Tecmo Super Bowl

Disco Elysium

Final Fantasy VII

I always end up going back to the first Half-Life; everything in that game is very well made.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or GTA 4. 100% nostalgia picks since these are the games that I played endlessly as a preteen into high school. I would maybe throw Pokemon R/B/Y in there too since those were the games I played endlessly until I was old enough to start detasseling and buy myself GTA 4, Oblivion, and an Xbox 360

Streets of Rage 2. Favourite soundtrack, too.

Being totally honest, I don't think I can just settle on one game like that. I play different games for different reasons, and what genre/titles I've played the most has varied a lot throughout my life.
Up there, however, is Dark Souls, as well as League of Legends (despite all the issues I have with it, it's sucked me back in for over a decade now).

As I've gotten older and have less time to commit to competitive gaming, cooperative gaming still lets me enjoy challenging multiplayer experiences without having to worry about ELO or keeping up with the current meta as much.

As much as I love Helldivers (and I am very excited for the sequel coming out later this year), Deep Rock Galactic is undeniably the champion of the cooperative gaming genre. You can jump into almost any lobby of random players and be rocking and stoning together instantly. Deep Rock Galactic features many game mechanics that just naturally result in cooperative play, without the need to rely on voice or text communications (though, voice and text are available and used).

Not to mention that the devs are really really amazing. Seasonal updates always come free of charge. They have a battle pass system that is 100% free that just rewards cosmetics. If you don't get battle pass cosmetics by the end of the season, you can still earn all the cosmetics at a later date. The only DLC on offer are cosmetic packs, which are really cool, but the cosmetics you can earn in-game are also really cool. There's no pressure at all to spend more outside just buying the base game. I deeply appreciate them and how they conduct business.

Jet Set Radio Future on the original Xbox.

I just love everything about it.

Like some already said, I too love Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, Zelda TP and Stardew Valley. It's hard for me to chose a favorite game… There's a few of them I equally like, and it kinda changes depending on my mood.

Saints Row 2 is one I haven't seen mentioned yet. There's always something fun to do in this game and it’s hard to get tired of it. The map is packed full of interesting stuff, feels bigger than it actually is. And without writing a novel about it, I like the story a lot. It's a perfect balance between wacky and serious, plus the characters are great. Truly underrated game imo. Shame what happened to the series…

That Dr. Mario vs Tetris game. My mom would bust it out and we’d have competitions way past bedtime because she was addicted. So some good childhood memories attached to a fun little game.

Star Control 2. My son and I just started another playthrough.

NFL 2k5.

And I'm still mad with EA about the exclusive NFL License.

Holiday Island. And Transport Tycoon Deluxe...

Trials of Mana. Actually the whole Mana series were completely unique and very innovative when they first released. But the combination of story telling, party building, and combat system still hasn't been topped for me. The games are something I always have ready to emulate at all times. Fingers crossed they decide to remake the rest of the Mana series. Legend of Mana needs some love even though I remember most people weren't really keen on building their own world.

The Tales series was probably the closest before the switched from 2D to 3D. The switch, I thought, took away a lot of what made them stand out from other jrpgs in the market.

My close 2nd is Legend of Dragoon since it actually changed the combat system in a really meaningful way. Legend of Legaia also did something similar but I thought the storytelling was better in Legend of Dragoon.

Soul Sacrifice still needs some love. It's only downfall was releasing on such a niche system like the Vita. It actually moves the MH formula forward in a really interesting manner by forcing you to make really interesting choices in the story.

The King of Fighters, the whole franchise, it's just that special to me since my childhood

Asteroids. I shudder to think how many quarters I spent playing that game. Sometime I’ll have to see if there is some retro arcade out there where I could go play it again.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX. The originals were the games that made me realize gamrs could make me feel things, and DX is literally just them but with QoL changes.

Hard to choose one, but maybe I'd say Kerbal Space Program 1. It had a really profound impact on the way I understood the world, space, physics, and gave me one of the best feelings of pure exploration. It was amazing to drop into progressively lower orbits around a new planet or moon before finally landing and walking around.

I've played a lot of the games on this thread and more that haven't been mentioned which deserve to be recognized, but for my experience The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth goes at the top.

There are others more nostalgic, others with more acclaim, but I always come back to Isaac. The RNG, art, humor, and item combos made that game stick to me like nothing else. It has just a little hit of inspirational game design that speaks to me.

Interesting. No love for city builders and strategy games (RTS and TBS). Here are several, in no particular order:

• SimCity (4th is probably my favorite). Cities Skylines is the modern spiritual successor.
• Civilization series (arguably all versions were excellent for their own time)
• Starcraft (both are great)
• W40K Gladius (underappreciated gem)
• Kohan (nobody knows about that game. Kohan 2 was OK)
• Age of Wonders (3 and 4)
• Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War (the first one)
• Warlock - Master of the Arcane (honestly, I had more fun with that than with AoW)
• Majesty (the first one, very unique, "indirect" strategy)

The list can go on, and there were so many fantastic strategy games over the years...

Pokemon Sapphire

@GeekFTW Duck Hunt and Zelda A Link to the Past on SNES. Core childhood memories with family.

Duke Nukem 3D

I can't really name a single one that would be THE one. But the one I returned to the most over the years was the original Dragon Quest Monsters.

I had it on my Game Boy since I was in elementary school and even then played through it multiple times. Later I played through it multiple times on emulators. I just love this game so much.

It has a lot of flaws, starting with the limitations of a Game Boy game, but later games and other monster collectors never captured my heart like this one did.

ICO

This is a hard call, and after a lot of self-deliberation...It must be Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the updated 3DS version. It's a moody, dark, and interesting title within the Zelda game series! The deadline before the world ends pushes the player to figure out the most efficient way to make progress to save the world. The updated Bomber Journal makes this experience so tight and compelling!

Mario RPG. It's just enjoyable, it's a video game toy you really play with. Throughout you're encouraged to just have fun and not take anything seriously. Yeah jump on whatever you want, see if you can land on that Toad running around in circles. You did it, here's a funny little animation as a reward. run up a debt at the hotel and play bellhop, get yelled at for jumping on the shop counter, officiate a wedding, do some random backtracking to see Samus sleeping, go on a world spanning scavenger hunt. All while every little attack and magic is a little minigame to play with. Dont worry about grinding, here's a power star to run through a dozen battles worth of xp in a few seconds.

For myself: Illusion of Gaia (SNES).

I hear a lot of people talk about Soul Blazer and Terranigma when talking about this trilogy but IoG was always my favourite. I still have the soundtrack on my phone after all these years.

Curse of Monkey Island, not even close.