there are a LOT of good ones I couldn't pick, particularly because my spouse and I will play entire series together (same file, trade controller back and forth or watch the other) like all the Batmans and Mass Effects

but if you want ones that specifically live in my brain at all times and influence me to this day, its probably these. and mostly in the order I discovered them too!

when I was little my dad bought me a super Nintendo from the pawn shop, it came with dkc3, mario all stars, kirby all stars, and Zelda a Link to the past

little me had never had a game system before, no idea that save files were a thing, when j put up zelda i clicked a former save file, booted it up, stepped outside of a cave and promptly got killed by something lol

but i was hooked. i didn't boot up the game "where you get stabbed immediately" for a while after, but mario and kirby and dk3 were my world, I relish all the memories I have discovering everything about them

after moving on to 64 and with pokemon on gameboy, which i also played religiously (i couldn't fit ocarina of time and mario 64 on here but yoh KNOW they're there). I could spend hours just crawling into every nook and cranny i could think to explore, for no reason other than to see if i could, and so often the game rewarded me for it, it was thrilling

then when i discovered play station 2 was a thing that exists, i saved up my own money to get one (because I was afraid it was "greedy" to have yet another console) i was floored by the idea i could enjoy more games with more "serious/mature" plots like FF8 which definitely narratively implied people died all the time even if there wasn't blood

my ps2 came with a "demo disc" for other games and ICO was one of them and the memories I have of playing that in the wee hours after midnight were just magical. i couldnt wait to buy it in full years later and lost my mind with joy at colossus

SO many other series came after but Legend of Mana, KH2 FF9, Black Flag and Okami are on there because they are games I not only 100% but just went back to replay and run around for no reason other than I wanted to multiple times.

The amount of hours I fished in Okami or flew around a field barking just to look at the flower graphics is insane lol. and i have no idea why i latched onto black flag so hard, the other ac games were fun but that one jusf clicked with me, i was never not having fun

i still say few games ever felt as good controlwise as okami or kh2, they just felt satiafying to move around in. and i was drawing Axel fanart in graphics class when my spouse first met me, so of course that's stayjng on there heh

I've blabbed enough, but yeah, this was a fun meme, good nostalgia

tried to throw some weird curveballs on here other people might not have heard of like wordtris and such too