#6: Mario&Sonic at the Olympic Winter games in Vancouver 2010

#5: Pokemon X/Y

I think, like with Xenoblade Chronicles, this game can be played with just the Wii U gamepad. But I'm pretty sure the best way to play is still with the Wiimote and Nunchuck.

Maybe. There is this feature, to map buttons on the Wiimote to the Gamepad. But I don't know if that is enough for Pandora's Tower. In difference to Xenoblade Chronicles it uses the Wiimote, namely the pointing feature of the Remote. It might be possible to map that to a pointer that can be moved with a stick, but I don't know if that happened. And the chain is a central gameplay element, this should work fine.

I think it's based on the original Classic Controller set up for Pandora's Tower. As far as I know, all Wii games (from the E-shop) that supported the Classic Controller, can now be played entirely with the Gamepad, but like you mention the Wiimote is the way it was primarily designed so I think many prefer that over a stick.

@Mnementh @Landale_Star
Thanks for the tip. I in fact have one of those mythical WiiU’s. Could be an option. I’ll have to hook it up somewhere though.

Both correct!

Edit: double post.

Pokémon doesn't count. Pokémon is Pokémon.

3. Donkey Kong Country

This could have been my number 1 game, any of the top three are basically tied and ordering them was probably the hardest part of the list. I didn't even know who Donkey Kong was when I watched a preview for this game on a TV show called Bad Influence in 1994. I've probably mentioned that show in another game's post (probably Mario 64) since it was almost my only source of info about games in the mid 90's. But that section of a video game TV show really captured my young mind, explaining the graphical technique, portraying Rare's location as a secret that few ever visited (it was a renovated farm in the middle of nowhere) and even tying in the Ultra 64. I had to play this game, but unfortunately I couldn't persuade my parents to buy a brand new game for Christmas but fortunately I managed to play it next year in 1995.

Ever since I got to play it, I was hooked. Back then I sucked at games, I could never get through world 3 and DKC became a family effort. Basically I realised that we were all useless and since our parents only allowed each of us 1 hour of videogames per day, one or two of us would grind lives in level 1 until we had 99 and then we'd burn those lives over our remaining time, eventually clearing levels and making it to save points. So after racking up many many hours, that is how I first completed (or maybe witnessed the completion if it wasn't my turn) DKC. These days, that seems laughable, since I've played the game so many times and can easily finish it in around an hour. In fact, if I just mention a difficult game to my brother, there's a good chance he'll joke that it's no Vulture Culture though.

The controls and level design are really what makes this game for me, no matter how good a game's controls, no other non-DKC game comes close and playing with Donkey and Diddy feels completely natural and absolutely right. There are plenty of secrets, which of course I know pretty well these days, but even just playing through already completed levels is a joy. Then there are also other things to find, glitches. This game has so many glitches, not ones that affect gameplay or are even noticeable during normal play, but it's been fun finding them naturally or seeing them on the internet and trying them out.

The music is sublime, mainly the work of David Wise, with significant contribution from Eveline Fischer and one discarded track from Killer Instinct, composed by Robin Beanland. There isn't a bad track here and this is one of the best uses of the SNES soundchip. Currently there is an effort to "restore" the DKC soundtracks to how they may have sounded without compression and although it's a wonderful goal with some amazing results, the originals really still stand up on their own. A lot of the music has an atmospheric feel that ties into the level, often featuring sound effects mixed into the music such as birds and insects chirping or the sound of tools being used somewhere in the depths of a mine level.

Then there are those graphics, stunning at the time giving the impression that characters were 3D models and the backgrounds featured lots of colour, fog effects, time of day changing, faux 3D depth in places like the underwater levels, layers and detail, with little things like butterflies randomly flitting about in the jungle stages. While some will say that old pre-rendered CG has aged horribly, I think it still looks wonderful and remains one of the best looking SNES games, especially on a CRT.

Luckily, there have been many ports over the years and the original SNES game can be played on Wii, Wii U, SNES Classic and the Switch. I wish they'd included one of the earlier ROM revisions since the one they chose removed a few secret warps and also introduced a weird rope glitch that actually affects gameplay if you pause while swinging. Still a great way to play. There is also a pretty good port to the GBA, it lacks the graphical and acoustic finesse of the SNES and control is a little off, but it's still a great way to play with a few extras thrown in. The GBC port is more drastically changed, with controls ripped out and replaced with the Donkey Kong Land equivalent and many other changes made to work on the less powerful handheld. Even so, it's still fun, but at the same time, it's almost a different game and I wouldn't recommend it in place of the SNES game.

Down to the home stretch...

#2. If he fails, you can always hit the reset button.