Important games for me

Skies of Arcadia: A timeless RPG for me that is about Pirates. Not just any pirates; Sky Pirates. And not the whole crusty long john silvers; pretty stylish characters who get away from the eyepatches and wooden legs. Though Vyse does have an eyepatch but that has a zoom on it and Drachma who has a metal arm because it was bitten off by a whale. A game about exploration and seeing different cultures across the world. The tagline is pretty much "Seeing what lies beyond the sunset" and there is pretty much loads of people to see, the Arabian "Nasr" continent, the Amazonia continent "Ixi Taka" and the Japanese "Yafutoma". There is also the alaskan "Glacia" and the standard Valua and Pirates Isle areas too. It's a very well made game even if each area has a town and a dungeon to it. Its definitely fun flying around in the airships that everyone has, starting off in a tiny two man dingy and eventually stealing the latest ship from the Valuan Armada along with the  Prince of Valua. Of course it does turn into the Save the World biz but its fun still having the brave young Vyse turning into a heck of a pirate.

Jet Set Radio: Jet Set Radio is here for 3 whole reasons. 1) The cel shading. One of the first games to feature cel-shading was JSR and it even did it well and was original without trying to be a game of a cartoon. 2) The music. JSR is pretty famous for this and Hideki Naganuma being the composer of these fine techno tracks. They are love 'em or hate 'em but I love all the tracks though it is a bit annoying you can't chose what you listen to during each level as some of them are a bit lacklustre compared to the others. 3) A skating game that isn't a sports title. JSR is a game about being a deliquent really. You begin tagging up your bus terminal after a rival gang comes over. Then you tag other peoples turf. Then you do it more while avoiding the police, the army, tanks, swat choppers, suicide bombers, exploding cars, pyromaniacs with flamethrowers, guys on flying bikes and a group of Assassins called the Golden Rhinos. The thrill of the game keeps you playing. "Shit they just sent in the tanks to stop me from graffittying up a wall" then seeing how things progress from there. A complete thrill ride to see if you can finish tagging a wall for max points before you get jumped on by the bombers. It's a fun game if not short. JSRF didn't live up to the challenge that was JSR but still a fun series. Roll on the Wii version. 

The World Ends with You: TWEWY proves that the DS isn't full of 10 hour play it and leave it family games. Drawn by Tetsuya Nomura, all the characters have size 0 waists but also hard and thickly outlined edges. It brings a great style to the game and fits in perfectly with the music of the game which is another marmite job. It fits with the mood and this game demonstrates great writing from start to finish. Starting as Neku with no memory (yeah yeah) you learn more and more about where you are and why you are there. The game is also structured into Days with everyday after the first leaving with you a major cliffhanger making you want to start the next day even if you have to go to bed. The game also introduced the Dual Screen battling. You controlled neku on the bottom screen, moving him around with the stylus and drawing different symbols on the screen to unleash the numerous attacks you have while on the top screen using the d-pad (or face buttons) to control the character on the top. They fight the same enemies but you  must control both to win. It's a very fun way of fighting and keeps you engaged making sure neither of your characters die. Gameplay, music and writing, this is definitely one of the best games on the DS.

Persona 3: The latest game that I can thank for many sleepless nights. The Shin Megami Tensei Persona games are games that balance RPG elements like fighting monsters and using magic, with going to school, living a normal life and harbouring friendships. It's a great mix and I thought it worked well. It was always fun talking to the friends the main character had made in order to advance them as characters too.  The characters that you had in your party were also totally seperate and very well developed (considering the game lasts an ingame school year, you do learn alot). The student council president, captain of the boxing team, a 10year old genius, the deliquent first year, the girl with family problems, a monster fighting robot, a dog whose master died 10 years ago and Yukari (There is just no bracket to put her in).  The main draw of the game is the story that from the off is about saving the world. However even the story only gets exciting towards the end. The largest draw is the large amount of people you can learn about, especially since there are around 30 well developed and individual characters. It is a fun game I must say and its definitely hard nowadays to find a game that will last 90 hours on a standard first run through . Onto Persona 4 now.

Team Fortress 2: Talking of game length, Team Fortress 2 never gets old. A game I have already put around 250 hours into and never thought I would like. TF2 is an FPS, an online one at that but its a totally balanced game. Every class has their own strengths and weaknesses and is good against at least one other. There may be a learning curve to some but its very easy to pick up and play. I also like the graphics. TF2 has to be the first RPG without an overabundance of grey. It suffers from a red flood though. They need to stop doing deserts and go with alpines. The characters are just that, characters. A different personality floods through each one that isn't a Recoloured Masked Soldier. The environments are nicely put together and it avoids being many FPS cliches. Overall its impossible to say it isnt a fun game, the graphics are great and a great try at something new (See battlefield heroes lolololol) and it's gameplay is fair to everyone and promotes teamworking which does lack alot online.