Guessed by @drbunnig
So last year I dropped a few games out of the top 20, because I was focusing more on story-driven titles, which this certainly isn't. It had been a long time since I'd played Tropical Freeze, and without a narrative to carry it in my memories, it was fading a bit. Then... This year I wanted to replay it, and so I did. Twice. It's too much fun not to play it through at least twice. And I remembered just how special this game always was.
I've said it many times here in the past, but this is the only platformer I've ever played where every level feels so unique, special, and memorable. I can remember every level off the top of my head and that's honestly pretty ridiculous. But when every level has such distinctly beautiful environments, phenomenal music, and unique challenges in the level design that are constantly challenging your understanding of the core mechanics in different ways, honestly, it's pretty inevitable that they'll be so easy to remember.
I like to make "top X" lists of just about everything, and always find a way to settle on my #1 of anything I put myself up to, but, I have tried to rank the stages of Tropical Freeze and it's simply impossible. From the beautiful music of Windmill Hills, to the dancing trees of Savannah Groove, to the ravaged forest of Scorch N' Torch, to the wonderfully deep environments of Amiss Abyss, to the intense escape sequence of Irate Eight, to the incredibly balanced and challenging Harvest Hazards, to the ice cream factory of Frosty Fruits, to the emotionally charged score of Seashore War, to the final showdown in Volcano Dome, and even some of the challenging temple "K" levels, most notably Bopopolis and Platform Problems, this game just keeps blowing you away over and over and over and over and by the time it's done, you can't help but play through it all again. Tropical Freeze is a masterpiece, it's the best platformer ever made, and I think it'll always be.
