5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Remember when I was talking about Super Mario 64 and how it was the journey, and not the destination that made the game truly wonderful? Well I suppose I (and many of the games I've played since then) lost sight of that. After all, I had to grow up sooner or later right? No more time for good hearted smiles or laughter. Gaming had stopped being a portal into uncharted new worlds to explore and instead became a hobby. It was time to face the facts: magic isn't real and it's the head that trumps the heart.
And then Super Mario Galaxy came along. Now hear me out, this game throws out the question of "where are we going?" and instead asks "how much fun can we have before we get there?". This game is an adventure, and it focuses on how much fun I can have just trying to get to the next platform. I mean, there's more grand, smile inducing ideas in a single level than most games have in their entirety. Running, jumping, swimming, swinging, climbing... it's all there. And to make it even crazier, to reintroduce that wow factor... they add this whole universe waiting to be explored. And with the gravity flipping things up down and everywhere inbetween... the sheer fun of having an adventure is amplified. It really doesn't get much better than this.
