My list goes:
1- Skies of Arcadia- One of the few games that made me feel like a kid again, and one of the few games I would list next to Zelda OOT. Great anime graphics, amazing story, simple yet a bit more complex battles later on(although the gladiator fight was really rough in the beginning, I leveled up an insane amount of times as I guess everyone else did, that purple blob was pretty bad too seeing as Gladiator was RIGHT AFTER!), and the music was very well done. Despite the somewhat exessive random battles it was and still is an amazing game. I think it was ahead of it's time and easily beats the pants off of any rpg out now.
2- Jet Grind Radio- To be honest I haven't beat it yet and I had some issues with the control. I fell so many times on a way to a grind or a platform it got quite frustrating but despite that, this game brought revolutionary graphics that gave it a cartoon quality, great character designs and even though I find alot of the music fucking insane and odd(and I liked the Rob Zombie song in there I saw it quite fitting) was really unique. I also liked the way you painted on the walls although I wish they gave you more freedom to tag on stuff but nonetheless a great fresh take on games. I remember IGN DC did comparisons on the PS2 titles and this competed with SSX and the editor liked JGR more.
Although I disagree with comparing them since they're kind of a different genre I could see why stylistically although I thought SSX Tricky was on par with JGR with more character interaction and personality gushing out of every one of them.
Third choice is a tough one between Shenmue, Virtual On and Sonic Adventure. It's hard to really find what impacted me the most because Shenmue had an AMAZING atmosphere not many games have despite the stuff I found boring like waiting for certain events( I did go to the arcade too but eh), Virtual On made me giddy with joy finally enjoying and owning a mech game because I loved Gundam Wing's designs and Gundam in general and Dango told me the designers of GW did VOOT designs so I snapped it up immediately. The control is fine but obviously geared towards twinsticks but otherwise a fantastic looking and fun game once you have a grasp of the system. Sonic Adventure was amazing at its release and was a must buy with the DC along with Soul Calibur.
It really felt fast and next gen especially the whale chasing you down on the boardwalk and the gorgeous casino stage which brought me memories of Sonic 2 not to mention the awesome Nights pinball game. My only beef with it was the way you had to complete it with other characters to get the full 100% super sonic. It was certainly unique to be playing levels in a totally different way like Big(who I disliked the way his levels were, fishing was nifty though) but should have been totally sonic, tails, and knuckles with a hint of maybe Amy and a tad of Big. The overworld was a bit cool but pretty confusing after seeing how many paths branch to where so I'm kind of glad they did away with it. I'll give it to Sonic team they were ambitious with that so maybe they'll use it better next time.
I guess I'll go with Sonic Adventure as my third then heheh.
