I’m older now and don’t play video games anywhere near as much as I used to; but I still have a lot of love and respect for them. This is despite the fact that many people still believe that they are nothing but a waste of valuable time. Just creating a top quality game today can take several years of work and a team comprising of hundreds of people. Yes, more time and resources than producing some big Hollywood movies.
Nevertheless, back in the day the games I played were nowhere close to the aforesaid scope; but they surely provided large doses of relaxation and amusement. While many of these games were easily forgettable, a few stayed with me and will likely remain in my memories for the rest of my life. The games on this list helped me grow, survive challenging periods and ultimately made me a better person. Below are 12 video games that got me though life.
12. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
This is unquestionably one of the best games of all times. I played this game more than any other a few years after it hit the Nintendo system in 1990. I played it with my mom (who also loved it). And I played it with my mom’s friends, Mrs. Bernadette and her husband, Uncle Tony.
The game was fun, moderately easy and made me feel at peace. This peace came not just because I felt a sense of relief upon stomping on winged goombas. It came more so because for years I was able to use a single video game to effortlessly bond with adults multiple times my age.
11. Vagrant Story (Playstation)
Picture being sick at 14 years old with a mysterious illness that made you feel like sleeping for 20 hours; and no matter how much you slept, you still felt like sleeping for 20 more hours when you woke up. This went on for weeks. The only thing that kept my mind off whatever had been happening to me was watching my bro play Vagrant Story on the Playstation daily.
My amusement came from seeing him consistently try to figure out how to chain combos while “minimizing risk”. And jumping on annoying platforms that couldn’t seem to stay still. And when the game’s first boss music came on and that giant Minotaur suddenly appeared on screen, boy did I no longer feel to sleep.
10. Double Dragon 2: The Revenge (NES)
This was another classic Nintendo game that I would never forget because I was so young. My bro used to inveigle me to team up with him to try to beat the game on the Supreme Master difficulty, which was quite a pain at the time for a little boy and a teenager.
And don’t get me started on Mission 6; this was that shadow-like level with disappearing platforms and spikes beneath them. It was a nightmare to pass this level by “lucky jumping” and then to die right repeatedly at the start of Mission 7 on the next jump.
Teamwork eventually allowed us to best this game. But in the end it was a good lesson in why it’s best to develop patience till you finally succeed. Double Dragon 2 also left me with a particular nostalgia; back then it was so easy to just pull a chair and chill with my bro. No appointments were needed, no questions asked!
9. Shadow of the Colossus (Playstation)
This game inspired many people for different reasons. From its artistic form, game-play, originality and orchestral music, all of these were indeed inspirational. But what moved me most was actually the story. For most of the game there appeared to be very little story and voice overs yet the ending completely made up for it.
Shadow of the Colossus taught me the true power of “less being more”. It also taught me a very powerful lesson about life and death, hate and love and knowing when and how to make sacrifices. After all, in this life, everything is not always what it seems.
8. Einhander (Playstation)
Why is a 2D side-scrolling shooter on this list? One word: music! I’d first stumbled across this gem while playing it at a Playstation video arcade where you had to pay $1 per hour to play any game of your choice. Einhander was often my choice because it was unique, fun and engaging; it was also one of the most challenging games available at the time. It also had a decent storyline, which was not common in the 2d side-scrolling shooter genre.
But in going back to the challenging part, the further you reached in that game the more it seemed that the beautiful techno music, occasionally mixed with German voice overs, kept getting better and better. It wasn’t long because the entire OST got added to my playlist, which I’d been listening to while writing this. With tracks like Shudder, Badlands, Factory, Madness, Bloody Battle, Impatience, Thermosphere (personal favorite) and Zero Gravity, who can blame me? The music keeps me pumping and fuels me to consistently engage in my own arts.
7. Super Metroid (SNES)
This is a game that makes the top of most “best of all times” list for a combination of reasons. It is seen as being a masterpiece because as a game it got all the formulas right. The place it holds in my life is because I’d only owned a Nintendo when I was a child. And Super Metroid was one of the first Super Nintendo games I saw and played at a friend’s house. It was better than anything I’d ever seen on Nintendo at the time and I fell in love with it.
15 years later I was finally able to play the game whenever I wanted via emulator; it was then it hit me that without Super Metroid half of the games on this list may not exist. Sometimes you hold something so valuable in your hands that even while you feel it’s valuable you still don’t realize just how much it’s truly worth. This masterpiece needs no justification. Today, it serves as a constant reminder. It’s best not to let go of the things that make you feel alive.
6. Chrono Chross (Playstation)
I am almost certain that this game has not inspired anyone in the same way as it did for me. This game is known by many, especially for it’s well balanced gameplay, rpg elements, interesting worlds and large cast of characters. Yes, I enjoyed these things most. But I remember being a teenager and playing this game at a particular point and something unusual just randomly jumped out at me.
I can’t remember the exact moment but I do remember roaming through Mount Pyre and one of the speech bubbles came up when a character spoke. An unfamiliar word stood out to me; I don’t know what triggered it but I just had to look it up. Since then, I’ve had an impulsion for researching almost every word I don’t know the meaning of the moment I see it.
It was only later on in life I realized the true value of what Chrono Chross sparked within me. The game silently began a very long process of influencing me to follow my dreams. In these dreams, I eventually become one of the best Writers on the planet.
5. Castlevania: Symphony of The Night (Playstation)
I remember purchasing this game on a whim while I was in my early teens. The reason? It it was given 5 out of 5 stars in a hard copy of a video game magazine. The game was highly recommended. But when I popped the disc into my Playstation and started the game I was highly disappointed to see 2d graphics that reminded me of Super Metroid; it was the 32/64 bit era of gaming after all so this was unexpected.
The actual game started off pretty slow. There was no music playing in the background … and then the Prologue track starting playing. My first thought was: a game that looks this ancient with this high quality of music? But I kept playing. And it didn’t take long before it became evident that the game also had a strong story. There was just this simple, yet artistic flair about it. The more you played, the more you kept wanting to play and discover more. More weapons, spells, power ups, pathways, secrets and so on.
40 hours later, after finding as much as you could, you then found yourself wishing the game didn’t have to end as yet. And then … just like that you stumble across a little secret that reverses the entire world and lets you extend the game for yet another 40 hours. Your biggest dream comes through!
This game thought me a lot about having faith. It also happens to be the only game that I remember particularly because of a scripture the main antagonist makes reference to: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36. Thank you, Castlevania! Thank you for forever reminding me why I should always keep my soul.
4. Metal Gear Solid (Playstation)
Oh, ye Metal Gear Solid. What would we do without you? Undoubtedly one of very few games that even to date is possibly still better than most of today’s action movies. From start to finish, Metal Gear Solid impresses with its cinematography, voice acting, visuals and intriguing soundtracks. As a stealth/action game, in 1998 it checked all the boxes and raised the bar for the overall experience I had ever expected to get from playing a video game.
Most importantly the game had some of the most bizarre-thinking characters ever to be found in one place. But then you started questioning if you might be the crazy one once you realized you just might agree with the twisted ideologies of some of the game’s lunatics. These characters challenge the fine line between what’s right and wrong; they helped me stop seeing the world as being black or white. And the game’s final soundtrack, “The Best is Yet to Come” is also so emotionally meaningful it may very well be capable of reviving lost souls.
3. Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
By the time I played this Kingdom Hearts I was a seasoned RPG gamer and had already played most of the greats. I was highly skeptical about touching this specimen; I was almost 20 years old. And there was Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy starring as main characters. Really? What would people think? What would I think of myself for playing a game like this?
About 50 hours later, I thought: My word, this game is freaking awesome! I can’t stop playing this thing! Words can’t describe how much this game stayed with me for several years. The game had everything: adventure, great music, good gameplay, romance and an unlikely amalgamation of Disney characters that just worked. It was the perfect reminder why you should never judge a book by its cover.
2. Persona 4
Persona 4 is this high on the list for one main reason. It was one of few things that got me through one of the toughest periods of my life. I had been unemployed for a while and freelance work was thin. I’d also been out of touch with almost all of my friends. And everyday after sending out dozens of resumes and cold calling companies I would sit down and play Persona 4 for hours.
I got hooked on this game because of the solid role playing elements; you were able to spend time naturally building virtual friendships and relationships the more you interacted with characters. Some would frown or argue that one could have been doing so much more with their time, given the situation. On the other side of that, I also could have chosen to be an alcoholic, drug dealer, robber or beggar. Because I was that frustrated about life after feeling like a chronic failure.
Think what you wish about me or the game. But during my darkest days Persona 4 once felt like the only “friend” I could count on.
HONORABLE MENTION
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (Various systems)
I had this thing back in the day that “easy mode” in games was for wimps; to me unless you beat the game on the toughest difficulty you couldn’t truly call yourself a king. So I increased the difficulty to the highest level while playing the classic Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo via Playstation. Then I spent several hours being defeated by one opponent after the next.
I can still feel the annoyance when I think of Zangief and his “two bite kills” or Sagat and his barrage of “tigers”, followed by a “tiger uppercut”. After more loses than I could count, I eventually made it to the suspected final opponent: M. Bison. And it was here that true frustration set in.
No matter how many attempts I made to defeat Bison, I just couldn’t. It seemed that almost every move he made was a psycho crusher; this just made me more “psycho” and feel to crush him more. I had become so enraged, that after seeing M. Bison win yet another time I just flung the controller at the Playstation.
What happened next was unexpected. The system immediately shut off and thereafter refused to turn on. Maybe I had “won” at that point but M. Bison surely got the last laugh. I tried much harder to control my unexpected rage after that day. Because fixing a Playstation as a teenager certainly wasn’t cheap!
1. Final Fantasy 7
True gamers are either jumping for joy right now or pretty annoyed with me for listing this game as #1. I’ll get straight to the point. Whatever someone’s reason for loving or hating Final Fantasy 7 (which was me at one point), I’d be lying if I said that any other game had as much impact in my life. This game made me feel like I was in a different world. And it is because of that (and playing most of the other FF games in the series) I was eventually able to consider that this world can truly be whatever I make of it.
Hands down, everything about this game influenced me to become much of who I am today. I am more open-minded, imaginative, creative, intellectual and patient (yes, turn base battles are still cool!), to name a few. And all this came because one day I decided to just suck it up and ignore the naysayers; I gave Final Fantasy a serious try.
It may be hard for many to accept that this game did so much for me. But it’s easy for me to do so considering that listening to the game’s music alone, 20 years later, is usually enough to put me in the strongest mental zones to create my own moneymaking fantasies.
