Megaman 2 - This is, in my opinion, the best game. Ever. The first time I saw it, I was over to a friend's house after school. He already had another friend over, and they were playing Dr. Wily Stage 3, at the bit with the yellow water and goofy robot fish. It struck me as something really special, with the weapon selection adding a layer of depth that no Nintendo game I'd played to that point had. I'd passed by the original game at rental stores every time beforehand, due to the infamous terrible box art, but after seeing what the series actually played like, I ended up playing them all as they came out. But 2, with especially fun weapons and incredible music, was the one that stuck with me forever. Funny thing is, I never owned a copy as a kid. It was much later that I bought it (more than once, in fact). These days, I make a point of playing through it at least once a year, though usually more.
Earthbound - In a genre full of fantasy tropes and occasional sci-fi twists, Earthbound was a bizarre outlier. An RPG that was set in a contemporary world full of buses and ATMs, it was able to skew expectations of the genre in interesting ways. At the same time, between mechanics like seeing and being able to avoid enemies on the overworld, automatically winning fights with much weaker enemies, and having health being a rolling tally rather than a static number (which means you could save dying characters by healing or winning a fight quickly enough), it attempted to move the genre forward. The game was full of personality and weird plot twists that, for the most part, survived the localization and developed a fan following to this day.
Final Fantasy 6 - There are two reasons that Final Fantasy 6 is on this list. It's a fantastic game, to be sure. Fantastic storytelling that takes legitimately unexpected twists combined with great music and solid mechanics make it one of the best there is. More importantly, though, it occupied a very specific, difficult time in my life. I still clearly remember sitting in the loft of the farmhouse, turning the stereo system up, and losing myself in the game, forgetting about my depression for a while.
Bionic Commando - On the NES, game mechanics were often very similar, as games were still a fairly young medium. It was safe to have one button jump and the other attack. Bionic Commando went its own way, being a platformer that had no jump, but instead a bionic arm that served the function of a grappling hook. It made for a very different, very fun change on expectations. Combined with a somewhat non-linear set of stages and a great soundtrack, it earned a spot in the ranks of games that I consider to be worth replaying on a regular basis.
World of Warcraft - I may have spent more time playing World of Warcraft than every other game combined. I honestly don't know. It's hard to explain why, being so inside of it as I have been. There are specific times and events with friends, good storytelling (that is almost entirely optional), and fun mechanics. I dunno. I like it. Say what you will about it being old, or overpopular, but the simple fact is they made a game worth playing.
Deadly Premonition - Deadly Premonition is a weird game. It's a weird game that knows it's weird, and revels in it. A Japanese love letter to Twin Peaks and schlocky horror films, Deadly Premonition isn't something you'll mistake for a good game. At least, not at first. The gameplay is clunky, the graphics are cutrate at best, the map is useless, etc. But the further in I got, the more I fell in love with the bizarre setting and characters. The story ranges from humorous, usually when interacting with the quirky townsfolk, to truly disturbing when confronted with the serial killings the protagonist is in the town to solve. Agent York himself (said protagonist) is the key draw. A cocky FBI agent with personality to spare, York is presented as quite possibly insane, talking to the player about the case, 80's movies, and punk bands in a way that doesn't break the fourth wall. To its credit, the game lets you wonder whether York is crazy or not right up until the end sequence. As clunky as it is, I would trade a thousand well-crafted but boring games for one with the personality this game has.
Silent Hill 2 - I'd be hard pressed to explain why, but this game is the reason I bought a Playstation 2. I could have played nothing else on it, and it would have been worth it. The progenitor, Silent Hill, was the first game I had ever played that scared me. Not in a "oh no, dogs through the window" cheap way, but through atmosphere. Dread, I suppose, would be more accurate. Silent Hill 2 went in a slightly different direction. The sense of dread was somewhat less of a focus, but still there; the game instead developed more along emotional lines. It succeeded. There are two games that have ever nearly made me cry. Mary's letter at the end of the game, followed by the In Water ending, did it here. It was an emotional gut punch that I never expected, and it's all the more powerful for it. The game kept track of things you did, ways you acted in the game, and chose the ending you got from the personality you built for James. It worked. The game also had a fantastic soundtrack, common for the series, but high above most others.
Castlevania - Symphony of the Night - Another game I play at least once a year. Symphony of the Night is a great example of a game that takes its legacy (quite sizeable, at that) and builds upon it in important ways. It may not have been the first, but the way it took a standard (but good) platforming game and built upon it with an open world and RPG mechanics is something that is replicated and loved even to this day. In my eyes, and to many others, it seems, it has never been surpassed. Oh, and the music is fantastic.
Fallout 3 - My experience with the Fallout series is a bit odd. The first two games came out a few years before I had regular access to a PC, so when I had the chance to play them, they weren't fresh and new like they were for most of the fanbase. I had a good time with them, but they were nothing groundbreaking. For Fallout 3, though, I was in on the ground floor. I'd played Morrowind and Oblivion, so it wasn't my first experience with a first-person open world game, but I took to it far more easily than I did with those. Whether it was the retro-future atmosphere, the bleak and lonely mood, or the combat that incorporated turn-based RPG mechanics into a real-time system, I just wanted to spend time with it. I wanted to see all that it had to show (and I didn't, of course, there's just too much), and for the first time, achievements meant something to me, as they provided a useful way to track my progress on what the developers considered to be the highlights of the wastelands of DC. And there was one part in particular that was just ridiculous enough to stand out.
Portal - Valve put together a hell of a collection with the Orange Box. I bought it for the "smallest" portion of it. I'd been keeping track of Portal for a while before it was released, as at some point I'd been recommended the student game the team had made, called Narbacular Drop. It was fascinating, mechanically. I'd never played anything like it. Portal took the same mechanics and refined them, while adding a brilliant, subversive, funny story. It may have only been 3-ish hours long, but it was worth the entire Orange Box purchase price by itself.
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