All right time to enter the list for real with the first 5 entries.
While I didn't reveal it beforehand there is a bit of a theme to my list this year, or at least to the first 10, specifically I've dedicated the bottom 10 spots to ten nostalgic titles that I haven't included before, first five from my childhood, then five from my teens (give or take). First up are the childhood ones.
Two of these admittedly halfway obscure titles went unguessed namely Pokémon XD at #50 and Dragonball Legendary Super Warriors at #48.
| Placement/ Last Year | Write-up | (Box) Art |
#50 NEW | Pokémon XD Pokémon Colosseum was the reason I got a GameCube which I still consider my favorite console along with the Switch and while I might not have played that game as much as that initial purchase would suggest, I did end up loving the sequel Pokémon XD. Being a spinoff, it might not match mainline games on all parameters, but for its time this game honestly did home console Pokémon more justice than recent titles have. The Pokémon models were impressive for the time, the moves had pizzazz and while structured a bit weirdly the game just had a cool atmosphere to it and some exciting bonus content. If played today it probably couldn’t match many of the games in my honorable mentions, but I think I would still have to insist that it’s more interesting than the average mainline title. | |
#49 NEW | Lego Racers This game is essentially here a representative for a larger group of Lego games I played as a kid, Lego Island, Lego Star Wars, Lego Creator: Hogwarts, and more, but even though I probably played Lego Star Wars the most, Lego Racers is the one I have the most fondness for today. A Lego cart racer from 1999 where you can build your own car and racer that honestly is on par with Mario Kart 64 in my book, why they never picked this franchise back up is beyond me. I actually installed Racers and played it recently in preparation for this list and found out two things: 1) the car building system is clunky (big surprise) and 2) it’s still super fun | |
#48 NEW
| Dragonball Legendary Super Warriors I’m not even that big a Dragonball fan so I don’t know how a turn-based Dragon Ball card-game-figther became one of my favorite Game Boy games but well, it did. Opening up the game today so much is coming back to me about this unique and surprisingly strategic and difficult game, where I apparently have 67 hours in the current game, I know I reset it many times. I’ve probably seen as much of these characters here as I have in the anime, and its main theme is as much Dragonball to me as the anime opening. | |
#47 NEW
| Donkey Kong Jungle Beat Now there is a lot of GameCube games that deserve mentioning about equally, but for this spot I’m going with one that’s just not only here for nostalgia but also because I consider it a deeply underrated game. Playing a platformer with a pair of bongos is unconventional to say the least, perhaps too much so for any self-respecting adult to give this game the time of day, but luckily, I was neither of those things when the game released and had an absolute blast with the game as a kid and still consider it a great title today. If you get used to the controls it’s honestly as well designed and polished as you’d expect from Nintendo and yes honestly my favorite DK game with only Country 2 competing with it. | |
#46 NEW | Taz: Wanted Of all the licensed games I played as a kid I can’t tell you exactly why Taz: Wanted is the one I have most nostalgia for, I just know that it is. And well other than just being a game we played a lot, struggled to beat and then eventually did beat and still kept playing, it does have even more going for it than just fun memories. I played it again last year and well the camera’s a little rough but other than that it’s still one of the most fun 3D platformers, that just radiates fun in its level designs and more. And it’s another game with some absolute bangers in its soundtrack (like this or this) | |
But wait there's more! Honorable mentions is basicly the real theme of my list this year and since I obviously couldn't fit all my nostalgic childhood games into just 5 spots here's a few more that deserve a shoutout:
- Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
- Mario Party 4
- Sonic Heroes
- Hot Wheels: Beat That
- Duel Masters Shadow of the Code
- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
- Age of Mythology
- Pikmin
- Kuru Kuru Kururin
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