Daggah

PLEASE tell me you're kidding.

Shadownought

A modified (i.e. easier and simpler, for us dumb Americans) Final Fantasy IV was released as FF2 in the US.
Final Fantasy VI was released as FF3 in the US.

Incidentally, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was developed specifically for the USA.

In my opinion, FF6 is the only Final Fantasy that can compete with FF4. I like FF4 a bit more overall, but 6 is still great.

ashibaka

RPG? Golden Sun
2D action game? Paper Mario
3D (third-person) action game? Tuxedo T. Penguin: A Quest for Herring
Epic (Zelda-style adventure games)? .hack
First-person shooter? Super Noah's Ark 3D
Horror game? N/A
Sports game? N/A
Fighting game? Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle
Other (doesn't fit in the above categories)? Love Hina Advance (best dating game) or Dance Dance Revolution 6th Mix (best music game) or Civilization 3 (best strategy game) or Di Gi Communication (other)

Corona688

Arcade: Gyruss ( NES )
Have yet to see it properly emulated...

TollHouse

RPG: Final Fantasy 3 (6 in Japan)

2D action game: Kid Icarus or Metroid (nes) or X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (snes)

3D (third-person) action game: Mario 64

Epic (Zelda-style adventure games): The Legend of Zelda (nes)

First-person shooter: Halo

Horror game: D (I know, it sucks by today's standards)

Sports game: ummm...Mega Man Soccer?

Fighting game: Marvel Vs. Capcom 2

Other (best party game): Super Bomerman 2 (snes)

Also, what games are you playing now, and what is your overall favorite console game?

I'm playing Metroid Prime right now, I love it. I think my favourite console game of all time is FF3.

Nectaris

My $0.02. Although I have noticed that I seem to have a preference for Sega games

RPG?
Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn)

2D action game?
Contra (NES)

3D (third-person) action game?
MDK2 (DC)

Epic (Zelda-style adventure games)?
Legend of Zelda (NES)

First-person shooter?
Halo (Xbox)

Horror game?
Not a genre that interests me, but Silent Hill (PSX) was the best I�ve played

Sports game?
NFL 2k3 (Xbox)

Fighting game?
Virtua Fighter 4 (PS2)
Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram (DC)

Other (doesn't fit in the above categories)?

Strategy
Nectaris: Military Madness (Turbo Grafx 16)

2d Shooter
Raiden Fighters (arcade)

3d Shooter
Panzer Dragoon Zwei (Saturn), fingers crossed about PD Orta

Just a plain old great game
Nights into dreams (Saturn)

Puzzle
Devil Dice (PSX)

Honorable mention as the game that got me addicted to videogames in the first place
Space Invaders (Atari 2600 and arcade)

fuct_okc

RPG - Final Fantasy II for SNES.. or maybe Earthbound

2D Action - Sonic III

3D Action - Super Mario Sunshine

Epic - Zelda: Link to the Past

FPS - Halo

Horror - never played one....

Sports - Madden NFL 2003/NCAA 2003 (for Xbox)

Fighting - Street Fighter II

Shadownought

Earthbound was great. For me, though, it's impossible to rank it against my other favorites... it's sort of in a class by itself.

Cipher44

Well, if there's one thing my brief interest in emulation taught me, it was that 90% of the time those "classic" games that give you the warm-fuzzies when you remember them turn out to actually be unplayable pieces of crap ... but there are a few that still linger.

RPG: Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (see also: Epic - I've written this one into the RPG category as well because Zelda had the depth of an RPG but was leagues beyond the traditional, tedious "random-ambush-and-pick-commands-from-menus" RPG combat archtype. The only RPG I ever enjoyed was Fallout 2, which doesn't count as it was PC. It needs porting. Now.)

2D Action: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
3D Action: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Epic: Link to the Past
FPS: Always changing - at the moment, it's a toss between Medal of Honor Frontline and Timesplitters 2. Deus Ex was better than I thought it'd be, as well.
Horror: Silent Hill hands-down. Fuck R.E.
Sports: Never touch 'em.
Fighting: Mortal Kombat II, though technically the console versions all sucked - the arcade game was never done justice.

Other: That Music Generator thingy for the PS 1. Haven't tried the PS 2 version yet.

At the moment, Vice City is spending the most time in my PS 2. Before that, it was GTA III. If you wanted to bend away from the traditional definitions of the genre, I'd go as far as to say these are more of a brand new take on the RPG rather than action games.