2: Warcraft 3

Yes, that is correct too. (-:

Indeed it is!

One down, two to go.

5	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
GameBoy Color, GameBoy Color, Nintendo Switch 1993	Guessed by Kantor
	The greatest game ever made for a handheld system. I guess you can even say that now, with the remake of this game on the Nintendo Switch, counting the Switch as a handheld. Because that's what it is, and when it came out there was nothing like it. It is the Zelda game with the 'darkest' storyline, hidden under a coat of whimsicalness and happy animal people. But, as it should, looks deceive, and I think the point of the story and the bittersweet ending are well known, and maybe even infamous by now. The game is often overlooked in favour of it's console brother; A Link to the Past. Actually though, except graphics and sound due to the limitations of the 8-bit GameBoy, Link's Awakening is much richer and deserves recognition for a lot of mainstays in the Zelda series. High praise coming from me considering what A Link to the Past, as I wrote on its entry in the list (#29), had meant to me personally.

4	Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Nintendo Entertainment System, GameBoy Advance 1995	Guessed by UnderwaterFunktown
	Another game that is often overlooked, this time by its predecessor and even other Mario games, is Yoshi's Island. It is a successor to Super Mario World in name only though, as its style both in look and play are completely different. It also features Mario in his baby-years and isn't the character the player controls. I guess Nintendo has the Mario World name in front of the Yoshi name just to ensure it had higher sales. I did enough to make Yoshi games a household names though, because subsequent Yoshi games ditched the Mario name. So this is the greatest 2d platformer, it has great levels, a great control scheme, great characters and great bosses. Its music is extremely memorable and its difficulty curve is perfect. Obviously, its graphical style is superb. The crayon inspired style is timeless and the sprite-work is some of the best ever in a video-game. In fact, the look is so timeless, that I'd still consider this to be one of the best looking, if not the best looking video-game ever made. If one wants to argue whether or not video games are art, having a picture of Yoshi's Island is the best argument you can have.

Two of the final five posted. Before the top 3 I'd like to mention a list of honourable mentions. Great games, but not enough to make it into the list. Some have in years past, but have since fallen out, some come in and out, and some have never been featured. Some honourable mentions of last year have made it into the main list this year or have disappeared entirely and there's some new ones. I'll post the top 3, which has already been guessed, later, probably 1 January.

Honourable mentions;

• Age of Empires
• Anno 1404 (Dawn of Discovery)
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
• Dynamite Cop (2019: #44)
• 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
• Missile Command (2019: #50)
• Professor Layton & Pandora's Box (Professor Layton & The Diabolical Box) (2019: #45)
• Resident Evil: Revelations
• SimCity 2000
• Star Wars: Dark Forces
• 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

Come on guys, this should be obvious by now:

#3: Katamari Damacy guessed by S.Peelman
Yes, We were naughty. Completely naughty.
So many there used to be, almost a nuisance.
Pee-wee Prince.
Roll up stars.
Bandai-Namco remade this first entry in the series in HD for Switch and PC in 2018 (with more platforms following in 2020).

#2: Dragon Quest Builders 2 guessed by UnderwaterFunktown

#1: Heroes of Might and Magic III guessed by UnderwaterFunktown

Katamari Damacy.

Phew.. needed quite a lot hints.

Indeed. I thought the first hint was good enough. But you got it.

We are not bringing FFXIII into this year’s lists!!

More seriously though, I don’t remember all the games for which Runa has a strong negative opinion other than FFXIII... :-/

I’d go with Skyward Sword, based on your list from last year. But I don’t remember seeing Runa’s comments about it.

Well I also needed all hints, but slowly the pieces fell in place after you mentioned Namco-Bandai. Haven’t played it though, however it should be to my liking actually, so I didn’t know the quotes and didn’t want to cheat by googling.

Kinda cheating, but your hint was extremely vague. There are MANY games that Runa is vocally negative about.