Blasphemy: My personal Top Ten Games

It took me four days to construct a rough draft on what my personal top ten video games are. They are based on these general criteria (not held too strictly):

- Only one game per franchise.

- 1-2 games per genre. If there are 2 excellent games in one franchise that are in completely different genres, I'm more apt to let that slide.

- I base a lot of this list on games that have influenced me throughout my life as a gamer. Some games have never lost their playability, and I have maxed their timers out to well over a hundred hours. Sometimes, I do so all 5 times I've played it through.

These games have never lost their charm, or have defined different periods in my life. These are all games that I have played for at least 75 hours apiece. That's bare minimum.

I also admit to an extreme degree of bias. I'm a retro gamer, and I am not a huge fan of over-the-top graphics or fps's.

10. Twisted Metal 2 (PSX) - Drive, shoot, napalm. I can't remember whether shooting the Statue of Liberty's clothes off or using the Gameshark to play as Minion was better.

9. Mario Kart 64 (N64) - In my opinion, the best of the series.

8. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX) - I love the Castlevania series. It was a tough pick, but SotN's equipment usage, excellent soundtrack, and the alluringly well animated Alucard is also tough to pass up.

7. Super Smash Bros. (N64) - It sounds ridiculous, but I can't count the number of times I've played a 99-stock-free-for-all-brawl with my brother. Or the number of times I've schooled with Link against friends.

6. NBA Jam (SNES) - In my opinion, the best sports game ever. That is a really strong opinion, but hearing "boomshakalaka" while jumping easily 20 feeting in the air to dunk as Scottie Pippen is just unbeatable.

5. Street Fighter 2 Turbo (SNES) - Probably the best early fighter ever. The fast paced action mixed with the unlimited amount of "Hadouken!" shouts never bores me.

4. Pokemon Red (GB) - I'm playing this at work right now. I played this YEARS ago. I can't help but feel old when I say, "I remember when there were only 151 of those Pokemon!" Well, except for Missingno....

3. Super Mario World (SNES) - This is the best Mario game ever. The big jump to the snes was super successful, and though it's tough to top SMB3, I always felt that this did it.

2. Star Ocean: The Second Story (PSX) - Ashton had friggin' dragons on his back! That's crazy-bad-ass! And the active, unending gameplay was too. The non-linear story kept me going for weeks, trying so desperately to have utilized every possible character, and achieving every possible ending (I failed miserably).

1. Final Fantasy VII (PSX) - The only RPG I knew that could top SO2 for me was FFVII. This is also the only storyline that's been able to pull any emotion from me. I've beaten it more times than I'd care to mention, and maxed out the timer every time. It has the best villain in it, the most bad-ass hero in it, and some of the greatest side-quests of any RPG (bar the card games from FFVII and IX).

But why was it number 1? It may sound like a cliche. But this game has never really left me. I could pick it up any time and play, no matter how many times I've already beaten it. I still want to save Aeris (impossible,) and it is the only single FF game worthy of it's own compilation. The music pops in my head all the time, pulling strings at my heart. It's the only game I've ever played worthy of the #1 title.

Either way, I'll probably change this list next week.