Ghoumy’s Top 500 (2020 Edition): The Top Ten

These are my favorite games, and many of them have been my favorite for a very long time.

11 min readSep 8, 2021

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I’m honestly surprised with myself here. I think I have ideals that probably betray my true feelings, but as of writing this is where things lie. It’s possible I will have a different opinion within minutes of publishing this, but that’s the subjective nature of ranking 500+ video games. I will also note that multiple games I’ve played in the last year are here. I didn’t want to favor them more because of recency bias, but they were such amazing experiences that they managed to climb up the list every time I looked to make adjustments to it. I assume those who know me well enough know what’s coming so I won’t delay any further. Here are my favorite ten games as of right now, March 25th, 2021:

10) Celeste

Besides the amazing platforming that is filled with high difficulty if you want it this game has a wonderful story that felt important to me. Madeline’s journey to the top of the mountain was something I didn’t expect to be emotionally invested in, but I can definitely relate to a lot of the feelings in this game. I’ve used the breathing technique mentioned in this game to help me stay calm as I had to face my fear of heights recently.

Madeline, like the rest of the cast, is very well written and I want to do everything I can to help her succeed.

The depth of challenges available in this game are amazing even if I would lose my mind if I tried to beat the stage that killed me 1,700+ times without dying. I look forward to challenging the golden strawberries that require you to beat entire levels without dying eventually.

9) Cuphead

A consistent factor in the previously mentioned games is that I love great boss battles. This game is almost nothing but that in the presentation of an amazing 1930’s cartoon. Even the worst boss battles are exciting, engaging, and a marvel to behold. It’s such a gorgeous game that even if the gameplay wasn’t solid it would win over my heart with the phenomenal presentation. Luckily, the game is excellent to play. There is a big emphasis on parrying attacks which are highlighted in bright pink. It’s pretty fun to solve the best way to avoid an attack with this mechanic and then use those parries to boost your own attacks.

I could watch this game all day. This animation style is absolutely perfect.

The variety of weapons and equipment can be fun to explore. I personally like the basic shooter the most, and even learned how to do a low percentage speedrun of the game just so I could play through the game with this restriction as a fun challenge. Even the stages that are more like traditional platformers are a delight. I’m very excited to play the Delicious Last Course whenever it releases. They can take their time because I know it will be sublime when it is ready.

8) Donkey Kong (1994)

This might be strange to some people, but this is some of my favorite platforming in any game. The maneuvers you learn across the span of the game are fun to do and have a wide variety of utility.

Many levels involve using timed objects to build yourself a path to the key and the door. This level on the left in particular requires clever placement of a horizontal platform, spring, and ladder which are all only usable for ten seconds.

While you triple jump, handstand, backflip, and essentially parkour across the world to solve the puzzles Donkey Kong lays forth, you’re also using these cool skills to defeat all kinds of interesting enemies including Donkey Kong Jr. Turning this game on and seeing the vanilla Donkey Kong stages from the arcade many people know from Mario’s first role leads to a big shock when this game opens wide open. They’ve tried to recreate this game with the Mario vs DK series, but they can’t stand toe to toe with this game.

7) The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD

For a long time I didn’t really care for Wind Waker. It is definitely the Zelda game with the most style and personality, but there were parts of it that just didn’t feel great to me. With the adaptations made in the HD version I truly wanted to spend a lot more time in this very cool world of the seas. The fast sail is such a welcome addition that makes me feel like I can explore every part of the map as something to do for fun and not as a chore.

There isn’t much to it, but there is something whimsical that I’ll always love about Outset Isle.

The changes made to a certain quest later also eases some of the game’s nonsense. Playing with the Wii U tablet really made the game’s beauty shine and made swapping items a breeze. My qualms with the game evaporated and allowed me to see what is my favorite Zelda game… besides a certain game further on this list.

6) Final Fantasy VII Remake

This game is one of the biggest surprises to me because the combat is thrilling nonstop and once I had accepted it to be a masterful reimagining of a classic game it throws little twists and turns that leave a fan of the original reeling. All four of the playable cast here have something very different to offer. Cloud is of course great for smacking away at most enemies, but when I was pushed to use the other characters I truly loved what I saw.

One of the best things about this game is getting to know the Avalanche crew better. Jessie in particular really shines in this game, but I love all of those goofs.

Barret didn’t impress me at all at first, but once I learned how to charge while reloading to boost his ATB I felt like his tools were amazing for big damage. Using Aerith really lets the team shine with her support abilities, but you could also just shoot a massive laser beam. Tifa, however, is a queen. When you chain together like five of her abilities in a row thanks to her Unbridled Strength. Almost all of her learned abilities can go into one another so after you do a rising uppercut to pop your enemy into the air you can definitely come back down with a dive kick and lead right into a flurry of punches. It feels amazing to play. Rufus Shinra is super cool and I want to fight that smug jerk again while the old Boss Battle theme gets remixed to include horns from the Shinra theme that fills me with a satisfying dread. What a game.

5) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I’ve never been so happily lost in a game. It all spiraled into a never-ending wander the moment I constructed a giant catapult and rocketed myself towards Ganon’s Castle. After I decided that while it wasn’t worth trying to get into that fortress just yet I just sort of stumbled around into anything and everything I saw with no real direction. There was a solid week where I played this game with every moment that I could and none of that ever entailed seeking an objective beyond “Hey, what’s over there?”

For whatever reason it’s just incredibly fun to drop rocks onto a plank you’re standing on. The tools you gain in this game are basic, but they open so many fascinating possibilities.

Wandering around every nook and cranny to the point where I ended up missing all the divine beast stuff because I was too busy climbing miscellaneous mountains really was a great experience. I have since experienced that stuff, but there are still things I’ve never found that people rave about. I guess I’ll have to play it more and find more cool stuff.

4) Metal Gear Solid 3

This game has so much style and it is always endearing because of it. I loved being a cold war spy with all of the nonsense of a Metal Gear game without actually being hung up on the weird story the prior two games established. It is its own thing that harks back to what those games eventually do and that’s the perfect balance for me. It is also the coolest Snake has ever been. He’s just a kid here in a number of ways, but he is still able to really out maneuver and flat out embarrass multiple people all while going through hellacious torture.

Everything leading up to this moment is amazing, but the fight against The Boss is one of the best boss fights of all time. I guess that’s why she’s The Boss.

This game has some of the best boss fights in the series as well. Fighting the Boss is an incredible sequence that really feels impactful. Combine all the aforementioned things with the great jungle survival mechanics of camouflage and treating your wounds and you have a great experience. Just be sure to ask Paramedic about everything you eat. She doesn’t approve of Snake’s thoughts and that just makes the game even better.

3) Super Mario RPG

This is my favorite RPG. The cast of characters blends the familiar Mushroom Kingdom’s cast with a wide variety of new faces that range from very friendly to monstrosities. You even get some enemies that look straight out of Final Fantasy here. Timed Hits is not a new concept anymore, but this has always been my favorite implementation of that mechanic. I always feel engaged with the combat and every action I take has another little layer to it that keeps things interesting at all times.

The boss battles sometimes get a bit quirky, which is always done in a way where it is very welcomed. This challenge early forces players to explore other ways of battling and just in time when you have two new magic friends to show you that you don’t have to jump on enemies or hit them with a hammer to defeat them.

While the story isn’t anything too interesting the writing is top notch. Even things that feel like a weird parody, like the Axem Rangers, are amazing parts of the game. My favorite iterations of many Mario characters are in this game. Bowser should recite more haikus in other games. The presentation here is always vibrant and feels alive. Platformers are some of my favorite games and they keep enough of that spirit alive here for a Mario RPG that really helps it earn that Super status. Sure, it can be a bit finnicky to platform in the isometric view, but I like it all the same. People are so hungry for Geno in Smash or for another classic-style Paper Mario game because this game is just so great and people want more like it.

2) Nier: Automata

I’ll try not to spoil things here because this game was such an amazing experience to me because I was able to experience it with no prior knowledge. With that said, I’ve never experienced a game quite like this. This may be something that those who are more familiar with director Yoko Taro’s work could see coming, but for me I was just stunned by the creativity of the world in which 2B and 9S try to save mankind. The game starts off as you fly in an aircraft of sorts and within minutes you’re on the ground performing stylish action combos before heading off to explore a robot-infested warehouse. This kind of gameplay persists through the game with a few more twists and turns, but I loved playing every moment of this game.

The amusement park was my favorite setting in the game. The music was haunting and stunning. Seeing all these robots dressed up trying to party and have a good time was fun, but it definitely did a good job of showing a pretty face on the outside with horribly dark secrets lying within those walls.

That’s a bit of a weird thing to say at times because this game is somewhat depressing. Things don’t always go well for 2B here, but I really do think that it is worth going through that darkness to find the light. It helps that along the way there are plenty of things that range from disturbing to very humorous. Sometimes it is both like a robot humping another robot, but I digress. Nier: Automata is a game that has some of my favorite storytelling, gameplay, music, and styles. It also has fishing if you’re into that, so it has to be a truly excellent game, yeah? While writing this list, I almost put it at the top, but my monkey brain could not allow it, for you see…

1) Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

I cannot dethrone the champion of my heart, and the champion of my heart is Donkey Kong Country 2. It is so playful and jolly. I love the way this game moves. I love the way it sounds. I love the way it looks. There is a great variety in the levels. Sometimes you’ll be racing with minecarts and other times you’ll be trying to outrun a giant bee chasing your rhino butt. The stages manage to always keep it fresh without getting too gimmicky.

The bonuses require you to do various tasks such as finding a hidden Krem Coin, collecting all of the stars in an area, or defeating all of the enemies in an area.

There are many collectibles and secrets to hunt down giving you plenty of reasons to explore the stages. Those collectibles can be used to play trivia for extra lives, used to buy hints on how to find the other collectibles, and even used to buy passage into the Lost World where the toughest challenges lie for those brave enough to attempt them. There isn’t a single bad animal partner in this game though Quawks, the bird that can’t fly or spit eggs out of its mouth is pretty close. These animal partners have a lot of utility and that is put on full display in levels dedicated to them.

Diddy and Dixie must pay a lot of Krem Coins earned in those bonus stages in order to take a shot at a rematch with the Kaptain himself. Diddy is pointing at him.

Being able to play with a friend is a fun time too, whether it is cooperatively or competitively. I know that there might be a bias living inside me towards this game. I played it around the time of its release and have fond memories growing up with this game. I own two copies of it because I needed one to play and one to keep complete in its box. I speedrun the game at first because it is my favorite game, but now because it is just so fun to move go fast in that game and exploit all of the wrong-warps you can do. Maybe one day I’ll give in and acknowledge something newer as the true best game I’ve ever played, but for now this should be no surprise to anyone who knows me. This is my favorite game.

Thank you very much for reading all of these words or at the very least being interested enough in looking at them. I know not all of my opinions are reasonable and I at times didn’t have the best logic behind them. I recall making a lot of waves by saying I didn’t really like Ocarina of Time or by forcing Sonic Heroes all the way at the bottom of the list, but either way I appreciate the support. I look forward to writing a lot more ideas and even though writing all of this took like months of time (and even assembling the list itself was a process of like four years) I might revisit this list or build a new list in some time to include things that are newer such as Hades or ETERNAL RETURN: BLACK SURVIVAL*. Also I completely forgot to add Pokken Tournament to the list, but put that at like #481.

Note: Since writing this I’d put Hades very high and Eternal Return into a “I don’t know, I got bored and uninstalled it” pile. Now you know. ;)