#10 - Resident Evil Village (PS4)
Something akin to a Resident Evil "greatest hits" album, Village is an ambitious, envelope-pushing entry in the series with some of its most heart-stopping scares and explosive action.
#9 - Astebreed (NS)
Astebreed is a modern shoot-'em-up tour-de-force, thanks to shiny graphics, exciting music, kinetic perspective-changing action, and a nuanced scoring system that will keep you coming back again and again to beat your high scores.
#8 - Ikaruga (NS)
Ikaruga is a legendary name in the shmup space, and for good reason. Everything about the game sings, from its poetic interludes to its crisp graphics to its otherworldly art direction to its precision gameplay.
#7 - Super Mario Odyssey (NS)
What can you say about Super Mario Odyssey? It's creativity incarnate. The game's miniature sandboxes allow tons of experimentation and exploration, and the "capture" mechanic allows players to control dozens of different creatures -- all with perfect handling, mind you.
#6 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NS)
Sakurai outdid himself with Smash Bros. Ultimate. The game features so much content, so many characters, and so much to do, see, and unlock that it's almost overwhelming. It's a fighting game for the ages, and, arguably, the finest celebration of video game history we will ever see.
#5 - Chained Echoes (NS)
I could write for pages (and I did) about what makes Chained Echoes so special. It's a role-playing masterwork, as far as I'm concerned. The characters are layered, the story is inspired, the gameplay systems are amazingly fleshed-out, and the quality-of-life additions make everything less onerous.
#4 - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (NS)
While not quite on the same level as its predecessor, Tears of the Kingdom is an exceptional sequel, a magnificent action-adventure experience, and one of the best games ever made. With so many creative outlets, and more DIY opportunities than ever before, it's a game tough to put down.
#3 - Ori and the Will of the Wisps (XOne)
Will of the Wisps has everything: ravishing art; powerful music; a sad & thoughtful story; sublime action-platforming; and intensely rewarding Metroidvania gameplay. It's simply a work of art.
#2 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS)
By retaining the perfect controls, superior soundtrack, and spatial freedom that defined the vanilla version, and then incorporating all the previously-released DLC and finally adding a worthwhile battle mode, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe made Nintendo's best racing game even better. And the game has only become more attractive in the years since, thanks to 48 additional tracks.
#1 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NS)
The Zelda series has delivered many triumphs over the years, but none as special or electrifying as Breath of the Wild. The programmers at Nintendo managed to capture lighting in a bottle with the Switch launch title, delivering an open-air adventure with an intoxicating level of freedom and scores of surprising emergent situations brought about by several complex systems working in tandem behind the scenes.
