Man i've fallen way off again.
18: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. The game that got me into the franchise, a well-oiled machine of a game, held back due to some BS story conditions late-game, mostly about beating the Black Knight and a few other mechanical foibles (though in terms of mechanics, streets ahead of other FE games, barring Radiant Dawn)
17: Super Mario 3D World. Highest ranked of the newbies for this year, this game was almost perfect. Just a little unambitious in terms of scale compared to higher-ranked 3D Marios here, but the game had everything you want from a Mario game, imaginative levels, clever power-ups, oodles of replayability through the 5-character system, moar Rosalina, and a properly challenging postgame.
16: Sonic & Knuckles. Brought to the pinnacle with the lock-on mode with Sonic 3, the definitive 2D Sonic game, like Mario 3D World, made great by multiple characters with meaningful differences, some of the best music in the (2D) franchise, colorful worlds and an actual friggin' save system (lack thereof is why none of the other Genesis Sonics are on here).
15: Super Metroid. Not a lot to say that others probably haven't said about this game. It's great. Play it.
14: Super Mario Sunshine. The only returning game to go *up* in terms of evaluation. I've always had a soft spot for this black sheep of the mainline Mario games, and i still yearn for its free-flowing parkour style of Mario which has yet to return.
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
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