Top 10 Video Games of All Time...Played By My Nephews On Their 2008 Christmas Vacation At My House

This Christmas my older brother and his family drove up to Atlanta to spend a week with Crazy Uncle Jason, the harbinger of good times and possessor of many video game systems. Back home, my nephews Isaac and Seán are only allowed to get their game on one day a week, but these rules were kicked to the curb during Christmas vacation '08 and their days were filled with hours of pixellated euphoria. Some games we'd play together. Occasionally Daddy and Uncle Jason would steal away to the guest bedroom to messily snipe Locust heads in Gears of War 2 while the nephews enjoyed their own age-appropriate gaming binge in the living room. I relished the sight of my nephews enjoying video games together the way their Daddy and Uncle Jason did growing up (still going strong). Video games are a source of tremendous joy. And here are the top 10 games that sent my nephews into a moon-orbiting tizzy last week.

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10. Wii Music (Wii)

Uncle Jason felt like a bit of an idiot waving his Wiimote and nunchuck around in the air, sounding pre-assigned notes for "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" on the steel drums, but the nephews were totally game. After every single jam session, Seán would award himself a 100-point rating in the game and laugh himself half to death by designing an album cover onscreen that had his Mii standing on top of his brother who was turned sideways and lying on the giant cake atop which they had just performed. Good times.

9. Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360)

For the first few days of vacation, before opening their Nintendo Wii on Christmas morning, Isaac and Seán were stone-cold obsessed with Sonic. Watching them play Sonic Unleashed, I felt like I was working as a scientist in a play-testing laboratory for young children. After all, the things that had annoyed me about this Sonic installment—the tedious filler you have to slog through between levels, the forehead slapping voiceover work, the monotany of the combat during the night-time Werehog levels—didn't trip up my nephews for one second. If they couldn't get to a new level, they were content to play the same ones over and over. And they could've button-mashed their way through the night-time levels for days on end without getting tired of picking up two enemies and bashing them together like a wind-up monkey with cymbals. Every single morning, a groggy little Seán would stumble off the pull-out couch in his Spider Man pajamas and greet you with, "Can I play Sonic, Uncle Jason?" Team Sonic must be doing something right.

8. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii)

Even though my nephews have mostly moved on to Bionicles in their non-virtual building-block playtime, Isaac and Seán are cuckoo over the Lego video games. Fights would break out occasionally over who was scooping up an unfair share of the Lego coins onscreen, but the heart-gladdening sound of their raucous laughter ricocheted around the house every time Lego Chewbacca picked up a Lego Storm Troopers and pulled off its li'l white Lego arms—a grisly fate I wouldn't wish on any Lego baddie, however cute.

7. Contra 4 (Nintendo DS)

Seán is the wilder of my two nephews and found kindred spirits in the bandana-sporting soldier protagonists at the center of Contra 4. Every time one of them would rattle off a tough-guy one-liner, Seán would instinctively affect his lowest-possible voice (which ain't exactly low) and parrot the sentiment. Also, he was only skilled enough to get through the first 2/3 of the first level and would run over to beg me to get him past the last section and the boss. Every time I destroyed the boss, he'd shout "Awwwwwe-some!!!" as if I hadn't done it just five minutes earlier.

6. Midnight Club: Los Angeles (PSP)

Isaac and Seán never figured out how to navigate through the checkpoints, but it didn't stop them from having a blast careening around L.A. and smacking into highway guard rails. It was the street-racing equivalent of coloring outside the lines. And, let's not forget, white-knuckle speed is enjoyable regardless of how you place (if you ever find the finish line in order to do so).