Mobile Game HoF

It seems that the folks over at Mobile Magazine have produced a "Mobile Game Hall of Fame," their list of "the 50 best mobile video games of all time." I looked over the list and must admit that there are some I've never seen or heard of...but mostly those are before my time. I've included a few selections here of games I've either owned or played, as well as some of the things I've never heard of or seen. For the full list, be sure to check out the article here.

#50. Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo DS. Haven't played this one yet, though I really want to. I'm a little surprised, though, that a remake of a Mario game made it into the top 50.

#49. Space Trader for the Palm Pilot. I've tried to play this one, and probably would play a bit more if it didn't require so much reading just to get into the game and learn it. That said, of course, it's a free game, and one I actually intend to try to play at some point. I'm glad to see that mobile gaming doesn't just mean portable video games a la Nintendo, Sega, or Sony. That is, it's nice to see some Palm, PPC, and SmartPhone games represented. Get it here if you're interested.

#46. Metroid II: The Return of Samus for Gameboy. You know, I own this. I never got into the game, and certainly wouldn't include it on a list of the 50 best of all time...

#43. Mattel Baseball. According to the article, this came out in 1978. I was born in '79, but have never heard of nor seen it.

#25. Sonic the Hedgehog for the Game Gear. I adored this game, and it really was the flagship game and series of the Sega line, at least in the early to mid 90's. I guess now Sonic is more of an icon, but this game was a true classic, and I'm glad to see it was placed at 25.

#23. Geocaching. I guess, to be honest, that this is a "mobile" game since it's something you do outdoors with your GPS. It's kind of like a treasure hunt, where you can go to the geocaching website and get coordinates of places to go hunt for various caches. Though I have a GPS and enjoy hiking and the outdoors, this just doesn't strike my fancy. I guess it's just not my thing.

#21. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the Gameboy Advance. I HATED THIS GAME! I've adored the Legend of Zelda series since it first came out for the NES, but Minish Cap was the first game in the series that I truly did not enjoy. While there was a new "trick" for Link to learn, the trick of shrinking, I found the gameplay to be tired and repetitive and got bored with the game. The side-quests were long and annoying, not so much tricky as tedious, and most of them were pale copies of similar quests in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (one of my favorite all-time games, Zelda or otherwise). This is also the first Zelda game I didn't bother to beat. After playing through all the dungeons (which were effectively all the same with the same types of "puzzles" to figure out), I finally got to the final boss and was forced to beat him in at least 6 iterations. I got bored after the first 4 or so, and just said "Screw it, I'm bored." There are only so many times you can do the exact same thing over and over before you decide it's just stupid. Can I emphasize how much I hated this game?

#19. Pokemon Red for Gameboy. I admit, I never played Pokemon Red, but I do own Pokemon LeafGreen, which is a surprisingly great RPG. Sure, there are "kid" elements, but when you get past the "kids only" image, it's a well thought-out game that includes many sub-quests and a long story line--one that happily doesn't finish even after you beat the "main part" of the game.

#12. Tamagotchi. I'm a bit ashamed to admit I owned one. I think that's all I'll say about it in particular, though you may notice how there are similar (and quite popular) games out now for the computer and Nintendo DS, including the Sims line and Nintendogs.

#11. Simon. I had a "travel" Simon, which my brother, sister, and I played quite a bit on long car drives and when visiting the extended family over the holidays. It was a great game, but I think it was a little loud for most parents' tastes. If it had included headphones or a headphone jack, I think my parents would have let us play it longer. ;)

#8. Solitaire for the Pocket PC. Though this refers to the PPC version, I think many people use their computers and PDA's for excessive amounts of solitaire. It's an addictive little game, and is (I think) one of the most popular games for the PDA in general, with an abundance of versions of it to try.

#5. Mattel Football. See my comment for #43.

#4. Bejeweled for smartphones. I think that if people haven't purchased some sort of solitaire game for their PDA, then they probably have purchased a Bejeweled game (or clone). I've whittled away the time in many doctor's offices, car repair shops, and other long waiting lines playing some version of both of these games (and Bike or Die!, which didn't make this list).

#1. Tetris for Gameboy. I heart Tetris. I heart puzzle games. Tetris and Dr. Mario were the reason that I rarely got to bed before midnight when I was in elementary and middle school. Tetris (and other games of a similar nature...currently, Super Puzzle Fighter) is always a game I come back to for hours of challenge and entertainment, especially if I'm just trying to free my mind for awhile. Tetris for the Gameboy is the reason we had to buy my mom her own Gameboy--she kept stealing mine or my brother's whenever she wanted to play, and then would hound us to see if she could get a better score than we did (and if she did, you can believe we would work at it until we set a new high score for her to beat).

Any comments on any of these? Or perhaps there's one on the list that you can't believe I didn't mention? Be sure to let me know. :)