2011 wasn't Nintendo's best year from any perspective, but now that all's said and done it still proved to be far from the worst. In fact, with the launch of a new handheld platform, a new Zelda five years in the making, a new Mario to kick off the 3DS's first holiday, and tons of downloadable fun, this may debatably be one of the heaviest Nintendo years ever in terms of the sheer weight of each of the major releases. Sprinkle the 25th anniversary festivities for one of the most celebrated franchises in all of gaming on top of that and you've got a whole lot to look back on.
Read on to see the top surprises of the last year - and don't be too surprised when half of them have something to do with Zelda.
VGChartz's Evan Norris: "Is Ocarina of Time as legendary as I remembered it? For the most part, yes. In spite of a handful of missteps — a few obtuse puzzles, some tedious backtracking, and a clunky stealth sequence — I don't believe the last 23 years have been unkind to it. Ocarina remains a brilliant example of the medium, a landmark game that shaped the future of its own franchise and 3D gaming in general. After more than two decades it retains its inventive dungeon design, challenging puzzles, dynamic combat, wistful storyline, unforgettable music, and empowering open-air freedom. I feel confident calling it one of the greatest games of the fifth generation, even if I'm no longer prepared to list it among the five best games ever made."
Pure unadulterated fun. They don't make them like this anymore...especially not the triple A industry.
Back when video rental was a thing, I rented out Majoria's Mask, I never finished it though. I did buy the 3DS version before the eshop shutdown, so maybe one day I'll finally play through the whole thing, it's amazing how well these games hold up though. I briefly played Ocarina of Time for a while and it was really fun.
Cultured Vultures: Put on your freshest dungarees and chow down on the ripest mushroom as we reel off the best Mario games ever made to celebrate Mar10 Day.
My top 3 are Mario 3, Mario World and Mario 64. Mario Odyssey is also excellent, and I enjoyed Sunshine but didn't care for the Galaxy series.
Xenoblade Chronicles composer Kenji Hiramatsu reflects on his work and feels that it's "time for a fresh start."
There is no together at the top. There is only one top jrpg series. Xenoblade Chronicles series is alone at the top
I like the Xenoblades series but my ‘top’ series would be either the Trails series or Persona series. Just too many good games for me to just pick one series though, so I say play them all lol.
I'm not huge into JRPGs, but my favorite is easily the Persona series. It's all opinion though. Xenoblade is a great series.
" it's a shining star within the declining genre"
Its basically rising to such heights it has nowhere to go but down.................
More games getting localized than ever, more games being developed than ever, at the same quality as ever