Continuing our re-visit of past Top 10s in light of the Three Year Celebration of The Contrarian Corner, let’s get into video games! This list has changed quite a bit more than the film one, so buckle up for some brand new games to sing praises too!
Same as before, I’ll also include a list of games which have been knocked out of the top ten from the last version of the list. I’ll also highlight new entries to the list in RED.
Knocked From the List: Fire Emblem Fates (Was #10), Valkyria Chronicles (Was #7), The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Was #3)
10) Fire Emblem Heroes
I can’t pretend to deny it any longer. How can I game I’ve played every single day for eight years NOT be in the Top Ten? Honestly, I think the reason why I sometimes don’t realize how much I love this game is because I spend too much time on online forums about this game, and no one there seems to love it like I do, despite saying that they are fans! And, just as a fact of life, it’s really easy to get caught up in negative feelings when you aren’t paying attention. Anyway, that aside, even if it’s just me loving this game today as much as I did back at launch, so be it! The amount of fun and content packed into this game is insane, and I’ll never get tired of it!
9) Rise of the Tomb Raider
While it’s admittedly been a while since I’ve sat down for a full replay of this gem (though now saying that, I want to), my love for it hasn’t faded since our list three years ago. And hey, since then I’ve bought a copy of the game for my friend and tried out the co-op survival mode for the first time, which was pretty fun! But yes, this game is still the best Tomb Raider experience ever created, and there’s enough content that you’ll never be disappointed playing it. A fantastic story mode, big environments to run around and explore in, spooky optional content, heartwarming optional content, time trial mode, survival mode, and so much more. Man, I really hope the next Tomb Raider installment holds a candle to this one.
8) Kid Icarus Uprising
Ironically, Kid Icarus Uprising only seems to get more and more magical the longer we go without a sequel (and we genuinely may never get one). Because, if you don’t already know, Kid Icarus Uprising is a fantastic and unforgettable experience that doesn’t play like any game you’ve played before, doesn’t tell a story in any way you’ve seen a game tell a story before, and is chock full of more jokes, quips, and tense boss battles than you’ve probably ever seen in a game before. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience, and I really do feel like it’d be impossible to re-capture that spark if they wanted to do a sequel. Seriously, if you’ve never played this game, you really owe it to yourself to do so. One of the 3DS’ many masterpieces.
7) Resident Evil 6
I loved this game so much I put it on the list three years ago, which is crazy, considering since then I’ve 100% completed it and come to love it even more! At this point, I can’t even pretend to love this game ironically. I just love it straight-up, and I’ll go to my grave defending it against the haters. With four full campaigns of craziness, a plethora of secret collectibles and bonus content, more multiplayer modes than you can shake a stick at, and the best controls I’ve ever had the joy to experience in a 3rd person shooter, Resident Evil 6 is easily the most openly enjoyable and accessible entry in the franchise. And it’s available on so many systems for incredibly pleasing prices these days, so you’ve got no excuse for not playing it!
6) Honkai Star Rail
I’ve tried multiple times to convey just how incredible this game is, and every time I feel like I don’t do it justice. So I’ve come up with a new visual exercise that I hope fully captures just how incredible and one-of-a-kind this game is.
Imagine one of the most unique, exciting, and engaging JRPGs that you’ve ever played. Now make that game about twice as funny, three times more filled with secrets to explore, and with a fantastic soundtrack. Now imagine that that game simply…doesn’t…end. Every six weeks, that game just gets 10-15 more hours of exhilarating content to play through, and none of it ever feels trite or boring. Month, after month, after month, this fantastic game just keeps getting more content. And all of it is FREE, I’ll add, because this game is free-to-play on top of everything else.
Mix all of that together and you get Honkai Star Rail, probably the best turn-based RPG ever made. Don’t be surprised if I re-re-visit this list a few years from now and Honkai Star Rail is even closer to the top of the list!
5) Nioh 2
Nioh 2 may have been untouched by me for a few years now (save a few weeks trying out the next-gen version when I got my PS5), but I don’t value my time/memories any less because of that. After all, this was my lockdown game, and I devoted an obscene amount of hours to it alongside one of my best friends during all those months trapped indoors back in 2020. It’s an incredible experience, managing to be everything the original Nioh should have been, plus a million new layers of customization and content. Topped off with a genuinely decent story, some surprising new knowledge to gain about real-world historical Japanese events, and one of gaming’s best soundtracks, and you’ve got a masterpiece of the Soulslike genre.
4) A Hat in Time
A Hat in Time is one of those magical games that I will never, ever get tired of playing, nor will a smile never leave my face while I’m playing it. It’s endlessly and effortlessly fun and charming, with new surprises to uncover around every corner. Specifically since the last time I praised this game, I’ve started playing it on my PC (or Steamdeck, rather) which has given me access to the Steam Workshop. If you aren’t familiar with what that is, it’s essentially built-in mod support for any game that includes it, and what that means in the context of A Hat in Time is that I’ve now been able to experience the privilege and joy of playing hundreds of new user created content! An already top-tier game has gotten even better thanks to all this user content to explore, and people are still making new levels to this day!
3) Xenoblade Chronicles X
Still the best open world game ever created, three years on from my last list, and it doesn’t feel as if it’ll ever lose that title to anything but a sequel to itself (please, please give me a sequel). There’s simply no other open world game out there that devotes this much time and effort into making every single inch of this world jam-packed with content. So many open world games fall into the trap of feeling empty, but not with a game that has this many secrets, side quests, and items to find! It truly is limitless where you can go (especially once unlocking flying) with nary an invisible wall to be found. But speaking of flying, this game avoids another common open world pitfall of introducing a new traversal mechanic that makes others obsolete. In Xeno X, on-foot traversal and combat never stops being fun and useful even once you get a giant robot. It’s just such a masterfully and thoughtfully crafted game!
2) Xenoblade Chronicles 3
It was bound to happen, as silly as it is to now see three Xenoblade games taking the top honors in this list (oops, spoilers, as if #1 wasn’t going to be patently obvious). From my first playthrough of the game (where my opinion of the game was quite strong but not perfect), to a subsequent new-game-plus playthrough, to enjoying the fantastic DLC, to watching the cutscenes with my brother, and finally to watching an online Youtuber I quite like play the game, my opinion has now solidified: this game is every bit the masterpiece the original Xenoblade Chronicles is.
The story, the gameplay, the exploration, the new mechanics, the cutscenes (I’ve said it before, but the fluid and expressive character animation in this game is the best I’ve ever seen in a JRPG)…it’s got it all. Combined with the fantastic cast of characters (the game’s strongest area, for sure) and a phenomenal soundtrack that I ranked as my #1 favorite in all of gaming in an older article on this site. Yeah…this game is incredible.
1) Xenoblade Chronicles
Yeah, no big surprise here. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this game is virtually unseatable from the #1 spot, because even if I play a game that I might actually consider to be better (and Xeno X and Xeno 3 could have substantial arguments made in that regard), personal love and fond memories for this game will never see it removed from the spot of my favorite video game of all time. From all the way back in 2012 when I picked this game up off of the shelf at my local GameStop (having no idea what is was), all the way up to the present day, Xenoblade Chronicles has been exceptionally special to me.
To be sure, I still think this game is as close to perfect as any video game could conceivably come. One of the greatest storylines ever written for a video game (with one of the most original world designs of all time, and one jaw-dropping twist after another), an unforgettable cast of characters, a stellar soundtrack, engaging combat that never gets old thanks to a plethora of customizability options, an immersive world that comes alive through exploration and side quests (I mean, come on, Nopon drug trades!), the best graphics ever seen on the Nintendo Wii (that look even more vibrant on the Switch remaster)…I really could go on and on.
But what I’m getting at is that even if this game had a lot more flaws (and I won’t pretend a few areas are immune to critique), it would still be my favorite of all time. At a certain point, trying to be objective (which I really strive to do sometimes) only gets you so far in the face of the overwhelming might of nostalgic favoritism. And for me, that nostalgic favoritism manifests in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles, my eternal favorite game of all time.
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 