True/Slant Poll: What’s Your #1 Game of All Time?
I’ve never done one of these so-called True/Slant polls in my nearly ten months of writing here (wow, that was fast!), but I figured it was about time. The question at hand is what you would consider to be your number one game of all time. Keep in mind this is different than what THE number one game of all time would be, this is more of a personal question, and I don’t want to start debating the merits of whether or not Pong or Super Mario Bros. made the video game industry what it is today.
Rather, this is asking what’s YOUR personal favorite game of all time? I know we have a wide range of contributors and readers here in terms of age, so I expect a variety of responses. You can shout it out in the comments, but it would be great if you could give a description of why you chose that game, and what the special significance of it was to you.
I’ll start things off by saying that unequivocally, my favorite game of all time is Super Smash Bros. 64 for Nintendo 64, as you may have guessed from my lead picture.
Why? In a word (two words): replay value. Smash Bros. for 64 was released TEN YEARS AGO, yet I STILL play it with my friends to this day. The gameplay is just absolutely flawless, and in my opinion, future installments of the franchise for the Gamecube and the Wii managed to muck up the simplicity of the fighter, (yet it’s still the best game on either console).
I was 12 when I started playing Smash Bros. and my summers consisted of a few hours of soccer, followed by a few hours of Smash Bros. with my neighborhood friends. EVERY DAY. As I went to high school, it became a leisure activity when we were all hanging out with nothing to do, and in college? I was stunned to find just how many people shared my love for such an old game, and I bonded with new hallmates over a beer and a game of Smash quite frequently.
To any fans of the game out there, I’d have to say my ranking order of characters goes: Kirby, Pikachu, Yoshi, Fox, DK, Jigglypuff, Falcon, Ness, and Link. I don’t play with Mario, Luigi or Samus unless I’m absolutely forced to. I’ve logged undoubtedly thousands of hours of playtime in the game, and have gone through two cartridges as my roommate once decapitated the game in the console when he tripped.
And now, even after college, on a lazy Wednesday night, my roommate and I will undoubtedly flip on the 64 for a few quick bouts of Smash. And it’s just as fun as it ever was 10 years ago.
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
I would have to say my #1 game of all time is the original Halo. As much as I do love Smash Bros (that game totally defined my senior year of college), I find myself much more drawn to the vs mode of Halo, and it’s nice to have the campaigns to fall back on when you’re alone or want something with some storyline and variety. I like the Xbox controller in general, but the controls for Halo are quite possibly the most intuitive I’ve come across in any game, which means while I’m playing, I totally forget I’m even pushing buttons. That’s the way a game should be – 007 and Smash require me to remain conscious of what my fingers are doing, but Halo just feels more organic.
In my mind, nothing will ever be more enjoyable than playing capture the flag with seven (for Hang ‘em High) or fifteen (Sidewinder) other guys in college, yelling up and down the hallway through our open doors as we spend an entire evening wrapped up in that game.
I loved the original Halo, health bars, fall damage and all. The only problem was that every match just turned into a pistol sniping spree 90% of the time.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] What’s your #1 game of all time? – [Double Kill] [...]
Metroid Metroid Metroid. When I discovered the Nesticle emulator during undergrad, I played 8-bit Metroid so much my GPA slumped. Well, not true, but it could have been.
Don’t fire me, but for whatever reason, I have never played a Metroid game. Not even the new ones. I barely even play as her in Smash Bros.
In response to another comment. See in context »Well, I think I just found an action item to add to your annual review.
In response to another comment. See in context »Sid Meyer’s Civilization. Nothing else even came close.
Agreed. The only exception might be Civ II. I still remember the advisers, esp. Elvis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFQDeYXq_iw
Civ III, no though.
I’d give honorable mentions to rogue (/usr/games yay!) and Trek on mainframes, Ultima Online and SimCity (the original) as the last two both spawned whole genre’s.
Rotten egg award to Outpost.
In response to another comment. See in context »SimCity was incredibly cool- or at least it was until we spent a semester of grad school dissecting the “causal relationships” and “leverage points” in the simulation.
In response to another comment. See in context »Way to kill a perfectly good game…
Pong. Still the king.
Oh God. This is the most unfair question in the universe.
I like Fallout 3 because it’s absolutely perfect except for the bugs. Fallout is followed closely by Mario Kart Double Dash, City of Heroes, Rome Total War, and Heroes of Might & Magic The Price of Loyalty Part II…
I never really got into Smash Brothers…
Yeah I was a big fan of Fallout 3, except I thought VATS got repetitive after a while, and I was frustrated by the level cap and the can’t-play-afterwards ending to the game (though I know that was fixed in DLC).
Otherwise, yeah I guess our tastes don’t really overlap! Unless you’re a closet Halo/Starcraft/Mass Effect junkie.
In response to another comment. See in context »I can understand VATS getting repetitive. I only really used it if something popped in my face and I freaked. I’ve never finished a single Resident Evil game because they just got too scary for me. If RE had something like VATS, then maybe yeah.
I’ve only played Halo at friend’s houses (I’ve never invested in an xbox) and I like it enough. Playing as the same type of character does get boring after a while though, and because I am not that familiar with the xbox controller, I found the controls for Halo especially difficult to learn.
In response to another comment. See in context »If you thought VATS was repetitive, you weren’t using the bloody mess perk. There is nothing repetitive about people losing their head and all their limbs from a bullet.
I also think that VATS is misunderstood. It is basically like an encounter in Final Fantasy, except you control it yourself and it isnt really annoying. It was, I suspect, one of the only ways for Bethesda to have the RPG elements of the game matter, and not make you really frustrated when you tried to headshot people in FPS mode and constantly missed.
Still thinking on my favourtie game.
-Peter
In response to another comment. See in context »MarioKart for the N64, four player battle mode. I still get flash backs to the four giant cubes and those diamond things you have to run over to get weapons. I just had the most fun(and probably spent more time, outside of sports games) video game experience playing the game. And sadly, in subsequent MarioKart versions for the Game Cube and the Wii, they’ve never been able to capture the competitive and strategic aspects of MK for the N64…They made battle mode pretty lame.
Close runner ups: James Bond for N64 and Perfect Dark…Smashbrother was also great…
Looking at my choices: Part of N64’s greatness was that it was the first time you could have really fast paced four player game play on a console.(Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was pretty ground breaking at the time.) I also associate those three games with the late 90’s and the substance abusing final few years of high school career, so perhaps my gaming experience was somewhat artificially augmented, thus postively impacting my memories, but I still really loved those games.
fallout three has got to be the most engaging rpg ever. although the bugs were and are still as of 2 hours ago somewhat annoying. Pretty much absolute freedom. And sometimes it does scare you at night when a goul jumps out of nowhere and punches you in the face
I’m going say Civilization – I don’t play video games all that much, but when I did, it was CIV all the time.
Jeff and Steve,
I would have to say I love Civ too. However, for some odd reason, Pirates was, and is one of my favorites. Combination of RPG, strategy, and action. Plus pirates. How awesome is that, right?
Having walked the plank at swordpoint many times in prior lives, I beg to differ about the “awesomeness” of pirates.
In response to another comment. See in context »hard question. Off the top of my head, this is seriously some of the first that come to mind: Landstalker, King’s Field, Mortal Kombat (Arcade original), Doom (DOS), Quake 1 (DOS / vanilla), Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Streets of Rage. But this is probably sentimental. Playing Policenauts (English patch) right now, and it’s really good… oh yeah, and Contra & Castlevania on the NES, Silpheed on the Sega CD…
Favorite game is a tough one. There are a couple that offer a couple different things. In terms of #1 game of all time, I would probably say that it’s a toss up, and both are shooters. The first is the modern, internet enabled Call of Duty games, for the story mode as well as the online replayability. The second is perhaps one of the cooler, if less appreciated games, and that is the Die Hard Trilogy game. As a young gamer, that was awesome cuz it offered first person shooter (option to use a gun), third person shooter, and driving game all in one.
N64 Mario Kart. No contest.
Mario Kart and Smash Brothers are high on my list, but the game that has sucked up the most hours of my life is Dr. Mario. My dad and I have an ongoing rivalry.
This is one of those impossible questions because it’s really hard to compare eras. If we’re just basing this mainly on the fun factor — meaning that the game itself never seems to get dull to play — then I’d probably go with something old-school, like Robotron: 2084 or Galaga. The reasons? 1) I’m old and 2) I’m old and 3) classic arcade games rule (yes, even Bubbles). But overall, the original Halo is the game I’ve likely spent the most time thinking about and playing, so I’m going to go with that as my #1 game. I’m a traitor to my generation.