The following are all games I have owned for the following consoles: N64 and
Xbox. I share a quick thought on my
experience with the game and give it a rating out of 10 (in parenthesis). The rating reflects how much I enjoyed the
game (with only a slight influence on the quality of the game) over my lifetime
of playing it. I will add more consoles
as time goes on, including Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC, Gameboy, and PSP. Finally, each game that is
bolded is a game I feel I
beat/completed to its fullest playing ability.
If it was a sports game, then I played a full season with a team in
franchise/season mode. Without further
ado, the games from the first console I ever owned, the N64.
N64:
1. Super Mario 64 (10) - One of the
launch titles for the N64 and one most consider to be one of the N64's
best. I wasn't able to get all 120 stars
until a few years ago, but this game, despite being 17 years old now, is still
really fun to play.
2. Pilotwings 64 (6) - I don't think I ever really fully enjoyed Pilot
Wings. There's a lot of monotonous
soaring and gliding involved. The
challenges were certainly challenging enough.
I've played this so little recently that my memories of this game are
becoming few and far between. Might have
to play it again someday.
3. Wave Race 64 (8) - My friends
were more into this game than I was growing up, but I still enjoyed it. I wish there would have been more race
courses and more racers. Nintendo should
come out with a Wave Race Wii (although that's a tongue twister).
4.
Star Fox 64 (8) -
When I first
played this as a young child, it scared me.
I also never was able to fully beat it.
This game was too difficult for me.
But I sure had fun in the multiplayer with my sister and friends.
Update: I played this game recently and beat it, twice. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to beat it on the hard path, but I took the easy and semi-hard paths.
5. Mario Kart 64 (10) - This is a
game I still play a lot today (See my girlfriend and I play it below) and
despite only 8 characters and 16 tracks, it still is so much fun. This will forever be my favorite version of
Mario Kart.
6. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (7) - This game would get a 10 from me
if it was about the game's quality, but it's not. I was never able to get into this game as a
kid. I never became a fan of the Legend
of Zelda series. Someday I will put
forth actual effort. I did play this as
a kid, but always got stuck at the same part.
7. Mario Party (9) - The first Mario
Party is hands down my favorite. As a
kid, the game I'd always suggest to play with others was Mario Party, and for
good reason: It's a fantastic multiplayer game.
It's even a serviceable single player one as well. The reason it is a 9 and not a 10 is because
of the control stick spinning mini-games which caused several blisters on my
hand as a kid (and caused me to ruin a pair of baseball gloves I had).
8. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (6) - This was the game I was most afraid of as a
kid. Perhaps my parents shouldn't have
gotten it, given its Mature rating. I
often just watched my dad play. But it
had its moments. I especially enjoyed
using cheats to get all ammo. Some of
the guns you were supposed to get later in the game were AWESOME.
9. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (5) - I never really played the single player version
of this, something rare for me. I mostly
played this with my dad and sister in multiplayer mode. I loved the Cerebral Bore, which caused an
opponent's head to explode. But other
than multiplayer, this game held little for me.
10. Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate (3) - Again, a game in which I
never really took advantage of single player mode. Just played multiplayer... with my
sister. I never wanted to play this, but
my sister sure did.
11. NFL Quarterback Club '98 (6) - Boy football games in the 90's sucked. I tried playing it recently and oh my
word. I got some use out of it. The one thing this game holds is the ability
to look and see past players and see how good (or bad) they were.
12. NFL Quarterback Club '99 (7) - I played this game slightly more as it was
newer. I really liked Mike Patrick and
Randy Cross as announcers. But again,
football games have come a long way since then.
13. Major League Baseball Featuring Ken
Griffey Jr. (10) - This might be my favorite baseball game ever. Sure, the graphics are awful now, but the
controls are ridiculously easy and this was when the Mariners were good. The game also has a heavy favoritism towards
the Mariners, having been made BY Nintendo, which I don't have any problem
with, obviously.
14. Goldeneye 64 (9) - Considered
one of the best N64 games. The part I
had the most fun with was multiplayer, playing it with my friends and
family. I can't give this game a 10 because
it was too difficult for me at times (I was stuck on the "Control"
mission for the longest time). I did
eventually beat the game on Agent mode, but never got to the Aztec level. Oh well, maybe someday.
15. NBA Hangtime (9) - An arcade
game turned into an N64 game, and it worked.
To this day I love seeing players from the 90's like Dennis Rodman,
Shawn Kemp, Dikembe Mutombo, and Scottie Pippen. I just wish players like Michael Jordan and
Shaq could have been in it. I give it
only a 9 because it's pretty much the same thing over and over and it does get
tiring after a while.
16. NBA Live '99 (5) - Again, sports games have come a long way since the
90's. I never really enjoyed this game,
as I enjoyed NBA Hangtime more. But
finally being able to beat Michael Jordan 1 on 1 was one of my biggest video
game achievements as a kid.
17. Pokemon Stadium (9) - This was,
as far as I remember, the first video game I purchased with my own money. Bought it at K-Mart of all places, and it
cost around 70 dollars(!) at the time.
However, I did get my use out of it, playing my Red, Blue, and Yellow
versions of Pokemon on there and of course, the mini games. Just can't give it a 10 because I just felt
like the game was missing one thing--and the battles aren't as impressive as I
thought they'd be.
18. Pokemon Stadium 2 (8) - The follow up to Pokemon Stadium was almost as
good, as many sequels are. The mini
games were again good, but it was hard to figure out the mystery gift thing and
in the classroom, having to answer certain questions and do certain battles was
very tough--too tough for a 12 year old kid.
19. Hey You, Pikachu! (2) - I give this my lowest rating because it just
downright sucks as a game. It's got an
interesting mechanic where you tell Pikachu what to do, but that only worked
some of the time, and the gameplay got rather boring real fast. There's no real ultimate goal or quest in
this game. I think I (or my
parents--can't remember) paid close to 100 bucks for the entire package of this
game--what a rip-off.
20. Bomberman 64 (7) - Ah,
Bomberman. This was another one of the
games I got more multiplayer use out of.
Laying bombs and then kicking them at your friends? So much fun.
The single player missions were a bit too difficult for me, but I did
eventually beat it after much determination.
I can't say I really enjoyed this game.
Part of the reason I played it was because it was one of only a few
games I had at the time.
21. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (7) - This is one of those games that takes a while
to get the hang of. But when you do, it
gets really fun. It sucks having to do a
lot just to unlock 1 or 2 courses in the game (You only start out with 1), but the
level designs were great for skateboarding.
And I did once pull off the 900.
Never really beat it and unlocked all the levels though.
22. Mario Tennis (8) - One of my
favorite Mario games as a kid. But
there's only so much you can do with a tennis game. It's basically just hitting the ball back and
forth. I liked the wide selection of
characters, but on the harder difficulties, it would just take FOREVER to beat
them. Oh well, I still enjoyed it.
23. Super Smash Bros. (9) - A game I
put a lot of time and effort in, especially in beating the "Break the
Target" and "Board the Platform" games for each character. Sure, the Smash Bros. series has come a long
way, but the original will always be my favorite.
24. Pokemon Puzzle League (7) - Even when I'm into Pokemon, not really into
playing this game too much. However,
when I was into this game, I was good and enjoyed it immensely. Some of the harder levels... wow. How can they expect a kid, or anyone, to beat
them?
25. Diddy Kong Racing (6) - For whatever reason, I always preferred Mario Kart
over this, more than likely because I liked the characters more. However, this game did have fun mechanics and
came out with multiple vehicles before the Mario Kart franchise did. It sure has been a while since I played this.
26. Pokemon Snap (8) - For a game where all you do is take pictures, it's surprisingly fun. They unlock levels and the ability to throw food or pester balls at the perfect pace. They were only able to include about half of the original 151 Pokemon, probably due to the size capacities of the N64 games. Some of the shots I got were not too far off from being close to world records. I would've loved to have seen another Pokemon Snap game, perhaps for the Wii, but would it work with motion control? Hard to say.
27. Star Wars Episode I: Racer (4) - I recently got this game at a bargain store, and I haven't played it much yet. It was surprisingly tough, even for an adult. I will give this another go someday, perhaps after watching Episode I again.
Xbox:
1. NFL Fever 2002 (8) - I really liked the NFL Fever
franchise. I really wish they had been
able to continue it, but unfortunately EA Sports won the sole rights to NFL
players and their likenesses. At the
time, I really thought other games were better than Madden. This one was no exception. The players weren't really scaled right, but
I had a lot of fun creating players (usually based on kids I went to school
with) and of course, playing with the Seahawks.
2. Star Wars Obi-Wan (8) - Pretty
much Star Wars Episode I with some before and during battles. You play as a young jedi Obi-Wan (duh) and
you play in certain battles such as rescuing the Queen in Naboo and fighting
against Darth Maul. This would have to be one of my
favorite third person Star Wars games ever. The controls are a bit hard to figure out at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad. The graphics, however, do not hold up well today.
3. NBA Inside Drive 2002 (6) - Didn't really play this game much, as I've
played its successor much more over the years.
The only thing it has better than the 2003 version
is the intro.
4. NBA Inside Drive 2003 (9) - To
this day I still play this game. For
some reason, I can't get into any other basketball game. I love the antics of Kevin Colabro, Marcus
Johnson, and Kenny Smith as announcers.
Plus, creating players and getting them experience and making them
better is really fun and easy to do in this game.
5. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (7) - I've always found this game too difficult
for me. First time I played it, I got
stuck a few levels in. A year ago or so,
I played it again and got a lot farther, but still couldn't beat the game. Maybe after a while I'll try a third time to
beat the game. Fun to play for sure, but
a bit too difficult for me.
6. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (9) -
What's not to like? The Campaign mode is fun, but the actual gameplay is
awesome and simple enough. I've beaten
the campaign mode at least 10 times, each time still as fun as the last. Multiplayer was fun while it lasted,
too. I wish the campaign was longer, but
it has good replay value. One thing I
don't like: Some of the Dossier missions are downright impossible--recon on
elite, firefight on elite using only a demolitions guy... I mean... wow.
7. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Island
Thunder (8) - Had all the same, great features the original Ghost Recon
had. The campaign wasn't as long or
enjoyable, but still fun. I think there
were some bugs in this game. But the
thing that hurt this game was that it was basically just an expansion to Ghost
Recon, but it was marketed as its own game.
8. Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets (8) - Good continuation in the Harry Potter video game series. Too many load screens bogged the game down a
bit, but nothing beat free roam around the castle on a broomstick, being able
to collect an infinite number of beans and trading them for prizes from Fred
and George. I think I've only beaten the
game twice, so it's hard to give it anything higher than an 8.
9. Halo (10) - Arguably the best
original Xbox game. When you think Xbox,
you think Halo. This game kicked ass and
its only fault was lack of multiplayer, which was implemented in its
sequel. I don't think I'll ever like a
first person shooter series more than Halo. It was a huge part of my adolescence.
10. Halo 2 (10) - This game had a
lot of hype and it certainly lived up to it.
The story mode wasn't as compelling but multiplayer was everything I
expected and all the new features and weapons were amazing. Energy sword FTW. I still enjoy playing out the campaign every few years. I even owned the PC version and played it on my PC as well.
11. Grand Theft Auto III (6) - This game came packaged with GTA Vice City when they were first released for the Xbox (see
below), and I preferred Vice City, so I never really got into this version. Maybe someday? All I can say is I probably haven't put forth
even 10 hours into this game in my life.
12. Grand Theft Auto Vice City (8) - Played this quite a bit once GTA came out
on the Xbox console. I don't think I
fully completed all of the missions, but I came close. Fond memories of this game.
13. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (9) - I don't think I spent as much time on
this as GTA Vice City, but I enjoyed it more and most every gamer of GTA would
agree it's one of the strongest in the series.
The map is larger, you do more exciting missions, and it's just a better
quality game. I'll definitely play this
some more in the future. The graphics
don't hold up that well, however.
14. Midtown Madness 3 (8) - For some
reason, we got rid of this game and I no longer own it or can play it. But one time we did own it and it was a lot
of fun. I remember playing the first
Midtown Madness games on the PC many years ago, and this game for the Xbox was
just as good. Good selection of
vehicles. Just been a while.
15. Star Wars Knights of the Old
Republic (10) - This is in competition with Halo and Halo 2 as the Xbox
game I have spent the most time on. I
really have no complaints about this game.
The story is so compelling it could (and should) be made into a
movie. To this day I still play it and I
may never grow old of it. I have purchased and played the mobile version of this, and may just play it there in the future out of convenience.
16. Star Wars Knights of the Old
Republic II: The Sith Lords (8) - This game actually improved slightly in
gameplay and mechanics, but fell way short in story and characters. I still love playing it and have beaten it
many times as well, but I always feel dissatisfied when I finish it. Like someone who just finished their plate of
food and is still hungry. The game was
obviously rushed out, which it shouldn't have been. People have been petitioning long and hard
for a KOTOR III, but that may never come.
17. Star Wars Battlefront (8) - I
was thrilled about this idea of a game: Being a stormtrooper, Wookie, or even
Trade Federation droid and fighting in some of the most famous battles in Star
Wars. It worked pretty well, but was
almost too simple of a game.
18. Star Wars Battlefront II (8) -
This game had improvements from its predecessor in graphics and gameplay, but I
can't say I enjoyed it more. Loved being
able to play as famous Jedi, but flying in planes was way too tough and some of
the game types still don't make sense to me.
19. All-Star Baseball 2004 (7) - Not
my favorite baseball game ever, but it had its perks. Creating your own team was fun, and the
actual gameplay was pretty good, and the graphics were good, especially for its
time. Thom Brennaman and Steve Lyons
weren't the best choice as commentators, though. However, I loved the feature of exploring the unused ballparks they had in the game. I would listen to the voiceover guy talk about the ballparks and that was entertaining enough by itself.
20. Major League Baseball 2K5 (9) - Up
there as one of my favorite sports games... ever. I've played multiple 162-game seasons on this
game (usually as the Mariners, of course), and the display and graphics still
hold up pretty well to this day. Jon
Miller and Joe Morgan as announcers?
Perfect choices. Also, you can't beat the ESPN presentation for this game.
21. Bicycle Casino (6) - Enjoyable when I feel the urge to gamble and play
casino games, which is rare, however.
But I could spend hours playing Texas Hold 'Em in this game. It's just very basic with nothing really that
stands out. I never had enough patience to build up a lot of money in this game.
22. NHL Hitz Pro (6) - The only hockey game I've ever owned, really. And I did enjoy it, for the most part. It was too easy to score goals, and upping
the difficulty only allowed the computer to score a ton of goals. What happened to low-scoring contests? Then again, this was made by Midway, who also
made NFL Blitz. I liked creating the
Seattle expansion franchise most of all.
23. Medal of Honor Frontline (7) - Another
game we've gotten rid of but I remember owning, Medal of Honor Frontline had a
more war-like feel than any Call of Duty game I've played. Very good difficulty. Graphics kind of lacked and some tasks seemed
weird, but I enjoyed it. I recently re-bought this game and tried playing it, but it was surprisingly difficult. I'll try again someday.
24. Destroy All Humans (5) - Played this a bit when we first got it, and it was
fun, but it has very little replay value and doesn't hold up well today. I've thought about giving this game another
shot someday.
25. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(8) - Definitely enjoyable with cut scenes from the movie. I don't like the controls too much, basically
making it a button-mashing game, but it holds up well today.
26. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King (8) - Difficult, but fun and even longer than Two Towers. I like all the characters you can play
from. Whenever I finish watching the
Lord of the Rings movies, I have to play the games.
27. Test Drive Off-Road Wide Open (5) - I had to look this game up because not
only did we get rid of it, but I couldn't remember the title. Found it, and one of the few things I
remember was being able to race a Dodge Durango, which was the family car at
the time. This game was fun, but it
didn't give me too many reasons to go back and play it, which is probably why
we got rid of it.
28. ESPN NFL 2K5 (10) - Somehow, I forgot this game and I had to put this up a month after my original blog post! This might be my favorite NFL video game of all time, and I forgot it. The ESPN format is brilliant, with Chris Berman and his half- and post-game shows. The announcers could be better (Who are Dan Stevens and Peter O'Keefe?) But this game, to this day, stands up well even to the current Madden. Imagine if EA hadn't won the monopoly to the NFL, how much this series of football games might have advanced. And the best part about this game? Even at release: It was just $19.99. Yeah.
29. NASCAR Heat 2002 (8) - This is the only NASCAR game I've ever owned, but I sure enjoyed it. Yes, it's just taking a bunch of left turns, but navigating past cars was fun enough. I most had fun causing havoc and causing other drivers to spin out and crash. I did an entire season and won, which I think counts for beating the game.
30. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (7) - I have beaten the game once, but it was not that enjoyable. It's a lot of button mashing just like The Lord of the Rings games. But the alternate ending where Anakin kills Obi-Wan is almost worth the price of the game, if you can get that far.
Now there are a few games me or my family owned that I either spent little to no time playing, but I will list them nonetheless:
31. 007: Agent Under Fire: I expected this to be near as good or better than Goldeneye. I was wrong.
32. America's Army: Rise of a Soldier
33. Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup: Boring after a short while
34. Half-Life 2
35. NCAA Football 2005
36. The Sims 2: There's a reason it was made for the PC primarily
37. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
38. Tetris Worlds
39. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
40. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2
41. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike
Xbox 360:
1. Backbreaker (5) - This game was fun to do the Gauntlet or whatever it was called, where you have 100 levels to evade or juke past defenders all the while staying inside certain boundaries. It's animations were excellent, although the gameplay was limited.
2. The Bigs (3) - I just couldn't get into this game and don't know why I got it. I guess it's fun to see the players all jacked up and cranking home runs at ease.
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (7) - I mainly got this game to play online with one of my friends, which I only did for a little bit. I like the Call of Duty games, just never been a big fan of them.
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (8) - I beat this game because the storyline in the Modern Warfare games is my favorite of any CoD series. I didn't play much online, however.
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (8) - I think I beat this game twice. It's a heck of a lot of fun. I did play a bit online, probably the most of any CoD game I've ever played.
6. College Hoops 2K6 (10) - This is the only College Basketball game I've ever owned because nothing for me will top this. I got over a decade in to the franchise mode with the Gonzaga basketball team before I accidentally overrode its save with something else 😠Boy that was not a good day. The fact that you could edit any incoming players and make them better made it easy to keep on playing.
7. Crackdown (8) - I remember I got this game for free after doing a play test study for Microsoft way back when. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it, but I certainly did. It was fun increasing your guy's attributes and leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
8. Crackdown 2 (9) - They improved Crackdown even more with its sequel. I don't remember either game a ton, but I certainly want to replay them someday.
9. Dead Island (6) - I've played this zombie game a bit. I wanted a zombie game to play a few years ago, one a bit more realistic than the one below. But it was only okay. I did not get very far at all.
10. Dead Rising (7) - Boy was this game tough. I loved the story, which is what gave me motivation to keep trying. I always thought they should have made this into a movie. But I just couldn't get past certain parts. When you just couldn't avoid getting attacked by a zombie over and over, that was very annoying.
11. Game of Thrones (4) - I got this game shortly after getting into the TV series, and I just can't stay focused to play it. The better game is the Telltale Games version.
12. Gears of War (9) - This would probably be 2nd to Halo as my favorite shooter franchise of all time. Playing as Marcus Fenix and battling the Locust horde just is so much fun. I love the story too, and think it would make an interesting movie or TV series.
13. Gears of War 2 (8) - I give this a slightly lower rating, but it's still a great game. It's often forgotten, being sandwiched between the first and third (which some consider to be the best).
14. Gears of War 3 (10) - What a great game. The part that will always stand out to me is when Dom sacrifices himself to save Marcus and the rest, set to an instrumental of "Mad World". I legit cried my first time playing through that part. I will forever argue it's one of the saddest moments in video game history.
15. Grand Theft Auto IV (9) - Boy I loved playing as Nico in beautiful NYC. The story of course, was really good. My favorite mission was the bank robbery. I also loved doing different challenges after beating the story mission. I didn't get to 100% completion, maybe close to 80%.
16. Grand Theft Auto V (10) - Rockstar Games hit it out of the park with this one. Three playable characters this time, all uniquely different. The story was again top-notch and there's so much replay value in this.
17. Halo 3 (10) - What more can you say? Halo 3 is considered to be peak Halo. The online experience, for once, was the highlight for me. They introduced Forge which allowed players to create and share their own maps, which even I did a bit. There was the Arby N the Chief series, which mainly related to this game. I remember checking my stats online at Bungie.net constantly. Good times.
18. Halo Reach (9) - This was an interesting game, to have a prequel to Halo. I certainly enjoyed it, and I felt like it had the perfect difficulty. I played it online a little bit, but not like Halo 3. I loved the ending where your Spartan character fought to the bitter end at the Fall of Reach.
19. Halo 3: ODST (8) - Probably one of the weakest in the Halo series, but still a very solid game. I thought it was cool playing as a soldier and not a spartan, for a change. It definitely got tough in parts, but doable.
20. Halo 4 (8) - This was enjoyable and fun, but it just doesn't feel like Halo for some reason. This was after Bungie sold the game to 343 Industries, so that has something to do with it. I don't think I ever played it online.
21. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (9) - One of my favorite Harry Potter games ever. It has the most open-world aspect to it of any HP game at that point. I enjoyed finding all the hidden crests and even playing games with other students.
22. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (8) - A very similar game to OotP, but for some reason, I just didn't enjoy the game quite as much. Odd, because I enjoyed the book version more. I definitely want to give this game another try some day because it's hard to remember what it's like.
23. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (7) - I think this game did away with the majority of the open world element, and in my opinion, lacked a bit as a result. It's not the gamemakers fault, as the story didn't have the students in school. Again with HBP, hard to remember, will have to play again someday.
24. LA Noire (10) - One of Rockstar's best. They sure captured the 1940's Los Angeles
so well. Trying to figure out if people were telling the truth was equally challenging and fun to do. This game definitely deserves a replay, and I will have to do that soon.
25. Lost: Via Domus (7) - I think this game gets a bad rap. Yes it's short, simple, and slightly contradicts the show, but it's still enjoyable. I hated avoiding the smoke monster; it's repetitive, annoying, and there's way too much of it. Also, some of the voice actors were
nothing like their TV show counterparts, mainly Charlie, Sawyer, and Locke. But it was so cool being in the hatch and exploring it.
