My 123 Favorite Video Games, Ranked

The list is at an odd number because it is simply every game I've ever played that I would consider 'a favorite' of mine, with no upper limit. And I guess that there are this many of them! I put a lot of thought into the rankings but this is going to be a living document - positions will shift as I replay them and (hopefully) many games will be added. All future updates will be noted in the comments as they happen.

I put a little bit about how I was introduced to each of these and my history with them in the notes. Please feel free to ignore all that if you don't feel like reading my LiveJournal - it's rambly and mostly unedited. Like everything else on this site, it's kind of more for me than anyone else.

The below is a list of games I consider "Unranked" - provisionally on the list but which need to be replayed to get a good idea of where I should put them. Hopefully I will get through these soon and resolve their placements!

UNRANKED:
- Chrono Cross (Square/PS1/1999)
- Crimson Shroud (Level-5/3DS/2012)
- Dark Souls III (FromSoftware/Multiplat/2016)
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Capcom/NDS/2010)
- Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia (New World Computing/PC/1999)
- Pathologic (Ice-pick Lodge/PC/2005)
- Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (Level-5/NDS/2007)
- Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope/PC/2018)
- Shadow of Destiny (Konami/PS2/2001)
- Shadow Warrior (3D Realms/PC/1997)
- Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo/NSW/2017)
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Nintendo/GB/1993)
- Xenogears (Square/PS1/1998)
- Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (Chunsoft/3DS/2012)

123 Games

Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
"Pre-loaded" and played it midnight, day one in 2004. Possibly the most hyped I've been for anything - do you remember those gameplay reveals???

23

The 7th Guest
The 7th Guest
Played when it was new-ish in 1993-1994. This was another one my grandpa had, being on the cutting edge of CD-ROM technology, and I remember going on trips to his house and playing it at night after everyone else went to sleep. I was like seven and it was frickin' scary!! And so adult! Sexual themes!

22

Disco Elysium
Disco Elysium
Played for the first time finally in 2022. that I waited that long is regrettable.

21

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Bought at release in 2003, and preordered so I got that rare Zelda compilation disc, too. What a frickin' deal that was, huh?

20

Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64
Played for the very first time at a Target kiosk around the launch of the N64 and it absolutely annihilated my little 6th-grader mind. I didn't get an N64 for like another year, and by then all my friends had it and I just borrowed it from them for extended periods of time, so I never actually owned it until 2012. Even so, by that point I had the entire game memorized and had gotten 120 stars like five times, so.

19

Bloodborne
Bloodborne
Bought on day one in 2015. This was the one that kind of solidified my FromSoft game ritual of taking time off of work and, having not read any reviews or watched any trailers, disappearing into it completely blind for like a week.

18

Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4
Played around release in 2005. I think a friend might have had it first but all I had to see was about fifteen seconds of it before I had to get it. I played so much GameCube between 2001-2006 there was no way this wasn't gonna be a big part of my life. I also got the Wii version day one, I believe.

17

Yakuza 0
Yakuza 0
Bought it on day one in 2015. Unlike all you chumps I had played every Yakuza game before this one was even announced so I was ready. Or at least I thought I was.

16

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
First played in 2008 after finally getting the hint that these games were something special and worth my attention. What did I even do with myself before Ace Attorney?

15

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
Played for the first time in 2008. I was late to Phoenix Wright but after I played the first one I went nuts and instabought the other three.

14

Final Fight
Final Fight
Played for the first time I believe on a friend's SNES in probably 1993, based on that that friend also had the Konami BATMAN RETURNS game. Either that or on an arcade machine at a summer camp I went to around the same time. Both experiences were exciting to say the least and a lifelong love for brawlers was born.

13

Deadly Premonition
Deadly Premonition
Played right around release in 2010. A pal who was into more obscure games (in a time when my tastes were more mainstream) worked hard to get me to play this. I sure am glad he did.

12

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Bought a PSP for it at release in 2011. Despite being a FFT superfan for close to ten years by the time this remake was announced, I somehow didn't understand what Tactics Ogre was, or it's legacy. I knew about Ogre Battle, but when someone was like, "hey, you know there's like ... another FFT, right? And it's, like, maybe even better?" and then I saw some screenshots, etc., my hype reached insane levels and I had to instabuy a whole new system just to try it. I was not disappointed.

11

Grand Theft Auto V
Grand Theft Auto V
Got it on day one in 2013, despite myself. I absolutely hated GTAIV, but the trailers for this sold me on it at the last minute so I impulse/FOMO bought it. I was very, very pleasantly surprised.

Sometimes I fire it up randomly just to walk or drive around. Mostly I just want to go to Cali irl, so this is the next best thing.

10

Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Day one purchase in 2018. Knew I was going to like it following the ever-increasing quality of Rockstar's open world work through RDR1 and GTAV, but had no idea how much. Beyond pumped for GTAVI at this point.

P.S.: Why haven't they ported this to next-gen by now?

9

Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics
First played in 2002, at a friend's house. I was floored and immediately went to Target and got it on sale for $19.99. Was lucky it was still there, I guess! And then a few weeks of my life disappeared and there was no turning back.

8

Doom
Doom
Played the shareware version sometime in 1994. This was another one my grandpa had, later on. I don't know if he just bought every big new game or what was going on, but he had it! I had played Wolfenstein by this point so, yeah, I was ready for this earth-shattering experience, for sure.

7

Dark Souls
Dark Souls
Like I said, first played with my friend in 2011. I had started getting a little interested in it based on the post-release buzz, and when my bud came over one night I showed him a trailer. He got so hype we had to drive to the closest 24-hour Walmart to go get it immediately. Playing my first Souls game all the way through with a friend was a transcendent experience.

6

Demon's Souls
Demon's Souls
First played in 2011, actually simultaneously with DARK SOULS, which I was going through with that same friend from the basement horror games, just years later. I had wanted to check it out and my buddy and I only hung out a couple times a week so in the off time I needed my fix and Demon's was right there. I think I actually beat this first before we finished Dark.

5

Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 3
First played in 2003 (before the 2006 SH-athon) but only a little bit. My friend and I used to rent horror games and play them in his scary-ass basement (CLOCK TOWER 3, ETERNAL DARKNESS, the RESIDENT EVIL remake among them), and this was one of them, but we never made it out of the mall. That was my first SH experience and goddamn if it didn't leave an impression, but I wouldn't get back to it until I bought it with the rest in 2006.

4

Roberta Williams' King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown
Roberta Williams' King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown
Not sure exactly, but I must have been introduced to this sometime after 1991 when I learned to use computers at five-ish years old. Not quite my first game ever, but that's only because we didn't have it, my grandpa did. Yeah, that's right, my grandpa was extremely cool and had a bunch of computer games, a few more of which are on this list.

3

Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2
First played in 2006, immediately after SH1 changed my life.

2

Silent Hill
Silent Hill
First played in 2006 when I bought SH1-4 used for under $50 total at GameStop, to get ready for the upcoming SH movie. Best week of gaming ever.

1

11 Comments

DJSCheddar

1 year ago

@MPK92 I would say 'ah I see you are a man of culture as well', but I already knew that!

And yeah I definitely dont want to discourage you because I would love to see yours, but for the record this has taken me actual years to finally do haha

DJSCheddar

1 year ago

LIST UPDATE 6/4/2023:
--------------------------------------
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (#106) replayed and rank confirmed

DJSCheddar

1 year ago

LIST UPDATE 6/10/2023:
------------------------------------------
Katamari Damacy (#64) replayed and moved up to #61

DJSCheddar

1 year ago

LIST UPDATE 6/16/2023:
--------------------------------------
We Love Katamari (#52) replayed and rank confirmed

DJSCheddar

10 months ago

LIST UPDATE 8/11/2023:
--------------------------------------
Pokemon Gold (unranked) replayed and removed

DJSCheddar

7 months ago

LIST UPDATE 11/23/2023:
--------------------------------------
The Case of the Golden Idol (#117) added

DJSCheddar

6 months ago

LIST UPDATE 12/10/2023:
--------------------------------------
Super Mario Bros. (#88) and Super Mario World (#37) replayed and ranks confirmed

Kawasaki0504

3 months ago

I saw Deadly Premonition on this list and decided to give it a spin, despite its technical shortcomings, I found the game to be quite engaging, primarily due to the charming characters and the captivating dialogue between York and the town's population.
Quite the experience and glad I did

DJSCheddar

3 months ago

@Kawasaki0504 Awesome! Glad you liked it!

DJSCheddar

2 months ago

LIST UPDATE 03/25/2023:
--------------------------------------
Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia added to unranked list

DJSCheddar

12 days ago

LIST UPDATE 06/10/2024:
--------------------------------------
Quake (#102) replayed and rank confirmed
DJSCheddar

11 Comments

Last updated: