Guessed by @TruckOSaurus 

I have a kind of short term nostalgia for Tears of the Kingdom. It was the last game I've played that I'd looked forward to for a long, long time and could enjoy unconditionally. And that's despite the fact that the game actually moved in the wrong direction compared to Breath of the Wild when it came to flaws, it just made up for it with how much sheer potential for fun it added. If you want to read my long unhinged review of the game it can be found here.

Guessed by @Darashiva 

So Tales of Vesperia started at 26 on my list before I decided to move it to 19... then I pre-made a ton of graphics and forgot I had moved it. And since I'm lazy that means it lands at 15 and I'm actually fine with that, it's closer to where it originally debuted and the main thing that has caused me to move it down is just that I've only played it once, but that one playthrough was probably in my top 3 experiences on the Switch. The Tales series has a bit of a curse where the games with the best gameplay often have the weakest story or viceversa, but Vesperia is one of the few games that break it, just giving an all-around excellent experience plain and simple.

<- Avatar is my hint

14) Illidanson

#29

Change YoY: -2   My Rating: 9.3 / 10

Hideo Kojima is a fascinating person to talk about, isn't he? Over the last 40 years, he has successfully carved out a niche for himself that is unlike that of just about any other video game creator in history. He makes games that tackle challenging and often harrowing subjects like nuclear war, child soldiers, genetic manipulation, war propaganda, and various other political and philosophical themes through stories that are often poignant and heartbreaking in equal measure. And then, he follows that up with some of the most inane and childish moments in video game history, causing such tonal whiplash as to leave players wondering whether he's a genius, insane, or both. At this point, it's just something everyone's learned to accept as part of his games' weird charm. It's just Kojima, and there's nobody else quite like him.

As far as I'm concerned, Kojima's finest work to date remains Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. This was the game where his most eccentric tendencies, which could at times detract from his games' themes and messages, were at least somewhat kept in check, and as a result the story doesn't get overly convoluted and the characters' motivations remain clear and understandable throughout. The poignant moments are genuinely earned, and the silliness never gets too ridiculous, feeling more like added flavour that give the game a bit of levity when it's needed. Part of the reason for this may have been the fact that it's a prequel to the rest of the MGS series, meaning that many of the franchise's weirder elements weren't weighing it down yet, and the game was just allowed to tell its story without too much over-complicated nonsense. Naturally, it still features Kojima's trademark style, but not to its own detriment. This is, in my opinion, Kojima's true masterpiece, which none of his other works have quite matched in either effectiveness and overall quality. Other games of his might have individual elements that are done better, but in none of them have they come together as fantastically as they did here in Snake Eater.

Unguessed

2025 was the year I finally returned to Wow for the first time in 9 years to join in on the second roundof Classic servers and yeah, it's still a blast, still very addictive and though it might be exlusive to Classic the people there are also incredibly nice and helpful. That being said playing on Vanilla also made me appreciate just how big the improvements in Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King were, that truly was the golden age of WoW and by extension the MMO genre. But one downside to this otherwise great game is that when you stop being subscribed the time you spent on it kind of dissapears, until making this list I almost forgot I played it this year even though it was probably my second most played game. I still loved it at the time though and in a world where WoW was free, you could jump freely between expansions and there was 48 hours in a day I'd probably double the few thousand hours I have already spent on it.

Top 15!

#15 - The big Switch 2 game for December, but subtract by three

#14 - Donut Plains has made many appearances in Mario Kart titles, but it originated in this platforming game

#13 - Although owned by Microsoft, this game found its way to the Nintendo Classics service in 2022, and its heroes joined the Smash Bros. roster three years before that

#12 - Take the first word of #14 and add the first word of #15

#11 - Dwight Schrute from The Office once dressed up as a character from this landmark RTS game

15) Metroid Prime

13) Banjo Kazooie

11) StarCraft

Next hint

13) Jessie

Correct on all three!

14 - Super Mario World

12 - Super Metroid