I had some time to think today and began to think about the video games that really rock my world. It is hard for me to choose my favorite video games, because I like several of them a lot and hold their potential values about equal in my mind. Some of it simply has to do with the mood I am in. But not only did I want to think about what video games I like, I wanted to look into why I like them so much and what it is that attracts my attention to them.

DISCLAIMER: This is me writing about my opinion, which is inherently bias. If your opinion differs from mine that is perfectly all right, and I would be glad to hear what you think, however, please realize that I hold the right to reserve reading comments until Thursday.

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was one of the first video games I had as a child. We got our SNES a few months before the N64 came out. (With a promise to our parents that we wouldn’t also want the N64 because it was newer… which turned out to be completely false later.) A Link to the Past has a quality to it that few other games have. I think it has an amazing replay value. Not necessarily because there are different choices you can make, there really are not any choices, or because it has a hard mode, it doesn’t, but it has a unique quality of game play that makes it enjoyable to pick up and play every now and then.

The game has a really neat feel, there is something about a bird’s eye view or a two dimensional world which makes the game a joy to play. The music quality is rather crummy, but the melodies and notation are amazing. The controls are simple which is a major plus because there is no learning curve to just sit down and play. Battling is easy and most the bosses can be killed amazingly quickly as long as you are capable of sustaining a bunch of damage. This is a game I love to sit down and just run through. The Ocarina of Time is also on my list of awesome games. Living in a three dimensional world, being able to rome around, ride horses, explore caverns and take on a number of side quests made this game an absolute wonder. The music was wonderful and the puzzles that were presented in the dungeons made the game a great challenge.

I was put off by Majora’s Mask and I was never able to get myself into Wind Waker, although the music for Wind Waker was awesome. Twilight Princess was a joy to play through, the Wii’s controller gave the game a whole new feel and it was wonderful. I loved the music and the gameplay. The thing I didn’t like, though, was the locked in feeling I was always having. There were blocked passages that littered the map, limiting progress to only one direction. Even when I had finished the game I didn’t feel like I had a direct route to everywhere I wanted to go. I also felt like there weren’t as many side quests and that there was a tremendous amount of unused territory on the map. Playing through the game again may give me a better chance to explore, but until then I don’t know if I’m entirely satisfied.

Metroid

I love metroids. I don’t know why, but I’m actually in the processes of trying to create a metroid screen saver wherein several metroids will roam around my screen guarding my computer from any intruders. (More on this on this later.)

As with Zelda, my first Metroid encounter occurred long after Metroid had been released. We borrowed the game from my cousins who are several years older than myself and after playing the game for awhile we succeeded in erasing their saved data by leaving the cartridge in the Nintendo for too long. Since then I have purchased my own copy of Super Metroid and I still find it to be one of my favorite games. I love the music, the control style and the gameplay as a whole. The maps and the world are fascinating and there is a great potential for exploring and searching out secret upgrades.

I am of the opinion that the Metroid Prime series was also very well done. The first is my favorite in terms of music, plot, etc, the problem I have with it is the control scheme. When I first played it I had not big problems with the control scheme, but since then I have played more first person shooter games which have the dual control stick scheme. That is, looking and walking are controlled separately whereas Metroid had then controlled together.

I played through Metroid Prime three or four times and have always been meaning to go back and play through it again, trying for a low percent walkthrough, or at least try to get the high jump boots first. (I did once and haven’t been able to since.) I have only played through the two following Metroid games once a piece, since school has not allowed much of a break to go back and play. As a result I don’t know them as well as I know the first one, which also makes me not like them as much.

Metroid Prime 3 is my favorite in terms of control style and the music was good too, but I find that the bosses were far too easy. The disadvantage I had with Prime 3 was that I had to put it down for a month due to school and so I had to pick up the game midway and try to remember what I had done. For this reason alone it is on my list of games I need to run through again.

Mario Kart

My life would not be complete without Mario Kart. I could play Mario Kart for hours, and for that matter, on occasion, I have. The racing style of Mario Kart is perfect, the items allow anyone to have a fair chance (well… sort of…) and the variety of tracks and battles keep things interesting.

Going back to the Super Nintendo it is hard to imagine ever enjoying the choppy screen of bad textures which holds a great potential for giving seizures. Nonetheless, I’ll always remember having battles at my friends house and getting that feather so I could jump over the bump into the water, where I could sit until someone chased me out.

Mario Kart for the 64 is still a game I love to play, despite the fact that multi-player has all sorts of sound related issues. The tracks were fun and the cheats were great when you could get them. Favorite track is Rainbow Road,of course (pun intended). Double Dash provided a whole new aspect of racing which I have found to be both a blessing and hinderance at times. I love racing on my own, but having a partner help is a special challenge that is fun to take on from time to time. The graphics are better, there are more courses and more drivers and the music is fantastic.

Kirby’s Avalanche

I don’t know what it is about Kirby’s Avalanche, but I just can’t play enough of it. My biggest problem is finding people to play against. Everyone I know either doesn’t find it nearly as fun as I do or gets tired of being pummeled multiple times over, despite the fact I am playing with a seemingly enormous handicap. The hard part is beating the computers, who have a reflex ability that far surpasses mine.

Donkey Kong

Until recently my family’s Donkey Kong collection consisted of only Donkey Kong Country 3 and Donkey Kong 64. I have finally been able to produce Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 from ebay and am in the process of working through the second one with my brother. I love the scrolling style of this game, which is something that is not found anywhere anymore.Donkey Kong 64 was a great game as well and has some great music that I really don’t listen too enough. To be honest, I never actually got to beat the game because our game data was erased by a neighbor kid before we finished it and we never started it back up.

Others

I love MegaMan, but never actually bought any of the games. Only rented them and downloaded their soundtracks. Kirby always had great games and I’ve purchased the old ones for the Wii now. Smash Bros is a great series that has offered weeks of great fun with friends. Perfect Dark was by far the best first person shooter for the N64. Beetle Adventure Racing was pretty sweet and while I’m thinking about racing games the original F-Zero is on my list of games I enjoy to sit down and play every now and then. Star Fox is a great series too, but I haven’t played the newest ones a whole lot. I enjoy the occasional jaunt into Halo, but more often then not I’m just listening to their soundtracks. Final Fantasy VII is a classic and one of these days I’ll remember that I still have to fight the final boss. Sim City for the Super Nintendo is the best Sim City game ever except that our cartridge was rather fickle and we were never able to keep a city going for very long before the data was erased. Of course, I can’t leave out Mario World Series and Super Mario 64.

The Why

The big theme that I see running through these games are the soundtracks. Almost all the games I like have a great soundtrack, most have good gameplay and at least some sort of replay value. I just wish I had more time to play some of these old games to see if they are still as good as I remember.

Anyway, those are the games I like. What do you say?