#5: Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
Last Year: #5
I honestly consider every game from #6 down to be perfect in their execution. Each of these games had a vision, and through hard work and dedication by their development teams, achieved this vision with extraordinary success. Super Mario Galaxy, like Ocarina of Time, is a game that reaches this incredibly lofty goal. I was cautiously optimistic for this game, as Super Mario 64 and (even moreso) Super Mario Sunshine had taken the Mario formula and expanded it through exploration and wide-open level design. As much as I love these games, their "open-world" style of gameplay didn't allow for cosistency in creativity on the developers part. Super Mario Galaxy reversed this open-world experience in 3D Mario Games, and the game's tight focus and more linear level-design allowed for the developers' brilliant ideas to come to the forefront. Every level was a brand new experience, and everything felt so fresh and fun to play. It's obvious that the developers were having just as much fun developing this game as I was playing it. Simply an incredible gaming experience. Oh... and dat music.
