AstralSoul

1. EarthBound (SNES)

2. Super Mario 64 (N64)

3. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)

4. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)

5. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)

Runner-ups (because 5 isn't enough): Dark Souls, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 3, Crash Bandicoot 2, Diddy Kong Racing, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil 2 Remake

Mario wins them all except maybe GameCube and GBC. That's just counting the main titles, with the spinoffs involved, forget it Zelda is no match for Mario. 

Definitely been slower for sure. I know I visit less and less but my reason is I don't really collect anymore. I don't have the money to buy the games I want, nor the time to play them. 

Great read as always. I grew up reading comics like Garfield and loved them for years and years but haven't read them in a while. I am a fan of the Garfield minus Garfield but even more so I love the "I'm sorry Jon" memes. Not a meme perse but this fan made comic always cracks me up:

Not my type of game. I tried it after several years of people telling me how great it is but I couldn't get into it at all. I understand why people love it though. 5/10

Weirdly I have more memories with this Mario than 1 or 3 and it's still one of my favorite 2D Mario's. Probably only second to Mario World. 10/10, still holds up really well today. I wonder if I'm the only one who's wanted a sequel one day.

It's straddles the fine line between 9 and 10. Objectively it's a 10 especially for it's day. Nostalgia for this one is also overwhelming. But for me personally it's a 9, which is what I ultimately gave it. No real reason other than it's just not one of my favorite games of all time and 10/10s are reserved for the best of the best IMO. It's also not my favorite Zelda. Still it's hard to deny how influential the game is and how Nintendo got the Zelda formula down in 3D in one try.

37 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

McDonald's is at least food, even if it's low quality. Cigarettes have no benefit at all and taste awful, so it's an easy choice for me.

Yea that's kind of what I was going for too. But long term either one could kill you.

Cigarettes. You need to eat and as bad as McD's is, it still holds at least some nutritional value. Cigarettes don't have calories but they're incredibly harmful especially over the long term. I mean eating McDonald's every day would most likely kill you too so it's a tough call.

Congrats, it was a great read!

I've come to terms with having almost nothing big, at my current salary. Virtual Boy collection, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast collections, a lot of high end SNES/N64/GCN games. Not even just the cost of it, space is an issue too. It's just not worth it, I had the limit myself somewhere.

Never played it and probably never will. Not because I think I'll hate it but just out of lack of interest. Not enough time to play every game I'd like to try and this one falls very low on the priority list.

Squirtle in Pokemon Red which I got on launch day in 1998

Tough week, don't like any of these except Alice in Chains so I voted at random.

Another great interview! Things like this are what keeps me coming back to VGS

I never go into Directs with expectations or excitement anymore. That said, the Direct was just okay. Pikmin 4 and Tears of the Kingdom announcements made me happy but no gameplay footage for Pikmin and barely any of Zelda. At this point we should've definitely been shown more of Zelda. Pretty much all we got was the title.

As usual there was so much filler in this Direct. Also I need to know how many farm sims do we really need? Aside from Pikmin and Zelda I'll probably get Kirby's Return to Dreamland despite owning it on Wii, and Octopath Traveler 2 despite never having finished the first game.

Overall, so much fluff, so much I didn't care about, so many anime games and rereleases of games I either own already or don't care about. Very predictable and mostly boring Direct. Another Fire Emblem? Yay.... How bout revisit all the old franchises you've forgotten Nintendo? Like F-Zero, Pilotwings, Wave Race, Punch-Out, etc. Even a new Donkey Kong game is overdue. Oh wait none of those are uninspired cash cows.

New Nintendo Directs bring out the cynic in me and really make me question whether I care about modern gaming anymore. There was a time I'd be super hyped and excited for every announcement but I really wonder if gaming has changed to a point where I no longer enjoy the majority of it or if I'm just not into gaming much anymore. At any rate at least I still have the old stuff I enjoy.

Overall 5/10 from me. I'm aware my opinions are probably more negative than most, and I'm very happy for people who loved it and have a lot to look forward to, but I'm just not one of those people.

Growing up I only had the Mr. Dream version so I went with that

This is probably tied with Mario Kart 8 as my favorite MK game. Yes a lot of it is nostalgia but the countless hours I put into this game are unmatched when comparing the rest of the series. Between this and Mario 64 this is what made me buy an N64. Couch co-op is still superior to online play and with 3 friends, Mario Kart 64 was just so perfect. Still has my favorite soundtrack and track selection too. 10/10

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

It's an interesting thought, but once in a while a gem just comes around that'll win you over in a special way. To me, that happened with both Mario Galaxy and Dark Souls. But I've also discovered older games that I have previously underestimated, which made it right to the top 10.

I've been thinking about that for years, that maybe a new game would come along and be my new favorite but so far the only game that broke my top 10 that's newer than 2001 is also Dark Souls. Breath of Wild is top 20 for me too so that's something as well. Though what else is kind of interesting to me is I've played old games for the first time in the last 5-7 years that jumped up high for me as well like all the Crash Bandicoots and Terranigma. So it made me wonder if I love Crash Bandicoot almost as much as I do now, how much would I love it if I played it back in the day and had that connection and nostalgia to it? Would it have been my #1 then?

Lots of good points here. Great discussion so far. It makes me reflect on why my favorites are my favorites as well.

A few examples of my own, EarthBound is my favorite game of all time because I played it at the exact right moment in my life at 13 years old, it felt like my coming of age tale, and I connected with it on a deeper level than any other game even to this day. But it's also super comforting and replayable, not to mention memorable and with an amazing soundtrack. So because it checks off every single box, it's my favorite game of all time.

Then I have games like Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong Country 2, and Yoshi's Island that are heavily rooted in nostalgia for me, because I did grow up with them but also because they're very replayable and I know them so well I could probably visualize the entire of each game in my head.

Then there's Dark Souls, a game I only first played through 3 years ago. I tried it back in 2011 when it came out but I hated it and couldn't get past the first boss. Why I returned to it 8 years later I don't know but I'm glad I did. It was a struggle the first time through and throughout the course of the game I went from being lukewarm on the game to really enjoying it. Then I replayed it the following year and got a platinum trophy for it on PS4 and by the end of that I loved it. And replayed it again after that. The more I played it the better I became at it and the more I loved it. I think in this case I love the progression of being so bad at the game and hating it then actually learning it and getting to the point where I actually know it well enough to be a comfort game. 

43 minutes ago, Sumez said:

To me, I think the best way to sum up what matters is probably how "memorable" a game is. That is to say, how much does the experience of playing the game stand out.

The less a game does to actively engage the player, the more likely I am to forget everything about it soon after I have played it, and the more the game does to set it apart from other games of its type, the more likely it is to stick with me. Of course nostalgia can indeed play in there - if I have memories of playing the game at a special time in my life, that will likely stick with me, but the game also needs to hold up just as well when I replay it, or it doesn't matter.  

That's actually a good way to put it. I've always said to myself the worst thing a game can be is forgettable. I'd rather play a memorably bad game than a so-so one I instantly forget after playing. And yea basing a game purely on nostalgia is a little silly but many games I consider to be my favorites are deeply rooted in nostalgia but I've played them many times over and over and still hold up simply because they're incredibly fun. It's hard to imagine but I try to think of games like that as if I was playing them for the first time today. Like, Donkey Kong Country is very nostalgic but would I love it just as much if I played it for the first time today? I probably wouldn't love quite AS much but I'd definitely enjoy it a lot.

My friend and I were having a discussion a while back about our top X amount of games and we ended up in a more philosophical discussion of what factors we go by when we name our favorite games.

Is it purely based on nostalgia? Is it based on how deeply the game connected with you? Is it how good you are at it? Is it how often you can replay it over and over? Or more likely a combination of all of those?

It's all arbitrary of course because what does it really matter if a game is #1 or #10 or #100 on your favorite games list? It's not to say I can't enjoy a game at any level of favoritism, because the vast majority of the games I play fall way below even my top 100 games list. But, like many of you, I enjoy making lists, ranking the things I like, and when I'm asked about my favorite things of any category I like to have an answer at the ready.

But as an example, how would you determine whether you like Super Mario World or Breath of the Wild more? A game you've played dozens of times, have a ton of nostalgia for and know very well, versus a game you've played once, albeit put nearly 200 hours into in one playthrough, and had a deeply enjoyable impact on you, but lacks that replayability and nostalgia factor?

Really just one big shower thought but I'm curious as to what you guys think? When you list your favorite games, what are the determining factors that go into it or do you usually just go based on a gut instinct when making lists?

In my opinion this game represents the peak of 2D game design. Easily in my top 5 games of all time, and one of the few I'd confidently call a masterpiece. I really can't come up with a single flaw this game has without being extremely nitpicky. The graphics are bright and have a wonderful crayon-esque handdrawn look, something that drew me into the game instantly. Every level is creatively crafted and every song is catchy and wonderful on the ears. This game also put the FX chip to use in creative ways, more than just creating super primitive 3D like Star Fox, even if it's use is a lot more subtle. 

All said, it's very rare when I can give a game a perfect grade both objectively and personally, but this game deserves it. Easiest 10/10 so far and if I could give it a higher grade than that I would.

SNES - Super Mario World / Super Mario Kart

N64 - Super Mario 64

PS1 - Final Fantasy IX

PS2 - Kingdom Hearts / Final Fantasy X

PS3 - Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion / Fallout 3

PS4 - Last Guardian / Final Fantasy XV

I played all GT games except the first one. I'm sure it's a great game because I loved every single one I've played but never found a reason to go back to the original. However one day I'd like to at least try it just to see it.