(3 - 1) 3) Super Mario Odyssey
As far as I’m concerned, Breath of the Wild beating out Mario Odyssey to become THE top singleplayer Switch game is one of the great injustices of this generation, because I consider this latest flagship Mario platformer to be easily, objectively better than either of the open world Zeldas. Whereas BotW sacrificed so much of what made Zelda great (dungeons, music, story etc) in order to chart its bold new course, Mario Odyssey actually managed to successfully Have It All, to become the best of both worlds.
Odyssey somehow matches the incredible variety and off-the-charts fun factor of the linear Galaxy, even while returning to the far more non-linear, open-ended world design of Mario 64 and Sunshine – in fact, I’d argue that Odyssey is the SUPERIOR open world platformer, not just because its worlds are bigger and more interesting, but also because Odyssey doesn’t do stupid shit like kick you out of the world every time you nab a major collectible (like 64 did) or arbitrarily restrict your freedom and choice to the point of the game no longer being truly open, just slightly unfocused (Sunshine).
The new Cappy transformations are just such an awesome addition, allowing Mario to transform into everything from a T-Rex to a Tank, and being just the kind of showstopper mechanic that this game needed to compete with Galaxy. It also brings back all sorts of great ideas from past games. Sunshine’s hardcore pure platforming segments is one such example, but an even better one is how Odyssey took the super neat 2D segments from the Galaxy games, and elevated them to a whole new level: Odyssey’s throwback 2D platformer sections are even at their worst delightful trips down nostalgia lane, and at best these 2D platforming challenges are mini-masterpieces in their own right (New Donk City Festival FTW!). Moreover, Odyssey boasts what’s easily the greatest selection of 3D Mario boss battles so far (there’s even a giant, realistic Dark Souls dragon!), and by far the strongest postgame too.
Real talk, out of all the games on this Top 30 List, I consider Odyssey the single most Perfect one. The few nitpicks I do have, about stuff like forced motion controls for certain actions and gripes about Peach acting like a bitch during the ending, are easily overlooked, and while I do feel Odyssey wasn’t necessarily designed around 100% Completion (similarly to BotW and arguably Xenoblade 2), hundred percenting this game is still way less of a pain than hundred percenting Mario motherfucking Sunshine. However, what I really recommend is a 503 Moon run (500 Moons to unlock the True Final Level, + the 3 Moons you get for beating it), which IMO is some of the most fun you can have with any game, period.
Based Morality Score: Neutral (-1 if Bitchy Peach truly bothers you)
2) Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Speaking of Perfect games, Xenoblade 2 is definitely NOT one of those. This game suffers from various technical problems, persistent pacing issues, and some TRULY dogshit tutorials. In a number of ways it represents a real step backwards from Xenoblade 1, and it’s certainly the most unpolished of the Xenoblade games. And yet….
While Xenoblade 2 undeniably suffers from both more frequent and lower lows than Xenoblade 1, it also soars to higher highs; repeatedly so, during its triumphant final few chapters. This is such a thoroughly magical, enchanting JRPG, and it just blew me away in so many ways: its story, which moved me to tears and shook me to my core; its soundtrack, LITERALLY MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAME OST OF ALL TIME, which on its own makes Xenoblade 2 a landmark game; the characters, making up possibly my all-time favorite JRPG party; the world, one of the greatest in all of vidya; the combat system, offering near-limitless customizability and just being so insanely fun and satisfying once you actually start mastering it – and so much more.
Additionally, despite its initially shallow and clichéd Shonen anime story, Xenoblade 2 is ironically enough the perfect antidote to various tired JRPG clichés – this is a game where it’s the VILLAINS who are ultimately out to Kill God, where the expansionist empire is actually remarkably benevolent, and where personal trauma rather than religious fervor is what truly drives the one seemingly religious villain. The story is also at its core far darker and more provocative than that of Xenoblade 1 – it is ultimately not a single bad guy or a lone evil faction that’s the cause of the world’s ills, it might be human nature itself that will inevitably doom us all. In fact, the world we live in might itself be testament to the cursed cycle that we’re doomed to repeat. Heavy stuff, especially for the Big Titty Sword Waifu game. And the way this all ends up connecting to Xenoblade 1 (a rare case where the developers Lying about a game’s story pre-release was actually fully justified) is just pure genius, making Xenoblade 2 work perfectly as both a standalone story AND a direct sequel to the first Xenoblade game.
I started this mini-writeup talking about Xenoblade 2’s flaws, which are real and numerous. But whenever I think about this game (and since 2017, no game as occupied my mental space quite like this one), it’s never any of those flaws that spring to mind – it’s all the wonderful moments, the tears and the laughter, the sense of awe and wonder. And of course, Pyra being Best Girl, forever.
Based Morality Score: +2/-1
1) Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
This might seem like a boring choice (coming from me, at least), and it’s not even a brand new Switch game, just a remastered Wii title – but seriously, how could I not give what’s easily the best version of my all-time favorite game the top spot here? Back when it first came out on the Wii, people used to say that Xenoblade’s only real weakness was the Wii’s weak-ass hardware – and while the Switch is no powerhouse either, it IS a massive upgrade over the Wii, and an actual HD console. Along with Xenoblade’s superb art direction, capable on making it shine even on extremely underpowered hardware, and the main cast’s potato faces being fixed, the jump into HD meant that Xenoblade 1 was able to bless us with a stunning range of absolutely gorgeous areas and breathtaking vistas. Hell, I’d go as far as to say that Xenoblade 1 boasts my all-time favorite world in all of gaming – it truly has EVERYTHING.
And that could be said for the game as a whole. I like to compare Xenoblade 1 to Ocarina of Time – many if not most aspects of the game have been surpassed by specific later entries in the series, but OoT remains the one game to do EVERYTHING well. And so it is with Xenoblade 1 as well; even its weakest elements compared to other Xenoblade games, like the combat, the characters and the sidequests, still range from pretty good to outright great when judged on their own merits, and in a surprising amount of ways Xenoblade 1 still remains the best of the best. Its world is incredible, it has the most consistently fun and rewarding exploration outside of Xenoblade X, it’s still the best-paced and the most instantly accessible Xenoblade game, its soundtrack is second only to Xenoblade 2 and unlike that game, XB1 actually has a protagonist who can scream in rage with the best of them!
Then there’s Xenoblade 1’s story, which while not as deep or profound as Xenoblade 2’s, and suffering from various classic JRPG clichés that account for its negative-leaning Based Morality score, is absolutely impeccably told, and enormously entertaining and engaging from start to finish. The twists are legendary – mention Prison Island or the Mechonis Core to a Xenoblade fan, and he’ll be able to rant and rave for hours – and the foreshadowing is some of the best I’ve seen in any medium, to the point where replaying Xenoblade for the first time had me constantly being stunned by how almost every scene had been recontextualized by my knowledge of the game’s deepest secrets.
Sure, there are flaws, and even this Definitive Edition doesn’t get everything right – but like with Xenoblade 2, this is just such an incredible experience that the few shortcomings don’t even matter. In so many ways, Xenoblade is the best of all worlds: the perfect marriage of JRPGs and Western RPGs, of fantasy and sci, of a linear story-driven experience and open world game design. It’s the game that did what should have been impossible: give me the same feeling stepping onto the Bionis' Leg in 2011 as stepping onto OoT’s Hyrule Field gave me back in 1998. And even today, it remains my favorite video game.
Based Morality Score: +1/-2
