Up, up, down, down, left, right, A! From Role Playing Games (RPGs), to first person shooters, to dating simulators, video games cover a wide variety of genres, stories, and characters. Some games can make you cry for hours and cause you to eat an entire tub of ice cream that night for dinner, while others could make you rage so much that you throw your mouse at your TV or computer screen. That’s why I’m going to press START and count down my top 10 video games and series of all time!

#10: The Pokémon Series (E for Everyone)

Get ready to catch them all in this adventure game starring adorable creatures called Pokémon. Pokémon have many different shapes, forms, and types. Create your team full of diverse friends! Take your character through many different regions and places to go and train your Pokémon. Meet friends and battle your rival and other trainers to make your Pokémon stronger, and most importantly, help stop the nefarious plans of an evil team plotting to hurt the world and the Pokémon in it. Befriend your Pokémon and take your team all the way to the top and become the Pokémon champ!

Favorite Pokémon game: Pokemon Black & White 2

#9: Animal Crossing: New Leaf (E for Everyone)

Welcome to your new town mayor! Have fun making your town covered in beautiful trees of delicious fruit and beautiful looking and smelling flowers. Socialize with cute and kind animals as the villagers in your town. Enjoy fishing and catching bugs in town to sell, to put them in tournaments to win trophies, or donate them to the museum. Build structures and establishments to make your town more lively. Customize your mayor and their house in so many different ways. The possibilities are endless!

#8 Zero Escape Series (Mature 17+)

Wanna play a little game? Every game must have a theme, so let’s make it nine. Nine hours, nine people, and nine doors. Who will survive? Who will die? Who will do anything in order to escape? Who can you trust? Who’s the one pulling the strings on this whole operation? The Zero Escape series throws you for a loop with mind blowing twists and turns through every turn. Will you be able to solve this mystery? Good luck trying, and good luck with this puzzle game.

Favorite Zero Escape game: Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

#7 Splatoon & Splatoon 2 (Everyone 10+)

Ready, set… splat! Take your Inkling through on an adventure in Turf Wars, where the most ink covered on the arena wins, or ranked mode, where the stakes are higher and your team has to work together to claim the lands, tower, or even Rainmaker before the other team does! There’s even the single player story mode, where you’re asked to save the Great Zapfish from the clutches of the Octolings. Customize your Inkling’s hair and clothes to have fresh abilities to help you in battle. Make friends and rize to S rank in the inktastic paint wars!

#6 The World Ends with You (T for Teen)

Quick! You must find a partner to help you along the way on this journey! You only have a limited amount of time to get your task for the day done, and you’ve got to fight the monsters and demons along the way. You and your partner must trust each other and work together, or else it’s game over forever for the both of you. Just hope the two of you are the last ones standing, and that your partner doesn’t end up betraying you in the end.

#5 Doki Doki Literature Club (Mature 17+)

Welcome to the Literature Club! Get to know the other club members and impress them with your poetry. There’s Sayori, the vice president of the club, and your childhood best friend. She’s a ball of sunshine everyday, and a total goofball. Natsuki, the tiny girl with a sour attitude, but she’s sweet and kind once you get to know her and warm her heart. Yuri, the shy and mysterious one who loves to read books and write descriptive poems with deep messages. Last but not least, Monika, the club president. She’s smart, kind, athletic, and of course, beautiful. Maybe you’ll grow super close to one of these girls if you make them happy with your poems.

#4 Persona 5 (Mature 17+)

You have been charged for obstruction of justice, blackmail, defamation, possession of weapons, and, of course, manslaughter. But you’re innocent! So, you have to explain to the prosecutor Sae Niijima that you are being wrongly convicted of these crimes. However, you’ve got another problem to solve. The truth is so insane that you also have to prove that you’re not crazy and what you’re saying it the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Get ready to talk about how you got your powers, the cognitive worlds in people’s hearts, also known as the Metaverse, and the fact that a person’s heart can be changed through intervention, and that’s what you and the friends you’ve met through your tale have been doing to the terrible adults in Japan. Let’s hope the cards are in your favor and you can prove your innocence.

#3 The Kingdom Hearts Series (Everyone 10+)

The Heartless have invaded the many worlds out there, including yours. In order to save your world and your friends, you have been blessed with the ability to use the weapon that can destroy the Heartless: the Keyblade. Take your Keyblade and with the help of your Disney companions, take out the Heartless before the worlds become consumed by the dreaded Kingdom Hearts.

Favorite Kingdom Hearts game: Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

 #2 The Legend of Zelda Series (Everyone 10+)

Join Link in his quest to save the kingdom of Hyrule and the princess of Hyrule Zelda from the evil hands of Ganondorf. Take the blade of evil’s bane, the Master Sword, and your Triforce of Courage, and plunge head first into dungeons full of battles and puzzles to collect everything you need in order to rescue Zelda. Meet all kinds of people from various races, and befriend them so they may aid you in your journey to bring peace to Hyrule and become the Hero of Legend.

Favorite The Legend of Zelda game: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

#1 Danganronpa Series (Mature 17+)

Makoto Naegi was just an ordinary boy. However, he’s won a lottery, and had been selected to attend the most famous and prestigious school in all of Japan: Hope’s Peak Academy. This school only accepts the best of the best students through scouting students who will be crowned ‘Ultimates’. Makoto has been nominated the title of ‘Ultimate Lucky Student’. However, his title couldn’t be more ironic. On his first day of school, rather than having normal classes, he and his other fourteen classmates are pulled into a game of life, death, mystery, and suspicion. Can you help Makoto survive the game?

Favorite Danganronpa Game: Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

Before the credits start to roll, I just want to say that all of these games didn’t have to use cheat codes to get into my heart. They’re stunning to look at, and the Original Soundtrack (OST) will make your heart flutter. The amazing people who made the games clearly put effort into making an intriguing story, and lovable characters that’ll make you come back to play them over and over again.