My 10 Favorite Games I Received As Christmas Gifts

Like most red-blooded God fearing Americans, I love Christmas and everything that comes with it. Considering this upcoming Christmas will be my last holiday that I won't have to work for many years, I've been getting nostalgic, even moreso than usual. Every year, and I mean EVERY YEAR I get a video game for Christmas, and it's often the "centerpiece" of my gifts as far as I'm concerned. Hell, I can frame most of my Christmas memories around what game I received. So without further ado, here's my favorite games I've gotten for Christmas. Bear in mind that favorite doesn't necessarily mean best. I'm pretty susceptible to the sweet poison of nostalgia.

#10 The Simpsons: Bart's Nightmare, 1992

Acclaim was known for putting out tons of crappy Simpsons games during the heyday of the series, but this one had a bit of spark. Basically the premise is that Bart falls asleep while doing homework and in his dream the homework blows out the window and he has to recover it by going through a series of nightmares, like one where he's Godzilla Bart or one where he's in the Itchy and Scratchy universe. The presentation is top notch and it easily makes up for the fact that the gameplay isn't perfect.

#9 Game and Watch Gallery 2, 1998

It's easy to forget how satisfying and addicting simple games can be. This game is a collection of Nintendo's old series of Game and Watches, complete with modern updates. Most games simply consist of you moving back and forth to catch items or something like that endlessly. It's a genre of game has more or less disappeared from the gaming landscape. Still, just because it's not around doesn't mean it was really bad. It's perfect for a portable system and has plenty of unlockables to keep you busy. I could play the Chef game all day.

#8 Kirby's Pinball Land, 1993

Video pinball usually doesn't do much for me. Pinball is pretty visceral and requires a lot of noise, flashing lights and the ability to bang the machine that don't really come across on a small screen. This game compensates for the small screen by having a pretty good table design, fun bonus levels and an interrupt save feature that lets you play for pretty much forever. This sucker is addicting.

#7 Mario Kart: Double Dash!, 2003

When I initially saw previews of this game, I wasn't very excited. I had played Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 to DEATH. This one looked like the same thing plus gimmicky to boot. Then I actually played the game at a store kiosk and remembered how hopelessly addicting these games are. The driver/gunner concept is indeed gimmicky, but at least it's a fun gimmick and you can let your non gamer friends play as the gunner. This entry in the series has some of the best tracks in the series like Baby Park and DK Mountain. It kept me and my friends occupied for MONTHS.

#6 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 2004

I'm not a big bandwagon jumper with games. Whenever the "next big thing" comes out, I'm usually pretty skeptical of it. GTA III and it's sequels were the exception. I absolutely love the freedom of sandbox games. The scope of San Andreas was simply massive. Three big cities, a dozen small towns and all the nothing in between. This was also the first GTA to have a storyline that went beyond getting rich and had an appealing main character. The only problem is that the improved narrative comes at the expense of the gameplay. In the old GTA games, the missions could be completed in any way as long as you finished your objective. San Andreas usually limits you to a specific path that you have to take. It's still fun though.

#5 The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, 1998

Being an N64 owner was pretty rough back in the day. You would be blessed with 2 or 3 really great games a year, a handful of games that were at least playable and then loads and loads of garbage. Ocarina fell into the first category and more or less kept the system afloat in Japan where it was really struggling. If you preordered the game, it came in a fancy box with a gold cartridge, which I thankfully got. Ocarina didn't reinvent the series like Super Mario 64 did for the Mario games. It more or less felt like previous titles in the series, but 3D. This is not a bad thing! The world was huge and filled with secret. The gameplay's transition to 3D was seamless thanks to the auto jumping and Z-targeting system. People often herald it as the best game in the series. I have to respectfully disagree, it really is an excellent game.

#4 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, 1995

There are few games I've wanted as bad as this one. I remember having dreams about playing it. It's definitely one of the most underrated Mario games too, but it came out at a time when 3D graphics were fairly new and the very stylized but juvenile look of the game didn't sit well with a lot of gamers at the time. It's a shame, because the simple, crayon-drawn backgrounds and the inventive morphmation stuff looks a lot better nowadays than a lot of 3D games from around that time. Did I mention it plays great too? It borrows a bit from the "collect everything" mentality found in the Donkey Kong Country games, but it rewards you by unlocking new levels and bonus games. Like most Mario games, it's very accessible and sits very firmly on both sides of the hardcore/casual dividing line.

#3 Donkey Kong Country, 1994

Donkey Kong Country is probably the best example of Nintendo Power's hype machine, at least the best example of it working on me anyway. Early screenshots of the game looked...sterile and artificial. I wasn't sold on the game until NP sent me a VHS tape that showed the game in motion as well as how the graphics were made. This piece of Nintendo-spawned propaganda sold me instantly on the game. When you got down to it, DKC was a bog-standard platformer with fancy graphics that haven't aged incredibly well. It's still a great game though and was very impressive for it's time. It sold pretty well and showed off how powerful the SNES could really be and ensured that developers didn't abandon the system prematurely.

#2 Final Fantasy III, 1997

I missed out on this game when it was released, but I fortunately wised up and asked for a copy of the game before it became ridiculously rare and expensive. I had to settle for a used copy with no box or manual, but whatever. Final Fantasy III is great because of the absolute depth it has. With 13 characters with their own abilities, dozens of Espers to learn magic from and hundreds of spells, it's easy to see why it was one of the biggest games of it's time. Hell, there's at least five different ways to break the game and make it ridiculously easy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the amount of ways to play the game really makes me wish I had a way to wipe my memory of the game so I could play it completely fresh.

#1 Super Mario World, 1992

It was close, but when I thought about it, there really wasn't any contest. I freaking love Super Mario World. I distinctly remember it being one of the first games that I felt mesmerized me. When the SNES came out, there was a demo set up in Wal-Mart, but there were only controllers so only the opening demo movie played. I remember being completely enthralled by the colors and animation. The Koopas walked now! Mario finally looked like he did in the official artwork! And he had a dinosaur buddy who ate enemies! It was too much. I had to have this game. I didn't get my SNES and Mario the holiday it came out, but I got it in 1992. It was glorious. Super Mario World took the framework of Super Mario Bros. 3, a mindblowing game in it's own right and perfected it. The graphics are clean, bright in appealing almost two decades after the game came out. The world is huge and the levels actively reward you for exploring by opening new paths and levels and most importantly, the game is simply fun to play. It has moments of challenge, but it's never overbearing. The cape allows you to go through the levels as fast as possible while making the game still feel breezy or it allows a near-broken level of exploration. The game just feels right. Definitely my favorite Mario game.