• Populous - The Beginning
• Command & Conquer - Red Alert 2
• Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2
• Super Mario 64 DS
• Europa Universalis III

I think at least. Mario Kart DS also ranks highly of course, so does Team Fortress 2 and Supreme Commander Forged Alliance. GTA SA/IV, Pokémon Diamond, Wii Sports, Super Mario Galaxy. I gamed a lot as a kid/teenager so there's plenty that influenced me.

• LEGO Universe
• Club Penguin
• Minecraft
• Space Engineers
• Skyrim

Counter-Strike 1.4 Counter-Strike 1.5 Counter-Strike 1.6 Call of Duty: United Offensive Day of Defeat

Hmm definitely Minecraft, Skyrim, and Sa2b. As for the other two… probably Town of Salem and Fantasy Life for the 3ds

I still play Minecraft, I played some modded skyrim last year (and got the oblivion remaster) and I literally got a steam deck primarily so I could play sa2b on it whenever I want. I’ve been loving the fantasy life sequel that just came out too. The only thing I don’t really play anymore is town of Salem bc the servers suck even worse now. So few players that you’re always stuck with racist trolls and shit

Basically, teen me had pretty good taste

• Maniac Mansion (and sequel)
• The Curse of Monkey Island (and sequels)
• Wing Commander (and sequels)
• Baldur's Gate (and sequels)
• Autodesk Animator

The Secret of Monkey Island Master of Orion Dune Strike Commander Privateer

• Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Chrono Trigger
• Ultima VIII (mostly as a gateway to the others in the series, but still got a soft spot for it)
• Final Fantasy VII
• Xenogears

Half Life

Team Fortress Classic

Mecharrior 4: Vengeance

Ocarina of Time

Diddy Kong Racing

Those are the ones where I'd be a different person now without.

Super Mario Bros 3 Dark Reign Unreal Tournament Homeworld Gears of War

Pokémon Red, Pokémon Gold/Silver, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Call of Duty 4.

I played a lot of games and can list many more, however those are the ones off the top of my head.

• Zelda: The Minish Cap
• Pokémon Emerald
• Sonic Rush Adventure
• Final Fantasy III (remake)
• Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

The DS wasn't the first gaming machine I ever had, but it was the one I had from ages 13-18 and the one where I cut my teeth.

• 🔸Super Metroid
• 🔸Goof Troop
• 🔸Metal Gear Solid
• 🔸The Legend of Dragoon
• 🔸Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

• Megaman 4

• Donkey Kong 64

• Paper Mario 64

• Assassin's Creed II

• Guitar Hero (a lot of them but mostly World Tour)

Starfox 64

Pokemon Snap

Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow

Age of Empires 2

Halo (1-3)

• Morrowind
• Harvest Moon 64
• Pokemon Silver
• Myst
• Super Smash Bros 64/Melee/Brawl (I played what was latest)

Star Ocean 2, FFVII, Chrono Cross, Legend of Dragoon, Resident Evil 2.

Honorary mention for literal every ps1 game.

Pretty much every Sierra franchise.

Warcraft, C&C, Street fighter two turbo, and final fantasy!

• super mario world
• doom
• age of empires 2
• RuneScape
• world of warcraft (only started it as young adult though)

• Super Mario 64

• Pilot Wings 64

• Balloons Tower Defense

• Portal 2

• Banjo Kazooie: nuts and bolts (I dont care if it killed the franchise, I really enjoyed this game)

• Commander keen

• Wingnuts

• Burn:Cycle

• Myst

• Duke Nukem (the first one but also 3D)

Wingnuts was a dumb fmv 'dog fighting' game, but when you beat it you could play it again with silly dialogue. I also remember when setting up the sound card the test audio was a guy saying 'ah veiners, just ze vay I like zem!' In a bad German accent.

Burn:Cycle was an fmv adventure game that I adored, it also came with a sound track cd and a little packet of leaflets based on in game stuff that was really cool. I still listen to the ost on occasion

• Star Fox 64, for sure
• Half Life was a very big deal for me. Couldn't finish it when I was 8 because it was too scary, and it felt absolutely amazing coming back at 15 and blowing through it.
• Turok 2 seeds of evil. Didn't play it outside of using the cheats. It was basically a gore Sim for me.
• LoZ series was a very big deal.
• Much later, Armored Core 4 and 4A would make me obsessed with good mech gameplay.

Man, it's hard stratifying games you care about, especially when you have a massive log of them that all impacted you in one way or another. There were a bunch of free Linux games that I have very fond memories of too, like Nexuiz, OpenArena, Abuse, etc. Also a bunch of weird niche games and demos, like One Must Fall and Food Fight and Fur Fighters. It's an impossible task, honestly.

• Sims 3

• Skyrim

• Animal Crossing New Leaf

• Cities: Skyline

• Sims 2

So I don't really feel that old when reading the notes, I do however apologise to anyone having an age crisis reading this.

• Pacman (bar arcade game with joysticks on the top and bottom, my mom worked there so I was often there during the day)
• Civilization 1
• The Incredible Machine
• Super Mario Bros.
• Duke Nukem 3D (Learned the commands to call a friend on my modem and then boot up duke3d.exe and play multiplayer, all from DOS)

• Zork Zero
• Streetfighter II
• Diablo
• GoldenEye
• World of Warcraft

Just five is so limiting:

Mario Kart Mega Man 3 Donkey Kong Country Jet Moto Final Fantasy VII

Even expanding to ten feels restrictive, alas:

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 The Neverhood Perfect Dark Seventh Guest Earthworm Jim

• Dizzy (ZX Spectrum), all the games in the series
• Heroes of Might and Magic, played up to 5, but 2 and 3 were my favorites
• Masters of Orion 2
• Little Big Adventure
• Monkey Island, all the games in the series

My top 5 were (in no particular order):

• Pokemon Diamond
• Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue Squadron (PSP)
• Fossil Fighters
• Skyrim
• FTL: Faster Than Light

• Half life
• NFS Most Wanted (2005)
• Heroes of might and magic 3
• Delta Force
• Unreal tournament

xenogears final fantasy 7 final fantasy 10 super smash Bros melee Diablo 2

• Baldur's Gate 1 (I think it took me 10 years to actually get to the point where I was able to finish this, but it was still the best advertisement that D&D, and fantasy media in general, could have hoped for)

• DX Ball (breakout clone)

• Minesweeper

• Gothic 1 (Elder Scrolls just fucking sucks compared to this series, especially the melee combat system and the characterization of the NPCs (TES does have better lore))

• Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (to this day, I still haven't finished it. Outstanding multiplayer mode, though!)

I'm not that old, ya old coots!

The instructions are contradictory. I’m not sure how it’s possible to comply.

• Pac-Man (Atari 400)
• Pole Position (Arcade)
• Parsec (TI-99/4A)
• The Legend of Zelda (NES)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)

Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask

Super Smash Bros Melee

Halo: Reach

RuneScape

Guildwars 2

In no particular order

Command and Conquer Red Alert 2

Caesar III

Spyro

Metal Gear Solid

Gauntlet

Half life/2 should probably be on there, but it still doesn't feel like an "old" game, especially since I play them every year or two, they haven't left my computer since 2010, and honestly I can't see myself not playing it when I'm 60.

I can't limit it to 5.

I keep trying to, and it doesn't work, I end up leaving out something that I spent a massive amount of time on and also very strongly impacted my conception of what a game can be.

Moo2

FFT

Golden Eye

Red Alert

Mariokart 64

This list could also be alternatively titled: "Why I flunked out of college the first time."

• Sonic The Hedgehog
• Ms. Pacman
• Diablo
• Starcraft
• CS:Source

• Pokemon gen 1 and 2 I guess
• Majesty
• aoe 2
• WoW
• gizmos and gadgets

-Pokemon Gold (OG)

-Metroid: Zero Mission/Fusion

-SSBM

-Battlefront II (The OG one)

-The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

In rough chronological order:

Starflyers

Mario Kart

Shadow cities

COD zombies (ios app version)

Minecraft

I'm stopping this list before high school, as I built my first PC and figured out emulation, so I started playing a lot more games.