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General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: bikingjahuty on March 11, 2025, 01:00:20 am
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Several years ago, I went back and replayed what I would have considered my favorite games of all time throughout most of my young adult and adult life. I was surprised to see many of them remained my favorites, while others no longer did it for me like they once. I'm in the middle of playing one of my favorite games of all time right now, and while I am really enjoying it, it seems to lack that same wow factor that had me hooked on it for decades. I'm withholding my judgement until I get all the way through it, but it got me thinking if most people's favorite games of all time change a lot, or if they mostly stay the same.
How have your favorite games of all time changed, or not changed over time? Are you open to games you once considered your favorites getting dethroned, or are they set in stone and will never be topped no matter what?
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I think my top favorites have mostly stayed consistent. There is some goofiness to my list I guess, in that my top favorites include a couple N64 games, but I would probably never replay them on original hardware. Even playing Banjo-Kazooie on NSO, there's kind of some awkwardness to that keeps me full enjoying it. The content is still great, it's just that I've been a little less tolerant of certain old control stuff, framerates, etc... But, there's an HD Remaster of Banjo-Kazooie and if I could easily play that doesn't require me to yank out my old Xbox 360 or buy an Xbox One and copy of Rare Replay to do so, it would still be considered a favorite because it keeps everything I loved intact of the original, but has some improved controls and visuals to smooth it out. I really need an HD remaster of Ocarina of Time or a proper update and actually available release of Super Mario 64.
Most changes with my favorites is mostly just new games slipping into the bottom end of the list, like Monster Hunter Wild, or Brutal Legend, and more recently I've kinda realized that Death Stranding is like a Top 20 game now lol
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I'm always open to new games entering my top 10, although I feel like my Top 5 is a lot more rigid. Most of these games include titles that aren't just really fun, well made games, but also very special to me on a personal level. I almost feel like that personal connection is almost a requirement for it to be Top 5, however outside that it's a lot easier for a game just to be incredibly well made and enjoyable to play for it to enter the bottom half of the Top 10. There has been a lot of movement in games 6 through 10. Games like Zone of the Enders, Half Life 2, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and REmake have all been in my Top 10 at one point, but now occupy places outside that.
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mine changed a lot. What I loved as a kid doesn’t hit the same now. I used to be obsessed with RPGs, but these days I can’t sit through the long grind. I still go back to a few classics, but new stuff keeps pulling me in.
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mine changed a lot. What I loved as a kid doesn’t hit the same now. I used to be obsessed with RPGs, but these days I can’t sit through the long grind. I still go back to a few classics, but new stuff keeps pulling me in.
This sounds a lot like me in regards to RPGs. I was obsessed with JRPGs especially in the early 2000s. I could not get enough of them and played through many of the PS1 and PS2 greats that came out during that time. As time has gone by, however, I find that I'm unable to finish 80% of all RPGs I start. Sometimes this has to do with me being too busy, but most of the time the games just don't hold my interest past a couple hours in, sometimes even less time than that. I really hope someday I do a 180 and go back to how enthusiastic I used to be for them, but for now, it's a genre I struggle to get into.
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For many years, I've struggled with the thought of assigning a favorites label or building a top ranking for pretty much any media I consume which, of course, also includes video games. All sorts of aspects captivate me for different reasons, as what works set out to achieve are all different. At the same time, how I feel at any given moment plays a factor as to what I prefer over something else. If anything, I recognize just how effective games are or aren't within their respective genres. Novel systems with exceptional implementations, the perfect gameplay loop, a message or theme that's deeply resonating. Or, the opposite. Even this more refined genre classification doesn't make the task any easier for me, though.
Like many others from whom I've seen in other similar discussions, I think that, for a lot of games I hold particularly high regards for and would even say have helped define on some level who I am as who plays games or perhaps even as a person, the idea is more rooted in thinking fondly of a certain moment of my life and the memories I remember from that time. In my adult life, this has become much easier since keeping track of the things I've experienced and when that was, as I'm better able to associate a specific part of my life with what sort of media I was consuming at that time.
I think an interesting exercise I may try to do after giving this topic some thought is to think of what my favorite games from the ones I've played may be in this very moment and to see how that list may differ in a year's passing.
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Wildly. My genre tastes have shifted so immensely that games I used to overlook or even overall dislike such as Resident Evil 2 are now flat out scraping at the heels of my top 10 list. Uncharted 4 immensely blew me away. I was late to the party with many PS3 era games. Then their are big retro hitters like DK Country that entered my life during a bad time and it's really important to me. Gran Turismo 7. Tough competition in last year alone.
Then theirs games I used to love that for some reason I can't seem to be blown away by a 2nd or 3rd time. Those include TLOU 1 and Super Smash Bros franchise as a whole.
Some new entires such as hogwarts legacy are certainly sitting at the table as well. But my official top 10? Has my top of all tops changed? No. Doubtful to ever bend. Their are 1 big reason why.
1. Nostalgia is a discontinued dressing so the modern burgers albiet better can never taste as good :) I just have deep rooted bias towards some games.
Teenage me was hungry from repetitive action. Think need for speed and call of duty. Guts. Zombies. Blood.
20s me loves wrapping up in plot like a warm blanket. Id prefer engaging character development over almost all including fluidity of action. Still love need for speed though.
However my top 10 I dont think has budged since well before 2020. If maybe since I was a kid. And most have a reason why its hard to be knocked out.
1. Grand Theft Auto Vice City (unable to be topped because it is flawless in design. Soundtrack is impeccable. Newer GTAs surpass it in scope but nostalgia has built an unstoppable foundation for me. It feels more fluid and concise in story pacing than any other sandbox)
2. Crash Team Racing (imo the greatest cart racer ever made. Slide boost was perfected here)
3. SMW - No modern mario platformer has topped it including wonder. So I dont see the day it ever happens. Its the design.
4. Tetris - 10,000,000 puzzle games come. Only one stands. Its tetris. Anyone can play it. Anyone can master it. It's just poetry in motion.
5. NFL Street 2 (the outlier. I grew up playing this game. It's got a nostalgic 2000s bling era soundtrack. Its easily the most fun arcade sports game ever)
6. Zelda BOTW - I think BOTW topped WW and its a struggle for the top 10. I think BOTW had more scope and beauty on a new and unrivaled tech at the time.
7. Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005) - Impossible to top. Blacklist was perfect. Its just childhood imagined ajd theirs been excellent entires since
So here is where I run out of picks. Or have a bunch battling in my head. So 8, 9 and 10 are well open to conversation and could change. So yeah. I feel its always ever expanding. Which is the beauty of art and media in general. It shapes with your life.
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It changed in the sense that it's an ever expanding list. I don't think I actually stopped liking or started to like less certain games I used to like. Maybe I found stuff I like more, but my liking is not a finite resource.
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Many of my favorite series have changed over the years, and generally, for the worse.
Uncharted - It's a dead series, which sucks.
Resident Evil - First person horror now. I prefered the third person survival horror action of 0-6.
Assassin's Creed - Bloat fest, making the games a chore to complete.
Tomb Raider - This is the one that has greatly improved. The 2013 reboot was fantastic for the series.
Mass Effect - Time will tell with the new one in the works, but after Dragon Age, I'm not expecting it to be good.
Everything else that I've really enjoyed over the years are dead series.
The best that gaming has to offer is behind us.
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The best that gaming has to offer is behind us.
You're probably right, but luckily there are more games our currently to play than I'll ever have enough time to play. There is something very sad about not looking forward to the future of video games or knowing that it'll never be as good as it once was, but at leas there are so many games I haven't played that I can try out and hopefully really get into. Also, despite the game industry being way worse than it used to, the occasional gem does still come out. I always hold out hope that at least one game like this will come out once or twice a year.
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Yes, my favorite games have changed a bit. Obviously, there’s a few that are untouchable because their enjoyment factor has lasted over the years (Q*Bert, TMNT arcade, Shadow of the Colossus). But occasionally a newer game has had such a profound impact on me that it immediately replaces something in my personal top 10…for example, Bioshock Infinite was mind-blowing for me and supplanted Chrono Cross, while Dragon Quest XI became maybe my second favorite RPG ever and replaced Vampire Savior (Saturn).
However, recently I’ve questioned my adoration for certain favorite games I’ve replayed. I played through the Chrono Cross remaster and it wasn’t quite as good as I remember. I always said Batman Arkham Asylum was my favorite of the 4, but after playing the remasters I’m rethinking if I still like it better or Arkham City.
Planning to get the Final Fantasy VI pixel remaster but I haven’t played it for years so I’m curious if it will remain my favorite RPG. I replayed Zelda Link to the Past and Super Metroid, and they did hold up very well.
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Definitely changed! When I was a kid I could spend hours playing sports simulators like Pro Evolution Soccer, but over time my tastes have shifted towards more complex and strategic games like Fifa. I really like how the game has changed over time and how it changes from year to year. I also like to watch soccer in real time and sometimes I can even place a small bet on dafa sports (https://dafasports.in/). How about you? Are there any games you've been playing for years, or have your tastes completely changed?
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my "favorites list" is constantly changing. Sometimes it’s because I find a new obsession, sometimes it’s because I replay an old one and realize it’s not that fun anymore. That’s just gaming...
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Mine have changed a lot. 2 big ones were The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and TES V: Skyrim. Over time after having played more RPGs my impression of them has diminished significantly. At the time, bigger = better. And while I still absolutely love them for the huge worlds they crafted, I care a lot more about gameplay and mechanics these days, and the combat in those games are incredibly basic and unsatisfying (especially when I compare them to games like Dark Souls on the same console which has incredibly satisfying combat and deep gameplay systems).
Another one was Pokemon. I used to be someone who thought they were all like 8/10 or 9/10 rpgs, but once I started playing more JRPGs I realized just how little story they have, how basic the combat (in the singleplayer) is and how derivative they were on each other. They really struggle to make each game feel unique outside of new Pokemon (and they often recycle old designs, or even just use old Pokemon entirely). When I played Final Fantasy I loved how each game felt really different from the last. Now I see Pokemon as mostly a 6/10 franchise with some notable exceptions (for me those are Gen 1, Gen 2 and Gen V)
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Since day one I was into any form of RPG's, and that didn't change in any way.
A big difference today is that I now tend to like some genre of games that I wasn't interested in in the beginning, such as shoot-em-ups, puzzle- or pinball-games. I even like solid platformers more than back when I was a kid.
I was also always a big fan of first-person-shooters since Goldeneye64, having my personal peak at BO2-times, but I kinda outgrew online-multiplay in fps in favour of my mental health and heartrate. ;D I used to get angry a lot
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My top 10 has definitely changed over the years. In my teens and early 20s I had a lot more N64 games on my list, but those early 3D games have mostly aged like milk and after a long time I've admitted to myself that newer games are better. In my 20s I was a massive Kojima and Metal Gear Solid fanboy... until MGS5 came out, the story of which was so bad it retroactively ruined the franchise for me. I can't stand playing any MGS games now. JRPGs used to be my favorite genre because of the Final Fantasy and Star Ocean franchises, but both of those fell off hard after the end of the PS2 generation. JRPGs are basically dead to me now since the company that owns most of them doesn't understand how to make them anymore. With other series, nostalgic favorites have recently been eclipsed by newer iterations that are just better games. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe forced me to admit that SSB Melee and Mario Kart 64 are no longer the best games in their franchises. Pokemon Silver was my favorite creature collector game for decades, and had a spot on my top 10 list, until it was dethroned by Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which was itself dethroned this year by Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection.
Some games have stood the test of time, though. Nintendo has yet to make a better Zelda game than Majora's Mask. I'm one of the minority who despises BOTW and TOTK, you don't make a better Zelda game by adding forced crafting, weapon durability, and giving Link a frickin' cell phone. Screw that crap. The best Zelda game since MM is Elden Ring, which isn't even in the franchise. Final Fantasy IX and the GBA Golden Sun duology are still the ultimate expressions of the classic JRPG. Kingdom hearts 2: Final Mix is still the greatest KH game and the greatest action RPG. And no fighting game has matched the sheer amount of single-player content in SoulCalibur 3.
My current top 10 is, in no particular order:
Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Golden Sun 1&2
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix
Final Fantasy IX
Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match
SoulCalibur 3
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection
The reason Golden Sun 1 and 2 are in the same slot is I consider them two halves of the same game. They were supposed to be a single game until they were split due to the file size limits of GBA cartridges. The second game picks up before the first game even ends! Looking at the entire list now, it's too small to be an accurate example of what I consider the best games of all time. There's just too many great games now. I'll have to make a top 20 so I can include stuff like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and the RE2 Remake.
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My favorite games from back then still remain my favorite. The rankings for some of them will swap/change around from time to time but generally my top ten/twenty/etc. has remained consistent. My top four games are still in the slots that they've been in since they became favorites.