I get the feeling I'm going to walk away from this thread shamed and humiliated, but oh well.
1. Super Mario Sunshine (NGC) I can't get enough of SMS, I can and do play it at least once a month. Although I have yet to 100% complete it (blue coins are a ***** to find and a crueler ***** to catalog) there's something about it that brings me back again and again to replay. I love the scenery and music, I think the gameplay is innovative, and the story, while piecemeal, is humorous and endearing. If this would only come to 3DS so I could carry it everywhere, my life would be complete.
2. Mario Paint (SNES) - I had to include this; call it shameless sentimentalism from my earliest gaming days. It's a fun creativity tool with awesome music AND a music creator which has stood the test of time. Honestly, we could do with a handheld revamp of this one too - it just seems like touch-screen technology would make this all the more immersive. And speaking of which...
3. Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS) - Although to date I have logged more hours on Wild World than New Leaf, it's fast becoming my favorite 3DS title. How can you NOT love a literally endless gaming experience wherein you completely customize your whole world by collecting, mixing, and matching to your heart's content, all the while hobnobbing with hilariously quirky anthropomorphic animals? They say the DARNDEST things, especially when you have them all calling you "sugartits."
4: We Love Katamari! (PSP) - To be honest, this one only very slightly beats Locoroco as my favorite PSP title, but as far as tiny-adorable-critter-rolling-things-around-to-get-bigger-while-obnoxiously-catchy-music-plays games go, I enjoy the character customization and extremely varied locations and collection of Katamari just that little bit more than the teeth-grindingly frustrating impossibility of 100% completion in Locoroco. Plus, I feel that having game music on your iPod in Japanese is slightly more socially acceptable than game music on your iPod in complete gibberish as implemented by the Japanese.
5: Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (GBA) - I love Harvest Moon in general, but it was this game specifically that made me fall in love with the series. It was one of the first games I got for the GBA (and TBH I have no idea where I had even heard of it, all I knew was I wanted "that farm game") and I actually prefer it over all the later Harvest Moons for DS because they just never hit quite that ease of playability for me. Most of them were bugged up the ass and added unnecessary gameplay elements (harvest sprite finding, cooking contests as core gameplay, 3D characters, and the godawful "blueprint" system), plus all of the ones they re-vamped "for girl" are always worse than the original because they take out the profitable money-farming methods (I won't call them glitches) from the previous iterations. And this might just be me, but aren't the bachelor options so much worse than the bachelorette options? Natsume has a serious problem with designing and writing/translating interesting and attractive young men, in my opinion. And don't even get me started on the "best friend" system. Anyways, FoMT has always been my favorite. It's easy enough that I can make a lot of money and "win" without paying too much attention, but engaging enough to still be interesting on a day-by-day basis.
Honorable mentions: Pokemon HeartGold (DS) - I broke my Pokemon teeth on Crystal (ouch) and spent my formative adolescent years on Emerald, so while Pearl/Diamond/Sapphire for DS came first, my favorite generations are 2 and 3...everything else is ever-so-slightly trending downhill IMO. I like the re-vamp, I love having my lead pokemon follow behind me (and why, may I ask, couldn't this have been an option in X and Y? I seem to recall ridable Pokemon being a tantalizing new draw for the game, only to find out it's only for TWO Pokemon at key points in the gameplay...but I digress) and the story just works in a way that is not as complex yet is somehow more accessible than the subsequent journeys (as soon as Game Freak ditched Team Rocket, things just fell apart.)
Skyrim (360) - I will admit that, in light of the other favorite game choices I have made, Skyrim sticks out like a sore seventh game thumb. But I actually really like it! I quite enjoy action/adventure RPGs, the problem is I'm not very good at them. In fact, I tend to be awful at them, specifically at attacking people and facing people at the same time. However, once I have turned down the difficulty to "Baby's First Vagina Adventures" level, clearing objectives and collecting things appeals to my core gaming strengths and I can (and will) do it for hours or until my roommate demands the console back.
LittleBigPlanet (PS3) - Shocker, I know. It's cute, it's platform-y, it's all about customization, and I love it.
Minecraft (PC) - Another game that I enjoy but am not very good at without the difficulty turned down (the problem is I frighten easily, usually with no good reason, and more often than not kill myself by accident as a result. But building things is fun, endless adventuring is fun, and collecting for the sake of collecting is shamelessly addictive.
Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - You know what, I'm not even ashamed of this one. I kick all kinds of ass at golf and hang-gliding. Come at me, bro.
