My Top 50 Video Games: #40 – #31

40. Time Splitters 2
PS2

This one seems weird and rather random, but the reason is because this is the first person shooter my friends and I played a lot.  Is there a story mode to the game? Quite possibly, but I really don’t give a shit.  I just remember having a blast playing 2 on 2 matches of capture the flag with beers in hand.  Good times.

39. Dragon Warrior
NES

A solid RPG from the old school Nintendo.  I never made it far in tihs game, but I enjoyed exploring around the map.

38. Wolfenstein 3D
PC

What a great computer game.  Just kilin’ some nazis!  And finding hidden walls.  It set a really great atmosphere, which made it awesome.

37. The Oregon Trail
DOS

Classic.  I mean, you could put your own friends in your party and see which of them make it.  And if you died your name would be left on a tombstone for others to find when they played the game!  Genius.

36. Crosscountry Canada
DOS

This was the crown jewel in our elementary school lab’s game collection.  You could type in commands which would let you drive across Canada, stop to eat, sleep on the road, pick up hitchhikers and more.  All while learning a little Canadian geography.

35. Guitar Hero
PS2

This could really stand for the whole series, I don’t have any particular favourite.  They’re all just as good.  It was a brilliant notion; you can actually play the notes on a faux-guitar.  It was great at parties and just when hanging out in your buddy’s basement.  Even now when I hear certain songs like Blitzkrieg Bop or XYZ it takes me back to Guitar Hero.  Rock on!

34. Star Trek 25th Anniversary
PC

This was one awesome computer game based on the original Star Trek series.  Each level was comprised of two parts.  The first took place on the bridge while engaged in a space battle.  But the second part was even better, when your crew of Kirk, Bones and Spock would have a problem to solve on the planet surface.  Each level was unique and had interesting solutions.  I never made it past the final 3 on 1 battle though…

33. Paperboy
NES

There’s just something very cathartic about throwing those papers perfectly into the mailboxes.

32. Mario Party 4
Gamecube

Along with Time Splitters and Guitar Hero, Mario Party holds a special place for being part of great times with great friends.  Some evenings a group of us would make a planned evening of Mario Party.  Other times we’d play late night after the end of school summer bash.  Either way, good times.

31. Metriod
NES

A great shoot em up game, made better by the collectible powers you were able to gather along the way.  I also liked the maze aspect to the whole game.