Your Most Played Gaming History...

[Family Computer]

Ok, so I just responded to the "Top 10 Personal Favorites" thread in the classic gaming section. It really made me think about my history with game playing (been doing it since I was in Kindergarten with the NES). Now, in the past couple of years, I haven't been playing many games at all really. Too busy with other endeavors. But as I look back, I can trace the games that I played the most at a certain time. You know, there is always one game that you keep playing for a certain period the most. Maybe you never stop playing that game, but you often move on. A lot of the games that I played like this, I wouldn't even rate on my top 30, but at one point in the past they were games that I played the most. So here is my history, please post yours!

1. Super Mario Brothers 1/2/3, Super Mario Land 1:

When I was younger, these 4 games were the ones that I played over and over. I had a lot of GameBoy & NES games, but I would definitely say these were the 4 games that I truly loved during that time period.

2. Street Fighter II Arcade:

When I was in 2nd/3rd grade, I remember I used to go to the local mall a lot with my grandmother. I started playing Street Fighter 1 with those punch-button controls under the influence of my 18 year old brother, but when I saw SFII for the first time I was in love. I went and played for a couple of hours almost every week, and I could beat a lot of the older players. I was pretty good with every character. I stopped playing Street Fighter 2 at the arcade when Turbo/CE came out, because I had them at home and the level of play at the arcade got a little too much for my 10 year old self.

3. Mortal Kombat 1/2/3 & NBA Jam Series

I used to go to Putt-Putt Golf & Games every Saturday morning for their Saturday Special. You could get 40 Tokens, a game of golf, icecream, and 2 slices of pizza for something like $15. I loved these 2 series by acclaim and played them all the time in the arcade, and at home on the Genesis/Super NES. I don't care for these games anymore, but I used to be a huge basketball fan, so NBA Jam was like a dream to me at the time. MK3 actually came a bit later when the PS1 first hit. I knew all the combos and fatalities at the time, but I have no desire to play this game today.

4. Super Mario 64 [N64]

I remember finally finding an N64 for sale and I got it with this game. I had kind of small expectations of it after seeing it in the store (blocky polygons didn't do it for me), but I really thought the N64 was going to be amazing. After getting this game, my first impressions were totally blown away, and I played it until I got all 120 stars.

5. Cool Boarders [PSX]

I loved this game at the time of its release. I used to play it all the time, trying to beat my and my friends' times.

5. Golden Eye [N64]

I wasn't into games with movie licenses ever, so this game was under the radar for me. However, one of my good friends bought it and I read all the stellar reviews, so I ended up buying it and playing it to death. Most kids playing games in HS at the time were doing the same.

6. Myth: TFL / Myth 2: Soulblighter

Wow. My favorite game series of all time, hands down. I played these games online far too much. I played almost everyday for 3 years. I'm not a fan of PC games, and I never have been a fan of RPGs or RTS games. But this game was so amazing online. I used to play in all the big tournaments and was always one of the top ranked players on Bungie.net. During the time of playing this series, I pretty much quit console gaming completely...except for...

7. Gran Turismo 1 / Metal Gear Solid

These are 2 games that I was heavily into on the PSX. As stated before, I was mainly playing the Myth on my Mac, but these are the 2 I played on the console at the time.

8. Halo

As a Bungie fan, I bought the Xbox for this game. In fact I never bought any other Xbox game aside from this. I played the solo campaign, until I beat every level by myself on Legendary. Then I found some friends at school that I played heads-up & 4 player multi-player for $1 a game with. That was addictive!

9. Rez

Used to puff blunts and play this game for hours. I probably played this game for 100 hours. When I got to Japan, I bought the Japanese version with the Trance Vibrator and have unlocked everything all over again. It is a fun game to show to people who don't know about it.

10. Street Fighter II: Hyper Anniversary // Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike

Until about 2 months ago, I played this game for an hour everyday in the local arcade in Tokyo for about 3 years. The level of play at the arcade is pretty good, and I sucked at first. I hadn't played a fighting game competitively since the Mortal Kombat days. Slowly, I stepped up my parrying game, and I am a slightly above average player now. Still, there are so many insanely good players here. Arcade is only 3 minutes walk from my apartment though, so I still play it quite a bit!


Anyway, I think that is a good break down of my most played games ever. Goldeneye, Cool Boarders, MK Series, NBA Jam are all games that I have no interest in playing today. I am probably forgetting some of the games that I used to play a lot. During middle-school, I used to play tons of sports games for the Genesis/SNES/PSX, but they are kind of forgetable.

Right now, I am back on the Famicom kick—recently trying to master Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, but my most played is online poker on Full Tilt. I also like playing Konami's Mahjong Fight Club at the Japanese arcades. All stats are saved to a personal card, and you are actually playing online with other players around the country. You control with a touch screen, and have a personal seat. Tobacco and green tea are necessities!