Great Console Video Games (not including Final Fantasy games)

Before we start, realize that this list, like all my lists, is completely biased. I don't play sports games, I rarely play fighting games, and I dislike Halo. So let's start there. If you can move on, read on!

Great Video Games

• Ico: Chances are you've never heard of it, and chances are you would dislike it if you only play Halo and sportsy games. Your loss. This minimalistic puzzle/adventure/action game lets you take control of a horned boy who has to escape from an abandoned castle. At the same time, you have to help useless princess girl out, too. Getting from place to place is the puzzle, especially since getting princess girl out means that you have to make pathways for her to use, as she's not as agile as you are. You also have to protect her from shadow spirits. It's a breathtaking game. Very beautiful graphically, and with a very subtle and beautifully melancholy story that really hits you. Not for the impatient thirteen-year-old boy in you, that's for sure.

• Katamari Damacy: If you haven't played it or heard of it, this may sound weird. You're a little green alien whose humongous dad, The King of All Cosmos, has destroyed all the stars after a night of binge drinking. He's an asshole, so he's making you clean up the mess by rolling a sticky ball (katamari) around the world picking up things. The more stuff you pick up (ants, candies, tacks), the bigger the stuff you can roll up (people, cars, buildings, rainbows). And great music, too. Simple, psychotic, elegant.

Good Video Games

• Bully: I haven't finished it yet, but it's fun in that Grand Theft Auto way, although funnier, I think. And much less violent.

• Call of Duty 2: I normally dislike first person shooters, but this World War II game on the 360 does it for me. Although I can't play for that long without getting jumpy...

• Dance Dance Revolution: Fun and good exercise! I'm still not good enough to beat the advanced levels, though.

• Donkey Kong Country: Why was this game so fun? It's just a normal side-scroller. Okay, you can also swing from vines. Woop-dee-doo. But such nostalgia for me with this game!

• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: Oh yeah. I had a Sega Game Gear. This is probably my favorite pseudo-Tetris game, if only because the beans were cute and stuck together.

• Grand Theft Auto 3: It began a new era. And rightly so.
  

• Almost any Mario Brothers game, particularly the SNES one and the N64 one: Not much to say. Classic. I also enjoy Mario Kart (the N64 one best) and Mario Party (even though it's stupid). Smash Brothers is fun, but it never wowed me like it wowed you.

• Metal Gear Solid: Box box box, sneaking past the guards. The plots are incomprehensible, sure, but the sneaking around in lockers and shadows and strangling people from behind was a high point in my girlish fifteen-year-old life. It can be funny at times, too.

• Shadow of the Colossus: Made by the same people as Ico and just as beautiful. Also great music. There are only 16 enemies, but each is a monstrous, moving puzzle. It's amazingly original and well-made, but sometimes can get a little frustrating. I'm aaalllmost done, so I'll let you know how great the ending is when I get to it. I've heard good things, though.

• Tetris: Still great after all these years. Why mess with perfection?

• Almost any Zelda game, though I haven't played the newest ones (Majora's Mask and the Twilight Princess): To be fair, aren't they all basically the same? People are always bickering about which was best, but I dunno, how much better could Link to the Past have been than Link's Awakening? How was Ocarina of Time THAT much better than the Oracle games? Aren't they all about an elf trying to save another elf by throwing pottery at walls, attacking feral chickens, and cutting down unsuspecting bushes to retrieve mysterious bits of heart?