A not-at-all-mandatory list of video games Black folks should play at least once

Despite what some websites might insist on framing as collective, watershed experiences that everyone must know to keep their credibility intact, Black people — like gamers — are not a monolith. Not everyone grew up with the luxury of owning a “Nintendo” and playing every entry in The Legend of Zelda games, just like how not every Black person spent Sunday mornings blinking away sleep in stuffy suits with empty bellies and the promise of McDonald's later after church (if you were good) while Kirk Franklin rattled their mother’s car stereo. And, thanks to a spooky little thing called slavery, trying to pin down what does and doesn’t count as Black culture is somehow both impossible to define and incredibly easy to recognize the moment it’s been paid homage (read: stolen), or when someone like Hayley Williams has a permanent invitation to the cookout. 

Speaking anecdotally, the first console I ever had was a PlayStation One. Beyond that, most of my gaming time came from sneaking onto my brother’s PlayStation 2 when I was in kindergarten — way too young to know where to find the tank in Grand Theft Auto but fully committed to causing my routine, gory mayhem on the streets of Vice City after school. After that, gaming only came in spurts throughout my teens, with financial gaps keeping it from becoming a mainstay hobby until adulthood. I didn’t have the assistance of walkthroughs from YouTubers like TheRadBrad and Let’s Plays by Super Best Friends Play filling in the fault lines for a baller on a budget. Meaning: there are huge holes in my experience, just like there are in everyone else’s. Such is life. 

But just like it’s never too late to talk about a video game, it’s also never too late to get put on to some heat. So instead of making a list of games and having the audacity to call it the definitive end-all, be-all for someone’s “Black Card” to be revoked because they don’t know ball (and gun) when it comes to the top-ten staples, I want to highlight the games that actually shaped me. The ones that defined my tastes, taught me things I didn’t know or couldn’t find the words for, and became foundational in my journey. Games I think every player, regardless of what your Ancestry.com charts say, should check out. 

Def Jam: Fight for NY

Barring my above disclaimer, Black people love fighting games. Whether it's actually playing them or taking comfort in watching along, understanding the FGC lingo without necessarily being fluent with our buttons and hitting them haphazardly, fighting games are hype shit. And one game that cemented the genre for us, by us, was Def Jam: Fight for NY. If there was a rapper you liked, like Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, and Busta Rhymes, or rappers you hated like Fat Joe (fuck that guy, btw), you could take joy in tearing them from ass to appetite in the most professional-wrestling way possible. Even by modern-day wrestling game standards, discounting the excellently cartoony WWE All Stars, Fight for New York is gaming funsies that’s become a lost recipe in the modern era. Chances of whether we’ll ever see another one like it are slim to none, which only adds to its OG status as a tight video game.