My Top 5 Leisure Games (Video Games I Don't Play to Beat)

I set out to buy a copy of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3) today using a combination of $16 of gas money (it’s a short week, I won’t need as much gas), $2 I’d saved walking instead of taking the train in New York (who knew Penn Station to Battery Park City was 47 blocks?), and $3.25 from my little brother’s vacation fund (Guatemala is just as nice as Disney this time of year).

When I got to the store, the game was $10 more expensive than I’d remembered, so I settled for Army of Two, a co-op war game.

I don't usually buy war games because the controls are really hard, but I didn't have enough money to buy anything else. Had I known, I would have taken the extra $10 from my wife’s Valentine’s Day Gift fund.


More notable than the fact that I bought my first war game, albeit from the viewpoint of opportunistic mercenaries, is the fact that I set out to buy the first game of a franchise.

I usually prefer to buy the second game of a franchise because I think video game franchises are better than one-and-done game releases, and a sequel is usually better than its predecessor—glitches in game environment are corrected, story lines are usually enhanced, and the mechanics of game play are usually perfected. (I feel differently about movie franchises, but more on that later).

I set out to buy Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune because my wife really enjoyed watching me play Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the storytelling, and I really enjoyed the movie quality of the voice-acting and the fluidity in the character’s movements during game play and cut scenes.

It wasn't a game that I played to beat. It was a leisure game. I played it like a movie that I really enjoyed; I couldn't stop playing/watching until I got to the ending.

That said, leisure games make up a majority of my video game library, and to massage my wife's anger when she reads how I spent the gas money, I am dedicating the below list of Top 5 Leisure Games to her!

(5) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii): this sequel to Super Smash Bros. on the Gamecube has great game mechanics and inventive weapons for a goofy fighting game with an adventure/story mode. It’s a nerd’s daydream come true. Too bad I suck at fighting games. It’s on this list only because my nerd friends love to kick my butt at it.

(4) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii): I like this game even though it’s not a sequel and I can’t bear to play it through more than once. It’s really fun at first, and should be for anyone who’s ever pretended to be a Jedi Knight, but the novelty wears off very quickly.

I learned impressive new moves as the game progressed, but the movements are repetitive and the Wii-mote is simply not as responsive as it should be when making short but swift attack combinations. It’s much more fun to watch my little brother flail like an amateur orchestra conductor on a sinking platform when he plays this.

(3) Wii Fit Plus: I love this game! It’s technically a sequel because it is an upgrade/extension of Wii Fit. I’m quite good at the Marching Band balance mini-game, if I may say so myself. I even wear my old marching band short-shorts to complete the experience. I also partly love it for the fact that my wife can’t complete a push-up because she has the arm strength of an amoeba.

(2) NFL Blitz ‘99 (Playstation): I blame this game franchise for having to take elementary math and foreign language classes in college. I slept through my placement exams after a late night of tossing 70-yard touchdowns while hopping out of bounds to avoid sacks and stop the game clock. The laws of physics don’t apply to this game, but if you want to play an arcade game in the leisure of the dorm room your parents essentially rented, this is it.

(1) NBA Live ’95 (SNES): I used to play basketball with a bouncing ball and a milk crate hung by a set of nails on the side of my neighbor’s garage. I frequently imagined that I was the Chicago Bulls’ Steve Kerr (1993-1998), hitting career-making fade-away 3-pointers from half court. Then came NBA Live ’95 and I no longer had to use my imagination. Pouring in 50 points from the 3-point line in this game was easier than buying a new bouncing ball at the Dollar Store when one of my shots went over the neighbor’s garage.

Already my wife has mentioned that she’d like me to buy the new release for PS3, Heavy Rain, a highly anticipated game that is supposed to change video game storytelling and player interaction. (Sorry James Cameron, this video game beats yours).

With her stamp of approval, I won’t have to save my lunch money to buy it.