12; Golden Axe

I loved LucasArts adventures and the first Monkey Island is one fine example of their great work. The game was designed by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman and is a great achievement for them.

This great is not made with difficult puzzles in mind (although they can sometimes quite the brainteasers) or action and player death. The main focus for this game lies in exploration and just outright fun. The game has humour at each corner. Like the above message after you poisoned the guard dogs. Or who played it might remember the red herring (which was an infamous item in one of the Zork games, as it had no use in any puzzle). Or the hollow tree stump which you can examine further. Or the guy who wants to be asked about Loom. And most importantly the time you learn sword-fight.

The premise of the game is simple: You play Guybrush Threepwood and you want to become a pirate. For that you have to overcome three trials. In the course of the story you also want to win the heart of Elaine Marley and then there is this rumour about the ghost pirate LeChuck!

The game is a classic and pretty much every adventure fan should experience this joyride. If you own an old copy, you can run it again with the trusty DosBox or ScummVM. If you need a copy, you get the special edition with beefed up graphics (which in my opinion miss in part some charme of the original) but also the possibility to switch to original graphics at diverse shops. Or you can play it in the browser at archive.org.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F9ahZQ7oP0

Alright, let's try and get through a few games here. Starting to fall behind quite a lot. Sorry about the upcoming long post.

#23

Grandia (PS1)

Change YOY: -1

Grandia was one of those games that I didn't actually get around to playing until years after its original release. I bought it from the PS Store on the PS3 on a whim when it happened to be on sale, and I am very glad I did because it soon became one of my all-time favourite games. 

It's actually hart to pinpoint the exact reason I like Grandia so much because a lot of it is more about the atmosphere the game creates rather than something easily quantifiable. I still love the characters, story and gameplay, but there's still wonderful feeling of optimism and a sense of adventure that permeates throughout the entire experience that just hit me in exactly the right spot when I first played it. Of course, there are elements of the game that haven't aged as well as others, notably the visuals are quite dated, and the voice acting can charitably be called very typical of the mid- to late-90s JRPGs. Still, Grandia remains an excellent game, and one of the best JRPGs I've ever played.

#22

Hollow Knight (PC, PS4)

Change YOY: +3

I don't think it's that much of a controversial opinion to say that over the last decade or so the video game market has been absolutely flooded with Metroidvanias and Soulslikes, many of which don't really seem to understand what makes either type of game great in the first place. Many simply seem to be chasing trends to try and cash in on a popular trend. Then, on the other hand we have games like Hollow Knight, which is the best Metroidvania I've ever played, and shows that outside of FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki, Team Cherry understands the genre better than anyone else.

Practically every aspect of the game excellent. The world of Hallownest is brilliantly designed with countless unbelievably gorgeous locations to be found everywhere, the story surrounding the kingdoms fall and its king's folly in trying to prevent it is wonderful in its subtlety, the characters you meet across your journey radiate personality with every small line of dialogue and the tiniest movement, and the visuals and music are just impeccable. I just recently played through the game a second time, and it was even better than when I did it the first time a few years back. This is a game I feel everyone should play at some point. Now if only we'd get some news about the sequel's release date one of these days.

#21

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS3)

Change YOY: =

The Legend of Heroes is one of two series where every single game I've ever played from it is in my top 50 games ever, the other being Dark Souls, unless you count series where I've only played one or two games from them. The Trails of Cold Steel games, as well as the first two Trails in the Sky games which I'll be talking about later, have ensured that the series is now second only to Final Fantasy in my eyes as far as JRPG franchises are concerned.

Everything about these games, from their politically charged storylines, to the wonderfully written characters and their shared dynamics across the entire series are excellent. Even with games where the main cast sometimes numbers in the dozens these games have managed to make every single one of them feel unique and relatable, which is no small feat considering how many games often struggle with writing even one compelling character. I've already talked about these games twice before on this list, and I'll be talking about them twice more later, so I'll just say that these are amazing games and you should play them.

14) Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Probably the best stealth game I've ever played, and it manages it with minimalism and a complete lack of gimmicks. Chaos Theory is all about learning the layout of the maps and the habits of guards, and making use of your environment to hide from and take down your enemies. There are some gadgets available, but their availability is sufficiently limited that you can't rely on them. A less well crafted game would get repetitious and boring, but somehow Chaos Theory never does: there's enough variety of layouts and missions, and a compelling enough story, that the entire game is just one huge thrill start to finish.

Let's make the hints easier still.

12) This 3D platformer also includes an in-universe 2D platformer starring one of the main game's supporting characters - a celebrity who often serves as comic relief.

This game added a competitive multiplayer mode, though most later games in the series don't feature it.

As a distraction from the main story you can take part in a series of arena battles against increasingly difficult enemies on one planet.

This is a kid-friendly series but most of the games' titles are crude puns.

11) A guy goes really far out of his way for a rematch in a 1v1 duel, but only succeeds in making things worse.

This game was released as an exclusive for a console after that console's successor had already launched.

The game's sequel takes place immediately after the end of the game, as our protagonist climbs a mountain with the aid of some new allies.

11) God Of War II

12) Definitely a Ratchet & Clank game, I'm guessing 3 since I remember playing split screen multiplayer in that which might be the mode you're referring to.

11) God of War II

Behind a bit, couldn't really be here much this week, and didn't have the chance to post second hints, but I'll give you guys a couple hours to see if there's another correct guess or two before I post them. With second hints now of course;

#20: You can't go out of bounds in this game. Because the game knows you want to, and literally shoots you back in.

Hint 2: Luckily, even though it'll make you fall off your bike, you immediately respawn back on it to continue anyway.

#19: The developers clearly had fun making this, because they pasted their own faces on the enemies. Guessed by drbunnig - GoldenEye 007

#18: The timer in this game is 60 minutes, but that's speed running, it'll take longer than 60 minutes.

Hint 2: The timer is there because that's how long it'll take before the sultan's grand vizier kills the princess. Guessed by Mnementh - Prince of Persia (1989)

#17: The design language of this game, notably the famous protagonist and the princess, became the standard for most images representing the franchise for a decade, until the most recent (main) game in the series took over with a new design. Guessed by Kantor - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

#16: Leafs and frogs.

Hint 2: Ahem.. I mean, super leafs and frog suits. Guessed by drbunnig - Super Mario Bros. 3

#20 Maybe Borderlands? You get shot at if you leave the map.

#18 This must be Prince of Persia. If I remember right, the original first game had a time limit.

And another reason why the 3DS is one of the best systems of all times is Kid Icarus: Uprising. Created by Masahiro Sakurai (Kirby, Smash Bros) this game was the sequel for the nearly two decades dormant Kid Icarus IP. Sakurai modernized the gameplay and added some stuff, and some more stuff and even more stuff. This game is filled with endless possibilities.

The single player mode sees you playing through missions, which each consists of a flying part in which you are restricted in your movements to the screen and the main flight path controlled by Palutena, while you shoot enemies. Then a ground part, were you move more freely. And finally a boss fight. Sakurai throws in enough stuff to keep things fresh though.

The story is long-winded and includes an enourmous cast of mythical characters. This includes a whole bunch of gods and their champions. And all of them are constantly talking in some banter, mostly at the expense of Pit, the playable character.

The difficulty of the missions can be adjusted, but you risk more hearts on higher difficulties, but may get bigger rewards too. The game also has an enourmous amount of weapons and other stuff. A multiplayer mode is also included. This game blew me away and kept me glued to the 3DS for a long time. I think this game would be a great candidate for a remake or even a sequel on Switch, so Nintendo take the hint!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGR8wXl4QTM