I stumbled upon GamerDNA the other day and thought the concept was pretty neat. Basically it works like Facebook but for the gaming community. One of the activities it uses to build DNA is adding games to a profile, so I took that opportunity to answer the unanswerable: What are my favorite games of all time?

I say unanswerable because, like any media, it is difficult to compare different genres or styles and say one is better than another. On top of that, no game is perfect; every one has flaws that are difficult for me to overlook, and as I get older, forgive. But impossible as it may, I set forth to discover for myself, what are the games I consider “the best”.

Here’s what I came up with:

• Sony PlayStation: 3
• Sega Saturn: 8
• Sega Dreamcast: 3
• PC: 1

No Xbox, no PS2, and nothing from the current generation of consoles. What gives?

For starters, there is an obvious lack of original PlayStation titles. Don’t get me wrong, there were a ton of great, generation-defining games for that console. But in reflection, they just don’t hold up. The original Resident Evil? Um, who wants to go back to tank controls. Tomb Raider? Antiquated. Final Fantasy VII? Dated. These games were significant for when they were released, but they just didn’t stand the test of time.

What about the N64? Surely Zelda or Mario should be on this list; Mario 64 probably should, if I ever get a chance to play through it. But I’ve never been a big fan of Ocarina of Time, as stated in an earlier post. Goldeneye? I think we’ve all been down this path lately – it was good in 1997, but it’s pretty underwhelming now.

And why are there so many Saturn games on the list? Probably more attributed to personal preference, but the benefit that console had was its arcade conversions, which catered to those short bursts of one-on-one competition that still work great today. I can pick up and play any of the Saturn games on my list today, without hesitation, and still have the same great experience I had 10 years ago.

As Leigh Alexander wrote, the four-month bell cure is more prevalent today than ever before. Banjo-Kazooie lived a great life as an improvement on Mario 64 for years, before it fell out of favor as a collect-a-thon. Today is a different story – BioShock, Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4 all were considered the top of their class when they were first received; now they are reeling from the critical backlash in mere months. Hell, Little Big Planet and Mirror’s Edge seemed to be D.O.A. after months of industry praise prior to their release. The curve seems to be tightening, which can’t be good for the industry.

So can there ever be a modern classic? A game that we gamers are confident can stand the test of time? The closest one in this generation has to be Call of Duty 4 because of its multiplayer legs. That is until COD Next comes out in 2009…which in turn asks the question, does the modern iteration cycle of gaming franchises hurt a game’s chance for immortality?

It’s kind of like the problem with movies today – Wizard of Oz was a classic, preserved in time to be viewed each Holiday season. The original Star Wars saw theatrical re-releases yearly and continued to pack in audiences. There were these cinematic classics that were sacred and treated as such. Until video came along. Now a movie like The Dark Knight sees home video release five months after the theatrical premiere, which it will then be saturated in to the public conscience to the point it is forgettable. Kinda like Forest Gump, or Titanic, or a slew of other best-pics of yesteryear. The Polar Express has tried to do this by re-releasing in IMAX 3D every Christmas, but the list of theaters willing to carry it are dwindling by the year. Then there is A Christmas Story. It landed like a dud during its theatrical run, but found its legs on video and has since blossomed into a modern-day film classic – if not by quality then at least by tradition.

In a similar vein, could it be the forgotten games of today could become the most memorable ones in the future? Could the PS2 be remembered by Katamari and not GTA III? Or the Xbox remembered by Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee and not Halo?

Only time will tell.