Let's do something a bit different. We've seen plenty of lists of the "best" games released from 2000-2010, but because I am post-taste, I don't care about "best" and I don't care about release dates. I want to know what games you loved in the past decade. They don't have to have been contemporary games - maybe you played nothing but Frogger for a month in 07 - and they don't even have to be objectively "good". I'm interested in what games fired your blood up these past ten years. Here are a few of mine.

Shadow Man, Acclaim, Nintendo 64. The massively underappreciated bastard child of Ocarina of Time and Se7en by way of Jacob's Ladder, this would be way up my list of favourite titles of the 1990s. On initial release I'd dismissed it as a third-person collect-em-up on a platform swimming in such titles, distinguished only  by the addition of gratuitous swears 'n' titties. For whatever reason I gave it a better go of it in 01, and was amazed at how wrong I'd been. For my money, this is one of the few "mature" titles to take advantage of the higher age-rating with genuinely mature themes and imagery. The designers stated David Lynch as a big influence on the title and this is readily apparent in the subtly macabre sound design. If I could only play Shadow Man or the similar but ludologically superior Ocarina, I'd probably pick this for the soundtrack alone. Also the sequel is terrible!

Mario Kart DS: This is the only Mario Kart game you need to play apart from the original, which is the best game ever. However I am now inexplicably terrible at the original, so Mario Kart DS makes me feel a little less senile.

The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, Nintendo, DS. There's nothing I don't love about this game. The way the 3d is used in service of what's basically a 2d adventure, the repetitive central dungeon, the dopey mentor inexplicably modeled on Bob Dylan: it's all just gravy. It probably helps that it's a spiritual continuation of The Wind Waker, and when I was working at a game store in the early 90s all the jocks shunned that game cause it looked stylish, so I loved it. You might say I'm a contrarian, but I'm sure I'd disagree. Ha ha ha!

Dynasty Tactics, Koei, Playstation 2: Hello, do you like video games? What is it you like about them? Is it the way they give you things to do with your brain and engage your mind? Maybe it is how they use interactive storytelling to draw you into a rich world of memorable characters whose personalities shape an ever-evolving game experience? Well, play this then, because it is like if Chess wasn't crap. I worked at a game store for a year and a half and this was the only full-price game I bought with my store discount, because it was the only one I couldn't live without owning. Don't buy the game you can live with: buy the game you can't live without. You can't live without Dynasty Tactics.

Terranigma, Enix, SNES: If you're a fan of the Monomyth, this is probably the best text of the 1990s in any medium. If you're not a fan of the Monomyth, here is a game where you play as a spiky-haired little cove who whacks everyone with a magic stick, and it is a standout in the genre! I finally finished this game in 2009, 12 years after I first played it, and - I'll be honest here - I cried.

Final Fantasy XII, Square Enix, Playstation 2. I was aware of everything that was wrong with the Final Fantasy games - random encounters, clunky battles, stories that no human being could ever recount much less explain the relevant themes of - but I just figured those were cute things to be amused by, like having a friend with a harelip. But now that I have played XII, I will never play another new Final Fantasy game in which you're walking across a map on the way to fighting a deformed angel and the screen wipes to black to bring up a battle with three hitherto-invisible beasties. Also the plot makes sense, even if it is a bit rubbish.

More when my head cold lifts (or deepens). Your thoughts?

Master Lee is going to give me hell for this, but god damn my fondest memories are playing Dynasty Warriors with my buddies. Seriously, endless waves of badass hack and slashery, AND CO-OP?! I remember pouring days into that series.

I'm a balanced gamer, but I've got to say HALF-LIFE 2. The game has such an amazing blend of story, intense action and replayability. Let's not forget about the multitude of amazing mods that came out of it either.

I still consider the blend of first-person innovation to be around Valve's masterpiece. Can't wait for episode three to finally come out!

Madden Football. It's been consistently good year after year. And unlike Dynasty Warriors, they do add in some cool innovative every now and then, and the series really has evolved. I look forward to Madden Football now like I do the start of every football season. 

Jan 8, 2010 -- 12:54AM, Lil Mac wrote:

Madden Football. It's been consistently good year after year. And unlike Dynasty Warriors, they do add in some cool innovative every now and then, and the series really has evolved. I look forward to Madden Football now like I do the start of every football season. 

Have you played more Madden football? This year was a good one, but the transition from old gen to next-gen (360, PS3 versions) have been a rocky one at BEST. One of the Madden games this decade had a critical bug that could be used online when you would constantly call audibles to make the defense re-shuffle and re-shuffle. It was something that would eventually make your opponents' players incredibly tired, and you could capitalize from there.

I think EA has got you by a leash. Maybe?