As anyone who has read my reviews knows, I tend to be very sparing when handing out 9/10s or 10/10s. While mainstream outlets tend to hand them out like penny candy when a game is promoted enough, I make games (and films, for that matter) work for those grades. I have it so that when a work earns a passing grade, even if it’s a 7/10, it’s a cause for celebration. With me having awarded no 10/10s in this block of 50 reviews, all we have left to discuss are the ones I awarded a 9/10. These are the games I point towards when talking about the hallmarks of a given era or decade, so if you’ve haven’t played them, check them out right away.

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(9/10)

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5. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Originally reviewed on: October 28, 2018

Yoshi’s Island stands above not only its follow-ups, but any of the 2D Mario games due to its excellent level design, inventive gameplay, and memorable boss fights. Speaking of which, the Yoshi subseries is quite a bit different from Nintendo’s other big-name franchises. While Mario was consistently good and Fire Emblem and The Legend of Zelda had their ups and downs over the years, the Yoshi subseries had an incredible debut installment, achieving a level of quality none of its follow-ups were able to match. The problem is that any later game would either attempt to be “like Yoshi’s Island, except not” or would become overly gimmicky such was the case with Yoshi’s Story or Yoshi Topsy-Turvy.

Though each individual Nintendo fan may come up with a different reason as to why later Yoshi games couldn’t serve as a worthy successor to the one that started it all, I personally feel that Yoshi’s Island is a little like Uncharted 2. What I mean is that Yoshi’s Island managed to be good in so many unique ways from its art design to its self-contained scenario that it would be nearly impossible to create a straight sequel without it being stuck in this game’s shadow. It’s the kind of masterpiece that really could have only been released in 1995 when 2D games had reached their peak and the designers of which were firing on all cylinders. Any later attempt to recreate what made this game so good only grasped that these ideas worked so well without really pondering why they worked. In fact, the means to make a game this good in this specific way may be forever lost, and that’s perfectly fine because it means later creators must find new ways to make masterpieces.

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4. OneShot

Originally reviewed on: February 3, 2018

When I started writing game reviews, I always felt that game critics should strive to be on the level of their film-loving counterparts. As of this writing, I no longer want that to be true. In fact, I believe these two critical circles to have the exact opposite problems as one another. One can theoretically count on a film critic to review indie films and big-budget Hollywood productions as though they’re on equal footing, yet in practice, they tend to favor the former for good or for ill. Meanwhile, game critics are so close to the big-name developers themselves that one can count on them to regularly overlook indie titles. The only meaningful exceptions arise whenever the indie game in question is somehow making a lot of waves upon release, which, in the scene’s earliest days, was often accomplished by the creators going out of their way to touch as many raw nerves as possible.

Now, what does any of this have to do with OneShot? The answer is simple. While film critics have their own set of problems, if a film as innovative as OneShot appeared, they wouldn’t have let it fall by the wayside the way game critics did (assuming it wasn’t subject to the “hey, we were wrong to bash this work; it’s a masterpiece now” clause). It’s not all doom and gloom, for I can say this ties into the one of the biggest advantages gamers have over cinephiles. While I find the latter tend not to stray far from their comfort zone, a significant faction of gamers will latch onto something innovative when push comes to shove. Indeed, they were far more responsible for Undertale becoming the sleeper hit of 2015 than the press, who likely would’ve ignored it had it not been for its memetic spread. The same principle applies to OneShot, albeit to a quieter effect.

Someone writing for Polygon believed Gone Home to belong to a master class of affecting storytelling. I feel that person should’ve waited three years for OneShot to come out before writing that because it is far more worthy of that description. Though its gameplay is minimalistic, it beats Gone Home or any given walking simulator handily because it’s not ashamed about what it is. OneShot bends the medium in ways few artists dared dream, and it’s much more forward-looking as a storytelling experience than almost anything the Western AAA industry issued in the 2010s (or even the 2010s film industry, for that matter).

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3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Originally reviewed on: May 27, 2018

The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are fascinating case studies when trying to parse their receptions. Fans were dreading the release of The Wind Waker only for it to be retroactively declared a masterpiece when said fans realized they were betting against the house. Meanwhile, they were looking forward to the release of Twilight Princess, believing it to be the return to form the series needed. Now, The Wind Waker is popularly considered the better of the two games whereas Twilight Princess is often dismissed as Ocarina of Time 2.0.

Personally, I feel it’s an unfair assessment because there’s quite a lot more to it than that. Yes, speaking in retrospect, I can see a lot of what made Skyward Sword so tedious in Twilight Princess, a lot of dungeon items are useless outside of the areas in which they’re found, and one could make an argument that the dungeon design is less exploratory than that of The Wind Waker. However, I don’t think any of this matters in the end because Twilight Princess is a well-made game that has one of the series’ most creative scenarios on top of a solid dungeon design that impresses even to this day. Also, Midna. Fans may be divided on its quality, but I feel it managed to surpass the admittedly still superb Ocarina of Time.

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2. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth – Prosecutor’s Path

Originally reviewed on: May 20, 2018

One of the most intriguing things I learned when researching this game’s development process was that the writing staff spent five days and four nights in a place called the Capcom Manor to work on the game and brainstorm plot points. It turns out they took cues from the famed filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who would similarly gather writers in a hotel room to write scripts. Because of this, one prevailing thought was going through my head as I wrote this review: “were Eshiro and Yamazaki channeling him as they made this game?” Every Ace Attorney game before Prosecutor’s Path had interesting story beats, but never before had they complemented each other this well. There’s not a trace of fluff or filler to be found; every new episode successfully builds off the one that preceded it, forming a memorable story with incredible twists and a strong cast. Spirit of Justice was a great game itself, but Prosecutor’s Path is in a league of its own, being one of the greatest story-heavy games ever made. I can also say that, as of this writing, it is bar-none my favorite Japan-exclusive game, managing to defeat the flawed-but-still-great Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War.

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1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Originally reviewed on: August 31, 2018

Part of what made the meme-laden writing of Tri Force Heroes or the meme-spewing Ghirahim in Skyward Sword so disappointing is the knowledge that Nintendo doesn’t need to do any of that to be good. In hindsight, they come across as attempts on Nintendo’s part to try to be cool. In reality, they’ve never been cool. This assertion was proven when enthusiasts began flocking towards Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991. Sonic the Hedgehog was undeniably cool – early nineties cool, specifically – and the way his debut game overshadowed Super Mario World would set the tone for how Nintendo’s games would be received from that point onward. Their experimental titles would get ignored only for fans to realize they passed up gems and retroactively declare them to be masterpieces. Even back when they were the only game in town, they really stood out like a sore thumb when you compare their work to other facets of eighties culture. So having established that Nintendo has never been cool, I can say that there is absolutely no problem with that. Nintendo has always been about being fun, not cool, which allows their work to transcend the eras in which they debuted.

This brings us to Breath of the Wild. By the 2010s, Nintendo had a fair share of detractors – particularly among the independent critics at the time. As such, it was commonly insinuated that a Nintendo game receiving any kind of significant acclaim was the result of critics refusing to take off their nostalgia goggles. However, I would have to argue that gamers favoring cool over fun wasn’t a problem limited to fans, but also critics. With critics having to hype the latest trendy AAA release as a perfect experience, they often shot themselves in the foot when the next one was somehow even more perfect. Consequently, by 2017, I realized that the overwhelming critical acclaim Nintendo games got were some of the only consensuses I could blindly trust. Because Nintendo seemed to go out of their way to defy the cultural trends at the time and deliver experiences that were fun above all else, I knew they didn’t earn those accolades by fitting in with what was popular at the time.

This brings us to Breath of the Wild. It is easily one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played – not only in a visual sense, but a meta one as well. Hidemaro Fujibayashi and Eiji Aonuma managed to explore the open-world design in ways few Western developers had never considered. The result is that even when I, and many others, were feeling the effects of open-world burnout thanks to the Western AAA industry deciding that “linearity = bad”, Breath of the Wild still managed to deliver an experience that felt completely fresh. The team behind this game should be proud; they took everything that made the original The Legend of Zelda so memorable in 1986 and passed that feeling onto a new generation of enthusiasts in 2017. As one of the best games I’ve ever played, it’s the perfect choice to round out this list.

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And that’s that! With me having ranked the 51 games I’ve reviewed between Majora’s Mask and now, here’s how they fare compared to the first 100 games I talked about. New and revised entries are bolded.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
2. Undertale
3. Planescape: Torment
4. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
6. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth – Prosecutor’s Path
7. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
8. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
10. OneShot
11. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
12. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
13. Metroid Prime
14. Chrono Trigger
15. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
16. Treasure of the Rudras
17. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice
18. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
19. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
20. Resident Evil 4
21. Earthbound
22. Super Metroid
23. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
24. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
25. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
26. Final Fantasy V
27. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
28. Super Mario World
29. Super Mario Bros. 3
30. Super Mario 64
31. Shadow of the Colossus
32. Bravely Default
33. Papers, Please
34. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
35. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies
36. BioShock Infinite
37. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations
38. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
39. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
40. Final Fantasy VI
41. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past
42. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
43. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
44. Live A Live
45. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
46. Far Cry 3
47. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
48. Metroid Fusion
49. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
50. Metal Gear Solid
51. Rakuen
52. Final Fantasy IV
53. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
54. ActRaiser
55. Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel
56. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
57. Metroid: Samus Returns
58. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
59. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
60. The Legend of Zelda
61. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
62. BioShock
63. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
64. Breath of Fire II
65. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All
66. Ico
67. Metroid: Zero Mission
68. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
69. Blast Corps
70. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
71. Super Mario Bros. 2
72. VVVVVV
73. Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
74. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
75. BioShock 2
76. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
77. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
78. Super Mario Bros.
79. System Shock 2
80. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
81. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
82. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
83. Braid
84. Breath of Fire
85. Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation
86. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
87. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
88. Far Cry 4
89. Final Fantasy
90. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
91. King’s Quest III: To Heir is Human
92. The Witness
93. Metal Gear
94. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
95. Earthbound Beginnings
96. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
97. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
98. Laura Bow: The Colonel’s Bequest
99. Mother 3
100. Sin and Punishment
101. King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown
102. Lufia & the Fortress of Doom
103. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
104. Super Mario Land
105. Final Fantasy III
106. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
107. X
108. Metroid
109. Metroid II: Return of Samus
110. Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line
111. Dragon Quest
112. Final Fantasy II
113. The Stanley Parable
114. Spec Ops: The Line
115. The Last of Us
116. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
117. The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
118. Beyond: Two Souls
119. Yoshi’s Story
120. Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
121. Limbo
122. King’s Quest II: Romancing the Throne
123. Gone Home
124. Sonic Heroes
125. Shadowgate
126. The Beginner’s Guide
127. Call of Duty: Ghosts
128. Metroid: Other M
129. Snake’s Revenge
130. Sonic R
131. Haze
132. Lester the Unlikely
133. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures
134. Bokosuka Wars
135. Friday the 13^th (NES)
136. Quest for Camelot
137. Takeshi’s Challenge
138. Deadly Towers
139. Rise of the Robots
140. Where’s Waldo
141. Ride to Hell: Retribution
142. Transformers: Mystery of Convoy
143. Anubis II
144. Ninjabread Man
145. Isle of the Dead
146. King’s Knight
147. Nerves of Steel
148. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
149. Metal Morph
150. Dragon’s Lair (NES)

Full disclosure: Since my last milestone post, some of my opinions have changed slightly. Though I don’t remember all of the scoring changes I’ve made since then, I will list some of the more notable ones.

• My stance when it came to works with weak endings has changed slightly. The highest score such a work can receive is a 5/10 as opposed to a 6/10. I made this change because a 6/10 is still a work I can ultimately recommend when push comes to shove, and a work with a terrible ending is a difficult proposition no matter how good it may have been beforehand. Accordingly, games such as System Shock 2, Link’s Awakening, and Metal Gear Solid V have been dropped to that tier.
• Though Metroid Prime 3 remains my favorite Metroid game as of this writing, I reduced to a 9/10 because I feel in hindsight it’s not quite that once-in-a-lifetime achievement that warrants a 10/10.
• The original Uncharted was reduced to a 4/10 because it feels too prototypical compared to its sequels.
• Seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time demonstrated to me how Uncharted 2 falls short of capturing its essence. It’s still good, but I reduced it to a 7/10.
• Uncharted 3 was reduced to a 5/10 because I couldn’t come up with a metric that declares it a superior effort to System Shock 2.
• Because I feel BioShock Infinite is slightly better than the original Modern Warfare, the latter score was dropped to a 7/10 as well.
• Though Planescape: Torment is still a 10/10, I now consider Undertale the superior effort because it is more in tune with the medium when it comes to delivering its narrative.
• Even if it had more of an excuse than most cases, I probably wouldn’t award a game a passing grade if its cutscenes were as long as those of Metal Gear Solid 4. As such, it was dropped to a 6/10.

And for those who have been reading all this time, yes, I still maintain a spreadsheet of the games I’ve reviewed. This includes how many times I’ve awarded each grade and the decades in which each game originated.

We’re now headed into the last month of 2018, and I’ve been working on a new game review as usual. Given that it will be my 151^st review, I thought it appropriate to talk about a game in which the number 151 is particularly important.

I wish to thank you all once again for your continued support!