A lot of the time as college students, money can be tight. With so many new games coming out, one can find themselves wishing that money grew on trees. If you are like me, however, there are many fantastic games that we used to play and have some serious nostalgia for. I even went back and played some of them, just to feel that sense of nostalgia, and in many cases I had just as much fun playing them as I would have playing a brand new game. Some, however, did not live up to my expectations. There are many other criteria, but I will be judging these games on three specifically: story, gameplay and graphics. These will be rated on a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.

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First up on my list was Final Fantasy X on the Playstation 2 which was released in 2001. The main character wakes up in strange ruins, one thousand years in the future after his home city was destroyed by a monster named Sin. After finding his way to civilization, he makes his way across the world with friends he’s made along the way to help Yuna, a summoner, finish her pilgrimage and to find out what happened to him and his city. The acting can sometimes be a little cheesy, but the overall story was certainly scored at an 8.

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Gameplay is also solid, which is to be expected from a turn-based strategy game. The leveling system is the best part in my opinion, with the sphere grid, so the gameplay also receives an 8. Graphics still hold up fairly well after all these years, with great cutscenes and visuals, but with some sometimes awkward movement by the characters, so this receives a 7. Overall a fantastic game, and is highly recommended if you enjoy story-driven action-strategy games.

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Next on my list was Jak and Daxter, also on the Playstation 2 which was released in 2001. Jak’s friend, Daxter, falls into a pit of a substance called dark Eco and is turned into a furry creature. There are only two people in the world who know enough about dark Eco that may be able to change Daxter back into a human. Jak and Daxter must go through 4 different areas of the world, collecting Power Cells in each world to advance into the next. The story is pretty well written, but does not engage you nearly as well as some other games, since it’s not really the main point of the game. I would personally give the story a 6.

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Gameplay takes a little time to get used to, with some controls being floaty, but once you get used to it it’s very well made, receiving a 7. Lastly, graphics are still decent to this day, with a lot of interesting environments, and a few effects that are pleasant to look at. I would give the graphics a 6, simply because they did improve them in later games (Jak 2 and Jak 3).

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I then decided to break out my old Nintendo 64 and play what I consider to be my favorite game of all time, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, released 1998. This is the story of a young boy, Link, who is given a quest by the guardian of the forest, the Great Deku Tree. Link must go across the land, collecting three Spiritual Stones to stop an evil man, Ganondorf, from accessing the Sacred Realm and becoming the dark lord of the land. After collecting these stones, Link receives the Master Sword, the only weapon strong enough to defeat Ganondorf. However, since he is just a child, the sword transports him 7 years in the future when he is old enough. Now, Ganondorf has almost taken over the world, and it is up to Link to travel back and forth in time to prevent this horrible future. The story, in my opinion, is still at least a 9 out of 10. It is incredibly well fleshed out, and is still one of the greatest stories in my opinion.

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Gameplay, like many games on the N64, can be rough at times. The controller alone takes some serious getting used to. That being said, the controls are still very good for what they had to work with, so I’d give it a 7. Graphics is, unfortunately, where this game falls flat. The N64 was one of the most powerful systems of its time, but that doesn’t mean that it still holds up graphically to what we have today. With empty fields, deserts and large polygons, the game can sometimes be difficult to look at, so I can only give it a 5 out of 10. As a side note, since this is not a criteria I have been using, I simply wanted to mention that this game has one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, and even if you do not play the game itself, listen to the music of the game.

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The last game I want to review is not necessarily as old, but still a game from my childhood. That would be the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PC, Playstation 3 and XBox 360. When the main character gets a surprise visit by the emperor in his jail cell, fate takes control of this life. The Emperor was assassinated right in front of the prisoner, and must now help his next of kin- the last of his bloodline, before Mehrunes Dagon- the Daedric Prince of Destruction, is unleashed upon our world.  Story is actually difficult to rate in this game, since there are so many different side quests and stories that you can participate in aside from the main quest, all of them in my opinion very well told. I would probably give the story an 8, with some aspects falling short of what I would have liked to see.

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Gameplay is very basic, with sword fighting as simple as clicking rapidly and occasionally holding it down for a power attack. The leveling system was pretty good, giving you perks for achieving actions and allowing you to choose what to level up, but overall I’d give the gameplay a 6. Graphics are also to be desired, suffering in the character models and movement. The game as a whole can look great, as long as you don’t look too closely, granting it a 6 out of 10.

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I hope that this inspires you to go out and try new games that may not be top-of-the-line, but can still hold up even after many years. It may also be worthwhile to go back and play some of the games that you played as a kid that maybe you had forgotten about, and see if you still love it just as much today as you did back then. And the best part is these games are much cheaper than one that just came out!