A real "you had to be there" thing for kids in the 90s. Nowadays it's only worth revisiting for the surprisingly fun mini-games and expressive Pokémon animations. (What happened to those, GameFreak?)

In my twenties I watched a few of my close friends play this game for days on end while chain-smoking and telling each other to kill themselves, as their laptops overheated in the dead of summer. Never felt compelled to play, myself.

It's nice when there is a game that everyone has played by virtue of its ubiquitousness, like this or Pokémon Go. When I was in middle school the existence of Chrome Dino was kind of a schoolyard secret: "Did you know... ?"

A dangerous hub of online radicalization and intra-Latino violence. It's embarassing to get pinged for a match in a game whose controls you are barely figuring out. Love to be discriminated against for being on wi-fi.

I don't know how this Cross Channel Flash game (I have never read Cross Channel) became the hottest thing on the Internet for a while in the mid-2000s, but we sure spent many hours comparing our high scores on the Kingdom Hearts fan forums.

Ultra-stylish "rail-shooting adventure" and a pioneer in intellectualizing online otaku culture. One of the most "post-9/11" games ever. A cyber-noir wasteland of wandering neurotics. Hilarious and point-'n-clicky.

One of the very few games whose story is inextricable from its nature as a video game. A paranoid treatise on sequelitis, emulated violence, manufactured consent, and the Information Age. Weirdly prescient.

Deeply unorthodox shmup where every enemy can be turned into a unique weapon, detonated as a bomb, and used to get into laser-beam struggles with bosses. Sheer, low-poly psychedelia. Pretty tough.

Putting aside its dismally boring presentation, this is probably one of the best "revival" beat-'em-ups we've gotten, if only for its novel movement options (ground pummels, a super bar) and wisely short length.

The story behind its release is heartening, but it's a merely-fine arcade platformer. Very cute and colorful, but I personally can't get into the groove with its chunky hitbox and measly attack range. Fun animations, annoying music.

As usual for Irem it's got an outstanding, gritty look, but that can't save it from being a somewhat cheap and annoying beat-'em-up, especially towards the end. Still, it does look really cool. Love to smack a mutant with a concrete beam

The synced music, visual FX, power-ups, and Fever Mode make for an absorbing experience when you're in the zone. It worked slightly better with the DS's two screens, but the ports are still great. And it gets deceptively hard...

Love when a Tetris game makes me feel like I'm defusing a live explosive. This is a faultless and ruthless take on the classic format. T.A. Death is a great way to get nightmares. Pumping soundtrack and neat, industrial backgrounds.

It's Galaga, but they made the aliens cute and the backgrounds pretty. There's an end-stage now, and multiple endings based on performance. Love the cocktail-jazz tune that plays when you lose. That's Galactic Dancin'

The ultimate co-op Kirby experience, which at this point was basically co-op Smash Bros. The whole "you need to use that power on this obstacle" thing doesn't work with a four-player run, but it's good fun at least 90% of the time.