#37: I didn't play it (yet), but it sounds like Ori. Based on the hints the second one, so Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

40 (incorrect guesses - Donkey Kong Country 2)
- If you go against one of the main conventions of the game in the first level, you’ll be rewarded.
- Your foe is now your friend… or is he?...
- …Your sister certainly doesn’t believe him
- This was her first appearance in the franchise. She would become playable in the following game.

39
- A launch title for the first system it released on, it was sometimes criticised for having dark visuals that made it difficult to play on original hardware (subsequent hardware revisions remedied this issue). This is supposedly the reason the next game had brighter graphics.
- There are four unlockable modes, each of which give your character a boost on one specific attribute at the expense of others - magic, strength, subweapons, and luck.
- In some regions, this game shared the same name as the very first game in this series (other regions added a subtitle). Funnily enough, that first game was later released on the same system, as one of a number of classic games that were reissued.
- The most recent re-release of this game was on multiple platforms, as part of a collection with three other games from the same series.

37 (incorrect guesses - Zombies Ate My neighbours)
- What once got you access to the garden, now allows you to collect a powerful weapon.
- What was once permanently dead, may now rise again should you not take the necessary steps to prevent this.

Current list - https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/247804/the-official-thread-the-14th-annual-greatest-games-event-post-only-once/4/#3

40.- Donkey Kong Country 2

37.- Zombies ate my neighbours. Prolly not the one, but it could be...

I'm back from my trip and getting some of the spam write-ups ready to go, let's just try to get these two guessed, yeah?

#48 - This Zelda-like has you go from its hub town to the 4 directions around it, wherein lie gigantic beings. It's not Majora's Mask!
Hint 2 - You play as a blue-skinned swordsman.
Hint 3 - The way this game teaches you its mechanics and tells a story with no dialogue, makes it feel like a precursor to Tunic.
(come on guys, someone must've played this, right?)

#38 - The only numbered sequel in the mainline series of a franchise over 25 years old.
Hint 2 - It was announced with a cool anime trailer that put this franchise's actual anime to shame.

48: The one that comes to mind is Hyper Light Drifter

#40

Change YoY: -5   My Rating: 9.1 / 10

There was a time once when real-time strategy was perhaps my favourite genre of video games, with series like Command & Conquer, KKND, Age of Empires, Starcraft, Warcraft, Total Annihilation, and many others occupying much of my gaming time. Out of all of them, the two that always stood out to me were Command & Conquer and Total Annihilation. They were the ones I spent by far the most time playing, and the ones that I still go back to play all these years later. In terms of gameplay, Total Annihilation feels decidedly old-school today, but that's a large part of why I like it so much. There's some complexity to it, but not too much to the point that playing becomes exhausting. The music composed by Jeremy Soule on one of his earlier works is also excellent, creating just the kind of epic atmosphere perfectly suited for galactic warfare. 

In some aspects, Total Annihilation does show its age, the graphics are naturally dated by today's standards considering it was released 25 years ago and it was one of the first games of its genre to go full 3D, and the AI can be quite frustratingly stupid at times, but unlike so many other games of the era I can still go back and play it without issue and have a fun time.This is especially true if you have others to play with you, as these multiplayer matches can result in some of the most ridiculously massive battles I've ever seen in any RTS game. When you have five different players launching their attacks on each other at about the same time, the resulting chaos is something quite amazing to behold and try to survive.

No to both, although 37 is sort of heading in the right direction.

Indeed it is!

Took me a while, but here we go!

Honorable mention: Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy just misses out on making it for 10 years in a row - in truth, its place on the list had been looking in danger for a while. I just don't care for this game like I used to and haven't played it in a long time, but it still deserves an honorable mention just for being my main entry point into indie games.

Honorable mention: Tetris Effect
One of only two new games I finished this year; Tetris Effect is just so fun, I love the idea of turning Tetris into a proper immersive musical experience.

Honorable mention: Night in the Woods
I've wanted to replay Night in the Woods ever since I finished, and I just haven't. There's only so much impact this story can have on me when I linger on it for this long, but I still love it and want to replay it some time to see more of the things I missed. These characters are really great.

Honorable mention: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The other new game I finished this year. My reasons for disliking it are well documented, but there were also lots of good reasons to like it, there were a lot of great moments in there and it deserves at least an honorable mention for giving me a few hours of good fun - just wish they weren't marred by... everything else.

Honorable mention: Crypt of the Necrodancer
I haven't talked about this one in a while, but man, it's such a fun game and it really defined a month of my life or so. I haven't gone back to it but I have good memories of playing this everywhere, jamming to the banger soundtrack, and all that. Love this game.

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Guessed by @BonfiresDown

I know I said "no new games" on this year's list, but with Kingdom Two Crowns having never made an appearance here before, it may as well be one. Instead, this year I'm trying to give more of a spotlight to games that had a big meaning in my life, and I will never forget my time with this one - it was the first time my best friend (recently met at the time) invited me over to his family home in a different town, and over my stay there, he just put this on for us both to play and we were consumed by it.

I remember being mind-blown by the beautiful pixel art visuals and atmosphere, and from then on, each day passed us by in a flash as we kept developing our kingdom... It was a constant loop of seeing the sky outside get brighter and wondering how on earth the nights were passing so quick - and then we'd wonder for how much longer would we keep going instead of just going to sleep. We bonded a lot during that time, and I'll always cherish this game for it.

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