I have one clear early memory of this game. Late at night sometime in 1994, when 4-year-old me was supposed to be asleep, my dad took me into my parents' bedroom where the computer was. I sat on his lap while he showed me a game that we both thought was simply titled "Roger Wilco". I didn't know what a "Space Quest" was for like 20 years after that, but that moment was so magical and full of wonder. I wanted video games BAD after that.

A year or two later, my dad started bringing home floppy disks with shareware games on them. I had a great time messing around with them, but we eventually somehow wound up with the full "Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons" trilogy, which fully hooked me. I recently replayed them, and cannot believe how short these games are when you're not an inept Kindergartener!

This was the first point-and-click that I really got into, and I adored the comedic takes on US History. I was old enough to know the basics of the American Revolution, so Hippie Ben Franklin was hilarious to me. One of the first games that I ever beat without any help.

This was a cool and tough game for cool and tough guys. Was I a cool and tough guy? Not even a little bit. But Duke II still felt rad.

I had seen my uncles play Super Mario World a few years before, so when I finally got my hands on it at a friend's house, the music immediately overwhelmed me with 7-year-old-getting-nostalgic-for-when-he-was-3 magic. I was completely obsessed with the idea of somehow getting this game for myself. Didn't happen until I was 15 though!

In a 1-2 punch of Mario games I wasn't allowed to have, I saw Super Mario 64 at a birthday party. The birthday girl's older brother was playing it on the TV about 10 feet away from where the rest of us were sitting down for cake, and I was completely entranced. After the party, I asked my mom to call their house and ask if I could come play because the older brother and I were, quote, "really really good friends!" This was obviously a lie, and I chickened out as soon as she dialed the phone, avoiding an awkward conversation. Luckily, the kid across the street got SM64 a few months later, and let me have a couple goes on it. There was absolutely nothing I wanted more than Mario at that point.

Pining for Mario was quickly evicted from my brain by the coolest-looking platformer I had ever seen. My dad brought a CD of Claw home from work (no idea where he acquired it, we were way too poor to actually buy games) and this thing had CUTSCENES in it. The music was incredible, the graphics looked like an actual cartoon, and MAGIC CLAW felt like nothing else would ever be anywhere near that rad. I remain a die-hard for Claw to this day.

We moved in with my grandparents in '99, where I had first seen SMW all those years ago. But now, my uncles had recently moved out and left behind a SNES and an N64. I first played and finished A Link to the Past, and thought it was the best thing I'd ever played.

Then, I played Banjo-Kazooie and thought THAT was the best thing I'd ever played.

But then, I played Ocarina of Time. Man, what a killer lineup for any 8-year-old to play in a single summer after never having a console before! Unclear if Banjo or Ocarina actually happened first, but I can still remember finishing the game on a Saturday, and my dad walked through the living room while Zelda prepared to send Link back to the past. He asked me if they were going to kiss, and I was furious at him for ruining the moment.

I had spent about 15 minutes with Pokemon Blue right after it came out in '98 at a friend's house, and in '99 a similar situation happened, except THIS time I managed to convince a neighbor kid to lend me his game boy and Pokemon Blue for a couple of days. I obviously didn't finish the game during that time, but I had full-blown Pokemania, memorized the Pokemon handbook and tried to get my mitts on TCG Booster Packs any chance I could get.

Summer Break 2001. Four sweaty 11-year-olds in an unfinished basement with Gauntlet Legends, four controllers, and a single Memory Pak. Just sublime.

Ocarina of Time, Gauntlet Legends, and Pokemon Blue remained my favorite games for a couple of years, but around 2003, I experienced Halo: CE at a friend's house. I was a big Goldeneye fan by then, but this surpassed anything I even considered was possible in a shooter. We played through the co-op campaign countless times and got other kids together for multiplayer as often as possible. Ever since, I have been comparing every other FPS to Halo games, and nothing has come close for me. Well, nothing except...

TimeSplitters 2, baby! My first experience was taking turns at a friends' house playing Virus in the Chinese map with all Monkey NPCs. Four of us crowded around a PS2 with two terrible third-party controllers, having the time of our lives. At a used game store, I realized that it was available for GameCube, a system I had recently acquired, and I put well over 200 hours into completing that game.

After a while though... I went back to Banjo. What a bear.

I claimed Banjo-Kazooie as my favorite game from 2005 until 2009, when my friends and I could not stop playing FireRed and LeafGreen. Just over and over, different runs with different teams. Reliving that Pokemania!

Walking into Dodongo's Cavern and seeing actual depth in the screen shattered my brain.

I played loads of Halo 1, 2, and 3 over the years, but I bought 4 at the Gamestop midnight launch event and could not stop playing online. Didn't even touch the campaign until the MCC!

...but then I went back to loving Banjo again.

Around 2014, I finally made myself sit down and finish Tooie, something that I had stupidly avoided because I assumed that any deviations from my favorite game would be a downgrade.

WHOOPS ALEX WAS DUMB AGAIN

Breath of the Wild was incredible in 2017, don't get me wrong, but it didn't dethrone Banjo for me. You know what did? Collecting 999 moons with Cappy.

When SSHD came out, I had an epiphany while playing it. I had loved the game on Wii, but I didn't realize just how in love I was with the world. Skyloft in particular is my favorite hometown of any game. I totally understand people's complaints, but I'm so enamored with this game that I literally could not care less about its shortcomings. I'm a Skyward Sword boy for life.