For many, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Twilight Princess were the standard bearers of 3D Zelda games for years to come. But then came a game that took everything we knew about the series and turned it on its head for the better. Gone were the linear dungeons, items that were good for only one or two parts of the game. Now there's a gigantic wild Hyrule to explore, of which EVERY part of the map can be traversed with the proper gear. Hyrule IS the dungeon, because Ganon rules it all.

This is the first open-world adventure game where I don't feel overwhelmed. There's no complicated crafting, and for the crafting that is there, it's easy to follow: just pick up the parts you need, that you likely already have, and hand 'em over or cook them, no complicated methods of doing so. For me that's a huge plus.

I love Pokemon Gold and Silver, and when these games were announced in 2009, I was ecstatic. I bought an R4 and played translated roms of this game until they were brought over to the US, because at the time, it was a gamble if we'd actually ever get them, and I'm glad we did, because this game has so many quality-of-life improvements not over just the original Gold and Silver, but for Gen 4 games as well, that to list them all would take up too much space. These games rule.

This and Pokemon Black/2 White/2 is where Pokemon excellence peaked. Every generation after these games may have presented fun new ideas, but never went anywhere with them.