Hint for #18:

A quest for delicious soup ends up as a smashing good time.

Really fell off the wagon here

21: Monster Hunter Tri/Ultimate (14 last year), first impression 7.5, replay 10, technical 8

Pros: Playtime value, full stop. Earlier this year i spent *three months* playing the Wii U version of Ultimate, and that was me focusing almost exclusively on getting all of the Lances maxed out (a bit of time spent on dual swords and longsword). All the weapons, all the armors, all the monsters, there's just endless stuff to do. The game is very well balanced for the most part.

Cons: Drop-rate "choke points," basically. Often there's this one item you need that has an ultra-low drop-rate that just totally arrests your ability to progress. Some monsters (cough, Rathalos, cough) are downright mean.

20: Mario Kart 64 (13 last year) first impression 9, replay 10, technical 6.5

Pros: This was one of the games that got me into gaming, with the charming Mario-themed courses, memorable characters, fun items, classic multiplayer, the pros go almost without explanation.

Cons: Objectively, the game is *hideously* balanced compared to every Mario Kart game that came after (except for Super Circuit, which is about on the level).

19: Zelda: Wind Waker (25 last year), first impression 8, replay 10, technical 8

Pros: The game just oozes style, in terms of the general aesthetics, the lavish rendering of so many things that were simple and inelegant in the N64 Zeldas and more bland in some of the more realistic Zelda games that followed, the music especially is some of the best in the franchise, instrumental and memorable. Great, distinguishing characterizations for Zelda and Ganondorf both.

Cons: Difficulty, plain and simple. This was the nadir of dungeon design and the nadir of combat pointlessness. Even the Darknuts could be wiped out by merely holding back and being patient.

18 starred plushies and a glove

Super Smash Bros?

Too easy again, i guess. Gah, the balancing on this game is suckish. 6/10

#20 - Wild ARMs 3 (Kudos to Kupo for guessing this)

Cracking my top 20 is - in my opinion - the greatest JRPG of the sixth generation.  Wild ARMs 3 was a culmination of the previous two games' design choices, and was definitely the high point in this brilliant series.

In my opinion, everything just worked perfectly.  Dungeons were really well designed and brilliantly interactive thanks to each character's special skill.  The plot, stretched out over 60 hours for me, kept me entertained the whole time thanks to the chapter design bringing in a new element each time.  The combat system, merely an evolution of Breath of Fire's turn based battles, worked perfectly well.  The characters were all interesting, particularly Jet and Clive (who felt nothing like a traditional character to me - family man?!).  Everything was just great.

And best of all, it was a bloody western JRPG.  Like literally, set in the wild wild west with horseback battles; six shooters and deserts.  Really, really enjoyable.

Oh, and the soundtrack is fantastic.

Clue for my #19 - most recent (and likely final) game in a long running series which is technically the first chronologically. The series features no plot but has returning elements in each entry.

Clue for my #18 - PSP port of a PC game which itself was a port of a earlier 1989 PC game.

I know you're making a joke about my reviews so I'll explain.  Balance is also there to add weight to the most important focus of the game. If it's more focus towards gameplay, balance will get a maximum score of what the gameplay received and one or one or two points lower if the balance was bad.  Wasn't like that until I changed how I did it. 

Also a 6/10 is good.  If average is the exact middle, 5/10, then 5.5 or above is getting above that half.  That's why my scores are a bit lower as journalist scores as well.  You have thousands of games.  What's the point in having a 10 point scale if all of them score no less than 6/10?