A lot of my gaming experience has been on Nintendo consoles, and a lot of this list is going to be viewed through nostalgia goggles with a lot of my first ranking higher than games that might have done the same thing better.
Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt- this is where it all began for me, and I still wish light gun games had become more of a thing
Tetris- timeless classic, everyone knows and loves it, no further explanation needed.
Pokemon red/blue/yellow- my first forray into RPGs
Kotor- first forray into RPGs that actually involved playing a role, the fact that you could be a bad guy was revolutionary to me. I also think this may have been one of the first games that I played completely through, I’ve always had a bad habit of never finishing a lot of games even if I really loved them. Also one of my first PC games and the first time I needed to install a graphics card in the family PC to play a game.
TES: Oblivion - look, you could pretty much insert any of the elder scrolls or 1st person fallout games into this spot, and quite a few others that arguably do it better, but this was my first real taste of an open world where you could go do (moru-or-less) whatever you wanted, everything felt so alive, and the imperial city still kind of feels to me like one of the most alive and actually functional cities in a video game and not just a level that’s dressed up to look like a city.
Portal 2: I don’t think there are many games out there that are just this much fun, and everything the first portal did great (which was pretty much everything,) 2 expanded on and made even better.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch- I’m a sucker for short games with a good gimmick and intentionally weird controls.
Saints Row 3- it was stupid, it was fun, I could honestly entertain myself for hours just running around the city, stealing cars, and beating luchadores with a giant dildo for hours and have a blast the entire time.
Super Mario 64- my first experience with 3d gaming, and I’d argue still one of the best 3d platformers out there (wonky cameras and such from that era aside) I like simple, lightheaded games.
Ocarina of time- enough has been said about this game elsewhere on the Internet that I don’t feel like I need to say any more.
A lot of my gaming experience has been on Nintendo consoles, and a lot of this list is going to be viewed through nostalgia goggles with a lot of my first ranking higher than games that might have done the same thing better.
Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt- this is where it all began for me, and I still wish light gun games had become more of a thing
Tetris- timeless classic, everyone knows and loves it, no further explanation needed.
Pokemon red/blue/yellow- my first forray into RPGs
Kotor- first forray into RPGs that actually involved playing a role, the fact that you could be a bad guy was revolutionary to me. I also think this may have been one of the first games that I played completely through, I’ve always had a bad habit of never finishing a lot of games even if I really loved them. Also one of my first PC games and the first time I needed to install a graphics card in the family PC to play a game.
TES: Oblivion - look, you could pretty much insert any of the elder scrolls or 1st person fallout games into this spot, and quite a few others that arguably do it better, but this was my first real taste of an open world where you could go do (moru-or-less) whatever you wanted, everything felt so alive, and the imperial city still kind of feels to me like one of the most alive and actually functional cities in a video game and not just a level that’s dressed up to look like a city.
Portal 2: I don’t think there are many games out there that are just this much fun, and everything the first portal did great (which was pretty much everything,) 2 expanded on and made even better.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch- I’m a sucker for short games with a good gimmick and intentionally weird controls.
Saints Row 3- it was stupid, it was fun, I could honestly entertain myself for hours just running around the city, stealing cars, and beating luchadores with a giant dildo for hours and have a blast the entire time.
Super Mario 64- my first experience with 3d gaming, and I’d argue still one of the best 3d platformers out there (wonky cameras and such from that era aside) I like simple, lightheaded games.
Ocarina of time- enough has been said about this game elsewhere on the Internet that I don’t feel like I need to say any more.