The original two Rollercoaster Tycoons might be the pinnacle of “indie” games - basically designed by one guy with a computer. What’s even more impressive about Chris Sawyer’s design is how layered and complex it is behind the scenes, but how simply it presents the player with the stats that they need to know. The sheer amount of variables playing into the ratings of the rides is deeply impressive, and by hiding those calculations the game is able to present itself as a true simulation of real-life physics and what people enjoy.

The original is still my favorite thanks to its progression system - having to play scenarios to unlock more scenarios would have greatly helped Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, which gives too many options straight away.

Perfect moment-to-moment gameplay and wonderful world design that is slightly held back by an inherently flawed progression system.

Shrines are mostly a mistake in the end - some very fun puzzles to be had, for sure, but by the end of the game (especially if trying to do every single one) you are so completely inured to the shrine aesthetics that it becomes rote and you’re ready to just be done with it all. The shrines also hurt the open world by providing far too many fast travel locations - all of this work went into designing a fully fleshed-out open Hyrule, but players are only going to see most of the world one time before finding the nearby shrine and just fast-traveling in and out for the rest of the run. This also renders horses fairly pointless (a common problem with the series).

A progression flaw that is more up to personal taste is how the weapons are breakable - I know this has its defenders but in my opinion it only has the effect of making the player avoid what would otherwise be fun combat encounters, or it prolongs easy encounters because the player does not want to use up a good weapon on some basic enemies.

Generally a chore to play thanks to its entire gameplay conceit - the Wii motion controls are simply not good enough to require precision from in your game design - this whole enterprise of this game is nothing but hubris.

Dungeon design and aesthetics are a step up from Twilight Princess but the game also foolishly forced you to backtrack through the overworld areas multiple times across the game, making things feel much smaller than probably intended (the desert at least mostly expands on itself rather than forcing you through the same areas).

Tries to do for the sky what Wind Waker did for the ocean, but flying is very dull and the open air feels much more like a big nothing of empty space than the ocean ever did in Wind Waker (now there’s an entire Z axis to do nothing with!)

Characters are also hit and miss, with Groose being pretty great and Fi being possibly the worst character in any video game as the physical incarnation of Nintendo’s annoying hand-holding tendencies that they’ve become known for.

Some of the highest highs in the Zelda series - the aesthetic design remains unmatched as far as I’m concerned and wide open ocean is the absolute perfect balance of making things expansive enough to feel “epic” while also keeping the world small enough that it’s not too much of a chore to make your way through the game.

Definitely starts to fall apart towards the end as you can’t help but feel the missing pieces that were cut during development. Perhaps their ambition was too big but the way the triforce piece maguffins are dealt with feels incredibly arbitrary - like it’s simultaneously filler content to pad out the game while also being too easy and streamlined.

Ugly, with mostly forgettable or bad boss encounters and dungeons that feel like a chore. The weirdest part is how tossed-off the main gimmick of the game is - being a wolf is never particularly fun and cleansing the world of the “twilight realm” is hilariously underwhelming (you hunt some bugs!).

Just overall feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the idea that people might like the style and presentation of Windwaker, so we are left with a game mostly devoid of color that tries too hard to be taken seriously. This results in characters seeming dead-eyed and lacking personality (easily the most boring Zelda herself has ever been).

There are some good things, like the Ice Mansion dungeon, the spinner sub-weapon, and Midna’s character, but overall a fairly charmless game.

Elemental and influential, with a perfect structure that allows each dungeon to feel like an escalation of the story and world than a list of things that need to be done before you can wrap things up. It is also more cinematic than most games that have come out in the modern era (that TRY to be cinematic) because it knows how to be patient.

An example at the very beginning - the pace at which the “Deku Tree” doles out his portentous speech sets up the tone and sense of grandeur that would go missing if everything were sped up and streamlined for player convenience.

The pinnacle of the Zelda series’ ability to fuse its fantasy adventure gameplay and aesthetics with actual thematic material, which is then further bolstered by the incredibly unique structure.

What is most impressive gameplay-wise is the time management skills you can feel improving every time you return to the game. On your first playthrough you might say “okay I accomplished this, that’s good progress for now, let’s restart the cycle.” Later runs likely have you thinking “okay how many things can I keep juggling and how many quests can I get done within this one three day cycle?”

So not only do you get fantastic art design, atmosphere and real thematic material, but you get a nearly invisible extra layer of gameplay that’s absent from anything else in the series.

Can be annoyingly dour and weirdly moralizing about the violence it’s making me cause but the narrative structure here is way more interesting than anything in the first game. Making you play as Abby and also sort of making her morally superior to Ellie is a nicely subversive twist of the knife.

Gameplay generally improved too (though cannot believe they barely featured ladder carrying until I played as Abby and suddenly had to carry ladders again - do they not realize how boring this is???) but both of these games sort of annoy me with this little repeated behavior:

By making nearly every encounter start with a cutscene or a hidden loading screen, it makes me feel either 1) ripped off that I can’t stealth my way INTO the situation or 2) feel like an idiot because I just spent five minutes sneaking around slowly for no reason. Like I’ll be super careful and then a cutscene takes over where my character decides to plod around like a clumsy idiot.

Matches the fluidity of Super Mario Bros. 3 but also introduces a ton of new features to give the gameplay even more depth. Levels are also more complex than in previous entries, with secret exits and puzzles that often complicate their layouts from being a simple left -> right series of obstacles.

Might be where Mario peaked aesthetically since he went to 3D right after and the return of 2D Mario platformers were with the positively ugly style of the “New Super Mario Bros.” DS games. The world this takes place in is supremely creative in its layout, and it usually manages to have each area carve out its own identity (though the “Donut Plains” identity seems to be “no identity at all”).

Close to masterpiece level if not for one fatal flaw - give me a way to know how many blue coins are in what stages/episodes. Every other Mario game is a game you can replay over and over and get better at each time, where you can see how smoothly your next run is compared to the last. Sunshine is a game where you can do that for a while but you’ll probably have to start googling and reminding yourself which blue coins you vaguely remember grabbing days or weeks ago.

Obviously this only applies to 100% runs but that’s half the fun of a Mario game in the first place. Luckily if we can overlook the blue coin system we get to enjoy a game with a fantastic, bright color scheme, fascinating water mechanics, and levels that (very appealing to me) work as levels and as real locations in the world presented to us.