10. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater

Let’s get one thing out of the way. This is not the best game in the series. However, it is the one that launched my interest in a long line of skating and BMX games, and the one that blew me away more than any other.

I remember seeing this game for the first time in a K-mart kiosk. Being a 14 year old kid in San Diego where skate culture is everything, I was immediately obsessed. I rarely got a chance to play, but I loved watching people skate around the Chicago warehouse level doing realistic tricks. I went to K-mart as many times as I could with my mom just so I could see it. After my first visit I knew I had to have it, but I didn’t have a PlayStation. I began saving money and in time I was able to buy a whole new video game console, just so I could play that game. If not for Tony Hawk, I may have never become a PlayStation fanboy and owner of every console since.

I have vivid memories tricking over the gap above the half pipe in the Warehouse level, maybe 1,000 times. I made sure to beat the game with every single character so that I could unlock their individual skate videos at the end. Unlocking Officer Dick and the secret level Roswell were my crowning achievements in life up to that point. I never got tired of this game and played it incessantly, only to stop once Tony Hawk 2 came out so I could being my obsession all over again.

9. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

I thought I was going to put Street Fighter 2 Turbo on this list. I did beat it on the hardest difficulty with every single character after all. I was obsessed. It wasn’t until I played 3rd Strike two years ago that I realized I didn’t actually know how to play a fighting game.

I first played Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike at work with some co-workers. Despite feeling confident because I still knew all the special moves of the characters from SF2, they absolutely whooped me. I thought Street Fighter was about landing special moves like fireballs, but it’s actually about combos, cancels, and footsies. I instantly had a million questions for them about how they did they things they did and why nothing I did was effective. I got my first fight stick, practiced at home, and read and watched as much as I could online. The systems were beautiful to me, and I couldn’t stop learning about them. Another layer was added when I realized that not only did I have to know what to do, but I had to send the right input to the joystick. The game was a mental and physical challenge for me.

I moved on to Ultra Street Fighter 4 and Street Fighter 5, but 3rd Strike holds a special place in my heart. Not only did it open a whole new world to me, but I actually think it’s the best of the series.

8. Persona 5

I’ve always enjoyed story and character driven games, but Persona 5 grabbed me stronger than most. Games like Mass Effect hold a special place in my heart because of the difficult, big decisions you have to make, but Persona 5 beats them all because of the little ones.

Persona 5 is the summation of a million tiny decisions. Decisions about who to spend time with, where to go, and what to invest in. Never have I had to make so many decisions in a game, let alone one where you’re operating in a time box and can’t possibly experience everything. Every character has an interesting story to tell, so at times it was agonizing to choose one person over another. But it’s that same agony that made me love them so much, and by the end of my 100+ hour play through I felt like I had a new group of friends to hang out with.

Also, the story, art, combat, music, and vibes are some of the best I’ve experienced in an RPG, so there’s that.

7. Starcraft

I played Command & Conquer, Red Alert, and Warcraft 2 well before Starcraft came out, but Starcraft is the one that that stuck with me forever. All are great real-time strategy games, but the introduction of the 56K modem and Starcraft’s ridiculously deep online modes made this one stand out above the rest.

This game was faster and more stressful than the others, and I loved it. I was never very good, but I obsessed over keeping a 50% win rate in my online record. Then I discovered the “Custom Game” mode where people created their own maps with unique objectives, and then I really couldn’t stop playing the game. There were Lord of the Rings story modes where each person controlled a hero. There were tower defense games before tower defense was a thing. There was such an incredibly wide array of games to play and I loved all of them, even if I didn’t understand a lot of them. User-generated content didn’t exist to me before this, and I couldn’t consume enough of it. Sneaking online at night while hoping my parents didn’t hear the loud ass modem became the norm, and getting a second phone line in the house just for the internet was one of the happiest days of my childhood.

Also, I played it again like 3 weeks ago and it still holds up.

6. Breath of the Wild

Breath of the Wild represents the biggest video game bet I’ve ever made. I pre-ordered a Switch simply so I could play this game, but I did so without knowing very much about it. Other than knowing it would be an open-world Zelda game, I was on a media blackout for the game and wanted to go into it as blind as I could. Nintendo had been steadily losing favor in the public’s eye up until it released, and I got nervous that I’d sunk over $400 into a game that would suck. It took me less than an hour to know it was worth it.

I could list a million reasons why this game is awesome, but it largely boils down to the sense of discovery it’s able to create that no other game has, despite there being many years of open world games before it. Without knowing why I felt compelled to investigate every peak, valley, chest, town, and corner of the map. I wasn’t being driven by my normal completionist behavior or my desire to find rare items. This was coming from a feeling of awe about the world that I’ve never experienced in an open world game before. The “let’s see what’s over there just because” mentality held up for the 70+ hours I played the game, and for that reason this game is one of my favorites.

5. Super Mario Bros. 3

I don’t have any memories of acquiring this game, but I remember being obsessed with it. I never really like Super Mario Bros. 1 or 2, but 3 hit me like a ton of bricks. The graphics were insane. Every world had a distinct vibe, and I can recall from memory how all 8 of them made me feel. There were 5 times as many power-ups and abilities as the original Mario Bros. There were secrets in every single level, and with the help of a Nintendo Power I was determined to find them all. Moving behind the background to discover the first whistle, navigating Mario off-screen to find a hidden door, and finding a secret onthe map itself (breaking the rock near the end of world 2) laid the groundwork for me to question everything in all video games moving forward.

I became a master of this game from beating it so many times, and could amass over 50 extra lives by the time I made it to the final world. The difficulty spike in world 8 kept me coming back for more, and despite moving on to Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64 in the years to come, I always came back for more Super Mario Bros. 3.

4. Dark Souls

Dark Souls ruined combat in other games for a long time. There was simply nothing that came anywhere close to as fun, challenging, and rewarding as it. Every enemy has substance, and there are no easy victories. I didn’t know I was a glutton for punishment until I found this game, and I didn’t know punishment could feel so good. This game created the most intense video gaming experiences of my life, and it was common for me to be nervously sweating through most of a play session. Cursing as loud as I could became common enough to where I didn’t even notice it anymore, and it’s the only game that has made me try to break the controller over my knee.

Besides all that the enemy and level design remain some of the best in the biz, and there is no other video game that could scratch the itch that Dark Souls created in me. It’s one of the only modern video games I’ve played twice, and the original Dark Souls remains the best of all the Soulsborne games.

3. Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 was the first game where I felt immersed in the world. Perhaps it was because it was the first 3D game I had played, or maybe it’s because each level felt so magical. Not only were the visuals and level design astonishing at the time, but for the first time sound and music played a big role in my gaming experience. I still remember the sound of Mario’s butt sizzling in the lava and the echo of his voice off the walls when you triple jump down a corridor.

The castle was inviting yet mysterious, and unlocking more doors felt like I was revealing it’s soul. The entrance was light and airy while it’s depths felt sinister and cold at times. The gameplay and level design was ridiculously good considering it was Nintendo’s first 3D effort, and the quality of secrets was incredibly satisfying.

It’s easy to say this game changed the video game industry, and even easier to place it on this list. What’s hard is explaining why it deserves to be placed so high. Objective analysis of all the game’s parts reveals it to be a great game, but it doesn’t do justice to just how freaking fun this game was. It took my joy in video games to a new level and is one of the best single player games ever.

2. Civilization II

I was introduced to Civilization II by a childhood friend, and would lose entire days playing at his house. Once my family’s computer was fast enough to run the game, it would become the game I spent more hours on than any other in my life. The “one more turn” addiction was real.

It was so unlike anything else that I had ever played. It was by far the most complex game I’d ever played, with the instruction manual totalling well over 100 pages. I rarely referenced it, instead determined to figure out everything on my own. I doubt I ever experienced everything, but it didn’t matter because this game made me feel smart and challenged in a way no other game did. The complexity of future installments never hooked me like the perfectly balanced systems of Civilization II, and despite playing III and IV I always returned home to II. It is one of the most fun games I have ever played.

1. The Legend of Zelda

So. Many. Secrets. I never had access to a strategy guide, so I had to find them all myself. I bombed every wall and mountainside. I pushed on every gravestone and frozen soldier. I burned every single bush. I solved every mystery given to me by the old man. I got every single heart. There is nothing about this game that I don’t know from my many playthroughs. Even today I could play it and autopilot my way to about 90% of the secrets.

This was my first experience with a large world, dungeons, secrets, real bosses, and a sense of progression. I will never forget how much I loved this game as a kid. I played it for the first time in elementary school, and when my friend and I got stuck on the last dungeon we made a map of it where each piece of printer paper had all the doors and secret tunnel locations in that room. It covered most of the room because the dungeon ended up being in the shape of a huge skull.

Graphics and worlds evolved, but for 30 years Nintendo followed the same formula set by the original, and each game was amazing. That is incredible. The Legend of Zelda started the best video game franchise ever, and it remains my favorite video game of all time.

Honorable Mentions

These other 20 games are some of my favorites of all time. It was too painful not to mention them, so here they are:

Super Mario Galaxy, Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey, NBA Jam, A Link to the Past, Snowboard Kids, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, The Witness, The Witcher 3, God of War, Bioshock, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, Pokemon Red, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, Ocarina of Time, Street Fighter 2 Turbo Edition, Day of the Tentacle, Walking Dead Season 1, Bastion, Ultra Street Fighter 4.