24 replaced a living goddess with a purple... thing as your guide through the stars

Correct on both guesses!

25- Super Mario World?

23- Portal?

Welp, I've got too much going on to come up with decent hints for all my games between #34 and #23, so here are the ones I already had a hint in mind for.

#32: After you kill both his birdie buddies, the elephant won't put up much of a fight.

#27: Who's going to judge me for my lack of underpants when I can blow up everyone's face with a critically endangered animal?

#25: I actually think a county, country or a big-ass world would've all been perfectly acceptable next steps for this series.

#23: This game was received more favorably than another game in the same franchise that was released thirteen years later, and a spin-off game from a rival franchise that released on the same year, but not as well as a JRPG that was released two years later, or an action-adventure game that was released five years later. All of the games I've mentioned feature a common gameplay mechanic/plot device.

Ha, my clues clearly did their part.  I HAVE SHOWN NINTENDO TO BE A COMPANY THAT DO NOTHING BUT RE-USE ASSETS!

Just kiddin'.  But all wrong, I'm afraid.  Think much more modern.  And also, on a console that I actually own :P

(I have been meaning to play Majora's Mask though since it's pretty much the only Zelda game that appeals to me, so maybe I won't be able to use that clue by this time next year).

#24: Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

#23: Half-Life 2?

Hooray for underlined!

It seems Valve are guilty of re-using more assets than I thought, though.  I didn't even know Half Life 2 had used things from a previous game!

#25: Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

This game featured the best graphics you'd ever seen at that time but I love it for so much more than that. It was a truly challenging platfomer, well built, with tight gameplay, absolutely perfect music and tons of replay value if you wanted to get the full 101% on your game file. The game introduced Diddy Kong as Donkey Kong's buddy who tags along in the adventure to retrieve the stolen banana horde from the Kremlins. Each character has their advantages by I found myself switching to Diddy more often than not.

Counter-Strike?

:(

There's only 3 more Valve franchises left to guess, by my count, so we'll get there eventually :P

EXTRA HINT: And there was less than a year separating the game I'm talking about and the game from which its assets were lifted.