Games that were worth the money and more.

[Zerodash]

Every month, I still log huge amounts of time with:

- VOOT (with twinsticks)
- StarCraft
- SF Alpha 2
- Punch Out!
- Sonic 3 and knuckles

[Ajinryu]

Ikaruga - Still play this daily, ever since the day I bought it. Fantastic shooter, such a great concept and level design too.

Guilty Gear X2 #Reload: The Midnight Carnival - Best fighter I've ever played, great for a tenner, hoping for the latest iteration to hit European shores sometime.

We <3 Katamari - Heaven knows how many hours I've waisted trying to perfect my runs on the "Friends" challenge, and the 1000m Katamari challenge.

Guitar Hero - Playing alone or with friends, it's a great game to just pick up and play, and with a song list longer than my arm, there's still plenty to do.

Kirby: Power Paintbrush - Bought this a month ago and haven't been able to put it down since.

Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest - Found it even more entertaining than the Wind Waker, and it was only a freebie with the game.

Halo: Combat Evolved - I still play this religiously, the co-operative campaign when friends come around ensures this stays in my Xbox.

Super Smash Bros Melee - Bought this on the first day it came out, managed to amass over 350 hours on it so far.

Shadow Of The Colossus - Not ever going to forget this one, not in a long, long time.

[Tragic]

-Crazy Taxi: Pretty much THE go-to game when I want something fun and arcadey. And I often do.

QFT.

[Rooster]

There is an absolute shit ton of stuff I could list here, but one game pretty much outshines them all for me in this regard: Fallout 2.

When it was released, I had just put togeather a new computer so was playing almost entirely FPS stuff (Quake 2, Heretic 2, Half-Life, SiN, Unreal) to take the most advantage of the freshly purchased hardware. A friend of mine was working at Babbages and one of the other employees was coming in gushing about this everyday so he talked me into picking it up. I was a bit skeptical at first, but the gritty post apocalyptic atmoshphere and pop culture referances won me over and I think I played it like three times back to back, trying to see how different character types would effect the game. I'll never forget the first time the Masticator chewed off my ear in a boxing match, waiting around for the pickpocket kids in The Den to steal my ativated dynamite, or starting a riot on the streets of New Reno where the whores helped me kill all the gang members and drug dealers. Good times. I think I have yet to personally witness all of the random encounters, and I'm sure its the crazy attention to detail that has always kept me coming back. I just wish the graphics engine could have shown the look of awe on an NPC's face when my rag-tag band of badasses came rolling into town in the last operational car with a trunk full of guns N ammo.

Now that I've had a chance to get started in Oblivion, I have every hope that the new Fallout will at least be handled competently, I just wish it was ready yesterday instead of sometime in the next few years.

[Cowdisease]

The Street Fighter games, specifically Third Strike.
I spent a lot of time with the Street Fighter games, but the one that's definitely worth its weight in gold is the Xbox version of Third Strike. The online play puts this game above all other fighters, online and off. Considering that no one in my area plays Third Strike, the Xbox LIVE capabilities were a godsend.

Yoshi's Island
This is my favorite game of all time. It's one of the few games that I'll go back and 100% every time I play it.

Gunstar Heroes
My second favorite game of all time. This game is just about perfect, and I never tire of playing this game from beginning to end.

[kingoffighters]

Yoshi's Island - 'nuff said about this one, I am enjoying it all over again now that the GBA version is rereleased for cheap.

Starcraft - Addictive as hell, I played this for many years, and even now, I want to reinstall and play some online.

Civilization 2 - Don't have 4, but this one I played for a long long time. I will pickup 4 soon.

Disgaea - Still haven't finished it, but clocked at over 60+ hours...

Final Fantasy X - Played 80 hours and got all the ultimate weapons. I enjoyed the story alot and the bittersweet ending was perfect.

Super Bomberman - Played this with my 2 other roommates in college almost everyday, for 2+ years.

[Beefy Hits]

Final Fantasy IV
SNK Vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash
SNK Vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium
Metal Slug X
Super Dodge Ball (NES)
Shadowrun (Genesis)
Fallout Series
PSO
Crazy Taxi
Dynamite Cop
Zombie Revenge
Katamari Damacy
Samurai Shodown II

[Psx]

let's see..
tetris
doom
chrono trigger
legend of zelda lttp for snes
sakura taisen 3
goldeneye
and many many more but these are the ones that I thought of first

[gameoverDude]

Darius Gaiden (Saturn and Taito F3 both): Its 28 zones let you take a different path through the game each time. Even better than G-Darius, just IMO.

Out Run 2: Currently my favorite racer.

Spikeout Battlestreet: It was only $30 to begin with, but I would not have flinched at paying $50 for it. It's as close as you get to Streets of Rage in current-gen.

Call of Duty 2: Once you've finished the game at the default setting, try Veteran "You will not survive" mode for a real challenge.

Super Street Fighter II (SNES): Not a bad port of the game for 16-bit. The CPU AI in 1P mode is pretty strong, even compared to the arcade.

Space Megaforce (SNES): Love the Tricky & Wild difficulty settings. One of the first shooters with a few "revenge bullets".

Thunder Force IV: It's surely worth keeping at to try for that 2,000,000 "no miss" bonus.

Doom I & II: Actually better than Doom III gameplaywise in that you can get SWARMED by a good handful of enemies at a time. You race toward the key, grab it, and BAM! A door opens and releases half a dozen Imps.

Crisis Zone (PS2): It is much harder than the arcade version with maybe 200% more Crisis Sightings, but IMO this is welcome since I can 1-life clear the arcade with no trouble.

Ibara: Yet another great shooter from Shinobu Yagawa (Raizing's project leader on Garegga).

Border Down: Great sidescroll shooter with some ex-Taito employees involved. The break laser system is a nice improvement over what they originally tried in Metal Black.

Ketsui: Yet another great shooter from Cave. The score system is a break from Dodonpachi's/Daioujou's stringent chaining, but the bullet patterns still do offer a good challenge. It may cost a few Benjamins, but the replay value will make up for that. This is long overdue for a console version- how about it, Arika? You want to.

Elevator Action II: Nice cross between Elevator Action and Rolling Thunder. Some good scoreplay is involved when you shoot lights out- killing enemies in blacked-out areas is worth double. Setting traps for enemies with Jad's shrapnel bomb or Edie's fire bomb is fun- leave one in an elevator and let some moron walk in to their death.

Street Fighter III (Double Impact & Third Strike): Street Fighter III is seriously underrated. I was enthused about it right from the start and it didn't disappoint.

Kaiser Knuckle (F3): Not a bad fighting game. I wish it had more than 9 playable characters, but there are some cool features in it like fire and lightning zones that boost some special moves. Slamming your opponent into the stage walls enough times will cause them to break, opening up other areas. You need to get a certain minimum score and reach the final stages on 1 credit to fight the real final boss- the General. If you do get there- good luck. SNK's bosses are nothing in comparison. One time I went through 20+ credits trying to beat him before giving up.

Power Drift: It probably got more of my quarters than almost any other Sega scaled-sprite racer from the late 80's/early 90's. The 3D effects are amazing, especially with the steep hills on some of the tracks and the tilt effect. Until the Dreamcast, no home version did it justice. At least the C64 and especially the Saturn ones were nice tries.

[Changeling]

Try to go in order for this one...

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out- Sure Mario and Zelda were great, but THIS was my main addiction for the NES. Every kid in school was swapping tips on how to beat various boxers with a KO. I still like to play through it. This game has sooo much personality. Being able to knock Tyson out should be a rite of passage among gamers.

Castlevania 1- Tough game at the time. never forget the music and the first time and place I played it. I remeber the day perfectly. Castlevania 2 was fun and so was 3 but the first one sunk its hooks into me and never let go.

Gaires- I liked the Thunderforce series alot and owned TF4(lightning) but Gaires was MY game! I even videotaped me beating the game mutiple times. I just wanted to get better and better at it. It was weird. I love shooters but will be the first to admit that I like them on a casual level. Gaires was the exception.

Street Fighter 2- Just like most people on this board, i was seriously addicted. Traveling from arcade to arcade looking for competition. Nothing was better than beating a Street Fighter hotshot in the arcade and giving the loser your game as you simply walked away. Priceless. Being able to practice this game at home was so great. The practice time and games against friends made the 60 or 70 bucks for this game seem like a steal.

Jeez I could go on and on. So I'll leave with my most recent addiction.

Battlefield 2- Even though after all is said and done, I'll have spent $100 bucks on the game(after EX. packs), this is the steal of the century for me. PC got struck by lightening and I had a new one in less than a week. Nothing could keep me from this game. Like Destro said, you could charge a subscription fee for this game and I'd gladly pay. I wouldn't do that for any other game. WoW? Forget it . BF2 will be getting play from me for years, I am sure. There is no other online game out there today that offers the fun and intense gaming that BF2 does.