Favorite Game of All Time
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Pikmin 2 started as a one-time rent at Blockbuster, and became basically my entire life as a child. I have played the game enough times to recall specific sublevels in almost every cave, and I can remember the names of stupid, barely noticeable enemies liked Unmarked Spectralids because I spent more than 30 hours staring at the Piklopedia. I used to make custom caves out of legos and me and my older brother would pretend random stuff in the house were Pikmin enemies. I made half of my childhood friends because of the love for Pikmin this game gave me. Life-changing experience and I hope to play it a hundred times more before I die.
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Honorable Mentions: Any Super Smash Bros. Game, Binding of Isaac, Metroid Prime, Hollow Knight

Favorite Series
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I have always been enamored with the Kirby franchise ever since I played Air Ride way back in the day. I was always drawn to the character designs, very simple and sometimes cute but nonetheless instantly recognizable, a trend I follow with most of my favorite games today. I love how Kirby games are both super easy and relaxing but also very satisfying and rewarding to just blaze through, and the lore may be, no joke, the most insane shit a Nintendo company has tried to pull off, it's mind boggling.
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Honorable Mentions: Persona, Super Mario, Pokemon, Rhythm Heaven

Best Soundtrack
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Danny Baronowsky comes in with one of the most consistently incredible OST's I have ever heard for a game. I think I can do a full run-through of every level from start to finish and not find a single song that I don't adore. Devil n' Bass is my current favorite track but I also love The Battle of Lil' Slugger (Extended Cut is so good), Betus Blues, Meat Golem, Dr. Fetus' Castle, and Carmeaty Burana.
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Honorable Mentions: Sonic Mania, Plants Vs. Zombies, NieR Replicant, Touhou Rhythm Carnival

Favorite Protagonist
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I can't talk too much about Sunny as it may lead to some spoilers, but I can say that despite technically being a silent protagonist, this character is written with one of the most compelling and emotionally impactful character arcs I have ever experienced, with a resolution that can inspire those who can't even relate even a little bit. While it seems that he is a self-insert for the player, the times where the game breaks this connection can be very harrowing, and you just want to give him a big hug by the end of it all.
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Honorable Mentions: Celeste (Madeline), Yakuza 0 (Kiryu Kazama), Resident Evil 4 (Leon S. Kennedy), Persona 4 (Yu Narukami but ONLY if you count the anime)

Favorite Villain
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Hades has one of the strongest auras of any fictional character I have ever seen. The minute he opens his smarmy mouth, your full attention is dedicated to the entirety of whatever sarcastic remark he has decided to grace you with this time. I frequently search up Best Hades Moments from this game just to laugh out loud at his ludicrous mood swings and passive-aggressive retorts. Amazed that the voice actor for him hasn't done more work in video games.
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Honorable Mentions: Metroid (Ridley), Danganronpa (Monokuma), Undertale (Flowey), It Takes Two (The Book)

Best Story
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Ok I get it, this story is literally just Romeo and Juliet but shut the fuck up! This silly Mario game with weird geometry characters turns the most tired out love story ever told into an emotional roller coaster that actually makes me cry by the end every time like a sad little baby. The way this game utilizes the idea of a looming apocalypse you can always see adds so much dramatic tension to your journey, and the twists and turns that transpire as characters switch sides and become infinitely more complex extract very complex emotions from your body. I will die by this judgement.
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Honorable Mentions: Persona 3, Undertale, NieR Automata, Zero Escape: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors

Have Not Played but Want To
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I technically have played this but only up to the first boss before stopping, as I ended up losing a lot of save data and the emulator I was using made the rhythm mechanic very difficult. I made the horrible mistake of watching the funny Vinesauce man's full play through of this game several years later, and now I truly realize what I was missing out on. Straight up one of the most interesting looking games I've seen, with a grim atmosphere that suits my tastes wonderfully and just an incredible presentation. I am so pissed that I ruined the whole game for myself and I am hoping I'll be able to play this properly when enough years have passed for me to forget most of the details.
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Honorable Mentions: Bug Fables The Everlasting Sapling, Wandersong, Silent Hill 2, Spec Ops The Line

I Love, Everyone Hates
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I went into Spore as a young child who had seen zero trailers for the game and did not follow its development at all. As such, this game exceeded all of my expectations for what I wanted out of a strange life-creation simulator. It let me make more than three hundred horrific abominations in the creature creator, it let me expand an ever-growing empire in the space stage, and some of the other modes don't suck either. The Galactic Adventures Add-On was a massive time-sink for me as I developed levels where you would murder giant McDonalds food items, or save Mr. Frog from a multi-stage fortress I designed. I even just made Mario Kart once which was neat. It's far from perfect, and far from what people expected, but I got exactly what I wanted.
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Honorable Mentions: Pokemon Sun, GoldenEye 007, Pac-Man Fever, Spyro A Hero's Tail

I Dislike, Everyone Loves
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I just straight up hate how this game controls. Trying to perform any modicum of platforming will often just lead to you careening in a random direction and plummeting to the ground. Most interactions with any entity in this game result in you falling on your ass, and many enemies in certain areas will set up camp around crucial objectives, leaving you no choice but to get your ass blasted five times to spray one wall. I could forgive these things if the game could be forgiving with me, but the main campaign is heinously difficult to the point where I rage quit several times on the second level. The music slaps though and I love being able to make custom graffiti.
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Honorable Mentions: Rain World, The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, Monkey Island 2 LeChuck's Revenge, Sonic Colors

Best Art Style
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I mean, what is there to say really. The animation is so accurate to its source materials that the fact a game like this can exist is honestly stunning. All of the bosses you fight are filled with hidden easter eggs and extra dabs of personality that enhance the goofy, charming atmosphere this game promotes. Of course, all of the character designs are very strong too, usually being based off of animals or inanimate objects, yet it works so well because of the style they chose. There's a reason all of the "What if this but Cuphead" pictures and videos just don't hit the same notes, as it seems the talent at Studio MDHR is unmatched.
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Honorable Mentions: Okami, Persona 5, LSD Dream Emulator, PUSS!

Favorite Ending
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It's no contest. There are few moments in video games more iconic than wrapping up every essential story beat with a single portal shot at the moon. It helps especially that Portal is a franchise where you are kept confined in small, artificial spaces, so when you actually see the moon you kinda freak out. A perfect resolution for two amazing characters and all concluded with Cara Mio Addio sung by turrets. This will never be topped.
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Honorable Mentions: The Beginner's Guide, Omori, NieR, Halo Reach

Favorite Boss Fight
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The final boss fight of this game may be one of the most bonkers, off the wall displays of pure spectacle that could ever be witnessed. A four phase gauntlet proceeded by two tangentially related multi-phase boss fights and followed by an extra secret phase if you're playing the final boss rush mode, you will experience a wide range of emotions from excitement to dread to sheer bewilderment. The fight starts as a space-faring robot computer before transforming into a planet-sized mechanism, and all the while you're jamming out to four different banger tunes as your eyes are assaulted with a beautiful rainbow-space aesthetic. Blows my mind every time I think about it.
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Honorable Mentions: Metroid Prime 2 Echoes (Quadraxis), Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom (Final Boss), Pokemon Black/White (Ghetsis), Hollow Knight (Pure Vessel)

Childhood Game
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I remember picking this up from a Gamestop solely because the cover art looked badass. Look at this glove jumping away from an exploding castle, I have to play it. What followed was me replaying the first three worlds of the game maybe over 50 times. Most of the time I wouldn't even beat the level, I would just find places to sit and look at the scenery while I listen to the music. For some reason I never grew tired of the ball's ridiculous physics or the insane platforming challenges not designed for a bouncing nuisance to navigate, and instead I just vibed, for it was all I knew how to do.
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Honorable Mentions: Sonic Adventure 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Pac-Man World 2, Everywhere Road Trip

Relaxing Game
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This is probably the only video game I've ever played that truly makes me feel relaxed, as it's not usually my top priority when playing games. Like if I want to relax I usually watch things, but Civ V is a game I can grab a drink and some food and just unwind with. The game seamlessly attaches your focus to every aspect of the world around you, as you manage numbers and negotiate with other countries all at your own pace. It's so nice to take things step by step and plan out options for your success in a 20 minute long turn, and considering that this game is very easy to get good at, it's safe to say that I very rarely feel stressed out playing it.
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Honorable Mentions: Fugl, Placid Plastic Duck Simulator, Vampire Survivors, Kirby's Epic Yarn

Stressful Game
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My social anxiety just will not allow me to play this properly. I'm already terrible at role-reveal games as it is, so I usually enjoy it when the fun comes more from wacky antics than the role-reveal game itself. Among Us is probably the most restrictive in that regard, which makes it a better game, but it also means that I am stretching every neuron in my brain at every vote trying not to look like a jackass. Not even listening to music while playing has helped quell the pit in my stomach that appears whenever I have to try and solve the smallest of mysteries. The game is great but my tired old brain can't handle another round.
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Honorable Mentions: CS:GO, Fall Guys, Rain World, Most MMOs

Game I Always Come Back To
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I started playing the original Binding of Isaac around the time that the Halloween update came out which added Krampus. From there, every single DLC or new game release has been an excuse for me to throw another hundred hours into the ring. Rebirth's release amazed me with its graphical overhaul. I have such strong memories of raging at greed mode when Afterbirth came out, and I was watching the subreddit piss and shit itself when Afterbirth+ was a few hours late to release. Repentance was my favorite game of 2021, and it's so weird for me to think back at the humble little flash game where I didn't beat Mom for the first time until twenty hours in. I pogged many times for brimstone and mom's knife, and I felt defeat at the hands of the Lost and Keeper enough times to break a man's soul. I think I'll be playing this game when I'm 80 years old, with my geriatric fingers trying to fight another horrible abomination the long-deceased Edmund has bequeathed onto me.
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Honorable Mentions: Team Fortress 2, The Jackbox Party Pack 3, Mario Party 6, Pac-Man Vs.

Guilty Pleasure
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The amount that I had fallen in love with this game when I first played it could be seen as concerning to uninformed spectators. I literally carried my 3DS around like a phone, but instead of opening it to check Twitter or something, I was checking in on my little community comprised of people I knew in real life and a pigeon. There were periods where me and a friend would hang out, and just regularly we would both open up our 3DS's to relay progress to each other. This game is some deranged science experiment.
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Honorable Mentions: Touhou Rhythm Carnival, People Playground, Holocure Save The Fans, My Pokemon Ranch

Tons of Hours Played
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Clocking in at over 775 hours played, I am amazed that the first game to ever reach that milestone for me ended up being a team based shooter. This game sucked hour after hour from me, either by grinding out Mann Vs. Machine with friends, playing on ridiculous gimmick servers like Higher Tower, 10x Servers, or TF2Ware, or just by the fact that I would leave the game on overnight frequently to idle for items. I hope to one day reach a thousand hours on this one.
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Honorable Mentions: Minecraft, The Binding of Isaac, Pokemon Y, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS

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THIS IS WHERE THE ORIGINAL QUESTIONS END AND THE NEW SILLY QUESTIONS I CAME UP WITH BEGIN
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Best Gaming Accomplishment
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The road to achieving 112% completion in this game is deceptively challenging, and something I would only ever try in one of my favorite games. The Trial of the Fool is a horrible, thirty minute enemy gauntlet that somehow managed to kill me at the same exact point twenty times in a row. Nightmare King Grimm was a very fun time, but the pantheons stole the show. The last pantheon filled with the ten most difficult boss fights ran me through the wringer, especially the last fight which took me a week to defeat, but it was all worth it to say that I fully completed this game. Maybe I'll update this later if I ever beat that secret pantheon.
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Honorable Mentions: The Binding of Isaac (100% in both games before Repentance), Super Meat Boy (The Kid Warp Zone), Bloodborne (The Orphan of Kos), Pokemon (I won a Pokemon Jeopardy at my first semester in college)

Most Pleasant Surprise
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I didn't have any expectations when hopping into this adventure. My thoughts were painted a bit by the terrible pre-release footage, but I was determined to wait until this game came out to judge it properly. I expected a perfectly reasonable time. What I did not expect was an obsession that lasted two months where I would voraciously hunt down streamers playing the game to see their reactions to the same boss I've witnessed over thirty times. The soundtrack has been branded into the folds of my brain, and the writing charmed me to such a degree that I am now more optimistic about the Sonic franchise than ever. Is the game good? I have no idea but I love it so much.
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Honorable Mentions: NieR Replicant, Psychonauts 2, Sid Meier's Civilization V, Terraria

Biggest Disappointment
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It's very rare for me that a game is not only disappointing, but genuinely awful. I had a very long history with Paper Mario before this game was released, having played the first half of The Thousand Year Door and loving it, and having watched Chuggaaconroy's Let's Plays of Paper Mario and Super Paper Mario. Needless to say I was a Paper Mario aficionado, and when the opportunity arose for me to be an early adopter for the next Paper Mario game, I was more than excited. My expectations were super high, and the game itself was very bad even divorced from the franchise, a massive roller coaster drop of disappointment. What made it even worse was that I spent my own money on this game, and since I was in High School at the time, that money wasn't coming back anytime soon.
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Honorable Mentions: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Spore Creatures, Animal Crossing City Folk

Frustrating Game
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I have never seen such a stark difference in quality between playing a game Singleplayer or Multiplayer. This game's Multiplayer is a fun, wacky romp where two people who have no idea what they're doing smack each other around until someone falls over. The singleplayer is a nightmarish gauntlet where you are subjected to the highest form of unfair game design possible. Whether it's Rodan who flies circles around you and picks up every item immediately as they spawn, or Destoroyah who can attack you even after you have been firmly planted into the ground and begging for mercy. All topped off with a fight against Mecha-Godzilla, the most busted character in the game who commands every moving entity on the stage to fire missiles at you. Unlocking one character is a herculean effort that I will never put myself through ever again.
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Honorable Mentions: Donkey Kong 64, Kirby's Dream Course, Mario Superstar Baseball, Super Mario Sunshine

Boring Game
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I feel like there are a lot of different reasons a game could be boring, some of which aren't entirely negative. There are games that I find boring purely because I played them way too much. This is not one of those games, in fact I don't think I've played 20% of Pac-Man World 3. Taking the 3D-platforming template left behind from the second game and mangling the concept until nothing but a brain-dead combat system remains may be one of the most objectively wrong decisions a studio ever made. Combine this with feature-length levels and a ghost-eating segment that appears every five minutes which locks you in place until it's completed, and you get the media equivalent of a jar filled with wet sand. If it wasn't for its amazing predecessor, I would not remember this game exists at all.
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Honorable Mentions: Overwatch, Spellbreak, Super Mario Party, Most Point-and-Click games

Most Likely Multiplayer Pick
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This one's weird because there is no way a game of Lights, Camera, Pants! could ever serve as a good party experience, considering the full campaign would last several hours and you always need the same people for the desired effect. On the other hand, I consider completing a four-player run-through of this game to be a personal dream of mine. I find it so interesting to have this competitive mini game collection, where the winners of certain areas will also win acting roles in the movie that will be completed by the end of the campaign. I would love to, after we finish every world, cook up some popcorn and have a viewing party where we all reenact that Leonardo DiCaprio meme where he points at the screen shouting, "That's ME!". It also helps that the mini games are fun in their own right and have distinct differences for individual characters at times.
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Honorable Mentions: Kirby Air Ride, Gartic Phone, Minecraft, Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart

Best Online Multiplayer
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This almost feels unfair because Garry's Mod, at least when only acknowledging the most popular additions, is still by a long shot the best online experience you can have with friends, and it's all because of those extra game modes. Trouble in Terrorist Town is the most fun role-reveal game I've played. Ultimate Chimera Hunt while being an awesome reference to Mother 3, is also an excellent asymmetrical multiplayer game where everyone must fight a horrid beast all controlled by players. You Touched it Last is hot potato but fun and Elevator is great if you want to be bored, but I think some of the most fun I've had has been just messing around in the Sandbox and showing everyone what strange creations I find. Only held back from greatness by an annoying price.
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Honorable Mentions: Gartic Phone, Left 4 Dead, Minecraft, Tabletop Simulator

Best Couch Multiplayer
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It's such a simple concept. You have three people who play as ghosts, and one person is Pac-Man. The Pac-Man player earns points by eating pellets, and if a ghost player kills a Pac-Man player, the ghost becomes Pac-Man. This game could be yours too as long as you have a GameCube and a Game Boy Advance with the adapter to the GameCube, but once the set up is all done, it's a barrel of fun. A great game to either have loads of fun with, or a way for you and your friends to just shoot the shit. Just be prepared to hear the music on the player swap screen for a prolonged period of time if anyone needs a break.
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Honorable Mentions: Mario Party 6, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, The Jackbox Party Pack 3, Super Smash Bros.

Scariest Experience
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You may think a Resident Evil game would be an obvious choice, but this fourth entry is surprisingly placid in comparison to some of the later games. This does not make the Regenerator Zombies you encounter in the last world any easier to cope with. Just imagining a freakishly tall, rubber-skinned humanoid creature lumbering towards me is a ghastly thought, and the additional fact that the creature is nigh invincible does not help things. I remember I was somewhat young when I played this game, and I would have moments where I would imagine the breathing of regenerators in my own house, or hallucinate a regenerator turning the corner on one of my hallways. I can only name a handful of things in media that have gotten under my skin long after I was finished with them, and Resident Evil 4 can claim one of those fingers from me.
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Honorable Mentions: Walking, Dead Space 2, Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning, Super Smash Bros. Melee

Funniest Experience
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It's very easy to laugh at a game when the humor comes from those you play with, or when you're laughing at the expense of the game itself. It's way more difficult for a game to get me to laugh purely from the content on screen, and Psychonauts was a game that achieved the wondrous belly laugh we all dream of. I actually do not like the Milkman Conspiracy as a level. Playing through it was a bit of a frustrating experience, but it was all worth it for the final cutscene. One of the longest levels of the game ends up having a glorious payoff, with a psychotic milkman and a couple boxes of Molotov milk bottles. The sheer amalgamation of explosions, flying bodies, and some of the most memorable quotes in video games as a whole made me lose my mind, and while it was over far too soon, perhaps this was for the best as to not let the joke grow stale. It was a short moment, but it certainly was delicious.
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Honorable Mentions: The Stanley Parable, Undertale, Frog Fractions, Portal 2

Best First Impression
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The instant you create a save file for this game, you are thrown into an action sequence that switches genres, kills off characters, and ends in a multi-stage giant robot boss fight. You get to see cinematic cutscenes filled to the brim with so much spectacle, you've probably already seen them in tangentially related video essays. This intro also let's you go all out with your attacks in the gameplay introduction, and you have so many tools to play with considering the game has only been on for about five minutes at this point. As long as you don't die at any part of the level (which will force you to start from the beginning, you have to allow it to happen thanks to the auto-heal), you will have more hype than you could possibly contain for the remaining thirty hours.
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Honorable Mentions: Psychonauts 2, Untitled Goose Game, Bloodborne, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Best Voice Performance
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Honorable Mentions: Portal 2 (Wheatley; Stephen Merchant), Persona 4 (Kanji Tatsumi; Troy Baker), Kid Icarus Uprising (Hades; Stuart Scott Bullock), NieR Replicant (Grimoire Weiss; Liam O'Brien)

Best Commercial/Trailer
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I love a funny commercial just as much as the next shmuck, so it's very interesting to me that my favorite trailer for any game takes itself 100% seriously. It perfectly encapsulates everything you will encounter throughout the game, but more importantly, gives these elements one of the best backing tracks I've heard in my life. The song that plays is amazing and I am so mad that it doesn't ever actually appear in Sun or Moon. All of it is ok though, because whenever I rewatch the final act, where the Z-moves flash back-to-back in time with the beat, I get so much power that no other silly commercial could ever hope to replicate.
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Honorable Mentions: Mario Superstar Baseball, Kirby Canvas Curse, Super Smash Bros. N64, Omori

Best game to play on Tuesday, April 3rd 2018 while in bed with a stomach bug but you desperately wanted to go out with your college friend, Tim but you’re stuck in bed
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There are a lot of shocking similarities between the description of this prompt and what I was actually doing at around this point in time. I did get the flu not one month earlier, and while I have no college friends named Tim, I think I did meet a guy named Tim during this time period. The one game that sticks out to me as an early 2018 game would be Kirby Star Allies, as I was too busy to play anything that wasn't a Kirby game. It was fine.
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Honorable Mentions: Super Mario Odyssey, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Sonic Mania, Arms