Clue for #27:

The highest rated game of all time, at least according to one website.

Breakout? (or whatever the GB clone was)

27. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Wii (2007) Nintendo/Retro Studios (last year 26)

This game brought back a more believable story and introduced engaging Wii pointer controls, bringing it further up the list than 2. It loses points, however, in that the discrete planets meant less free-flowing exploration, though each planet was often deep enough on its own. Elysia is beautiful.

Number 26: A little (or a lot) of water can solve all your problems

27. BioShock (PS3)

BioShock is one of the games that I bought an HD console for, and it did not disappoint. In an era where online multiplayer is king in the FPS genre, here was an engrossing and lengthy single player FPS game for those of us that still prefer that kind of thing. As with quite a lot of games this generation, this game featured moral choices throughout. Do you save the Little Sisters, or do you harvest them? Your choices naturally affect the ending that you see, and I have so far only played through the game by saving them. Of course, the star of the show is arguably the underwater city of Rapture, and progressing through it, learning more as you go is incredibly compelling, yet also a little disturbing at the same time. The game is let down in the final parts after the plot twist is revealed, especially with an incredibly weak final boss fight, but that doesn't tarnish the overall brilliance of the experience.

Number 26 saw some of the Wii's early potential finally fulfilled just before the final curtain.

Skyward Sword

Now in the rules of quid pro quo, you must guess mine.

Correct.

Mario Sunshine?

#27: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
Last Year: 23

I still remember where I was when I first saw Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for the first time. Somehow Nintendo used their magical wizarding powers to create a game that looked like a painting. Even today it holds up flawlessly, and remains one of the greatest uses of art designs in gaming. But Yoshi's Island is more than just a pretty face, as it takes Mario's dinosaur pal Yoshi and creates an entire gaming world around him and his unique gameplay abilities. I'm still not sure why they gave the game the "Super Mario World 2" monkier, as the game is just so unique and different from any Mario game out there. Even the damage system is unique... in a somewhat annoying way (Waaah! Waaah!). And the bosses are just so unique and fun in this game... so good. If you could tell, Yoshi's Island implemented a lot of new ideas, and it all came together flawlessly. Even today (especially today), this game is still a breath of fresh air.

Bingo

Hint for #27:

This game really bugged PS3 owners. Many found the game's quality lagging er... lacking. Also, furries!

#29. Battletoads (NES)

This game is a great example of near perfect level design and creativity. For me, it started a love affair with Rare that lasted until the N64 days.

There's only 12 stages, not one of them like the others, there is always something new coming your way: rats you kick the crap out of, birds trying to cut your rope, high speed racing while dodging fast incoming walls, slippery slopes, whirlpools, riding giants snakes, flying a plane through fire and lightning, fighting a trigger happy robot, getting savagely beaten by very nasty ducks, racing a rat to be the first to kick a bomb, being pursued by a giant ball on a unicycle and finally climbing up a huge tower to get to the final fight with the Dark Queen.

This could be achieved relatively quickly if it wasn't for the fact that the game is completely unforgiving and very very hard. You die quite easily in Battletoads, spikes, flames, high speed collisions, deadly pits, a boss jumping on your head all of those things kill you instantly. It is because of that high difficulty that it took several years before I was able to successfully get through the game (without using any warp zones) and I've only managed to do it once. 

Thanks to the great diversity in the level design, I never got tired of playing that game no matter how often I was sent back to the title screen.