30 favorite video games

I've played, or been able to play, video games my entire life. Lines between generations were such that when I was a kid, my dad's Atari 2600, my cousin Corey's Nintendo Entertainment System, my Uncle's grad school P.C., a GameBoy, my cousin Timmy's Sega - all ready to go.

Having recently crossed a major grad school threshold, I've had a little bit more time than usual (even by pandemic standards) to game, and after realizing a glaring omission in my favorite movie's list (The Matrix for goodness sakes, what a damn fine trilogy!) I immediately pivoted to remembering the spectacular movie tie-in video game: the insanely good "Enter the Matrix" and well, here we are with a new list.

What follows are a non-exhaustive list of my 30 favorite video games, informed by equal parts objective game-goodness and, as always, the rose-colored glasses of memory.

Note: this list is limited to at-home console games only, not included are excellent and beloved arcade games like Frogger, Star Wars Arcade, Galaga, or Dig-Dug.

I'll start with the early ones:

• Enduro - Atari 2600
• Ms. Pac-Man - Atari 2600
• Super Mario Bros 3 - Nintendo Entertainment System
• Cabal - NES
• Donkey Kong - Gameboy
• Pokemon: Yellow - Gameboy
• Space Cadet Pinball - PC

The undefeated Nintendo 64 era, which began on my brother's birthday, April 4, 2000. He unwrapped a copy of Ken Griffey Jr's Slugfest, which he quickly realized meant we got our first own console. My dad, the jokester, told me that meant only Stevie could play it. Not to worry, the unboxed transparent 'jungle green' N64 would be matched to its yellow cartridge Donkey Kong 64, my first ever own video game, a few weeks later that Easter.

• Donkey Kong 64
• Star Wars: Episode One: Racer
• Star Fox 64
• Kirby and the Crystal Shards
• Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
• Mario Tennis
• GoldenEye & Perfect Dark

Stevie & I entered into our second generation of consoles with Nintendo's GameCube, which was primarily purchased for the (both at the time and still today, kinda) mind blowingly good graphics of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader. Two years past The Phantom Menace, the wait for more new Star Wars was unbearable, and to us, worth spending a few extra hours in the backyard pulling weeds to earn much needed console money.

Deeper into the GC era, yet another Star Wars property pushed us to make a (for kids) huge financial decision. I wish Stevie hadn't let me, but we sold all of our GameCube stuff to penny up for a PlayStation 2, which basically was our first non-Nintendo system in order to jump into Star Wars: Battlefront. Sure, we'd had friends with PS2, and memorably, our cousin Timmy (when we were much younger, much too young) used to let us play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City when we'd visit our Aunt Marilyn's house, but this was our first 'real' console, one that with its sleek body and powerful DVD player moved way from the GameCube's kiddie aesthetic. It had a lot more M rated games, one of which I loved quite dearly.

You could say this console generation took immeasurable hours out of my life, but, I have such extremely fond memories of playing all of these games (even the last great arcade-style football video game that launched a brief DeGenaro family tradition: the Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl). I can't call that a waste of time!

• Star Wars: Rogue Squardon II: Rogue Leader - GameCube
• Sonic Adventure 2 Battles - GC
• Red Faction - PlayStation 2
• Enter the Matrix - GC
• Madden 04 (come for the soundtrack, stay for the 03/04 Atlanta Falcons) - GameCube
• Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy - GC/PS2
• Red Faction II - GC
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - GC
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - PS2
• Resident Evil 4 - GC
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - PS2
• Star Wars: Battlefront 2 - PS2

​I walked into my third console generation by myself, although, it was my brother who drove me to the midnight release of the Metal Gear Solid IV edition of the original "George Foreman" PlayStation 3. We rolled into Walmart after seeing a Cleveland Indians game, basically arriving at the store in time for the release. I picked up Rainbow Six Vegas Two and Metal Gear, and don't think I slept a whole lot those first few nights. I think the first time through Metal Gear only took a weekend - time I had to blow - in the grey area between the end of high school and the beginning of college.

PS3 was (other than my buddy Neil's Sega Dreamcast and "Virtua Tennis 4") the definitive college video game machine in dorm and later our apartment. For the few months Halo 3 was out everybody in dorm had an Xbox 360, but mostly, it was games like Orange Box (and the requisite swearing after snipers nailing me with headshots) or adventure games, like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, roommates and buddies would drink and watch us take turns playing in a pre-streaming era. Of course, every Call of Duty that came out each year meant an all nighter co-op campaign marathon with Brent, or logging hours online in multiplayer with. There was the epic Western shared experience of all the guys in the dorm trying to capture the most pelts in Red Dead Redemption; I could go on, and on. But really, in this gen, there were four essential games, rounding out my thirty favorite video games.

• Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots - PlayStation 3
• Rock Band - PS3 (important detail: my buddy Neil & I formed a Weezer cover band within the Rock Band video game called "TWeezer" since there were two of us. This consumed multiple summers of stupid and wonderful behavior)
• FIFA 12 - PS3
• Fallout 3 - PS3

​

I excluded games from the current generation because this list was difficult enough to make, but some more recent games I've loved include:

• Mario Odyssey - Switch
• The Last of Us - PS4
• Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-terd - PS4
• Fallout 4 - PS4
• Stardew Valley - Switch
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Switch