#9: Ori and the Will of the Wisps

While a bit weaker than Ori and the Blind Forest in it's narrative, Ori and the Will of the Wisps excells in every other department which makes this game a masterpiece.

More beautiful in it's artstyle, lighting and general design. Better, more refined gameplay, in particular the combat is a big improvement over the last game and the new abilities are a step up. The level design is fantastic and really feels organic. It also excells with it's atmosphere. The area that is completely in darkness in particular is unnerving. The bossfights are great and have great variety. The races are a fun challenge.

This game now unlike the previous one features NPCs. They offer advice and sidequests and some in part incredible side stories. One of those is one where a creature asks you to get his family to the new home he found for them and when you get there they already turned to stone like everyone else in that area. When he finds out he then goes to them and also turnes to stone, reunited with his loved ones. It's truely heartbreaking. These smaller things that many players may just overlook and not notice are what makes games truely great and this game a masterpiece.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a fantastic game and my second favorite metroidvania.

#8: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

A Link Between Worlds is imo way better than A Link to the Past. The wallmerging mechanic is a strike of genious, the dungeons are phenomenal and some of the bosses are incredibly clever designed. Finding all the maiamai is fun and challenging. The story is of surprising depth with an awesome ending. I like how you meet all of the sages before they are captured by Yuga, the main antagonist. Yuga is a very interesting character. He reminds me a bit of Ghirahim with his obsession with beauty only that he is arguably even more insane.

The soundtrack is the best of any 2D Zelda game with it's highlight being the incredible build up in the final dungeon. The game is a masterpiece.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is my favorite 2D Zelda Game, my favorite 3DS game and the seventh Zelda game on my list so far.

Sadly;

Link's Awakening is right!

#16

Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

YoY: +3

The best open-world game I've ever played, the best game of 2017, and in general one of the absolute best games of its generation, Horizon Zero Dawn rekindled my interest in open world games as a whole back in 2018 when I played it for the first time. It turns out that all it took was an interesting setting to pull me in, after series like Assassin's Creed pushed me away with their yearly releases and dull, repetitive side quests and pointless busywork. 

Open world games in general need to have something special to truly make me care. Something like the Nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor, getting to play as Batman in the Arkham games, or the brilliant style of Yakuza 0. Horizon Zero Dawn falls right into this category with its setting and design. The wonderful main character, fun gameplay, and interesting story is just a great bonus to all that. It's the reason why my most anticipated game of 2022 is Horizon Forbidden West rather than Elden Ring, and why I'm finally starting to consider getting a PS5.

Guessed by The_Liquid_Laser

One game I know inside and out is 'RollerCoaster Tycoon 2'. I should, because this is probably the game I played most in my life. I know I say that about a couple of games, but this one, this one, is the one where it's probably true. I was already playing the first game non-stop, but from when this came out I played this game pretty much uninterrupted for a very long time. I think it wasn't until about three years ago when this solid streak started to show cracks. I don't think I played it this year, but definitely still last year. This pause isn't going to last though, it's likely I pick up where I left off again sooner rather than later.

In all those years, I got good. Very good. And I mean, in the way that your parks have a certain idea in their organisation and setup, your buildings don't just look like cubes with the same facade on all sides but instead good, really good, where props aren't just randomly scattered around but are all arranged to form coherent set pieces, and where tracked rides all have pretty much perfect specs first try. You'd think all those years produced like a thousand theme parks. And while I made many, I also spent years on a park for some of them. Literally. I wanted them to be absolutely perfect, and perfection takes time. In fact, now that I think about it, the one I was last working on, isn't perfect yet!

#6: Hint 1: At one point in the game the whole scope of the story suddenly explodes in size.

#6: Hint 2: A summit of extreme hight is where you realize that the adventure has only truely begun now.

#6: Hint 3: In how many games do you accidentally destroy the entire world?

#6: Hint 4: The two most important characters have brightly colored hair, red and blue.

#6: Hint 5, final hint: You meet alot of creatures believed to be long extinct.

#4: Hint 1: Aliens that attack our world come from another dimension that reminds me a bit of the mirror dimension in Doctor Strange.

#4: Hint 2: The first part of the name of the place the aliens come from is also the first part of the name of the game.

#4: Hint 3: At the end you get the choice to kill your sibling.

Well, we made it to the Top 3. Everything up to #4 has been guessed, so here's only a hint for #3.

#3: Instead of the usual, this game features three different powers; a flying one, an invincibility one and an invisibility one.

So going into the last three games, here's the scoreboard. The_Liquid_Laser needs only one more to be sure of the victory. Darashiva and drbunnig still have a chance though, but one of them will need to guess all three games. How exciting.

9. Super Castlevania IV (SNES – 1991)

Castlevania is undoubtly one of the greatest video game franchises ever. I mean seriously, how many great Castlevania games are there? 15, maybe? I have not tried them all yet, in particular I still need to experience the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS titles, but so far I think Super Castlevania IV is the greatest. This is of the old type of Castlevania games, which are linear action platformers rather than Metroidvanias, but I actually think I have a slight preference for the old style, though each are great in different ways. Super Castlevania IV improved on the already masterful NES titles, by making the gameplay more fluid and responsive. You simply have better control over your character and have more moves. The game also really utilizes the better hardware, to create some fantastic atmospheric environments and an ambient soundtrack that is up there with the greatest in video game history (disclaimer: the soundtrack for Belmont’s Revenge for Gameboy somehow managed to be even better).

8. Resident Evil 7 (Xbox One – 2017)

Yes, I enjoy this one even more than the classic Resident Evil 4! Resident Evil 7 is probably the scariest game I have ever played, and I did not even try it in VR. It is mainly the first half of the game that is scary, while the second half is more adventurous and goofier (and a somewhat weaker, but still good experience). The designs of the mansions are outstanding, with some stellar puzzles. The characters are really good and you start to get connected to them throughout the experience, though the protagonist is kind of boring. The atmosphere is top notch throughout and I really dig the inspiration from horror movie classics (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and SAW being the most obvious). The game really took the series back to its survival horror roots, though with a first person perspective (which some people like to complain about, for no convincing reason). The game also introduced the RE engine, which has delivered some of the best looking games in recent years, and without which I doubt Capcom would have seen so much success over the past half decade. I have still not tried Resident Evil Village, it is somewhere on my list of shame, but given that it has a larger scale and a bit more focus on action, I doubt I will enjoy it as much as RE7.

Honorable mentions and games #50 to #45: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9345764

Games #44 to #40: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9345857

Games #39 to #36: https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9345971

Now, games #35 to #31:

#35 - Final Fantasy X

FFX has a pretty engaging plot with a lot of unforgettable moments and a well developed lore, with a setting inspired by southeastern Asia that I really like. The battle system is fully turn-based rather than having an ATB bar, and it's pretty fast-paced which makes it highly enjoyable; being able to switch characters on the fly during battle is pretty satisfying, and allows you to deal with enemies using the character who is most effective against them. The soundtrack is *chef's kiss*.

#34 - Pokémon HeartGold

This remake of the Gold/Silver games is one of the most content-rich games in the series, with a post-game which features the whole Kanto region with its 8 extra gym battles, as well as the changes and events that were exclusive to the original Crystal version (not present in Gold/Silver), and even the Battle Frontier that was introduced way after G/S/C. The Johto region may be relatively small, but I really like the whole "ancestral" atmosphere that it has, which is made even better with the fantastic soundtrack.

#33 - Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Like previous games in the series,  the combat in this game is just amazingly fun and fluid, and I felt the story was more interesting and memorable than that of previous games, with some pretty good humor. One of my favorite aspects of this game is how you can explore the outer space and find different planetoids, many of which contain some really nice platforming challenges and lots of useful stuff. It must be mentioned that the Clank sections in this game are really really well designed, with some brilliant time-based puzzles.

#32 - Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

I love this game's setting and the whole concept of finding different castaways in a seemingly deserted island, while discovering new environments and getting to know more about the secrets that the place hides. The combat system in this game is really fluid and highly enjoyable, and the game rewards you for knowing how to evade or block properly when battling enemies, especially the bosses, which are really well designed. It must be mentioned that the soundtrack is pretty amazing.

#31 - Super Mario Galaxy

This game is a midblowing experience, especially the first time you play it, the sense of being in an interstellar adventure truly is somethig else. The gameplay flow of going from planetoid to planetoid and clearing platforming challenges, solving puzzles and battling enemies is highly engaging, with some really good level and puzzle designs. The backstory of Rosalina is really moving and it actually made me cry the first time I played the game. Also, the soundtrack is just amazing.