Alright so number 24 went unguessed this time but I can reveal now that the skeleton with great boss music was in fact from Undertale. We're past the halfway mark now so here's some words about my 25-21:
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#25 #22 |
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors 999 was the beginning of the Zero Escape series and I think it’s one of relatively few cases where I consider the first game in a series the best. The combination of a complex and intriguing story told in visual novel format and several escape rooms full of unique puzzles definitely struck a chord with me from the get go. One of the really interesting things about the series, which is particularly prevalent in the first game, is how the puzzles and things you encounter in each escape room will often lead to interesting anecdotes from the other characters and how the puzzles themselves will often take root in real elements from various sciences. I don’t know if I can say a ton more about this game without getting into spoiler territory, but I will say that it has one particular twist that I consider one of the best in any game ever. |
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#24 #26 |
Undertale Like the Mother games that inspired it, Undertale manages to combine a wacky world and wacky characters with some really powerful and emotional moments in a way that somehow fits; but it also does more than that. It’s quite original turn-based “combat” system (which also allows you not to fight) works really well by moving all the focus onto the enemy’s turn where you have to actively dodge their attacks, which to me makes the things more engaging. This combined with unique dialogue makes the fights more different from enemy to enemy than is often the case in turn-based games and even more so when it comes to the boss fights. And what boss fights they are! With excellent music for pretty much each one and some of them feeling like absolutely epic showdowns. Finally, the 3 different paths you can go down are also brilliantly implemented and worth experiencing all three, even if one of them can indeed lead to a bad time. |
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#23 NEW |
Deltarune And here we have the successor in the making and probably the best new game I’ve played in the last year. As of currently this and Undertale are so neck and neck for me that they might as well share a spot, but when forced to choose I’m putting Deltarune on top. They each have their strengths and weaknesses when put side by side: Deltarune has funnier writing in my opinion, which is saying something, and the greatly expanded combat is very welcome and adds some strategy to what was mostly a question of skill in Undertale. On the other hand, while Deltarune certainly has had some powerful moments like its predecessor, it hasn’t quite reached the same levels as the final showdowns and ending of Undertale yet, though there’s still plenty of time for that in the future with the game only having 2 out of 7 chapters completed. In short, Deltarune is already an amazing game now and has the potential to climb even further up this list if future chapters deliver. I’m certainly crossing my fingers. |
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#22 #24 |
Super Mario Galaxy I had the great pleasure of replaying Super Mario Galaxy this year for the first time in a looong time and yeah, it’s still amazing. It might not have the openness of 64 or Odyssey (#27) but it makes up for it with excellently designed and highly varied levels. It’s also just one of the most charming and pleasant games to sit down and play out there and little elements such as the hub and Rosalina’s story book are really the icing on the cake. It wouldn’t call it a completely perfect game, but it’s not hard to see why both critics and players fell in love with it back in 2007. |
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#21 #20 |
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask As much as I love Ocarina of Time (#33), its sequel has always outshined it a bit in my eyes. First of all, I loved the masks and what they added to the gameplay particularly the Goron and Zora ones, then there’s the pretty in-depth side quests some with great stories of their own. The main story is also one of the best of the series in my opinion and Skull Kid might be the only one-time “villain” that I actually like as much as Ganon/Ganondorf. Whether it’s dream or reality it’s certainly one of my favorite journeys with Link. |
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