There's no such thing as "the best game ever made"
I remember one of my classmates in my English class in high school had to answer one of the attendance questions from our teacher, and one of the questions for that day was "What's your favorite childhood memory?" That classmate chose the game Pokémon LeafGreen for the Game Boy Advance. They claimed that it was "the best game ever made," and at the time, I was just thinking, "Okay, so he grew up with the game, so he's just biased about it being a masterpiece."
And now I remember that I have childhood games that I would claim to be "the best game ever made." An example of this is LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3. I still firmly believe this game should have been played more often at its peak because it was such an experience that I will personally never forget. I even said at one point in first grade that the world would be more peaceful if everyone played LittleBigPlanet.
But now I'm realizing that I'm only saying that it's the perfect game because I grew up with it. Many of the kids in my generation grew up with video games that they stated were the greatest of all time. And it's not just a nostalgic factor; it can be for practically any game that exceeds the standards of said kids and other people alike. In middle school, when the Nintendo Switch came out, people were saying that Breath of the Wild is the number one game of all time. I decided that I would play it eventually, but on a Wii U emulator instead. It was definitely intriguing and fun to play, but was it really at that number one spot that so many critics and fans claim it to be?
I think that it's absolutely okay to think your favorite video games are the best because that's just how we work. It usually happens when we grew up with said media that we induce that bias even further. But it feels like people are more close-minded that way. They never expand their gaming expertise further to other games that may have more to offer than what they're used to.
For example, I never really grew up on Nintendo consoles. I did have a Wii when I was probably three or four, but I only had Cars on the Wii before it broke down. So all my life, I've grown up on PlayStation, from PS2 to PS5, including the PS Vita and eventually the PSP, which I love both. But at some point a couple of years ago, I decided to buy a Wii for myself. I also got Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii, and it really was extraordinary. Keep in mind, I never officially played any Mario game prior to this one. I absolutely loved it. There were so many fun challenges, and the way the game's mechanics worked was so outstanding to me. I could definitely see some kid playing this game and growing up to be inspired by it as a game developer in the future, perhaps.
But I never would've played this game, or even cared to look up videos about it, if I wasn't open-minded to the idea of trying new things. Since then, I've had a goal of keeping a backlog of certain games that I am not very accustomed to, such as fantasy RPGs and similar genres (I usually played FPS games and platformers, and I'm a big PC gamer at heart now). So I encourage anyone reading this to try new games, add them to your backlog, and see what they have to offer because they might be special to you, just like Mario Galaxy was to me.
And while the games we grow up with might not be the best games ever, they are certainly the most enjoyable games to spend your time with. And that's how I play now, by expanding my view and my comfort zone. No more putting games on a pedestal or competing against one another; it's time to just prefer your favorite games!
