The best part is that Raiden was supposed to be "us"; the awkward Solid Snake fanboys who obssesed with him over and over. Raiden has such a hard-on for Snake, and Snake basically does everything better than you do in-game (especially during the final section where you fight shoulder to shoulder and he overshadows Raiden in combat), which lampshades the player who only wanted to go with Snake and gets a massive teasing by what's probably one of the greatest prologues ever, the Tanker section, too.

I suggest watching the SuperBunnyHop episode of Metal Gear Solid 2 if you have 40 minutes to spare sometime.

Suikoden 2 : One of the most memorable games i've ever played. The story still fascinates me today. I loved the wars, the betrayals, the atmosphere, the music!!!  ahh i could go on and on. It's definitely the greatest game i have ever played.

I will add more games later :P

Final Fantasy - Final Fantasy VIII, I hate X for it's slow combat system
Mario - Super Mario 64, only Banjo-Kazooie is better
The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time, followed by Link's Awakening
Dragon Quest - Dragon Quest V PS2 Fan Translation
GTA - Vice City
Donkey Kong Country 2
Chrono Cross
Shenmue 2

Raiden got a lot of undeserved hate because he wasn't Solid Snake, so I could agree with it. It didn't help his bishonnen aspect and the Rose fallouts on the codec, too. But I personally love the character and what he represents.

He's also a blank, context-free character for most of the game until you upload the virus and break the game. Then you realize Raiden has such a powerful and extensive background, it totally subverbs everything. I could be talking about MGS2's subversions all day. xD

The problem with an iconic series is that there's too many stellar games to choose from lol

Seriously, with Final Fantasy I could probably talk myself into Final Fantasy (OG), Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Tactics, and honestly just because I played it with my first childhood girlfriend and so everything felt amazing at the time, I loved Final Fantasy X as well (though the cutscenes were still cringe-inducing).

Seriously, Mario? After going a while without playing it I'll still get goosebumps when the original Super Mario Bros starts up, as it's one of my earliest memories of games. The two direct sequels were amazing... World is stellar, 64 blew my mind... dude, they're all incredible, how am I supposed to pick?

Zelda? Forget it, ain't even gonna try.

I suppose from there it gets easier.

Sonic: Sonic III (Not sure why most go with II, as III was basically just II with more features)

GTA: While III and Vice City were incredible for me, I think it's pretty clear that V is the best one yet

Resident Evil: My buddy and I played RE 4 to death on the gamecube.

FF7
Dragon Quest 8
Persona 4 Golden
Super Mario Galaxy II
Resident Evil 4
Zelda: The Wind Waker
Street Fighter Alpha 2

DKC tropical freeze

Final Fantasy 6 - Best story, characters, villain of the franchise. 
TLOZ A Link to the past: Stil the best Zelda IMO. Made me fall in love with the franchise. 
Dragon Quest 8 - Most complete DQ so far. Love the characters. 
Super Mario World - Still the best Mario imo. This franchise has never been as good as it was back in the day. 
Donkey Kong Country 2: Fantastic setting, boss fights, soundtrack and difficulty. 
Megaman X - Same formula, just bigger and better. 
Bloodborne - Much better setting and battle gameplay than any other souls game. 
Suikoden 2 - Cause like, best rpg ever?
Pokemon Silver/Gold - I simply like it better than all others. No other reason needed. 
Joe and Mack 2 - I guess its better than 1. 

Zelda - The Wind Waker by far. However I haven't played enough BotW to rank it properly
Mario - 3D World. Really fun especially in multiplayer. Don't care if it's 2.5 or 3, it's still great
Pokemon - Platinum. Being sort of my 2nd Pokemon generation, I truly enjoyed this game and had that great feeling of going off on a Pokemon adventure to catch new Pokemon, which I don't have anymore (despite liking all the new ones)
Final Fantasy - Tactics A2. Fight me

Final Fantasy - IX without question. Has the best story,characters and setting in the series, and one of the best villains and soundtracks. The visual style is also my favourite in the entire series.

Metal Gear Solid - MGS3. The strongest story in the series, with the most interesting setting and gameplay elements. Also lacked most of the more eccentric plot elements of the rest of the games in the series, perhaps because it had the advantage of being chronologically the first game in the series.

Dark Souls - Dark Souls 1. I have yet to play III, so who knows if this will change at some point, but right now I still hold the first Dark Souls as the best in the series.

Mega Man - 4, perhaps mostly due to nostalgia, although i can still go back and play the game pretty much whenever. It also introduced the mega buster to the series. Very close call between this and 2.

I haven't yet bought the Steam version, although I plan on doing so at some point. Gives me another excuse to play the game again at least.