Honorable Mentions:
Grand Theft Auto: VIce City
Uncharted 2
The Last Guardian
Fire Pro Wrestling D
Crazy Taxi
Doom
Sonic 2
Super Mario Bros 3
Donkey Kong Country
Rock Band / Guitar Hero
WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain
God of War (the original PS2 game)
Resident Evil 4
Daytona USA
NBA Jam
Mortal Kombat
Streets of Rage
1.)
Shadow of the Colossus -- I know this is a Shenmue board and you may be expecting it to be Shenmue, but no, sorry, it isn't. Shadow of the Colossus is my favorite game of all time. Bar none. I adore everything about this game. I adore the soundtrack (it's some of Kow Otani's best work to date.) The story moved me to tears the first time I played it, followed by gut punched silence during the closing credits. Everytime I go back to it, I'm just as moved as I was the first time. This game really got to me. It's devastatingly bittersweet and a true masterpiece in gaming.
2.)
Virtua Fighter 2 -- I have played Virtua Fighter 2 far more than I care to admit. I absolutely adore this game. Granted, Virtua Fighter 4 and 5 are far better games and more well rounded in mechanics. But there is something about the challenge of Virtua Fighter 2 that keeps me coming back for more. It's easy to pick up but difficult to truly master. But so damn rewarding once you do master it. Great game, one of Yu Suzuki's finest works...which leads us to.
3.)
Shenmue 1 and 2 -- Take the Virtua Fighter engine and place it into an open world that tells a grand story of revenge while simultaneously focusing on the mundane nature of life. On paper, this shouldn't work...but holy crap, did it work or did it work? Even though I placed Virtua Fighter over Shenmue, I would still say Shenmue 1 and 2 are both Yu Suzuki's masterpieces. The culmination of his entire career rolled into two games and both are pure genius.
What always got me most about Shenmue was the epic scale of it. The fact that the game takes us from the sleepy town of Yokosuka where everyone knows your name. To the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. To the claustrophobic and shady walled in city of Kowloon. To the quiet rural village of Bailu. It's a real journey that you don't really see in many games. It's epic in a way that few games (if any) strive to be.
I don't need to preach to the choir. We all know why we love this game and we all have our reasons. But mine was always the epic scale of it. It's a really ambitious game that wants to take its players on an epic martial arts journey throughout both Japan and China. And there are just so few games that strive for that. I think that's what makes Shenmue so unique for me. That and I just really love the way the game feels. I love spending time in its world. I love the fact that the world moves on without you. That you can miss so many little things just because you weren't in the right place at the right time.
It really strives to present a living breathing world where you are just apart of it. Unlike so many other games where you're the central focus of the world. Here, it almost strives to convince you that the world your in doesn't revolve around your character and it's still a persistent world that is lived in. I really loved that about Shenmue and I think it was ambitious as all hell.
For that reason, it is Yu Suzuki's masterpiece. Bring on Shenmue III
4.) Persona 4 -- I have played through this 70 to 100 hour game no less than 5 times. That's saying a lot considering this is not a short game. But it is an amazing game through and through. It's the characters that did it for me. I really love these characters. So much so that I was actually sad when I first finished the game and realized I had to leave them behind. I didn't want to leave these people behind. I grew really attached to this group of kids. I really emotionally invested in their stories (S Links). I was genuinely bummed to leave these characters behind. That's saying something. Also the soundtrack is absolutely brilliant. Persona 5 and Persona 3 may have better stories. But the characters of Persona 4 really stuck with me.
5.) Yakuza 0 -- For a long time, I would have said Yakuza 2 (or maybe Yakuza 3) was my favorite of the series. Then along came Yakuza 0 and bumped it way down the list. The origins of both Kiryu and (more importantly) Majima are two of the best stories this franchise has ever told. Also I just really like the charm of seeing Kamurocho in the 80's. It was kind of a nice shakeup to get a period piece (well a period piece that wasn't the Samurai games, I mean). The sub stories are some of the best written in the entire franchise. I never once got bored completing a single one of them and I never once felt there was filler for the sake of filler. I thought every single sub story was so well written. The fighting mechanics are some of the best in the series with the mixup of styles. Yeah, I can't say enough good things about Yakuza 0. In my opinion, it's the best of the Yakuza franchise.
6.) Final Fantasy VIII -- Final Fantasy VIII was my Final Fantasy VII moment. I never played Final Fantasy VII when it first released and my first exposure to Final Fantasy was through VIII. Sorry FFVII fans but I think VIII is the best of the original PlayStation trilogy. I know, I know. It's not a popular sentiment as Final Fantasy VIII is usually looked upon as the red haired step child. But I really love this game. I love the fact that this game adapts to the way that you want to play it. Want the challenge of grinding? Go right ahead. Want to beat the game without grinding? You can do that. Want to exploit the Junction system for all it's worth? You can do that too. The more I've played that game, the more I realize it truly adapts to your style of play.
Also, at the time, the aloof loner Squall really appealed to me. I think it was the whole keeping people at bay for fear of getting hurt or abandoned that spoke to me the most at the time. I was a lot like that as a teen, I kept everyone at bay and didn't let people in (maybe that's why Ryo from Shenmue also kind of appealed to me a little). I was touched by the love story between him and Rinoa. Rinoa can be ditzy but there is a charm to Rinoa that won me over. She means well but is ultimately naive.
I even like the fan theory that Squall actually dies in this game at the end of the first disc and the rest of the game is just a bizarre Enter the Void like post death journey through the psyche of a dying mind. Even though I don't think that theory is cannon, I still really like it and it does kind of work.
But yeah, I love Final Fantasy VIII. This and Shenmue were the two games that occupied both my PlayStation and Dreamcast back at release. Had a lot of great times with this game and I still find myself going back to it...my last run through was just last year. Bring on the hatred but I think FF VIII is the best of the PSX FInal Fantasy trilogy.
7.) Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 / Jet Set Radio -- Oh man, I couldn't decide between these two. So screw it, we're going for a tied result. I love both of these games. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 is straight up one of the most addictive games I ever played. I love games that put an emphasis on getting high scores and one of my favorite things to do in THPS3 was to memorize the layout of each level and just go to town racking up massive scores by stringing together tricks. If you knew what you were doing, you could score in the millions on each level. Not to mention the game is Tony Hawk perfected. Before it went goofy and trying to top itself year in and year out for every annual release, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 was the game that completed the bare basics of the trick system. THPS2 introduced the manual and THPS3 went the final step and introduced the revert. After that there really wasn't much more they could do. It felt perfected.
But yeah, THPS3 is just an insanely fun game to play. It's got a great soundtrack. It still looks pretty good to this day. I still find myself going back to it from time to time. And it's still just as fun to play now as it was back then.
As for Jet Set Radio. It's fitting to tie it in with THPS3. At the time of release, I was hugely into Tony Hawk and I actually really didn't like Jet Set Radio the first time I played it. I think at the time I was trying to play it more like a Tony Hawk game. I saw it as an extreme sports game and thought it should control the same as THPS.
That was a big mistake on my behalf. Cut forward a few years later and I went back and gave it another chance. And I actually learnt how to play it. And I came to realize it's not a Tony Hawk styled game at all. Rather, it's a platformer on roller blades. Once I figured out the short jump / long jump and how to chain together rails and wall rides, that's when I started to realize Jet Set is more like a platformer crossed with your typical Sega styled game. You still have to master the layout and master the quickest way to string everything together to get the best rankings. It just clicked and I started to really dig it and grow to love it. And I still love it to this day.
Fantastic soundtrack; awesome visual style and that typical Sega gameplay of just being fun to learn and master. Jet Set Radio from being a game that I disliked to being a game that I absolutely love to death. Even more so than the popular sequel Jet Set Radio Future (seriously, I prefer the first game over JSRF all the way)
8.) Resident Evil 2 -- The original PlayStation game. And I guess I would consider the remake too since it too is phenomenal in every way. Resident Evil 2 is hands down in my top 3 of PSone classics. It's a classic in my eyes. Again, a game that I have played far more times than I can count on both hands. And I can still go back to it in this day and age and still have a great time. Even with the tank controls, it holds up wonderfully well (or at least I think it does)
9.) Parappa the Rapper -- The game that gave me my love of Rhythm games. What a soundtrack too. One of the most catchy upbeat soundtracks you will ever hear in a game. I dare you to listen to Mooselini's Driving Rap and not have that beat stuck in your head for days on end. So upbeat, so incredibly charming, so, so, so good. Parappa always makes me happy.
10.) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater -- One image says it all for this game. And that image is as follows.
And that's all I have to say about that.
