Video Games: My Personal Top 10

Top 10 lists are fun to write. It’s always fun to tell other people your opinions about stuff that doesn’t really matter, and top-anything lists mean that you get to review all the best experiences you had, compare happiness to happiness, and decide which was better. Remembering happiness is a great way to feel happy now. Win-win!

But let’s not get carried away. There’s no way I could come up with a top-10 list of my favourite books. Heck, I doubt I could swing a top-100. I love them too much.

On the opposite pole, I don’t like music enough to have all-time favourite songs or albums. And although movies hit that sweet spot of “stuff I like enough to have favourites but don’t like so much I have ALL THE FAVOURITES,” I’ve seen way too many of them over a lifetime.

Video games, though… I’ve played enough video games that I’d have to make real choices, but I’m not obsessed with them the way I am with books. And because video games take longer to finish than a movie, the pool isn’t so dauntingly huge.

Therefore, in no particular order, here are my personal top 10 video games:

Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita) (Atlus, 2012)

The games it beat out: Persona 3 Portable (2010), Persona 5 (2018)

Why: Character-driven mystery + scheduling simulator + turn-based combat

I love mysteries and YA and speculative fiction and JRPG mechanics. This game has them all, and it was the first game I played with a story aimed at older teens and adults. It’s the only game I played where I happily watched the anime and played spin-off games just to hang out with these characters some more. And maybe part of that is because it’s the only game I’ve played where I saw a character like myself, sort of.*

But it’s also partly because the character-driven story and the gameplay came together so seamlessly that I had to care about the characters–if I didn’t pay attention to them and become their friend, I’d never solve their psyche-dungeons or figure out who the final murderer was.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) (Nintendo, 2017)

The games it beat out: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (1993)

Why: I guess I like open-world now?

I thought I was going to hate this game.

Them: “It’ll be open-world! You’ll need to feed Link when he gets hungry and dress him in warm clothes when he gets cold!”

Me: “I hate open-world! I want someone to tell me what to do next, not to explore on my own. What do I look like, someone with time and patience?”

I was so sure I wasn’t going to play it that I didn’t bother leaving the room to stay unspoiled when then-Boyfriend, now-Husband played. And, of course, I got sucked right. Not TRON-style literally, but pretty close: I was invested in finding out what would happen if Link tried using that or what he’d find if he went there. Finally, when I could no longer play vicariously by watching (mainly because Husband and I have very different play styles), I started my own Switch user account and booted up the game myself.

I loved it. I loved collecting all the things and hoarding resources and making up for my lack of combat skill with as many power-ups as I could craft. I loved being able to solve a problem any way I could think of, with no invisible walls to hold me back, and I actually loved exploring, because there were always at least two or three new goals I could spot from wherever I happened to be standing.

This game belongs on the list not just because I spent so much time with it, but because it taught me new things about what a great game could be–even for impatient me.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) (Nintendo, 2017)

The games it beat out: SNES, DS, Wii, Wii U, and 3DS Mario Karts

Why: Uh, it’s Mario Kart

Like so many other games on this list, the latest iteration of Mario Kart stands in for the entire series. Because no matter how many fond memories I have of the first Super Mario Kart for the SNES (1992), the gameplay, mechanics, and just about everything else have improved so much since that first version that I always come back to the latest.

I played and played and played the non-deluxe version of this game on the Wii U, because I can’t get enough of the combination of skill and luck that separates first place from twelfth. I love zipping around the track, hoping for the right power-ups to hit other racers and avoid getting hit. On the Switch, I love playing the thankfully improved Battle Mode, cruising around an arena to collect coins/hit other drivers/grab the shiny.

This game is never over because there’s always another race to drive, another balloon-battle to duke out.

Rayman Origins (multiplatform) (Ubisoft, 2011)

Why: Slick! Stylish! PRETTTTTTY!!!

I’d never considered a non-Nintendo platformer to be top-notch until I met the recent 2D Rayman games and fell immediately in love with them. I love their goofy, gross style–still family-friendly as Mario, but with more of an edge, like the stuff my weird friends and I would make up.

And I love the way that Rayman moves. The controls are so precise that I had fun trying challenging levels over and over until I finally nabbed that collectible or caught the runaway treasure chest. I had no idea underwater levels could actually be fun to play until I tried Rayman’s smooth swimming style.

But where Origins (and its sequel, Rayman Legends (2013)) both shine for me is their sound design. It’s off-the-wall in regular levels, and in timed levels like treasure chases or Legends’s music levels, it’s a key part of the half-platforming, half-rhythm-game experience.

Tetris & Dr. Mario (SNES) (Nintendo, 1994)

Why: It soothes my brain

I’ll admit it, this is a cheat so I can get my two favourite falling-blocks puzzlers under one entry. But it would be tough to choose between them. I use them both to get my mind in order or to dissipate boredom and frustration when the real-world task I’m doing isn’t taking enough of my attention to engage me.

The beauty of these games is that they offer a challenge to any skill level, because they can keep getting harder and harder ad infinitum. They take two seconds to understand, and there’s always a way to get better no matter how long you’ve been playing.

Pokémon Sun (3DS) (Game Freak, 2016)

The game it beat out: Pokémon Blue (1998)

Why: All the possibilities!

The main Pokémon games are all the same, in the essentials: you are a child who receives a Pokémon from your local Pokémon professor. You set off on an epic quest to catch more Pokémon, train those Pokémon, and fight in turn-based rock-paper-scissors battles to a) become the very best like no one ever was; and b) stop whatever wacky plot this game’s gang of low-life bad guys has in the works.

Pokémon Blue, you were my first, and I’ll never forget you, but just like Mario Kart, these games have been getting better and better with each new iteration. In Sun (which I played) and Moon (which Husband played), you can move around in 3D, you can more easily interact with your Pokémon in mini-games, you’re free from the tyranny of HM moves, and you can do a bajillion other things in fun ways instead of their previous pain-in-the-neck ways.

I love Pokémon because the battles are addictive–there’s nothing like gleefully going through the type chart to figure out which of your roster to play to gain the advantage–and so is collecting them all. Whether I’m grinding around through tall grass to catch that super-rare one or agonizing over what name to give my new acquisition, it’s a blast. And of course I can’t get enough of that moment the end-of-battle sequence stops with “What? Mr. Tootles is evolving!”

Plants vs. Zombies (PC) (Popcap Studios, 2009)

Plants vs. Zombies has to make this list because it’s the only game I’ve ever 100%’d. I spent so goshdarn long playing every single mode. It’s also the only tower defense I’ve ever played compulsively.

As the title suggests, you are using violently carnivorous plants to defend your yard from zombies. The tone is playful, with casual jokes and humorous, cartoony visuals.

It’s the right level of challenging to force you to learn to use new tools without also forcing you to fail, at least through the main story mode. Optional modes can get really, really hard. But no matter which mode or minigame you choose, there’s always something to do. When you’re not building your defenses, you’re collecting sun so you can plant more defenses, or coins so you can upgrade the tools available. Unlike other casual puzzle/strategy games I’ve played, there’s never a point where you have nothing to do but wait for the game to finish playing itself.

Super Mario RPG (SNES) (Square, 1996)

The games it beat out: Chronotrigger (1995), Earthbound (1995), Paper Mario (2001), Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)

Why: JRPG + timed button presses

As you may have gathered from the rest of this list, JRPGs and their play style are exactly my cup of tea. And that tea gets milk and sugar when the plot is fun and the battle mechanics have that extra-special something. If you like milk and sugar, that is. I may have let this analogy get away from me.

Anyway, though there are plenty of RPGs that mix light-hearted, quirky characters with humour and intriguing epic plots, Super Mario RPG will always be the first and best to me. What sets it at the top of my list is the way it mixes regular party mechanics with timed button presses to make attacks hit harder or dodge enemy blows more completely. That makes me feel like I’m doing something during the battle instead of just watching characters follow my orders. It keeps me engaged.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii, 2009)

The games it beat out: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010), Super Mario 3D Land (2011), Super Mario 3D World (2013)

Why: Couch multiplayer

I almost forgot to add this to the list, not because it didn’t upend my perception of what games could do, but because it changed the gaming landscape so much that couch multiplayer on a family platformer is now the normalest thing in the world.

Picture, if you will, Mario before 2009: arguments over who gets the controller. Full-on fights over who gets to clear which level. No way for siblings or cousins to help (or hinder) each other in tough stages. Friends resenting friends for not exploring that one interesting-looking secret when it’s their turn to play the level. And god help the player who caused the dreaded GAME OVER. Chaos!

It wasn’t pretty.

Then let us consider Mario after 2009 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Everyone plays levels together. Pros help n00bs git gud. Everyone shares lives with the mortality-prone. Kids can play with teens. Grandparents can play with toddlers. Cousins no longer wage war upon cousins. Peace. Love. Harmony.

Until Blue Toad steals the fire flower and throws Luigi off a cliff.

Super Mario World (SNES) (Nintendo, 1991)

Why: Because I was born in the eighties

I guess I’m typical for my generation: this is the first game I played enough to get to know the levels, the first one that made an impression on me. Sure, I’d tried Super Mario Brothers 3 (1990) and Mickey Mousecapade (1987) on friends’ systems or the NES we rented from the video store when my sister or I got sick, but only maybe once or twice.

We didn’t have our own SNES either–just the sick-day rental and the console our older cousins generously shared with their visiting baby relatives–but somehow we played this enough to at least know our way around the first world. It seems ridiculous that we struggled first to reach and then to beat Iggy Koopa’s castle, or that there was ever a time when we didn’t know the signs to find secret exits. I remember reading about using feathers and blue Yoshis in the game’s manual and feeling like they were rare treasures only Big Kids who were good at games might ever hope to get; I remember playing “Mario World” tag with my fellow younger cousins on the swing (aka, our Yoshi? It was a weird game.) at the cottage.

Anyway, it’s the game that taught me how to play games–how to beat levels and get better and understand more as you grow as a player.

* I’m not actually 100% sure how I feel about Naoto, because (avoiding spoilers as best I can) Naoto and Kanji are both clearly portrayed from a straight, cis, gender-conforming, male perspective. I want the game to accept them as who they are more than it does, and I also find it tough to navigate that reaction when I am a Western white person and the game is Japanese and set in Japan. I just know that I cringe when the plot pathologizes the ways they’re different instead of pathologizing the self-hatred they’ve been taught to feel because of those differences. Or treats straight, cis characters’ anti-QUILTBAG comments as normal and OK.