What do you think about first when you think of the NES? What about the PlayStation or Xbox? What name is synonymous with any given system? Put any passionate player through some word association of consoles and there are certainly some classics that easily come to mind. Is it the game that defined your experience with video games at one point or another? Maybe it was the one amazing game that became your entire arguing point for your parents to let you finally get that new system. Perhaps it’s just a fondly remembered classic that fits into your own personal top ten all-time favorite games.

The fact is that some games are more than just a step above the rest. We easily associate them with being the best examples of a system or something that was revolutionary to the industry as we know it. Even terrible commercials (before the guys running TV ads figured out how to make selling games look cool) couldn’t deter us from a wanting to be the first kid on the block to play and beat these games. They were the talk of the classrooms, the ruler of the living rooms and some of the best times of our digitally interactive lives. These games did more than capture our imaginations. They ran the racket on whatever platform they were played. This list isn’t for just any old good game. This list is for the Top Platform Defining Games.

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