My picks:
1) The Legend of Zelda -- I cannot live without this series. For me it's the most reliable and most brilliant around. The combination of real-time action with puzzle-solving and exploration never, ever gets old.
2) Super Mario -- whether Mario is exploring Ghost Houses on a 2D plane or navigating the universe in 360 degrees, his games consistently deliver brilliant platforming and lots of ingenuity
3) Gears of War -- the folks at The Coalition proved there's still a lot of life left in this series. With Halo treading water, I consider Gears to be the Xbox' flagship franchise
4) Banjo-Kazooie -- the series has suffered under Microsoft's leadership, but I know there's potential there. Nuts & Bolts wasn't what fans wanted, nut it represents one of the better examples of user-generated content on the market. We just need a true successor to Banjo-Tooie
5) Ratchet & Clank -- as long as Insomniac is willing to make R&C games for PlayStation, I'm willing to play them.
6) Wipeout -- with Studio Liverpool gone, the future of Wipeout remains in doubt. An HD collection is on the way, but what would be much more meaningful is a brand new game, built from the ground up on PS4.
7) Souls -- From Software opened my eyes with Demon's Souls. Now I'm a believer.
8) Street Fighter -- the fifth installment might have shipped sans essential content, but the fighting mechanics are still second to none. And I'm excited about the old-school throw-back that is Ultra Street Fighter II.
9) Xenoblade -- Nintendo swooping up Monolith Soft was a stroke of genius, as the studio has filled a vacant RPG gap in Nintendo's stable of IPs. Plus it delivered the best game of the 7th gen in Xenoblade Chronicles, and, soon, a sequel on Switch.
10) Mario Kart -- coming off arguably its best installment yet, Mario Kart is looking more and more like an indispensible property.
