LogFAQs > #948958597

Here are breakdowns of my list, along with two final honorable mentions!

By decade
1980s: 5
1990s: 40
2000s: 22
2010s: 31
2020s: 2

By system
Arcade: 10
NES: 9
SNES: 11
Nintendo 64: 1
Gamecube: 4
GB/GB Color: 3
GBA: 2
DS: 4
Genesis: 2
PS1: 10
PS2: 5
PS3: 4
PS4: 5
PSP: 1
Vita: 1
Xbox 360: 9
PC: 19

I grew up a Nintendo kid, but then I never owned a Wii/Wii U, and only bought a Switch two months ago, if that helps explain my system distribution. For multi-system games, I mostly kept them listed to the system I played the game on. Some games were re-released much later on other systems, so for those I tried to go with the original year. But then there was one game made in the 1980s, but then re-released in the 2000s, and again in the 2010s, but the versions were updated/enhanced, so I went with the 2010s version. In short, just expect that I wasn't 100% consistent with how I identified years and systems for my games.

Honorable Mention: Super Mario 64 (N64, 1996)

Well, time to cross this game off the "which game will be on everybody's list?" betting pool! Super Mario 64 was a big deal when it came out, and still is a big deal today. Nintendo solidly hit it right with this game, at a time when 3D games were more often missing the mark. The tons of movement options are cool, if only I ever could do them all as smoothly as I wanted to. I just never quite enjoyed this as much as the 2D games. I also never collected all 120 stars. I think to some degree, the big wave of collect-a-thon games with hub worlds that followed this were not as enjoyable for me and maybe eventually brought Super Mario 64 down a peg in my mind.

I do have a brief story to go with this game. After getting the SNES, my parents told me while games were fine, consoles were too expensive to get for birthday/Christmas presents. When the N64 came out and I was 12/13 years old, I was getting an allowance of like $2 or $3 per week. I really wanted one, so I saved the allowance and any money I got as gifts from relatives for about a year and a half. I then went and bought a Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 (because the N64 didn't have a game bundle at the time). After that long wait, the first night with Mario 64 was one of the most exciting video game experiences of my life, and I will always have a fond memory of this game in that way.

Honorable Mention: Mega Man X6 (PS1, 2001)

This honorable mention is really similar to my Castlevania 64 one. Both games are very flawed, and moronically difficult at times. X6 has moments that aren't clear if they were designed to be brutally hard, or if lazy programming resulted in sections that were frustrating, yet still possible. It feels great to overcome hurdles in this game, and it's still a Mega Man X game, so zipping around and using abilities is always fun. I enjoy this game way more than I should, but it is also still a very rough experience.

---

ONLY FIVE CAN LADDER.
Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nippon-ichi...