Ocarina of Time?

Last chance for #7, and #6 and #5 have been guessed, adding extra hint to #4.

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.
Hint 4: At some point islands will become scarce though, and you'll have to get rid of the AI players. Doing so will reward you with a nice Triumphal Arch to place somewhere.

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.
Hint 4: The thing this game is named for though, needs to be build in a special build mode where you place piece by piece a station, lift hill, small corner, big corner, spirals, brakes and much more special pieces. Guessed by Darashiva - RollerCoaster Tycoon 2

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

4 - This game was originally developed with different art direction, and elements of this style can still be seen in the game's intro cutscene.
Hint 2: The change of style, done to move it away from the look of a certain other game, fuelled the rumour that the producer (who's the original creator of both series) didn't like this other game. I doubt that's true. Guessed by drbunnig - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

3 - Legend goes that a controller was tailor-made for this game. Guessed by Veknoid_Outcast - Super Mario 64

4 - Yoshi's Island

3 - Super Smash Bros Melee?

You were right with your guess of Ocarina of Time by the way.

For #4, this is just a guess based on the clues. I know Miyamoto allegedly didn't care for DKC, and the only Nintendo platformer that makes sense around that time would be Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. 

Having just provided a clue for Super Mario 64 myself, I feel like this is the same game?

Yoshi's Island is correct!

Smash isn't, Veknoid was right on those.

Both are right! Your reasoning for Yoshi's Island is what I was thinking with those hints, and yes allegedly the N64 controller was modelled after the needs of Mario 64.

Who to give credit for #4 though, you were exactly simultaneous.. could do both, but what to do in the stats?..

4: Super Mario RPG:

I love the whole new take on Mario. I love giving his world more depth than most of the Mario games have given it. I love RPGs in general, they give me a great sense of progression. Timed hits are really great, I love the fact that it has this turn based combat system, that requires you to be more involved.

It has some of my favorite music of any game. The Forest Maze is great. This is definitely the most famous one. 

But pretty much the whole soundtrack brings me joy.

I love so much being able to explore a new Mario world with a great diverse set of locations.

drbunnig's post was technically first, so I think he should get the credit for #4  

5. Halo 2

I honestly do not recall ever being more hyped for any game in my life than Halo 2. CE had been my favorite ever at that point, and was pretty much played daily since the moment of release. I was 13 years old, which is probably right around the time in your life where you can get the most excited by the prospect of any new game, because you've played your fair share of games, but you haven't quite seen it all yet, and you've still got that youthful optimism that every new game could potentially be the best thing ever. So, this was it. The game. Sequel to "the best game ever." Obsessing over every bit of info we got up to release, to a level I haven't done before or since. Really, it was the perfect set up for massive disappointment. But man, this game fucking delivered.

Bungie took what was already one of the greatest shooters ever, and made it better in every conceivable way. A more galaxy sprawling campaign, that fleshed out the world, and the lore immensely. Grand set piece moments, like the scarab encounter. A secret second playable character, that they somehow managed to keep under wraps, and remains a fan favorite to this day, DESPITE the fact that he took playtime away from our main hero (not an easy task to accomplish, as certain other devs will attest to). Way more weapons, including the now iconic Battle Rifle, and of course the badass Energy Sword. The singular most iconic take on the Halo battle theme, with the electric guitar. And oh yea...it single handedly made online multiplayer on consoles simple, intuitive, and straight forward. You know, along with also just being an amazing multiplayer game, full of some of the series' most well designed maps, like the often remade Zanzibar, and Lockout.

Honestly, the only reason this isn't even higher on my list, is because I'm an RPG super nerd, but I love this game with every fiber of my being.

Xenoblade Chronicles holds the magic of exploration in a unique setting and with an engaging story. This is one of the great masterpiece on the Wii. It is also magic, how the relatively low spec hardware on Wii was able to create such an incredibly big world.

As the game in the intro showed me these giants and zoomed in to show all the creatures living there, the people living there, the different biomes, in that moment I was already won over by this game. In each new region you can look around and see hints that indicate which part of the titan you're currently on. And this is awesome. This is especially true, if you go to the leg the first time and these gigantic plains open to you - and you realize that is only one leg. That is awe inspiring.

Although I am usually more a fan of turn based RPG, this battle system works quite well and gives a lot of depth. Especially when you learn how Melia's attacks work, this is pretty cool. The story is is an incredible epic tale, of fighting gods and the fate of humanity. And I love the characters in this game, they are all so relatable.

Also I need to mention the incredible music. I often listen to Xenoblade OST while working, as this is awesome and inspiring.

This game got a rerelease on Switch. I obviously purchased it again and played through another time. The Switch-version has much improved graphics and some quality of life improvements. It also adds an additional story mode in a new region, the shoulder of the Bionis, which was cut from the original game. This is a great addition, if you don't want to leave this incredible world after seeing the credits and have a new start screen (such a nice boon for playing through the game).

This game is a must-have for every RPG-fan and a classic in all regards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLEkwIvfOO4