My intro to Fighting Games, and the first game I ever loved. From the characters and their stories to the music and the stages, it all captivated me as a child and I fell in love with many fighting games after that.

Most call Crazy Taxi a racing game so I will too. As a young child, the mayhem is all that is needed to keep me engaged but the depth, the tactics, and memorizing the map to plan out the best route for a high score keeps me engaged even now. From the arcade classics like Daytona USA to Split/Second I still can't pass up an adrenaline-pumping arcade racer.

Compared to some others, Musou games are a new love for me but they ooze style and the simple gratification of being told to do something and almost instantly see the effect your actions had on the battle is addicting. The output of Musou games are difficult to keep up with but every time I get my hands on one it's hard to keep a smile off my face.

My experiences with JRPGs remain pretty few and far between but after getting a Playstation Vita I took my first real step into the genre with P4G after having some experience with Persona 4's fighting game spinoff. As I'm sure is obvious from the other games I listed it still proves a difficult adjustment to a slower, more methodical turn-based structure but the length a typical JRPG can run means there's a lot of time to attach to a set of characters and with as much as I like P4's cast it was a smooth 80 hours. Since then I've dipped my toes into a few other JRPG series and I'm sure I'll catch up on the classics when I inherit my mother's arthritis.

Visual Novels remain mostly unexplored to me, only really being able to count Phoenix Wright and Danganronpa. I'd be remiss though if I failed to mention Ace Attorney as there's just so much charm to the franchise and I find myself going back to them a lot. If I end up bedridden sick some week I can see finally submerging myself in a few VNs instead of just floating in the sea of them.

Final Fight, it's the classic beat 'em up and for me the first one I ever got my hands on. The simple premise and straightforward execution keeps it enjoyable at all ages and every now and then I make time with my brother to have a run through Double Dragon Neon or one of the newer titles like River City Girls. Sometimes though a round of Final Fight on my PSP in the Capcom Arcade Classics Collection is a great way to unwind.

This is a fun little honorable mention as it doesn't explicitly refer to me. I first played Hatsune Miku Project DIVA F on my PS Vita when I was specifically looking for something new I don't usually play and this game as such became my first rhythm game. I didn't dislike my time with it but what I want to mention here is my brother who gave my copy a shot and proceeded to dive HEADFIRST into the genre. Even now he's listening to vocaloid music and playing new rhythm games until there's nothing left to do in them

While I'd dabbled in arcade sports games from time to time, mostly on the NBA Jam cabinet at the local K-Mart, NFL Street 2 was the first one I had on a home console. With it came my introduction to the EA Sports BIG label, and while Midway is still the king with NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz, and MLB Slugfest, EA Sports BIG is a somewhat underrated series of sports titles that included Fifa Street and one of my personal favorites being the SSX franchise.

Before I managed to claim a copy of Time Crisis 3 for the PS2 the Time Crisis series was a rare treat I'd scramble for whenever I was lucky enough to spot one at the few places they were in my hometown. Light gun arcade games are a classic of the arcade experience and the advent of motion controls really helped them survive on modern hardware even if the amount of them has dried up considerably. The memories of being more excited to play Time Crisis than actually watch a movie at the Regal Cinema will stick with me for a long time.