Jon's Far-Too-Long Top 10 Games of 2017 List

It’s time to look back. 2017 was one of the wildest years of my life, and it seems like it was pretty wild for the video game industry as well. Accompanying all the strange twists and turns of my life this year have been some great games. I don’t really know what else to say, except thank God for video games.

Quick disclaimer, there are a number of games that aren’t on this list simply because I didn’t play them this year. These include (but are not limited to):

Assassin’s Creed Origins: I’ve never been a huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed series. I loved 4, but that was mostly because it was a pirate game. With Origins, however, they seem to have made some changes to the Assassin’s Creed formula, and I’m interested in this one in a way that I haven’t been interested in an Assassin’s Creed game before. Unfortunately, between life things and other games, I just didn’t have the time to get to this one this year.

Nier: Automata: Another game that I’ve heard a lot of good things about, but for the longest time I just wasn’t interested in it. In fact, I’d say I was openly opposed to it. I have this (admittedly dumb) tendency to dislike things that people talk up and hype a lot, so I was put off Nier relatively early. Recently though, I’ve been more receptive towards it after hearing Giant Bomb’s GOTY deliberations about it. I’m sorry Nier, I should’ve given you a chance.

Prey: Played the demo. It was cool. I have a special place in my heart for narrative sim games in the same vein as Bioshock and Dishonored, so I’m fairly sure I would’ve loved Prey. Didn’t have time to get to it though.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy: Again, didn’t really have time.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice: Same as above. Really this could be said for a number of single player story games this year. Pyre, Night in the Woods, etc…

Anyway, time for the actual list.

Honorable Mentions:

For Honor

The game looks really good and sounds really good. I just wish it played and functioned really well. The servers are often bad, the characters are wildly imbalanced (looking at you, Gladiator and Shaman), and the core gameplay just didn’t stick with me. Still, I respect For Honor for trying something different with the fighting genre. I had a lot of fun with my friends with this game. There’s a solid three weeks in February where my friend group was dominated by Letterkenny and For Honor, and for those memories this game gets a nod.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Technically this already came out on the Wii U, but since I didn’t have a Wii U, my first experience with this game was on Switch, and I feel that’s for the best. Mario Kart is already good, but being able to just pull the Switch out and playing Mario Kart with a friend anywhere is great. My friend and I are going to play Mario Kart during our commencement in May. As far as the game goes, it’s still Mario Kart, but it’s really good Mario Kart. How many times have I said “Mario Kart” now?

Resident Evil 7

I didn’t play Resident Evil 7 all the way through. My friend and I passed the controller back and forth until finally we got to one scare that just made me say “Okay, enough,” and turn off the game. Resident Evil 7 is scary. Straight up. The first person perspective is used really well, and it feels like a return to form for the series after its more action-focused entries.

Guilty Gear Xrd Rev. 2

Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator was a tremendously fun fighting game. With a bomb-ass art style that perfectly blends 3D models with anime style (the models run at 15FPS or something so that they mimic the movement of 2D sprites!), a fantastic J-metal soundtrack, and a truly unique roster of characters, it might be my favorite modern fighting game (sorry Street Fighter). Rev 2 is essentially the Super Street Fighter 4 update for Revelator. It contains gameplay tweaks and balance changes, extra story stuff, and adds two new characters: the one armed samurai fan-favorite Baiken, and a new character named Answer who is a ninja that works for President Chipp Zanuff (which I still can’t get over. Why is Chipp president? I didn’t vote for him) and never gets off his phone. I’m not kidding, this guy is talking on his phone through the entire fight. It’s great. Guilty Gear is great.

Call of Duty WWII

It’s been a while, Call of Duty. Not since Black Ops 2 have I really gotten into one of these games. WWII is a step in the right direction, but I don’t think it brings enough new to the table. Also, the maps are largely bad. Zombies is still fun. I haven’t touched the campaign. Yep, it’s Call of Duty. I’m excited for whatever Treyarch has next though.

Cuphead

“What?” you might be asking. “Cuphead isn’t on his list? What’s wrong with him?” Here’s the thing: I love Cuphead’s style. I love the art. I love the music. I love the animations. I hate playing it. I know this will prompt responses of “git gud,” but that wasn’t my problem. I didn’t have an issue with the game’s difficulty. Well, I did, but not in the “it’s too hard!” way. I felt that my enjoyment of Cuphead’s art and music was actively hindered by having to concentrate so much on the gameplay. It’s a game I’d much rather watch than play, because while playing I can’t properly appreciate the beautiful hand-drawn animations. Gameplay and style should compliment each other, and in Cuphead it felt like they were fighting for my attention.

Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 is a shooter that doesn’t care about my lack of aiming skills. If I wanted, I could just go splat paint on a wall. It’s great. Nintendo’s take on the shooter genre maintains all of the charm that Nintendo games are known for, and it’s great that they’re still making new series instead of just riding on Mario and Zelda (which they absolutely could). Still, they’re a bit behind when it comes to online interaction. The monstrous disaster of cords and hoops that you have to jump through just to use voice chat is appalling, and minor things like not being able to change your loadout between matches or leave once you’ve started searching for a game (I’ve read they’ve fixed this, but I haven’t played since then) is just confusing. Come on Nintendo, it’s 2018, every other company has this figured out.

Horizon Zero Dawn

This game is beautiful. That needs to be said. Aside from Uncharted 4, I think it might be the best looking console game I’ve ever played. I spent more time with the photo mode in this game than any other game ever, and I have roughly over a gigabyte of screenshots. Also, how did the creators of Killzone, an average sci-fi first person shooter series, make this game? It’s a third person open world action game. That’s pretty far from what they’re used to, and it’s great when companies go outside of their comfort zone. That said, Horizon just didn’t stick with me. While I was playing the game it was great, but it didn’t leave any impact on me once I’d stopped playing. The backstory is awesome, but once you find out how the world came to be the way it is, the story just stops being compelling. I never really cared about the tribe that was...I think awakening old machines or something? I can’t remember. All I remember is shooting a bunch of giant death robots with a bow.

Final Fantasy XV

Okay, so I know this came out in 2016, but I didn’t get around to properly playing it until just this year. And wow. All I can say is wow. If I had played this last year, it would easily have broken my top 3. After reading discussions about this game online, I was a little sceptical about it. People said the story was boring, the gameplay wasn’t good, the quests were lackluster, etc.

These criticisms hold true, to an extent. The gameplay isn’t the normal turn-based combat of Final Fantasies past, and admittedly it’s a little shallow. For the most part you can just hold down the attack button and occasionally warp around and be perfectly successful. What I will say about the combat though is that the attack animations and magic effects are really detailed. Each character in the party has a unique link strike animation with the player character, Noctis. All of the magic feels really powerful thanks to awesome elemental effects and the booming sounds that accompany casting them.

Most of the side quests were simple MMO-like fetch quests where you go kill a certain number of things, collect a few things, and return to a quest giver. I avoided a lot of side quests, with the exception of the Hunts. I really enjoyed the hunting side quests that you could pick up at each restaurant across the world. Sure they were just “go here, kill thing, come back,” but I enjoyed going on the hunts with my party members because it was during these hunts that I felt we were just four guys on a road trip, crossing the country killing demons, and camping out at night.

The overarching story of the game is a bit confusing and vague, and I feel like a few things (Ardyn, mostly) were woefully under-explained. His motivations weren’t properly expressed in game, and that’s a shame because he’s a really well-designed character. I wanted to know more about him and why he was doing the things he was, but either something got lost in translation, or Square leaned far too heavily into the “mysterious villain” trope. Either way, Ardyn was underutilized and didn’t get enough characterization.

What were not underutilized and under characterized, however, were your party members. The game opens up with a broken-down car in a desert, a Florence and the Machine cover of ”Stand By Me,” and four guys in leather pushing a car and complaining to each other. I was in love with these characters from the beginning. Ignis with his calm, rational demeanor, Prompto with his shaky confidence, and Gladiolus with his muscl- uh, tough, but caring personality, all resonated with me as well as complimenting and balancing each other. Noctis starts off as your typical brooding, “I don’t want to be the King” prince, but over the course of the game learns to accept his responsibility with the help of his friends. If this sounds cliche, that’s because it is, but I’m a sucker for a good cliche, melodramatic character arc sometimes, especially when it’s done this well. The main story is alright, but it is the interactions between these four characters that elevates this game above others. I won’t get into spoilers, but this game wins the award for “most I’ve cried at a game since The Last of Us.” I could go on about this game for pages upon pages, so I’ll just leave it with this: Final Fantasy XV made me feel things that I haven’t felt from a video game in a long time. Its story is alright, its gameplay is pretty good, and its quests are average at best. However, it speaks to the strength of the main party characters that this game succeeds so strongly in spite of its many flaws.

Alright, now on to the actual list.

10. Destiny 2

Sigh. Hi there, Destiny 2. What’re you doing so far down on this list? I spent over 1000 hours with Destiny 1, as did all of my friends. So how’d you end up down here? I mean, my favorite college memories involve raiding with my roommate and my friends in Destiny 1. Clearing the Vault of Glass. Running through Crota’s end. Finally killing Oryx on Hard Mode. Hundreds of hours of Crucible with the boys, and many, many private matches. For two solid weeks, I was obsessed with you, as I had been with Destiny 1. And then, the magic faded. Gone were the enigmatic exotics, the King of which was the Gjallarhorn. How I chased that thing. Months and months of trying, and when it finally dropped, I yelled so loud that I lost my voice. Where did those go? Oh, you’ve shifted your focus to PvP balance and have made exotics largely irrelevant in the fears that something imbalances PvP? You’re deciding to sacrifice PvE balance and enjoyment to try to avoid people crying about PvP? I’m not sure that’s the best choice. What happened to the mysteries of your universe? Oh, you decided to lean into humor in a way that ruined any gravity that the story had. I don’t even want to talk about Eververse.

When you came out, I was sure you’d be at the top of this list. Now, I’m not even sure you deserve 10th. But here you are, resting on the nostalgia I hold for the first game, and the hopes that Bungie will do better for you in the future. I want to love you, Destiny 2, as I did the first game.

At least the shooting is still fun.

9. Sonic Mania

A good Old Sonic game? In 2017? I couldn’t believe it. The original Sonic the Hedgehog games were some of my favorites growing up. The disc for Sonic Mega Collection spent its fair share of time in my Gamecube when I was younger, and I have a lot of memories of handing a second controller to my brother so he could play as Tails with me. After the disappointment that was Sonic the Hedgehog 4, I was a little wary when I heard that Sega was going to make another “classic” Sonic game. Except Sega wasn’t making it. They were handing off development to fan developers that had apparently made some good fan games? Okay, I’m interested. When they released the trailer that showed the animated opening, I was transported back to being 8 years old and watching the animated intro for Sonic CD over and over again. Starting the game up and hearing the Green Hill Zone music was great, and then in Green Hill Act 2, they changed it up. “This isn’t the Green Hill that I remember,” I thought. And that was a good moment. The developers of Sonic Mania know how to perfectly balance nostalgia with new game ideas. A good example of this is the Studiopolis Zone, which is a completely original zone for this game, yet it feels just like it was taken out of Sonic 3. It also has a lot of cool gameplay gimmicks in it that hearken back to the Casino Zone from Sonic 2, but still manage to be original. I’m amazed that they created a good Old Sonic game, but I’m so glad they did.

8. Tekken 7

Full disclosure: I was always a Soul Calibur kid. Link in Soul Calibur 2? Yes please. I’d never played much Tekken before Tekken 7, but something about the visuals and the ridiculous, over-the-top nature of its story and characters drew me in. Oh, and Akuma is in the roster. And Noctis is coming in the Spring. And Geese Howard is here. Tekken 7’s guest characters are among some of the best guest characters I’ve ever seen in a fighting game. As an Akuma main in Street Fighter, I was really excited to see how he’d play in a different fighting game, and despite his very different fighting style and inputs from the rest of the roster, he fits in the game perfectly. They’ve also somehow worked him into the Tekken lore in a way that isn’t explained. But you know what? It doesn’t need to be. He’s there, and it’s awesome.

The story of Tekken 7 as a whole is awesome. I love over-the-top stories that make no apologies, and Tekken 7’s story is just that. At one point, three characters have a conversation where one of them is speaking English, one is speaking Japanese, and the other is speaking Italian, and they somehow understand each other but continue speaking their respective languages. It’s never explained why they all understand each other, but it doesn’t need to be. This is Tekken 7. Akuma is here. Noctis is coming. Sure, anything can happen, why not? That seems to be Tekken 7’s entire design philosophy. Want to dress up Akuma like a BDSM leather daddy? Why not? Want to make Paul’s hair three feet taller? Sure, go ahead!

7. Metroid: Samus Returns

Metroid: Samus Returns really is a return for Samus. After 2010’s Metroid: Other M (which I’d prefer to forget), Samus faded into obscurity for a while. Sure, she was still in Smash Bros, and there was a weird 3DS spin off, but for 7 years Samus went missing. Then at E3 2017, Nintendo brought her back. They were working on not one, but TWO Metroid games, one of which was to be a Zero Mission style remake of Metroid 2. The 2.5D visual style of the game works really well, and I think is one of the best uses of 3D on the 3DS. I don’t usually like the 3D effects in most 3DS games, but the way the 3D changes the way the backgrounds look is really stunning, even on my tiny original 3DS.

The gameplay is still classic Metroid and has you exploring the tunnels of an alien planet for upgrades. You kill Metroids, get weapons and items to make finding and killing Metroids easier, and then go kill Metroids. My only problem with this game is really the Metroids themselves. They’re really the only bosses in the game, and they start to get repetitive after a while. The original Metroid II had the same problem, so I’d hoped they would find a way to make it less repetitive. However, this is a minor gripe about what is otherwise a fantastic return to form. Welcome back, Samus.

6. Injustice 2

Loot boxes and character customization? In a fighting game? Slow down, it’s not bad. Injustice 2 has potentially the best loot box system out of any game in recent years. They can’t be bought with real money, only earned through gameplay. And wow, do you get a lot of them. I’m tempted to say that Injustice 2 has the best single player content in any fighting game to date. It consists of a really well-done cinematic story mode (which is something Netherrealm Studios has become known for in recent years, more on that in a minute), offline versus modes, and something called The Metaverse.

The Metaverse is a constantly changing set of arcade towers that reward players with loot boxes based on performance, as well as specific gear for different characters. Character customization is relatively unheard of in fighting games, so for Injustice 2 to go this far with customization items is huge. There’s an almost Diablo-like motivation to grind for gear for your favorite characters. I spent a lot of time trying to get the best gear possible for my level 20 Scarecrow. He looks pretty cool now. The gear also affects each character’s stats, which really only comes into play in the Metaverse. In online and offline versus matches, bonuses from gear can be turned off so that both players are on an even playing field.

Injustice 2’s story mode is a continuation of the story from Injustice 1 where Superman (spoiler alert) kills the Joker, and is a tyrannical dick that takes over the world. It’s an interesting take on the character, and watching a large number of DC heroes interact and rationalize their actions is really interesting. The character models all look really good, especially the faces. The facial animation in this game is near uncanny, but it doesn’t quite cross into that valley. The characters are all well-acted, though I wish a few of them had bigger roles in the story. Swamp Thing just kinda shows up, fights once, and leaves back to the swamp. Despite this, I continue to believe that the Injustice story modes are better than any of DC’s recent attempts at a cinematic universe. I won’t get started on that.

5. PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS

You’ve probably heard of this game. Being the top seller and the highest played game on Steam will draw some attention. PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS is a revolutionary shooter. It does for the shooter genre what Call of Duty 4 did back in the day. It’s a game consisting of a single mode: battle royale. 100 players are dropped onto an island to scavenge any weapons and gear they can find, and then they fight until only one is left. This premise is so simple, yet so revolutionary. It leaves me wondering, “Why hasn’t anyone done this before?” Played solo, Battlegrounds is essentially a survival horror game. With no one to watch your back, every sound, every shadow becomes a potential enemy. Were those footsteps, or am I hearing things? Was that just a bush moving, or someone in a ghillie suit with their sniper scope aiming at my head? Encounters are tense and thrilling, as it doesn’t take much to die. Squad games become less scary, and more tactical. Having a squad to call out enemies and watch your back is helpful, and successfully coordinating and executing an ambush is one of the most satisfying multiplayer experiences I’ve ever had. And winning a game of Battlegrounds is by far the most excited I’ve ever been over a multiplayer game.

The game is far from perfect though. All throughout its early access lifetime, and even now after official 1.0 release, there are bugs, and performance issues abound. It’s a testament to the game design and enjoyment I’ve had with it that these issues hardly damage my perception of the game. If Fortnite and Paladins are any indication, Battlegrounds has started a trend, and it’ll be interesting to see if anyone can do it better than the original.

4. Persona 5

Persona 5 is cool. Like, really cool. Everything in this game just screams “rebel punk.” The menu design, the character portraits and designs, the soundtrack, just everything about this game is stylish in a way that is consistent with itself. Nothing seems out of place in its world. It’s definitely a Persona style, but it takes the style of previous games and makes it its own. While the main story isn’t super engrossing, everything around it is so polished and interesting that I can’t help but want to see everything this game has to offer. The starting characters like Ann and Ryuji aren’t super interesting ordeep. Ryuji mostly just talks about being a Phantom Thief, and Ann mostly focuses on her friend Shiho and her modelling career, neither of which is super compelling. As the game progresses, however, the main character is introduced to more interesting characters. There’s a grumpy airsoft gun salesman, a student council president who rebels against the unrealistic expectations she is faced with, and a shut-in that slowly comes out of her shell, to name a few. Oh, and coffee dad, Sojiro. After the main character is accused and found guilty of a crime he didn’t commit, he is forced to change schools and is sent to live with Sojiro Sakura, an older coffee shop owner who is originally cold towards the protagonist, but warms up to him over the course of the game as he finds that the main character isn’t as much of a delinquent as everyone thinks he is. There’s also a punk rock doctor who I definitely don’t have a crush on. Nope.

As far as the gameplay goes, it’s pretty much classic Persona. Turn-based battles where you can use your basic attacks or your personas to damage enemies return, however you have a few more options now. Every character has a gun they can use, and instead of automatically starting an all-out attack when you successfully hit every enemy’s weakness, you’re given the option to negotiate with the enemies to give you money, give you an item, or join you as one of your personas. The negotiation mechanic is a little obtuse at first, but once you figure out what kind of responses each personality type likes, it goes smoother. I’m not usually one for turn-based games, but Persona’s dungeon crawling and battle system are really interesting. Also the battle UI is super cool. I just can’t say enough about the aesthetic of this game. It’s what 15-year-old me thought the scribbles in the corners of his notebooks looked like.

3. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

W0w. Just wow. That was what I was thinking through most of Wolfenstein 2. There are so many moments in this game that just blew me away; I would need more than 10 fingers to count them. The first Wolfenstein was surprising because of the quality of its story. The second is surprising because of how absolutely INSANE they get with the story. The game picks up immediately after the first, with protagonist B.J. Blazkowicz in real bad shape. This is the main focal point of the first half of the game, until an abrupt tonal shift in the middle that completely turns the game on its head. Oh, you thought a Jewish guy dual wielding machine guns and fighting Nazi robot dogs was wild? What until you see what Wolfenstein 2 has up its sleeve. I don’t want to say much more for fear of spoiling anything, because this is a game that you absolutely must play blind.

The gameplay isn’t anything to write home about in the way that Doom’s was, but it gets the job done. Despite the infantilization of the player that the game tries when you choose the lowest difficulty setting (side note: please stop doing this, developers, it’s not funny. It’s just dumb), I believe this is the best way to play the game. Tearing through battalions of Nazis with a triple barrel shotgun in one hand and a jacked up assault rifle in another is such a joy. It is cathartic wish fulfillment that just feels really fucking good, especially given recent events. And that’s the most appropriate praise I can give Wolfenstein 2. It’s really fucking good.

2. Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey is the most joyful game I’ve played in years. Every part of this game seems specifically designed to just make you happy. From the cute characters like Cappy and the hat ghosts in Bonneton, to the fact that birds will come land on Mario’s nose when he falls asleep because you set the controller down for too long. It’s also one of the most incredibly polished games I’ve ever played. In the 60+ hours I spent with it, I encountered exactly 0 glitches. The visuals are superbly crisp, even in handheld mode, and the soundtrack is suitably Mario-like, with a few exceptions (which are great). Fossil Falls is such a sweeping, adventurous theme which is then followed later on by the Steam Garden’s weird ska-surf rock theme. And I can’t talk about the music without mentioning the game’s theme, “Jump Up, Super Star!” The fact that Nintendo made the theme of this game a voiced jazz song sung by Pauline is both surprising, and completely in character for them.

The gameplay is more akin to Super Mario 64 than any other 3D Mario game to date. This time around, however, Mario has the added ability to possess enemies and features in the environment by throwing his ghost hat, Cappy, at things. I was a little skeptical at first, but the first time I possessed a Goomba and created a 20-Goomba stack which I then dropped off a cliff as I jumped out of them had me convinced that this gimmick might be alright. I mean, you can possess a T-Rex, and doing so gives it a little Mario mustache and hat. There’s no way to not like this game. Playing Super Mario Odyssey, I was the happiest I’ve been playing a game in years. Especially during the New Donk City festival, which is the highpoint of the game for me, as I’m sure it is for many others. Mario runs through 8-bit Donkey Kong inspired levels as Pauline sings the game’s theme, and everything just works perfectly together in the scene to create one of the most memorable sequences in a Nintendo game. This game really is a joy to play, and any other year it would’ve been my #1 on this list. However, Nintendo was on fire this year, and we also got…

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might just be my favorite video game of all time. I say this 10 months after the game was released, after playing numerous other games this year. None of them stuck out to me as much as Breath of the Wild did. When Nintendo revealed the story trailer at their first Switch presentation, I teared up. Zelda was reinventing itself, and it looked really good. Then when I finally got my hands on it, it just resonated with the part of me that would spend hours running around Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time when I was a kid. The open world in Breath of the Wild is one of the most well-fleshed out and fully realized worlds in any video game to date. It makes good on the Skyrim promise of, “See that mountain? You can go climb it.” If you see a mountain in the distance in Breath of the Wild, you really can just run up to it and climb it, provided you have enough stamina and stat boosting foods. No other game that I’ve ever played has allowed for the same level of freedom in traversing the world. You can climb mountains, jump out of trees, glide across fields with your glider, tame horses to ride, get on a raft and blow wind at the sails to make it move. Alternatively, you can magnetize a metal object and push it up against the sails to make the boat move. Breath of the Wild isn’t afraid to allow the player to experiment in ways that feel like you’re breaking the game.

Breath of the Wild also shakes up the traditional Zelda formula. From the moment you finish the tutorial on the Great Plateau, you are completely free to go wherever you want in the world. You could even walk straight up to Hyrule Castle and go fight Ganon if you so desire. There are 4 “main” dungeons in the game, which are admittedly a little lackluster. However you can go to any of these 4 dungeons at any time, and complete them in any order. Most of the puzzle solving in the game comes in the form of Shrines that are scattered all across the overworld. There’s around 120 of these Shrines, and each one presents a different challenge. By completing these Shrines, Link can increase his heart containers and stamina levels. It’s an interesting take on upgrading in a Zelda game. The Shrines also make the game great for playing in small chunks, which is the ideal use for the Switch. I can turn the game on for 15 minutes and still feel like I accomplished something even in that short amount of time. While some found issues with the weapon system, I enjoyed having to switch out my weapons. It forced me to be resourceful and deal with enemies in ways that I wouldn’t have thought about had I just been using a sword that I never had to worry about.

Breath of the Wild has a very minimalistic approach to story and music. The story is simple: Ganon has taken over, and Link has to stop him. However, the world is very interesting in that this is essentially a post-apocalypse Hyrule. Settlements are few and far between, and travellers have to be very wary of dangers while on the road. It’s an interesting tone for a Zelda game, and one that I am all on-board for. This is a desperate world that has been waiting for a hero, and Link wakes up after 100 years to rid the world of evil. Most of the story is told in flashbacks that Link has when he finds certain locations in the world. The questline to recover Link’s memories was one of my favorites because it had me searching out locations in the world and made me go to parts of the map that I likely would not have gone to otherwise.

I just cannot praise this game enough. The way Nintendo has designed the world made me feel like a kid again, going and exploring, poking around and trying to find every secret I could. Walking out onto the Great Plateau, I felt the same as I did the first time I encountered Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time. If there was one word I would use to describe Breath of the Wild, it would be Discovery. There’s so much to discover in this game, and it’s such a joy to do so. The first time I found out you can cook by dropping items in a pot, I looked out off the side of the Great Plateau into a sunset and I cried. I cried because somehow, Nintendo had recaptured the childlike feeling of wonder that I hadn’t felt with a game since I was a kid. The Legend of Zelda is my favorite series, and somehow Nintendo blew away even my expectations. Here’s to you, Zelda.