#6

Shadow of the Colossus

Change From Last Year: =

Something that a lot of games to this day miss, is a proper sense of scale and weight. In many games, even when you're confronting creatures and things that are massive beyond belief, they tend to feel like weightless toys being thrown around carelessly. In Shadow of the Colossus, the colossi feel genuinely massive, with their every movement, every slow step, every meticulous turn, having a sense of majesty and scale to them. That is what in large part makes the game so special, the feeling it evokes in the player as they go against these lumbering giants in this abandoned land left desolate for countless eons.

Adding to this feeling is the game's sparing use of music, or perhaps more aptly, its use of silence. Outside of the player's confrontations with the colossi, and the rare cutscene, most of Shadow of the Colossus doesn't actually feature music during gameplay. As the player traverses the land you mostly just hear the sounds of nature and whatever sounds you make. This adds to the feeling of loneliness and solitude the game creates throughout its story, and also makes the moments when music does appear have an even greater impact. To put it simply, Shadow of the Colossus is a masterpiece unlike any other, and everyone should play through it at least once, if for no other reason than the fact that there really isn't anything else quite like it.

Guessed by Landale_Star

A timeless game. I have played this game on pretty much every Nintendo console it released on because of it, since as early as on my aunt's Super Nintendo. Perhaps this is even the prettiest looking game ever made, the hand-drawn graphical style is so on point and soothing to the eye. Newer Yoshi games have tried to replicate it, but they always look worse. This game was also from before Yoshi games were catered to younger or less experienced gamers, despite the crayon look. In fact, this was actually marketed as simply being the sequel to Super Mario World. As far as 2D Mario goes, Super Mario World is one my less favourite ones, thankfully Yoshi's Island was a sequel in disguise, and its style is much different, much better.

Correct, although in my case more specifically the Definitive Edition on Switch.

Correct.

3 is correct.

FFVI already appeared up the list. I'll give you another couple of hints: 1. It's on the same console, and 2. Figuring out the differences in the two world maps is one of the key puzzles in the game to allow you to progress.

No, it was Twilight Princess which was guessed by Landale_Star above. Okami appears on my list a ways up.

Finally at the Top 3. First, a list of Honourable Mentions. All great games by themselves, but they didn't make the list this year;

• #14: Gunfighter (Showdown in 2100AD)
• Age of Empires
• Alleyway
• Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery)
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
• Empire: Total War
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
• The Legend of Zelda
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Luigi's Mansion 2 (Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon)
• Medieval II: Total War
• No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.S Way
• Resident Evil: Revelations
• SimCity 2000
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
• Super Mario 3D Land
• Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
• Virtua Tennis
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

So with this out of the way, the hint for the Bronze trophy winner;

#3: In previous games, the guy operating the camera was an enemy.

#06 - Super Mario World (SNES): Well, Super Mario World was the first game I owned. I had played some NES at my cousin's house, then my parents gave me an SNES. This is still my favorite Super Mario game. It has lots of secrets, 2D platforming, exploration and fun. I still play it today sometimes, even if I had beat it hundreds of times. That one really deserves to be called a "Classic".

5. Final Fantasy XII

The offline, single player MMORPG? Eh, isn’t that all of them? It does share aspects with FFXI, such as gambits which I enjoy. In fact, the battle system is pretty great, I love being able to automate the basics while I’m free to jump in to handle more complex things. In other games I’d be holding down the X button perpetually anyway, so macros are a step up from that. FFXII is about watching a plan come together, when your macros are all set up well. This is also related to the one minor problem I have though, you don’t start with all macro options available and need to acquire them throughout the game. I suppose this is to slowly introduce the concept, but maybe a “Standard” and “Expert” mode, like FFX, would have been nice.

Ivalice is wonderfully represented in FFXII and the characters are all really good, even Vaan and Penelo, who unexpectedly play a much smaller role than you might expect. Hitoshi Sakimoto provides the excellent musical score and it sounds pleasingly like FF Tactics at times. The story is one of the best in the series and the voice acting is probably the best it has ever been in an FF game.

This was actually my favourite Final Fantasy game for several years after it’s PS2 release and I clocked up many hundreds of hours on the original game. Now I can enjoy FFXII anywhere, thanks to the Switch port.

Super Mario 64?

4. Final Fantasy VII

Just looking at this image conjures up excitement and brings the iconic intro to mind. Everything has probably already been said about this game. It's a legendary game, well deserving of praise. It pretty much nails everything, except parts of the translation and maybe some of the mini games. The pre-rendered environments are gorgeous and full of detail, the music is among the best in any video game, the materia system is deep, allowing for a lot of options for setting up a party, the story and characters are all good and the world is appealing, with varied locations.

While it wasn’t my first JRPG, it was one of the first few that I played and helped reinforce my love for both Final Fantasy and the JRPG sub genre. I’ve played it so many times and will continue to play it many more times. I hope the remake can capture what I love about FFVII and stand alongside the original, but even if it's bad, I'll still have the original.

Yes.

Lakitu has apparently bettered himself.