Don’t you just love the cell phone in GTA IV? I’ve only played about an hour of the game, but I’m already in love with that feature. It is, of course, just one aspect of many. A small thing. But then it is the attention to detail, the sheer loving polish on a game, that elevates it above the crowd. You can find driving games, shooting games, and gangster games anywhere. You can’t find one with a cell phone that works as well as that though. I haven’t accessed the GTA IV internet yet, but I’ve heard it’s hot stuff - and another incredibly detailed piece of work.

When we think about the great games - the games that we replay long after the graphics are dated and the game play is old hat - it is usually some small thing that we remember. For example, take my favorite game of all time. Final Fantasy 7 had a lot to recommend it, but the thing that stood out to me was the fact that every character had an individual walk. Tifa had a bit of a mince, that belied her martial arts expertise, whilst Cid had a macho stride that made him look rather stupid when he ran. Vincent was acrobatic as hell, whilst Yuffie was a lanky teenager. The walk bled over into everything, their gestures when talking, their victory dance, and it even helped show Cloud’s change of character post-OMG-I’m-not-Zack.

For a sprite, that was some pretty incredible acting.
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I love to reminisce about the good old MIDI gaming days. The days when I would play an RPG and obsess over midis. There’s some part of me, deep down, that still loves those clangy, high pitched musical notes. Even after I buy the instrumental CD or what have you. I loved games like Thousand Arms, that had an in game jukebox. I could sit and listen to that thing for hours. Admittedly, I never enjoyed the terrible electronic music from those hilariously bad tiger hand-held games toys. Even I have to draw a line somewhere.

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In my gaming career, there have always been titles that may not have achieved proper success with the masses, but piqued my interest enough and captured my heart sufficiently to beg the question, “Why isn’t there a sequel or a remake of this game?”.

I fully understand the fact that for a sequel to be considered, a game must be successful enough to garner critical praise or sell enough copies to accrue enough money for the company to profit. However, no matter how good a game may seem to me, and no matter how much I enjoy it, the fact that many gamers adhere strictly to what game reviewers or friends have to say hinders the success of many franchises that deserve a fighting chance to either improve or continue with more of the same.

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While stumbling around youtube to find various mario paint versions of my favorite game songs, I happened to notice that I was running into a lot of random fighting game videos. I’m not talking about your standard Mortal Kombat supreme demonstration. I’m talking about Peter Griffin fighting the green power ranger. Or Ronald McDonald versus Haruhi Suzumiya. A lot of times it was on a Street Fighter or Darkstalkers background I recognized. Othertimes, in the case of Ronald McDonald, it was outside a burger king. I guess the King decided the best way to liven up his restaurants after that whopper debacle was to bring in some good old bloodsports.

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He’s a nerd who plays bad video games from his childhood and swears like a sailor while doing so. And he’s amassed a huge following in the past two years by video taping them and then showing them to the public. Being the fan that I am, I recently tracked down James Rolfe, the man responsible for the Angry Video Game Nerd, and got a Girls Don’t Game exclusive interview.

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Not so much a remember when as a remember ugh. And I say UGH in the most loving way possible. The way a mother says it when she catches her child playing in the mud, but then quickly goes to fetch her camera for a picture to send to the grandparents. The following games are what I would consider my top seven most bizarre games. Some of these you may know, the others you may not. It’s a learning experience for all of us. Just remember that these games are all special and fun in their own way, and we wouldn’t ask them to change, would we? Of course not.

Why seven and not five or ten? Seven is my lucky number. So on with the list.

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