Top 50 Video Games: Number 43

Stats of Import
Platform: Playstation 2
Absurdly Specific Genre: Magical Broken Bone Prevention Game
Difficulty: 3
Beaten: Yes

Before the brand got too diluted, back before the infamous overpriced peripherals, Tony Hawk games were absolutely awesome. It was the one skateboarding game I could find that had tight controls (even if your hand ended up turning into a claw after a couple of hours, because of the way you had to hold it to properly hit the grind button), a perfect learning curve, fun looking tricks, and most importantly, interesting environments.

I can't go to baggage claim anymore without wanting to grind forever.

The single player levels were fun and had a variety of different fun things to do (disrupt the pickpockets! annoy construction workers! collect letters!), but where the game really shined was in the simple game of 'Horse' (or as we played it 'Nancyboy'). Two players essentially play a game of Horse on skateboards, with an escalating fight of who could get the most points in one string of tricks without bailing.

This type of behavior was frowned upon

It was brought up in the comments for Goldeneye that I may have ranked it too low. That might well be (I think I probably did, but what's done is done), but its current day replay value isn't totally up to snuff (nostalgia value is still off the charts, though). This game may not have been as universally loved amongst my friends back in the day, but when a couple of my friends came over a few weeks ago, we stayed up until 3 am playing this game. The replay value hasn't gone down a bit (in fact, it's possible that it's even more replayable now than it was then). A rare feat for any video game.