Portal balances snappy pacing and story progression with great individual puzzle gameplay and difficulty ramping. Nice and tight, never really sags like its sequel does in parts. Also responsible for a host of "portal mechanics" showing up in other games across genres, for better or worse....

I mean, Final Fantasy VI.

In many ways, this is a poetic match-up. The Legend of Zelda is pure gameplay, emptied of plot. Yes, there is a loose over-arching story, but no plot. Literally having no plot is part of the design philosophy of the game—you're in an open world, and you have to decide where to go next. Even tackling...

This is another tough one, although not as tough as the DOOM vs. Super Meat Boy poll. Super Mario World is my favourite Mario game (I don't need to specify 2D, since the best game in the series must by default be a 2D game), but it's not a quantum leap ahead of Super Mario Bros 3, which largely did ...

Yeah I need to think about this. These are both excellent, arguably perfect games. Both well-deserving of a spot on many top-10 lists. I'm happy that either one of them gets to advance.

Not a super-easy vote for me even though I personally prefer one of these games over the other a great deal. I'm not shackled to my own personal preferences when evaluating a game's quality. Mega Man 2 is probably tied with MMX for my favourite game in the series, with MM9 very very close behind, bu...

There are two Metrovania classics left in this top 16, and Symphony of the Night isn't even the best one. SotN is a good early action-exploring-RPG and a fun world to moonwalk around in, but Dark Souls feels like such a leap forward in action RPG combat and mechanics that it truly is one of the grea...

Celeste is indeed a good platformer, but for all its snappy handling, it's oddly bogged down by certain set-pieces (for example, the "boss" sequence of the haunted house goes on about 50% longer than it needs to make its point). I don't put it on the same level as more consistent, better-...

Guacamelee has a silly title and silly style, which I think undermines the fact that it's easily one of the best Metrovania games (with tight combat/mechanics, great platforming, and excellent boss fights)—certainly the best one remaining in this top 16 (and yes, I know, Symphony of the Night is up ...

When my daughter asked for the cartridge back, I switched over to the Unicorn Overlord demo. Some of the character designs are kind of gross, which is a shame because many of them are great and the story's been fun so far. Compared to Ogre Battle it feels a little too simple (counters are more obvi...