Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Gush / Nintendo

Go To

Gush about Nintendo games here!

  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is an awesome game that doesn't get enough love. The game mechanics such as the flutter jump and the revamped "health meter" (which, aside from possibly one bonus level, practically prevents you from dying) really makes the game unique and enjoyable, and the multiple collections present an excellent challenge for 100% Completion. Some may say that the game is cruel at times, especially in its sequel on the DS, but for me, it makes beating the game 100% all the more enjoyable.
    • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island has one of the best soundtracks in the history of video games. There is simply no argument.
    • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island could be considered the series Heartwarming.
    • Yoshi's Island is such a cute game. One of my favorites on the SNES. It's just so cute, sweet, heartwarming, and downright FUN, but it does have a few gross-out moments too (like the Frog boss). But overall, it's just a great game.
    • And considering the time at which the game was released, the graphics are incredible.
    • The bosses also deserve mention. If Raphael the Raven and Baby Bowser's second phase didn't blow your mind in 1995 then I am not sure what would impress you. This is the first game I truly fell in love with as a kid.
  • The 7th Fire Emblem, the first to be released in the US, is also one of the best video games this troper has played in recent years...on the Gameboy Advance and any system period.
    • Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones is my personal favorite because it's the first game I played from that series. Excellent plot and characters!
    • Fire Emblem 5 and 9 for this troper. Thracia 776 is rich. Just rich. Developed characters whose relationships form a complex weave. A wonderful story that really involved the characters, even the minor ones you thought wouldn't show up again. The chapters even integrate the plot into your battles in interesting ways. And it's a challenge to boot. Path of Radiance is my favourite video game, hands down. It is like Fire Emblem's renaissance, an effective mix of old and new. Clearly a spiritual successor to Thracia. It's fantastic to play and to watch the characters develop with the story.
    • This troper loves 10 dearly. The character availability issues can become annoying, but on the other hand, they also allow you to get really attached to people on every side of the conflict, which makes having to pit your various parties against each other later that much more heartwrenchingly awesome. (Although this troper is also part of that tiny minority of people who genuinely love the Dawn Brigade, which probably helps...)
    • This troper absolutely loves FE 4. Jugdral is a wonderful balance of a typical medieval fantasy and dark political intrigue, its characters are wonderfully complex, and the gameplay is actually quite nice once you get used to it. And the unofficial mangas are amazing.
    • Gotta fill in the gap and gush about FE6. It's quite difficult, but that just makes getting the good ending all the sweeter. It was also the first in the series to introduce supports, which is in itself pretty impressive: a 50+ cast of characters where everybody gets a chance to shine. And there is just something simultaneously badass and adorable about pitting little Roy against a giant friggin' dragon... and watching him win.
    • This troper will go ahead and add Awakening to the list. I suppose I can't compare it to other Fire Emblem games, this being my first foray into the series, but I couldn't believe what an incredible game this was. I bought it along with Dark Moon as an afterthought and expected Dark Moon to be the game I played the most. Now two weeks later I've logged 60 hours in Awakening compared to 2.5 in Dark Moon. In two weeks Awakening passed Ocarina of Time 3d for "most time played" on my 3DS, and I've had The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for over a year. The game was just something unlike I'd ever seen since the first time I played Ace Attorney, four years prior. The wonderful, poignant story... the beautifully fleshed-out characters... the immersive gameplay experience... I am not ashamed to say I cried at the end, something no video game had ever made me do before. Thank you, Nintendo.
      • Seconded. Awakening was also this troper's introduction to the series, and it was brilliant. The Support system could easily have been a tacked-on 'dating sim'-like element, but actually managed to make you feel engaged with the characters and the storyline as their bonds/Support level grew. They took a practical game mechanic and plot device (to recruit the child characters) and made it work a different, emotional level. Then there's the gorgeous music, animated cutscenes and that finale... Just fantastic. I'm going to replay it again just to play with the Supports and classes.
    • It's almost been a whole year since launch, and people still haven't mentioned Fire Emblem Fates? The games are bloody fantastic, packing some of the best and most well-balanced gameplay the series has seen in years, alongside the music, characters and visuals being a major improvement over Fire Emblem: Awakening in this troper's opinion. Heck, even though I'm in the minority, I even enjoyed the story of Fates, with my favorite being Conquest. Seriously, it's an extremely well-done tale of revolution and war, and at the very least, it tries something new and unique from the standard Fire Emblem formula. Conquest alone would be this troper's Game of the Year, but Birthright and Revelation are all amazing too! The games are just amazing when you break it down, and I don't care what the fandom says next, Fates is easily the best game of 2016 for me.
      • This troper is really glad to see she's not alone on loving this game. I love many of the characters especially, and the gameplay is fun even when it's very difficult. Also, I think the music is very effective in setting the mood for scenes and battles.
    • Fire Emblem: Three Houses is easily one of the best in the series, being able to mix high school drama/romance, etc. so well in the pre-time skip section with the more traditional FE style war post-time skip and make it seem believable with the usual lovable cast of characters.
  • Golden Sun and especially its sequel is the best GBA game and quite possibly the best game alltogether, that this troper has ever played. Let's start with the extremely interesting plot and the likable characters. But that's not even where it starts! I always liked the Point of View change between the 2 games, where it is revealed that the villains were actually trying to save the world from collapsing and in the second game, the protagonists more or less team up with the new bad guys. The game itself has a crowning soundtrack of awesome and is graphically stunning (Just look at summons like Catastrophe and Iris). The character class system is also extremely deep and leaves space for all kinds of combinations. And overall, it never stops being an epic story (in the real sense of the word epic). I can't help but love this game to no end.
    • Favorite video games of all time right here! These games are mere Gameboy Advanced games, yet they still have loveable characters and an excellent plot. There's TONS of extra stuff to do (especially in The Lost Age), and the summon secuences are just full of awesome. Heck, the plot is a mere "four elements" plot, but it's handled in a way that makes it refreshing. And there's a reason these games have their own page under Awesome Music; the soundtrack is some of the best music I've hear for a video game period.
    • When she found both GBA games second-hand this troper thought she was being sensible by only buying the first ('what if it's no good?'). She is now kicking herself months later having not been able to find 'Lost Age' since. The first game manages to feel substantial even when it becomes clear that it is, literally, only half of the story. Puzzles need to be put alongside RPGs more often, because it gave a refreshingly different aspect to the genre, and the dijinn combinations only added to that; the scope was there for a straight-forward party, or a more unusual one. The potential breadth was the beauty of the whole thing, because it didn't get bogged down in details. And on that point, the story was typical yet still somehow compelling.
  • This Troper has played every Mario RPG except for the first one, and is eager to play it as soon as he can because the rest are so awesome:
    • Paper Mario was the first I'd played, and remains classic. It just had that perfect sync of great music, great villains, great side characters, a neat battle system... and so much variety! Flower Fields was the closest to an "off" chapter it ever got.
      • Paper Mario 2 kept the standard- an even awesomer battle system, still tons of location variety, and so may subversions of the normal chapter structure... the Glitz Pit, the end of the Twilight Town chapter, the Excess Express...
      • As a Mario fan and fan of playing video games in general, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is my favorite game of all time.
      • Same here!
      • As someone who's played the absolute hell out of TTYD many times as a youth, and consider it one of my favorite games on the GameCube...for some reason, I just like the first game better. Yes, the second game improved on what made the first game great, gave us unique scenarios, more developed characters, and a darker story, and was overall the better game, but you cannot deny the charm of the game that started this subseries. It had familiar settings, yet handled them in a way that felt somewhat fresh and had a lot to offer. It also helps that this game had probably the best presentation out of the entire N64 library, especially when you look at Cloudy Climb, Star Haven, and pretty much the entirety of Shiver Valley. And above all, it was fun. Every boss fight was unique and challenging in its own way, which would carry over into the sequel, and none of them felt like they were treading old ground. The ending is the most worth it: a long, challenging final dungeon that uses all your skills to get further, a tough, rewarding final boss, and an ending that's equal parts charming, hilarious, and beautiful. Seriously; that ending still of Mario and Peach watching the fireworks always brings a tear to my eye...
    • Mario & Luigi was portable, comedy gold! E.Gadd's guest starring, the pratfalls, appropriate music, and a plot that kept revisiting older places (going back into previous games!).
    • Super Paper Mario... Goes against the original Paper Mario for best I've played... such great writing... all the tear-jerking and heartwarming scenes! Count Bleck was such a sympathetic antagonist, and had such a great musical theme. And all the fourth-wall bending and inside jokes made this (male!) Troper squee.
      • It's this troper's third-favourite game of all time. Since you talked about the storyline, allow me to say this: OMG DIMENTIO rbrbhgrrebgbgebgbgehbe. Yeah, Dimentio's personality is just that creative, funny and dark. Also, Breadward. BREADWARD. A Pixl made of oats and lard. Few games are able to make a game based on comedy and succeed. I know of only one that's actually dark too. It's Super Paper Mario.
      • Super Paper Mario was the first game and the only one of two I've ever cried at. It deserves more praise than it gets.
    • Super Mario RPG. That is all.
      • Oh god. Super Mario RPG. Possibly my favorite game ever. It was actually the first RPG I ever played (my brother and I both thought RPG meant "really powerful graphics" hehe), and it introduced me to what's now my favorite genre of video game. I love this game so much.
    • Out of all the Mario RPGs, this troper has only played the Mario and Luigi trilogy (she wants to play the Paper Mario series and Super Mario RPG), and she loved it.
  • Despite all of it's flaws, Super Mario Sunshine is still a game worth playing. It has beautiful scenery, catchy, upbeat music, exellent challenge, and best of all, despite all of the changes, it kept the core gameplay the same.
    • Seconded so hard. Perhaps it's all the Le Parkour you can perform with side somersaults and wall jumps in conjuction with the Hover Nozzle, or just how astonishingly beautiful it looks. It really captures the feel of a tropical locale. And being tropic-based, of course, the water is pretty awesome-looking, perhaps even moreso than in Galaxy.
  • Super Smash Bros.... You know what? This troper's monopolized enough gushing.
    • Then this one will take over. All of them are the purest celebration of Nintendo's long and illustrious history and a love letter to the sheer joy one can find in silliness. Brawl especially with its "Subspace Emissary" story; I mean it in the best way possible when I say it's the best crossover Crack Fic I've ever seen. Seriously! Anyone who wants to write crossover crack needs to at least watch the cutscenes. It's funny at times, to be sure, but it's also tense, heartwarming, and triumphant. Thank you, Nintendo, for reminding us that it's okay for games to be silly.
    • This troper isn't afraid to say that the confirmation of Sonic was one of the greatest thrills I got that year. Seriously.
      • The music, the muuuusiiiic... *JOY*
      • Seconded. I get squeegasms from hearing gems like the Zelda medley or Ridley's awesome remix, and occasionally head over to YouTube for precisely that purpose.
      • Thirded. I think the reason all those songs were cut was because otherwise the sheer awesomeness would melt your brain the second you went to the Sound Test mode.
      • I never would have thought I could see Solid Snake, Link and Yoshi together without at least one of them looking out of place. I was wrong.
  • People have called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the greatest game ever, and that opinion is 100% RIGHT! The haters are deluding themselves; THIS is how you make a video game, end of story.
    • Seconded. This troper replayed it recently and, in his honest opinion, it holds up wonderfully. The music, the dungeons, the boss fights, the sidequests...even the aged graphics have a certain charm to them. Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess are all awesome, but it has to be said that they all owe their existence to Ocarina.
      • The worst part about Ocarina of Time? Finishing it. No matter how many times you replay it, you can never get back the sheer joy and exhileration you get when you explore it for the very first time.
      • I'm gonna commit the cardinal sin of Ocarina of Time here - I like the Water Temple. It gets a lot of hate for being too long, or too confusing, or just frustrating, but... it's really fun! More than any dungeon up to that point, you get to explore an interesting dungeon, with one of the best boss fights in the game (hell yeah, Dark Link!) AND the Longshot, which is one of my favourite items. It can seem daunting when you start out, but after picking up the map and compass, you can start to make sense of it and it becomes much easier and much more fun to navigate. Even if you DO find it difficult, there's always a great sense of achievement when you complete it. I'll even go so far as to say that in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the Water Temple is probably one of my favourite dungeons, only losing out to Ganon's Tower. Yeah.
      • I've always liked the Water Temple too. I just feel like people hate on this level because there's an inherent hatred of any water level by gamers. It's practically expected now of gamers. But I really liked this level. But I also agree that Ocarina of Time is one of the greatest games ever created.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is this Troper's favorite game of all time. It's not just an excellent break from the main formula, it also pioneered the Wide-Open Sandbox genre and the Time Travel mechanic was handled excellently... but what really sets it apart is the story, and the characters. There is just so much going on, so many characters with their own stories to tell, so much to put right... it's just sheer brilliance.
    • This troper does love Ocarina of Time more, but considers MM a strong second. It's one of the most beautifully emotional games ever, despite having no voice acting, cheesy polygon graphics, and other artifacts that one might think would make it narmful. It's made her cry than any other game has to date, closely followed by the second Paper Mario game and Beyond Good & Evil. It remains to be seen how Mother 3 ranks up.
      • This troper agrees, but her love for Majora's Mask runs deep... and often reduces her to OMG ANJU + KAFEI OTP SOB SOB.
    • Majora's Mask actually re-opened my mind to the possible existence of God. No, really. In a godless universe, nothing so absolutely perfect could conceivably exist. The music (including the Ocarina stuff, especially the Song of Healing) is, in a word, beautiful. The characters are some of the most memorable in gaming. The gameplay, taken right from Ocarina of Time, is perfect. Every dungeon is fun and engaging, yes, even the Great Bay Temple. When a Zelda game can make a staunch atheist reconsider and eventually believe and be good again, you know the series is So Cool, It's Awesome, and the game itself is the best thing ever.
    • This game is possibly THE game I would choose if I could only play one video game for the rest of my life. The story is deeper than The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the time travel allows you to go through the entirety of the game over and over, trying new things each time. The sidequests serve as a great example on how to do them right while providing a challenge to find every single last piece of heart.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was this troper's first Zelda game, and one of my favorites. Beautiful scenery, good casual gamer bosses, characters I'd love to know (Midna anybody?). Not to mention a sense of urgency about the encroaching wall of Twilight. Twilight was itself one of the most thought provoking environments I've ever experienced. See its Fridge Brilliance for my theory.
    • I frankly prefer Twilight Princess over Ocarina of Time. Midna might be part of the reason. It could also be the beautiful environments, the cool, creative equipment, the fantastic music, and the fact that Link could turn into a wolf.
    • Twilight Princess is definitely a great sendoff for the Nintendo GameCube. It pushes the system to its absolute limits with incredible lighting and effects programming. Hyrule Field in this game is immense, and it's a wonder Nintendo got the game to run at the framerate it does because of the sheer amount of enemies present at one time. The music is also quite good, especially the randomized Hyrule Field music (such a randomized system, using snippets of MID Is, is actually CPU-intensive, at least on earlier consoles). The dungeons, except the first and the last one, are very well thought out (especially the Snowpeak Ruins). though the combat isn't as fluid as in The Wind Waker.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker needs more love! Even though it may seem a bit childish at the very first glance (and just the very first) It has the most interesting characters in the whole series (except Midna from TP, of course), the graphics are fluent, beautiful and make you feel good just by looking of them, the facial expressions are perfect and often nail the mood of a scene to the tee, the story rivals that of Twilight Princess in terms of depth and intensivity, the dungeons are great fun to play and even the sailing doesn't have to be grating, if you take your time and look at all the beautiful effects around and on your boat... Then the fact that Link, once again, manages to be cute and awesome at once!! This game is at least as awesome as Twilight Princess people just don't know, because they didn't play it (to the end), since prejustice or the few flaws (which are a real pity) chased them off. That's kind of sad.
    • I know! WW is my absolute favourite Zelda game, bar none (yeah, it even beats OoT—maybe it isn't BETTER but I like it more). It sucks that people don't give it a chance because of a few minor things. Link's design is flipping adorable too, which DOES help...
    • I for one (or apparently at least three) LOVE the sailing. There, I said it, and I'd say it again if I had to. I FREAKING LOVE THE SAILING!
    • Fourth'd. I really liked the general style of Wind Waker, from the art to the story telling to the humorous interactions of the characters. The only problem I really have with the entire line of WW-esque games is that the DS hasn't been able to perfectly replicate the cel style used in the original, which detracts from PH and ST a bit. They're still good, however.
    • I'm right there with you guys— with the possible exception of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Wind Waker is the only game I've played more than a dozen times— and it still hasn't gotten old. We've already covered gushing about the graphics and storyline, but I have to add that the soundtrack may be the series' best. From the title theme to the epilogue, every track was unique to the island/dungeon it was found in, and suited perfectly to that purpose; this means that, even if you don't know the name of what you're listening to, you're still perfectly capable of identifying the track. On top of that, it was also the debut of WW Link, who stands apart from all of his counterparts: a Badass Adorable... who also happens to be a Knight Templar Big Brother, and initially had no intention to save the Great Sea. His semi-frequent Butt-Monkey moments (on top of being hilarious) just make his awesome moments even better. The very best part: his method of dealing with Ganondorf. Unprecedented in a Zelda game, and only attempted once since.
    • The Wind Waker has one of my favorite visual styles to date. In my opinion, it's an artful blend of cel-shading and realistic effects, such as distortion and light-mapping (the distortion is still impressive to this day). In fact, although the game doesn't have very many high-poly models, it is still forced to run at 30 frames per second because it's cel-shading system, along with a fully dynamic cloth simulation system, pushes the Nintendo GameCube to its absolute limits. Along with Ni no Kuni, The Wind Waker is one of the only cel-shaded games to imitate the look of a proper multi-million dollar animation production (most other cel-shaded games try to imitate the simpler look of television animation, which isn't as impressive or detailed). In fact, Nintendo consulted a retired Toei Animation employee for inspiration with the graphics style, explaining why the game looks so different from other cel-shaded games. With the Dolphin emulator's high-definition rendering this game is even more amazing to look at, especially with anti-aliasing on.
  • If there's one Zelda game that needs more love, it's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. This game just doesn't seem to have any fans, even compared to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link— or, dare I say, the CD-i games—, which is ridiculous; I finally got around to finishing it after playing off and on for the past few years because I kept getting distracted, and I just love everything about it. Linebeck is one of my favorite characters in the whole series, the bosses feel new and refreshing (especially Eox, holy shit), and even the Temple of the Ocean King... Never in my life have I seen something so hated that i just can't disagree with more; it's like Metal Gear Solid had a baby with Metroid/later Castlevania and left it on a Zelda game's doorstep. The controls are spot on, the items are great and have new creative uses, and the whole experience was just grand. It's definitely one of my favorite games in the series.
    • Yes! I agree 100%. I absolutely LOVED Phantom Hourglass, and it seems to get a lot of unwarranted hate. Linebeck is one of the greatest characters in the series! And it bothers me to no end that everyone complained about PH when it came out, but all seemed to praise Spirit Tracks...which, to me, felt like a cheap rehash of PH.
    • I actually like both Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. And since Phantom Hourglass was already gushed over twice, let's go to its sequel. PH was a great game, and ST took the mechanics and made them just a bit better IMO. It also helps that it has the first iteration of Princess Zelda that actively helps you in your quest, I liked the Spirit Train more than Linebeck's steamboat, the bosses are just as good here as they were in PH, and it also has one of my favorite characters in the series in the form of Byrne. And good goddesses, THAT MUSIC!
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The mythic awesomeness of that incarnation of Hyrule really paved the way for the 3D wonders to come. From the very beginning, when Link is awakened by a psychic plea from the titular heroine, to the claiming of the Master Sword, to the rescue of said heroine, to the final showdown with the Pig of Evil himself, it's all fantastic. And then there's all the smaller moments: the Ship Tease between Link and Zelda, the poignant moments at the end of certain sidequests (you remember how you got the flute, right?), the pwnage of Blind when you outwit him...this was epic storytelling back when consoles were still struggling with storytelling at all. And of course, the gameplay is still unique and well-done. Overhead 2-D gaming was pretty much all shooters and turn-based RPG adventures...and Zelda. The formula was attempted by a few gutsy developers, but on one ever really managed to capture the magic. And this troper doesn't have the nostalgia filter on — I first played LTTP on Virtual Console fifteen years after the game was first released. Even after the rightly-beloved Ocarina, there are fans who still believe that Link to the Past is still the best Zelda ever. I may not be one of them, but it's definitely one of the best games ever, period.
  • This troper finished The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword this morning, and this game made him clamoring for MOAR! The romantic dynamic between Link and Zelda is so good that an almost-claustrophobic feeling creeps up when the game ends, when you know logically there can't be any more story and, thus, more of the heartwarming interactions that follow beyond well-placed implication.
    • A defining moment in every Legend of Zelda game is the ending, and this game didn't just tie up an entire franchise worth of theories, it then made the battle against a beloved villain (Ganondorf) 100 times more awesome, difficult, and filmish. Not to mention Demise summoning THUNDER in his second stage... It looked like "The Creation of Adam for a while, rather suiting since it's the first game in the timeline right now... Want. So much want.
    • Something Skyward Sword doesn't get enough credit for is how rewarding it is to play it. Because of the game's nearly perfect motion controls, you need to physically master your sword and every other item in your arensal to beat each enemy (the fact that enemies are now pretty much puzzles in and of themselves is probably worth mentioning too) and explore each area. The backtracking hardly ever feels like backtracking because you're using not just one, but every item you've earned to discover what was once hidden. You always feel like you're advancing as a hero. Of course, this wouldn't work as well without atmosphere, and boy does this game have it. The music is generally more subtle than it is in other Zelda games; in fact, you don't really realize just how much it aided in sucking you into the game until you look back. When it's triumphant, it's triumphant. When it's intense, it's intense. And when it's peaceful, it creates one of the most utterly euphoric moments in gaming history. Then there's the way every character and every area is bursting with personality, creating a world that you actually care about. It's hard to complain about fetch quests when you're discovering odd creatures and beautful landscapes as a result of them. It's hard to complain about the lack of a proper overworld when you're soaring through the stormy skies alongside a giant possessed whale. It's hard to complain about Fi's interruptions when she's aided you throughout your journey through the heavens and the earth, the present and the past. Skyward Sword is a true adventure.
  • Pokémon. This troper did a quick calculation and found there's about 14,357,588,953,446,649 potential party combinations for a playthrough of Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, or just for late/end game, if you've got another cart to trade between. And that's almost definitely an underestimate too...
    • Ah, yes! I remember the serene joy of playing Pokémon Gold...riding around on my bike, wasting money on Repels, catching Ho-Oh, beating the Elite Four...sadly, Pokemon Gold and Silver cartridges have an issue with the clock system that eventually wipes your game...
    • On that note: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness. You have to love an E-rated game that winds up on the Nightmare Fuel article, and also anything that can make you cry like a kindergartener even as you mutter, "Like you were really going to do it."
      • And the story is pretty deep for Pokémon, since most of the main series games tend not to be plot-driven. The Mystery Dungeon spinoffs also tend to be more difficult than main series games, especially in post-credits dungeons, though it's usually not so hard that you want to tear your hair out in frustration. Plus, it's so much fun to actually be a Pokémon. And you can't tell me you've played Time and Darkness and weren't moved by any of the events in Chapter 20.
      • Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky has got to be one of the most beautiful and moving games of this generation. There's just... something about it; no matter how corny it gets, no matter how awkward the translation is at points, it shines. With tears and sunrises, it shines. We need more truly family-friendly games like Explorers - games that both kids and adults can enjoy, games that aren't afraid to be cute, scary, sad, and triumphant all in one package.
      • Agreed. I love the main series Pokémon games, but Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky has a little something that sets it above the rest. It's like reading a good book: you can't put it down no matter how long you've been playing/reading it. And I certainly can't forget Guildmaster Wigglytuff's words about existing near the end, and this was the very first game that made me cry in the first ending!
    • I likes me the Battle Factory. Renting some awesome, random Pokémon, making the best of the hand you've been dealt. And then I get sad because I can't keep them all. But I know they are in good care. The Factory staff seem nice and competent. Oooh, I want to work at the Battle Factory! So much!
    • "Right, all boys leave home some day..." That day was over 10 years ago. In the time I've poured into the Pokémon games, I could have built the Great Wall of China out of straw. Twice. This game is almost my entire childhood. And those seven words still survive today to remind us Pokémon fans of our past and our mission to enjoy the moments in which we "Gotta catch 'em all", and to never forget our lifelong friends. No matter how many times we start a new game, no matter how many additional games get made, it will never be the same, not the same as the very first time we played. Back then, every kid played Pokémon, everyone's ambition was To Be A Master. Pokémon music was the soundtrack to our very childhood. It makes me miserable that, for the people who call Diamond and Pearl their first Pokémon games, they just don't get it. To some of us, this is more than a game. It is a wonderful moral, memory, and a beautiful dream filled with the colors of Red, Blue, and Yellow.
    • What Barry (your rival) says in D/P/Pt really gets to me. "There's no end to Pokémon! That's what I'm saying!" He's right. No matter how old the series gets, I will play every game. No matter how many new Pokemon are made, I will love each and every one of them. No matter how "lame" people think Pokémon is, I will shove them into the infernos of their hatred and keep playing. Been playing since 1998, and have no plans on putting a halt on my love for Pokemon, be they 8-bit or in 3D.
    • I can understand why people would dislike Ruby and Sapphire versions, but as the games that made the biggest jump in improvements to the series, they deserve a mention. So many unique mechanics were added such as growing and watering berries, special obstacles that can only be crossed with a bike, and of course double battles. This troper still carries the Swampert he chose in his first run of Sapphire, over seven years ago.
    • No love for Black and White? This game successfully redefined Pokemon in my opinion. From adding features people wished for (Reusing TM's, no more Zubats in caves), to creating a new area that felt unique, and one of the best storylines in any Pokemon game, behind the Mystery Dungeon series. The fact that the story is basically a deconstruction of Pokemon in general helps.
    • The entire series. I love it! I love catching Pokémon. I love collecting Pokémon. I love battling Pokémon. I love training Pokémon. I love raising Pokémon. I love evolving Pokémon. I love trading Pokémon. I love Pokémon.
    • I love Pokémon in general. What I love about some of it is that, at least in later generations, I've been starting a new game as I go on a new journey in real life, be it moving on from bad times to good or leaving home for the first time, at least temporarily. Even when the times have been tough, I've had a good journey with my Mons. I've been playing since age nine, and some of my favourite mons have been with me all that time.
    • The best moment in Pokemon by far was the end of the original Pokémon Gold and Silver. You've triumphed over Johto, defeated the Elite Four, then surprise surprise! You get to go back to the Kanto region and challenge it, too! You travel around Kanto, seeing familiar faces, and seeing the changes that have been made to that once-familiar world. Then once you've done that, Oak tells you about a super-high leveled area known as Mt. Silver, which has tons of powerful Pokemon. So you go there, and enter this huge cave system. Something good has got to be at the end, right? So you struggle through to the end, fighting off powerful Pokemon, and potentially in the pitch darkness. You make it to the end, and there's someone standing there. Someone very familiar. It can't be, can it? You walk up and talk to him. The background music goes silent. "... ..." PKMN TRAINER RED wants to battle!

      This was the one of the first times that a game series allowed you to fight, or even encounter a previous protagonist. And back in the day, the only way you would know what was coming is if you bought a game guide, or someone else spoiled it for you. Most of us never saw it coming. And he was just there. Waiting for you. No fanfare at all. Hell, he was hardly even foreshadowed. Sure, you heard NPCs talk about the legendary trainer that stopped Team Rocket in its tracks, but you never expected to ever see him. But he was there. And true to the series' tradition of having a Heroic Mime, he doesn't say a word. The best True Final Boss any game series has ever had.
    • The double battle in the Dragon's den in Heartgold and Soulsilver is in my opinion the most awesomest moment in any game I've played.
    • This troper here has had numerous runs in with Depression over the various years of my life, but each time things took a downward spiral, Pokémon as a whole always helped lighten the mood on a bad day. Back in my early years of school, Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Silver were unofficially my first ever Pokémon games up until owning a copy of Pokémon Ruby made me experience a new region and many other fantastic elements in the games that would come. Then Pokémon Diamond came along and helped reshape my point of view at the time; while it was the cause of me almost dropping out of the franchise in favor of Monster Hunter, when I finally beat Diamond with my loyal Torterra and my other in-game team Mons, after all of the technical issues the game threw my way, and how hard Cynthia was even with my strategy in mind, the moment I had finally officially beaten what I personally consider to this very day to be the hardest Pokémon games is such a Catharsis Factor that permanently re-established my love for this franchise. All the way into Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon I still admire many of the things that first started with Diamond and Pearl and even appreciate the brand new reveal of Solgaleo and Lunala being part of an evolutionary line, a first in Legendary Pokémon history. The battle with either Mother Beast Lusamine or Ultra Necrozma in either Sun and Moon or Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon respectively makes for an amazing Climax Boss either way you choose it to be. Don't even get me started on the last detail I've noticed all too well; Virtual Console Gen I and Gen II actually are capable of finally being transferred to Gen VII, after having been unable to connect to Gen III due to hardware issues! To this day, however, there has only been one way I can give this entry a proper Book Ends; in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I knew I had to use Island Scan on a specific day and island because the one Pokémon I've cherished the most is available to catch that day, the one I've finally determined to be a part of the evolutionary line considered my most favorite Pokémon of all time; Grotle, the direct pre-evolution of Torterra; the one Grass Starter that revitalized my interest in the Pokémon franchise forever ever since I first used it against Cynthia. I will and I shall forever cherish Pokémon as a part of me and my entire life; this is who I am!
    • Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 are games I have spent countless hours on. Having a direct sequel and breaking the third game trend was a great move to me, it made for a unique game. I loved seeing how one region changed over time, like Kanto in GSC. Some of my favorite features were the PWT, which was difficult but still fun, and the Pokestat Studios.
  • Mother 3 is, without a doubt, awesome. But not just the game—full Made of Win points must also be given to the folks at Starmen.net, who turned out a majestically professional, funny, touching, fun-to-read fan translation that puts a lot of official game scripts to shame. But to the game itself. The Action Command/combo system is brilliant—lots of people already press buttons to the tune of the game music, so making it an official part of the game was a fantastic idea. And what music it is! The soundtrack blew this troper out of the water, and it's remarkably high-quality for a GBA soundtrack. The graphics are slick, colorful, and pretty fantastically animated for their simplicity. It's also fantastically emotional, being laugh-out-loud funny, tear-jerking, shocking, and lots of other big words, even in the tiniest moments. The optional scene you see if you return to Wess with Duster in your party moved her more than something that out-of-the-way ought. And it's a nicely paced RPG to boot, and manages to avert the "everyone's levels are diiiifferent!" problem that plagued EarthBound (1994) and—well, pretty much every other RPG ever.
    • Much like the troper below, I could not agree any more. Mother 3 is the best game I have ever come across - it even beat out Ocarina of Time for me. No other game has gone straight to my heart like Mother 3 has - it's just... amazing, and that's not even a strong enough word. It's really changed how I see the world. Shigesato Itoi, you are a god.
    • This Troper agrees so much, she doesn't think it's even possible to have any further feelings of agreement. This game is a fucking masterpiece. Strange, funny and heartrending, indeed. I smiled, I teared up, I gasped, I laughed, I was awed, I felt determined, I felt odd, I yelled, I danced, I felt nostalgia, I despaired, I cried sissy tears, and finally, I felt resolve. In that order. There's so much to this game... While EarthBound (1994) was one of the greatest old-school games, Mother 3 is the indomitable master of mood whiplash, and it works! It just does! You, reading this now, you need to get the most readily available translation and just play it. Also, for those of you who have only played Brawl, you will feel like horrible, horrible people for calling Lucas a cry baby. Seriously. He's the Woobie to end all Woobies...
    • This troper is also in agreement, and I consider this game to be the single greatest of all time. I am normally very stoic with media, with the occasional laugh out loud moments of media being the sole exception normally. But this game gives me a different story entirely. MOTHER 3 gives me wide ranges of emotion, and the characters interacting with each other gives me confidence to show my own personality more. In fact, this and Undertale have given me strength to voice my opinions and, more importantly, to come out as non-binary. The game fits my philosophy perfectly. I believe in giving everyone a chance, but I also believe those chances have limits. If someone (like Fassad or Porky) shows a clear lack of will to change, there WILL be consequences. This game is the greatest game of all time, and the emotion and strength it gives me is my reasoning as to why.
    • Absolutely agreed! Mother 3 is my favorite game ever and nothing can top it for me! The loveable characters, the addictive, genuinely challenging gameplay, the multilayered story, the right amounts of humor, drama, and sweetness, it all just really resonated with me, and the game really puts you in the shoes of all the characters you play as, especially Lucas, who really needs a hug. What else is there to say that hasn't been said already? If Mother 3 were a book, I'd read it over and over again and consider it a classic masterpiece on par with The Grapes of Wrath and Anne of Green Gables, and I do NOT make such a statement lightly.
  • This guy has lost around 45 pounds - and counting - with the help of Wii Fit. That's all I need to say.
    • My mother has gotten her ankle back into working order so well she can do a 5K run. Just last year, she couldn't walk around for extended periods of time without having to wear a brace. What happened in the interim? Wii Fit and its yoga/strength exercises. I'm not making this up, Nintendo saved my mother's legs. Screw all the Fan Dumb about how Nintendo's ignoring the "hardcore" gamers, Wii Fit is a damn spectacular piece of software, and I will forever swear by that statement.
    • This troper found it difficult to be motivated to do sports and take an interest in my life beyond a balanced diet which still had its flaws. With Wii Fit Plus I managed to lose about six pounds in the first month of using it. While throughout the next four years my weight ended up going back to where it was (owing to my laziness), as part of a new health kick I'm still doing it's managed to keep my weight down a lot in conjunction with the gym, a short swim every other day and other fitness games. If nothing else, it serves as a lighthearted weigh in each day.
      • On that note, EA Sports Active. More exhilarating than Wii Fit Plus with added anti-cheat measures, a better choice of music, neater graphics and a good range of exercises. It helped this troper (the same one as in the paragraph above) lose just under ten pounds / four kilos in a month (measured on Wii Fit) when I'm meant to have lost it in three, then go on to lose a further nine kg / nineteen pounds as of March 2013. If you get the chance, buy it, and if you find that you're getting bored with the regular stuff, buy "More Workouts", which has even better workouts and health advice.
  • The original EarthBound (1994) had its haters, but it was truly one of the most underrated games of its time. A fun, innovative game, a quirky storyline, and lots and lots of humor.
    • This troper loves EarthBound (1994) because of the incredible humor, great plotline, relative lack of difficulty with some challenges for people that want them, and a lack of many of the major frustrations that plagued its predecessor. The simple graphics add to the cheery overworld flavor, while still swapping over to a darker undercurrent when needed (ESPECIALLY in the Cave of the Past). This game is truly one that I love with all my heart.
  • The Metroid games are incredible, hands down. Super Metroid is probably one of This Troper's favorite games, even if he never could get past Ridley. That same boss is probably one of my favorite video game monsters of all time, and each game is enjoyable in its own way. I haven't played the Prime games yet, but that will probably change this Christmas...
    • This troper has, and is happy to GUSH about them (I'm surprised no one else has yet?). They're beautiful, beautiful games and wonderful to play. The environments are creative, detailed, and very immersive, (oddly, something that seems particular to American games). The gameplay is great and the controls are smooth, especially with Corruption on the Wii. Heck, Corruption, the last in the trilogy, did more than trump the other two. In the first moments of the game you as Samus pulls of many bad ass stunts, such as that boss fight against Ridley while falling down that shaft. But one of my favorite things about the series is Dark Samus, who connects all the games together. Her whole story and true origin is never flatly stated in the games but left for you to piece together yourself.
    • Despite its flaws, Metroid: Other M is this troper's favorite Metroid game to date. It has beautiful designs, intricate puzzles, intense boss battles, and well-designed characters. And not only does it manage to keep the feel of the original 2-D side scrollers, but it also provides some long-overdue characterization to our favorite badass Bounty Hunter. Sure some parts can be a real pain, like the Pixel Hunts and the initial lack of a Varia suit, but I think that other parts, like the dodge mechanic and concentration, more than make up for them.
    • This troper considers Metroid Fusion to be one of his two favorites of the series (along with Super). It's quite defining of the alternate style of Metroid. Though the linearity may have turned some people off, I felt a sense of accomplisment when reporting back to Adam with each mission. The environments are all lush despite taking place in a space station. The boss fights were pretty enjoyable, and the atmosphere was still there.
  • Super Mario Galaxy reaches ridiculous levels of awesome. It is everything that was great about Super Mario 64, only more so. I want Red Stars of my very own, and the soundtrack is one long Awesome Music.
    • Seconded. Also, it manages to balance Nintendo Hard and fun all but perfectly. There's a reason every magazine I can think of has given it a perfect score (or the highest score given, anyway).
      • The gameplay is fun and simple, the music is brilliant, the visuals are gorgeous, the challenging parts are indeed challenging, Rosalina and the Lumas were likable, and the bare bones of a storyline was done well. And then came Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is pretty much the first game, but on steroids in all the good aspects of the original. Maybe a bit less story, but still handled in a way that was interesting.
      • The lack of Rosalina is sad but Super Mario Galaxy 2 is easily the most pure fun I have had playing a single player game. The levels, power-ups, bosses, and even homages all hit the mark and never overstay their welcome.
      • Super Mario Galaxy is this troper's favourite game of all time. That says a lot right there, but the most forming moment of all was the part where you fight Bowser inside a hollow sun, then have a ginormous Luma sacrifice as the universe is destroyed in a giant black hole of epicness... which is concluded by Rosalina fixing everything again. 'Welcome new galaxy' indeed, this game is a must-play for anyone.
  • Elite Beat Agents is the best game I've ever played in my life! I say a good game is measured by fun, immersion, enjoyement, and...hell, just getting happy emotional responses from the player. That so, this i the best game I've ever played in my life!
    • While not that much with me, it's fun as hell, and despite how silly it all is, it's hard not to get wrapped in some parts. I keep choking up playing "You're the Inspiration".
      • Oh man.. I just teared up seeing that level mentioned. It's something special.
      • Ditto, Games shouldn't be able to make me tear up like that!
  • Starfox 64 is lightning in a bottle. Especially its voice-acting. Seriously. Every character has like, only 10 lines, but they are ALL memorable enough to become a meme.
    • After going a few years without playing I tried to recite as many lines as I could from memory and I'm pretty sure I covered most of the script.
  • The Kirby games are pure awesome from start to finish. The copy abilities, the stories, everything.Even the spinoffs have this troper coming back for more time and time again. Sugar Bowl or no, you can't deny the fun Kirby provides. After you see Wham Bam Jewel for the first time, you'll never be saying it's kiddy again. Then we get the two best games I have yet played on the Nintendo DS. Kirby Squeak Squad, with the best story ever, involving cake, thieves, and treasure, and then Kirby Super Star Ultra, which is Kirby Super Star, but a whole lot more.
  • SUPAH MARIO BROTHAHS!!! It's THE game that started us down the path to awesomeness and a life-changing experience in and of itself!
    • Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels is one of the great video game challenges. It tests your brain about as much as your thumbs, which is impressive for an early Mario game.
    • This troper considers Super Mario Bros. 3 to be the greatest game ever created.
    • While this troper doesn't consider it as good as Mario 3, Super Mario World is easily one of the best games in the series. It has nice control, nice stages, and neat power-ups. The introduction of Yoshi definitely elevates it, I felt that this Mario expanded the control from the previous games to make it a more enjoyable experience.
    • While Super Mario is rare in that the main series has no bad games at all, This Troper believes that it doesn't get enough credit for its main character. For someone just starting out in gaming, Mario's cheery, friendly personality is perfect for welcoming someone into the medium. And for those familiar with him, Charles Martinet's voice acting constantly reminds us that Mario's having just as much fun as we are. The greatest gaming character ever.
    • What about SUPAH MAHRYO MAKUH! You can make your own Mario games and post them online for the world to see, and that's just the tip of the iceberg! There's plenty of Easter Eggs, replay value in the form of 100 Mario Challenge, and compatibility with a CRAPTON of amiibo! No wonder the game's coming for the 3DS soon!
    • Let's not forget the double whammy of awesomeness that is Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey. 3D World finally reunites the playable cast of Mario 2 after so many years in an all-out multiplayer blast, allowing for such hilarious situations as Luigi throwing Toad off a cliff or Mario jumping on Peach's head. Not to mention the main theme of the game being CATS!!! As for Odyssey, it manages to blow me away right from the start with Bowser actually defeating Mario in the opening cutscene and Mario meeting Cappy for the first time, leading to what in my opinion can only be described as the single greatest Mario game of all time!
  • Okay, so we've gotten this far, and the only reference to Spirit Tracks is one comment claiming that it's a rehash of Phantom Hourglass. How have we accomplished this? Not to knock on PH or anything— I'm one of the tropers gushing about WW/PH Link, after all— but even I'm not willfully blind enough to overlook some of the flaws, and and I definitely fit into that particular branch of Fan Dumb. Spirit Tracks fixed almost every one of the issues that people had with Phantom Hourglass, like the Temple of the Ocean King— and did it in a very troper-friendly, Better than a Bare Bulb way. Everything in the standard Zelda formula is lampshaded or subverted. Princess get kidnapped? Well, yes but that doesn't mean she's a useless Damsel in Distress. Clothes Make the Legend? Yeah, but— as was the case in Wind Waker— Link doesn't like them, either, and the logic behind wearing them is completely reasonable. There's more to say, but I have other angles to gush about. Like the music. How can you go wrong with tracks like these?
  • Sin and Punishment will always be this Troper's favorite game. Despite the confusing plot and the fact that no one seems to have heard of it, it'll always be on her top ten list. The sequel managed to somehow make the game even better, with more characters, longer gameplay, and a slightly less confusing plot. Everything from the giant monsters to the fast and furious Bullet Hell gameplay style just makes this Troper squee forever.
  • Mario Kart, dangit. I can play the Time Trial mode in Double Dash and Super Circuit again and again. And then you've got Battle Mode, which is one of the best multiplayer experiences in video gaming.
  • Nintendo in general. Screw everyone who says they only make kiddy games. There is no other company that has provides this much consistant quality.
    • And screw everyone who says they release the same game over and over. The Gamecube was a generation of shaking up their major franchises. Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Star Fox Adventures, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, and the near-perfect Metroid Prime. Regardless of how you feel about any of those games the sheer fact that Nintendo tried new things with so many franchises in such a short period deserves a little respect.
  • Donkey Kong Country. This was the first game this troper seriously got into and is still today one of her favorite game series. Everything about them is awesome. The music, the levels, and just the overall feel of the games makes them super fun and replayable.
    • Seconded. The second game was probably my favorite game of every SNES title, despite its difficulty. Remember, you can't have Bramble Blast without having a Blast. The music probably trumped most of the ones in the other games, too. And the whole Lost World ordeal really gave you a sense of accomplishment when you finished it. Especially Animal Antics.
    • Thirded, and the third game in the trilogy was probably my favorite game on the SNES. Donkey Kong Country 3 doesn't seem to be as popular as 1 or 2, but if you ask me, it needs more love.
    • Donkey Kong Country Returns: Never before have I been blessed with a sidescroller platformer brimming with pure creativity in each level.
    • All of my YES. This is literally my favorite video game ever made. I wouldn't call it perfect, but it is absolutely brimming with great gameplay, great graphics, great music...and while the game can get pretty difficult at times, for the most part (notwithstanding a few levels, such as 6-K and 5-8), it's a pretty enjoyable challenge. Never let it be said that the Wii is not capable of epicness. And we're getting a sequel!
    • Said sequel managed to top DKCR with more scenery, playable characters and the return of composer David Wise!
    • This is probably really silly...but besides these, I also grew up playing Donkey Kong 64. And I absolutely love it!
    • I'm with you all the way on DK64. No joke, no exaggeration, the DK Rap actually made me choke with laughter the first time I saw it. Plus, the epic soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope is amongst my favorites in Nintendo history. One of my other personal favorite games in the DK series might just surprise you: Donkey Kong Barrel Blast is an insanely underrated game and one of my favorite DK spinoff titles in spite of its flaws, with an interesting concept of DK and pals using rocket-powered barrels to race, an impressive soundtrack, and notably one of the last games in the DK franchise to feature King K. Rool and the Kremlings. Say what you will about Paon, but their final entry in the series managed to impress me on all cylinders.
  • Screw what supposed 'fans' say, Star Fox Adventures is this troper's favorite quest game. Great visuals, a cohesive, complex, yet easy to follow plotline, puzzles that are challenging but not frustrating, developed characters, fabulous worldbuilding, and great voice acting in a series that's not exactly known for it. This troper has played it the whole way through multiple times without getting bored. Plus, dinosaurs!
    • This troper seconds that and raises Assault. It does get flak for deriving from the formula that 64 set (such as with on-foot missions), but all in all, it is still an awesome title. The orchestrated music really pumps you up, especially Space Battleground, the atmosphere is generally beautiful, such as in the Aparoid Homeworld, and let's face it, it keeps the Stuff Blowing Up aspect we've all come to know and love.
    • This one here believes Star Fox and Star Fox 2 are by far the best in the entire series, mixing nostalgia goodness with a truly stunning soundtrack. Add to that the fact they're Darker and Edgier than all sequels made up to this point, and you've got something truly lovable.
  • Pikmin and its sequel. Does this even need an explanation?
    • It doesn't, but I'm going to give one anyway. There's plenty of games with depth, but none with this much surprising depth. Not just in the gameplay (it gets pretty damn tactical at times), but also in the characters. Every Pikmin death crushes your soul, I assure you.
    • And Pikmin 3 combines all the best parts of the first two with great additions and breathtaking visuals to create one of my personal top 10 games of all time.
  • I love everything about Advance Wars Days of Ruin. First of all, it had the balls to deconstruct a trope it pretty much created. Second of all, it is possibly the best subversion of Cerebus Syndrome I've ever seen. It manages to have a post-apocalyptic setting that manages to have both sad, touching scenes and laugh-out-loud silliness ("Sweet corn casserole! They've got freakin' ROCKETS, man!!") without feeling forced. Not to mention completely revamping the combat, making air combat and naval combat a lot more interesting and fun, and having a lot of variety in the ground combat instead of just having 1,564 different kinds of tanks.
    • Advance Wars Black Hole Rising deserves just as much recognition. Between the excellent single best final CO, the hilarious dialouge, entertaining characters, and horribly addicting music, the game never gets old. It's currently the first game I'd like to see an updated release of, just to include Days of Ruin's experience system, naval combat, and map system...but they're all just minor points. Even just a graphics update would make it amazing.
  • Chibi-Robo! is an overlooked gem for the Nintendo GameCube which provides a quirky artstyle and a fun world to explore, definately worth it if you happen to own a Gamecube or Wii.
  • Punch-Out!!. Nintendo Hard as it might be, it's nonetheless a very fun and addictive franchise. The Wii version gets special mention for its novel modes, in particular Title Defense and Exhibition, which increase the replay value considerably.
    • I was blown away from the get-go by the incredible update that the Wii version brought to the Punch-Out franchise, one that had previously never held my attention. The outstanding character (re)designs and voicework, the honest difficulty in puzzling out every match - and, yeah, the completely unabashed ethnic stereotypes. I'm so glad they didn't shy away from the ever-greater threat of Values Dissonance and instead polished those embarrassing old concepts into an entertaining product.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising. This troper thinks that Uprising is the most original game that Nintendo has ever made in a while. With bringing back Captain Pit after so long, giving us cool characters like Dark Pit (who breaks the shadow trend of all Nintendo characters by actually being a good guy instead of being evil and Magnus, having the funniest dialogue (and 4th wall breaking) of all time and so much to do in the game, this troper thinks that Uprising will be game of 2012.
    • Seconded, this game has one of the greatest casts of characters ever. Everyone from the somewhat dorky Idiot Hero Pit to nonchalantly evil Big Bad Hades has more personality than most Nintendo characters. Their hilarious interactions in each chapter and the Awesome Music make the game even more fun to play.
    • Thirded! I fell in love with Kid Icarus: Uprising before I even got to play it, and when I did, it did not disappoint. The humor appealed to me as a devout lover of cartoons, and I enjoy replaying it for a good laugh. The characters are all charming in their own ways; the game gave me a deep appreciation for Pit, the hero with the most personality I've ever seen in a Nintendo game. It's a beautiful game with great music, too, and the weapon system is a fun mechanic. Easily one of my favorite 3DS games.
  • No Animal Crossing? Are you serious? One of the best-written, best-created, best-everything Sim-type game on console and handheld to date. Each game in the series adds new features, and while City Folk wasn't my favourite, New Leaf has blown every game before it out of the water. Addicting, cute, and enjoyable for everyone—Animal Crossing will always be on my favourite games list. And you can't forget that music!!
    • New Leaf brings in a huge breath of fresh air, with improved graphics, holidays on the go, and you get to be the mayor of your own town!
  • The Wonderful 101 is pure awesome. Amazing action, insane boss battles, really deep gameplay, tons of secrets, and a damn good story. It's pure bliss, especially the final level, which drives into Gainax/Gurren Lagann territory and goes absolutely crazy.
    • This...so much this. It's one of the must fun and original games this troper has ever played. The whole game is just insane fights one after another with really fun and colorful characters. It's such a shame it sold so badly...
  • F-Zero is one of the best series of racing games ever, it has a colorful cast, high-speed racing, insane course design, memorable soundtrack. Basically, this is the closest one can get to perfection in the racing genre.
  • Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon improves over the original by having not one, but FIVE mansions to explore! This troper had a ball exploring the usual haunted mansion, to a desert-filled tomb, and an icy mine!
  • Diddy Kong Racing! Some may brush it off as just a Mario Kart wannabe, but how wrong they are. Not only does it feature THREE vehicle choices (all of which are very different), its addition of a story mode, with a hub world and levels, was brilliant and still hasn't been properly repeated in a racing game. It's also brutally difficult, with intense challenges like the Silver Coin levels, maddening bosses, and beating all of T.T.'s best times. Even for a Nintendo 64 game, it looks good, with lots of bright colors and gorgeous environments. And the music is amazing, as Rareware music is known for being. Even its battle games took lots of different forms, with "deathmatch" style games, but also capture-the-flag challenges. Even its cheat codes are amazing, and provide tons of different ways to mix up the game by changing up the weapons or the ways the characters behave. It's just good.
  • Super Smash Bros for Wii U is one of the best games, period. It has the biggest soundtrack in Nintendo history, the best new stages coupled with some the best stages from the first three games. Also, the roster. This game has Nintendo characters from almost all (Mario,Pokemon,Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, Animal Crossing, Kirby, and Metroid, Star Fox, F-Zero, Earthbound, Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, WarioWare, Pikmin, Punch-Out!!, Wii Fit, Xenoblade) franchises and also third party games! There are also: 8 PLAYER SMASH, custom moves, and Amiibos. Especially amiibos, never before have we been able to get figurines of characters like Fox McCloud, Pit, Little Mac, Lucina, Shulk, Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, Ganondorf, Samus Aran, etc. * (Figurines of characters like Mario, Luigi, Link, Pikachu, Kirby, and Sonic are common.)
  • Rhythm Heaven is hands down the most underrated Nintendo franchise. It's truly an amazing series of games that not that many people know about (Gee, I wonder why) made by the same development team as WarioWare. To make it even better, most if not all of the music is composed by Japanese pop artist Tsunku, a fact that the games prominently acknowledge. Plus, the controls of each game is simplistic, yet easy to understand. To elaborate, the first and fourth entries in the series use only the D-Pad, A, and B buttons (though the former is used sparingly in the fourth entry), the second entry uses the touch screen entirely with one exception that uses the R button (or the L button if you choose to play left handed), and the third entry only uses the A and B buttons, with the other buttons and motion controls only being used for menus and the like. The series gives a unique twist on the Rhythm Game genre, being the only game where the OST is actually better with the sound effects included. Most fans of the series will tell you, it's secretly one of Nintendo's best franchises.
  • Speaking of WarioWare, the Gamecube's Mega Party Games and DS's DIY. Party Games presents some of the most adrenaline-fueled couch multiplayer of any game, to date. There isn't anything quite like two or more people competing in a game of Fever that just keeps going faster and faster until the game reaches the maximum speed (400 BPM, if I recall). Meanwhile, the Turtle game adds actual multiplayer into the mix, and the game in space that plays like Reversi is fun whether you're up to the plate or watching someone else go for it. DIY meanwhile gave game-creating the Mario Paint treatment years before Super Mario Maker was announced, and offered up a lot of power in a friendly package. For the first year after it was released, Nintendo had contests where people could upload their own microgames and they would post a selection of them for everyone to play. And this was on the DS!
  • Another WarioWare game, specifically WarioWare Gold, deserves mention here. Who knew that WarioWare of all series could get some really good voice acting in its cutscenes?note  And its cartoony art style seems cool too.
  • No mention of Splatoon yet? Nintendo is great at reinventing genres but who expected them to take on competitive online shooters? And it works! The game has all the Nintendo charm you'd expect with the strategic depth you'd hope from the genre.
  • Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is in dire need of a rerelease or some kind of follow-up, so that more people are able to experience its unique brand of polish. The presentation is just so spectacular: true to its H. P. Lovecraft inspiration, playing it is like curling up by a crackling fireplace with a good book, with Edward Roivas narrating each chapter's introduction not unlike an old radio drama like Suspense or The Whistler. To this day, it still occupies a niche of its own in Nintendo's vast library of IPs, and I pray that they will give it the attention it deserves soon.
  • Nintendo's E3 2019 presentation saved my life. No, seriously. I was planning on watching it as a last dance before committing suicide, but the combined awesomeness of Luigi's Mansion 3, Animal Crossing New Horizons, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's sequel, and especially Banjo-Kazooie's return via Super Smash Bros. Ultimate made me consider otherwise. I almost see the bear and breegull as my protectors now that made me happy during a dark time and keep me out of harm's way. God bless Nintendo.
  • If it counts, Dragalia Lost is a gacha done right. The devs are super giving, it has a really good story (for a gacha), a very good difficulty curve, and very F 2 P friendly.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1 is incredible. The soundtrack is gorgeous, the graphics are great, all the characters are wonderful, and the story is amazing. You know those stories in movies or books where earlier moments have a whole new meaning on rewatch or reread? Every. Single. Cutscene. in the game is like that. You know how some games will have Cutscene Power to the Max? Xenoblade doesn't do that at all. If you see a new power in a cutscene, the character just learned a new art. Also, You know how some games show really cool areas in cutscenes that you can never go to in game? Not here. If you can see it, you can go there. Pretty much the only exception is an area that was cut late in development and even then, it's being brought into the remake. Oh, and did I mention that it originally almost didn't get localized in the US? It went from localization difficulties, other development issues, and being a somewhat obscure Wii title to having a port to the New 3DS, getting on the Wii U eshop, a spin-off on the Wii U, a sequel on the Switch, a prequel to that sequel, and an upcoming remake!

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top