#42 - Hint: The origin story of a hero who wards off darkness.
Supplementary Hint: You get quite the nasty but necessary hazing into a new organization.
Supplementary Hint 2: A threat spawns and as you progress through the game locations are destroyed.
Supplementary Hint 3: You can donate money, resources and other items to allied factions at your camp to make them stronger for the final battle
(Though it's thought that donating actually does nothing.)

Guessed by: Nobody

Saying a character of the game is in Smash, is a non-hint at this point, as everyone is here!

Wait, that is Pikmin! I have a hard time deciding which one, as both the first and the third got a rerelease 7 years later on the next console. I go out on a limb and say you mean Pikmin 3, as this got all the DLC levels, while New Play Control on the Wii only added Wiimote support and some other features, but as far as I remember not new levels.

I nebver played any Dragon Age game, but probably should at some point as the series seems to be good.

#40 - Hint: It's out third trip and we're going down under!
Supplementary Hint: This series is a spin-off of another series but became more popular than the original with it's large openworld.
Supplementary Hint 2: There are many upgrades in this game that can help you race to success.

#38 - Hint: This open-world title is set in rural USA.
Supplementary Hint: This series of games continues to be very formulaic to this day.

#37 - Hint: Scoring goals a lot faster than Fifa!

People say it has aged very badly, I played origins for the first time this year though and managed to enjoy it despite it's age. Like all bioware RPG's I'm mainly there for the characters. I'm not sure I can say it's a game that everyone will enjoy, especially in 2021, but if you love RPG's it's worth giving a chance.

My backlog is immense though, I haven't played the Awakening expansion for this game, never played Dragon Age 2 and haven't played Mass Effect 2/3 either. So I can't even compare origins to most of bioware's other work.

What I would say is that despite this game releasing 2 years after Mass Effect if I didn't know that I'd assume Dragon Age released prior, it feels like an older title.

#40 is Forza Horizon 3!

#37 could be Nintendo World Cup? 

Yep 40 is right, never heard of Nintendo World Cup!

I never played any King's Bounty game before, but as this one released I thought I might give it a try. And I think it was worth it. King's Bounty II is a game with a lot of classic (as this is an old series not surprising probably) turn-based tactics that I love. It mixes it with real-time gameplay for exploring the Kingdom of Nostria and talking to the many NPCs. But it switches to overview and turn-based once you enter combat, which means your prepared loadout of troops enters the field and fights as you command.

This game has a pretty good quest design, with missions that feel like more than just kill this, get that. Besides that they often involve some moral decision, which are often aligned with the four main ideals the game presents: anarchy, order, power or finesse. You get points in these ideals based on your decisions, which allows you to learn skills in these ideals. The troops are also aligned to the ideals, thieves may be anarchy, while mages are finesse for example. Deciding which army to expand and which skill of which ideal to learn can heavily influence how battles may unfold.

The lands of Nostria also feel like places with history and real people. The capital has different factions deeply engaged in secrets and schemes, the people aroundd the kingdom are simply trying to get their best live. But it isn't easy, as the country finds itself in trouble, refugees, bandits and magical problems lead to conflicts that leads to people distrusting each other. Your hero is in the middle of all this mess and as a result you start the game in prison as you were unlucky enough to show up at the wrong time, as the king is afflicted. But as the problems grow the prince decides to set you free and work as his agent to have the chance to free yourself of suspicion. And so you go.

The battle system feels very similar to Heroes of Might and Magic, probably because the original King's Bounty game initially was the blueprint for the later Heroes of Might and Magic. In both games you command your troops in turn-based battles around the battle field which is organized in hexes and your hero can additionaly cast spells to influence the battle. The battlefields are small enough that you usually can engage in close-quarters combat in round one. The tactical placement of troops can be very decisive to the outcome, planning your turn is key and as you can see the order in which troops act you can plan ahead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8tr_0tLvps&ab_channel=IGN

Yes that's the one!

Well, part 2 was released the same year ths PS4 was replaced, and for some reason TLOU is more of a PS4 game than a PS3 fame in my head

YES! Pikmin 3, good thinking! I didn't really realize the hint suited the first Pikmin too!

Well... you scored goals WAY faster than Fifa.

As I play older games, even ones I didn't play before sometimes 20/30 years after they released originally, I think I have no problem in this regard. I often care less about great graphics. On the contrary, I sometimes feel in this day and age developers rely too much on shiny graphics and forget deep engaging gameplay and also a soul to their games. Therefore I have no problem playing game with aged graphics, as long as it offers other qualities.