Two games at once, internet problems yesterday... Doesn't really matter, it's impossible to come up with a hint for #15 that doesn't give away the game anyway .
#16
'MediEvil'
for the Sony PlayStation released in 1998.
Yes, the two single greatest PlayStation games are not those that are the most popular or the most famous. First, I had 'Kula World', now, as the best game to ever grace a Sony platform, there's 'MediEvil'. It's a little better known, but could probably still be counted as a niche title. Too bad, because it's brilliant. A game wouldn't get this high on the list if it wasn't.
Like the 5th Generation did best, 'MediEvil' is a 3D platformer with action elements. And a very good one too. The story follows the goofy looking Sir Daniel Fortesque, who get's resurrected to defeat the evil Zarok, his arch-enemy from a century before. To do this, the player scales a series of levels jumping, puzzle-solving and zombie killing.
While progressing, health upgrades, better weapons and armour can be gained through 'collecting souls' and finding the levels chalice, which basically means you have to find and kill as many enemies as possible. The humour, original level-design and overall challenge keeps the game afloat and you'll be playing for hours. It's too bad though that I never really got around to playing the sequel, and I'm afraid it won't be impressive now over a decade later, but really, Sony, where's MediEvil 3?
#15
'Lylat Wars'
also called 'Star Fox 64' (US) for the Nintendo 64 released in 1997.
Probably one of the most straight-forward games on my list, both literally and figuratively. 'Lylat Wars' is still the best rail-shooter around, and perfect for short yet intense bursts of gaming. In Europe, the game was awkwardly called 'Lylat Wars' due to licencing issues. Similarly, it's predecessor on the Super Nintendo was also called differently in Europe; 'Starwing'. The remake on 3DS however, is called 'Star Fox 64 3D' like in the rest of the world so I'm unsure whether most Europeans actually know what game the remake is...
Anyway, the single goal of the game is to reach the end of the level blasting everything in sight, and then to destroy the villain Andross at the end of the game. This shouldn't take more than 45 minutes to do, but the game has a huge replay value. It's hard to explain, but the game has it. Whatever that is. Each level is enjoyable because there's so much going on and you want to beat your last run's score each time.
Another thing is the choice the player has to progress, a lot of the levels have secret exits, which can only be reached if certain tasks are completed during flight or when certain members of your team survive. Naturally, the levels the player will progress to when finding one of those secret objectives are much harder. To me, Nintendo doesn't need to experiment with a franchise like this, they just need to make clones of this game over and over. Starting on WiiU, it would look soo pretty.
#14 Hint:
After two 5th Generation games in a row, this next game is a generation newer and it really showed the gap. This game is the only game of it's genre to make it to the list, and primarily focussed on weapons instead of the usual means in a game like this.