Post by Keeby on Feb 29, 2020 23:59:10 GMT -5
With the era of the 2010's over, and with the new 2020's decade that has just started, what would you consider to be your top 10 games that you played that were released this decade? Feel free to go over whatever you want about those games within any particular capacities.
For me, I think my top 10 would be...
#10: Animal Crossing: New Leaf (2013)
New Leaf was my first Animal Crossing game, and I very much enjoyed a lot of good features seamlessly going in together, such as improving upon and learning from its previous titles, being on the 3DS and benefitting from StreetPass and online friend interconnectivity to collect and trade various items, and the various customizations you can give to your town from its inhabitants, to its ordinances, as well as your house (although you can't really decide where a new villagers house goes). I also really enjoyed the QR customization feature, which let me scan QR codes from the internet to make custom clothes. I thought that was a really cool and unique feature. It was really fun to collect different furniture for your house, different animals and fossils for the museum, playing around on different times and dates to get certain things, as well as messing around with time traveling to get more things. I also liked seeing glimpses of other peoples houses through the streetpass and dream house features and see how other peoples customizations were like. It was really fun to be a mayor of your own town and just shape it in your image, down to the town flag and the universal jingle that you can customize as well. Just do your own thing and be your own thing with some fun objectives. It had a really nice feel to it with the cute animal people and the hourly music. Animal Crossing is just very comfy and simple enough to keep playing throughout your days collecting various items. It makes me look forward to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
#9: Mario Kart 8 (2014)
Before Mario Kart 8, my only experience with Mario Kart and racing games were some short plays of Super Mario Kart, F-Zero, F-Zero X, as well as some download play from Mario Kart DS with friends. I could never really get the hang of it or knew all the tricks, such as the boost you do at the start. When I played 8, I learned mostly everything I needed to be decent at racing, such as drifting boosts, ramp jump boosts, and what characters and karts to use and whatnot. I also played it more than any other racing game, so I really got the hang of it while playing with friends online and offline. Going through sessions of different grand prix cups were really fun with someone, and having a short replay of certain parts of the race that you could speed up or slow down. I also liked going online and playing with different people across the world and I would be really into it. I was surprised if I ever got 1st place, and mostly got close to that in most matches. It feels nice slowing down someone with an item and knowing that's a real person I just screwed over. Deluxe gives some additions from the original game, with a good battle mode and new characters that aren't Diddy Kong. I'm still taken aback by the roster a bit. Every single Koopaling? Pink Gold Peach? Baby Rosalina? But then you also have stuff like Link, Isabelle, and Inkling that's starting to make this look more like Smash Kart. But the real meat of the game for me isn't the characters, it's the tracks. Every track looks really, really good and has great music too. My favorite tracks are the Excitebike one and Mount Wario. I mostly play Waluigi because who doesn't like to play as Waluigi? Also Shy Guy. I like Shy Guy.
#8: Fire Emblem Awakening (2013)
Back in 2013, I wanted to get a new game. I was deciding on either Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, or Fire Emblem Awakening. I eventually decided that I wanted to try out something new and chose Awakening, it being my first Fire Emblem game. I previously saw a short trailer online about it and thought the cutscenes looked cool. I never played a strategy RPG before, so Awakening was something fresh for me. having a bunch of units go across a map, using weapons and magic to beat enemies and progress to the next level, all something new to take in that was really easy to get into. I think I did choose the casual mode on normal, because otherwise I'd just soft reset to resurrect fallen units. I liked the colorful cast of characters that were either entertaining for their one gimmick or for having good support conversations. There's a lot of interactions in the game between your army of units and the game making you customize your Robin literally self inserts you into all that. I also like the other things it did, such as using seals to reclass your units into other or stronger classes that use different weapons, and the pair up mechanic that gives units more edge against other singular units. But yeah I really liked the characters a lot like Chrom and Lucina, and the suspenseful points with Emmeryn, Validar, and Grima. And when you beat the game there's still a lot more, such as maps that let you recruit your former enemies. I actually even bought some of the dlc maps. I also battled other peoples armies through streeptass. Overall it was a really fun game once it took off with making my units super powerful and plowing through everything. Made all those postgame outrealm maps more engaging with all the stat boosters and different skills for each unit. Awakening makes me want to try older Fire Emblem games as well as Three Houses, eventually.
#7: Undertale (2015)
I have never really dabbled in PC games for no particular reason other than not having my own dedicated good computer that I could download whatever I want and know how to configure stuff to make it work. The only games I really played on PC before then were 3D Space Cadet Pinball, JumpStart 1st grade, and Zoombinis. But one day, I saw someone livestream this game that came out recently, and it looked really nice, and the music was really good. It was the ruins theme. It like, made me feel nostalgic for something I wasn't even nostalgic for yet. At the time I had a decent giant mediocre windows something laptop that could actually use Steam so I made it work and actually bought the game right away since it wasn't that expensive. I went into Undertale thinking that playing a game where you didn't have to kill your enemies was a neat concept. And then everything that came after that was a nice surprise. Really good characters and music, neat simplistic art, a good story that could go in multiple ways, and really nice touches everywhere. The game really likes peppering all the little things all over the place and its got a lot of charm. Like, could I do this and this? Yes you can. Can I do this differently and then talk to this guy? Yes, and they'll have a different dialogue for it too. Lots of surprises in general from something I didn't expect something from, which worked a lot for me. I spent only a couple days playing a playthrough and a half but it was one of those games where you just kept thinking about it. All the different character personalities, their complexities throughout the different timelines, the easter eggs out of time, and just how funny or emotional some parts of the game are. It was a really unique experience for me and that makes me look forward to Deltarune whenever that releases in full.
#6: Splatoon (2015)
Before Splatoon, I didn't really like or play shooter games that much. Didn't really know why. I tried a couple Call of Dutys at my friends place and I thought the multiplayer zombie mode was neat. But when Splatoon was announced, it seemed like just my type of thing. Some wacky shooter game that offered something unique and rolled with its new concept. You could even say that it was... fresh. Back when I got the first Splatoon game I played a whole lot of it. I was blown away by how much the Wii U gamepad was utilized and how many different weapons you could use as time went on and the just plain fun of painting turf and splatting other people. Different rotations of maps to play on, a roster of weapons big enough for you to choose something that fits you perfectly, a whole bunch of customization to dress up your squid kid in, and a neat single player campaign. My main weapon of choice was the Krack-On Splat roller for its beacons that could let me help other people get across to other places in the map and the Kraken that would let me be invincible and splat other people instantly. Maybe sometimes I'd use the Splash-o-matic, but I really liked painting and beating people up with an oversized paint roller. I really liked playing it online with friends whenever I could because it was pretty much my first real online team-up game too. I feel like Splatoon was a very lightning in a bottle new IP that really took off and I'm glad it did. I really got into the turf wars, the ranked matches, the influx of many experienced players and lag, the extremely competitive nature of having two teams go at war with each other with paint. Splatoon 2 retreads a lot of ground the first one does but its still good and does some new things. I miss being able to tap the Wii U gamepad and do a tactical nuke ink strike and just look down instead of pressing a button to look at the map but you can't replicate those kinds of features. I feel like Splatoon was one of the best things the Wii U had to offer that made the most out of the console's potential. I also especially can't wait for whatever the franchise does in the future after being very impressed with the Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion DLC.
#5: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014)
For platformers, I really enjoy what Donkey Kong dishes out compared to the 2D Mario games. Nowadays New Super Mario Bros. games just look very bland. A very by-the-numbers thing that plays it safe and never changes. But with Tropical Freeze, instead of the same world themes over and over, and the same Koopaling boss fights, and the same "ba" that's in every music track, you have all sorts of creativity and challenge oozing in every level. I only ever played the first Donkey Kong Country game before so it was my first Donkey Kong game in awhile. Every level has its own theme and gimmick and it always feels fresh. The bosses take more than three jumps to the head to be defeated which is clearly very innovative. Donkey Kong is also aided by Diddy, Dixie, and Cranky Kong, but with Diddy only giving you a slight glide, and Cranky making you go straight down, for a game like Tropical Freeze you'll mostly be using Dixie for the extra jump. And then there's Funky Kong, who is designed to make playing Tropical Freeze seem like such a breeze. he can do nearly everything that Donkey Kong can't. He can use his surfboard to go on spikes. He is intelligent enough to use a snorkel to breathe underwater infinitely without having to resort to breathing in air bubbles. Suffice to say playing as Funky Kong makes the game even more enjoyable, and also more easily accessible. Which is good, because the difficulty is there and you'll need every trick you can think of if you want to collect everything in this game. Apart from the Kong letters, there's also puzzle pieces that are hidden very well throughout each level, and you'll really have to think about where they are and what places in each level they could be. It makes every level even more engaging because of that. The puzzle pieces also unlock more things, like new levels, which are especially challenging. It doesn't feel too much of a chore to keep trying at some levels because of how fast the game puts you back into it. The levels and music are really just a lot to take in. There are certain levels that go off the rails of what you would expect and have twists and turns that make for a pretty unique experience.
#4: Kirby: Planet Robobot (2016)
Kirby for the past couple games has also been doing more or less the same thing, albeit with a highlighting gimmick to differentiate iterations. But sometimes some more new ideas and characters and copy abilities appear that kinda justifies this. With Robobot, the gimmick this time is well integrated into the game and is a lot better than one-time super attacks. But besides the robobot armor, the game itself is oozing with good level design themed around the mechanizations of the world that other Kirby games pale to comparison in. The story continues to interconnect other pieces of Kirby history with other games by starting up even more Kirby Lore, a real thing that has happened this decade, and it's quickly became one of my favorite Kirby game because of how many good facets of it go together well. It also adds some fun new copy abilities, such as Doctor, which lets you shoot out pills and chemical explosions, and ESP, which has you control a psychic blast and teleport. Star Allies doesn't hold certain candles to Robobot in my opinion, and it shows. For improving upon Triple Deluxe, and being another Kirby 3DS game with the same assets but with a new direction, the additional experience that went into Robobot is another factor that makes it better than Triple Deluxe, I think. I also like the progression of fighting giant mechanized enemies, to special robobot ability sequences such as turning into a shooter segment, and going against a planet sized final boss. It gets more crazy and exciting as it goes on with Kirby being the one to take down an intergalactic company and continues to do surprising things even in its postgame, such as having dark matter appear again in Meta Knight's postgame quest, and a ridiculously difficult true arena minigame with a final boss that will instakill you if you mess up. Robobot was a nice surprise for Kirby that proves that the series can still retain more creativity with its unchanging formula
#3: Pokémon Moon (2016)
One of the first Pokémon games I really played was Pokémon Colosseum. When I first picked up Pokémon X, I liked the jump to the new dimension for the franchise, and graphically, I liked how closer Sun and Moon looked like to the Colosseum games. Sun and Moon improve upon X and Y in a lot of ways, such as actually having engaging characters you would actually remember, and a gimmick that's a bit more integrated than exclusive species forms. I unfortunately haven't played Pokèmon Sword or Shield in 2019, but some parts of Sun and Moon are a lot better in some regards. Sun and Moon's culture of traversing through a tropical archipelago region with a format different than gyms offers a bit of fresh air than what traditionally entails a region. It feels pretty comfy as a setting that also has nice themings across all the islands. Fighting a boss enemy pokémon who can call for assisting boss partners is yet another interesting series mechanic I wish had stayed in some way or form. Having trainers appear in the battle screen all the time is another welcomed addition to the series that makes battles more immersive. Having the legendary pokémon be an evolved form of another pokèmon present throughout the game makes it feel more personal than most legendary encounters. Team Skull, being the best villianous team in years, feel like an improvement over the same desire to acquire a legendary pokémon, with even the other opposing faction, the Aether foundation, focusing more on Nihilego in the non-Ultra versions. Retaining a customizable main character with skin tones and clothing an all is a step in the right direction. Overall Sun and Moon feels like a better experience than X and Y for again, being a game on the same console that improves upon its last iteration. Different changes and experiences such as removing HMs for rideable pokémon add up to an enjoyable experience. Having an interesting character such as Lillie and Guzma makes it a bit more memorable. Introducing more alien pokémon with legitimately alien designs as well as regional variant forms of the same pokémon makes the newer pokémon more unique. Generation 7 had, unsurprisingly, some very good designs, such as Pyukumuku, Buzzwole, and Decidueye.
#2: Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
Mario Odyssey is a great new breath of fresh air and originality in a franchise that hasn't had a major collectathon 3d platformer in awhile. From start to finish, it is a joy to play and mess around with the physics of Mario and the captures. It has a lot of immersive worlds that you just want to explore in and the game encourages that wholeheartedly, scattering moons everywhere. The controls of the game are very fluid and every action feels just right, with the addition of Cappy's hat moves. The introduction of the well known capture technique opens up an infinite realm of possibilities. Mario becoming something else, and then using the hosts abilities to solve another puzzle is very creative and never gets old. Finding the very hidden moons and purple coins in every world invites even more exploration of each world and knowing every part of them. Every world has its own charm and appeal, most agreeing to the New Donk City location and its reintroduction of Pauline as well as a concert segment with a lyrical song in a Mario game that isn't actually that bad. I particularly like the vast desert world of the sand kingdom with its Tostarena town and pyramid ruins, as well as Bowsers very Japanese castle and the Moon. the costume customization was a nice surprise for a main Mario game, another mechanic that is more unlocked as you move forward. Having various quests that challenge your understanding of the mechanics such as races that even go on online leaderboards is another nice thing that is there. Overall, the game keeps getting more crazy with every situation Mario and Cappy find themselves in, with being-jumping courses designed specifically for each enemy character, to incorporating this into even boss fights, and even most surprisingly, having the final sequence of the game be possessing bowser to escape from a crumbling moon cavern. Mario Odyssey is endlessly creative and I can't wait to see what happens in another game like it. Since Galaxy 2, I have been missing a Mario game like that and this game was the answer to that.
#1: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
Smash Ultimate brings together an all-star cast of all-star casts, and improves upon Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U in that regard. it pretty much makes its predecessors obsolete, even more than previous smash games. Its faster and less campier than Smash 4, and manages to do the monumental task of pleasing nearly everybody with character choices. It even tries to have as many cameos as possible and a story mode in its world of light quest, a series of very themed event matches cleverly and creatively tied to a character, with sprawling across a map to recruit more fighters and fight some bosses, which is a bit of a step up from Smash 4, which had no bosses and had Smash Tour. The switches hardware makes it the whole of For 3DS/Wii U's parts, whose entire point was to play one smash game on the TV and one smash game on the go. It makes it easier to have even more preferable ways to play, while not sacrificing anything. Its clear the main focus of the game is in its record breaking roster, seeing as how there isn't much else than the main fighting mode. Home Run contest wasn't initially a mode, All-Star mode is a multi man fight, and the nature of spirits mode and the removal of even trophies show what came first, and that's good. Of what they could still do, the classic mode is more unique than in previous iterations. Making a special themed route for each character with different ending fights is very fun and is one of the few smash games where you actually actively want to clear classic with every single character. The inclusion of nearly every stage from the series along with final destination and battlefield versions gives a setting everyone will like, on a familiar or slowly increasing set of new stages. In smash, there's a character for everyone, me, I have preferences for Villager, King K. Rool, Pac-Man and several others. The size of the roster encourages me to try out as many characters as I can in one sitting. The post launch DLC continues to go above and beyond with more unique and requested characters added, even with their own stage and music. Adding even more characters such as the heroes from Dragon Quest and Banjo & Kazooie makes Ultimate being even more of a dream pick roster game than it already was. And with going for another home run for even more DLC characters until 2021, I can't see any way any Smash game after this game will top this one.
Some honorable mentions include Pokken Tournament for putting together a pokemon fighting game with a different enough roster and a pretty complex rock paper scissors type gameplay with lots of combos, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland for a nice long awaited 2.5D Kirb platformer with some nice ideas and co-op play, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for just expanding upon more of Galaxy’s concepts wildly.
For me, I think my top 10 would be...
#10: Animal Crossing: New Leaf (2013)
New Leaf was my first Animal Crossing game, and I very much enjoyed a lot of good features seamlessly going in together, such as improving upon and learning from its previous titles, being on the 3DS and benefitting from StreetPass and online friend interconnectivity to collect and trade various items, and the various customizations you can give to your town from its inhabitants, to its ordinances, as well as your house (although you can't really decide where a new villagers house goes). I also really enjoyed the QR customization feature, which let me scan QR codes from the internet to make custom clothes. I thought that was a really cool and unique feature. It was really fun to collect different furniture for your house, different animals and fossils for the museum, playing around on different times and dates to get certain things, as well as messing around with time traveling to get more things. I also liked seeing glimpses of other peoples houses through the streetpass and dream house features and see how other peoples customizations were like. It was really fun to be a mayor of your own town and just shape it in your image, down to the town flag and the universal jingle that you can customize as well. Just do your own thing and be your own thing with some fun objectives. It had a really nice feel to it with the cute animal people and the hourly music. Animal Crossing is just very comfy and simple enough to keep playing throughout your days collecting various items. It makes me look forward to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
#9: Mario Kart 8 (2014)
Before Mario Kart 8, my only experience with Mario Kart and racing games were some short plays of Super Mario Kart, F-Zero, F-Zero X, as well as some download play from Mario Kart DS with friends. I could never really get the hang of it or knew all the tricks, such as the boost you do at the start. When I played 8, I learned mostly everything I needed to be decent at racing, such as drifting boosts, ramp jump boosts, and what characters and karts to use and whatnot. I also played it more than any other racing game, so I really got the hang of it while playing with friends online and offline. Going through sessions of different grand prix cups were really fun with someone, and having a short replay of certain parts of the race that you could speed up or slow down. I also liked going online and playing with different people across the world and I would be really into it. I was surprised if I ever got 1st place, and mostly got close to that in most matches. It feels nice slowing down someone with an item and knowing that's a real person I just screwed over. Deluxe gives some additions from the original game, with a good battle mode and new characters that aren't Diddy Kong. I'm still taken aback by the roster a bit. Every single Koopaling? Pink Gold Peach? Baby Rosalina? But then you also have stuff like Link, Isabelle, and Inkling that's starting to make this look more like Smash Kart. But the real meat of the game for me isn't the characters, it's the tracks. Every track looks really, really good and has great music too. My favorite tracks are the Excitebike one and Mount Wario. I mostly play Waluigi because who doesn't like to play as Waluigi? Also Shy Guy. I like Shy Guy.
#8: Fire Emblem Awakening (2013)
Back in 2013, I wanted to get a new game. I was deciding on either Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, or Fire Emblem Awakening. I eventually decided that I wanted to try out something new and chose Awakening, it being my first Fire Emblem game. I previously saw a short trailer online about it and thought the cutscenes looked cool. I never played a strategy RPG before, so Awakening was something fresh for me. having a bunch of units go across a map, using weapons and magic to beat enemies and progress to the next level, all something new to take in that was really easy to get into. I think I did choose the casual mode on normal, because otherwise I'd just soft reset to resurrect fallen units. I liked the colorful cast of characters that were either entertaining for their one gimmick or for having good support conversations. There's a lot of interactions in the game between your army of units and the game making you customize your Robin literally self inserts you into all that. I also like the other things it did, such as using seals to reclass your units into other or stronger classes that use different weapons, and the pair up mechanic that gives units more edge against other singular units. But yeah I really liked the characters a lot like Chrom and Lucina, and the suspenseful points with Emmeryn, Validar, and Grima. And when you beat the game there's still a lot more, such as maps that let you recruit your former enemies. I actually even bought some of the dlc maps. I also battled other peoples armies through streeptass. Overall it was a really fun game once it took off with making my units super powerful and plowing through everything. Made all those postgame outrealm maps more engaging with all the stat boosters and different skills for each unit. Awakening makes me want to try older Fire Emblem games as well as Three Houses, eventually.
#7: Undertale (2015)
I have never really dabbled in PC games for no particular reason other than not having my own dedicated good computer that I could download whatever I want and know how to configure stuff to make it work. The only games I really played on PC before then were 3D Space Cadet Pinball, JumpStart 1st grade, and Zoombinis. But one day, I saw someone livestream this game that came out recently, and it looked really nice, and the music was really good. It was the ruins theme. It like, made me feel nostalgic for something I wasn't even nostalgic for yet. At the time I had a decent giant mediocre windows something laptop that could actually use Steam so I made it work and actually bought the game right away since it wasn't that expensive. I went into Undertale thinking that playing a game where you didn't have to kill your enemies was a neat concept. And then everything that came after that was a nice surprise. Really good characters and music, neat simplistic art, a good story that could go in multiple ways, and really nice touches everywhere. The game really likes peppering all the little things all over the place and its got a lot of charm. Like, could I do this and this? Yes you can. Can I do this differently and then talk to this guy? Yes, and they'll have a different dialogue for it too. Lots of surprises in general from something I didn't expect something from, which worked a lot for me. I spent only a couple days playing a playthrough and a half but it was one of those games where you just kept thinking about it. All the different character personalities, their complexities throughout the different timelines, the easter eggs out of time, and just how funny or emotional some parts of the game are. It was a really unique experience for me and that makes me look forward to Deltarune whenever that releases in full.
#6: Splatoon (2015)
Before Splatoon, I didn't really like or play shooter games that much. Didn't really know why. I tried a couple Call of Dutys at my friends place and I thought the multiplayer zombie mode was neat. But when Splatoon was announced, it seemed like just my type of thing. Some wacky shooter game that offered something unique and rolled with its new concept. You could even say that it was... fresh. Back when I got the first Splatoon game I played a whole lot of it. I was blown away by how much the Wii U gamepad was utilized and how many different weapons you could use as time went on and the just plain fun of painting turf and splatting other people. Different rotations of maps to play on, a roster of weapons big enough for you to choose something that fits you perfectly, a whole bunch of customization to dress up your squid kid in, and a neat single player campaign. My main weapon of choice was the Krack-On Splat roller for its beacons that could let me help other people get across to other places in the map and the Kraken that would let me be invincible and splat other people instantly. Maybe sometimes I'd use the Splash-o-matic, but I really liked painting and beating people up with an oversized paint roller. I really liked playing it online with friends whenever I could because it was pretty much my first real online team-up game too. I feel like Splatoon was a very lightning in a bottle new IP that really took off and I'm glad it did. I really got into the turf wars, the ranked matches, the influx of many experienced players and lag, the extremely competitive nature of having two teams go at war with each other with paint. Splatoon 2 retreads a lot of ground the first one does but its still good and does some new things. I miss being able to tap the Wii U gamepad and do a tactical nuke ink strike and just look down instead of pressing a button to look at the map but you can't replicate those kinds of features. I feel like Splatoon was one of the best things the Wii U had to offer that made the most out of the console's potential. I also especially can't wait for whatever the franchise does in the future after being very impressed with the Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion DLC.
#5: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014)
For platformers, I really enjoy what Donkey Kong dishes out compared to the 2D Mario games. Nowadays New Super Mario Bros. games just look very bland. A very by-the-numbers thing that plays it safe and never changes. But with Tropical Freeze, instead of the same world themes over and over, and the same Koopaling boss fights, and the same "ba" that's in every music track, you have all sorts of creativity and challenge oozing in every level. I only ever played the first Donkey Kong Country game before so it was my first Donkey Kong game in awhile. Every level has its own theme and gimmick and it always feels fresh. The bosses take more than three jumps to the head to be defeated which is clearly very innovative. Donkey Kong is also aided by Diddy, Dixie, and Cranky Kong, but with Diddy only giving you a slight glide, and Cranky making you go straight down, for a game like Tropical Freeze you'll mostly be using Dixie for the extra jump. And then there's Funky Kong, who is designed to make playing Tropical Freeze seem like such a breeze. he can do nearly everything that Donkey Kong can't. He can use his surfboard to go on spikes. He is intelligent enough to use a snorkel to breathe underwater infinitely without having to resort to breathing in air bubbles. Suffice to say playing as Funky Kong makes the game even more enjoyable, and also more easily accessible. Which is good, because the difficulty is there and you'll need every trick you can think of if you want to collect everything in this game. Apart from the Kong letters, there's also puzzle pieces that are hidden very well throughout each level, and you'll really have to think about where they are and what places in each level they could be. It makes every level even more engaging because of that. The puzzle pieces also unlock more things, like new levels, which are especially challenging. It doesn't feel too much of a chore to keep trying at some levels because of how fast the game puts you back into it. The levels and music are really just a lot to take in. There are certain levels that go off the rails of what you would expect and have twists and turns that make for a pretty unique experience.
#4: Kirby: Planet Robobot (2016)
Kirby for the past couple games has also been doing more or less the same thing, albeit with a highlighting gimmick to differentiate iterations. But sometimes some more new ideas and characters and copy abilities appear that kinda justifies this. With Robobot, the gimmick this time is well integrated into the game and is a lot better than one-time super attacks. But besides the robobot armor, the game itself is oozing with good level design themed around the mechanizations of the world that other Kirby games pale to comparison in. The story continues to interconnect other pieces of Kirby history with other games by starting up even more Kirby Lore, a real thing that has happened this decade, and it's quickly became one of my favorite Kirby game because of how many good facets of it go together well. It also adds some fun new copy abilities, such as Doctor, which lets you shoot out pills and chemical explosions, and ESP, which has you control a psychic blast and teleport. Star Allies doesn't hold certain candles to Robobot in my opinion, and it shows. For improving upon Triple Deluxe, and being another Kirby 3DS game with the same assets but with a new direction, the additional experience that went into Robobot is another factor that makes it better than Triple Deluxe, I think. I also like the progression of fighting giant mechanized enemies, to special robobot ability sequences such as turning into a shooter segment, and going against a planet sized final boss. It gets more crazy and exciting as it goes on with Kirby being the one to take down an intergalactic company and continues to do surprising things even in its postgame, such as having dark matter appear again in Meta Knight's postgame quest, and a ridiculously difficult true arena minigame with a final boss that will instakill you if you mess up. Robobot was a nice surprise for Kirby that proves that the series can still retain more creativity with its unchanging formula
#3: Pokémon Moon (2016)
One of the first Pokémon games I really played was Pokémon Colosseum. When I first picked up Pokémon X, I liked the jump to the new dimension for the franchise, and graphically, I liked how closer Sun and Moon looked like to the Colosseum games. Sun and Moon improve upon X and Y in a lot of ways, such as actually having engaging characters you would actually remember, and a gimmick that's a bit more integrated than exclusive species forms. I unfortunately haven't played Pokèmon Sword or Shield in 2019, but some parts of Sun and Moon are a lot better in some regards. Sun and Moon's culture of traversing through a tropical archipelago region with a format different than gyms offers a bit of fresh air than what traditionally entails a region. It feels pretty comfy as a setting that also has nice themings across all the islands. Fighting a boss enemy pokémon who can call for assisting boss partners is yet another interesting series mechanic I wish had stayed in some way or form. Having trainers appear in the battle screen all the time is another welcomed addition to the series that makes battles more immersive. Having the legendary pokémon be an evolved form of another pokèmon present throughout the game makes it feel more personal than most legendary encounters. Team Skull, being the best villianous team in years, feel like an improvement over the same desire to acquire a legendary pokémon, with even the other opposing faction, the Aether foundation, focusing more on Nihilego in the non-Ultra versions. Retaining a customizable main character with skin tones and clothing an all is a step in the right direction. Overall Sun and Moon feels like a better experience than X and Y for again, being a game on the same console that improves upon its last iteration. Different changes and experiences such as removing HMs for rideable pokémon add up to an enjoyable experience. Having an interesting character such as Lillie and Guzma makes it a bit more memorable. Introducing more alien pokémon with legitimately alien designs as well as regional variant forms of the same pokémon makes the newer pokémon more unique. Generation 7 had, unsurprisingly, some very good designs, such as Pyukumuku, Buzzwole, and Decidueye.
#2: Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
Mario Odyssey is a great new breath of fresh air and originality in a franchise that hasn't had a major collectathon 3d platformer in awhile. From start to finish, it is a joy to play and mess around with the physics of Mario and the captures. It has a lot of immersive worlds that you just want to explore in and the game encourages that wholeheartedly, scattering moons everywhere. The controls of the game are very fluid and every action feels just right, with the addition of Cappy's hat moves. The introduction of the well known capture technique opens up an infinite realm of possibilities. Mario becoming something else, and then using the hosts abilities to solve another puzzle is very creative and never gets old. Finding the very hidden moons and purple coins in every world invites even more exploration of each world and knowing every part of them. Every world has its own charm and appeal, most agreeing to the New Donk City location and its reintroduction of Pauline as well as a concert segment with a lyrical song in a Mario game that isn't actually that bad. I particularly like the vast desert world of the sand kingdom with its Tostarena town and pyramid ruins, as well as Bowsers very Japanese castle and the Moon. the costume customization was a nice surprise for a main Mario game, another mechanic that is more unlocked as you move forward. Having various quests that challenge your understanding of the mechanics such as races that even go on online leaderboards is another nice thing that is there. Overall, the game keeps getting more crazy with every situation Mario and Cappy find themselves in, with being-jumping courses designed specifically for each enemy character, to incorporating this into even boss fights, and even most surprisingly, having the final sequence of the game be possessing bowser to escape from a crumbling moon cavern. Mario Odyssey is endlessly creative and I can't wait to see what happens in another game like it. Since Galaxy 2, I have been missing a Mario game like that and this game was the answer to that.
#1: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
Smash Ultimate brings together an all-star cast of all-star casts, and improves upon Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U in that regard. it pretty much makes its predecessors obsolete, even more than previous smash games. Its faster and less campier than Smash 4, and manages to do the monumental task of pleasing nearly everybody with character choices. It even tries to have as many cameos as possible and a story mode in its world of light quest, a series of very themed event matches cleverly and creatively tied to a character, with sprawling across a map to recruit more fighters and fight some bosses, which is a bit of a step up from Smash 4, which had no bosses and had Smash Tour. The switches hardware makes it the whole of For 3DS/Wii U's parts, whose entire point was to play one smash game on the TV and one smash game on the go. It makes it easier to have even more preferable ways to play, while not sacrificing anything. Its clear the main focus of the game is in its record breaking roster, seeing as how there isn't much else than the main fighting mode. Home Run contest wasn't initially a mode, All-Star mode is a multi man fight, and the nature of spirits mode and the removal of even trophies show what came first, and that's good. Of what they could still do, the classic mode is more unique than in previous iterations. Making a special themed route for each character with different ending fights is very fun and is one of the few smash games where you actually actively want to clear classic with every single character. The inclusion of nearly every stage from the series along with final destination and battlefield versions gives a setting everyone will like, on a familiar or slowly increasing set of new stages. In smash, there's a character for everyone, me, I have preferences for Villager, King K. Rool, Pac-Man and several others. The size of the roster encourages me to try out as many characters as I can in one sitting. The post launch DLC continues to go above and beyond with more unique and requested characters added, even with their own stage and music. Adding even more characters such as the heroes from Dragon Quest and Banjo & Kazooie makes Ultimate being even more of a dream pick roster game than it already was. And with going for another home run for even more DLC characters until 2021, I can't see any way any Smash game after this game will top this one.
Some honorable mentions include Pokken Tournament for putting together a pokemon fighting game with a different enough roster and a pretty complex rock paper scissors type gameplay with lots of combos, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland for a nice long awaited 2.5D Kirb platformer with some nice ideas and co-op play, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for just expanding upon more of Galaxy’s concepts wildly.
