Give me an hour and I’m sure I could find a counter-example

I was ordering based on my favourite, rather than what order to play them. I phrased it ambiguously.

But why that order? Gateway to Glimmer is my favourite because the world feels so much more open with being able to swim, and then (spoilers) especially when you can swim underwater.

I’m actually going to change my ranking and put Spyro to Dragon as second best, because it has some really cool level designs like Treetop Village and the Magic Crafter’s homeworld. Also the neh-neh-neh-neh-nehs (blue thieves).

Spyro 3 is also very good too

Original Spyro trilogy (Gateway to Glimmer first, Year of the Dragon second, Spyro the Dragon third. Although they are all so good it’s hard to choose an order.) The first two games were a part of my childhood, I think they both came with the console when my sister and I bought it. £20 second hand from Game with three games I think, we each saved up to pay half. Very cool worlds to run around and explore, especially Treetop Village I think it’s called (the supercharge level from Spyro the Dragon). I love these collect-them-all games where you know where everything is - it’s very comforting to me. And skateboarding and playing as Sparx in Year of the Dragon still feels special, because it’s the one game I didn’t own as a kid.

Crash Team Racing is the ultimate carting game IMO. “Start your engines for a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe production! Fasten your seatbelts for another Naughty Dog creation! Bwam bah bah bamp, bah da dam da da da dum”. Absolutely iconic loading screens and music. I don’t think I’ve ever beat the campaign mode completely, but it’s a lot of fun. Several years since I’ve played now, which is a bit of a shame. My PlayStation needs to be repaired but no-one near me has the expertise and I didn’t want to go inside and make things worse…

Hogs of War was on a demo disc I had and it seemed quite fun, but I never got to experience the full version.

I seem to remember Driver 2 being challenging but cool, but not much else other than those two emotions.

Final shout-out to Worms Armageddon.

Edit: actually, final final shout-out to that boat racing game. Hydro Thunder maybe? I played it at a friend’s house then spent years searching for it again in a cool games shop that another friend now owns (never would have guessed that when I was a kid!). I don’t think I ever found it though…

I recently beat Halo Reach on Heroic without dying. The final level took over a hundred attempts and about six weeks. It was very frustrating but made it that much more meaningful when I finally won