#19:Overwatch

I can't help but feeling sad talking about this game because it doesn't exist in the format I most enjoyed it in. Overwatch 2 took over and erased the 6v6 team shooter I spent so many hours playing. But let's not dwell on that, this is not what this list is about.

Before 2016, first shooter weren't really my thing but Doom(2016) and Overwatch were a one-two punch that got me to appreciate them more. Featuring a gorgeous artstyle and a great selection of diverse heroes, Overwatch allow me, someone who isn't very good at clicking heads, to enjoy an intense FPS and feel like I contribute meaningfully to my team's success. 

My preferred role was Tank (followed by Support) which meant I could always find a game quickly. For about 4 years Blizzard kept the game fresh with events, new maps and new heroes and I spent about 800 hours playing a few games per day at least.

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

A "sequel" to A Link to the Past was too good to pass up. I bought my very first handheld console just to be able to play this game. I was not disappointed by my purchase A Link Between Worlds was a welcome return to 2D Zelda. Link's ability to transform into a painting and walk along walls is used brilliantly all the way through the game. The game also changed the established formula by allowing to tackle dungeons in the order of your choice by having you "rent" some of the items from a vendor instead of finding them. This doesn't mean there's nothing to find in ALBW, some items are still hidden in dungeons, you can look for pieces of hearts and finding Maiamais (cute baby octopuses) will allow you to upgrade your rented items and keep them forever too.

Nope, also not Zoo Tycoon, nor something related to it. Zoo Tycoon is a strange one though. I never played that game much, because after I liked the demo, I played the actual game but found myself not liking it very much at all. In my memory the demo was somehow better than the full game...

Of course, this is correct!

Kind of the underdog, but the original of this game is already enough to be this high on the list and put it's big brother (ALttP) to shame (or well, you know, not like ALttP should be ashamed of anything, I have that one at #25 myself). The DX version is even better, and then the Switch remake really confirmed that there aren't many things out there that can measure up to Link's Awakening.

Also, you can now officially not be overtaken anymore, as you have guessed 14 games, while the runner-up, so far, drbunnig, has guessed 7 and there are only seven games left to go.

#9

YoY: +1     My Rating: 9.5/10

Final Fantasy X was the game I originally bought a PS2 for back in 2002. It was also the first time I had ever bought a console with my own money, and gotten one specifically to play a single game. If it hadn't lived up to my expectations I might have been a bit annoyed, but fortunately it turned out to be one of the best games I'd ever played. I've never been too bothered by graphical quality, but this game absolutely blew me away at the time. It was so far beyond anything I had played up to that point that I still remember that feeling to this day. The music was the second that stood out, the To Zanarkand theme that plays in the intro instantly burying itself into my mind forever.

I've since replayed the game several times, and I find myself enjoying more and more every single time. While the visual aren't as mindblowing as they once were, every other aspects of the game seems to grow on me over time. The battle system remains one of the best in the whole series, allowing for an impressive level of tactical depth, the music is among the best video scores ever, and the story and characters resonate with me even more strongly than they did back in the day. 

To this day, Final Fantasy X remains my second favourite PS2 game ever, as well as my second favourite game in the series. Though some of its elements were constrained by technological limitations and Squaresoft's inexperience with certain things, it remains one of the most emotionally powerful entries in the whole series, the ending being commonly cited as particularly heartbreaking by many fans of the franchise. 20 years after its original release, Final Fantasy X is still just as great as it was back then, and it probably won't be too long until I once again go back to replay it.

9:

Demon's Souls Remake: This was the second Souls game that I really got into. In so many ways, it's very similar to any of the other Souls games. So many of the same systems. But there were some experimental concepts in this one that never made it to the latter titles. All of the Souls games really have a very similar structure for gameplay, but they make some small meaningful tweaks between each one to focus on different parts of the experience. This one strikes a little bit of a better balance for me, where I feel like it manages to generally feel faster than Dark Souls, even though it doesn't feel quite as refined as Dark Souls 3. But it's a very special world and Bluepoint did an amazing job (although slightly controversial job) on the Remake. I think the remake is one of the best looking titles ever made.

No one got this - I tried not to make it too obvious, but hoped the clues would make sense for someone who knows the game. It's not obscure at all - it's Donkey Kong Country.

#18
- At the file selection screen, if you slightly misspell a prominent feature of the game, it’ll net you something good.
If you highlight 'erase game' press B A R R A L on the file selection screen, you'll get 50 extra lives. A slight misspelling of barrel, which is obviously a big feature in this series.
- For the above, you'll only be using the letters of the buttons on your controller.
See above.
- If you want to find everything, you’ll have to opt for the worst possible prize at one point.
In one of the factory levels, the entrance to a bonus stage is within another bonus stage. To get it, you need to match three single bananas in the initial bonus game. This would normally be seen as the 'dud' prize, as you'd often be able to get KONG letters, extra lives or animal tokens. In this bonus, the banana becomes a barrel, that you use to get into the other bonus.
- A bonus stage hidden within a bonus stage? Pretty sneaky.
See above
- As you conquer each world, the final boss’ stage draws ever closer.
When you complete a world, you go to the main overworld to move to the next one. In the background, King K Rool's pirate ship gets closer and closer to the island with each passing world.
- And the location of the final stage is the same sort of location that you start the following game in.
You fight K. Rool on a pirate ship. The first world / levels of DKC2 are pirate ship themed.
- The main overworld is shaped like the head of the character the game is named after.
Much of the island is shaped like Donkey Kong's head
- If you know where to go at the start of each stage, two levels can be all but skipped in the second world.
Mine Cart Madness and Stop & Go Station can be mostly skipped by jumping over the initial ledge, and walking back into the entrance respectively.
- If you find every bonus in a level, the game will let you know!
If you find all the bonuses on a level, there'll be a '!' after the name (eg Vulture Culture becomes Vulture Culture!). The '!' in my clue was a reference to that

Alright one more for #9, for this one I'll think of a fifth hint before posting it this evening. So far guesses that were wrong were Civilisation V and Zoo Tycoon, it's neither of those nor in those series. While I'm at it I might as well post third hints for #7 and #6 as well, but no new game yet.

10 - When you finally get every collectible, you get a reward that very much drives home that doing so was pretty pointless and not necessarily meant to be done. Guessed by Darashiva - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

9 - This game for some reason, has a lot to do about llama's.
Hint 2: In this one, there's even a cheat that turns your advisors into llama's.
Hint 3: Llama's also roam the countryside, or alongside the highway.
Hint 4: There's also a vehicle driving mission where there's a big emergency because someone slipped on "llama dung".
Hint 5: Lastly, there's a reward building which is a tourist trap shaped like a brown shed with a big llama head. It's ugly, and I don't want to build it.

8 - This looks like a 3D game, which it mostly is, but the characters are actually 2D cardboard cutouts. This is especially visible in the victory ceremony where the perspective seems off. Guessed by Veknoid_Outcast - Mario Kart 64

7 - When you start your town, you, the player, only gets a warehouse and a quay, while the AI also gets four tiles of nice paving next to it while that actually should still take quite a while before that is unlocked. I was also quite jealous of that.
Hint 2: They also have a bigger boat which should actually take even longer to unlock. Two of them do anyway, but that's not necessarily an advantage because they are much slower.
Hint 3: What is funny though is that one of the AI players will get big, colonising new lands and creating a big city reaching the highest tier, while the other AI always remains stuck at mere settlers.

6 - In the original, building "buildings" could only be done by raising land and painting the sides wood or brick, but in this game you can finally build actual walls and roofs. A real game-changer.
Hint 2: Hold shift to raise them or place them on top of each other to create some height, and also press control to keep a new piece at the last placed piece's elevation.
Hint 3: This works with walls and roofs, but also with scenery pieces big and small and stalls. Except trees, those can only be on the ground.

5 - The only game to feature parts in the main perspective of the second game in this series, while all others feature a different perspective. Guessed by Veknoid_Outcast - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Back and with lots of catching up to do. Here's a couple hints that will hopefully make it easy to guess #14 and #10, and probably more difficult ones for the next two games.

(This is a ton of hints to listen to, I know)

#8

YoY: =          My Rating: 9.6/10

If I'd be looking at all of the games objectively, Bloodborne would likely be the best Soulsborne game I've ever played. It's only due to more abstract elements like atmosphere and the feeling and emotions another soulsborne game gives me that it's "only" the second highest out of them all on my list. Bloodborne is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Everything in the game is near perfect, from its fast-paced gameplay to the gorgeous visual design. The bosses are almost universally excellent, and the soundtrack is amazing. I also love the game's story and lore. The eldritch horror theme of the game's world is perfectly realized, and the tragedy that befell it due to human error and hubris is quite disturbing the more you learn about it. Fear the old blood indeed.

However, in a lot of ways the true star of Bloodborne is its world. It features unquestionably one of the most memorable settings in video game history. Yharnam, the beautifully decrepit Victorian Gothic city is an awe-inspiring place to explore and be terrified in, one very much unlike any other. In general, the look and style of the world of Bloodborne is impeccable. Whether its the towering spires of Yharnam, the snow-covered rooftops of Castle Cainhurst, or the abandoned Byrgenwerth school, every location you discover is incredible and often unnerving.

Bloodborne also received one of the all-time greatest DLC expansions in The Old Hunters. It gives the story and many of its characters more context, introduces quite a few new ones, and makes the events of the game even more tragic than they already were. It also features some of the best bosses in the entire FromSoftware catalog. There's pretty much nothing about this game that I don't love. Just give us a sequel, perhaps set in some other part of this world outside Yharnam.

#8

(-1)

TAAAAAANKKKKK