Moving to: m/AskMbin!

Jet Set Radio Future on the original Xbox.

I just love everything about it.

Mine are purely sentimental and I don’t expect anyone to agree, but the original monkey island, the original fallout or Baldurs Gate 1. They all have arguably better sequels but playing those games for the first time was something else.

This was a tough one, but I think I've finally settled on Super Mario Kart.

It's not the best game in the franchise, but I think it's still my favourite, and the game I still have the most hours put into ever.

It's been 30 years of play now, and ongoing.

Mario Kart 64

Final Fantasy IX

I just love it. The cast, the writing, the music, not a perfect game but for me a perfect story, a perfect experience.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This was just a groundbreaking game. I know the graphics aren't as nice as Skyrim, but the world has more depth and the guilds are all full games in themselves.

Such a big open world, fully populated with flora and mystical fauna (Minotaurs and unicorns), an endless supply of side-quests.

Oblivion destroys Skyrim in the following places:

• Much more interesting and in-depth Thieves Guild, Assassin's Guild, Fighter's Guild, and Mage's Guild.
• Being a vampire is infinitely better than being a goddamn werewolf
• Skyrim leans too heavily for the Nord race, while Oblivion's story leaves race selection more open-ended. I always want to be an Argonian but it felt weird to be an Argonian in Skyrim.

The Binding of Isaac.

Team Fortress Classic. The game was fun but the modding community really took it to the next level.

It's a tie between Wildermyth or Yakuza 0.

Two games that tell their stories in wildly different ways. Yet, they both got me to feel some serious emotions.

EarthBound

Burnout 3: Takedown

Freespace 2 (I’m old). Still one of the most compelling story’s I’ve enjoyed in a video game to date.

Command and Conquer, it's one of the few things I can remember fondly sharing with my dad growing up. Also it has such a great soundtrack.

Disco Elysium

Witcher 3 is, for me, the best single player game I've every played. Though Ocarina of Time comes a close second - and I never even played it on release only years later when I bought an N64 at uni.

For multiplayer, however, you can't beat Halo with a load of mates round and a crate of beer.

I'm going to say The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for personal reasons.

When I was playing it, I was getting therapy for clinical depression. Breath of the Wild's entire structure really helped me process my depression and contextualise my issues, and I honestly think it helped me a lot more than would any game that is actually about depression.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped will always have a special place in my heart

Unreal Tournament '99.

I spent hours playing on instagib servers and also replaying the 'campaign' as a kid. It was the first game I likely logged over 100 hours on.

System Shock 2

Many games come close for me... Mass Effect, Zelda Link to the Past,, Factorio and Homeworld would round out my top 5 for instance. But System Shock 2 was my first immersive sim game. It started a love affair with the genre that I'm still trying to scratch 25 years later.

There were many spiritual successors, with Arkane's Prey being the closest approximation I've found. Nightdive just released the original System Shock's remake a month back, so the wait for them to announce they're giving SS2 the remake treatment is torture.

I can't really name a single one that would be THE one. But the one I returned to the most over the years was the original Dragon Quest Monsters.

I had it on my Game Boy since I was in elementary school and even then played through it multiple times. Later I played through it multiple times on emulators. I just love this game so much.

It has a lot of flaws, starting with the limitations of a Game Boy game, but later games and other monster collectors never captured my heart like this one did.

Road Rash

As I've gotten older and have less time to commit to competitive gaming, cooperative gaming still lets me enjoy challenging multiplayer experiences without having to worry about ELO or keeping up with the current meta as much.

As much as I love Helldivers (and I am very excited for the sequel coming out later this year), Deep Rock Galactic is undeniably the champion of the cooperative gaming genre. You can jump into almost any lobby of random players and be rocking and stoning together instantly. Deep Rock Galactic features many game mechanics that just naturally result in cooperative play, without the need to rely on voice or text communications (though, voice and text are available and used).

Not to mention that the devs are really really amazing. Seasonal updates always come free of charge. They have a battle pass system that is 100% free that just rewards cosmetics. If you don't get battle pass cosmetics by the end of the season, you can still earn all the cosmetics at a later date. The only DLC on offer are cosmetic packs, which are really cool, but the cosmetics you can earn in-game are also really cool. There's no pressure at all to spend more outside just buying the base game. I deeply appreciate them and how they conduct business.

Being totally honest, I don't think I can just settle on one game like that. I play different games for different reasons, and what genre/titles I've played the most has varied a lot throughout my life.
Up there, however, is Dark Souls, as well as League of Legends (despite all the issues I have with it, it's sucked me back in for over a decade now).

Morrowind. Morrowind's world just feels alive and as someone who knows the game inside out that game just feels home

Is it even possible to pick just one?

Several of my favorite gaming experiences are one-time, non-repeatable. Solving the Return of the Obra Dinn is up there, but it couldn't possibly be my favorite game because I can never experience it again.

Playing Dark Souls for the first time is the same thing. Discovering the world, finding the intricacies of the interconnected map, struggling with and overcoming challenging areas and bosses. The relief of unlocking shortcuts and the amazement at the maps connectivity. It was the first game of it's type I played, and it was phenomenal, but coming back to it never matches that first playthrough. And let's be honest, the bosses feel downright mundane after having played the later releases.

Disco Elysium affected me in a way no other game has. Its themes are so relevant to me that it struck me on a very personal level and it was an incredibly cathartic experience that will stay with me forever the way any great book would. I actually found it more enjoyable the second playthrough too, however, is it really even a game?

The original Legend of Zelda on the NES. It fully captivated me as a child. I remember taking the game map to school with me and my friends would circle trees that could be burned or rocks that could be bombed. Such fond memories.

I wouldn't live where I live if it weren't for Team Fortress 2. So I'll have to say that.

Dishonored, I absolutely adore that game, and it still looks so good because of the art direction they took with it. Funny enough, it was the same art director as Half Life 2

Trials of Mana. Actually the whole Mana series were completely unique and very innovative when they first released. But the combination of story telling, party building, and combat system still hasn't been topped for me. The games are something I always have ready to emulate at all times. Fingers crossed they decide to remake the rest of the Mana series. Legend of Mana needs some love even though I remember most people weren't really keen on building their own world.

The Tales series was probably the closest before the switched from 2D to 3D. The switch, I thought, took away a lot of what made them stand out from other jrpgs in the market.

My close 2nd is Legend of Dragoon since it actually changed the combat system in a really meaningful way. Legend of Legaia also did something similar but I thought the storytelling was better in Legend of Dragoon.

Soul Sacrifice still needs some love. It's only downfall was releasing on such a niche system like the Vita. It actually moves the MH formula forward in a really interesting manner by forcing you to make really interesting choices in the story.

Lots of great games have been mentioned but wanted to include two recent masterpieces:

• Hollow Knight. It's such a fantastic ride, such a rich world, such great characters, and such a terribly sad but somehow poetic plot. Getting that game even today at full price is still a steal.
• VA-11 HALL-A: You're just a background NPC in a big cyberpunk adventure, nothing you do has anything to do with the main plot, you only get glimpses of it, and the story is essentially the mundane life of this person and not much else. Yet it's so rich and interesting and fun! And the music is awesome.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX. The originals were the games that made me realize gamrs could make me feel things, and DX is literally just them but with QoL changes.

Pokemon Sapphire

Asteroids. I shudder to think how many quarters I spent playing that game. Sometime I’ll have to see if there is some retro arcade out there where I could go play it again.

The thing that made me fall in love with classic video games: SMB3 (NES)

Favorite game that got me into the next iteration: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. With a nice helping of a Perfect Dark as a palette cleanser.

More modern: I've got about 1000 hours into Skyrim and have played Diablo 3 more than I'd like to admit.

I'm massively looking forward to Starfield.

@GeekFTW Duck Hunt and Zelda A Link to the Past on SNES. Core childhood memories with family.

There’s too many to list but Zelda 2 was the first game I finished. It was a collaborative effort, using a book, but my friend Frosty and I stayed up all night (this was in junior high so this was a big deal) and finished it. Fond memories.