Hey friends, SRD here. We have entered the final stage of the countdown, and I will be posting one entry from the Top Ten every day until we reach #1. We begin, appropriately, with Halo at #10.

Nintendo Legend: Halo: Combat Evolved is, even at a cursory glance, an excellent game. However, it deserves special notability for two things: One, it was the killer app for the Microsoft Xbox. Many bought Microsoft’s video game console just so that they could play Halo. Secondly, Halo was the game that marked the supremacy of the first-person shooter as the newfound gaming genre of choice.

SRD: First there was Doom. Doom begat Goldeneye, and then Goldeneye begat Halo. Halo is the epoch of this particular genre. It raised the bar of what FPS could and should be. Without it there would have been no Call of Duty, Bioshock, Fallout, and on. Its an insanely important title and deserves its spot in the top ten.

G: I never owned this game, and only played if briefly at my brother’s house shrugging it off as just another shooter. It was likely more neglected by me at the time as just another twitch-shooter, a genre that I temporarily retired from at that time. Frankly, I was bored after too many years of Wolfenstein, Spear of Destiny, Doom, Quake, Doom II, Quake II, Duke Nukem, Blood, Golden Eye, and so forth, just to name some notables. However, when Halo 2 came out, my brother thrust it upon me and I was hooked. I picked up all the other titles as well, with exception to the one that started it all. While I am at the point that I have no interest in returning to the original, I might very well check out the pending rerelease of Halo due to my love of the subsequent series. I can’t say I’m shocked in the slightest it is in our top ten due to it’s immense popularity. I will give a nod to Halo because it created this thing we call Halo; this is a series I sincerely have enjoyed even though I suck at it.