The Portal hype isn't dead! As I just play Death Stranding, this game has multiple missions that let you recover a companion cube. You are rewarded for these with a Valve you can wear as headdress and in another case with "Gordon" glasses that look like the glasses in Halflife. So Kojima still is thinking about the Valve games of that era.

Current list - https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/248646/post-only-once-the-official-thread-the-15th-annual-greatest-games-event/4/#4

Last call for 46 - don't think anyone has ever got this any time I've taken part in this.

46 (incorrect guesses - Psychonauts)
- The playable character is like the antithesis of Freddy Krueger - he enters people's dreams to help them, not kill them.
- A top down Zelda-like game exclusive to one of Nintendo’s rivals in the 5th gen.
- Seen by some as a spiritual successor to an isometric action RPG released for the Genesis, this game itself had a sequel which, aside from the name, had no real ties to its predecessor.

43
- Several of the multiplayer modes and control schemes in this game are references to the IP the game is part of.
- Those references being names of films / books, and names of female characters, respectively.
- When talking about the best licenced games, this fifth gen first person shooter is sure to be in the conversation.

42
- For the first time in this sub series, a playable character has different initials than all the others.
- Pink and blue

41 - Super Mario 3D World
- Both the good and bad guys are feline fine with this power up.
- This game was ported to with an added bonus game.

40 - Crash Bandicoot 2
- Obtaining the collectibles in this direct sequel is not quite as frustrating as the first game in the series.
- The playable character was something of a mascot at the time for the hardware manufacturer, with it being their first console.

39
- Whether or not this game has a subtitle depends on the region of release. If you remove the subtitle, then it shares its name with two other games in the series.
- This game, along with two others that were first released on the same piece of hardware, is now available to play on modern consoles.

38
- This sequel introduces a few new enemies, but only one new weapon, which itself is more an upgrade to an existing weapon.

37
- What was once dead, may fall and still rise again

41) Had this with the first hint but forgot to guess: Super Mario 3D World

40) Crash 2?

Ha, I didn't even finish typing the second clue for 41. But yes, you're correct, it is Super Mario 3D World.

40 is also correct - the first clue being a reference to the fact that unlike the first Crash game, you're allowed to die when trying to every box in a level to get the gem.

#35

Change YoY: -1   My Rating: 9.2 / 10

I've been a huge fan of the Tales series since I first played Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube with a few of my friends back in the early 2000s. Over the following 20 years I've played through six other games in the series, and for quite a long time my two favourites were Symphonia and Xillia. I loved their worlds, characters, and stories the most out of the entire series, and they are still wonderful games in my opinion. For years those two were the pinnacle of the franchise in my eyes, obviously with the caveat that I haven't played every entry in it. However, this finally changed when I got around to playing Tales of Berseria.

One of the elements that instantly stood out to me from Tales of Berseria was its main character, Velvet Crowe. Unlike just about every other main character in the series, she was motivated almost entirely by vengeance. She seeks revenge against a person who is seen as a savior by just about everyone else in the world, but destroyed Velvet's life and imprisoned her for years after turning her into a demon. In essence, in the eyes of the world, Velvet is the true villain of the story, labeled the Lord of Calamity, a moniker and role she eventually embraces as the truth about various past events start to come to light. As far as I'm concerned, she is one of the very best video game protagonists of all time. The story also takes things into some very dark and sad places at times, often because of Velvet and her rather fragile mental state. Now, other games in the series have, of course, taken dark turns in the past, but none of them have gone quite as far as Berseria. As a result, the emotional payoffs in this game are all the more effective and impactful.

The rest of the game, including its supporting cast, the story, battle system, and music are also among the series' best in my opinion. In a happy accident, Berseria also made the previous game in the series, Tales of Zestiria, which is quite often considered one of the lesser entries in it, better by association. The two games take place in the same world, Berseria serving as a prequel to Zestiria. The latter's story and characters gained much more weight and importance because they were connected to those in Berseria, and the two games even shared some characters, and the fact you already know their fates if you've played Zestiria also makes certain parts of the story all the more melancholic. 

"Why do you think that birds fly?"

Alright time to catch up in record time, two games went unguessed which were Ty the Tasmanian Tiger at #45 and Pokemon Crystal at #36. As you'll notice I've commited the deadly sin of having a few "tied" spots on my list this time, but I've tried to make it clear which is the main game for each spot and only submitted those to mZuzek for the grand tally, so really those extra games are more like echo fighters rather than official entries on my list.

So without further ado here are the top 15 games of my childhood:

Hey, when the event host himself is committing deadly sins too (calling my #41-50 "official honorable mentions"), anything goes

Guessed by @Veknoid_Outcast

This could've been my main competitive game, it could've been the thing I played every day for years, but instead it fizzled out. It's a shame, because the game is truly fantastic, the only reason I got tired of playing it was the crappy netcode. The online experience was somehow worse than Splatoon 2, which itself was already far worse than Splatoon 1. Nintendo really needs to get their act together when it comes to online, because it's embarrassing when their flagship competitive multiplayer game takes over two minutes to find a game, then has the game end prematurely because someone disconnected, then two minutes again, then you get paired against laggy players from the other side of the world, then the game ends as a 2v1 because everyone else got disconnected from the room.

Yeah, that stuff single-handedly ruined Splatoon 3 for me. There was nothing else I didn't love about this game. I loved the vibe, the music, the narrower stages that led to more aggressive matches, I enjoyed mostly every game mode, the single-player campaign, the everything man. This game had it all. It's so good it's actually ridiculous. I still have to get Side Order, it sounds like an amazingly fun time. But yeah, guess I'm left hoping Splatoon 4 will have decent online.

FULL LIST >>

Okay, time to close out my trilogy of posts with a trilogy of hints.

#33 - The good guys fight with fake guns. The bad guys fight with real guns. But dogs don't need no guns.
#32 - Probably the apex of the industry's obsession with making the biggest open world ever.
#31 - The game that introduced the "dark" version of this series' protagonist, though a game 2 years prior had this protagonist's "evil clone".

32: No Man's Sky?

31: Metroid Prime 2 Echoes?