The Classix
It stands to reason that those born in the late 70's/early 80's were the right age at the right time to experience what will ever be known as the Golden Age of video games. We didn't care how many polys-per-second a game had, nor whether blood obeyed the laws of physics. We were into plot, depth and gameplay, and our games had it in spades! The incredible sensation one got when they first laid their hands on Super Mario World is something totally unmatched by today's endless procession of Blast Crap XIV clones.
While the porch out in front of the nursing home is still several decades off, we can get a head start by waxing nostalgic about the greatest games ever made. In fact, what better way to kick off this page than by listing:
The Ten Greatest Video Games
of All Time
10) Sonic the Hedgehog
Okay, I'll admit not being totally sure about this one*. I thought I should throw a bone to Sega, since their only heyday was the extreme early nineties, before the advent of the Super Nintendo totally stabbed them in the penis. But the Sonic series (it got kinda gay after the second one) was groundbreaking in its own right. This was the first major platform game to use the "giant square" concept of level design, whereas beforehand most platform game levels were of the "extremely long-ass rectangle" variety. Plus, giving Sega something to boast about gave Nintendo fans something to rail against, adding a whole new element to video game conversations on the playground. As you've probably guessed, I was a staunch Nintendo partisan, and fifth grade art class was something of a war zone. It was usually me, the sole Nintendefender, against three to six Sega Genesis fanatics. How ironic that the decade would end with Sega being Nintendo's third-party development bitch.
* For those of you screaming about how your favorite game didn't get on this list, I hereby grant you permission to mentally insert that game in this position. In exchange, you promise not to send me any nasty emails detailing how you're going to rape my cat.
09) Tetris
Such a simple concept; and yet, so insanely counter-intuitive. This game totally defined the puzzle genre, showing the world that even those dumb Ruskies can do something right every now and then. [What's that old adage- "Sometimes even a blind grizzly bear finds a tasty guy named Ivan"? Close enough.]
While Tetris spurred many spin-offs and soulless clones, only Dr. Mario came remotely close to holding a candle to its legacy.
08) Wolfenstein 3-D
I'm probably going to get more hate mail over this, but this game shall ever be hailed as the Original Corridor Shooter. Were it not for a few visionaries at Id Software, there never would've been Doom, Quake, Half-life, Duck Fuck 'Em, or Blast Crap XIV. Wait, I take that back. Those games would've eventually come around, but we wouldn't have been able to shoot Nazis in the meantime. And how can you put a price on the opportunity to shoot Nazis?
The first time I heard about Wolfenstein 3-D was when a kid in my 7th grade World History class went around trying to get people to go in with him on the official purchase of the game. See, back in the Good Old Days of 1993, Id released the first of six "missions" for free via shareware. Once you got nice and addicted to that nine-level mission, you had to pony up a paltry amount of money for them to send you the complete version of the game. Well, this kid devised a clever scheme: get several people to invest in the official purchase, then simply pay them off with bootlegged copies of the game! So not only did Wolfenstein 3-D spawn the Corridor Shooter genre, but it also began the wonderful world of post-modern piracy! Napster, eat your heart out.
[By the way, did I mention that I totally missed out on this phenomenon since I came from a Mac family?]
07) Street Fighter II
Since genre-definers is something of a theme here, it's only proper that the fighting game genre has its position. While eventually losing its luster to Mortal Kombat, a bevy of half-assed sequels (all bearing the number two) and a movie of questionable quality starring Jean-Claude van Damme, Street Fighter II is hands-down the King of Fighters.
While the corridor shooters were destined to happen, and the puzzle genre probably would've emerged before the Pokemon Era ass-raped every remaining shred of the Golden Age, I think it's safe to say that Capcom was truly visionary in taking such a dumb premise [i.e., beat up someone, then go beat up someone else] and turning it into a franchise. Without Street Fighter II, I doubt we'd have ever seen the likes of top-tier copycats such as Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct. If we were lucky, we'd get a few second-tier titles like that Neo Geo game (whose name escapes me at the moment), and probably the endless batch of third-tier shit (Eternal Champions, Art of Fighting) before the entire fighting concept starting revolving around Polygon Power 3-D: The Apex.
06) Secret of Mana
Yeah, I can't stand fake-time RPG's. I'm somewhat of a heretic in that sense, although I enjoyed Dragon Warrior back in 5th grade [to the extent that my teacher requested I stop writing about video games in my journal]. I decided to put this real-time rarity on here because, dammit, I love the soundtrack. I'll probably live to regret it, but damn...that's a good soundtrack!
05) Super Metroid
If it weren't for this game, 1994 would've been a total waste. Hell, if it weren't for the Metroid series itself, much of my formative years would've been a total waste. In every boy's life, there is that hapless period in which absolutely everything sucks (formally known as middle school). My key memory of the summer after 7th grade (aside from the debut of Beavis as The Great Cornholio) was staying up late to play Super Metroid. That part about 25% thru the game, where you're temporarily stuck in the area with that long vertical chamber (with some weird pulsating purple thing in the background), contains some especially contemplative music. Many a night I attempted to formulate an escape plan with that music as my only source of inspiration. Ah, memories...
Anyway, this game contained numerous self-defining scenes (who can forget the flesh melting off the lava-submerged Crocomire?), not the least of which was the final battle sequence. There wasn't a kid alive who didn't jump up from his seat with a resounding "YOU FUCKER!!!!!!1" when they first saw Mother Brain deliver that final death blow to the (gargantuan) Baby Metroid. The background instantly goes black, Samus starts glowing psycho-neon, and the sparse timpani solo from the opening sequence signifies that a major ass kicking is about to take place. Absolutely brilliant.
A few months later, some obscure British company came out with a game starring 3-D monkeys. Everyone went apeshit (pardon the pun) and Super Metroid was all but forgotten when the annual video game awards were chosen.
04) Super Mario Bros.
For many people of the Golden Era Generation (myself included), this is the game that started it all.
03) Super Mario World
Chub.
02) Super Mario Bros. 3
Chub.
01) Zelda III: A Link to the Past
Chub.
Now for the caveats: a lot of my favorite games (Castlevania IV, F-Zero, Maniac Mansion, etc.) didn't make it on this list. Accordingly, these aren't my favorite games per se, just the ones I believe best define the Golden Age.