Ever since I held my first Mega Drive (Genesis) controller at the age of two years old, I have considered myself to be a gamer. Nearly fifteen years have past since those days and I have grown loyal to a number of game series. Twelve of them, to be exact. Some of them have nostalgic qualities, some are simply great games. Here, I count down my own personal top 12 game series. This is a list that everyone will disagree with, everyone has their own favourites.
There are two rules:
1) The series must contain at least three games.
2) I must have played at least three of them.
This means that a number of great series, including The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and a lot of other old games are not represented on this list. So, on with the first half list…

12) Guitar Hero

Ideally this would be replaced with Rock Band, but there is only two games in that series so far. Guitar Hero, developed by Harmonix, is a game everybody knows by now. Anybody can play it and it usually contains a fantastic collection of songs to pretend to play guitar to. I was introduced to this series in the summer of 2007, when I decided to get Guitar Hero II for the PS2. I thought it was an excellent game and when III came out, I was excited. It is also where I feel the series went downhill. While it still contained a good soundtrack, something did not seem right. Harmonix no longer developed the game, that duty was given to Neversoft and maybe this had something to do with it. Harmonix would go on to partner EA and MTV to create Rock Band. While Guitar Hero is the more well known brand, Rock Band is, for me, the better game. It had a soundtrack I loved, it was great to play on guitar and vocals (maybe not so great for anyone who had to listen to me “sing”) and I just felt it was brilliant. World Tour did introduce the whole band concept, but it still could not get me to switch sides. This is the reason why this series is down so low, it just is not as good as Rock Band in my opinion. I still like it, just not as much.

Favourite Game: Guitar Hero II

11) Gran Turismo

The first game I ever played on the original Playstation, it did not really catch my attention until I was on holiday in London a few years ago when I had this overwhelming urge to play it. When I came home, I promptly bought GT4 and proceeded to race my heart out. I am not usually into car racing games, usually because I suck badly at them. However, I got obsessed with this game and spent days playing it. I still sucked badly, but early on in the game I got a car which was far superior to every other car I was racing against that even crashing against a wall at 100 mph three times could not stop me winning the race. I love dominating! Alas, I eventually had to grow some skill at the game to proceed and found it hard to do that. Despite getting all the licenses, I still sucked at actually driving properly. However, it is still a good game for everyone, casual players to racing game nuts. I still do not consider myself to be a fan of racing games, but this game managed to create a little soft spot in my heart.

Favourite Game: Gran Turismo 4

10) Tony Hawk

I was a late comer for this series. The first game of the series I bought was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 for the GBA…and I hated it. I also bought THPS for the PS1 around six years ago…and hated it. I thought third time lucky and bought Tony Hawk’s Underground for the PS2...and loved it. Do not know how or why, but I suddenly became a Tony Hawk fan. Not a big fan of skateboarding, but I do love these games. From Underground onwards I just had to buy these games, although not really because of the actual game. The soundtracks for these games usually feature some fantastic songs, even if I do tend to switch off all the Hip Hop ones. Only one other game can compare with Tony Hawk when it comes to introducing me to new bands. While the game itself is pretty good, it is made so much more better thanks to the soundtrack.

Favourite Game: American Wasteland

9) Mario Kart

I discovered this series thanks to Mario Kart Advance for the GBA. I did not even choose this game, it came with the GBA which I got for Christmas, meaning it is the first (but not the last) case of accidentally getting into a series. This game was brilliant and four years after I got it, I was still playing it more than every other handheld game I owned at the time(with the exception of Pokémon Ruby). I eventually got Mario Kart DS, which I thought was simply fantastic…until some idiot at my school managed to lose it. Bastard. Anyways, my sister also bought Double Dash for herself, but I eventually claimed it for myself (in my defence…it is my Gamecube…) and again, thought it was good, although I did prefer the handheld versions. Finally, just this week I bought Super Mario Kart for the SNES off eBay, and it is also a decent game. Even though I rarely get to play with others, it is multiplayer which makes this game so good. There is very few things as rewarding than hitting your sister…with a red shell. Would have been higher, but after this entry, nostalgia starts to take action, so it cannot really compete with the power of nostalgia. Still, it is one of the few occurrences when a spin-off title off an already awesome series (which is not featured here, due reasons of not owning three (that will change soon though…)) actually does not suck major lollipops.

Favourite Game: Mario Kart DS

8) Tekken

A series of games I have been playing since 1999, Tekken will always have a place in my games collection. While many people will say Street Fighter is the far more superior series, I have only just got Street Fighter 2: Turbo for the SNES, so I cannot really agree. While I think the series has passed it’s peak, after the sheer brilliance of Tekken’s 3 and Tag Tournament, they are still fun to play. With a sixth game coming out in the Autumn, I will no doubt buy it and love it. There are many characters, each one with their own backstory, rivalries, friendships and unique styles of fighting. However, it is hard for me to properly justify liking this series so much, I put it down to the fact I have been playing these games for so long (yet mysteriously I cannot play them very well. I would most probably lose to a three year-old girl…with no arms…and mental disabilities…).

Favourite Game: Tekken Tag Tournament

7) WWE Smackdown!

Again, nostalgia has a big part to play in this series being this high in the list. From the age of six, until about twelve, I loved wrestling. I had dreams of being a professional wrestler. I “trained”, first using a teddy bear and then my quilt as my “opponent”. I even slept with The Rock…and by that I mean I had The Rock pyjamas. Needless to say, I loved the video games as well…half by accident. I watched WCW, but still got WWF Attitude for the PS1, even though I had no idea what the WWF was, except it had wrestling. I got the game and not long afterwards started to watch the actual WWF, just as all my friends were getting into it. Naturally, when WWF Smackdown was released, we all loved it. Looking back, I fail to see how we enjoyed the first game so much, especially after the awesomeness of the second game, Know Your Role. The series has since dipped up and down in quality, sometimes being great (Shut Your Mouth, Here Comes The Pain, vs. RAW 07), sometimes being rubbish (Just Bring It, vs. RAW 06 & 08) and sometimes being good, but not great. Overall, despite not being into the real thing any more, I still have time to play these games. While they are not as good as they were back in the day, they are still fun to play.

Favourite Game: WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth