Video Games I Like
I love video games. I’ve been playing them for as long as I can remember. I started with an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System for the uninitiated) back when I was like, three? Never missed a Nintendo product from then until the Wii U (unless you count the Virtual Boy, I skipped that one, though I did play one a few times at Blockbuster–I’m feeling very old all of a sudden). Video games have had a profound impact on my life, good and bad at times, but to this day I still love them. Occasionally I still get sucked into one to the exclusion of all else, including, unfortunately, my writing. But! That’s kind of why I wanted to write about them tonight. They’ve certainly had an impact on my writing as well. From character tropes to the magic system itself, it’s safe to say that I’ve drawn inspiration from my favorite time sink, so in honor of that, I wanted to just list a bunch of video games I like in no particular order and ramble about them for a bit.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game
Despite the title, I mostly played this game on the NES and I played it a LOT. Some of the music is still burned into my head decades later. I don’t know if I ever beat this game organically, but I remember my dad learned the Konami Code and we did beat it using that. How one learned the Konami Code in 1990 before the internet I do not know, but he did and it was pretty dope. I also remember there was a level where a machine was making it snow and after you beat it the snow melts and one of the turtles looks at the camera to say “Spring is here.” I still say that every year.
Mario 64
This is probably the first game I completed 100%, which, in this case, means obtaining all 120 stars. I had played all the other Mario games up to this point, but I was younger and a lot of those early platformers were unforgiving. I don’t know if it was easier than the NES and SNES ones, or if turning 9 was the magic point at which I was starting to “get good,” but I conquered this one and it felt great. I went back to it semi-recently to share it with my kid (who is also 9 now) and while it certainly felt much easier, there are definitely still some challenges to be had.
Mario Odyssey
I had to throw this one in next because it is just a better Mario 64 in every conceivable way. I played it nonstop collecting moons (though I didn’t get all 864 or whatever insane number it is) but I feel comfortable saying I got 90% of them. The game was fun and it makes you feel good at platforming and it keeps you coming back for “one more moon” like a rat comes back to a button for cocaine (but like, in the good way).
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I could put any Zelda game on this list (at least the early ones) but I have to put this one here first because it’s amazing. It’s a good game, but also I was a dork and bought an ocarina and learned to play a bunch of the songs. Also, also, my friend and I beat it in one sitting once. We started at 10am and we finished at 2 or 3am, but we did it start to finish alternating temples and that is a treasured memory. For those in the know, screw the water temple.
Mega Man 5
Another series that I could list many games from because I’ve played many of them and consider myself quite the fan, but this was the one I remember playing the most early on in life at least. I go back to the soundtrack regularly and I remember the order of the bosses quite well. For those who may not know, most Mega Man games begin with eight levels you can tackle in any order, but each ends with a boss whose power you steal after beating them. Each boss is weak to the power of one of the other seven, so there is usually an optimal order. I said I know the order of bosses in 5 quite well, which is true now, but as a kid I learned to just brute force all of them. I brute force a lot of things in life. I’m not a subtle guy.
Chrono Trigger
Full stop I still believe this to be the greatest game ever made. I fell in love with it the second I saw a friend playing it on an emulator, but I HAD to have it for real (and I didn’t know how emulators worked then) so I saved my money and paid sixty 1995 dollars of my allowance to buy a used copy. I just checked and it retailed for $80 originally while most SNES games only cost $50. Wild. This game is definitely in the mix of inspirations. I didn’t borrow any time travel elements because time travel seems way too hard to do well, but the elemental magic system where each character excels in a particular element and certain characters combine their spells into combination techniques or “dual techs” definitely occupied some brain space while I was writing. This game is perfect from start to finish. It is beautiful, it has a great story, memorable characters, comedy, drama, action. I will fight anyone who doesn’t believe this to be a perfect game in every single way.
Mario RPG
This and Chrono Trigger were my introduction to the RPG genre. This was probably the more accessible of the two, though having a player’s guide certainly helped. As mentioned above, I’ve always loved Mario, and this was such a different way to play Mario while still being a high quality game and fun that I have gone back to it several times, and I cannot wait for the remake to come out next month so I can share it with my son as well. Mario took the “silent protagonist” trope to the next level by pantomiming any explanation he tried to give, and while most of the time he was perfectly understood by his audience, occasionally someone just didn’t get it and that’s my brand of humor.
Hollow Knight
When I first saw someone on YouTube playing this game, it called to me in a primal way. When I first got the chance to play it, I was hooked in a way that a game hadn’t hooked me in a long time. I wanted to beat it, but not only did I want to beat it, I wanted to complete it 100% AND I wanted to do that without using any guides. I fell slightly short on that last point, but everything else, I did. I played it alone. I played it with my (then much younger son) watching, so much so that I got a tattoo of the main character. After completing it 100%, I went on to do all the speedrunning achievements AND the Steel Soul achievements. Steel Soul was an alternate game mode where if you died it deleted your save. I beat it on that mode, ALSO with 100% completion AND all of the speed achievements that went with that mode too. The atmosphere, the minimalist storytelling, the tight combat, the MUSIC. I can never recommend this game enough.
Hades
Sexy, snarky, Greek mythology. I’m sure that was the pitch, and damn they delivered. Every Supergiant game is a winner. They just ooze style and passion and I’ve loved every minute I’ve spent with all of them, but this one is my favorite by a mile. The fast pace combined with the story coming in short but constantly fresh bites kept me going run after run and it nails that rogue-like fundamental of creating these super-powerful combinations of discreet powerups that make you feel, well, god-like.
World of Warcraft
I played it. I played it a lot. I can’t pretend I didn’t. I actually really liked the story and the lore and that kept me going a lot longer than anything else, but then I realized all my friends had quit the game and I could just read wiki pages to keep up with the lore, but then they also tanked that too. Still, I spent literal months of in game time playing this, many of them while actively sitting in my college classes. I will forever hold fond memories of playing until 4am with my friends, then going to Denny’s with those friends and getting pancakes, or of talking to my roommate via headset and voice server even though he was literally in the same room as me.
Marvel Snap
I’m putting this one here because I’ve already gone on longer than I thought I would and I needed a good end point (though we’ll almost certainly have a part 2) and this is what I’m playing right now. It’s a card game I play on my phone and I’ve been playing it for a year and I love it. I get super competitive with it and I spend way too much time on it, but 3 minute head to head strategy that rewards knowledge of the game and being able to outthink your opponent (including some dizzying “I know they know that I know that they know X” type logic) riles me up. I listen to five different podcasts about this game. I have a problem.
