Guessed by @drbunnig

It's been a few years since I played Symphony of the Night, and it's starting to walk a fine line on this list. In truth, I don't really want to revisit it - I remember well how badly it falls apart in its second half, and how much of a mess the storyline was, these are the kinds of things that turn me off toward replaying something. Still, what this game does well it does super well, it's amazing when it wants to be, and I still wanna check out the later Castlevania games to see how they developed on this game's foundation.

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Guessed by @Darashiva

I can't believe I've gone this long without replaying this awesome game. I have only fond memories of Hyper Light Drifter - being mind-blown by its dense atmosphere, and how it communicates both its story and its tutorials non-verbally, leaving it to you to discover all its wonders and piece together the ambiguous imagery into any interpretation of a story that makes sense in your head. This game feels like a crazy trip in many ways... maybe that's why I haven't replayed it, it's one of those journeys you go through once and only reminisce about.

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Guessed by @Veknoid_Outcast

As far as "Zelda-like" indies go, none left me as strong an impression as Death's Door did last year. The way this game opens was unlike anything I'd seen before - this grayscale world filled with crows, the almost "slice-of-life" approach to the idea of death, and how the reapers must go through these doors into the world of the living to collect souls... everything was so unique, it made me sad to then see the game go down a rather formulaic structure from that point on. Still, it was amazing, the soundtrack is incredible, and I think it's something I want to revisit too.

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Guessed by @S.Peelman

After sitting out on the last couple years, Mario Kart 8 is back and it's because I had to acknowledge how much it meant. It might not be a "mind-blowing" type of game but I can't overlook how many good times I've had with so many people over so many years playing this. It's just always a good time, everyone loves this game, and contrary to what the internet would have you believe, it brings people together. Besides, I won an in-person Mario Kart 8 tournament once, that's gotta count for something, right?

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Guessed by @Machina

I've long thought of this as the most overrated Metroid game and still do, but it still kicks ass. Sure it's a bit on the easier side, and has a much lighter atmosphere than most entries in the franchise, but this makes it work well as an entry point to the series, and that's fitting since it's a remake of the very first game. It's also rather fun to replay over and over and even speedrun, despite its shallow mechanics, it just has that feel-good factor, it's forever enjoyable. I have good memories with it, just not as much as other Metroid games - that's just because of how amazing this franchise is.

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Guessed by @S.Peelman

I know I list Rock Band 3 and always use this same image (for some reason it's hard to find good screenshots of it!), but really this is here as a stand-in for all the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games that really marked my life in the late 2000's. These franchises were everything to me back then, and they sparked my deep love of rock music which made me develop that into a passion project that defines me to this day. Nowadays it's hard to get together all the plastic instruments and the people to sit down and play, but when we do, Rock Band is still as fun as ever.

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Guess @drbunnig

I may think of Sonic as a cringefest nowadays, as does anyone with a sense of dignity, but in my early childhood years there was nothing cooler than Sonic and this game kicked ass. It's been a long time since I played it, but I remember replaying it over and over during the 2010's and realizing how good it still was, even after growing up. Sure, it's here mostly for the nostalgia value, but this was an important game in my life and I'll always cherish it.

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Guessed by @Machina

This game gets a lot of flack for the many issues it admittedly has (over-reliance on parrying, too much padding, that ending...), but it's only maligned because of the existence of Another Metroid 2 Remake that was released by a fan a year earlier. In truth, I think both the official and the fanmade remakes fail at capturing different aspects of the original, and they excel in different areas. However, Samus Returns always stood out to me for its awesome atmosphere and how immersive it felt to look at its world through that little 3D screen - it had awesome boss fights, it really made each Metroid encounter feel meaningful and rarely got too repetitive (except for the Gamma sections). It's not perfect but I had a lot of fun and it was awesome to see the sidescrolling Metroid franchise come back in a new engine and style that was soon to be perfected...

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Guessed by @drbunnig

Another game for which I always use the same picture, but this is a symbolic one - it's the moment Wepkeer's captain Gary Connolly, who had been in the team since they were in the third tier of English football, scored his second header in the club's first ever Champions League final, sealing a comeback win against Liverpool of all teams! I only hope his manager, a boyhood Liverpool fan, wasn't too unimpressed...

Anyways, if anyone's interested (I know no one is, but let me have this), here's the highlights for that game (I actually always played FM in 2D Classic view, but I get that it looks nicer in crappy 3D graphics for these highlights!).

I made up Wepkeer taking inspiration from one of my favorite videogames, sticked them in the sixth tier of English football, and just kept going and going for many in-game decades as they went from a team of nobodies to becoming the most successful club in world football. And all of that happened without Manchester City lifting a single Champions League trophy, officially making my Football Manager timeline better than reality!

I know the full story has been lost to the 'VGC blip', but still, I'll spare y'all the whole thing. Football Manager 2020 is by far the sports game I spent the longest time playing, going as deep as the 2080's in it, it was memorable and it felt real - I remember all the players who came and went and the things they achieved at my club, I even remember some opposition players that always gave me a hard time, I remember going on long trophy droughts and then trophy-laden years, it was all really amazing. This is what sports games should be about: creating stories.

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Guessed by @drbunnig

My opinion of Twilight Princess has gone down a lot over the years, mainly because of my three major gripes with it: I find the opening hours rather boring; I dislike everything about the ending; and the whole game feels ungenuine as it's not what the developers wanted to create. Still, this is a great game and I'm glad it exists as a more "modern" interpretation of the most classic style of Zelda, which we haven't gotten since. The story had its flaws but it had really strong moments too, the dungeons were amazing, and all in all this really felt like the grand adventure everyone wanted from this series - it just wasn't its best.

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