10: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
The best game Naughty Dog has ever made, Uncharted 4 is a masterful example of the studio’s unique approach to the craft. The set pieces are grander than ever, the gameplay is fine-tuned to stand head-and-shoulders above its predecessors, and it has the best story in the series. Did I also mention it even includes a great multiplayer mode? What a game.
9.5/10
9: Bloodborne
If you ever wondered what it’d be like if a 3D Castlevania were done right, and could hold its own against the best entries in the series, Bloodborne is a pretty good idea. An absolutely fantastic game that just gets so much right. Bloodborne is insanely difficult and absurdly fun. I love it.
9.5/10
8: Mega Man 2
Seeing as Mega Man 2 out-places Super Mario Bros. 3, I think it’s safe to say Mega Man 2 is my favorite NES game. Part of me feels guilty that the NES’ best didn’t crack the top five, but I guess I’ve always been more of an SNES man. With that said, there’s no denying that Mega Man 2 is still one of the best video games ever made. Its intuitive gameplay, steep challenge, and awesome music haven’t aged a day.
9.5/10
7: Dark Souls 3
I thought long and hard about whether to place Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 higher on this list. In all honesty, it could have been either one. But Dark Souls 3 is fresher in the memory, and serves as a fitting end to the Souls series while also paying tribute to Bloodborne. So it barely gets the edge. Arguably the best game in one of gaming’s best series. Yeah, it’s damn good.
9.5/10
6: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
I’m going to just say it outright… Tropical Freeze is one of the best Nintendo games of all time, and easily one of their most underrated. It’s one of the best platformers ever, with insanely creative level design, one of the best difficulty curves I’ve ever seen, and an absolutely heavenly soundtrack by a returning David Wise! I’ve beat the game’s normal difficulty three times and its hard mode twice already. And it seems like every time I beat it, I want to do it all over again right afterwards. Why didn’t this game win more awards?
9.5/10
5: Super Mario 64
If there’s one game that leaves me asking “how did they do it?” it’s this one. How exactly did Nintendo get Super Mario 64 so right when it was their first foray into 3D? They got it so right, in fact, that not only did Super Mario 64 inspire virtually every 3D game that was to follow, but it still holds up as a fantastic game to play, while many far more recent titles struggle to hold up a year or two after release. It’s simply magic.
9.5/10
4: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
The Metroidvania genre was parented by two titles, Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I’ll still argue that Symphony is the best game the genre has produced. From gameplay, level structure, difficulty, variety and depth, it just doesn’t get any better than Symphony of the Night. And unlocking the inverted castle? No other gaming twist comes close.
10/10
3: Super Mario World
Anyone who ever said “nothing is perfect” clearly never played Super Mario World. Its gameplay is among the best of any game. Its music couldn’t be catchier. The graphics refuse to age. The level design is sublime. In a nutshell, Super Mario World gets everything right. Best launch title ever.
10/10
2: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Super Mario World and DKC2 are pretty interchangeable for the title of my favorite 2D platformer, as both polish the genre to perfection. But DKC2 gets the nudge here due in part to the soundtrack, which is unrivaled in all gaming. A perfect platformer that, like Mario World, just denies aging, Donkey Kong Country 2 betters its own predecessor in every conceivable way, making it one of the best sequels gaming has ever offered. Plus, it’s monkeys fighting pirate crocodiles.
10/10
1: Super Mario Galaxy 2
Take all of that perfection of Super Mario World, and transition it into 3D, and you have a good idea of what Super Mario Galaxy 2 is all about. Possibly the most perfectly crafted 3D video game ever made, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is everything that makes Mario games great, wrapped up into one amazing package. A masterpiece.
10/10
There you have it folks. All 150 video games I’ve reviewed so far, ranked! Again, don’t take these rankings as entirely absolute. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times the top four alone flip-flopped when compiling this list. The 9.5s were also difficult to rank. But, hopefully you enjoyed reading this, and hopefully this gets me a step closer to writing my all-time favorite video games list.
Here’s hoping for a lot more reviews!
Reblogged this on Miketendo64! The News, Reviews & Personal Views Website On All Things Nintendo and commented:
Wizard Dojo has amassed 150 video game reviews. Now the mad man behind the dojo seeks to rank every last one of them.
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Wow you have written so many reviews! Good work! I look forward to going through some of them in the future. Here’s to the next 150! Congrats!
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Thank you very much! I’ll try to keep up the pace to make sure you have something to read, should you want.
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Oh Superman 64… *shudders* My friend and I made our own mini game. We would see who could throw a boxy car and catch it before it hit the ground. It was at least more entertaining than those endless rings.
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I think anything that player could come up with would be better than Superman 64 itself.
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Amazing how many reviews you have on this site. Quite a few opinions I agree or disagree with too.
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Thank you very much!
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Congratulations on 150 Reviews! And kudos to you for ranking them all! I can say with certainty that your top 5 are excellent choices! Most of those are among my top 10 or even top 5. Other than that, your list is pretty good. I’m impressed you put a little blurb after each one. Now that’s dedication! Great work!
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Thanks! I was really happy I got around to doing this, because as I got closer to 150 game reviews, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to write all of this down. But I like to make sure I have some decent content on this site, so I thought this was too fun of an idea to pass up on.
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Congrats on the 150 reviews mate! It’s quite the feat! And I completely agree with Super Mario Galaxy 2 being placed as your contemporary number 1! That game is the embodiment of perfection. Interesting to see that you enjoyed Dark Souls III over bloodborne! I must say, now that I’ve been playing dark souls III, I am throughly enjoying, although it doesn’t have that nuance that Bloodborne did for me as it was my first Souls-esque experience, but nonetheless, Dark Souls III is excellent thus far. Anyway just wanted to let you know that all your hard work is appreciated!
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I actually flip-flopped quite a bit between Galaxy 2 and DKC2 for the top spot. Like I said, the top few are pretty interchangeable… Same goes for Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne. Honestly, depending on when you ask me, my answer could be different as to which one is better. Glad you’re enjoying Dark Souls 3!
Man, I even flip-flopped with putting Mario 64 and Tropical Freeze in the top 5. I’m still not sure whether I made the right choice, but I just went with the fact that 64 has held up so well for so long.
As always, thanks for the comment.
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Well for me personally, it would always be Galaxy 2 if I had to choose between the two. Dark Souls III definitely has a leveled sense of variance that Bloodborne just can’t match and while I prefer the gothic Victorian aesthetic of Bloodborne, the Kingdom of Lothric is admittedly more varied and diverse. I’m glad I decided to give it a go, otherwise I would’ve missed out on one of the best games this year! Oh geez I still have to play Mario 64. I still haven’t rectified that. And also Banjo Kazooie. I’ll be sure to catch up on my classics after I finish Dark Souls. Would you recommend the DS version of Mario 64 or should I just go with the virtual console version?
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Definitely play the Virtual Console version of Mario 64. The DS version may have multiple characters and more stars/missions, but they aren’t always well implemented, and the controls leave a lot to be desired. The original still holds up, however.
Dark Souls 3 is definitely my Game of the Year so far. There are still a few more months of 2016 to go, but I don’t see anything dethroning it with Yooka-Laylee and Breath of the Wild being delayed. 😛
Galaxy 2 and DKC2 are two of maybe four “2s” that I would give perfect 10s (I’ll leave you guessing on the others for now). Honestly, both are in my top 5. But I’m spoiling too much of my favorites list. So let’s leave things there…
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Congratulations! I myself just reached 50 reviews, so I can feel a true sense of accomplishment too.
I’m not surprised Wizard of Oz ended up at the bottom; it’s pretty atrocious from what I’ve seen of it. I’d say Metal Morph is easily the worst game I’ve reviewed so far; Deadly Towers was at least vaguely passable when it was released and Where’s Waldo is bad in the sense that it’s just completely boring. They’re abysmal, but not on the same level as Metal Morph. If you’re ever looking for another awful game to play through, you could give that one a try.
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Congratulations on your 50th review! Keep up the great work!
Wizard of Oz might be the worst game I’ve ever played…unless Tiger handhelds count (so many haunting memories).
I might check out some of those games sometime, though I’m not exactly jumping to do so. I’ve always wanted to try out Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties and Big Rigs as well. I don’t know why.
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Awesome work with the list and with all of the reviews you have been able to post here. Keep it up!
I am in full agreement with your choice for 1st place.
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Thank you very much! Here’s hoping it doesn’t take me too long to reach the 200 mark.
It’s always hard to argue placing anything above Galaxy 2, though I honestly flip-flopped with it and DKC2 for a long while before posting this.
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Congratulations on 150 reviews! I feel like I’m very late to your review party since I’ve only been a part of this site for a short time, but I’ll definitely do some backpedaling through your site to read some of these in the future. It’s so nice to see all your hard work organized right in front of you, I’m sure. Looking forward to more!
Is it awful that I’ve only played two games out of your top 5? Clearly I’ve been missing out!
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Thank you very much! I hope you enjoy all the reviews and such.
Don’t feel too bad about only playing a couple of the highest-ranked games here, that just means you’ll be able to experience the others for the first time. 🙂
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I’ve gotta be honest and say I liked Game & Wario, managed to have quite a lot of fun with that. Some edgy choices near the bottom with Bioshock Infinite and Limbo, some people would get angry. I wouldn’t, because I haven’t played them. And why did you play as much as 3 KlayFighters games — and the Superman game!?
But, I mean, Castlevania Judgement looks pretty good…
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Wonderful 101 and Lego City Undercover look great! And New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Mario Tennis Open are both good games. They both take the formula of the former games in their series and whilst simplifying it make the gameplay tighter than ever before – and not too simple to remove the enjoyment factor.
This is Reuben, by the way.
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I’m sorry, but Rayman Legends is way too low. The art and the sound are the best in any game for me, and it’s platforming and multiplayer genius. It’s only held back by the fact it doesn’t feel quite as complete a package as Origins. How could it just be a 7.5!?
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You argue well with the opinions I disagree with, admittedly, and there are some nice choices towards the end. Well done on the milestone!
Reuben
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Love your number 1. Can’t say I agree with your assessment of Limbo but to each their own.
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