Gosh. I love all the games on this list. Any of these games could be in my top 10, but, there’s only 10 spots on that list, and way too many really great games competing for those spots! But, if you asked me in person, any of these games would be liable to slip their way up the list, depending on how front of mind these games are.

20 – Golden Sun

Year Released: 2001 | Platform: Gameboy Advance

Golden Sun was literally a buried treasure for me. I was a pre-teen, visiting a friends house, digging through his treasure chest, when I excivated a random GBA cart from the bottom. The sticker has been ripped off. I asked him what game this one, and he just shrugged, so I asked if I could take it home to try it out.

Golden Sun is an epic tale of young heroes with the ability to use Psynergy powers, trying to save the world. Satros and Merdini have kidnapped your childhood friends, stole the elemental stars, and are trying to light the four elemental lighthouses spread across the land. If they do, the world will surly end.

Along your journey, you’ll find some Dijinn, who can be assigned to different character to augment their powers. Also, many of your psynergy powers can be used in the overworld to solve puzzles, from forcing vines to grow, to reading peoples minds, to psychally moving distant objects.

It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly make Golden Sun special, but it holds a pretty special place in my heart, and it the kind of JRPG that I enjoy returning to every few years.

19 – Mass Effect 3

Year Released: 2013 | Platform: PlayStation 3 (multiplatform)

Much like how The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won 11 Oscars, not just because the individual movie was stellar, but it was more of a recognition of what the series had accomplished. Mass Effect 3 is one of my favourite games because it was the culmination of a trilogy of excellent sci-fi games. While the series changed gameplay styles from game to game, and some storylines were a little more boring than others, the overall experience was nothing short of phenomenal.

I was originally put off playing the entire Mass Effect series because of the voheminetly negative reaction around the finale. But for my money, I thought the ending was perfectly adequate.

What I really pine for, from Mass Effect 3, is the online multiplayer mode. It was seriously, so much fun. it was cooperative as you try to hold your own against a waves of enemies. I don’t usually play online modes, but that one was absolutely worth the time.

18 – Final Fantasy IV

Year Released: 1991 | Platform: Super Nintendo

I’ve been working my way through all the Final Fantasy games as part of a Final Fantasy Challenge, but even before I started that, Final Fantasy IV has been a favourite game of mine ever since I was a little kid.

I covered Final Fantasy IV in depth already based on my very recent replay, and the long and short of it is, Final Fantasy IV holds up. As I continue to go through the FF series, I’m seeing a lot of rehetoric that FF 6 through 10 was the “Golden era”. In my humble opinion, that era starts with FFIV, and if anyone asked where they should start with the series, I’d point them to Final Fantasy IV without hesitation.

17 – Banjo-Kazooie

Year Released: 1998 | Platform: Nintendo 64

Banjo-Kazooie has a pretty special place in my heart. I distinctly remember visiting a video store while visiting a friend, and I was allowed to rent one game for the weekend. My friend tried pushing me towards Doom 64, because “LOOK HOW AWESOME THE COVER IS” (to a 9 year old boy, anyway). But I’ve never been a big fan of gratuitous violence, instead I was drawn to the bright colours of Banjo-Kazooie.

A 3D platforming collecta-thon, Banjo-Kazooie has you tracking down 100 notes and 10 jiggies across 10 distinct worlds, before confronting the evil witch Guntilda. The worlds are focused and full of charm and secrets, but what really stands out for me is Grant Kirkhope’s absolutely iconic soundtrack. Every track for this game is an absolute hit, and even the re-jiggied album is one of my default soundtracks when I go for any drive that’s longer than 30 minutes.

I recently finished a “100%” replay of Banjo-Kazooie with my 4 year old daughter as a copilot, and had an amazing time doing so, but I made a terrible mistake. Turns out, on the 360 version, if you play Bottles puzzles before going to the Haunted Mansion level, the Banjo in the puzzle will collect 4 notes, and then they won’t be there when you make your way to the level, forever leaving your note count for that world at 96.

16 – Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Year Released: 1996 | Platform: SNES

Mario and friends embark on a JRPG adventure across the Mushroom Kingdom to collect stars to repair the star road, and kick Smithy out of Bowsers Castle. Square crafted a wonderful, charming adventure, and while the RPG elements are a bit of a back seat, I did really enjoy the active turn based battle system, where well timed button presses will net you extra damage, or give you a bit of a defensive buff. The isometric view is excellent, the story is goofy, but when I was a 8 year old playing this for the first time, I felt like there was a real gravity behind the events as they unfurled.

I did play the Switch remake, and I had a great time revisiting the game, but the extra bits that were added sucked any difficulty away from the game. I felt a profound sense of joy when Princess Peach joined the party, and how excited my daughter got when she saw that Peach was a playable character, and demanded she be present in every battle possible.

To this day, I pine to see Geno in Smash.

15 – Donkey Kong Country

Year Released: 1994 | Platform: SNES

To me, Donkey Kong Country is the quintessential Donkey Kong game. The music is atmospheric and perfect, the platforming gameplay is challenging, especially if you’re aspiring to collection all the KONG letters in each level. I really appreciated the inclusion of 2 players here, so I could play with my siblings. We bonded as we cursed those bastard bumble bees.

I know future DK games add so much more to the ape’s gameplay, including Donkey Kong Country Returns barrel jetpack, or Dixie Kongs hair twirling helicopter, but for me, Donkey Kong Country is the DK for me.

14 – Mega Man X

Year Released: 1993 | Platform: SNES

Oh the Blue Bomber. Mega Man X takes the jump and shoot gameplay and gives you a dash and wall jumps. Now you’re zipping through levels, leaping over chasms, and blasting baddies to kingdom come.

I’ll be honest here, I can’t even be unbiased. I friggin LOVE Mega Man X. I played it so much as a kid, that I just innately know the order in which to fight the bosses, where all 4 health packs are, and I can clear this game in like, 90 minutes.

The momentum and excitement of Mega Man X is brilliant. If I’m being really honest, Mega Man Zero 2 is probably the better game (of course it’s the better game, it has a friggin SWORD), but Mega Man X has such strong nostalgia, that I can’t help but put it here on my top games of all time list.

13 – Super Mario Galaxy

Year Released: 2007 | Platform: Nintendo Wii

Side note, sometimes when I write the year released for these games, I feel like I’m a billion years old.

ANYWAYS, Mario Galaxy is a stellar entry in the Mario franchise. The core quirk is that Mario flies around to little unique planetoids, and he collects stars. The gravity of the planets is so much fun, and pretty technically impressive on how well they pull it off. After all, it’s not uncommon for you to be running to the left, then for the camera to swing around, and suddenly you’re running to the right. A few times, Mario gets stuck running in circles, but coming to a stop resets the joystick orientation.

Being a Nintendo Wii game, there is an emphasis on pointer controls and stick waggles, but thankfully those moments are fairly few and far between and unobtrusive. Getting through the game is a joyful occasion, but getting that 100% will make you want to tear your hair out in a couple places. From the daredevil runs where you need to beat a boss with 1 hp, or trying to collect 100 purple coins. And when you do get those 120 stars, you get to do it again as Luigi!

I love Mario Galaxy. Mario Galaxy 2 is also excellent, but I generally really appreciate original games, rather than sequels that improve upon the path blazed by the first game. It also helps that Mario Galaxy is a part of the 3D All Stars collection, and I recently replayed it, while Galaxy 2 is locked to the Wii. Perhaps it’s about time I configure my Wii emulator and revisit that Galaxy.

12 – Slay the Spire

Year Released: 2019 | Platform: PC

I was determined to not like Slay the Spire. I immediately disliked the art style. And the animation. I played my first game, died before the first boss, and called the whole game unfair.

I don’t remember what brought me back, but at this point I’ve poured hundreds of hours into Slay the Spire. It’s an absolutely brilliant game that just keeps revealing new layers the more you dive into the system. Every character is a unique puzzle to solve, every decision matters, and most often I feel like my losses are due to my own poor mistakes rather than randomness just being a jerk.

The ascension levels change the game dramatically, getting and beating A20 with each character was an incredible challenge that I was so proud of overcoming. Every deck building roguelike gets compared to Slay the Spire and more often than not, I drop them after a few hours just to return to Slay the Spire.

11 – Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire

Year Released: 2002 | Platform: GBA

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire is my most played Pokemon game by a very wide margin. First, I was on a 10 hour road trip with my school one year, and one of the other boys wasn’t interested in playing it, so he let me take it. When I started, he only had 1 gym badge, and when I gave it back, I had just reached the Elite Four. But what made me replay this version of Pokemon so much, was that it was so easily emulate-able. Every smartphone and laptop I’ve owned had since I turned 18 has had a copy of Pokemon Sapphire on it, and it’s generally my favourite way to kill time. Spin up a new save, and blaze my way through the Hoenn region. I have a deep love for Ruby and Sapphire, from the music, to the new ‘mons introduced in 3rd gen, all the way down to the colourful sprites. Going from Pokemon Gold to Pokemon Sapphire was an incredible jump in graphics for my little 12 year old brain.

And as you’ll see next week, this isn’t even my favourite Pokemon game. 😉