As I was writing up my extensive responses to Comicbook.com’s idiotic article about the video game industry and the travesty that is Mixtape, I began reflecting on the games industry. The industry is in a bad spot right now, at least when it comes to the big-budget AAA developers and publishers. There are plenty of external factors affecting these businesses that are beyond their control, but the downturn they're currently facing is far more self-inflicted in many ways. Many of the practices of the industry have pushed people like me away over the years to the point that, while I still have some passion for video games, I am no longer an engaged customer like I used to be.

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February 13, 2026

I rarely buy games new anymore. I never buy games for more than $40 (except for fighting games). I will never pre-order another game in my life. I will always wait for recommendations from an individual I trust before trying something. I will never buy in-game currency. I am just not the ideal customer most of these companies want, and they’ve pushed me further away with their practices. I’m sure I’m not alone, which is part of why the industry is struggling right now to convince new customers to play their games.

But that’s okay. It’s okay for people like me because we have plenty of games in the backlog over the years and plenty of favorites we have to go back to. I don’t need to spend money on the latest trashpile from a BioWare I don’t recognize when I can go back and play something they made in the 2000s that is still fun to revisit.

Thinking about all of this led me down the path to considering my favorite video games of all time and if I could make a list. It’s a challenge I’ve considered in the past but never attempted. So, I figured that since I’m not planning on picking up anything new anytime soon, I might as well compile this list before the industry completely implodes.

Some picks will revolve around how they personally affected me at the time I played them and their lasting effects to this day. Some will simply be because of how good I think the game is, and if it’s something I would want to go back to and play again. To keep the list from being too repetitive (and having a third of my top ten be mostly From Software games), I’ve tried to only include one entry per franchise or spiritual successor as a representative for a larger collection of games. For instance, there’s only going to be one Resident Evil, one Street Fighter, and one Tekken game on the list, even though I would be happy to include plenty of other entries. Maybe if I were making a top 100, I would be willing to include more, but just bringing the list down to 50 entries was already a challenge.

I’m also only including games that I owned at one time and not just those that I rented or played at a friend’s house, which means there will be some clear omissions of some of the greatest games of all time on the list because I didn’t own certain consoles or had a small collection of games on the few consoles I did own. You might be able to guess which systems those are based on what is not on this list.

Let’s get started.

50. The Dig

I often try to avoid praising or choosing things solely on nostalgia, but The Dig is 100% on this list because of it. It’s a point-and-click adventure from LucasArts that I remember and associate with a particular vacation I had in the eighth grade, in which, during the time while I was at my grandmother’s condo in Los Angeles, I huddled over the laptop trying to solve the puzzles and complete the story. It had an ambitious plot akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey, with dark undertones of death, rebirth, and god complexes. I won’t go so far as to say that it’s for everyone or the best LucasArts point-and-click game, but I still remember it fondly.

49. Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time

This is another nostalgic pick, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t play quite a few of the Carmen Sandiego games growing up. All of them were fun puzzle adventure games that passively taught you facts about the world. My favorites of the bunch were the ones in which the infamous thief in a red coat traveled through time, stealing important historical artifacts. It was a fun way to learn details about world history that were often glossed over in my history classes, which were far more boring in school.

48. Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner

ZotE was a fun anime-style mech game with a simple and somewhat dumb story that involved flying around various maps and attacking other mechs with guns and swords. It was an average game that only sold as well as it did because it was produced by Hideo Kojima and contained a demo of Metal Gear Solid 2, which was the main reason I bought it back in the day. I enjoyed it enough that when a sequel came out, I picked it up.

I was not prepared for how much better The Second Runner would be. A lot more effort was put into creating a compelling story involving grandiose events and themes about war. The combat and traversal mechanics were drastically improved, as were the boss fights. Even the two-player vs mode that was mostly tacked on in the previous entry was a lot of fun. The voice acting is a little rough sometimes, but that adds to its charm. It’s a cult classic that I love.

47. Starcraft

The first three entries were more cult picks, but Starcraft is a mainstream pick that I knew I needed to include somewhere in this list due to how much I played it as a kid. I like strategy games, but I much prefer the turn-based kind. Nonetheless, the first real-time strategy games I played were Warcraft 1 & 2 and Starcraft.

Starcraft drew me in with its alien designs and epic story. As a kid, I didn’t understand the nuances of the different races you were playing as, and I often had to rely on cheat codes to make up for my lack of skill. I played it again years later with a better understanding of the mechanics and was able to get fully pulled in again by its story and world-building. While I would never be good enough to play against humans, I was still able to appreciate the different strategies involved with the various species and their specialties. The single-player game was a fun and balanced experience that still holds up decades later.

46. Batman: Arkham City

There were several games from the PS3/360 era I was considering putting here, including Uncharted 2, which I sunk plenty of time into by completing the story multiple times and playing many hours of online multiplayer. However, I have to give the nod to the Batman: Arkham games that came out during that time. Arkham Asylum was a big deal when it came out and was the first game that I bothered to get a Platinum trophy in. It was a ton of fun blending responsive combat with engaging stealth segments, all while utilizing the Batman universe with his extensive rogue gallery of villains. I actually replayed it again relatively recently, and it still holds up.

While you could argue that Arkham Asylum is a tighter experience than its direct sequel, I think Arkham City happens to do what its predecessor did and that much more to make its way onto the list. It expands the combat and the scenarios in great ways. It allows for more exploration with its open world. It gives you even more villains to fight than before. It has one of the best video game boss battles in history with Mr. Freeze, which forces the player to adapt and creatively implement Batman’s abilities to stop him. While the number of Riddler trophies balloons a bit too much, Arkham City still manages to avoid getting as tedious and repetitive as Arkham Knight and still holds up today as a fun time.

45. Contra III: Alien Wars

Contra is an absolute classic game on the NES that I played many times, but I played Contra III: The Alien Wars on the Super Nintendo system far more. It’s an undeniable blast of a 2D shooter that still holds up and looks great due to its creative art design for its environments and enemies. For whatever reason, it was the game that was most often sitting in my console on days when I was kept home for being sick, so it was very much my personal chicken soup recipe for beating the cold.

44. Bloody Roar 2

Bloody Roar was one of those cult classic fighting game franchises that never got extremely popular, but popular enough to get numerous sequels across multiple consoles. The one in which I invested the most effort was the second installment on the PlayStation. It wasn’t exactly a balanced game, and I certainly wasn’t a pro player, but that didn’t matter to my friends and me. We sank hours into bouncing around its diverse roster of martial artists who could turn into animals while they fought. It was one of the first fighting games I recall trying to learn combos and actually being able to pull them off consistently.

43. Okami

Okami has a lot in common with the Legend of Zelda games when it comes to its gameplay and progression, but its aesthetic and combat mechanics make it stand out as its own thing. The various upgrades you get to the brush stroke combat mechanics make battles exciting up to the end of the game. It’s a very Capcom Zelda game in a lot of ways, which is part of the reason its charm and style work with me so much. Even though the plot drags a little bit towards the end, there’s enough to keep you interested in the story and the world to keep things from getting boring.

42. Aliens vs Predator 2

There have been various AVP games over the years (which are better than the movies), but my favorite has to be the PC game that was released in 2001. It had three single-player campaigns in which you got to play as a xenomorph, a human marine, and a predator. Each campaign played very differently from one another. The alien was a fast, wall-crawling monster that easily killed its enemies; it was a power trip. The human’s perspective was much more geared towards horror, since you were basically playing as the prey for the other two races. The predator’s campaign allowed you to utilize their various tools to stealthily eliminate your targets, one at a time. They all had some great moments of excitement and tension that would continue to build toward the end.

41. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

I know most people would put Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on their list rather than its edge-lord sequel, and I get it. However, I much prefer the follow-up simply because of how much the combat is improved over its predecessor. Both games are great, but I always felt that the combat of Sands never got complex enough to carry it to its completion, and I would get a little bored with the enemy encounters, anxiously trying to get to the superior platforming sections. In Warrior Within, there were no dips in quality. The fighting was good. The platforming was still awesome. The new threat of the demon chasing you added to the excitement and tension. It also had multiple endings, which required you to explore the levels more, thus rewarding you for being good at the platforming.

40. God of War 2

I haven’t yet completed the newer games in the franchise, so this entry might change when that happens. Still, of all the Greek God of War games, I much prefer 2. The level design is stellar, with diverse locations and interesting platforming puzzles. The boss battles are epic and creative, giving you plenty of opportunity to annihilate some classic mythical heroes with some new weapons and abilities. Unlike the game before it and after it, there isn’t any section of God of War 2 that gets bogged down in one area; you keep moving from one zone to the next. God of War 3 may have had you fighting in grander battles against the gods, but I think 2 had better combat encounters that didn’t sacrifice complexity and execution for spectacle.

39. Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines

Even though it’s a buggy mess that requires you to go through a few hoops to get an unofficial patch that fixes countless issues and even a few quests, this game deserves a playthrough from anyone slightly interested in RPGs. The writing and world-building of Bloodlines is fantastic and immersive. It immediately draws you in with a brooding atmosphere and memorable characters. It also has some great design choices that give players a lot of freedom to play it how they want. There are some great levels that integrate horror into the experience in some creative ways. It’s a shame there probably won’t be another game like this one.

38. Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

Of all the various Marvel superhero games I’ve played, none have been as fun as Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. You are just allowed to smash and destroy swaths of a city while taking on the military that tries to stop you in true Hulk fashion. You can run up buildings, fly through the air with big leaps, smash cars into boxing gloves to swing around, and cause wanton destruction with some iconic Hulk special moves. This was just the perfect game to keep handy if you had a rough day and wanted to decompress.

37. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

This game got me back into turn-based strategy after a long time without playing any. The cinematic moments would add to the excitement of each mission, while base building was an equally important part of the process. It was so much fun to build up your units over time, and devastating to lose any of them on the battlefield. It could be immensely frustrating at times, especially with some buggy situations (including a hard-lock out of beating it on Iron Man mode), but it would also balance out with some really satisfying victories. It was also one of the games that got more fun on harder difficulties because meaningful changes would happen instead of the usual numbers adjustment of making things hit harder and take longer to die.

36. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

Of the various JRPGs I played during my younger years in which I had the time to dedicate to the genre, Persona 3 is one of my favorites that stole so many hours from me. I enjoyed it so much that I got its follow-up spin-off, which had a separate campaign and a hard mode. Capturing and merging your personas, grinding dungeons with your team, and building relationships with various NPCs were all part of the experience that was filled with entertaining stories and mysteries. While Persona 4 would improve in a lot of ways—and would be on my list if I weren’t limiting franchise entries—I still enjoyed the style and the story of 3 a little bit more.

35. Saints’ Row: The Third

I wrote off the Saints’ Row franchise as just a GTA ripoff when the first two games came out. When I saw gameplay of the first mission in The Third, in which you jump out of an airplane, crash through the windshield of another airplane, shoot a bunch of people as you pass through it, and save a friend by skydiving to safety, I changed my tune. When Jeff Gerstman of GiantBomb.com said during their Game of the Year discussion that it was the “best wrestling game of the year,” I knew I needed to try it. It has an immensely fun campaign with creative missions and hilarious story beats, but also has some big moments where you have to make meaningful choices that affect how you play the rest of the game. It’s also one of the few games I can think of that actively encourages you to “cheat” for the sake of just having fun.

34. Mass Effect

While many consider the second entry to be the best, due to its various story elements and combat improvements, I slightly prefer the clunkier first game. Why? I think its world-building is in a class of its own. The universe, as extravagant and fantastical as it is, feels real immediately, due to how well BioWare crafted its lore, environments, creature designs, and so forth. There might be better side quests and characters in the later games, but I just like how the weapons and armor sets tell a story about the world and how the different alien species help make everything work in a distant future. It was graphically impressive at the time, even with its flaws. However, the art direction helps it visually hold up decades later. In addition, the music is great at establishing the sci-fi atmosphere and at providing background music for work/study. It may not be BioWare’s best work, but I still love it.

33. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

I played and replayed the Star Wars: Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games. Dark Forces 2, I distinctly remember being the game that really got me into the Star Wars universe to the point of being a fan. I loved exploring the levels within the Star Wars universe as a swashbuckling rogue on his path to becoming a Jedi before the trope became worn out. The sequel brought a lot of changes and a focus on lightsaber battles, with your ability to change different fighting stances adding a some strategy to the experience, even if it was mostly flailing around.

Jedi Academy may have a weaker story and was worse in certain ways than its predecessors, but I liked the mission style of the game that gave it a focused experience, as well as the freedom to choose your Force abilities. The way the story ended, depending on the decisions you make in the game, had a lot of potential to tell an interesting tale in the next game that never came. There are plenty of aspects of the previous games that I prefer, but it was such a power fantasy in the Star Wars universe that it ended up being the one I revisited the most.

32. King of Fighters ‘03

I have played almost all of the King of Fighters games, and KoF fans would probably consider this a hot take for many reasons. I will make no claims that it is the BEST game in the franchise, because I would argue several other entries are far more worthy. This just happened to be the one that I had access to for a long time and played the most. It was a version that I felt controlled really well in comparison to previous games. It also had a solo mode that allowed you to play lengthy 1-on-1 matches against opponents, as opposed to the usual team format. It also had versions of my favorite characters that I preferred over other games. There are other KOF entries that I love; this just happens to be a personal pick.

31. Bioshock

The Bioshock trilogy is one of the better sets of first-person shooters. Infinite has an intriguing but flawed story and is a step down in terms of gameplay from its predecessors, but it still manages to be an exciting experience. BioShock 2 is an underrated sequel with a campaign that is a lot of fun and was maligned for being developed by a different team from the original and for forcing a multiplayer mode. The original, however, is still the best. It perfectly pulls you into the underwater city of Rapture with great setpieces, brisk pacing, and a haunting atmosphere. It has great levels that reward you for exploration. The combat may be considered dated by today’s standards of first-person shooters. However, I think it still holds up with the variety of weapons and plasmids, allowing players a lot of freedom in how to approach each situation, including the Big Daddy mini-boss fights, which often require creativity to achieve victory. It’s fun all the way to the end and an easy recommendation to anyone who hasn’t played it.

30. Stardew Valley

I haven’t played many farming sim games, but I’ve played the small indie title that blew up in popularity nearly a decade ago, and I keep going back to it. Stardew Valley is a straightforward game that deftly leads you into the process of becoming a successful farmer in a small community. The various villagers all have their distinct personalities; some of whom are greatly influenced by the player’s interactions with them. There are some fun and interesting stories packed into the game, with lots of opportunities for mods to further add on to the experiences.

While the game is relatively simple and you can get very far with your farm rather quickly if you know what you're doing, it’s still a relaxing experience that is fun to revisit and start over with a new farm. It’s one of those games that I enjoy playing during the holidays as the weather cools and the desire to stay indoors in a cozy home takes hold.

29. Slay the Spire

Of the various card-based strategy games I’ve played, Slay the Spire is my favorite. I’ve failed countless runs, but it’s rarely a frustrating experience. When you get a real good run with some powerful cards and relics, it’s a rush of excitement to make it all the way to the end, even if it still ends in crushing defeat. It’s a simple game that gives you a lot of options and freedom on how you want to play the different characters.

28. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

There is no GTA game I have put more time into than San Andreas. It has a great campaign with a lot of activities to do in the world to keep you busy if you don’t want to follow the various quests. Some of the missions are as creative as they are cinematic. There are some classic, memorable characters you meet throughout that leave a lasting impression. The soundtrack is full of classic songs from the ‘90s.

The real fun I had, however, was the meta experience of coming up with challenges and messing with the physics. A friend came up with a challenge that required you to start a new game, and with the default CJ, you would need to escape Los Santos and go on the run from the police. In order to consider it a success, you would need to make it to the other corners of the map and stay alive for at least 60 seconds while in the specific city or region before moving on to the next zone. Since leaving Los Santos at that point in the story instantly puts a permanent high wanted status on you, it’s a surprisingly difficult challenge that requires a fair amount of luck and strategy to complete with the cops constantly on your tail. Made-up challenges like this kept my friends and me entertained for years after its release.

27. Super Metroid

Even though I had a Super Nintendo as a kid, I didn’t actually get a chance to play Super Metroid until I was an adult. Had I played this when I was younger, this very likely would have landed higher in the list of favorites because it is an incredible game that showcases brilliant game design through minimalism. It’s a game that I wish more modern games would take inspiration from because it is all about forcing the player to explore and think about their surroundings without shoving tutorials down their throats. The game design is so good that, even if a player were to get stuck or lost, there is enough context within the game to help them figure things out for themselves. Great music. Great atmosphere. It simply holds up and is still fun.

26. Final Fantasy VII

While I would not call myself a Final Fantasy fan, I would be lying if I said I didn’t like any of the games or that they didn’t alter my perspective on games as a whole. Before I played FFVII, I preferred arcade-style, action, and fighting games; I mostly avoided RPGs.

A friend of mine recommended it, I got it used for cheap, and finally played it for myself a full console generation after it came out, and was immediately hooked. The music, world, and atmosphere drew me in, and, being a teenager at the time, I thought the edge-lord characters were badass—though I would consider them all a bit cringe, a good 25 years later. Exploring the world and its dungeons, as well as learning all the various secrets scattered throughout the epic story, captivated me. I played it multiple times and played a few Final Fantasies after it. I probably wouldn’t go back to it with so many other RPGs I have yet to play, but I still have to acknowledge how big an impact this game made on me and how I became interested in longer, RPG games as a result of my experience with it.

25. Castle Crashers

I mentioned how I enjoyed arcade-style games well before my tastes matured, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go back to a classic beat-em-up style. Castle Crashers is one of the best games to come out after 2000 that I have played again and again. I’ve played it so many times that I just keep it always installed on my computer, partially because it only takes up a few megabytes of space.

Its flash-style animation with cartoonish art design works well to give Castle Crashers a ton of personality. The combat isn’t necessarily complex, but there’s still enough variety with the different characters you can play as and a few special levels that stand out from the rest. It’s also a great couch co-op game that gives you a reason to play it among friends.

24. Megaman 2

I owned the first three Megaman games on NES. I became a fan instantly after playing the original. It was the first game I recall beating, which only made me more eager to beat the next. This proved to be even more challenging, but much more rewarding, with some fantastic level and boss designs. While the third game would go on to add even more mechanics and great levels, I would more frequently return to Megaman 2 for one reason or another. All three of the games were some of my favorite experiences on the original NES, and if I had to choose just one, I’d have to go with Megaman 2, for if nothing else, it had some of the best music that ever graced the classic 8-bit console.

23. Chrono Trigger

This is another Super Nintendo game that would probably be much higher on my list if I had played it when I was younger and more into RPGs back when it was new. Chrono Trigger is simply an amazing game that tells a remarkable and epic story that you wouldn’t expect to see on a 16-bit console. It goes in some surprisingly dark directions with some great twists that are still effective to those who are unaware of the story. It has innovative mechanics to its combat that make it one of the most engaging turn-based RPGs I’ve ever played. It has interesting characters and side stories. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t praise its brilliant music. (You might notice that good music earns you extra points with some of my selections.) If you have never played Chrono Trigger and you like RPGs, I can safely recommend it, as I have already done so with other friends in the past decade who never tried it until I convinced them and came away loving it.

22. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time

There is probably no game I played on my Super Nintendo from start to finish more than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time. I was a big TMNT fan as a kid who had to suffer through the infamous first game on NES and then have my faith restored by some better beat-em-ups that followed. Turtles in Time, however, took the Konami arcade experience and brought it to home consoles. Sure, it didn’t look quite as good as the arcade, but it was still just as fun at home. The levels were bright and colorful. The movement and attacks felt just right. The music was radical. It was just a great time.

21. Tropico

Another game that I constantly keep installed on my PC just because it takes up little space and is fun to pick up and play for a few minutes between things, Tropico is a simple, classic city builder game that I gravitated towards over the more complicated and extravagant Sim City. The series would go on to get more involved—and force you to sign up for their online DRM service, which I hated—but I always preferred the simplicity of the original. There were enough game modes and challenges built into the experience to entice me to return to Tropico. I also really liked the dark, sardonic humor of the game that just assumed you wanted to play as a corrupt island leader. The fact that you could essentially rule your island nation as a benevolent bureaucrat or a military tyrant always made the experience feel more unique and interesting. The music is also the perfect blend of charming, upbeat, Cuban-style melodies. Sometimes, I would just pause the game and turn up the music while I did other things around the house.

20. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

When I looked at all the games ranked lower than this item, there were a few that I felt were more impactful on me when I first played them; there were certainly some for which I was more nostalgic. However, no game currently has more hours played on my Steam account than Civilization VI, and putting it lower felt wrong in some ways. I’ve written several lists of my favorite leaders, and I still haven’t managed to try all of them. The fifth game got me into the franchise, and I wasn’t completely into VI when it was just the vanilla version. However, with various patches, DLC packs, and new leaders that added a multitude of mechanics to the experience, I soon found myself addicted to Civilization VI as the go-to game when I wasn’t sure what else I wanted to play.

19. Monster Hunter World

Monster Hunter was a franchise I was always curious to try, but I just never had the opportunity to play one until World came out on PC. I became a fan almost immediately with its vibrant environments and interesting monster designs. I took pleasure in learning the mechanics of various weapons and understanding the nuanced strategy on how to approach monsters based on weapon and item loadouts. Even though it took me a long time to figure out how to “properly” play it as a solo hunter, having watched many tutorial videos talking about good item and armor loadout combinations, after I got into it, I couldn’t get out of it for a long time. The next game, Rise, added some great mechanics that I loved about its combat, but it was lacking certain visual and stylistic qualities, which make World my favorite of the games I’ve played.

18. Monster Rancher 3

The Monster Rancher games would be difficult to visualize from the perspective of someone who is part of the generation of gamers who have grown up in the digital world, where physical media has been slowly erased as obsolete (and part of the NWO plan to make you “own nothing, and be happy”). Starting out on the PlayStation, Monster Rancher was a Tecmo game in which you could generate monsters using various CD roms (like music albums or other video games). After popping a disk into the PlayStation and letting the game scan the disk, you would get a monster that you could then bring home to your ranch and train. Similar to Pokémon, you would train it to fight, but your training routine would also affect other aspects of the creature that you could use to improve your ranch or go out on adventures. You’d meet other ranchers or characters along the way, and there would be various stories to discover.

My favorite was Monster Rancher 3 on the PlayStation 2. It went for a different graphical look than the others. It also added the ability to train your monsters on different ranches that had a variety of climates, such as a winter wonderland or a dry desert. Raising your monsters on these different ranches would affect them in some cool ways that made the process of raising them and breeding them with others more engaging. It also added the opportunity for more side stories to pop up along the way. All of them were fun games that we’re likely never to experience in the same way again, but of them all, I loved 3 the most.

17. Spelunky

I have played numerous Rogue-like games. Spelunky tops them all as the one that got me into the genre as a whole, excluding From Software games that are Rogue-like adjacent. Spelunky blended difficult arcade precision with a colorful and cartoonish style that occasionally clashed with the violence in a good way. With a killer soundtrack of great songs that are catchy and groovy, it makes you want to move quickly and explore everything you can without meeting a very likely violent end. With all of its secrets that you have to either discover on your own or look through wikis and tutorials, the amount to discover is seemingly endless at first. I’ve beaten its true final boss many times, and it’s still a blast to play. Even though the sequel added a lot of new cool mechanics and is superior in some ways, I still prefer the original for its music, its maps, and the impact it made on me when I first played it.

16. Devil May Cry 3

I have played all the Devil May Cry games (except 2, but we pretend that one doesn’t exist), and 3 is by far my favorite. And I don’t just mean any version of 3, I specifically mean the original American release in which the Normal mode was the Hard version of the Japanese release. It was an incredibly challenging game that really pushed you to the limit to make you precise with your actions and creative with your combos. Some of the best video game boss fights ever made are in this game, and the mechanics allow you to approach them all with a variety of strategies. It was the first to give Dante different fighting styles, enabling special moves that were more focused on dodging, swordplay, gunplay, or guarding. In addition, all the different weapons you acquire along the way add to the experience and make Dante a true force of nature with the ability to extend combos in all sorts of ways by swapping weapons on the fly. Unlike other action games, like God of War, for instance, Devil May Cry 3 had way more fun weapons and abilities than lame ones. The DMC games that followed would add on to the great design choices of 3, but it still remains my favorite of the franchise.

15. Tekken 3

For a period of time, I was a diehard Tekken fan, to the degree that I didn’t even see the point of 2D fighting games anymore. No game in the franchise convinced me more of this than Tekken 3. I had already enjoyed the previous games, but this one really got me into fighting games in general. The large cast of new fighters, the various modes, the added mechanics of side-stepping attacks, and the graphical improvements over the other games hooked me and didn’t let go. It was the first of the Tekken games that I would play alternate modes with my friends, like the Team mode that you would have to cycle through characters in an extended vs battle, or the Tekken Ball mode that had a surprising amount of fun and technique to it. There would be future Tekken games that I would go on to play and be better at, like Tekken 4 or Tag Tournament, but Tekken 3 was simply my favorite and always will be.

14. Street Fighter III: Third Strike

This is a fighting game that I absolutely adore, and not because I’m good at it. In fact, I’m terrible at it. It’s an odd game to include because I love it, not because I like to play it (which I do), but because I really enjoy spectating it. Every time there is a big fighting game tournament to watch that features Third Strike, I tune in because there simply is no other game with the same hype behind it. The parry system that requires you to press forward at the time an attack would hit you so that you might get a window of positive frames to counter your opponent, is a genius mechanic that immediately adds to the excitement in every match. Whenever I see someone parry multiple moves in a row during a combo or super move, my blood pressure rises as the excitement builds for an epic counterattack. It’s a beautiful game that holds up decades later with one of the best soundtracks to any fighting game ever. The only time I ever tune out is during a Chun-Li mirror match in which we just have to listen to her say “AYE” over and over until one of them gets their super and connects. If you’ve watched this game, you know what I mean.

13. Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins

Stealth is one of my favorite game genres, and while Thief was the first to introduce me to it, I didn’t own it as a kid, so it didn’t have the same impact on me as the Tenchu games did. The first Tenchu I played front to back many times; however, the second installment was an improvement in every way. The level designs were much better and more complex. The rewards for completing levels allowed you to try different strategies. The boss fights were more interesting. The new abilities of the ninjas, including assassination animations and the ability to move bodies, made the experience much more rewarding. The different campaigns built upon the characters and their relationships in meaningful ways. You could even create your own levels and let your friends try them, which was an extremely novel feature for the time. The real tragedy of my love of Tenchu 2, though, is that my copy was stolen from me by a former roommate to (I assume) either pay for his debts or a drug addiction. At least I have my memories.

12. Hitman: World of Assassination

This is somewhat cheating because it technically has the content of three separate games, but I include the latest version because it has consumed so much of my time over the years. The first game from 2016, made me a diehard fan instantly. The sequels that followed only further cemented my interest in the games. Playing the campaign and the bonus level never gets old (except in the Colorado level). The freelancer mode adds a rogue-like element that I never knew was missing, and I adore it.

I always have it installed so that, when the spy/assassin bug bites, I can always dive back in right away. All the modes they’ve added over the years, the DLC, the elusive targets, have combined into a game that I never get tired of. Like GTA: San Andreas, it’s a game that I can come up with my own challenges to complete to keep things interesting.

11. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

I was obsessed with this game for a while. It reforged my interest in Star Wars and made me a fan again. This is an absolute classic by BioWare that had a great story and cast of characters. Immediately within the first few minutes, it pulled me into the Star Wars universe that took place countless years before the movies and told a wild tale. Yeah, you’re a character with amnesia, which is not the most original backstory to a protagonist, but where the story goes and how your choices affect things are really interesting. It’s an RPG with combat that can be quite challenging if you don’t know what you’re doing. As you level up, you get access to new and interesting abilities that allow you to play the game how you want. There’s even an exploit that I learned involving the leveling system that made me extremely overpowered by the end of the game; I just had to wait until a certain point in the story to start leveling up. The sequel would make some improvements and had the potential for an even more interesting story; however, its development was rushed, and the game was an incomplete experience (also extremely buggy). I’d still recommend both, but the first is one of the best Star Wars games ever made.

10. Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus is simply an incredible game. It’s the game that gets brought up every time someone makes an argument for games as art, and for good reason. It creates a world that is both extremely beautiful and lonely. It tells an engaging story with minimal dialogue. It forces you to explore the environment and the arenas to better handle the inevitable boss battles, which are some of the most satisfying experiences ever made for a video game. The experience of climbing up the colossal beasts and finding their weak spots is a puzzle in and of itself. When you finally get the last hit in, and the sweeping, melancholic score comes in while the creature falls to the ground, you can’t help but experience the satisfaction of your victory with a twinge of guilt and sorrow. It is a must-play.

9. Capcom vs SNK 2

A fighting game needed to make it into my top ten, and I couldn’t help but include the game that got me into the SNK fighters, even though it was made by Capcom. CVS2 is an immense fighting game with a huge roster of characters to choose from. In addition, it has the various “grooves” you can choose to drastically alter the mechanics of your team, which makes for endless combinations and experiences. I have many memories of staying up late with my friends and playing this with them, either against each other or taking on the secret bosses that kicked our asses. It had a killer soundtrack and introduced me to all the SNK greats like Terry Bogard, Rock Howard, Iori Yagami, etc. Capcom may have made other VS games that would be on other people’s top ten lists, but this is my favorite.

8. Donkey Kong Country

I was so excited for this game back in the day that I had a VHS promotional tape for it that had some behind-the-scenes footage with the developers. I watched it multiple times, before and after I played the game, just because I thought it was so cool.

Donkey Kong Country is one of those 2D platformers that I could go back to over and over again. I still remember where a lot of the secrets are, and which levels to farm lives. It’s a lot easier than its sequel, which is still very good, but I think the difficulty makes this a fun casual game that’s easy to pick up. It has some banger music tracks that still sound great today. My friends and I played it over and over when we were kids, and I still pick it up from time to time today.

7. Super Mario World

The 2D platforming Super Mario games are consistently good. I enjoyed the first three on the original NES, but Super Mario World was the first game to show me the distinct improvements that new technology can make to a game’s experience. It’s a colorful adventure full of unlockable secrets and is endlessly replayable. It took all the great lessons of Super Mario Bros. 3, like power-ups and world maps to explore, and simply added more. I revisit it with some regularity just because it’s still fun decades later.

6. Resident Evil 2

It’s probably blasphemous to many out there to choose a game in the beloved Resident Evil franchise other than Resident Evil 4 as my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, Resident Evil 4 is one of the best games ever made, and if I were forced to choose a set of games to take with me to a deserted island for the rest of time, RE4 would probably be on the list, with just how extensive and fun the campaign is. But by following the parameters of my list, I’m choosing my favorite as Resident Evil 2. If I hadn’t chosen to select just one game from each franchise for this list, RE4 would probably rank higher than a lot of games on this list, but I think the rules make the list more interesting to write.

Resident Evil 2 holds a special place in my heart because of how much of an impact it had on me. It was the first game that I completed in the franchise, and I was obsessed with it. I played through all the campaigns numerous times, learning them well enough to complete them in around 2.5 hours with minimal saves—I was speedrunning before I knew what it was. It was a game that got me into horror a lot more than I had already been. The way the various areas were designed became maps in my head that I still haven’t forgotten. The creature designs were grotesque and cool. The combat and exploration aspects were already fun and consistent in the first game, but felt even better in RE2.

It also happened to be a game that even my father—a man who would never miss an opportunity to tell me how much time I was “wasting” by playing video games, and that they were to blame for any dip in my scholastic performance—played alongside me when it was new in a rare moment of bonding. My pick may be influenced by nostalgia, but that doesn’t change the fact that RE2 still holds up well today.

5. Silent Hill 2

Just above the other survival horror hit, I have to include Silent Hill 2. I didn’t play SH2 nearly as much as RE2, but it still goes slightly higher because of how great the story is. There’s a reason this is a beloved entry in a franchise that has never really been able to return to its heights.

When I learned the twists about the characters and the mental baggage they were carrying, I was disturbed and intrigued. Then, when I looked at all the creatures of the town, where things took place in Silent Hill, and at the way you got different endings, I was just blown away by the mature themes and concepts the developers were willing to explore. It’s such a complicated and depressing story about grief, resentment, fear, and love, told in such a darkly sympathetic way that I struggle to think of another game that could even come close to tackling the subject matter that Silent Hill 2 does. It’s a shining example of a story told well enough that you have empathy for people who have done egregious things, but you can understand them and why they feel the way they do. I’m not sure many developers would be capable or even brave enough to take it on and achieve the same level of meaning.

4. Streets of Rage 2

Is it any surprise that a beat-em-up would end up near the top of my list and that it would be one of the best of the genre? Streets of Rage 2 is the game I played the most on my Sega Genesis in the ‘90s, and it was the game that my friends often requested we play together because of how fun it was. It’s still very playable today as a great romp through the streets as one of the four playable characters, and I would argue it is still more fun than many games like it that have since been released. If there’s one way the other beat-em-ups have no chance of competing against Streets of Rage 2, it’s the music.

The Sega Genesis was not exactly known for having the best sound card capable of producing quality tunes, and the various Genesis ports were often considered weaker than Super Nintendo versions when it came to sound quality. You could still get some great basslines, but good melodies were hard to come by. Composer Yuzo Koshiro was given the task of creating a soundtrack for Streets of Rage 2 and basically said, “ホールドマイビール,” and knocked it out of the park with the single best soundtrack on the Genesis. If you don’t believe me, look up the songs on YouTube and tell me they aren’t great tracks.

3. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

When I think about storytelling in video games, there is no series of games that comes to my mind faster than the Soul Reaver games. There are plenty of examples of games with great stories and compelling characters, but none match the quality of dialogue, world-building, and voice acting of the Legacy of Kain games. While all the main games in the series have their positives, I adore the Soul Reaver trilogy. It tells an epic tale involving themes of betrayal, revenge, messiahs, and eldritch horror. The protagonist of Raziel is one of the coolest, tragic characters ever made, pitted against another great character, Kain. These were the games that introduced me to Amy Hennig, the primary writer and creative director. While her name is often mentioned and praised for her work on the first The Last of Us game, I much prefer her early work.

Of the trilogy, my favorite is the first, even though both sequels have a similar level of writing quality and mechanical improvements to combat—the combat is the weakest point of the original game, which is probably why the boss battles are generally puzzles. The first Soul Reaver immediately drew me in with its art style. Just the cover of the game with Raziel made me interested. Then, when the game started with a cutscene that was cutting-edge at the time, and it ended with the iconic, rumbling voice of Tony Jay saying, “Raziel,” as our hero gazed upon a creature made of countless tentacles and eyes, I was more than excited to see where the game went. I was not prepared for what followed and how big the world of Nosgoth was in a simple PlayStation game.

Part of what makes the first game so special to me is the world/level design. I played it again recently, and I marveled at how much of the game you could skip entirely without knowing it. As you progress through the story and gain new abilities that unlock areas of the world to explore, there are lots of locations that you can return to and explore further with your enhanced skills. Knowing this, I rushed through the story, leaving the secrets and bonus puzzles till I got all of Raziel’s abilities. Rushing through the story feels like only completing 50% of the game, with how much you experience through backtracking and exploring. With uprezzed re-releases of the first two games available on modern platforms, there’s no better time to try it for yourself if you haven’t yet.

2. Deus Ex

Deus Ex is one of those games that I go back to almost every year. It had a profound impact on me when I was younger because it told such a mature story of espionage, and it opened my mind to the possibility of deep state organizations and governments performing atrocities and controlling the world through heinous acts of terrorism and propaganda—I was barely a teenager when I played it for the first time, so I hadn’t even read things like Fahrenheit 451 or 1984 yet. Deus Ex was the game that made me start considering tin foil as a material for headgear. This has only been reinforced in the years since I played it because a lot of things that happened in this game—released in 1999—have come to pass.

But it’s more than just a game with a story involving conspiracy theories. It’s a game about choice and discovery. It’s a game loaded with secrets and surprises, and there are still things I haven’t tried in it in all the years I have been playing it. It allows you to play the game in a variety of ways, and it will respond to your decisions as a result. For example, in just the first mission, you can go in and stealthily take down everyone using non-lethal methods, or you can go in guns blazing. At the end of the mission, your superior officers will remark on your methods and even reprimand you if you did it a way they didn’t agree with. Likewise, in the same mission, you have the option of saving another agent or going straight for the target. This freedom extends through the rest of the game with other complex maps and levels that allow you to explore everything in your own way. Even though it has been out for more than 20 years, I’d recommend that any new player avoid looking up guides because it will still surprise you in a lot of ways you wouldn’t expect an older game like this to do. It’s a shame that so much of the game was cut to release it on time, because there was already so much here. I would have loved to have seen what the rest of the game might have been like.

1. Bloodborne

I mentioned From Software at the top, so you knew that one of their games would be in the list. The surprising thing is that, at first, I wasn’t immediately hooked by Bloodborne like everyone else was. Unlike other From Software games, it took some time to grow on me.

Demon’s Souls got me into their games right away in 2009. I replayed it numerous times and even got the platinum trophy for it. Dark Souls became a new favorite of mine, and I would go on to play that game annually afterwards. The Dark Souls sequels brought a downturn for my taste in some ways, but I still had my fun with them where I could.

Bloodborne became my favorite of all their games as soon as the combat really clicked. I’ve since platinumed the game multiple times and explored different character builds and speedrunning techniques. I listen to the soundtrack regularly—it’s great music to work to. The visceral combat and boss fights are intense and rewarding. The style, atmosphere, and horror themes are top-notch. Whenever I’m discussing different stories and themes with friends, Bloodborne always comes up as a point of reference. It’s not a perfect game because there are still the weird things about From Software games, and I wish it would run at a higher framerate, but it has taken its top spot in my list nonetheless as an all-time great game.

Do you agree with my selections? Do you have favorites from these various franchises that I didn’t list? Let me know what you think!

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