Facebook – Top 100 FAVORITE Video Games: “Nostalgia like Yo-stalgia… Nostalgia I know”

So, this is my final Top 10 list featured within the big 100. Starting tomorrow we enter into the top 5 games, but first I wanted to touch on something that I haven’t commented on, really… my favorite moments, personally, playing games throughout history. These ten (+ 1 Honorable Mention) events hold a place in my heart as being either significant or overly triumphant for reasons I’ll explain. So, have fun reading these!

Top 10 Personal Gamer Moments

10: Finally Beating the Hell Out of Xenosaga: Episode 1

*drool*

So I got the game right as it came out, way back when. I burned hours and days into that fucker. Then I was grounded from video games due to more time spent playing them then doing actual school work. Enter my brother, Pete, who played the ever living fuck out of the game, making it three times further than I did. In the final levels of the game, though, we crapped out. I don’t know if it was too difficult, if it was too boring, or what. But he stopped and, well, never picked it up again. All of that energy and love placed into the game and it was never finished.Fast forward a few years. I’m a Jr. in college and bored out of my gourd. What do I do? Get nostalgic after seeing one picture of KOS-MOS as someone’s banner on a forum post, and I’m right in the game. Not only do I beat it, but I collect the sequels and finish the stories, too. And, while completing the entire franchise in one burn-through is massively awesome enough, finally seeing the ending of the first game is what mattered the most. My hype levels for that game were so high, and fell to the wayside in favor of… who knows. To finally beat the game was noteworthy, for me, because it made that one less game I’ve started and never finished.

9: Beating the Shit Out of My Siblings at Games they were MUCH Better than me At

dbz: my brother mk64: my sister

Both my younger brother and my now deceased sister owned at these two games; Zak was king at DBZ and Sarah rocked the Mario Kart 64. I never stood a chance against either of them, usually, but here’s the thing: once I finally beat both of them at their own games, I retired… a la Bart Simpson retiring from that boxing game before Homer could beat him. It was luck in DBZ… for some reason I managed to whip the pants of Zak (I had practiced, but he had powers and abilities that made him harder to kill… cheating, technically) but once I finished him off, I quit playing.With Sarah, I must have just gotten so much better playing against her all those times. I don’t know how it happened, but through skill, determination – and possibly her letting me win (who knows) – I did it. Of course, I’d probably have gotten schooled again, but she had to go and pass away on us, leaving me the title holder. The saddest part is that I have not once played that awesome game since that victory. I’ll hold on to it for the rest of my life, though.

8: Beating the Fuck Out of Sephiroth

lvl 58 sword of compensation (yes, same joke that i used on zack)

I’m talking about Kingdom Hearts Sephiroth, here. He’s easily the hardest boss in the game, cheap as all hell, and has so much health that it takes about half an hour to actually beat him… if you aren’t getting hit, dying, or healing all the damn time. It got so maddening that I would eventually rise out of my seated position, standing in the middle of a room, stomping my feet, shouting swears… generally making an ass out of myself. After I finished him that first time, he’s been surprisingly easy ever since (probably because of all the power leveling I did by beating him over and over again) but my god did that first victory feel like a real goddamned accomplishment.

7: “Nintendo Days” or whatever we called them

i typed “1990” into google and keen was the first video game image that popped up

Wednesday and then the weekends. Those were the only days we could play video games back in yesteryear. It was a practice put into place so that we did our school work during the week (something that proved effective by the time that first Xenosaga game came out, huh?) and only played on that Wednesday night after our stuff was done. But, I mean, at that time all we had was an NES and Mario Bros., Spy vs Spy, World Games, etc. So it wasn’t like we were dying to see what happened next with those characters, struggling to get achievement points, or what have you.But for some reason, there was a chance I had – every now and again – to play on different days. I don’t know why these were presented to me, perhaps for good grades or something? But I could play on different days. OR! I could offer my free days to others. I did that from time to time, just to be nice. I don’t know why, but I was of the mindset that watching someone play was just as fun as playing myself. So, there you go: I wasn’t always a dick.

6: Shooting Teachers in the Face with Machine Guns After School

mr. cude was a bastard with turrets, i remember

This has bee mentioned by others – and myself, a bit – but after classes were out in high school, students and faculty alike would gather in the computer lab, boot up the machines, load up Team Fortress Classic, and away we’d go! It was just split teams, not students vs teachers or anything like that. We played every map, every class was covered, and everyone was a goddamned monster to each other, blasting each other away with abandon unseen in any other form of tolerated school violence.In a time in which people were made that Doom caused school shootings, we were there, every day, shooting our teachers while they shot at us, and each other. I assume we did it because it was fun, but they did it because it was the closest they’d get to strangling some of us. Who can say? In the end, I remember being blown away the first time I was invited to join, saw who I was to play with, and sat down to blow away my guidance councilor for the very first time.

5: Deathmatch at the Chloupek’s

not to be confused with the klopek’s from “the burbs” – staring tom hanks

There was a ton of thrill and adventure to be found over at the Chloupek household, once a weekend, every week. No time spent goofing off… it was time to immediately sit down and shoot each other every second we could in Goldeneye on N64. 1-on-1-on-1-on-1, for an unlimited number of hours every week. It was usually me, Steven Samson, the Chloupek brothers, and one Mr. Josh Helzer in a free-for-all to the death. Josh was infinitely better than the rest of us… primarily because, well, he just was. But the rest of us did what we could to keep up.I couldn’t tell you how many hours I ran around as Baron Samedi, strafing around Facility or Stacks, one-shot-killing every mother fucker that crossed my sights. I couldn’t tell you how many rulse we all had to come up with in order to make it agreeable for everyone. I couldn’t tell you how much laughing I did, playing with those guys, all the time. But I can tell you it was a blast.

4: 4AM? Time to Start Playing WoW

wow: when you never need to see your friends, lovers, or go to class

For some stupid reason my family and Justin would wake up at crazy ass hours to play World of Warcraft. I mean, sometimes it was so early that, by the time we’d finished, the days blurred together. Weekends were lost, days gone in the blink of an eye. I can’t tell you how many hours I put into the Bible Guys (we were all named after books of the bible), but it was intense. We never really got high leveled with those guys, never really got to the crazy parts of the game. But that’s not what those guys were for; they were for having fun family time.Scabbies, my human Pally… SHE was for leveling. Initially designed as a money maker for another team (meaning she just farmed and gained our guys extra cash), she eventually became my main, making it to the top levels of the game (pre-Cataclysm, mind you), seeing the things to see, etc. She was my true hero, in the end, being just a real motherfucker. After a nasty break-up, Scabbies was there for me. That is to say, after that relationship, I had Scabbies.

3: Jet Force What?

seriously… jet force what?

Jet Force Gemini was this game on Nintendo 64 by Rare. It was supposed to be this epic, great game that everyone could love. I rented it from Video Kingdom in Hastings, NE and popped it in my N64, played through the first level. The controls were great, the setup for the story was nice. But then I borrowed Final Fantasy VII from my friends my Samsons. From that moment on, I never even came close to touching that Jet Force whatsis ever again.I generally credit FF7 with giving me a rebirth into video gaming… I mean, in some ways, it started my giant drive into playing video games as more than just an irregular past time. But the real deal is that it was just well timed. What if I’d waited to play it? Jet Force Gemini is still revered as one of the greats from its generation, but I missed out entirely. It seemed like it would be great, but in the end, fell victim to being poorly timed. Alas, it was never played again.

2: Blazing through Metal Gear Solid 3 in One Sitting

“…when did the sun rise?”

I borrowed MGS3 from my younger brother’s friend Chris over an Xmas break during college. I’d just finished Half-Life 2 on my parents machine, it was around 11PM. I generally have a hard time getting the controls for a MGS game down right away, so I decided to boot it up and at least fuck around with the controls. What happened next was a whirlwind of sneaking, camo applying, stealth shit, and snapping necks. When it was all over, it was 1PM the following day and I’d beaten the entire, epic game in one sitting. With that, it cemented itself as the greatest MGS game (I’d played) and a true winner for only game I’ve finished in one sitting, the first time I’ve played it.If my younger brother hadn’t been there, I don’t think I could have done it, either. His presence is one of the things that made it what it was. He’s constantly present for great moments in my gaming history, or – at the very least – he’s someone who watches me play a lot of games. He helped me figure stuff out, failing – with me – to best The Sorrow my first time through (had to use GameFAQS). God bless, Zak. God bless.

1: Every Last Damn Moment of my Half-Life 2 Experience

jesus was it worth it all

As mentioned in my Half-Life post, my level of anticipation for the second Half-Life game was, is, and will likely forever be the highest in my gaming history. I did ridiculous things  while I waited for that game, most of which were chronicled on my – at the time – Half-Life themed Xanga account. When the game finally came out, I had an early copy of the damn thing, since the street date had been broken by a store. Best Buy dropped the collector’s edition on shelves, so I picked mine up, wore my shirt with pride. I got to play Counter-Strike: Source early, got to marvel at the contents of the box, and install everything up to a point. Then I had to wait.

I’d decided to wear a suit for the event. I’d done all my homework in advance, turned everything in I could, and knew I wouldn’t be going to class, to sleep, or to see friends for a few days. Then… it was on. I never left my college dorm room, never even left from my seat. I couldn’t be bothered to move. The most important game of my life demanded my full attention, and that’s what it got. Even the expansions were played while girlfriends wanted to talk. Half-Life 2 is one of the most important games in my life for a reason, though: its so damn good, lived up to the hype, and… well, I’ll just quit talking about it, now.

Honorable Mention: Every Last Star

rolling rolling rolling

I don’t know why we did it, but my older brother and I decided – a few summers back – to blaze through Mario 64 and collect every star, in order, by taking turns from star to star. The end result was a  mixed bag of fun, frustration, and quotable moments (hey, Pete: “It’s Chinatown!”) that saw us meeting Yoshi on top of the castle for the very first time. I would never trade that experience, my brother. My actual brother.

Sound off about your favorite personal moments in the comments below, yo!

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Added April 13, 2017
I honestly don’t think there is anything I’d change from this list. Maybe WoW wouldn’t make the cut anymore and would be replaced with “Binding of Isaac” saving my life. Maybe. I don’t know for sure. Or that would be the Honorable Mention and getting those Stars with Pete would make the official list.