My top ten tends to change frequently, but here's some that generally always appear at some point when ever someone asks me for my top ten games.
1. Shadowrun (SNES) The game that introduced me to not only Shadowrun but Cyberpunk in 1993. It was also the same year I saw Blade Runner for the first time. I became obsessed with cyberpunk. This was also the year when we first got our internet and I spent all my early internet browsing years on Netscape going to Shadowrun and Blade Runner websites. This game will never get old to me. Part detective story, part action RPG all coming together with an atmospheric soundtrack set in a future dystopian Seattle. It would be almost two decades later thanks to Kickstarter that the series would be revived, literally overnight, spawning the spiritual successor series to the old SNES game starting with Shadowrun Returns on PC.
2. Final Fantasy VI (SNES) Very rarely have I ever obsessed over an upcoming release as much as I did with this game. The weird thing is I wasn't even really into the Final Fantasy games at this point. At the time I had a subscription to Nintendo Power Magazine because they had the free Dragon Warrior game giveaway promotion. So Nintendo Power started hyping FFIII as it was known at the time and they actually gave it multi-month coverage. With a massive roster of characters and an epic story, I remember Nintendo Power hyped it up that the world actually ends at one point in the game but that's only the beginning. SOLD!!! I had no idea the soundtrack was going to be as epic as it was either. The Final Fantasy VI soundtrack marks the first time I actually bought a video game soundtrack. I still have that 3 disk set, although I've listened to it so many times the CD's are practically wearing out.
3. Super Mario Bros. (NES) The very first Nintendo game I ever saw. Still to this day every time I see the startup screen I flashback to Christmas of 1986 when my cousin and his parents were over at our house and he unwrapped a NES console with a stack of games, a pistol and a Rob the Robot.
This was all completely new to us. We had an Intellivision and honestly with no gaming news or internet back then seeing a new unheard of video game console just appear out of thin air was mind blowing to me. I still remember all the games my cousin got with it. The standard Super Mario/Duck Hunt combo, Jaws, Rygar, the Rob game and Pro Wrestling. Even using the light gun and playing Duck Hunt was a big hit back then.
Going from Intellivision graphics to NES at the time was pretty monumental and at the time I had no idea that the Mario theme music would follow me for the next thirty years. That next Christmas we would be unwrapping our own NES console and finally have our own Super Mario Bros.
4. WCW vs NWO World Tour - AKI series (N64) The first of the AKI series in North America at least. This was the first time I played a wrestling game that truly felt like a wrestling game. Over the years we had dumped hundreds of hours into NES classics like Pro Wrestling and Tecmo Wrestling, even Wrestlemania, Wrestlemania Challenge and WCW. When we moved on to the SNES we had Saturday Night Slam Masters, Royal Rumble and RAW that exponentially increased in replay value with the multitap allowing four players at once. But when the first images of WCW vs NWO World Tour came out, I was just completely blown away. I wasn't even remotely a WCW fan either, but I had to have this game. We had no local video game shops at the time so I had to drive an hour a way to get the game. I had no license or car but my friend did and even though we were scheduled to be hit by a major blizzard that day I talked him into driving me up early in the morning. We picked up the game, made a quick stop at my cousin's place (the same one who had got the NES in 86) to let him know I got the game, then the first snow flakes started to fall. I vividly remember that day as well because on the radio there was a news bulletin that Chris Farley had died as we raced back to my place with a major blizzard starting to roll over us. I remember the last quarter of the trip the roads were a mess. The sky had turned dark purple and we almost couldn't make it up my driveway when we got back. There had been no snow on the ground when we left. Still totally worth it. I knew whatever AKI put out after that I would buy day one.
5. Metal Gear Solid - Metal Gear series (PS) I still consider this game as the benchmark game that really forced all other game developers to up their production values. I consider this the game that did everything right. Music, gameplay, story and even at the time the graphics were all above board. I had only fleetingly known of Metal Gear through the bastardized NES game that even Kojima would disown, so I had no real knowledge of the overall story. But this would mark the first step in one of my all time favorite video game series and one of my all time favorite video game characters, not Solid Snake, but Big Boss. Even the brand of cigars I smoke are cheap knock-offs of the ones Big Boss smokes. I only wish Abbyshot Clothiers still made the FoxHound military trench coats.
6. Final Fantasy VII (PS) Well you can imagine my excitement after the mind blowing success of Final Fantasy VI when Nintendo Power magazine shows up one day and announced Final Fantasy VII in development for the N64, even showing early tech demo images of what the character will look like on the new system. The months go by... and more months... then the announcement FFVII is going to be a Playstation exclusive and the N64 project has been abandoned due to technical limitations. Never has the printed word managed to kick me so hard in the balls. We were a Nintendo family and had no interest in that upstart Sony's dinky little machine.
That announcement swayed my opinion on the console. I practically lived and breathed the story of FFVI and when that game ended a little piece of me died with it knowing the story was finally over. I wasn't going to miss out on FFVII just because it was on a console I didn't own. When I saw the first images of Midgar I rushed out and said I'm buying a Playstation, to my brothers, who immediately shit on the idea and ridiculed me for it. I started saving up money and still without any video game retailers in the area I went to Sears and I pre-ordered FFVII even though I still didn't have a Sony console. Over the months I actually also bought Soul Blade and Bushido Blade online and I had timed it out so that by the time FFVII released I would have $500 saved up to by a Playstation the day before it was due to arrive. It actually worked out well because Playstation's were $100 cheaper than I was expecting so when I went to buy mine I also had enough to pick up a copy of Resident Evil Director's Cut.
FFVII did not disappoint. It was probably the last true Final Fantasy game I really connected with like FFVI.
7. Mario Kart series (Multiple Platforms) Simply one of the best multiplayer experiences one can have outside of a wrestling game. I've loved the entire series and when I do buy a Switch at some point Mario Kart and Mario Odyssey are going to be my first games. The only series that even came close to rivaling the Mario Kart series in my opinion is Modnation Racers. If Mario Kart only had the customization of the game, it would make the need for any other kart racer obsolete. The sheer amount of hours invested in these games is astounding. I even remember one night myself, my father, one of my brothers and one of my uncles all raced on Royal Raceway (N64) for seven hours straight without saying a word to each other. We were just in some bizarre racing trance and didn't break out of it until we noticed the sun coming up. It only felt like a couple hours passed, not seven.
8. Fire Pro Wrestling G and the Fire Pro series in general (PS) The one that started it all for me. Not just my exposure to Fire Pro Wrestling, but to Japanese wrestling in general. I had stopped watching the WWE even before Wrestlemania 2000 had come out on the N64. The only thing that kept me buying those games was the gameplay and create a wrestler, not the WWE brand. Same with the 2K series now that I think of it.
With AKI fading from existence and my desperation for a new wrestling game rising to new levels I was forced to search out something more unconventional. It just happened by chance I came upon a Gamespot article talking about an upcoming wrestling game called Fire Pro Wrestling G. The author gushed over the series which was a surprise to me, because I was sure if there was some AAA wrestling franchise out there I would have been aware of it. Then I found out it was Japanese only and immediately shrugged it off. No way am I getting involved in importing and modding I thought. I was too afraid of messing up my Playstation. If it broke I couldn't just run out and pick up a new one. But the more I read about Fire Pro G the more the urge to play it overtook me. Current WCW and WWF rosters in one game? That alone pretty much sold me. I can finally have a rivalry between the two big federations.
Started searching online and found there was actually a large english speaking Fire Pro community well established. I think it may have been the original Fire Pro Club site. It had the banner with the guy in the luchador mask eating what looked like a bowl of diarrhea. I actually lurked through the forums but never joined. I actually ended up joining Gamefaqs instead to get my modding and importing questions answered.
But to make a long story slightly less long, got into Fire Pro G, which led me to getting into Puroresu, which has led me into rabidly following through with each subsequent installment of the Fire Pro series and Fire Pro spin-off King's series. The only wrestling games on the market that to me capture what wrestling matches should be about... the matches.
9. Syphon Filter series (PS) I actually consider the Syphon Filter trilogy as basically one big game broken up into three parts, as each installment immediately picks up from the other. Poor Gabe Logan sort of got knocked out of the spotlight when Solid Snake and Sam Fisher popped up shortly after the first Syphon Filter game released. I remember renting it when it came out, played it an hour and went back to the rental store. The guy behind the counter says 'It was really that bad?' I said No, I want to buy this right now. So I bought the game right then and there and the guy even gave me a Syphon Filter tshirt (that I still have).
The games played out with such a sense of urgency. I always thought the 24 TV series should have been a Syphon Filter TV series as they were so similar but the Syphon Filter games actually had characters and a story I was deeply invested in. Games also had great music and some real nice level designs. Still hope one day the series comes back out of retirement as a true espionage thriller like the original series was. Also a guy I work with is a huge fan of the series, so much so the name of one of his kids is Logan.
10. Blade Runner (PC) Oh how Westwood hated me when this game was announced for PC. At the time I did not have a PC as I was a Mac user. When I found out a Blade Runner game was in development I e-mailed Westwood Studios at least a dozen times trying to convince them to A: either do a Mac port or B: do a Playstation port. Yes, I was one of those annoying assholes who pestered a company to the point they just started sending out generic e-mail responses. So I decided I had to buy my first PC just for this one game, because it was Blade Runner and as I've already established my life is cyberpunk, Shadowrun and Blade Runner. So it was 1998 and I just so happened to have a friend in high school whose side job was building PC's. So I actually lucked out there. Built my first PC, I had already bought the game back in 1997 when it came out and just stared at the box and manual for hours. When I played Blade Runner I completely isolated myself in my room, doors closed, lights off, had to completely immerse myself in the world. To this day probably remains my favorite PC game, although amazingly enough today's PC's can't run it because it is so old. Played through it dozens of times, never got all the endings, but Westwood did such a good job actually managing to incorporate a lot of the original source material from the novel that never made it into the movie. Also that many members of the original movie cast reprised their roles for the game was a huge bonus to a raging fan like me.
