The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992)
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but I still prefer the concise, self-contained style of this one to
Breath of the Wild. Maybe in a few years once the dust has settled and I've done another playthrough or two for that game, I'll feel differently, but it's hard to top how much of an impact ALttP had on me in my formative gaming years. The spritework is incredible, the music as good as ever, and combined with the lore in the instruction booklet, I've never felt so compelled to explore a gaming world. While the overworld is small (even taking into account the Dark World) compared to other Zeldas, I feel it works in its favor. There's
so much to do in every square of the map and it rarely recycles its tricks and gimmicks. My favorite Zelda ever.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
I count this as a Yoshi game despite its title.
Does 2D platforming get better than this? The other mainline Mario platformers might have tighter controls and higher speed, but there's something about ambling around Yoshi's Island collecting coins, opening doors, and groundpounding through fluff that's sheer joy. The graphical style has aged like fine wine, and the game is oddly emotional and "epic" at times (in a "Saturday Morning Cartoon" sort of way.) In that respect, it's a lot like
Super Mario Galaxy - my proper choice for favorite Mario platformer.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999)
I'm not a huge strategy fan, but there's something special about Alpha Centauri. It feels like a work of art - the futuristic, creative vision of a singular person at the top of their game. Every faction leader feels so different, and the ongoing plot is so mysterious and powerful, it's hard not to get drawn in immediately. I can't really judge the gameplay since I haven't played many other turn-based strategies, but since it was my first I still find it simple to learn and hard to master, with a huge depth and freedom to approach any given situation in potentially hundreds of different ways.
Resident Evil 4 (2005)
RE4 was both my first
Resident Evil game and my first M-rated game. What a way to start out, huh? Millions of words have been poured as praise on this game so I don't really have much to say here, other than this: looking back on it now, it's still astounding how much content and variety there is in the game. Dozens and dozens of unique, one-off areas that all seamlessly connect and draw you into its horrific world. Thinking about it, RE4 is the most "immersive" game on my list of favorites.
Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
Mario, distilled, and with grand epic flare to boot. It's crazy to think this came after
Super Mario Sunshine, but on the other hand there was an entire half-decade between the two releases. Every minute of development time spent on this game was worth it. Like with RE4, there's
so much content here. So many worlds and stars and bosses. The music and graphical style are absolutely impeccable, and the streamlining of platforming objectives (while still allowing for a bit of freedom here and there) attained the most-perfect balance in the series.
I don't mean to slog on
Super Mario Galaxy 2, it's an absolutely fantastic game, and a bit more challenging, but I don't equate challenge with quality. On their own merits, I find the first Galaxy much more consistent in just about every area (art style, mechanics (fuck the Fluzzard), music, balance of open vs. linear, boss battles) and I also give points for the Rosalina storybook and general grander feeling of the original game. Galaxy 2 started out as a level pack, and it shows in some of its non-platforming related areas. I could be convinced Galaxy 2 is a better platformer, but I stand firm in my belief Galaxy is the better
game.The House of the Dead: Overkill (2009)
The House of the Dead is one of my favorite series ever, but this one wasn't even made by the original developers! It's also M-rated as fuck, with F-bombs, gore, vomit, incest, urination and the works. The graphics are janky but I feel it compliments the groundhouse style nicely, while the music is some of the
catchiest of all time.
I give Overkill the nod over the original series for a few reasons: ridiculously satisfying shooting, the combo and upgrade system, and the ridiculous plot (which set a Guinness World Record for amount of "fuck"s in a single game) that
still makes me chuckle to this day. Yes, the other games were great cheesy fun with lines that have gone down in gaming history ("Suffer like G did?" "They disturbed the loife cycle!"), but literally every aspect of Overkill clicked for me and elevated the game to more than the sum of its parts.
Pokémon SoulSilver (2010)
It was between
Platinum, SoulSilver,
White, and
Moon, but I had to give credit to the remake of my pre-Gen 4 favorite. SoulSilver is a master class in how to remake a game. The mix of 2D and 3D graphics still look great to this day - even better than Black/White, which came out a year later. SoulSilver knew when to use 3D and when to stick to 2D, while with White it seemed like Game Freak were so excited about the third dimension they couldn't help putting it everywhere - jaggies be damned.
From a gameplay perspective, it was Pokemon, and SoulSilver's strengths lie in its world and how Game Freak added and updated it. Like some other games on my list, SoulSilver just has
so much content. Two regions, 16 badges, the Safari Zone, the Gen 4 Battle Frontier, etc. Even the Pokeathlon was great! Where as usually those kind of side quests are super lame (see: Contests and Super Contests.) All told, HeartGold and SoulSilver probably have the greatest amount and variety of content in the series, even to this day.
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (2012)
The
Animal Crossing series is the zen garden of gaming, and New Leaf was a stark improvement over
City Folk. While I'll always have nostalgic, fond memories of the original GameCube game, New Leaf brought me back to the series in a huge way after I thought I was done with it. It's still Animal Crossing at its core, but it tweaked and improved on the city concept, added swimming/diving, brought back the island, and integrated with online seamlessly. Some of my favorite gaming memories are the two-week stretch after release when I'd play and the game would notify me someone from the Bore hopped online, and then sending messages to-and-fro. Those couple times four of us here went to the Island to catch beetles gives me warm fuzzies to think about. The prospect of having to reacquire all my items in a potential Switch version is daunting, but I'm still excited at the online upgrades they might do. If it can capture half of the online fun I've had with New Leaf, I'd consider it a great success.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014)
I'm not a pro player, so while
Super Smash Bros. Melee is probably the better game mechanically, I'm choosing the latest and greatest for a word I've used a lot in this post: content. The amount of stages and characters here is off the charts, and the gameplay is still great - occupying a nice middle ground between Melee's sky-high skill ceiling and Brawl's casual party focus. It's easy to understate just how big an achievement I feel Smash 4 is. The graphics are 1080p 60 fps and ditched the dirty dishwater style Brawl had, making the characters and stages pop. The online is serviceable. It and Mario Kart 8 brought Nintendo into the DLC era in a major way, with several fan favorite characters returning - not to mention insane third-party picks like Cloud, Ryu and Bayonetta.
There's a crazy amount of modes, although I will knock the Wii U version here: Classic Mode on 3DS, and that game's Smash Run mode, are both improvements over the Wii U version's counterpart. That aside, while I find something to love in every Smash game, I can't ignore how massive or polished Smash for Wii U feels. It even finally introduced a character so fun to play it swayed me away from Luigi (my main since 64): Villager.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (2017)
The original release of
Mario Kart 8 saw the series reach its apex as a kart racer. MK8 somehow balances all the crazy gimmicks added in the last few releases: from bikes in
Mario Kart Wii, to paragliders and sub-propellers in
Mario Kart 7, to its own huge gameplay twist with anti-gravity. It all flows together in any given track so that you're constantly engaged. It looked crazy gorgeous (even in 720p), the online was a dream, and the added 16 DLC courses (not to mention 200cc mode) were all done so, so, so ridiculously well. The drawback was that Battle Mode, long a staple in the series, was shockingly malnourished. Yes, you could pop balloons, but only on the actual race tracks that were not meant for it at all. And all it had was Balloon Battle.
MK8 Deluxe took the base game with DLC and completely revamped the battle mode. Now there's five to choose from - four returning modes (Balloon Battle, Shine Thief, Coin Runners, and Bob-bomb Blast) and the absolutely joyous Renegade Roundup (basically cops and robbers.) They're all crazy fun to varying degrees, but yeah, Renegade Roundup might just be my favorite. In addition to all that, it added purple sparks and double held-items, making this Mario Kart the full package. Finally, it cranked the resolution to a full 1080p (when docked.)
It was a little hard for me to choose between
Mario Kart DS and the original Mario Kart 8, but Deluxe supersedes both. As someone who prefers battling to racing, MK8 Deluxe delighted me and I've already put over 45 hours into it. In a few months I may have even spent more time with it than Breath of the Wild.
Wish I could have found a place for
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate,
The Evil Within,
Tetris DS,
WarioWare D.I.Y., or
Mega Man X here, but I'm pretty satisfied with my choices.