final Valkyrie boss. In regards to gameplay, of course, one of the best parts is bringing back the Leviathan ax, and it felt so monumental each time. Overall though, the enemy variety was diverse and felt each enemy was heavily thought out and they feel each important to the lore of this world Sony Santa Monica created. The mini-bosses also brought a feeling of threat. I am so excited to go back in later in the year to experience the Photo Mode and am more excited when the sequel is released in a few years.
7) Pokemon SoulSilver
Pokemon has been a series that has been very dear to me as it was the first actual series I was invested in. The 2nd generation came out when I was too young to appreciate how great that generation was. I also never even tried to replay them in between my free time throughout the years ahead. So, when the Gen 2 remakes came out on the Nintendo DS I was fully prepared to know how amazing this generation was. Going into the Kanto region after beating all of the Johto gym leaders, and their Elite Four, was truly a nostalgic experience, and then, of course, facing Red at the very end was one of my favorite moments in the entire franchise, as I am sure that is the same for everyone else. The Gen 2 Pokemon also felt like the last generation that still felt somewhat connected to the previous generation. Most likely because both regions are connected geographically. However, they all still feel unique and set apart from that generation as well making them a powerhouse generation in their own right with the likes of, Ampharos, Tyranitar, the three starters, of course, the legendary dogs, and the legendary birds. A truly magical generation that exceeds in all aspects, by keeping it still simple and not too complicated with evolution lines and other added things to do that came in the series after.
8) Kingdom Hearts 2
The Kingdom Hearts series has been in my life ever since the first one was released in 2002. The combination of a massive Japanese Action RPG and Disney was enthralling to me as a child. The story of a young boy, Sora, trying to beat the darkness was an added part of the many reasons as to why I love this series. The second one came out and added new worlds like Mulan and the Lion King. These made my experience so much more significant since I loved those movies growing up. The addition of a more fluid fighting experience and better camera controls, made this game a lot better for me as a child, even with the three-hour long opening of Roxas. As I get older, the more I love this game. The overall story of the series makes me appreciate the stepping stones the second one made though. It introduced us to Organization XIII which brought some of my favorite characters into the fold like, Axel and Xigbar. It also introduced us to the characters we would eventually play as in Birth By Sleep, even if it was just a secret ending video. Unless you fought the Lingering Will of Terra, then you were introduced to Terra’s armor! This series has meant a lot to me in my life, and Kingdom Hearts 2 proved to me this was not just a one-time thing I would love.
9) Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey was the first real Mario game I have beaten in my entire life. I played Super Mario 64, but rarely. Of course, I played the original Super Mario Brothers, but it was always at the orthodontist, so I was never able to finish it. The Mario series was always an elusive series for me until I bought a Nintendo Switch. This is where I bought Super Mario Odyssey, the first entry into this series for me. When I played Super Mario Odyssey I felt the sense of fun that I have heard so much about in these games. The soundtrack was playful and gave a sense of each world by bringing out the characteristics of the world into music, giving each world more of personality, not just by looks. The looks though are incredible. Each world is vibrant and unique. One step you can go to New Donk City, a world like New York City with so much life, then you can go to the Cloud Kingdom where there is nothing at all, except of course clouds, but those clouds are beautiful! The story is the same as any other Mario game; Bowser captures Peach, Mario needs to save her. So, that part was disappointing even if it adds a humorous addition, by making this kidnapping a wedding. The gameplay recognizes the legacy that Mario has left behind by adding impressive 2D sections that are influenced by the original Super Mario Bros. Those sections of the game stand out for me with the amount of love the developers have for this series. Cappy was an interesting addition to the gameplay mechanics for traversal and the capturing of enemies was a fun take of moving around the kingdoms and taking on bosses. Overall, this game has been my favorite on the Switch so far, and the personality exudes in this game, which makes me appreciate it a lot more, and I am excited to eventually get to other Mario games that I have missed in my life.
10) Horizon: Zero Dawn
Horizon: Zero Dawn was a great game that I never expected to love. It was by a developer I only tried once before, Guerilla Games, with Killzone: Shadow Fall since that was a launch game on the PS4. Killzone was a beautiful game, but I am not a massive first-person shooter guy. So when trailers for Horizon: Zero Dawn was shown, I was heavily interested. Shooting robotic animals with arrows as a heroine was a unique RPG experience I never had before. As the game released, I fell in love with the story as it unfolded. The combat felt impactful each time you shot an arrow, whether it hit or not. When you encounter a new enemy, you feel empowered after you defeat it, as each new enemy brings a new challenge and weakness to exploit. The lore of the game was something I did not expect to fall in love with as I found specific messages around the world that made me more and more invested. It is in depth and carefully crafted into a unique post-apocalyptic story. The enemy variety is big. You can fight a small theropod dinosaur called, Watchers, and the next second you can fight a Thunderjaw, a machine similar in size and strength to a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Each time you defeat a giant-sized enemy, you feel a massive accomplishment. The world of Horizon: Zero Dawn is beautiful. The environments have their own sense of life and an individual personality about them. Aloy as a character was a wonderful sense of empowerment and the story of her discovering her past was truly one of the pillars as to why I love this game. The series is in good hands with Guerilla and I am excited about the series’ future.
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