Games That Ruled My World

It seems like all the cool kids are doing it these days. So I thought it was high time I threw my hat into the ring as well. Don't worry, this isn't one of those fancy-pants favorite-games-of-all-time lists. Disappointed? You shouldn't be. What follows is even better. Really, it's that good. Or maybe I'm lying. Below you'll find some of the games that have, for one reason or another, given me mad fits of OCD – in a good way, of course. These are titles that have stolen more hours of my life than any other. Some are obvious, others not so much. But they've all played a part in attempting to keep me as sedentary as possible.

Now on with the list! And by no means are these in any particular order.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Oh no, here we go again. More Zelda humping. If you've been reading my blogs you've probably had an a** full of my adoration for this game. And for that I do apologize. One day I'll probably grow tired of the endless adulation I shower upon this magnificent game. One can only hope, right? Too bad, it will never happen, ever.

It's hard for me to describe what it is exactly that strikes a chord so much with Ocarina. It's just one of those games that defines everything I love about gaming. Water Temple aside (and thank you Eiji Aonuma for your apology), the game is a true showcase of perfection personified. Let's count the ways, shall we? (Forget I even mentioned that Water Temple.)

The story is epic and, most importantly, memorable. The ability to play as grown-up Link is, and was at the time of the game's release, icing on the cake for Zelda fans and changes the dynamic of the game in a number of ways. The music is as sweeping and indelible as any in the Zelda series (gotta love the Spirit Temple theme!). The implementation of the Ocarina adds a layer of gameplay and depth that provides countless hours of experimentation and discovery. The fishing mini-game alone is worth the price of admission. The boss battles are a perfect mix of unique design and rock-solid gameplay mechanics. And how could we forget good old Epona? Is there a better horse in all of video games? I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.

Ocarina of Time is my one game to rule them all. To say that its ruled my world on more than one occasion would be a severe understatement. This is why I game.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

More Zelda. This whole post could be about Zelda games. Wouldn't that be fun?

This is a game that I was lukewarm towards at first. I wanted more Ocarina and I wanted it now! But my stubbornness soon gave way to complete adoration for what Majora's Mask brought to the table. More time travel? Yes please. A three day time limit to save Clock Town from what has to be the scariest moon ever seen in a video game? That sounds interesting. A quest in which you collect a wide variety of masks, some of which alter your abilities, let alone your entire being?! Now we're talking.

Yep, Majora's Mask proved to be another feather in the cap for the Zelda franchise as far as I was concerned. The successful core elements of Ocarina were there, but MM flipped it on its side to create an experience that is uniquely its own. I became obsessed with collecting all of the masks and soon found myself up at all hours of the night attempting said feat. Curse you Anji Kafei! Was it worth it in the end? Boy, was it ever.

Fierce Deity Link, anyone?

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

My god, a third Zelda game? Surely you must be kidding!? I am not.

I love the cel-shaded graphics. There, I said it. The game looks beautiful and when in motion, it's breathtaking to look at. And to be quite honest, the sailing aspect of the game didn't really bug me as much as it did others. Yeah, it's gets a little tiresome after a while, but the continual desire to discover new lands and treasure more than make up for it. The story is no slouch either. From learning of the unfortunate fate of Hyrule to an ending that has to be right up there with the best the series has to offer, Wind Waker weaves a mighty fine tale full of surprises. How cool was it when you got transported "below" to Hyrule Castle to obtain the Master Sword? Love it!

And as a side note you'll notice that A Link to the Past is nowhere to be found on this list. There is a reason for that and you can find it here. And yes, I know how egregious it is so shut it. And that especially means you Reiner. I'm only going off of what I know.  

Sim City 2000

Ah yes, good 'ol Sim City 2000. Quite possibly the first game I can remember devoting an inordinate amount of time to---to the point of it becoming obscene. Will Wright's city building simulation had its hooks into me, waaaaay into me. And for good reason. It gave me complete freedom to do whatever I wanted and I took that privilege very seriously. Very rarely did I stray from the task of creating the greatest, most beautifully designed, well-run, money-making, everyone-wants-to-live-in-my-utopian-wonderworld city. I was the mayor and, by God, I was going to give these people something to remember me by. It was just so addicting trying to get your city to grow like grass, working towards that moment when you started turning a profit. And when you did, the game really started to get fun. And that's when the time vortex really occurred.

I can recall it was Xmas Eve, circa 1994. We had just returned from my grandparent's and it was time for us good little boys to get in bed for Santa was on his way. Normally this would be a very exciting time for a youth of my age. Who doesn't like getting presents? And the earlier you get to bed, the earlier you can rise to receive said presents. Brilliant. But not this year. Nope. Instead I proceeded to play Sim City 2000 until 4am. Santa be damned.

I guess Will Wright was onto something after all.

Power Stone 2

Probably the game I played the most with my friends on the Dreamcast. I challenge anyone to suggest a better multiplayer experience on Sega's ill-fated final console. The game simply rocks. Four players beating the crap out of each other with a megaphone, bear trap, roller blades, and gigantic hammer was and still is too much fun to pass up. My friends and I would spend countless hours during college beating the living crap out of each other and the great part was it never got old. The highly interactive, multi-tiered environments provided the perfect setting for an almost limitless array of battle tactics. But they all paled in comparison to when I would deliver death from above via my favorite character, Rogue, a.k.a. Flaming Panties Girl. Yep, when you saw her spring high into the air and summon that giant fire-spewing head, you knew your time had come. I mean really, who doesn't love a woman who can do that? Exactly.

Grandia

I played this game on PlayStation (sorry hardcore Saturn fans) as a way to further test my supposed burgeoning love for JRPGs. FFVII blew the doors wide open for me and thankfully Grandia didn't drop the ball. Now the story wasn't exactly anything to write home about and certain characters' voices made me want to rage (hello Sue and Justin), but that wasn't what made Grandia stand out to me. The real beauty of the game was and still is found in its battle system. While most battles in your typical JPRG tended to devolve into nothing more than a mindless grindfest, those found in Grandia were actually a joy to partake in. There were no cursed random encounters; here you could pick and choose most of your battles. What an idea! And the active battle system found in Grandia gave the game a dynamic ebb and flow that made said battles not only shorter (thank God), but much more satisfying as well.

I would play this game for hours on end just running around the map looking for monsters to engage. I didn't really care much for the story---it was all about leveling up the multitude of characters I met along the way and Grandia's fantastic battle system made this an absolute joy. If you're all about duking it out in your JRPGs, then Grandia is well worth your time. It sure was for me.  

Caesar III

Here was another city simulation game that ate up a good portion of my life in the late 90's. Building upon the aspects that made Sim City 2000 so addicting to me, Caesar III was everything I hoped it would be and more. In fact, the game could be downright cruel if you didn't play your cards right managing your Roman city. But it was a challenge I gladly accepted. I loved experimenting with the game's deep building options, looking for different ways to not only grow my city, but provide all the necessary outlets and services needed to satisfy my diverse rank of citizens. The game had a tendency to play out like a chess match and it was up to you to figure out how to counter and/or avoid the setbacks the game would throw at you. The most compelling (and perhaps sadistic) part of the game was that most, if not all, of the problems you encountered were your own doing in some way. I can't tell you how many times I had to deal with fires breaking out in those certain parts of town that just refused to evolve into anything more than a shanty town. *** you shanty town! And let's not forget what happens if you fail to appease the Gods in any way. All I can say is Mars is a fricken pampered little ***ch.

But I loved it regardless. Deity wrath, slum fires, and all.   

Final Fantasy VIII

My biggest memory of my time spent with FFVIII was my constant shuffling between Heaven and Hell Island in my quest to obtain, or should I say draw, the best spells. I also had to seek out that *** known as Malboro in order to collect a certain number of his/hers(?) tentacles that I need for some insane reason. Bad Breath my a**. A lot of this was the result of me being behind the eight ball as far as the Junctioning system was concerned. Quite simply, it baffled the heck out of me at first. Once I finally realized how to make use of this newfangled system, things started sliding into place.

Yeah, the game's random encounters bordered on ridiculous and the drawn out Guardian Force cinemas made me want to kill myself (how many times do I have to watch Diablos emerge from his gooey black cocoon?). But I really connected with the characters for some reason and the story kept me plugging along. I don't even want to venture a guess at how many hours I pumped into this installment, but it wouldn't surprise me if it approached the 100 hour mark. I was determined to unearth all that VIII offered. And that's the thing with this game: everything took time---lots of it.

When I finally did finish this bloated beast, I remember thinking how awesome the game was (love that ending), but there's no way I'd ever play it again. Way too much time and effort spent. However, as time has passed, my memories of VIII have slowly melded into something I'm much more fond of and I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps it's that whole pleasure in pain at work with this one? God knows I spent a good deal of time in both camps with this one. And in the end, it was definitely worth it.

TimeSplitters 2

This might be the first-person shooter I've spent the most time with. There was just something about TS2 that clicked with me. I loved the more lighthearted vibe of the game, the controls were tight and responsive, and the collecting of medals via the Challenge mode was as engaging as anything I'd seen in a shooter before. The multiplayer modes were no slouch either. The hours I spent trying to kill all of those freaking monkeys still haunts me to this day. And those giant hands! Why am I trying to kill giant hands? Or more importantly, why are they trying to kill me? That's just not right. But it was a challenge and, more importantly, it was fun.

Gran Turismo 3: A-spec

Perhaps I had too much time on my hands during the PS2's heyday, but Gran Turismo 3 is the only driving game I've ever attempted to master. Most driving games (or in this case I should say sims) eventually lose my interest after I realize just how devoted one needs to be in order to thoroughly wring the most out of the title. And yet, Gran Turismo 3 required just that---a lot of devotion and some practice sprinkled in for good measure. Everything from meticulously tuning my cars to memorizing all the little intricacies of every track to learning and adapting to the computer opponent's racing tendencies, I did it all. And I got pretty good at it too. When I think back to the summer of 2001, most of what I see is my time spent playing this game. It literally did rule my world for a solid three months after its release.

One of my favorite memories regarding GT3 involves racing one of my friends on the classic Rome course. We had both been playing the game for quite some time and figured we'd get together to see who had the better collection of cars. I faithfully rolled out with my Zonda C12S that I had won in a race not too long ago. I was very proud. Well, my slappy of a friend loads up something called an Escudo. I'd never heard of it. Whatever.

We start the race and this "car" proceeds to literally explode out of the gate. He's gone and I'm left wondering how badly I'm going to get trounced. It was like a bat out of hell. The only problem was he couldn't handle the speed of the Escudo and, as a result, was always crashing into the side rails every five seconds or so. I was able to use this to my advantage and built up a decent lead. And then you'd hear the noise. The loud, whaling of the Escudo's engine as it revved up to top speed. The sound was terrifying. You knew he'd catch you. You didn't know where he was, only that he---no, IT---was coming. It was like Jaws in a race car. The anticipation was brutal. And then he'd pass you in a blur only to crash 20 yards ahead of you. And the process would start all over again.

Now if only that Zonda didn't handle like a brick at the bottom of the ocean...

Tecmo Super Bowl

Resident editor Matt Bertz wrote about this gem as well and for good reason---it was a great football game for its time. My friends and I would frequently pull all-nighters with this one, taking each of our selected teams through an entire season. When one person would play, the rest of us would watch and comment on the action unfolding before us. We were that into it. And the fact that the game had both NFL and NFLPA licenses (a first for a video game) as well as statistical tracking made it our game of choice on the NES for months on end. It's probably the game I've watched the sun rise most while playing, but that was back in the day when a case of Coke could wire you for 24 hours straight. Ah, my Buffalo Bills. Ah, caffeine. 

Jet Grind Radio

My favorite game on the Dreamcast, no question about it. The style, the music, the gameplay, it all worked brilliantly. And the game offered up enough of a challenge to make things difficult, but not to the point of where you'd throw the controller down in disgust (ok, maybe there were a couple of points where that happened, but who's counting?). JGR was just one of those games that made me proud to own a Dreamcast as it was unlike anything I had ever played before. And while this might be sacrilegious to say, I actually spent more time with JGR than I did with Tony Hawk 2. The gall! I know. But there was just something so compelling about cruising around Shibuya-cho, Benten-cho, and Kogane-cho tagging up everything in sight while Professor K broadcasted his words of wisdom. That was until you ran into Gomer Pyle himself, Captain Onishima. Man, what a tool.

No other game I've ever played has the unique, imaginative style that is Jet Grind Radio. This is the sole reason I hold onto my Dreamcast.

WCW vs. nWo: World Tour

Go back and play this game (or any of THQ's other N64 wrestling games for that matter) and you'll notice two things. One, how everything and everybody moves like they're stuck in mud. Two, and more importantly, how intuitive and innovative the control style is. Wrestling games prior to World Tour were either incredibly convoluted (I'm looking at you, WWF Warzone) or stupidly simplistic, providing little to no depth whatsoever. Such was not the case with World Tour. The mechanics were easy for anyone to pick up, but offered enough meat and potatoes to keep you coming back for more.

Most of my time spent playing this game was with my younger brother. We'd experiment with all the different wrestlers, match types, and moves until we found our very own 64-bit slice of heaven. This mainly involved taking the fictional characters in the game and beating each other to a bloody pulp. For some weird reason, we found this group of rag-tag guys much more entertaining than the real grapplers found in the game. Take four wrestlers that go by the names of Paco Loco, Dim Sum, Saladin, and Kim Chee, throw them into a ring, and what do you have? Well, I don't really know what you'd exactly call that, but to us it was insanely fun. Especially when you'd get one of them to bleed with nonstop shots to the head with a metal chair. We even gave Saladin the moniker "Blood Bucket" for the amount of blood he'd lose during a match. But I'll be damned if it didn't take a pack of elephants to finally bring that big guy down. He was a fighter. And Paco Loco was a spaz. It all went hand-in-hand.

Simply put, this game changed the way I viewed and played wrestling video games.

Twisted Metal 2

To look at this game now would make you think someone threw up all over the screen and ingeniously programmed their vomit to respond to a Dual Shock controller. OK, maybe the graphics aren't that bad, but they haven't aged gracefully. But back in 1996, this game rarely left my PlayStation. TM2 was yet another game my younger brother and I would spend countless hours with, devising new and sadistic ways to inflict vehicular homicide all while exploring every nook and cranny each level had to offer. And those interactive levels? Awesome. The look on our faces when we figured out you could topple the Eiffel Tower was priceless. But I'd have to say the Hong Kong stage, rife with subway tunnels, provided us the most entertainment.

For some odd reason I'd always select Hammerhead who, looking back, is probably one of the worst characters in the game. Slow, generic looking, and his special move was just plain dumb. Sigh. My brother, on the other hand, would always select Mr. Slam. Mr. Slam was funny. And deadly. You could see him coming a mile away and all it took was one close encounter with Mr. Slam to realize how he got his name. So we'd go galavanting around the Hong Kong stage and then, after collecting ample ammunition, we'd hit the subway tunnel. The chase was on! Thankfully the one thing Hammerhead had over Mr. Slam was speed, though not by much. One of my favorite tactics was---knowing my nemesis was trailing right behind me---performing a quick 180 and throwing it in reverse, all while blasting away with everything I had. It worked a good deal of the time, but Mr. Slam made things interesting.

The sight of that huge front-end loader barreling down on me was both frightening and hilarious. The slamming motion of Mr. Slam's loader as my brother chased after me would provide us unending fits of laughter. And then he'd catch me. And proceed to slam me. I hated Mr. Slam. But at least he was good for some laughs.

Still one of my favorite games on the original PlayStation. 

Final Fantasy VII

When is this game not on some sort of list? When will the fawning ever end? It's almost like it's that really hot girl you knew in high school. Every guy wanted her and every girl wanted to be like her. She could do no wrong despite, looking back, her obvious flaws. She garnered all the attention because she was the first really hot girl you ever knew in real life. And she wore low-rise jeans. You've never seen that before; what a sight. And then you went off to college or band camp never to see hot girl again. Only then you run into her eight years later and realize she's not all that hot after all, because you've seen girls who way hotter than she was and they all wear low-rise jeans. But it doesn't matter because you'll always have that lasting image of how hot she was. Why? Because she was the first.

Yep, that very well could sum up my relationship with FFVII. There's no denying the impact the game has had on my gaming life. It drew me in like no other game had before. Conjured up emotions I never thought a medium such as this could elicit. Presented to me a whole new genre of which I was completely unaware. And I was immediately smitten. FFVII was my first foray into the world of JRPGs and there's no doubt it's a great game, but is it really that good? Or am I merely putting it up on that pedestal like the aforementioned hot girl just because it was my "first time"? Hmm?

Regardless, while I haven't gone back to the world of Midgar in almost ten years, I can't deny the experience the game offered me the three times I played through it. Never had I spent so much time with one singular game. Never had I devised so many ways in which to hopefully take down an enemy (hello, Ruby Weapon). Never had I fallen so in love with a cast of characters, Cait Sith notwithstanding. And the music was so good that I had to order the full soundtrack direct from Japan the moment I beat the game for the very first time. I just loved every single, solitary moment I got to spend in the world of FFVII.

And if I ever do return to Midgar, please, please Aeris, don't end up like hot girl.

  

And there you have it. Time well spent I think.