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psychicscubadiver on 03 January 2024
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10. Banjo Tooie
Many fans feel like this sequel wasn't as good as the original game, but I'd disagree. The bigger worlds gave you more to explore while teleport pads allowed for fast travel. The 'Doom' sections were a fun challenge to add. Almost every world had a great boss battle, Mr. Patches being one that I replayed over and over. The hub world was bigger and had more connectivity, tying all the various levels together. The new characters were good, returning characters all had more twists to them, and the humor was top notch even exceeding the first game. All in all Banjo Tooie doubled down on everything I loved about the first game and added more on top of it.

9. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
I played this game before the original Prime, so I might be biased. But for a guy that had never been into shooting games of any description there was something that just felt so natural about pointing the wiimote at the screen to aim and shoot. It's the best use of motion controls possible in my option, but that was just the initial hook. Even without playing the previous games I was invested in the story and wanted to investigate the strange planets Samus was sent to. The foreboding atmosphere, rife with danger was a joy to conquer and this game introduced me to the Metroid series as whole.

8. Mariokart 8
This game is how I spent the summer of 2014. Which surprised me after how much I hated Mariokart Wii, but I blasted through the solo races to unlock everything and kept coming back to the online to compete every single day. Eventually my ranking was above 20K and I was no longer able to play this game against friends irl unless I deliberately chose the worst kart builds. I knew every course backwards and forwards, and it was the most competitive I'd ever been in a multiplayer game. It continued to dominate my playing time through 2015 and 2016 (which might be due to the lack of quality WiiU games in those years), all the way until I got my Switch. I delibrately didn't get Mariokart 8 Deluxe just so it wouldn't steal all my time away from newer games, but even so I often find myself booting my WiiU back up just to play this game. It will be a sad day when those online servers finally close.

7. Super Mario Galaxy
The heart of a good Mario game is fluid movement. Whether 2D or 3D it needs to feel good to move Mario around. Mario64 pioneered this, but the camera could interfere with that feeling. Sunshine was weird and wild and I've come to appreciate it more with time, but Fludd often interrupted Mario's movement or required him to hold still. Galaxy gave Mario an unmatched fluidity which is even crazier to see with it's insane gravity physics as you bounce from planetoid to planetoid, each one themed in wonderfully bizarre and creative ways. But what I enjoyed more than anything was the Comet Observatory. It's easily my favorite hub world in any video game. The soothing music, the chirping lumas, the miniature observatories themed after rooms that launch you into the worlds, and best of all the library. Mario isn't known for its powerful story telling and indeed the story of the game itself is the standard fare. But hidden in the library is the story of Rosalina's past, told as a beautiful children's book in soft pastel colors. It's about loss and growth, and it has a much sadder and emotional core than you'd expect from so simple a story.

6. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I don't think I need to explain why I love this game. It regularly tops lists for the greatest game of all time. It is a cultural touchstone in video games and I'm both lucky and glad to have played it when it first came out.