Video Games That Matter To Me
When it comes to my love of storytelling, the graphic adventure games from Sierra and LucasArts in the 80s and 90s were seminal in shaping how I view video games.
Titles like Space Quest, Sam & Max Hit the Road, The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, King’s Quest, and Grim Fandango showed just how cinematic, witty, and immersive gaming could be. (And yes, I even have a soft spot for the absurd, cheeky humor of the Leisure Suit Larry series!) They proved that games could rely on sharp writing, clever puzzles, and memorable characters rather than just reflex-driven action.
As incredible as those games were, the physical hardware of the era was definitely an obstacle course. Swapping through a stack of floppy disks mid-game, and holding your breath hoping the drive wouldn't crash or corrupt your save file, was a stressful rite of passage. When technology finally transitioned to CD-ROMs and DVDs, bringing full voice acting, CD-quality audio, and zero disk swapping, it transformed the entire medium forever.
Legend of Zelda
I very clearly remember the first time I ever played The Legend of Zelda. I was upstairs at my cousin Nicky’s house, and he wanted to show me a new game he’d gotten for the NES. Right out of the box, it was mind-blowing: the cartridge itself was metallic gold, not the bland grey most Nintendo games wee. Even more incredible was the fact that the cartridge contained an internal battery power-saving feature, meaning you didn't lose all your progress when you turned off the console. To someone whose earliest gaming memories were playing Pac-Man, this felt like stepping directly into the future of video games.
Since that afternoon, I’ve played and enjoyed almost every installment in the franchise. Every title retains that core spirit of grand adventure, even while boldly changing the mechanics, art style, and scope from one generation to the next. I love how the series constantly reinvents itself, and I’m always eager to see where Link and Zelda's journey takes us next.
It Takes Two/Split Fiction/A Way Out
Hazelight Studios specializes in creating uniquely shared gaming experiences, every single one of their titles is strictly built for two players. While you can play them online, I got to play through all three via classic couch co-op with my son, Ben. My gaming skills may be slipping as I get older, but I still have an absolute blast playing with him. We’re both stubborn and butt heads plenty, but we eagerly await whatever project Hazelight cooks up next (even if Ben will go out of his way to gleefully kill me even in a co-op game if I can’t keep up with his pace).
What makes Hazelight special is how radically different each of their games feels:
- A Way Out is a gritty, hard-boiled prison escape and revenge story packed with cinematic twists and turns.
- It Takes Two follows a couple on the brink of divorce who get magically transformed into dolls, forcing them to work through their relationship issues across wildly creative gameplay mechanics. It also features one of the most brutal moments in gaming history, where they decide they must make their daughter cry to break the spell—leading to the brutal massacre of her favorite plush elephant.
- Split Fiction seamlessly blends high fantasy and sci-fi worlds in inventive ways, delivering some of the most genuinely unique cooperative mechanics I’ve ever experienced.