all time favorite video games 9 and 8

The updates have been slow lately, as stuff has just been piling up more and more in my life. Ugh. As if it weren't busy enough, this is also shaping up to be one of the greatest sports weeks of year. I am in my last regular season week of Fantasy Basketball, have my Fantasy Baseball draft, am in at least three Fantasy NCAA Tournaments, am intrigued by the World Baseball Classic, excited about Major League Baseball to get started, and, and, and--the Northern Michigan Wildcat hockey team refuses to lose and keeps making it further into the playoffs (frozen four anyone?). Whew. In addition to that I am presenting a Skillbuilder on campus this week and have all of my usual stuff to do! Big props to Lina, who I didn't even know read my blog, for giving me three of the CD's I had listed on the site--the last two Kanye West CD's and one of the Weezer albums. NICE--thanks! On to the games--we're almost there!

9. Animal Crossing (GC)
If you've never played an Animal Crossing game because you thought it was too "cutesy" consider yourself lucky. Lucky that you didn't just lose over 100 hours of your life to a great game with endless replay value! Animal Crossing has a very simple concept, you inhabit a virtual village along with other human players and computer created character with zany, and often hard to understand personalities. Some move in and out of town, some are permanent characters. The world is rather small, approximately eight screens wide by eight screens long, but it can contain a million things to do. You can try to catch and collect all the species of bugs--or donate them to the museum in town for permanent display. You could try to catch the river fish or the ocean fish. Perhaps digging up fossils is more your style?
Tom Nook, a raccoon, runs the shop in town where you can buy new gadgets and furniture for your ever expanding house. You can trade with other animals. Run errands for people. Check to see if there are any of the dozen or so mysterious visitors in your town at anytime. Another awesome bit to the game? It runs on an internal clock. This means that if it it three days until the REAL Christmas, the villagers will be getting excited for it as well--you better figure out who you're giving presents to! The time is also real time, meaning that if you play at 9pm, it will be dark in town, and if you play at noon, there will be the hustle and bustle of the (little) city. An awesome moment occurs in front of the train tracks on Saturday nights, when Totakeke, aka K.K. Slider appears and lets you request a song. I know this all sounds corny to someone who has never played, but I spent most of a summer hiding in an illegal residence without a job playing this game everyday for hours on end. Mock me if you will, but when you are looking for a "Fancy Wardrobe" to complete your interior design and can't find it--it will be me mocking you. Awesome game.

8. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC)
Say what you will about the cartoony look of this game (though that discussion has finally died down somewhat), this is my favorite Zelda game of all time. The visual decision to make the game a cel-shaded cartoon was right on the money, and Twilight Princess showed that the series could still do both styles wonderfully. Wind Waker essentially gave us "Pirate Link" in that the adventure took place on the high seas, sea battle style. The characters were memorable, the sense of adventure seemed real and exploration in this game, more than any other Zelda, really seemed like exploring. It literally took you something like 25 minutes to sail from one corner of the board to another. Some will argue that it made the game infuriating, but to me, finding a random island, was especially rewarding.
The battle system was great, with lock-ons almost always working. Firing the cannon from Red King, your ship, at giant octopus, pirates, or guard towers proved challenging, but awesome. A good mix of gameplay (the stealth mission on that one island--avoiding the spotlight) and great, and I do mean GREAT, controls really helped this game blossom into its full potential. Often times with games, even great games, you finish and then think to yourself "why didn't they do this..." or "what were the developers thinking when they decided this..." With this game, I had no reservations and would not hesitate to put myself back into it again.

I won't even mention how damn cool finding the castle below the water was. Everything frozen in time. Whew. Awesome. Awesome.

UP NEXT: Our final entry with two game before we get to the top five. Games seven and six. A game with Mario AND Link?! Plus, my highest rated Super Nintendo game of all time.