Unguessed

Even though it's nowhere mentioned and this game is made by a German developer, I'm pretty sure you play as the precursor to the country I'm from in Anno 1602: Creation of a New World. I mean, everything fits; colonising trade outposts on tropical islands, the emphasis on spices and exotic goods, the maritime theme, the architecture of the buildings and most of all the date in the title which is the date of the founding of the Dutch East India Company. It also makes sense in the light of this game's sequels all (except the two set in the future) being reminiscent of other historical 'empires' in a relevant time period without explicitly mentioning it; Spain, Victorian England, the Holy Roman Empire with the Mediterranean Venice and the Ottoman Empire and a mashup of a clear influence per civilisation level in Anno 1800. But this is just coincidence, and when I first played this I was too young to have this knowledge and realise the similarities. I just wanted to play with little ships.

Guessed by Darashiva

Sadly it never kept time, but I'm pretty sure RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 is my most played game of all-time. It must have been a couple thousand, maybe even ten-thousand hours over the years. Decades actually. It's been two by now, and I played this just last week for a bit. I got ridiculously good at it, which one should after spending as much time on something as I did on this. I probably could have invented Nuclear Fusion and ended world hunger during this time, but nay I had better things to do. I wanted to make the best digital theme parks. Funny thing is, in all this time, I have never played a single scenario. I only ever played on a self-made blank, flat, featureless, fully owned and buildable 256x256 tile map with infinite money. Like in SimCity 4 (#9), I didn't care about the 'economy' nor the 'challenge' or an end-goal, I just want to build the things that I imagined in my head. I wanted an endless game. And I sure made it that.

Guessed by Veknoid_Outcast

The great and stylish remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on Nintendo Switch has put it in a more favourable light recently, but I still feel this masterpiece is a bit underrated and overshadowed by its bigger console-brother A Link to the Past (#25). Nothing against that game, obviously, and like I said it's probably the most important game I ever played, but really it has nothing on Link's Awakening. This game was mind blowing just as a video game already, but especially so when considering it existed on GameBoy, a console where the games rarely exceeded the complexity of Tetris. It had cutscenes, while A Link to the Past didn't have that. This game is the birth of many things that would become mainstays in the Zelda series, like; collect-a-thon side-quests, item trading sequences, a guide character, mini-bosses, a multiphase final boss, a musical instrument that has multiple songs used for different effects and last but not least the fishing mini-game. The game glued me to my GameBoy, and it is the game I (or well, the first couple my parents bought for me obviously) have bought the most times; the original, the DX rerelease twice because my dog ate the first copy, a digital copy on 3DS, and the Switch remake. Nintendo got my money five times for a single game, and I was glad to give it.

#4

YoY: =            My Rating: 9.7/10

It's a little weird that for a game this high on my list, I didn't actually really get along with Dark Souls when I first played it. I got maybe eight to ten hours in, didn't really understand the gameplay or the story properly, and just ended up giving up after failing to beat the Bell Gargoyles way too many times. Some years later I watched someone else start a playthrough of the game, and after a while I decided to give the game one more chance. It did look like something I really should enjoy after all, and having watched someone else play for a bit helped me figure out some of those things I had missed earlier. So, I restarted the game, made a new character and began my journey anew. You can probably guess that the second time around was quite different from the first.

Whatever the reason, this time everything about Dark Souls just clicked into place. The gameplay was challenging but in exactly the right way, as I now had a much better grasp of its intricacies, discovering small fragments of the world's history and lore felt rewarding, and as the game itself slowly opened up and I found new and interesting locations to explore, there was no going back anymore. I knew I was playing something exceptional and special. Later games in the series, as well as other FromSoftware games, have improved upon the gameplay side, but the feeling and atmosphere that Dark Souls conveys is just something unmatched by any other game of its kind.

My top three favourite games have remained the same for over 20 years now, and while it's unlikely that anything will ever change that at this point, Dark Souls got extremely close to doing so. Many of the later Soulsborne games may be better in terms of pure mechanics, but none of that has yet unseated the original Dark Souls from its spot on the top of the genre in my opinion. It's the game that made me fall in love with the genre, and the one I still compare all others of its kind to this day.

#3 - FreeSpace 2?

I guess #2 is Legend of Dragoon.

#10 Resident Evil
- The two books you find caused a bit of confusion when this game was first released.
- If you fail to save your comrades, the shadow of the final boss will loom large after the credits
- To save one comrade, you must make the right decisions at certain times. To save the other, you need to find three of a certain item to access where they are.
- A piano piece by Beethoven is central to one of the puzzles.

#9 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
- Unlike the preceding game, being a little sloppy will no longer see you take a tumble, although your points haul will suffer. This is only true of the game when originally released, however.
- That’s because when this was remade recently, the improvements this game originally made to the series were also applied to its predecessor, which was also included in the remake in its entirety.

#7 Super Mario World
- You can give the game an autumnal theme if you conquer the most challenging stages.
- Like previous games in the series, you can skip a significant number of levels if you know what you’re doing. By my maths, you can get to the final boss by completing less than 20% of the stages in the game.

#6 (incorrect guesses - Monster Hunter World)
- Local wildlife numbers are likely to drop when the protagonist arrives on location.
- “Pierre, you litter bug”

#5
- I’m pretty sure one of every living creature is involved with getting 100% in this game.
- You’ll have to interact with them in just the right way though, otherwise your collaborator will have difficulty doing what he does best.

#4 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- The postman has done well to get that far through the gauntlet.
- He can also recognise you even when you’ve changed form, which is a prominent feature of this game (changing form that is… not being recognised).

#3 Super Mario Bros 3
- It’s easy to miss that fiery foe in the desert.
- Some power ups will change the message you receive from the rescued Royal when you’ve beaten the boss of a world.

#2
- By the end of the second level, you’ll have faced more human foes than you had in the entirety of the previous game.
- Finding the trio of dragons in a level will get you a reward.

#1 (incorrect guesses - Grand Theft Auto V)
- Vehicles you can command include a car, a helicopter, a train, and a submarine.
- I’m not sure many thought passing through a frog’s digestive system would be on the agenda.

My list so far

10 - Resident Evil OG or REmake

9 - RE2 Remake

10 is correct (OG Resident Evil - the Remake is already on my list)

9 is incorrect (RE2 remake is already on my list)

Majora’s Mask?

I feel like I can only ever guess Zelda games lol.

4) HoMM 3?

9) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2?

7) Maybe a Mario game... Super Mario World?

3) Super Mario Bros. 3?

Still four amazing games remaining. Let's see if the third hint can't give some of them away:

5) A stealthy character that you don't play as in any of the three main campaigns offers major guidance in all three
Hint 2: He is essentially to Amon what Gandalf is to Sauron.
Hint 3: The characters you play as in the three campaigns are a space cowboy, a queen of insects and the Hierach of the Firstborn

4) The protagonist of this game would hate #3 (Portal 2)
Hint 2: He has made a crossover appearance in another big game series, the name of which is very fitting for his profession
Hint 3: He's also been a guest figther in the latest entry of a prominent fighting series, also being on the cover of the game

2) Contains countless references to other media, particularly Lord of the Rings and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Hint 2: And references to two other big series by the same developer, including a certain Leg.
Hint 3: Most references are part of voice lines that happen when you click a unit a lot of times

1) "Don't overdo it"
Hint 2: "_____, ...don't die (before I do)."
Hint 3: "Feel the pain *slash* of those inferior beings *slash* as you burn in hell."