Unranked ~ Capcom Fighting Collection

Putting this at the bottom since it feels unfair to compare a collection to individual games. That being said, this is a fantastic and cohesive collection. The whole Darkstalkers series is on modern platforms with training mode and rollback now, that's awesome. The rest of the games are these miscellaneous Capcom titles from the 90s that all connect and reference each other, it's really cool. This has the best menu music of any collection other than Sonic Mega Collection

45. Fire Emblem: Awakening

Chrom makes me feel things but that isn't enough to save this game. Combat devolves into pair-up spam, and the game just gives you unkillable ez minmaxing units for free. This is all tied together with a story that sorta just felt like going thru the motions of series indulgent tropes. And wow, I probably would've been nicer to this if the ending wasn't bottom of the barrel trash

44. WarioWare: Touched!

Commits to a "every minigame is a touchscreen thing" gimmick and I sorta just get bored fast compared to the other wariowares... sorry wario. i love you

43. Pokémon X & Y

Pokemon Y is technically the first game I played on this account chronologically since it was the game I beat in January 2020.....Wow!!! This silly lil account sure has come a long way. oh and btw i dont like this one sorry
Full Review (Written 2 Years Later)

42. Bugsnax

Definitely charming for completely earnest reasons, but it's like 70% fat. Instead of doing the same puzzle 50 times I think these developers should make a visual novel, or something. They're really funny and they have kero kero bonito it'd be good

41. Celeste Classic

I waited like a billion years for this sequel and what I got was pretty good. Definitely satisfied the part of my brain that likes seeing animals be cute and do cute wild things. I think it lacks the puzzle-solving edge the original has, and doesn't progress the photography much either. But it's neat!

40. Kirby: Triple Deluxe

This is another clean & polished platformer from Nintendo's early 2010s, although this game doesn't stand out much in retrospect. Feels like it has this super zoomed in perspective that leads to levels being compact but repetitive--every level is built out of the same few shapes.

39. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I couldn't really give you a deep reason why I don't like this game. It's hyper-polished, almost certainly the most content packed game in the series, but uh, I dunno. I think I don't like cars.

38. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Incredibly charming, consistently fantastic ideas. Some real visionary shit. wait ignore the rating dont look there no nonononon

37. Bayonetta 3

This one sucks less than 2 but is like, dramatically more embarassing than that game in every way
Full Review

36. WarioWare D.I.Y.

35. Black Bird

I'm sure a lot of people were initially disappointed at the idea of an 'episodic' FFVII remake, but that's what makes this game interesting. The hyper-detailed take on a relatively small aspect of FFVII breathes so much life into the world as a whole. The combat is like Kingdom Hearts! The sidequests suck. It's great

34. Liberation Maiden

This is basically a bunch of the most talented people in the industry coming together to make a cute little romp you can clear in less than an hour, and that's fine!! It's like 5 dollars. This shit is even worse than Kid Icarus: Uprising for lefties though, my left hand was in shambles after playing it for 20 minutes with slightly bad posture. oops!!!!!!!!!!

33. Donkey Kong Country

Many Games take from its fast pace and bursts of speed, and games take from its ultra-precise level design, but you never see both at once. Mostly cuz both at once is kinda weird. The first time I rolled into a group of enemies and got a huge speed boost, launching me off the side of the cliff had me kinda baffled, but hey, I respect it

32. Kirby's Dream Land 3

On paper I really like this game, it has gorgeous hardware-decimating visuals, music and aesthetics that really defined the series, and a fun progression system. Hard to ignore how wonky the physics are, or how poorly the game does of setting up the information of its puzzles most of the time. Believe me though, this is a 3/5 I genuinely have a lot of attachment to.

31. Kirby: Planet Robobot

Notably more balanced in variety than Triple Deluxe, but still has a lot of general identity problems, like I can never tell if I'm playing a platformer for babies or a beat-em-up for children. Still pretty impressive how cool the aesthetic direction is here, though. Obviously the game that every nerd at HAL was begging to make for years

30. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

As having played the 3DS Kirby games right before I played this one, what stood out the most to me is the variety in level design. Genuinely good step forward for the series, but still feels like it can't get over some of Kirby's series trappings - the collectibles and 100% still suck!

29. The World Ends With You

Earlier on this list, I wrote how Kingdom Hearts feels like it'd be the best thing ever if you're like 8 years old. This game is the best thing ever if you're like....13? I dunno. Enjoyed the story more than I expected but the gameplay is so completely obtuse that the ludonarrative appeal was kinda lost on me.

28. Fossil Fighters

Give a child with dysfunctional amounts of OCD "pokemon but with dinosaurs" and 3 people will be dead by the end of the day. It'll be a bloodshed
Anyways it's pretty good it's surprisingly texturally unique I like it

27. Anodyne

At first I saw it as a bit of a modest beginnings sorta game with weak combat and boss fights, but the puzzles here genuinely evolve themselves very well, and it ended up being pretty satisfying. The post-game mechanic where the game just lets you straight up replace tiles in the overworld and glitch the game out to find secrets is amazing

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Tons to love here, creative and beautiful; feels like the preface to modern Nintendo platformers. But... at some point, I just had to admit I don't like Yoshi's character kit at all. Aiming eggs is a drag, managing your eggs never results in meaningful gameplay. Jumping on enemies often makes me feel like I missed out on a meaningful reward, even though jumping on enemies is obviously the most fun option. Level design also just kinda lights on fire sometimes (particularly in worlds 3 and 5)

25. Puyo Puyo Tetris

A Puyo Puyo x Tetris crossover isn't an amazing pitch on its own, but I had a ton of fun with it. The story mode is perfect for simultaneously teaching you the intricacies of both games. The mini-games tackle specific niches of muscle memory and reaction. That voice actor cast is seriously overqualified, by the way.

24. Wild Guns

cowboys and robots = cool

i had more here but i deleted it. this is all i gotta say

23. The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH sobs
Reminds me a ton of the sorta lower budget unpolished but undeniably charming not so game-y games you'd stumble upon from RPG maker, or something. The puzzles here are pretty been-there-done-that - it'd be pretty hard to give it any higher of a rating, but for the scale of the project it's practically perfect.

22. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Less so a fancy progressive Metroidvania, and moreso a lightly non-linear corridor heavy action game with a whole lot of secrets. It reminded me of the original Castlevania games, feels a bit more grounded than Symphony - feels very fitting for the GBA, though it might also feel more vestigial playing it elsewhere nowadays. The dialogue translation does something to my brain

21. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

The Marvel VS Capcom to Streets of Rage 4's Street Fighter Alpha. Exchanges its sort of methodical positioning and routed combos for high speed combat with anything-into-anything combos. A lot feels unbalanced, especially in multiplayer, and my eyes kept getting lost when 4 of the playable characters look the same by necessity, but still a great time! Really hope this team keeps making stuff of increasing traction cuz they are the best beat em up guys around.

20. Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion

The aesthetics are so on point; every time you enter the train station you see new backgrounds through the windows, these deep sea creatures are sleeping, reading books, or wearing headphones... Combine that with a rock solid lo-fi bandcamp sound, this whole underground escape storyline, and this obsession for 80s and 90s nostalgia through the lens of the internet (this game is in fact vaporwave) and you got yourself some brutal isolation vibes. Sorry if this is a corny observation, but it's kinda shocking this game wasn't a product of pandemic culture (what the fuck it's 4 years old now)
and uh, gameplay good????????

19. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Occasionally wonderful puzzles but a marred pacing filled with comparatively simple ones, hammed to oblivion romance dialogue, genuinely bad tonal whiplash sometimes. All of these are true, but...that ending hit me like a boulder rolling down a thousand yard hill onto my SOUL.

BY THE WAY, I had the pleasure of playing this on real DS hardware using NoOneee's text speed mod. Everyone should do this!!!

18. Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix

Kingdom Hearts is whimsical, filled with raw pre-teen angst, and feels like the type of game you'd think is peak art at age 7. I mean that as a compliment. The camera literally made me nauseous though

17. AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative

Weird game by weird people that's touching, deeply personal, incredibly elaborate, and also kinda stupid and corny sometimes! I LOVE RYUKI.
Full Review

16. Kirby Super Star

I play this game every year or so, not always to the end, but it's a joy from the start. Bring a friend along, and it's just a super funny time. You will walk into spikes you literally cannot not jump into and instantly explode and your friend will throw a power-up at you and now both of you will feel disappointed

15. Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale

I've seen this one twice at this point, and I'm really confident this game has a lovely script and storyline. Love the vagueness of it all; the playful weaving of metaphor and children's imagination. I think the post-game grind is very silly, definitely feels like some investor was not satisfied with a 5 dollar video game only lasting 3 hours

14. Splatoon 3

The singleplayer campaign for this one was honestly a huge treat, the most fun I've ever had with Splatoon. Because of this, this was the one I told myself "I'm gonna play it and I'm gonna not drop it!!!" And uh, I did drop it. I didn't get to this in the review but they should definitely throw on some accessibility features for these controls, I do not want to learn how to flick my wrists for one shooter
Full Review

13. Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition

The first Pokemon games ever are basically exactly as confident in their ideas as like, all of them. That's pretty impressive! Pokemon Yellow specifically isn't a great definitive edition. it's more like a Christmas special than a deluxe version
Full Review

12. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet

Obviously trashfire AAA through and through, but also it's Pokemon and it's arguably the best formated Pokemon game ever, so that's gotta mean something. A hard game to parse in how genuinely well designed it is, but the things it set me up to do were a ton of fun.
Full Review

11. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Maybe one of the most content estranged games I've played in my life. But also... Have you ever headshot someone out of the middle of a shield-skateboard? This game owns.

10. Streets of Rage 2

Almost every time I went to play a classic highly rated snes game this year I was disappointed, and every time I checked out a classic sega genesis game I had never beaten, it turned out to actually have aged amazingly

9. Mario Party Superstars

The way everyone goes into a Mario Party session knowing that they are going to get cheated out of a win, and still feels disappointed in the end is exactly why it's crack cocaine 2022 video gameing. Love this shit.

guys i don't think they're updating mario party superstars this year

8. Pokémon Snap

A secret game! A game about secrets. Represents one of the more unique creative endeavors of Nintendo's 64 era, it is delightfully video game-y despite the premise.

7. Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Obviously scuffed but surprisingly deeper than surface impressions, takes on industry trappings like a pro but fails on a lot of the stuff that Pokemon was already struggling at. Hearing 2022 Hitomi Sato scores sound this good made me cry a few times.
Full Review

6. Radical Dreamers: Le Trésor Interdit

Used to stare at this game on Wikipedia wondering what its deal was, vaguely longing for a translation. The absolute antithesis to Chrono Trigger, contrasting a reputation of flawlessness and perfect aging with an odd unfinished messy esoteric adventure game. It's the perfect sequel. I cried at the end.

5. Xenoblade Chronicles 3

One of the least perfect all time good video games. This game constantly puts together these incredibly poignant dialogues that feel powerful and embrace this feeling of like... The joys of the journey, the little moments. Some real appreciation of our juiciest JRPG experiences, getting a bit too invested into a plot and feeling emotional when the characters just talk to eachother. The plot isn't fully realized, the villains are studio trigger-expy cardboard cutouts, and the combat doesn't really culminate into much, but I think being nice to this game is worth it.

4. Chrono Trigger

The future and past of Square x Enix come together to flex their craftsmanship. There's this almost tangible melancholy to how everyone on the team knew that we couldn't make games like this forever. Gotta appreciate what they gave us.

3. Final Fantasy VII

Absurdly well paced, hyper-intuitive combat that lets you build your own archetypes from scratch. A Genuinely built out storyline about identity and existing in an increasingly hostile world with expectations crashing on your shoulder. Looks kinda stupid. All of these things are true....and more.
Full Review

2. Celeste

Played this game for the first time just about 5 years ago, revisiting it made me feel a lot of things. so like. yeah. good video game. do i gotta explain myself. do i gotta

1. Earthbound

Mother is a series I love an impossible amount. I have a lot to say about Earthbound, so to paraphrase.. Family, memories, nostalgia, the pains of growing up, the loss of innocence, and loving the world for the many wonderful kinds of people in it - Earthbound is flowing with thoughtful things to say about these topics from many unassuming corners. It's the best! I can pretty confidently say this is my best game experience of 2022, not just because it's my fav :) but because I played it with a friend!