Nightmare.

Played through the entire game (with quarters!) Back in the late 90s as an 8 year old, myself, a fellow 3rd grade friend, and two of our summer camp junior counselors played through this game all the way at the arcade, rotating 2-and-2 when we died...one of those epic memories where I have to give 5 stars for the special place in my heart.

My most played game. 2156 hours tracked via Xfire, with an estimated ~2000 more before/after the Xfire days. The only MMO that would run on my laptop in middle school completely won my heart and was an integral part of my life until I finished high school. Made some great friends and memories. Bera pride.

A valentine's day gift from Mom long, long ago. Top-tier writing, catchy music, and I love the turn-based combat with timing elements. It's got that Nintendo polished feel you expect from all mainline Mario games. Deserves another play-through someday soon.

One of the highlights of my first professional job was having an office-wide Mario Tennis power ranking that ran for months after I brought my Wii into the conference room one day. Thank you to all clients who put up with late work because of our five-set matches.

Low-key one of the most fun racing games of the era. Peak track design and surprisingly fun-to-drive cars thanks to the good handling.

I still haven't played a ship shooter since that felt quite this good.

The experience of transferring Pokemon over from the Game Boy games as a child and seeing them realized in 3D was probably the closest I've ever been to feeling like Pokemon were real. Also, Clefairy minigame.

Mario Golf as a compelling RPG, with one of my top 10 favorite soundtracks of all time...this was a game I kept coming back to as a child, and I still find myself humming the songs today. It was my first exposure to the genius of Sakuraba, but thankfully not my last.

We were already in a frenzy with Pokemon cards back in 1998...then they threw in RPG elements and an unbelievably catchy soundtrack and my 7-year old mind exploded.

My first Pokemon. I still remember exactly where I was standing on Planet Earth when I became the Champion for the first time.

Childhood-defining turn based strategy with lovable characters, each with their own special abilities and catchy theme song. Great replayability thanks to branching campaign paths; figuring out S rank on all missions is no joke! Smart multiplayer for the era (we had link cables, but being able to pass around a single GBA was clutch). One of my all-time favorites.

One of my first exposures to Final Fantasy. As a kid I was totally hooked on the job system, and didn't put the game down until well after mission 300 was completed. Even though it's not a mainline FF, the music is right up there with the most memorable soundtracks in the series. Not the strongest story in the series either, but memorable characters like Montblanc make up for it.