You see them all the time on the internet these days, people’s top games lists. No one ever agrees with what the person wrote, and there’s all kinds of flaming and arguing and people acting like jerks. This list is different, mostly because it’s mine, and I have fantastic taste so I know you’ll all agree with me. In fact, if there’s a game on here that wasn’t one of your favorites before, it will be by the time you’re done reading.

These lists are always hard to come up with, but to make it easier I gave myself two restrictions: One, I could only choose one game from any given series, and two, nothing from the current gen. That way I’m not adding something I still have the “new game” feeling for that may not have the same impact on me a few years down the line.

With that out of the way, here we go!

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – Capcom, Sega Dreamcast, 2000

I’ve played a lot of 2D fighters in my life, but few have I played as much as Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The weird thing is, I’ve done it primarily single player. Of course, when you spend that much time playing a fighting game against the computer, you tend to A) start to think you’re pretty good and B) Get your ass handed to you when you start playing against people who know what they’re doing. Both of those happened to me.

I love Capcom, and I like Marvel okay, and this game was just loads of fun. I prefer Capcom’s more straightforward fighters, but this game was so over-the-top crazy go nuts that you can’t NOT like it. I’m really terrible at it against real people, and while Street Fighter IV is my go-to fighter these days, this game is always going to hold a very special place in my bruised, Dragon Punched heart.

EarthBound – Ape/HAL Labs, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1995

I’m relatively late to the party as far as this game goes, only having played through it a couple of years ago , but I guess that means I can safely say that this game really holds up well over time. It’s Christina’s favorite game and something I had always wanted to play through but couldn’t due to exuberant prices on eBay. It was definitely worth the wait. EarthBound turns RPG convention on its ear (I don’t even know what that means). There’s no knights, magic or dragons. There’s baseball bats, kids with psychic powers and a talking pile of puke. It’s got more charm crammed into that 24-megabit cartridge than most games with all their gigs and rams have these days. Amazing music? Check. Top-notch character design? Check. A story you want to keep playing through just so you can learn more? Check. It’s a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

“But Joe, this is called PK Bloggin’!, shouldn’t EarthBound be higher?” Yeah probably. I dunno though, I had to think really, really hard about putting either EarthBound or Mother 3 on the list… I did lean a bit more towards Mother 3 but I played through it rather recently and I want to sit on it a while longer. Both games are flawless, though. Absolutely flawless.

Phantasy Star Online – Sonic Team, Sega Dreamcast, 2001

My first foray into online gaming came with this and looking back, I don’t know why I kept playing games online. People cheated and were just plain assholes most of the time, but that still stands today so I don’t really know the point I’m trying to make. Anyway, PSO was awesome. Choose a class (basically if you want to specialize in swords, guns or magic), grab three friends, hop online and tear it up. Sure, it was monotonous. Sure, you plowed through the same four levels over, and over, and over, and over, and OVER AGAIN. But it was really damned fun. The combat, while limited, was very tight and the leveling system was rewarding. Honestly, I prefer PSO to any “real” MMO I’ve ever played, and if I could ever afford a Dreamcast Broadband Adapter (or hell, even one for GameCube and a copy of PSO I&II) you can bet your De Rol Le I’d be connecting to private servers and knocking the stuffing out of Rappys all over again.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 – Sonic Team, Sega Genesis, 1994

I love Sonic so much. Despite his weird fans, despite his last great platformer being released 16 years ago, I love Sonic, and I always will. I played Sonic 2 like crazy, and when Sonic 3 came out it was so much better than I had hoped. The levels were larger and had tons of secret areas to explore, the music was really cool (and composed by Michael Jackson!), and Knuckles was the last cool Sonic character we’d see for a long time. Two player co-op was actually beneficial this time, since Tails could now airlift Sonic to areas previously unreachable. The Blue Blur may not have kept up with the times very well, but despite his recent hardships, Sonic 3 is without a doubt one of the finest games ever released.

Gunstar Heroes – Treasure, Sega Genesis, 1993

Now that Gunstar Heroes is available on the Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade there is really no excuse for not playing it. It’s the best Genesis game hands down, as well as the best co-op game ever made. It’s simple: combine 4 different elements to make new kinds of guns to blow up endless waves of robots. It’s like an anime Contra on crack. Rife with Engrish and pretty much devoid of story if you don’t read the instruction manual, it’s really easy to pass over this one until you play it. SOLID gameplay and an intense soundtrack, combined with great co-op gameplay, make this one you simply cannot miss.

Chrono Trigger – Squaresoft, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1995

Sports fans had their “Dream Team” when Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley were all playing together in the 1992 Olympics. We got ours in 1995 when Hironobu Sakaguchi, Kazuhiko Aoki, Nobuo Uematsu, Yuuji Horii and Akira Toriyama teamed up to make one of the best RPGs of all time. Every aspect of this game is perfection. The sprite graphics are among the best on the SNES. Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda’s music is timeless (pardon the pun). The characters are charming, the story is top notch, and the battle system is fun and rewarding. Really, I could go on and on about how great every minute thing in this game is but I’m sure you’ve already seen my point by now and we’ve still got four more games to go.

Pokémon Sapphire – Game Freak, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, 2003

I’ve gone 10 years thinking Pokémon Silver was my favorite, but when I looked back at the older games, I’ve come to realize that Sapphire has earned that honor. I played Silver a TON, but I feel like Sapphire is when I really hit my stride as a player. It was the first time I’d swap strategies with other people, learning how to really make a balanced team, and trying out status moves and taking stats into consideration. The graphics are my favorite in the series, with Hoenn having a very distinct summery feel that set it apart from the other regions. The different weather effects were cool, the secret bases were a really neat way to practice against your friend’s teams, and double battles added a whole new layer of strategy to Pokémon battling. I even bought Pokémon Box for the GameCube to compliment this game. It introduced a lot of my favorite monsters. The music is upbeat and fun. Pokémon as a whole is probably my favorite series in all of gaming, and Sapphire is really the Meowth’s pajamas. It’s the Beedrill’s knees. It’s the… eh, I got nothing else. It’s great.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Nintendo, Nintendo 64, 1998

Hoo boy. Was this game worth every bit of hype it got, and then some. The Zelda series was always well received by fans and critics alike for its puzzles and combat, and they made their transition from top-down 2D words into full 3D seamlessly. Introducing so many gameplay elements that would go on to become staples of 3D action games, Ocarina really hit the ground running, bringing one of Nintendo’s best franchises in a new direction while retaining the feel of the classic games. Some may argue that the newer games like Twilight Princess are actually better games, but Ocarina as the first 3D Zelda is my favorite of the series. You can only reinvent the wheel so many times. “But this wheel looks and handles better than the other ones!” Yeah but it’s still a wheel and we’ve had them for a long time already. But that’s an argument for another article. Ocarina is spectacular. I own it on the 64, twice on GameCube and on Virtual Console. I’m pretty sure part of my paycheck is just automatically sent to Nintendo every two weeks.

Final Fantasy VII – Squaresoft, Sony PlayStation, 1997

To this day, I still get chills when I watch the intro scene and the music blares as the logo flashes onto the screen. I had never really been into RPGs, but this game was getting a ton of hype and my friends were all gushing about it, so I got a PlayStation for my birthday so I could get in on that action. I’m glad I did. Back before Cloud was emo, he was sarcastic and said things like “Let’s mosey” and times were very good. Uberdorks will typically frown upon people like me, who claim Final Fantasy VII as their favorite when it was the first one they played, but I’ve played every Final Fantasy in the series, and I love the earlier games dearly, but VII will always be number one. A stunningly complex story helmed by a protagonist who you can’t really trust, Final Fantasy VII blew open the doors for RPGs in the west, as well as for video games as a storytelling medium.

Super Mario 64 – Nintendo, Nintendo 64, 1996

I don’t want to hear a damn word about how Super Mario Bros 3 isn’t on here. Not one. I love Super Mario Bros 3. I played it SO MUCH when I was a kid I had my NES taken away from me on school days. Super Mario Bros 3 is one of the best games ever made, but Super Mario 64 is my favorite and if you don’t like it, too bad, because no amount of flaming is going to make me change my mind.

Super Mario 64 is the BEST GAME OF ALL TIME. According to me. And I am amazing. I’ve played it through dozens and dozens of times. I regularly listen to the soundtrack on my iPod. When I first got it, I played from 8am to 6pm, COMPLETELY FORGETTING TO EAT. For me that’s kind of a big oversight. Shigeru Miyamoto shows WHY he is considered the best in the business with this game. Each course has so much variety with every little detail in precisely the right place. Mario controls like a dream with so many different moves he’s like a brand new character. Blah. My words aren’t powerful enough. I love this game. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this game. LOVE

Honorable mentions include Metal Gear Solid (Konami, Sony PlayStation), Jet Grind Radio (Smilebit, Sega Dreamcast), Chu Chu Rocket (Sonic Team, Sega Dreamcast), Kingdom Hearts (Squaresoft, Sony PlayStation 2), The Bouncer (Squaresoft, Sony PlayStation 2), Mega Man 2 (Capcom, NES), and a lot of other games in the same series I’ve mentioned in the list proper.

So what do you think? Agree? Disagree? Think I have awful taste? Let me know what you think of my picks, and share your own, in the comments section. I honestly really enjoy reading other people’s favorite games, so let’s see ‘em!