May
Castlevania Rebirth - Great game, had it in the backlog forever. Similar to Contra Rebirth, this is full of new ideas and it's ridiculous that these games are now only obtainable via ROM. They could easily sell these as new titles practically, because no one paid attention to WiiWare and they are super high quality. The only flaw of this game is that it doesn't have a permanent save feature and the game is too long for a single playthrough. Classic CV had passwords to prevent this problem.
Contra Rebirth, replay. Maybe one of the best Contra games. It has the crazy setpieces of Hardcorps but none of the ultra-punishing bs. This game has the opposite flaw of CV rebirth though: There's automatic saves constantly and infinite continues, which makes it way too easy and there's no proper difficulty scaling.
Serious Sam: First Encounter HD, replay - First time playing this since I was a kid. Holds up well enough. No military porn, no pretentious story, just alien hordes in Ancient Egypt and lots of fun things to discover inbetween. Only some of the final stages get annoying even with save scumming.
Streets of Rage 2, replay - first time in coop. I only played this for the first time some years back and loved it since. Still so, though in multiplayer the other guy is your biggest enemy.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - tbf the sequel improved this formula a lot. The fast paced platforming and puzzle solving is still okay, but the sequel goes way beyond with a cool hubworld and creative bosses, among other things.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron: Rogue Leader - Never got around to this since it came out. 20 years ago the graphics blew my mind and who could've thought: They still look good. Gamecube's an absolute beast. The gameplay is pretty good, but too punishing. No way I go for higher medals
Never felt so good to fly an X-Wing though. The difficulty helps to really make you feel like you took down those star destroyers, but some other parts are just cumbersome. Also, I thought I was above this, but nostalgia hit really hard with that oldschool Star Wars atmosphere.
Super Paper Mario - I always felt I should give this another try. Back in the day it felt too whack for me, but these days Mario games became so sterile, that I'm longing for weirder takes on the franchise. That lame ass Origami-Mario announcement sealed that decision. And I really like this way more nowadays. Some of the gameplay and padding can still be pretty bad. But it feels so refreshing to play a Mario 'RPG' with unique setpieces and characters that aren't completely predictable. Not to mention, there's a story and lore that takes itself seriously beyond the typical jokes and meta-gags.
Hitman GO - Didn't feel quite as great as Lara Croft GO, but it's still a fun puzzle game. At first I thought the board game concept didn't lend itself too well for Hitman, but then they kept bringing in more and more elements from the main series.