Mega Man 2 was my introduction to the franchise and what an introduction it was. Fantastic game and is my favourite of the Mega Man series. Like Robio said the soundtrack was god-tier.

57. Halo 1 and 2

The dawn of the internet age, PC gaming was doing online deathmatch for many years now but on consoles it was still a new thing. Like the DC the Xbox had a built in modem so it was ready to play out the box but they wanted to provide a service and make us pay for something THAT WAS FREE. Anyway they tricked everyone and now we all pay for online cause hey its the way things are... im not bitter. Halo 2 was the big selling point, with Halo 2 MS was going to show why their service was worth it and revolutionize online gaming forever, and the bastards did it. Matchmaking was a revelation, no longer did you have to search ugly pages of rooms with limited spaces to join. Pick a kind of game, press a button and boom you are matched with people in a minute.

It changed the way online games would be played forever and it was so easy to use and such an excellent pvp experience that even I paid for xbox live to get on. Halo 2 had its share of excellent maps like Lockout and Beaver Creek. The sword was the best powerup of any FPS game, the race to get the sword was always so much fun. Then the community started to get creative and make custom game modes and from that zombie mode was born. My friends and I would play so many of these modes for hours on end. It's the most fun I would have with an online shooter. The campaign mode didn't live up to the first one, and I would say 3 is better in that regard. But the third one I bought many years after it came out, I never really played online, that comradery I had with my friends playing online was dissipated. Still Halo 2 remains one of my most played games of that generation.

The Xbox and I have a strange relationship in that I hated the idea of it and still bought one. I viewed MS as the ones who replaced Sega. They were not Japanese, focused on PC games, it was not a great fit for me but their impact on this industry has been huge and for the better. It all started with their launch mega hit Halo. It being a FPS I basically didn't give a crap, I did read the reviews, it sounded like a great game but outside Doom the genre never struck a cord with me.  My friends bought the Xbox and Halo and this was still back in the time where you had to travel to your friends house to physically sit next to them to play a 2-player game, barbaric I know. Almost all my FPS deathmatch experience came from playing at my best friends house, we ran the gamut of Goldeneye, Turok, perfect dark, you know the N64 stuff. Then came Halo and it clicked instantly, there is something about the feel of this game and every Bungie game really (as Destiny has transfered the feel into the GaaS model) that makes shooting and movement feel so damn perfect. There was the legendary announcer "double kill!", the shield sound effect, sticky grenades, the overpowered pistols (god I loved those) and some of the best maps ever like Hang em' high. But Halo was more than just a standard FPS as we had vehicles, warthogs, banshees, and wraiths oh my. Blood Gultch lead to epic battles of CTF where we actually hooked up 2 xboxs and had two tvs for 8 player madness! Halo LAN parties were some of the most fun gaming experiences I ever had and no stupid internet connection will ever replicate that.

So eventually I caved and bought an Xbox with Halo (and KOTOR). There was also the entire campaign that I wanted to play, from the opening theme it had me. Dun Dun Dun DUUN Dun dun dun DUUN, best theme song of that generation. Then you arrive on the beach head and its an entire battlefiield where you drive around with your AI squadmates and it feels like being in an intergalactic space war!  Excellent AI, great variety of weapons and powers, great set pieces, Halo had it all. The story was tight and kept things moving constantly. New enemies and situations would arise, like the controversal flood in the library, yes that level was tedious but what comes after is so damn awesome. Three way wars, flood jumping around causing chaos with the covenant while you fight anything that gets in your way. Halo felt like being in a living war in a way no Halo game replicated since. And so I feel Halo 1 is still the best in the franchise.

56. Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga and Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door

Mario RPGs, such a joy. I had never played one until I got Mario and Luigi for the GBA and fell in love. Remember I was not an RPG fan, hardly played any, the lack of quick paced action was usually why I didn't bother with them but these games were different. The fights had a skill based component to them. I was hitting buttons with perfect timing to get maximum damage, I was dodging attacks.I was learning super moves and how to pull them off. It wasnt just picking an attack and being done with it. The game world was brilliant as well with Mario and Luigi combining to use skills to get to new areas or find secret items. Its an RPG that has all the elements of an action adventure and that is why these games work so well.

The secret sauce though is the hilarious and brilliant writing. This one in partcular was so well done, poking fun at the world of Mario and Nintendo as a whole. It's smart and self aware of what it is all while having a coat of charm that makes you love these characters. I always get a chuckle when they speak in italian jibberish. Mario's world has always been colorful and full of iconic design but it never really had personality until these games. Superstar saga remains my favorite, Partners in Time was a bit of a let down and Bowsers Inside Story while brilliant was succumbing to the usual franchise fatigue. Superstar though was one of the best GBA games.

A year later came the sequel to the beloved Paper Mario which I never played, so the sequel was my first Paper game and what I game it is. It shares the same sort of action packed DNA, fights are active with timing beingh key. The game world unfolds as you develop skills to fold and turn mario into various paper objects which leads to some really great moments. Paper Mario 2 is filled with great characters and an incredible world to explore. The writing like Mario and Luigi is sharp and funny all the time. The art style is so great, what a vibrant joyful world they created, you want to explore every inch of it because it is so inviting. Everything about this game is extremely well done, for an RPG light kind of game it sure does nail the leveling and strategy needed to beat big bosses. I eventually went back and played the original game which I loved as well but the sequel was clearly the better game. The last Paper Mario game I played was Super Paper Mario which on paper (ha) sounds like my perfect game, but going half action game half RPG made it lose its focus. Paper Mario 2 remains the corwn jewel for Mario RPGs and shows that Nintendo first party can excel at any genre.

Took me awhile to get into The Thousand Year Door, but once I did I was hooked. Until the moon area, which was a bit of a lull. Still loved it.

I played Thousand Year Door and enjoyed it quite a lot.