Top 10 Favorite Video Games of All-Time Countdown: 3rd Place

Welcome back to the Top 10 Favorite Video Games of All-Tim Countdown.

With this countdown, Jon Johnston and I will count down our top 10 favorite video games of all time. The background of the countdown can be found in the 10th place link, but as you can probably tell, Jon and I grew up playing different video games as I grew up in the greatest era of all time and Jon grew up in a different one.

If you want to catch up on the countdown, then here you go:
10th place.
9th place.
8th place.
7th place.
6th place.
5th place.
4th place.

Now for our 3rd place games!

Nate’s 3rd Place Game - Contra

I mean, this game has to be on a Top 10 list right? It probably has the most iconic secret cheat codes in the history of video games.

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start

I mean, I haven’t played the game in maybe 20 years, except intermittently, and I still almost have that cheat code down by memory still.

It’s hard not to pull up this video and just watch. The music hits just right and once you get the spreader gun then you’re good to go.

I remember playing this with my brother over and over again when we were young.

It was not a complex game and it’s simplicity is why it was so awesome. You knew that you didn’t need 30 extra lives but that if you had a few more that you would beat the game no problem.

Once you get it all figured out.

Watching the ending, I suddenly had the urge for a Totino's Pepperoni Pizza.

Jon’s 3rd Place Game - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

It should be plain by now that the story is the most important of what I consider a great video game. The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, is an excellent story. The game and story do an excellent job of creating sympathy for Geralt, who as a young is made into a Witcher through mutation and the Trial of The Grasses. His backstory of the Butcher of Blaviken, the hatred the Witchers encounter wherever they go.

Yennefer, the child surprise Ciri, Eskel, Vesemir, Triss Marigold, Dandelion, Dijkstra, the Emperor, and even Geralt’s horse Roach; the game is full of characters that are rich and fit together very well into a narrative that never gets boring.

I love the monsters you fight, love the world in which the The Witcher 3 takes place. Even Netflix series with Henry Cahill is to die for. (I’ve always wanted to use that phrase in something.)

I especially love playing as Geralt, who’s always out to save the downtrodden, save the girl, save the world, and only gets into unnecessary fights when he’s forced to. I see myself as Geralt as I go through life... hahahahahaha!

Even the DLCs, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, are excellent additions to an already great story. Blood and Wine is an excellent ending to the story of Geralt, who at least, gets a place of his own he can build into an estate and settle down, or at least that’s what’s inferred when you finally reach the end of the game.

If there’s one flaw in the game it’s the awkward gameplay, specifically where you can dance around a potion on the ground for three minutes before you’re finally in proper position to pick it up. Then there’s the silly looking hopping Geralt does when you’re dodging.

Here’s the full game in a 33 hour YouTube video. What I want to know is - how long did it take these guys to upload this video?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is my third best game of all time. I think it’s about time to do it again.