#42 Ni No Kuni

Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro) teams up with Level 5 (Dark Cloud, Dragon Quest VIII) to create a whimsical action rpg, heavily influenced by Poke'mon, and Level 5's past works. This was a personal favorite of mine, for the art style and the story. In Ni No Kuni there's a ton of little creatures that you can befriend and recruit to your team. Instead of turn based battles you are thrown into an action RPG like battle system that gives you control over one of three minions. You can Switch control of your little minions by Switching characters mid battle. The game honestly feels like an open world Poke'mon game without turn based combat, and with Level 5's expert pacing and quest giving. 

 Hints for the next three games after the write-up.

#44
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Previous Year: 43

A Link to the Past still remains my favourite game in the series, although admittedly there are quite a few Zelda-games I have not played. Regardless, ALttP holds up remarkably well today, with its sharp gameplay, well designed dungeons and world, and a charming visual style. It's also a game I can still return back to from time to time. In fact, as I write this A Link to the Past is the most recent game I played through.

#43
Portal 2
Previous Year: 37

Portal 2 is a game that in my opinion improved upon its predecessor in almost every conceivable way. The first game may be a tighter experience with its shorter running time, but on a recent replay I found that it lacks in challenge, although otherwise it is excellent game as well. The sequel, however, takes things much further, expanding upon the first game's puzzle design with many new tricks that give it a much greater feeling of progression and challenge level. A great game in every way.

#42
Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time
Previous Year: 36

In my opinion the best game in the entire series, although I haven't played the later games yet. The story balanced the drama and humour better than any of the previous games, and the gameplay itself was smoother and more fun than ever before. The weapons also deserve a special mention for just how fun and inventive they are. This is a great game, which at the time felt like the end for the series. Had it been that, I would have likely been happy with it, though I'm glad we have since gotten more of them. 

Hints for the next three games:

#41: A JRPG developed by Level-5 for the PS2 when the console was already on its way out. One of the developers sadly overlooked titles.

#40:  The second game (well, not really) in this fighting game series where the focus is on weapon based combat, and everyone wants to get their hands on a exceptionally powerful sword.

#39: Level-5 also made this PS2 JRPG, this one being a part of perhaps the second most well known franchise in the entire genre.

#44 Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow

Pokémon is my favorite franchise (together with Zelda), so I was very exited to finally play the first gen when they came out on Virtual Console for 3DS. However, while the game was certainly not bad, it was horribly outdated. That's why it's a lot lower on my list than the six other mainline games.

#43 Steamworld Dig

This digging game is nothing special or extraordinarily good, but it does give you a few hours of pure fun. I installed Origin because I wanted to play this for free, and it was certainly worth it.

#42 Super Wario Land

Wario land isn't as good as Mario Land, but it certainly isn't bad either. It's a fun game that has dated pretty well.

#42 - Burnout Paradise

#41 - Mega Man X

Not in 1667 at least.

42

Empire: Total War

• Windows PC
• 2009
• Turn-Based Strategy
• Creative Assembly

This behemoth of a game let's the player take control of one the world's most powerful Empires of the 18th century, a time where old powers faltered while new ones rose on the heels of revolutions, wars and colonial expansions on a scale never seen before.

'Empire: Total War' places the European colonial powers of Great Britain, Spain, France, the Dutch Republic and Sweden to the forefront, together with other playable nations like Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Russia and the Ottoman and Mughal Empires in a global struggle to rule the world mostly by naval power and trade. Revolutions can see the dawn of the United States of America or split old empires apart creating even more factions. In the biggest map in the series yet, the player can sail their fleets and expand their empires to nearly every corner of the world.

Being Dutch, I obviously always play as the Dutch Republic, here known as the United Provinces, which seems to be quite powerful. Making money, is no problem whatsoever and the Dutch are the only faction to start with territory and ships in every theatre around the globe. You'll also have the best trading ships at your disposal and being a Republic from the start, the chance of civil unrest and revolutions is low. Like it was in reality around the year 1700, you'll start off in a state of economic and military decline though with bad relations towards other countries besides your closest allies. It's not hard at all to turn that around however and start rebuilding again with a strong economy.

#41
Usually he does the saving, but it's astounding how this hero can find himself trapped for the second (well, technically third, but lets not talk about that one) time.

Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon?

Hint for game #40: In this game you collect trash.

Hint 4: You're arresting clowns.