I so wanted to ninja you on that one!

#4 - Pikmin 3

The Pikmin series has my favourite gameplay style in all of gaming. Not combat, shooting or turn-based strategy, it's a microtasks management adventure. I've only played 3 (freaking $30 CAD for Wii games), but I fell in love with it very quickly.

You take control of 3 characters, which talk in gibberish and have quick and funny dialogues, in order to save your home planet from starving, because they used all their resources. Silly game. So you go to another planet to harvest seeds from as many fruits as possible, with the very convenient help of an army of alien vegetables.

13 minutes per day, you have to progress as much as possible every day. Collect food, grow Pikmin population, and explore the world. There are multiple Pikmin types and 3 captains, plus automatic movement from the gamepad, which if used correctly allow you to be really efficient and multitask each captain with different tasks.

The new Pikmin types are a great addition to the series, Rock and Flying. And while this is a very subjective complaint, since technically is not true, I think the game is too short. Ok, so I finished it in 10 hours, not bad. But the problem lies in that as soon as you get the Blue Pikmins, you are ready to finish the game. Now, you could argue you still have to collect a lot of fruit from other regions, but I still think that they should have added a 5th region, where all Pikmin types have to be used between each other and have just a few more fruits.

The length itself isn't the problem. It's the fact that there was potential left from using all Pikmin together. Another reason why I have this complaint is because all Pikmin games have the same amount of areas: 4, each representing a region (+ a final, almost irrelevant one). Since they will always want to follow this tradition, it will feel like every game could have had more content. That's my one complaint from Pikmin 3.

But besides that, it's a beautiful game. Awesome controls and use of gamepad. Great visuals and soundtrack, and phenomenal gameplay. This is also a great game to replay, since you can finish it very quickly, which in turn makes it a cool game to try to speedrun. 

There are also side modes, Bingo and Mission Mode. Didn't care about Bingo. Mission Mode, on the other hand, is awesome. It's practically a mini-Pikmin 2: collect as much treasure as possible. The best part is the Co-op mode, which is something I want in the campaign for Pikmin 4. Be it Online or Offline, Pikmin benefits a lot from Co-op.

Hint #3 - After one of the best intro sequences of all time, "The Galaxy is at peace."

Super Metroid

My guy

Super Metroid.

Exactly who I thought would answer this one.

#3 - Super Metroid

The classic of classics. It doesn't have to be #1 on my list for me to tell you that everyone has to play this game. This isn't just a game, it's an experience. A beautiful form of art. There are no words to describe it.

Simply put, it's what every Metroid lives up to. The sense of being lost in space is real; the platforming and action mechanics are the best in history. The story is told through scripted sequences and/or areas of the game. No tutorials, you learn everything as you play. It's level design to its finest.

On the other hand, the OST is... special. I would say only a few tracks stand out as good by themselves. The rest fit more, but perfectly, as background music to add to the atmosphere, which by the way is at its best compared to every other Metroid game.

Collecting some upgrades also requires a lot more thought than you would ever imagine. In fact, one powerup is collected by not killing an alien. You just have to let it do its thing. It's genious. This whole game is fucking genious; god. If you haven't played it, go. Pirate it or something; just play it.

Now for my last 2 games, I have to give them an arbitrary number for the sake of the top, but they both share the top spot for me, for different reasons, so let's get to the first one.

Tales of Symphonia

I’ll keep it short, since I could go on and on about this game. I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH.

This is a game that I hold very close to my heart, it was my first Tales game and my first RPG with the usual deeper focus on the story and characters, because of that it left quite an impression on me, and after 10 years of playing this game, it still remains at the top for me when it comes to the genre.

Besides my sentimental attachment to the game, on its own is still really good, a solid and engaging storyline, that deals with many themes, like racism, dealing with responsibilities, burdens, justice, etc. I think is a game in which at least one part of it can resonate with somebody from life experiences similar to the themes of the game or just the ideals presented through the characters, as such this RPG’s central theme “RPG that resonates with you”.

One of the great aspects about the series as a whole is the character interaction, which adds that extra special touch to an already really solid cast; I find every character in this game quite likeable each with their arcs of development and I think is the most solid the series has had.

All this mixed with a memorable soundtrack and great cell shaded style and it made for one great experience for me.

Of course the gameplay is great too, the first pseudo 3D game in the series really added a nice layer of strategy by minding the position of your character in the field, something that would be refined later in the series, but it is still quite fun and solid to play, which I actually prefer at times (some basic skills like backsteps and recovery are locked behind level up walls which makes combat slower at the start in later games, but are in your basic moves in Symphonia for example).

Dungeon design is great as well, each with a unique puzzle or mechanic that makes them stand out and being memorable on their own (for better or for worse at times).

As a whole, Symphonia is a fantastic fantasy RPG with some nice twists here and there, even if predictable at times, they are well executed within the storytelling, great presentation and gameplay makes for one of my favorite experiences of all time. I have spent hundreds of hours on this game across 8 playthroughts, enjoying every bit of dialogue, story and interactions that this game offers every time.  I could spend all day talking about this game and never get tired, I just love it to death.

9 – Nemesis of the Roman Empire (Imperium II: La Conquista de Hispania)

Thanks to the great work of its Spanish publisher (FX Interactive), this game developed by Bulgarian Haemimont Games(famous for Tropico 3 and 4) was probably much more popular in Spain than anywhere else, so probably many people here has never heard about it. This game may seem like a simple RTS (you control one of four civilizations – Gauls, Roman, Punic or Iberian and have to destroy your enemies, but it has some innovations that made me love it.

First of all, the game gets rid of all the resource gathering and building construction of most RTS: you start with a city – with all its buildings - that automatically produces gold, and can conquer villages (that produce food) and fortress (with different uses) that you can’t destroy nor build. But this simplification is used in order to strengthen the strategic deepness of the game: food is needed to avoid attrition of your troops and the cities, so you have to create supply lines from your villages to your cities or fortress and bring food with your armies if you are raiding outside your territory, and the gold produced in a city (or fortress) can only be used on it, unless you move it physically to other place (and can be stole by the enemy). Simplification is used also in your army control: units can be assigned to a general (“hero”) and follow him, what simplifies a lot the control of big armies.

The game has other virtues: Both units and heroes earn experience with each battle, what makes them more powerful but also more valuable in case of loss, each one of the four civilizations has pretty different kind of units and technologies, what makes playing with each one different (and if you conquer another civilization city you can use its techs and units). The game also has an option to use magic and some kind of artifacts that can be used by heroes or other units, but I usually play with those options off, although if you enjoy an experience with some RPG flavor, you may like it. One of the best things in the game, though, is that it has a pretty good IA (with some exceptions, like being sometimes a bit incompetent sieging well defended fortress), at least in the higher difficulty, what make single player game very challenging: more than once the IA has been able to swing a battle I thought I had won, defending itself cleverly or with an unexpected attack.