What are some games you consider as "must play"?

[TEKTORO]

Farcry2(map editor)
Culdcept/Culdcept saga(ps2/360)
Rule of rose(ps2)
FF3(snes)
MTV music generator(ps1/pc)
Wirehead(sega cd)

Also any game you loved as a kid(mario,zelda,megaman,sonic,ecco,etc..)
And any current gen game that dares to have a soul of it's own and not just marketing appeal(example:Deadly preminition,Vanqiush,Divinity II:TDKS.

[Bradtemple87]

all in personal opinion, but I'm sure we have at least another thread or two that are very similar

[irixith]

Borderlands (PC version)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1 version)
Chrono Trigger (SNES version)
Contra (Famicom version)
Final Fantasy IV (4) (SNES/GBA version)
Quake (PC version)
Streets of Rage (any) (Genesis version)
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES verison)
Tetris (GBC/PSP/PS3 versions)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES/GBA version)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB/GBC version)

..and about 1,000 more, but you get the idea. I'm almost 31, so you can tell what games I played growing up. No 3D Zeldas or Final Fantasies will ever grace my list. :p

[Hatta]

If there were one game I'd recommend every gamer play, just to have their minds blown, it would be Nethack.

[brunoafh]

No 3D Zeldas or Final Fantasies will ever grace my list. :p

I strongly dislike the 3D Zeldas as well. I think some of the 3D FF games are ok in their own way though.

[YoshiEgg25]

[Gamerforlife]

I'm not doing a list of favorites for this or a list of "must play" games from a historical perspective. These are just some games that I think truly define why games are a great art form

Ico
Shadow of the Colossus
Rez
Viva Pinata
Pikmin 2
Day of the Tentacle
The Secret of Monkey Island Remake
The Curse of Monkey Island
Full Throttle
The Sly Cooper Trilogy
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Peter Jackson's King Kong
Beyond Good and Evil
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Max Payne 2(One of the best told love stories in gaming)
Psychonauts
Aladdin(Genesis)
Batman Arkham Asylum
Brutal Legend
The Darkness
The Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

[Sideroller]

Metroid Prime for Gamecube.

One of the best installments in the Metroid series imo. Perhaps it's only shortcoming is that it is perhaps a tad easy compared to the other games but the gameplay is addictive. This game turned me onto the Metroid series and I'm sure it did the same to a lot of other people who may have never played Metroid before. I still need to play Super Metroid though - which I'm sure plenty of other people would recommend (maybe over prime).


Echoes on the other hand is different story. I feel like they made that a little TOO difficult at parts (boost guardian anyone???) and that the gameplay itself (with the light and dark ammo/portals) was a little played and gimmicky. Echoes still had fun battles (namely the ones between you and Dark Samus).

[MrPopo]

[Original_Name]

Yeah, this general concept has been explored here and there... the threads which come to mind on here have "before you die" in the titles.

Anyway, I think it's a fascinating concept to explore -- most major media have a generally agreed-upon list of classics or conceptual representatives which capture something essential about the medium. Unfortunately, every attempt I've seen at "must-play" lists fail on the basis of having sort of arbitrary criteria for determining what makes a game a "must-play" title. It'll be speckled both with titles which, while they still obviously hold up, have been conceptually built upon over the years, such as "Super Mario Bros." or "The Legend of Zelda" as well as recent titles which will obviously be bested in a year or so, such as the newest "Uncharted" game, or whatever.

There's usually very little elaboration as to why "The Legend of Zelda" would be chosen over, say, "Fallout 2", which takes what was important about "Zelda" and transcribes it into a more modern and elaborate experience -- or why "Zelda" should be chosen over earlier entries in the genre, such as "Elite" just on the basis of the former being a more relevant icon in popular gaming culture. Does being an iconic game really qualify a title as "essential" for a person wantin' to find out what games are all about as a medium from scratch? And what about those weird footnotes in history? "Moondust" is considered to be the first art game... is that relevant to a list like this? Sure, "Super Mario Bros." is infinitely more popular, but doesn't "Braid" do alot more artistically relevant things within the confines of the same genre? "Wii Sports" is the highest selling game of all time... does that mean that you would have a less complete understanding of video games if you never played it? And will I ever stop asking questions?