You can tell when I’m nearly tapped for blog ideas when I start doing lists. But I’ll try to make these as fun to read as possible. Here are five ‘top five’ lists of some of my favorite stuff.

Favorite SNK Characters
If I tried to do a list of, say, favorite Namco game characters or Nintendo characters, I’d never be able to narrow it to just five. But I figure with my more limited knowledge of SNK games and characters, I could probably pick just five. So here they are:

1. Poppy
In the Samurai Shodown fighting games, there’s a character named Galford and he has a dog named Poppy. When Galford fights, faithful Poppy would always follow him around. I always thought that was really cute. I never was very good at fighting games, so I mostly just watched my friends play. But I always wanted to jump in and play as Poppy when someone picked Galford.

2. Crush Roller Paintbrush
That one came out of left field, now, didn’t it? Old timers may remember Crush Roller as Make Traxx, an old Pac-Man clone where you painted a maze. When the Neo Geo Pocket Color came out, they made an update to that game. That’s one of the reasons why I HAD to have a NGPC because of all the games to pick to make an update on, they picked Crush Roller! Wouldn’t it be cool if the Crush Roller Paintbrush was in Neo Geo Battle Colosseum?

3. Shermie
She’s a character in the King of Fighters games. She cracks me up because her name is funny and she has hair that covers her eyes (how does she see?) and her storyline in the NGPC Gals Fighters game is hilarious. She’s entering the fighting tournament to get a new cage for her pet hamster. I wish I still had my copy of Gals Fighters. It was a funny game.

4. Blue Mary
Blue Mary and her boyfriend Terry Bogard are in the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters games. They crack me up because they remind me of Dukes of Hazzard rejects. When I was little I used to LOVE to watch The Dukes of Hazzard. My favorite character was the car. When that show came on, I’d run and get my Pac-Man TV tray and my Dukes of Hazzard Hot Wheels cars (wish I still had those), and park myself in front of the TV. Recently I tried to watch that show again when it was being rerun, and I couldn’t make it through a whole episode. Man was that show awful. I guess when you’re only five years old, there’s no accounting for taste. Oh yeah, I guess I was supposed to be talking about Blue Mary. She’s also cool because her jumping animation in one of the fighting games makes her look like a 2-D platformer character like Mario. She has her legs far out in front of her and her fist in the air. It cracked me up.

5. Cham Cham
This is another character from Samruai Shodown. She is cool because she has green hair, a monkey, and a big boomerang. And that’s all I know!

Runners Up:
When I play a Metal Slug game, I usually always pick Eri. You know, I guess I know more about SNK stuff than I thought I did. I know one SNK character I DON’T really like much. Mai Shiranui. She doesn’t wear enough clothes. The only cool thing about her is that she throws paper fans.

Cary’s Favorite Sega Characters
It’s safe to say that I’m not much of a Sega fan. I never was into any of their game systems, and the only time they really earned my respect was with their Dreamcast game console. So I can probably come up with five favorite Sega charactes without having to narrow things down too much.

1. Tails
Regular readers of my blog know I don’t have too many kind things to say about Sonic games. The new 3-D ones are plagued with bad camera angles, buggy gameplay, bad controls, and just plain badness. I never understood the draw of most of the 2-D Sonic games either. But I’ve always liked Tails. As a character, he was everything better than Sonic. Instead of being a turd punk with attitude, Tails was smart, quiet, and modest. Gameplay-wise, Tails is also better than Sonic. Sonic’s 2-D stages have lots of nooks and crannies with secrets waiting to be explored. But with Sonic’s speed and limited jumping ability, they really don’t encourage much exploration in those games. But if you play as Tails, who can fly, you can explore all sorts of places and he makes the games more fun. When Jeff was little and would play a Sonic game as Tails, when he’d fly too far and have to land, Jeff would say, “Uh oh! My butt’s tired!” You know, since Tails flies with his two tails. Jeff’s favorite Sonic character is Knuckles, by the way.

2. Opa Opa
He’s a living spaceship in the cutesy shooter Fantasy Zone games. For a while he was Sega’s mascot before Sonic came along and even made cameo appearances in other Sega games. I like it when he gets close to the ground and little feet pop out and he walks on the ground instead of flying. I also like Fantasy Zone: The Maze, a Sega Master System Pac-Man clone with shooter elements. Too bad the Fantasy Zone shooters are really hard!

3. Flicky
You can see Flicky birds in a lot of Sonic games, but for a while before Sonic came along, Flicky was one of Sega’s other mascots, too. I really like the classic arcade game Flicky. It’s kind of like Mappy. You can play it on one of the Sonic game collections.

4. Ulala
Space Channel 5’s famous dancing reporter may not wear enough clothes sometimes, but she cracks me up and I like her pink hair. If I lived in the future, I wouldn’t want to live in a grey, metallic, robotic future. I’d want to live in Ulala’s bright and colorful fun future. One year at E3, one of Sega’s booth lady helpers was dressed as Ulala and she played a funny practical joke on me. I’ll have to tell you about it sometime. But not now!

5. Baby (Super Monkey Ball)
I always picked him in the GameCube Super Monkey Ball games. Too bad the newer Monkey Ball games have kinda sucked.

Runners Up:
Another cool Sega monkey is Amigo from the Samba de Amigo maraca music game. I can’t wait for the Wii version. I also like Big the Cat from the Sonic games, while most die-hard Sonic fans hate him. Sonic fans are going to hate me for my next statement: I think Ristar is better than Sonic, too. And sorry Sega fans, I think Alex Kidd’s games suck.

Cary’s Favorite Soul Calibur Characters
I don’t like fighting games very much, especially the 3-D ones. But I do like Soul Calibur. It’s easy to get into and pull off cool moves. I still stink at it, but at least I have fun. Here’s my favorite characters to play as:

1. Nightmare
He’s a bad guy, but still mean and scary in a cool way. And I’m somewhat good when I play as him. When I first saw Soul Edge in the arcade, the only reason why I plunked a quarter in it was because I saw Pac-Man running across the Namco logo. I thought he was in the game, but he wasn’t. So then I picked Siegfried because he had a big sword. Who knew that he’d eventually become Nightmare?
Nightmare would make a great Halloween costume.

2. Cassandra
I can also play fairly well with her, too (though everyone else here could still beat me I bet). Plus she’s one of the only fighters smart enough to bring a sword AND shield into battle. And she’s somewhat silly. I would also say she’s a cute video game character, but you’ll never get me to admit that outright. But the main reason why Cassandra is cool is one of her alternate outfits makes reference to the classic Namco game: The Legend of Valkyrie. And you know how I like the Namco classics. Cassandra just looks plain ridiculous with a winged helmet.

3. Xianghua
She’s really annoying and perky, but some of the stuff she says just cracks me up. She reminds me of a younger sibling or little cousin. You can’t stand them, but you love ’em anyway. One time I took one of those dumb Internet quizzes “What Soul Calibur character are you?” I’m ashamed to admit who I got.

4. Taki
She’s cool because she’s a ninja and says some unintentially goofy things sometimes. Only thing I don’t like is that Namco keeps making her breasts bigger in every game. When will these video game companies learn? Oh well.

5. Yoshimitsu
He was originally in the Tekken games but they brought him over to Soul Calibur, too, somehow. He does some funny things like use his sword as a pogo stick. He’s actually Jeff’s favorite character and I bet Jeff will be sad if Yoshimitsu’s not in Soul Calibur 4.

Runners Up:
Actually there are no runners up here. The other Soul Calibur characters I’m either indifferent towards or don’t like all together. Ivy and Voldo are just plain gross and creepy, and Talim takes Xianghua’s annoyingness to the tenth degree. I’m looking forward to Soul Calibur 4, though. Sure the Star Wars characters don’t fit, but who cares? It’s just a game!

Cary’s Favorite Game Companies
The next two lists fluxuate from time to time, so don’t consider these permanent.

1. Namco
Well, duh. It isn’t as much as what Namco does now, but back in the 80’s arcade days, Namco games pretty much RULED my quarters. Games like Pac-Man, Dig Dug, and Mappy are still some of my very favorite games today. They’ll probaby always be my favorite game company just for what they did back then. Namco was also really awesome in the PSOne days. I think they pretty much carried Sony’s system for a while. Even now I still like a lot of their games, like Ridge Racer, Soul Calibur, Katamari Damacy, Mr. Driller, Klonoa, Point Blank, and more.

2. Nintendo
Running a real close second is Nintendo. Also a no-brainer for me. Nintendo makes and publishes some of the best family friendly games and systems. Mario, Kirby, Zelda, Metroid, etc. I’ve always enjoyed Nintendo’s game systems, too, especially the 16-bit Super Nintendo. Of course, even the best game companies aren’t perfect, and Nintendo has done some pretty boneheaded things, too. Like ROB the Robot and the Virtual Boy. And the Wii’s online stuff sucks.

3. Capcom
Capcom is certainly not perfect either. They tend to rehash a game until everyone’s tired of it (Mega Man, Street Fighter, etc.). But Capcom can make a good game when they REALLY want to. (though I’ll give Clover ALL the credit for Okami). Capcom is also great at designing video game characters. Some of my favorites include characters from the Mega Man series, Tron Bonne and the Servebots, Phoenix Wright, and Zack & Wiki. Heck, even games I don’t care much for, like Street Fighter and Resident Evil, have characters that I really like, too. Such as Cammy, Chun-Li, Dan, Juni & Juli, and Jill Sandwich. And believe it or not, back on the NES and SNES, Capcom made some KILLER Disney games.

4. HAL Laboratories
They’re more of a developer than a publisher, and they’re part of Nintendo now, but I don’t care. This is my list and I’ll put them here. Aside from a crappy NES game called Day Dreamin’ Davey, I don’t think I’ve played a bad HAL game. Back on the NES, I was really into the Adventures of Lolo games. Then HAL made one of my favorite platformer series: Kirby. Even their lesser known games like Air Fortress and Revenge of the Gator are really good. Back in the NES heyday, Nintendo had a “Nintendo World Championship” and when it hit Dallas, reps from HAL were showing off the upcoming Adventures of Lolo 2. I hung around there a lot because I was really into the Lolo games, and the HAL reps were really nice to me and even got me to help them pull a practical joke on one of their employees. Did you know that the current president of Nintendo used to be the head guy at HAL? And HAL also makes one of Nintendo’s best-known and most anticipated crowd pleasers: the Super Smash Bros. series!

5. Atlus
Known for publishing a lot of niche titles, they usually end up releasing at least one or two games a year that I really like. Such as Tail Concerto, Thousand Arms, Steambot Chronicles, and Odin Sphere. Sorry Persona fans, I don’t care much for that.

Runners Up:
Back in the SNES days, Square would’ve been WAY up on the top five list because I loved their 16-bit RPGs like Final Fantasy 4 and 6, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG. When the N64 was big, Rare would’ve been on the top five because they pretty much carried the N64 with games like Banjo Kazooie. And even though game companies like Konami make mostly games that I don’t have much interest in, like Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania, I still have a lot of respect for them.

Cary’s Top Five All Time Favorite Games
I think I’ve done this before…

1. Pac-Man
I could go on and on about Pac-Man, but I won’t here. But when I first saw Pac-Man, I was totally fascinated by the maze, colorful graphics, and memorable sound effects. I’ve always liked Pac-Man a lot, and people who know me even say I’m synonymous with Pac-Man. Take that, Billy Mitchell!

2. Final Fantasy 6
People who don’t like FF7 the best probably like this one the best. It’s the pinnacle of 16-bit RPGs, and I played it TONS back in high school. I’ll even be so gutsy to say it has the perfect soundtrack.

3. Super Mario Kart
The one that started it all, for better or worse. The SNES one may have been all flat, but I think it had the best control and tracks. And Toad will always be the best racer. I logged so much playtime on this one, it’s not even funny.

4. Animal Crossing
I can’t decide which I like better. The GameCube one let you play tons of NES games, but the DS one had online fun. But they both let you do two of my favorite things in real life: give presents and help others. And fishing’s fun, too. And I played each one for a full year! That’s a long time to play any game! I can’t wait for the Wii version.

5. PSOne Namco Museum vol 1-5 series
OK so this one’s kind of cheating since it’s actually five games full of old classic arcade games. But again, it’s my list so I’ll do what I want. Not only did the first Namco Museums have familiar and obscure Namco classics, they also let you walk around a virtual 3-D museum with facts and memorabilia on each game. When I was a little kid, I thought it would be neat to make an arcade with themed rooms for each kind of game, like a Pac-Man room, etc. So seeing a childhood dream come to life on these games blew my mind.

Gimmie Five!
And that’s all I’ve got. Now it’s your turn! Answer these questions:

Who are your favorite SNK characters?
Who are your favorite Sega characters?
Who are your favorite Soul Calibur fighters?
What are your favorite game companies?
Can you name your favorite top five games?
What other top five lists would you like to read about in a future blog of mine?

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