Facewon wrote:

2000 to 09 will be a bloodbath for me too. Damn. Many an edge darling.

Facewon wrote:

Wait, kotor is not pre 2000. I refuse.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Just a list for now, which I'll probably tinker with before the deadline.  Consulting my picks from this thread to jog the memory banks:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)

I wanted it so much I bought the game on release day, which lay dormant as an awesome yet infuriating paperweight until I nicked my sister's bf's N64 for the Christmas holidays and hid at my nan's with it.  My first Nintendo game and an another example of an N64 game nailing the transition from 2D to 3D at the first pass.  I only played through it once, but I've got nothing but perfect memories that sit [channels Glen Campbell] forever gentle on my mind. 

2. Street Fighter II (specifically Turbo era)

This was A Big Thing.  Everyone was obsessed with it, which of course it deserved.  I put the majority of my hours in on the stuff-strutting 24-carat 24-MEG Megadrive version, but Street Fighter still smells of chips to me.  At one point we had SF2: Champion Edition in the chippy and Mortal Kombat in the cab office.  Perfect.       

3. Shining Force II (Megadrive)

Managed to get hold of this when I was in a bit of a lather over RPGs.  Was my first grid tactics affair.  As a youngfam what I used to like was towns, and talking to videogame villagefolk about stuff/running errands in hamlets etc.  Lost your hat?  Never fear, I am here.  'What are the towns like?' would've been my first question to anyone who'd played an RPG I was interested in.  Thankfully the towns in this were solid, and the rest of it was utterly magnificent.  The ability to properly level up each character with a class transformation blew my mind, and its team assemble game has only ever been rivalled by Mass Effect 2 imo.  

4. Micro Machines 2 (Megadrive) GET OFF MY SPONGE

5. Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)

Probably the poster child for 'how did they manage that then?'.  Mystifyingly good jump to three dimensional platforming that's been the template for all the best efforts since.  Honestly though, how the fuck was it this good?  Ridiculous achievement.     

6. Quake III (Dreamcast)  Dial-up multiplayer bliss. 

People complained about the lag but it was a whole new world for me, I frittered away many post-6pm hours becoming reasonably proficient at it.  I never bothered learning an M&K set-up, so even if I brought my A game a merking was just around the corner, but I absolutely loved it nonetheless.  Small maps, limited players, great weapons and quality respawning pick-ups.  Much as I enjoyed the early days of Halo 2, it was diminishing returns for me & online mp from this point onwards.  Fun fact: Also responsible for adding LOL, LMAO and ROFL to my acronym vocabulary.  I blame the lag though.     

7. Bangai-O (Dreamcast)

My favourite Treasure game.  Their top 10 is astonishingly good, so for this to top the list is quite an achievement.  The risk/reward of the counter attack is sublime and of course, the game built around this conceit is sublime.       

8. The Secret of Monkey Island (Amiga)

My mate had an Amiga, and as was par for the course, a seemingly infinite stack of games.  This one wouldn't save for some reason so we had to leave it on overnight after reaching the island, then finish it in the morning.  Insult sword fighting, absolute genius.  Would probably be my choice for gaming's all-time no.1 theme tune too.  

9. Worms Armageddon (PS1)

Gaming: The after pub years.  Red Stripe, cheap hash or omg we've got weed, near constant soundtracks provided mostly by my best mate's older brother and undercooked frozen pizza.  See also: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.  Could well be the point in time I'd choose to revisit if I had a special one shot time travel button.     

10. Streets of Rage II (Megadrive)

Forgot about this until I saw it in Eric's votes.  With apologies to Virtua Fighter 2, which it bumps off my original list, I think this was marginally more of an event for me.  The original was a very good scrolling beat 'em up - scoring extra points if you added the word 'console' before 'scrolling' - and got plenty of things right first time.  But ho boy the sequel was insane.  Kicking the door open, arm in arm with Landstalker, bowling in with their 16 meg swagger and basically giving the Megadrive an extra two gears.  Everything aside from the lack of team-up moves in two player is nigh-on perfect.  The greatest scrolling beat 'em up of all time.     

Diluted Dante wrote:

On Game Boy?