Going through these games is really reminding me that the years in which I played the most games are far behind me. Sure, today I have more money so I can buy a lot more games, but the amount of time I give to each video game is vanishingly small. Almost every game on this portion of the top 10 was released between 2000 and 2010, when I was between the ages of 10 and 20. Being an adult sucks sometimes!

90 – Pokémon Snap

Year Released: 1999 | Platform: Nintendo 64

I really don’t know who, in the height of Pokémon craze, thought “Battling and catching Pokémon is boring. We need more photography games!” and yet, they were right! Pokémon Snap is incredibly accessible and offers a unique way to explore a 3D Pokémon world without the usual RPG elements. It’s so engaging that even my sister, who usually isn’t into Pokémon games, loved it. The gameplay is straightforward: you move on rails, passing by various Pokémon, and you need to snap their pictures at just the right moment to score points. There are even tricks to get the Pokémon to pose in certain ways, or get them to interact with the world around them, or even with each other.

The real joy of Pokémon Snap comes from the pride of capturing that perfect shot, much like in real-life photography. Back when the game was released, there were kiosks where you could turn your photos into stickers by inserting your Nintendo 64 cartridge. Sadly, growing up in the middle of nowhere meant I never got to make my own stickers, but the game itself was a blast and a memorable part of my gaming journey.

89 – Tales of Xillia

Year Released: 2011 | Platform: PlayStation 3

Buckle up, because you’re going to be hearing about a lot of games from the “Tales of” franchise on these lists. I won’t belabour every game by going over the trademark Linear Motion Battle System each time. What makes Tales of Xillia special is the locations, they’re the most imaginative of the entire franchise. I also really loved the way they played with the incarnation of Maxwell in the main character, Milla (for those who don’t know, Maxwell is usually an end-game summon in the Tales of games). I thought Tales of Xillia had quite a fresh, more modern world than most of the Tales of games up to this point, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game, even if the story was a bit slow to get started.

I somewhat lament that Tales of Xillia is locked to the PlayStation 3. I mean, I have the console and the disc, so I could hook it up and play it, but that would require me going down to my garage, and that just seems like a lot of effort these days.

88 – Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Year Released: 2002 | Platform: PC

Growing up, we had the family PC in the living room, with it’s MASSIVE 32GB of storage and 256MB of RAM. Needless to say, it was not a gaming device. And my family didn’t really dive into PC games, as we had the Super Nintendo for video games. When I was in my final year of high school, the graduates fundraised all year, and we managed to purchase a Dell Laptop for each of the graduates (there were only 3 of us after all). Once I had that laptop, I finally had the chance to go back and play some of the greatest hits that PC gaming had to offer, and one of my favourites was WarCraft 3.

Surprisingly, consoles are awful at RTS mechanics, so it was a genre I never really dove into. But playing WarCraft 3, and it’s expansion, I can see why it was so revered. I never ventured into playing against other people, but the single player campaign was engrossing, the gameplay was exciting and tactical, and to this day I’m quite fond of my time playing WarCraft 3.

Sure is a shame that World of Warcraft just prints money, because I really don’t like MMOs…

87 – Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

Year Released: 2007 | Platform: Nintendo DS

Spoiler Alert, you’ll see Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced higher up on the list, but FFTA2 was a really great follow-up to an utterly stellar game. While on the easy side, I loved so much about what this entry enhanced. More classes, more abilities, more character types, a bigger map, more equipment, it’s everything a player should want, right?

I was disappointed in the story, which was significantly worse than its predecessor. I also found the auction house mechanic to be an unnecessary diversion. But even still, FFTA2 is one of the best tactics games around, and is actually the game I’m playing as I was creating this whole list.

86 – Yoshi’s Cookie

Year Released: 1992 | Platform: Super Nintendo

Now this is a classic that my mom and I played the ever loving heck out of. And a real hot take here, I always enjoyed this more than Dr. Mario.

Yoshi’s Cookie is a simple puzzle game. You move cookies on the X and Y axis until cookies of the same type stretch all the way across the cookie grid, then they clear. As you play, cookies descend from above and from the right, adding to your grid. Each level is cleared when all the cookies have been cleared.

The sound effects in Yoshi’s Cookie are wildly distinct, and to this day, I can still here the bright and cheery chirp that happens when a line of cookies clears. I don’t think it’s really worth going back and playing today, but I still harbour significant nostalgia for this clever puzzle game.

85 – SoulCalibur II

Year Released: 2003 | Platform: Nintendo GameCube

When I was creating the list of games that would go into the lists, then looking at all the amazing games that got cut, I consoled myself with the thought that sometimes, I would say that an entry for a game stands for the whole series, and that’s how I feel for SoulCalibur II. I chose this edition, because it’s the one I played the most, although I did play a significant amount on my friends Xbox as well, then we spent an unhealthy number of hours on the PS2 with SoulCalibur III.

Anyways, SoulCalibur. It’s a one v. one fighting game, where each of the characters has a unique and distinct weapon. From Talim and her dual elbow blades, to Kilik and his staff, each character has benefits and drawbacks. The roster in SoulCalibur II is limited by today’s standards, but I never found myself wanting for more characters. Each one has a story that intertwines with the other heroes, and playing through each character’s story is a joy. As with all fighting games, it’s best played with a group of similarly skilled friends, and SoulCalibur feels like a well-balanced game. Sure, my friends gave me a hard time for picking Kilik so much with his impressive reach, but they all learned how to dodge his staff and get in close to punish.

I don’t like very many fighting games, and I’ve barely touched the series since SoulCalibur III, but if I was going to suggest a fighting game, SoulCalibur would be high on my list of picks.

84 – The World Ends with You

Year Released: 2007 | Platform: Nintendo DS

Gosh, here’s a game that came out of nowhere for me. I picked this one up fairly blind, mostly on the pedigree of publisher Square Enix, and the punk anime aesthetic. Damned, this game blew my socks off the first time I played it.

In The World Ends With You, you (Neku) wakes up without any memories in a crowded intersection of Shibuya, and are thrust into a death game that takes place over 3 weeks. You team up wth a bunch of characters as you battle ghosts and spirits, trying to unravel the mystery and survive.

The gameplay is fascinating. On the bottom screen with a stylus and gesture controls (slashing, tapping, holding down the stylus on an enemy, etc.), you control Neku, who equips various pins that give him different attacks to take down the enemies of the day. Simultaneously, on the top screen is one of your partners, who has attacks that they can preform by pressing specific directions on the D Pad to match symbols on the top of the top screen. Thankfully, if you choose to ignore the top, it gets poorly controlled by an AI. I absolutely adore it when games take advantage of the uniqueness of it’s host hardware.

The combat is wild and frenetic, while the story offers twists and turns that rival almost any other game. I love games that make you feel like you’ve reached the end of your journey, then SURPRISE TWIST! It’s only just the beginning, which is exactly what happens here. I slightly regret not having picked up the sequel, Neo: The World Ends With You. I know I will one day, but time at the moment, is a luxury,

83 – Wii Sports

Year Released: 2006 | Platform: Nintendo Wii

The pack in software for the Nintendo Wii was an absolute Banger. 5 simple sports, that showcase the motion controls, turned out to be one of the most played games in my household in 2007. Baseball, and Tennis, I barely remember, as the sports of choice for us were bowling, golf, and boxing. Boxing, ended up being mostly a mash/swing-fest as we frantically flailed at each other. Bowling was the party game that we broke out all the time. And golf, was what my mom and I played, which, I have to stop and tell you, that I got a hole in one, once. It was glorious.

I strongly feel that every console should have a pack in game, and here, Nintendo delivered.

82 – Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Year Released: 2004 | Platform: Game Boy Advance

Hey look, it’s the only Kingdom Hearts game I’ve beaten. Which isn’t entirely my fault, I played ~15 hours of the first one, only to have my cousin save over my save file, and then I played it again to about ~20 hours, only to have my PS2 memory card get eaten by a friend’s dog, and at that point, I just haven’t bothered to go back.

But this isn’t about my woes in replaying Kingdom Hearts, this is about the Game Boy sequel, Chain of Memories. In Chain of Memories, Sora wanders into Castle Oblivion, and immedately loses all of his memories, because that’s the magic of the castle. The game takes you through all the locations from the first game, remeeting all the Disney characters. The gameplay, is a real time action battler, much like the original Kingdom Hearts games, but now all of Sora’s cards are represented by cards. Both yours and your opponents cards/attacks have numbers attached to them, and when two attacks are thrown out at the same time, the card with the higher number wins.

The story isn’t what drew me into Chain of Memories, but the card battling system was super intreging to me. Once you complete Sora’s story, you take control of Riku, and lose the ability to customize your deck, instead are forced to overcome any challenge with the deck the game chooses to give you.

I always meant to go back and play through the Kingdom Hearts series, but I’ve yet to prioritize them. Until something changes, Chain of Memories remains as my sole Kingdom Hearts experience.

81 – New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Year Released: 2009 | Platform: Wii

I’ve always loved 2D Mario games, but when New Super Mario Bros. Wii hit the scene, and introduced 4 player simulationous multiplayer, I was skeptical. And for good reason, the biggest critisim I’ve seen for this game is that the other players get in your way, especially when they die and the game freezes for a couple frames. But those aspects never bothered me, I was able to compensate for the freeze frames just fine, and the utter hilarity that came with having 4 players at the same time just can’t be beat.

I ended up bringing New Super Mario Bros. Wii to a friends house shortly after launch, and we played a 4 player game from start to finish because we were just having so much fun. From leaping off each others heads, to purposefully throwing each other into lava pits, I haven’t full belllied laughed while playing a Mario game in such a long time.