Tom Ramsey is, first and foremost, a gamer.

The junior computer science major has been president of NIU’s Video Gamer’s Association for over a year. The group meets every Saturday evening in Grant Towers South Formal Room B.

Ramsey said he prefers games from one company above all others.

“Although this may be perhaps a bit offensive to prospective club members, in my opinion, a good video game comes from Nintendo,” he said. “I like their focus on characters like Mario, Link, Samus and Fox McCloud rather than just having the best graphics.”

10. “Animal Crossing” (GameCube) – “This game is similar to “The Sims,” but life ticks by in real-time this time. You meet your neighbors, run errands for them, go fishing, catch bugs, shop for the latest fashions, etc. You live a second life almost and, believe it or not, you cannot stop playing.”

9. “Pokemon Colosseum for GameCube” (GameCube) – “Pokemon, whether you love it or hate it, brings to the big screen all of our favorite Pokemon in 3D.”

8. “F-Zero” (Super Nintendo) – “Nintendo’s original Super NES racing game that was excruciatingly difficult to complete on expert mode. If you managed to complete that task, it then taunted you with master mode.”

7. “Starfox” (Super Nintendo) – “Starfox was Nintendo’s first video game to feature polygon-based graphics because of its powerful SuperFX graphics chip. It also featured voice synthesis, crude by today’s standards, but unprecedented then. It was such a fun game!”

6. “Super Mario 64” (Nintendo 64) – “This was Nintendo’s debut 3D title for the Nintendo 64 and, wow, was it ever amazing. I think just about everyone agreed, it certainly was the best 3D-world created at its time. Nintendo perhaps may have set the bar too high for themselves with this game; their most recent GameCube Mario game sold poorly.”

5. “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” (Nintendo 64) – “Asking me to pick just one Legend of Zelda as my favorite is like asking me to cut my arm off! This Legend of Zelda, like Mario 64, was also its 3D debut and it was just as amazing, with memorable characters and unforgettable boss battles.”

4. “The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures” (GameCube) – “This is a feature-length game based on the insanely popular ‘Four Swords’ adventure in the GameBoy Advance game, ‘The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.’ The game displays video data privately to each player on a GameBoy Advance unit that they use as the games’ controller. Up to four people can play. It’s incredibly fun to play if you can find four people and the necessary GameBoys.”

3. “Soul Calibur II” (GameCube) – “Soul Calibur is the Alpha and the Omega for fighting games as far as I’m concerned.”

2. “Metroid Prime 2 Echoes” (GameCube) – “Once again Nintendo fans held their breath as a beloved 2D staple franchise underwent a 3D rework. Would it still maintain the “feel” of 2D metroids? Absolutely, these 3D Metroid games are fabulous.”

1. “Ice Climber” (Original Nintendo) – “This one is sure to cause controversy, but then again, so is not having ‘Madden 2004,’ or ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ or ‘Halo’ or ‘Halo 2’ on my list. ‘Ice Climber’ is a game you don’t have to be skilled to be good at, whether you are 9 or 99 years old, you can play anyone competitively in this game and have so much fun.”