Devine

Kudos. Many of these top 10 games I dropped partway in or stopped for awhile and finished much, much later, but Portal had me in its grip every minute and I finished it in one sitting (admittedly because it might be the only game on this list for which that's realistically possible). I just thought it had a lot of atmosphere for being such a simple, spare game. Scratch that: I just thought it had a lot of atmosphere, period.

Super Mario Galaxy is the other game on this list that I obsessed about playing...I'd go to work and be thinking about playing SMG all day.

Megaman 2 is the sh*t. It makes my top 20 without blinking, and probably my top 10 (but I'd have to think for a long time before I was sure what my top 10 is, exactly).

I was also gonna say to BananaBoat: played Metroid Prime 3?

I can't let the last comment on this board refer to Mario as "alright". It's BRILLIANT! I have been having such a good time the past week or so. Like I said, it's not perfection in a box, but I think it's pretty damn close. I'm just filled with delight every time Mario flies between planets, arms spread wide. The "challenge" stars have a lot of bite sometimes. I think people are overselling how easy it is (particularly to get all 120 stars), and anyone who's "too mature" for Mario is too mature for fun.

Complaints about linearity...in a Mario game? What were SMB3 and SMW if not linear? At least within a given stage. I find that criticism really stupid. You might as well complain about backtracking in a Metroid game. It's a staple of the franchise.

I love it. Not best game ever, but I have no problem immediately slotting it into top 10 platformers ever, top 30 games ever. It outshines Mario 64 without question, IMO.

Guitar Hero rules, though I am very curious to see what the developers have done with Rock Band.

Strongly disagree...having played a couple of Metroid handheld titles and Metroid Prime (have yet to get very far in 3, no time), Metroid Prime is very much the closest experience to Super Metroid. Big drama, isolation, backtracking, excitement on weapon/upgrade collection, great bosses. I think Metroid Prime (I didn't like the second one very much) is very much a Metroid title.

Gar, apologies for the double (now triple) post.

Ah, I see someone mentioned the game before I did...in the context of not playing it yet! Neal, man, you gotta try it, it's great. (I also really enjoyed Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, though I played it on Xbox.)

That's weird, though...I did a text search on the page before I posted...maybe I misspelled "Eternal".

The point is, it can't hurt to re-mention ETERNAL DARKNESS to those who haven't played it (it gets my personal vote for best story in a videogame, especially when you combine it with the ever-progressing gameplay...great progression from being in the dark and feeling impotent to understanding things and feeling powerful).

Also, thanks, vidGuy and beaus. We definitely understand each other.

Ah, I see someone mentioned the game before...in the context of not playing it yet! Neal, man, you gotta try it, it's great. (I also really enjoyed Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, though I played it on Xbox.)

That's weird, though...I did a text search on the page...maybe I misspelled "Eternal".

The point is, it can't hurt to re-mention ETERNAL DARKNESS to those who haven't played it (it gets my personal vote for best story in a videogame when you combine it with the ever-progressing gameplay...great progression of being in the dark and feeling impotent to understanding things and feeling powerful).