Top five favourite games of all time, And WHY Options

[Dr Strum]

Simple. Post your top five favourite games of all time (Riviera is implied since you're here, so avoid listing it), and WHY they are your favorite games.

Mine (unordered):

• Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (GEN)
  I loved the first Sonic, and then this one came along and blew it away. Faster Sonic, larger, more diverse levels, bigger bosses and multiplayer. One of the earliest games I remember playing as well.
• Frequency (PS2)
  A music game, although Frequency is really indescribable. But any game that can put me into a trance with fast, rhythmic button mashing, beautiful visuals and great sound is a good game (and the multiplayer was insane).
• Advance Wars (GBA)
  My first Turn Based Stratey game, and probably one of the most balanced strategy games I've ever played. Great animation, likeable characters, some really difficult gameplay, and fun music makes for a game I keep playing, years after its release, and the release of the not-as-good sequels.
• Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons (GBC)
  Not my first Zelda, but the first one(s) I beat. I collected every ring, every weapon, every heartpiece and beat EVERY mini-game in Seasons and Ages. The bosses were fun, the puzzles were great (and many of the Ages puzzles involving lots of time travelling were downright maddening), and if you beat one game, you can link it up to the other to continue and get a different final boss. To COMPLETELY beat it, you had to play through each game four times (eg, eight times total). Hmm, maybe I oughta' go play through again...
• Feel the Magic: XY/XX (DS)
  A recent game, sure, but I spent months on this game. I beat normal mode the night I got it, but it took me a few months to finish hard mode, and I only finished hell mode a few weeks ago (more than a year after its release). Still haven't filled up all the games in Maniac... But, I can't wait for the sequel (coming out on Valentine's Day <3).

[Rhiannon]

SEEMED SILLY TO HAVE DUNE ON MY PREVIOUS LIST. This is in order, saving my favoritestest for last.

• Knights in the Nightmare
  Obnoxiously pretty for a DS game. Love the music (outside of story sequences, at least) and I liked all of the cause and effect relationships with all of the points in the story. And how could I resist getting raped by Melissa's stupid birds five bajillion times? Dodging all those bullets while trying to find a safe way over to some unit so you can beat up bosses is like the best part of the game.
• Phantom Brave
  Well, it's still Phantom Brave. It's cute and sad, both of which are things I love. There's a lot of character customization to be done through fusing and weapon choice, and being gridless allows for a lot more strategy than certain other SRPGs. Also, good music and characters.
• Yggdra Union
  All I really care about with this now is the gameplay (well, I will admit I still like the "WHAT IS JUSTICE" part of the story). The gameplay is so fun though. And the first few times I played it it actually required a nice amount of thought to get through things. That's not so true anymore since I've pretty much memorized most of the game and know what I want to do and when, and if it's safe or not, but yeah. Still so fun.
• Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut
  So I love the battle system, music, and some of the characters. The music is just awesomeified versions of the original game's randomly awesome music (ISN'T THAT WEIRD FOR A TALES GAME). So that's cool. And then the battles are just so ridiculously fun. I like not having many limitations in games, so CC and aerial combat are like, perfect for me.
• Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
  THIS IS FUN TOO. And probably has more freedom in the combat than any of the other games I've listed. I can win battles however I want to. I can get through them in seconds with an offensive setup, tank for hours with a defensive one (well, this doesn't work so well), chop off random limbs of enemies to make them useless, get AP back constantly with ground bounces and whatnot for really long combos, inflict enemies (bosses are no exception) with status effects to make things easier, use the environment to never actually get hit by attacks... I just love all the options I have in this game. Plus, VPsystem is always a ton of fun. OH, AND I REALLY LIKE PHOTONS AND ALL THE PUZZLES THAT WERE DESIGNED FOR CRAZY WARPING WITH THEM.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Pokeymanz, Tales of Rebirth, Shadow of the Colossus, Xenosaga Episode I, Wind Waker, SMT Nocturne, and Crystal Chronicles. That should be good.