My Five Favorite Video Games

There is a tweet making the rounds this morning asking people to name their five favorite video games. This is a little difficult but not a bad exercise in getting me writing again.

I'm rating my favorite things games on aspects of fun, competitiveness, social interaction, and nostalgia. So for example in college I played NHL 99 and 2000 with my roommate for hundreds of hours and it registers pretty high on the social interaction, nostalgia, and competitiveness scale but I wouldn't place it very high on the actual fun/pleasure from playing scale.

Here we go.

1. Super Mario Bros 3

This is a no brainer and clear number one choice for me. The game is almost endlessly fun with new and secret things to discover. Its pretty competitive and took awhile to beat. The social component was there from the beginning. I had an elementary school teacher, who also owned a video game store (coolest teacher ever), and she got SMB3 before it was in stores, brought it in and let us play it. Needless to say, I was hooked from an early age. My wife also loved SMB3 so when we got a Wii we played it together all the time too. With as many memories attached this game as I have, it might be the most nostalgic video game ever for me.

2. Guitar Hero

Full disclosure: I'm almost 40, a father a four, a pastor at a church and I'm better at Guitar Hero than you. How do I know this? I spent waaaay too much time playing it and mastered just about every song on Expert level. I was introduced to the game officially by my good friend Matt Townsend who promptly embarrassed me with his skills. They didn't hold up though, as I absolutely destroyed him a bit of time later after I learned the game. Love you Matt!

3. Street Fighter 2

4. Madden

5. 007 Goldeneye

Honorable mention goes to Rad Racer, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Bowling, TMNT (the arcade version), and Tiny Wings on iOS.