1. Gran Turismo 3
One of the first video games I ever played, Gran Turismo 3 is a game that set the bar high for racing games made since then to beat, with a good portion of them succeeding it or at least matching up to them. As the Real Driving Simulator of 2001, it gives you the feeling of driving a car in real life when it comes to how you maneuver your way through different courses as well as how each car handles. It's great to play on a casual ride if you want to simply go for the arcade mode, but there are also plenty of other things to do, like trial modes, single races, and the expensive but fun iLink battle. If you want more things to do in GT3, the Simulation mode is where it's at. You can buy your favorite cars, play in tournaments, run your garage, modify your car, and get licenses. It'll take almost forever to beat the game, but it's all about the dedication...and making sure you don't get distracted by other games. Visually, it's one of the best on the PS2, and it's complemented so well with the tight gameplay and the soundtrack. Now I want to get Gran Turismo 4, a PS2 game that manages to be even better than GT3.
2. The Older Lego Series
I'm sure many will love entries like The Force Awakens, Marvel Super Heroes 2, and Lego DC Supervillains. Personally, I prefer the older Lego games quite a bit. While the newer games have dialogue, better graphics, and tend to go for new stories on certain franchises, there's nothing better than seeing adaptations from the past that felt neat while still not acting as an outright replacement for the movie (also Lego Batman had original stories). The Complete Saga, the first Indiana Jones, the first two Lego Batman games, and The Clone Wars are some of my favorites, as they have just about everything I need and then some, all without making me get DLC or feel bad for not buying the sets. The Star Wars games were easily helpful for making me hooked on the franchise, even more, Indiana Jones introduced me to the film series, Batman was around the time The Dark Knight came out along with Brave and the Bold, and I'm starting to play Lego Harry Potter! I'll revisit the newer games, but these examples are what made me love Lego games; quantity's neat and all, but I'm up for a game that can seem small by today's standards yet remain satisfying to play for the first time and revisit later.
3. Super Mario 64 DS
While the N64 version of the game was the more iconic of the two, what with its speedruns, mods, and memes, the DS remake manages to be a superior product in my eyes. Sure, some will say that being a DS game won't make it good, but I heavily disagree! Super Mario 64 DS is an outstanding recreation of the old game on a handheld released in 2004! It's got all the assets from the past with new elements added as well as a facelift on the visuals to boot! Honestly, I don't see why people would think it's on-par with the shovelware you'd find in the console's later run. The gameplay, environments and original 120 stars are there while new features like the added characters, the minigames, new levels with bosses in them, a VS mode, and an extra 30 stars turn this game into the superior version of Mario 64 without a doubt. While the voice clips can be a little fuzzy and the lack of Waluigi does make Wario feel a little lonely when you consider how Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi all have good chemistry, it's a game that still manages to push the limits on what a DS can do. Still, I do want to see some fan mods that attempt to add more than just retextures of existing levels. Perhaps we can get a game that gets the same level of attention to detail that the HD 60fps mods of Mario 64 get? I hope we add Waluigi!
4. Sonic Heroes
The first-ever Sonic game I own, Sonic Heroes was the perfect introduction to the series for newcomers like me. Its story feels simple yet does the job done, especially when it's split in four different arcs made for the teams of this game. And let me tell you, while the levels tend to be a little too similar, I appreciate how the different teams stand out from one another in the game itself. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have the more traditional story of stopping Eggman and saving the day like the old days; Shadow, Rouge, and Omega look for what could possibly be the past of Ow the Edge himself in harder levels (because telling him right now would be boring); Amy, Cream, and Big all seek out the missing Chocola and Froggy in the easiest levels of the game; Espio, Vector, and Charmie all seek out an award by doing missions in their version of the game's levels. While there's a bit of repetition and frustration with stuff like the team bosses, the Chaos Emeralds, Egg Emperor, and getting all the Emblems for the multiplayer mode, I feel that casual players have nothing to worry about if they just want to play a level and nothing more. Still, don't try to get a C or lower; if you manage to get everything, the last story's got some worthwhile challenge when you take on Metal Sonic. This, along with the music and pretty decent gameplay all need only one thing: 60fps, because the PS2's 30fps kinda sucks.
5. The Main Smash Bros Trilogy
Inb4 certain Smash fans go "Y U NO ADD ULTIMAT???", hear me out: Ultimate's a fun experience especially when you've got other players joining the fun with the Switch (my cousins at least aren't numales like the ones on Reddit), but there's something irreplaceable about the dated yet worthwhile revisits of the first Smash game, the competitive nature of Melee, and the then-dynamic feel of Brawl. Sure, Ultimate's the nicest looking and also has tons of characters, some of which I like seeing in Smash, but a part of me likes going back to a time when the roster felt just right (because I lost track of how many characters there are in Ultimate). On top of that, it's all good fun when everyone felt relatively familiar with these games at the time (no one in my family gave a shit about the Wii U but would later get a Switch). My cousin would always bring out a copy of Smash 64 with his N64 or Melee with his Gamecube, and I would later get both games as well as Brawl. Sure, Smash 64's got some rushed elements to it, Luigi's early appearances were odd given his voice clips, Brawl's got some odd elements of gameplay that were rectified with Project M, and Melee's gotten some infamy from more accepting Smash fans when they make the comments "it's not melee", but whatever. I'm happy to play these older games as much as I'm interested in joining the fun with Ultimate. All that matters is a good experience with the controls, a respectable roster size, and no celeb drama.
6. Tekken 3
Tekken's a series that I've yet to dig deep into, but let me tell you when I say that the third game was a pleasant surprise to me when I first put it in the PS2. While it's got that old arcade feel to it that was present in PS1 games at the time, that doesn't mean it's aged poorly. What I love about Tekken 3 is the button-mashing nature of arcade fighting games that just make you want to learn how to execute these moves and ruin the day of your opponent if they don't know them. Annoyingly, it was something I had to learn constantly at a younger age, but I feel I can get the hang of it with some extra practice. Characters are a trail mix of rad bods, Femme Fatales of different backgrounds, and the interesting characters like King, Nina Williams, and my boy Yoshimitsu. Each character has to get their way to Ogre (not Shrek) and defeat him in order to be the King of Iron Fist Tournament. Some characters have storylines that matter most to the Tekken canon, especially ones related to Jin Kazama and Heihachi Mishima. Aside from the story modes of the characters and the tournaments you can make with a second player, game modes like Tekken Force and Tekken Ball help keep players either on a beat-em-up with a bit of a hard time moving around or a volleyball game that can be a little tricky to master. This game's meant for the hardcore arcade lovers, but I can definitely see newcomers liking it if they too know what to do.
7. Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA)
I at first thought this was some dumb monkey game for babies, but it actually isn't! Donkey Kong Country 3 is a GBA version of the SNES game, and it does a great job of being a new take on the older games with the appeal of portability and keeping just about everything intact. The music's relatively new, and it is kinda annoying to hear Kiddy Kong cry when he loses, but the game was a pretty interesting introduction to the Donkey Kong franchise. I'm tempted to see what those games offer, but this one has the same good gameplay with decent use of collectibles in the form of Kong Letters and the B coins and DK coins. On top of that, there are Banana Birds you have to rescue before meeting the Queen as well as putting an end to K Rool's actions with KAOS. The added minigames, as well as the new Pacifica levels, help make this remake stand on its own from the SNES version, and the new music is a nice change as it feels more in-line with Donkey Kong Country (I know it was due to the memory of the GBA). This was honestly a better game than Power Rangers SPD was because of how much more entertaining it was when you can easily save the game and revisit whenever you like with the extra levels.
8. Namco Museum Vol 1
Before all the emulators and virtual software downloads filled up the Internet, Namco Museum brought in a worthwhile series of games to buy on the PS1 and I believe on the N64. The PS1 version is said to be better, and things like the ability to go around the museum and learn about the promo material of the games takes Namco Museum to a new level of quality. I especially love when you enter a room that has the arcade with themes of their own, like Pac-Man and the house seen in some games, Pole Position and the race track, and Galaga's control room. My favorite arcade game was probably Bosconian for how addictive it was to shoot enemy ships. I don't know if I would ever want to get the other Namco Museum games, but I'm interested in the Pac-Man World series if we're being honest.
9. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
While Super Star Ultra and Return to Dreamland are better games, there's something about Kirby and the Amazing Mirror that makes it interesting on its own. For those unaware, it's a maze-structured game that puts our favorite puffball...or rather, four of him...into an adventure like the Metroid and Castlevania series, where you can beat the levels however you want while still having a chance to beat the boss without worrying about a specific order of getting to him. While you can unlock paths that you can easily access simply by going to the button within the hub world, there are additional paths that you can access which include tomatoes, paint, and even 1Ups. There's even a map that shows you where you need to go next. My only problem with this game is the fact that you lose your powerup a little too easily when you get hit, which is especially annoying when you have one that's important to access a certain part of a level. Regarding the level designs, they certainly have a more distinct feel to them compared to previous Kirby games without the stylistic choices seen on Kirby's Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64. I feel it's different from the similar-looking recreation of Kirby's Adventure, Knightmare in Dreamland. The four computer player Kirbys that assist you to with health and accessing certain parts of a level, though it's better with 4 actual players provided you have the linking cable. Even the minigames are neat, whether it's surfing against three other Kirbies, eating the most apples, or breaking the Earth. Perhaps KATAM won't be the most recognizable game in the series, but it's got a special place in my heart nonetheless.
10. Transformers Fall of Cybertron
If you remember my favorite bits of Transformers media, I mentioned that the Cybertron games were great entries to not just the Aligned continuity but also the Transformers series as a whole. While War for Cybertron was the more simple of the two games, Fall of Cybertron continues this story by having the Autobots and Decepticons face the darkest of times, as their war has forever tarnished any life on Cybertron. Both factions are not going to stop, and they'll do whatever it takes to survive the fall of their home. Unexpectedly, Grimlock, who was experimented by Shockwave into a Dinobot, discovers a new piece of hope for their species, as they can find all the resources they need to survive on the planet Earth, with a new challenge being the escape from the planet itself. The gameplay is as tight as the Activision Transformers games are, and the visuals are even better than on the already nice WFC. On a side note, I love how this game starts to connect itself to Transformers Prime a little bit more with Cliffjumper's voice, Bumblebee's voice box, Megatron's design closer resembling his TV show counterpart, etc. Hell, even the Dinobots met up with the Autobots in the IDW comics made for TFP, all while having the game still match up with G1's designs to not alienate the older fans. All in all, it's still worth playing if you want an amazing Transformers game with the right amount of levels and content, especially with the story. I'd say this is peak Transformers material along with the Marvel Comics, Beast Wars, a good portion of the Unicron Trilogy, the first, third, and fourth Transformers movies, Animated, and Prime.
11. Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix
This is no low-budget car game, as it manages to stand out from the already great Gran Turismo 3 for reasons of its own. Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix is a great street-racing game even by today's standards, especially if you're into the older days of Rockstar. This game has a bit more story to it in the Career mode, where you go across San Diego, Atlanta, and Detroit to race against the infamous racers and their occasional clubs. This game is tense compared to GT3's real driving simulator, what with it's Fast and Furious tone in driving and the setting of the stages. Whereas GT3 can be best described as tight, MC3 is more gangsta by comparison. The garage owners aren't your average joes, street-racing is aggressive, and your cars have louder personality than GT3's. Even the music's louder than on GT3, though I love how you can choose your favorite tunes. Are You Gonna Go My Way's a good theme song, but Real Big's even cooler. Beating other racers gets you different cars and bikes, a handful of which are part of specific classes that you can later purchase. The best part about the game is the customization. GT3 only lets you do improve the speed and handling, whereas cosmetics feel like an afterthought; MC3 lets you change how you want your car to look, and it's never a bad thing in my opinion. There's even a Tokyo Challenge for the Remix variant of the game, which lets you drive around the area with new challenges and cars to get with the help of a less greasy but still hotblooded garage owner. Multiplayer, arcade mode, online play (which doesn't work anymore), and race makers, what's not to love? Follow the leader and get this game if you never played it!
12. Grand Theft Auto 3
At a younger age, this game felt like it was forbidden solely for the fact that it was rated M for mature. I did play it years later, and I gotta say, it kinda made me realize that I was missing out on a lot from this cool yet violent open-world game. Its story revolves around Claude, who must go after his girlfriend for betraying him as he goes through crime and law enforcement. Generally speaking, if you want to go back to an early GTA game, this is one to start off with. It's got fewer elements to it that the other games have, but if you're interested in seeing how it grew to what it is today, this installment has everything you could ask for compared to the earlier games. Generally speaking, I'm quite impressed with how so much is put into an earlier installment of a game while knowing that the recent installments may take their attention. All in all, it may not have the expansiveness of other GTA games, it's still worth digging into if you want an old version of the game...though you may want to get it on mobile if you don't have any consoles that are compatible with the PS2 and Xbox versions of the game.
13. Thrillville/Off the Rails
Rollercoasters, games, and other forms of attractions in a virtual theme park? Yes, please! It's great to see a game like this that isn't shovelware, but to make it feel more unique, it's got properties within a property that makes it feel more fleshed out! With the mission of stopping a corporation from sucking out the fun of theme parks, you can customize where you want your attractions to go while making sure your money is not affected heavily by budget constraints. On top of that, you have specific themes to delve into for both games, and Off the Rails especially has more content to work with. I want to get these games again since they were borrowed from my cousins years ago. Either way, they're some damn good video games that may not seem like much but are worth delving into.
14. Super Mario Odyssey
This was already going to be in a list like this, a normie one as the self-entitled video game enthusiasts would say because of their die-hard nature, but it's got a reason why I added it here. Up until that point, I felt the Mario series wasn't as hot as it once was, with the only thing that would interest people nowadays being references when certain games lost their touch (COUGH Mario Tennis Ultra Smash COUGH Sticker Star), and let's not get started on the once neat and now dull New series. Sure, 3D World was neat in a way, but I want to go back to a Mario game that doesn't feel too linear. Odyssey solves that with the right amount of challenge and adventure that takes me back to the days of Mario 64 and Sunshine. Cappy adds to the game without feeling too needless since FLUDD and the Baby Luma were already helpers of Mario; he captures enemies and other items as well as give Mario an added form of maneuverability and even defense. It's also got a story that involves more than just saving Peach from Bowser, as the other kingdoms need some restorations after the damage done from Bowser. It's the perfect evolution to the Mario series' 3D platforming adventures, as it actually goes for an expansive yet meaningful take on what Mario can do if he was in an open-world environment without the neat yet repetitive 3D World gimmick, taking us from the simple days of Mario 64 to the serialized approach of Sunshine and now a top-tier adventure for the plumber in red. Fan service is also there, but it's not just the only thing that matters in this game; everything about this game won't disappoint those that wanted more from the Mario series in recent years, but now it'll be hard to see how Nintendo can top this game.
15. Star Wars: Battlefront 2
The original Battlefront 2 is a great entry for the Star Wars series that still encourages replays, especially if you're in the mood to not deal with transactions or if you want to go back to a time where great gameplay mattered the most. Whether you're interested in getting into the prequel or original eras of Star Wars, you can take on the enemy team, ride a vehicle to take on specific foes, and even play as certain heroes when being a foot soldier isn't enough. The maps are varied from the Star Wars universe, and it makes for a great way to tackle your foes with no problem so to speak. The best part about Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is the fact that you can play in three additional modes: Campaign (aka Rise of the Empire), Galactic Conquest (where your fleet can take over galaxies), and Instant Action (a form of Capture the Flag). When playing as clone troopers and the like isn't enough, you can play as characters like Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Mace Windu, Yoda, and Jango Fett among other famous heroes and villains in the old days. All in all, a good game if you want to go back to an older time of Star Wars games.
16. Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super-Heroes
The original Marvel vs Capcom game is the best kind of arcade-to-PS1 transition. It was nice to see an older take on the Marvel mythos, especially considering how I was mostly looking at movies, Fox Kids reruns on Jetix, and a few video games. It was also what got me more aware of Capcom, which introduced Ryu, Chun Li, Mega Man, Zangief, and Captain Commando. I was interested in learning about Mega Man, but I started to get more hooked on learning about Marvel characters like Thor, US Agent, and whatnot. Whether it's taking on an opponent, going into the story mode, or making it through the survival and Cross Fever modes, it's a neat game to try out if you want to go back to the older days of the series. I want to now get MvC2 as well as 3, but Infinite's gonna be skipped since...it sucks due to the underwhelming gameplay and art direction straying away from what makes the series stand out. Also, no X-Men characters! Fuck that omission!
All in all, these games shaped up what makes me love video games, even if they were pretty much Nintendo-related and basically revolve around licensed properties. But now it's time to talk about the honorable mentions.
Pumkin World!
Now with this done, it's time to take a look at the video games that broke my heart!
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