Armello is an indie board game. Yes, a board game. You move on a hex-tile based map of the kingdom of Armello, you roll dice, you draw and play cards. And it is a lot of fun.

The basic premise is, that the king of Armello is corrupted by the rot and you go on a quest to take the throne and control Armello. There are four tribes going for power: rabbit-clan, wolf-clan, rat-clan and bear-clan. You can win the game in different ways. The easiest way is to wait for the king to be consumed and die by the rot and have the highest prestige at the time. But you can also try to slay the king (which let's you win instantly), slay him with higher corruption or cleanse the rot. Three other heroes do the same though and try to be faster.

This is all pretty challenging, you have to think about your moves to claim the victory in the end. And the board-game mechanics are simply perfectly tuned. Every card you draw, every quest you take, it all matters. And the presentation is so charming. Everything is so beatifully drawn and animated.

I played it on PC as you can see and Switch. The Switch version I tried early after release, and it had some glitches which soured the experience for me (which is why I only list Linux as the platform I played it). But mind you, the glitches were minor and I have to try again, probably they are fixed by now. Overall the game is out for everything basically, all major PC, console or mobile platforms.

Armello can be played online copetitive, but I am content to play solo (pretty much like Civilization or games of the like can be played multiplayer, but I prefer solo). So if you're in for the multiplayer experience, you mileage may vary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DIV8Hwy4n0

I think it is time for some honorable mentions. To set some rules here: I mention here games that there neither this nor last year in my TOP 50 and that I didn't included in my last years honorable mentions. I also limit myself to five this year. If I do this every year, over time more and more games that deserve it get a mention.

If you are interested, last year my honorable mentions were: Wii Sports Resort (Wii, 2009), Dune (DOS, 1992), Hearthstone (Android, 2014), Chaos Overlords (DOS, 1996), Dillon's Rolling Western (3DS, 2012), Micro Machines (DOS, 1991), Bravely Default (3DS, 2012) and Duke Nukem 3D (DOS, 1996). Obviously I limited myself not to 5 games last year.

Undertale (Switch, 2015)

What a charming little indie gem. This small adventure does so much right. We need more of this simple yet cool stuff.

Oxenfree (Switch, 2016)

Another good indie adventure game. Oxenfree has obviously a different style and approach as Undertale. It is much more creepy. But nevertheless, it is also worth playing and having fun.

Darksider II (WiiU, 2012)

This is another great game. Darksider looks great and Death plays awesome.

Unreal Tournament (Windows, 1999)

This small company called Epic games has made one of the best competitive shooters of all time. This game stands for endless hours of LAN-parties.

Doom reboot (Switch, 2016)

Yeah, id software still has it. The new implemented Doom still works great. Demon killing on the Mars is still as lot of fun as it was in the 90s and I look forward to Doom Eternal.

OK, time for some new games. For the guessing leaderboard, S.Peelman is in lead with three guessed games, but The_Liquid_Laser, Darashiva and Barkley are close behind with two guessed games each.

#36
a) You're back playing the characters from the first entry of the game series.
b) You play on a ship. And a second one. And a third?
Guessed by RolStoppable: Resident Evil: Revelations

#35
a) The first time it happened in an old mansion.
b) The series started with this game is in high reputation still and has brought us many great and some not so great games.
Guessed by S.Peelman: Resident Evil

#34
a) As first rumours leaked about this mashup of two franchises, nobody thought that could work well together.
Guessed by Barkley: Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

#33
a) Fight the most enemies ever in this series, with this version also in HD.

#32
a) A fairytale told in watercolors.

#31
a) Grow helpers.

#30
a) Return to this place with graphics this time.

#37
Super Metroid
(Change YoY: -3)

Despite being released 24 years ago, Super Metroid is actually one of the more recent additions to this list as I only played it for the first time ever last year. One of the most remarkable things about the game is that even after all the praise and hyperbole I'd heard about it over the years, it managed to live up to almost all of that hype. At the center of all of that is the game's intricately designed world, which opens up bit by bit as you unlock new abilities and weapons. Its essentially a vastly superior version of the original Metroid for the NES, which while great for its time, hasn't aged very well. Super Metroid on the other hand holds up amazingly well. It plays well, it looks gorgeous, and the atmosphere is amazing. One of the best SNES games ever made, and one of Nintendo's finest titles.

Not sure about some of these guesses but here goes:

33.  Fire Emblem Warriors
32.  Ni No Kuni
31.  Pikmin
30.  Return to Zork

Wow, two hits with so few hints to go by. Pikmin and Return to Zork are right. So lets add some hints for the wrongly guessed games.

#36
a) You're back playing the characters from the first entry of the game series.
b) You play on a ship. And a second one. And a third?
Guessed by RolStoppable: Resident Evil: Revelations

#35
a) The first time it happened in an old mansion.
b) The series started with this game is in high reputation still and has brought us many great and some not so great games.
Guessed by S.Peelman: Resident Evil

#34
a) As first rumours leaked about this mashup of two franchises, nobody thought that could work well together.
Guessed by Barkley: Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

#33
a) Fight the most enemies ever in this series, with this version also in HD.
b) After I defeat you, I make a hat out of you!

#32
a) A fairytale told in watercolors.
b) Will someone please explain how water falls with no rain?

#31
a) Grow helpers.
Guessed by The_Liquid_Laser: Pikmin

#30
a) Return to this place with graphics this time.
Guessed by The_Liquid_Laser: Return to Zork

#40
The duo featured in this sequel was rumored for Nintendo's biggest game of 2018

#39
This fourth iteration of a famous fighting game featured four new playable characters

#38
The tagline for this game was a play on a James Bond title

#37
A month before this game launched, Sony secured console exclusivity for its franchise until 2000

Okami?

#40 Banjo Tooie?

#39 Unlikely, but Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution?

Banjo-Tooie is right!

For #39, it might help if I called them challengers and not playable characters.