PLEASE NOTE:
Here I have no specific order!
I could not decide which game would be #1, #2, #3...sure, I like some games in the list more than the other games, but still...it's too hard.
So it's a Top 10 without a specific order. Sorry about that.

But let's get to the games:

1. Super Mario World
My favourite SNES game.
It has everything I want in a jump'n'run/platformer.
The Mario franchise is without a doubt one of the most successful game franchises ever because the games are mostly so well done and Super Mario World is a wonderful example. I love this 2D classic and I enjoy it today as well as it gives me some nostalgic memories.

2. The Monkey Island series
Here it gets kind of messed up.
In this list you only the the cover of the first Monkey Island game. But it's representive. Kind of.
I like Monkey Island 1, Monkey Island 2: LeChucks Revenge, The Curse of Monkey Island.
But then I can't really like Escape from Monkey Island (the forth game). Even for 2000/2001 it was an ugly game, there were not many good jokes and it hurts a bit what became of Guybrush, Elaine and the gameplay.
Tales of Monkey Island, the fifth game, on the other hand is great again. It's a kind of game you fall in love with when you try it and not just look at the screenshots in previews and reviews. It gives me many laughs, is nice to look at, has good and challenging riddles and some loveable characters. And the story is much better and more thrilling than the story in MI4.
But still: Monkey Island is a prime example of good adventure games: funny likeable characters, great and hard riddles, beautiful graphics (except Escape from MI), a wonderful soundtrack, atmosphere...horray for LucasArts

3. American McGee's Alice
Man, I am a big fan of it, so big that I actually not only bought the German version but also bought an English version of it with the Asylum diary of her Asylum doctor.
Oh sorry, what is this game even about?
It's a shooter game with Alice who returns to Wonderland when she's 17 years old because Wonderland got messed up. If she manages to defeat the red Queen she restores her mental health.
It's scary, it's so cool. I think what I love the most about it is the atmosphere, you really think you're in a twisted Wonderland AND in the 19th century.
Also the soundtrack is awesome (I have the CD), the graphics are okay for that time, there are tons of creatures you gotta fight, different cool level designs, original weapons...well, nearly everything is good!
And this year the sequel is finally coming out. Hell yeah

4. Sam & Max: Hit the Road
Maybe the most crazy adventure game by LucasArts.
Everything I said about Monkey Island can be also said here: great graphics, riddles, soundtrack...except that all these are even weirder here.
It's all playing in the USA, the country of unlimited possibilities. Oh yeah. Sam and Max are a dog and a violent rabbit solving puzzles and a crime as police detectives.
I also love the voice acting and the comic book graphic that never gets old.
I've also played the sequel "Sam & Max: Season one". It's better than I thought and it catches the spirit of the original game in a certain way but it never beats the original.

5. Tomb Raider 1
I remember quite clearly the moment when my dad and I were in a multimedia story as he just took the game and bought it. It was kind of a present to me and I'm still thankful. Tomb Raider fascinated me a lot and gave me a lot of fun moments. Rushing through Peru and Egypt, shooting mad wolves, mummies and even dinosaurs and mutants, solving some easy riddles on the way and climbing from A to B is so much fun in Tomb Raider generally. And it also gave me the first (or second after Alone in the Dark) real shock moment in gaming when in level 3 the T-Rex approached me for the first time ever (yes, I screamed).
Yes yes, the first game may look very ugly nowadays and the sequels have better graphics, tools and actions you can do. But Tomb Raider 1 representes the Tomb Raider games I like and to be honest: I haven't tried out all sequels
Other Tomb Raider games I always enjoy: Tomb Raider 2 and Tomb Raider: Anniversary (the only reason this remake didn't make it on the list is because the adrenaline mode is so messed up).

6. Simon the Sorcerer 1 + 2
Maybe the best adventure series that is NOT from LucasArts.
Simon is an average British young teenager who gets sucked into a fantasy world filled with fairy tale characters, wizards, trolls, talking animals, witches, demons and so on.
He has to rescue a good wizard from a bad wizard in order to get home again.
I can't describe how I adore the first two StS games. You've got amazingly beautiful graphics, atmosphere, a matching great soundtrack, good voice actors and of course entertaining but challenging riddles you've got to solve.
For example: how do you manage to let a person see a full moon (so he can be transformed into an animal) although both of you are incarcerated in a dungeon? Take a bucket with a hole, put it over the person's head, then hold a burning torch in front of the hole he now sees through - BAMM, full moon! Wasn't that easy?
Anyway: if you have never heard of Simon the Sorcerer don't be ashamed but try it out.

7. Day of the Tentacle
The same positive things I already talked about in Monkey Island and Sam & Max: awesome riddles, gags, graphics, soundtrack and characters.
Only here you can do time travels (200 years in the past - present time - 200 years in the future) and you can control not one but three characters!
You have to save the world from an evil tentacle monster that got powerful after drinking chemical water because...he got two tiny little arms. So you have to get all three friends together again in the present time because the time travel experiment failed. Through the toilet in the time travel machines the characters can provide each other with tools and objects which is totally crazy but awesome.
This might be one of the few LucasArts games that have no sequel. But to be honest: would that be as good as this masterpiece?

8. Sonic & Knuckles
My favourite Sega Genesis game and next to Mario another prime example of great jump'n'runs/platformers. Only that Sonic is superfast and is a little more serious.
He doesn't save a princess but save cute little animals from the evil Dr. Robotnik/Eggman and this time the character Knuckles supports him.
Actually it was not easy to choose which Sonic game I like the most. I even like "Sonic Chaos" on the Game Gear. But "Sonic & Knuckles" combines all the good things about Sonic, I think.

9. Dungeons and Dragons: Stronghold
You might be wondering "What the hell is THAT?".
I admit, if you look for it in the internet you may find the newer games but not this Stronghold game.
I explain: this simulation game is from 1993 and you have to build up min. one, max. five kingdoms. You have to build lots of buildings like houses, market places, training places, farms and so on, you have to make sure that your people don't starve and you have to fight enemy kingdoms that have only one goal: destroy YOU.
Sounds generic and I don't claim that this Stronghold is a special game.
But it's a special game to me. And I know what I'm talking about: I also have played the newer Stronghold Legends but it never made me addicted to it as I am to the 1993 game.
I also had phases when I got bored by Stronghold but not much later I was going on taking care of my kingdoms again.
And it's a nice fantasy world you can escape to. You can choose different kinds of races that rule the kingdoms like magicians, elves, clerics, halflings and so on. Everyone of them has their own unique buildings and house styles which is also cool.
In a nutshell: if I have been addicted to this simulation game since then until today...then it has to be at least Top 10 worthy

10. Black & White 1
Another simulation game. Only this time you are a GOD!
And yes: A god, not THE god. You actually have to coorperate or fight with other gods.
As a god you have to take care of people living on an island.
This game carries it's title "Black & White" for a good reason: either you can be a kind good, treat your people well and make them as happy as possible or you can be bad, make your people fear you by sacrificing people or destroying things.
You also have a giant pet (an orang utan/a cow/a tiger) that you can train to help or to harass people.
I think this game is considered by many gamers as a flop. But I don't care, it entertains me and that's it. But I admit, there are annoying things about it, too. Mostly that your people beg you or disrespect you because they're low on food or wood although right now I'm already working my butt off so they can get all this. What a greedy mob!
But this is no reason to dislike this game.
I also have the sequel, Black & White 2 and it's also fun and a little more complexe.

Other games that I also love but that haven't made it on the list for one reason or another:
Earthworm Jim 1 & 2, Jill of the Jungle, Commander Keen series, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones: The last Crusade, Tetris, New Super Mario Bros, Wario Ware series, You don't know Jack series, Crystal Caves, Guitar Hero, Little Big Planet 1 & 2, Battle Chess, Super Smash Bros. Brawl etc. etc.....

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