40. Fortnite
Aside from Pokemon Go, it was the indisputable gaming phenom of the decade, and for good reason: It's fun!
Squad up with friends and ride around in a golf cart tearing down structures, finding treasures, building new structures, and taking out other squads.
Third-person shooters are certainly nothing new, but the added mechanics of lighting-quick building and battle-royale style play are what makes Fortnite special.
Each season came with goofy new quirks, like getting to smash apart giant hamburgers for prizes.
But the staple quirk of the game has remained (mostly) unchanged each season -- flying through the air in a city bus with a hot air balloon mechanism with 100 other players, before you all parachute down and kill each other.
I've spent nowhere near enough time with Fortnite to master the building, but I've still enjoyed every single match I've played with friends, and that's why it's on this list.
39. Alien: Isolation
It's definitely no secret that I love scary games, and this was probably the scariest I played this decade (Emily Wants To Play is a close second).
Again, though, I'm won over by an incredibly detailed and consistent aesthetic. You're thrown into the Nostromo, the iconic ship from the original 1978 film, knowing only that you might find some information on it about your mother, Ellen Ripley.
You meet a few helper androids early on that seem potentially terrifying, yet at that moment dormant, but before you have time to worry about them turning on you, enter this monstrosity:
Hey bud, how ya doin! Wanna eat my face off? I'll bet you do!
This quickly becomes a game of survival, stealth, and inventory management, with pretty much a single wrong move resulting in your demise. You dart down tight, padded hallways festooned with all sorts of button panels with green LCD screens, hiding in lockers or air vents to escape danger. All your senses feel heightened as you do everything you can to avoid alien and android alike.
One of my absolute favorite things about the play mechanics of this game that I've really not seen done quite this perfectly in any other game is the use of focal shift and perspective, as shown in these two screenshots when your character is looking at her detector versus looking ahead of her, but still holding it:
It really adds to the realism of your situation and further immerses you into this world and its terror.
38. DuckTales: Remastered
Simply put, this is one of the best video game remakes I've ever played. I, like many of my generation, spent many hours perfecting my jumps and pogo boings in the NES original to try to take down Count Duckula once and for all. Despite the limitations of that system, that title rose above the cream, and its continued popularity is a testament to how well it was designed and programmed.
This remake returns us to the five familiar locales from the original, but expands the story content in the game in a very satisfying way, adding an intro sequence that sets up the game's plot very handsomely.
We also get a fantastic updated soundtrack that takes the original tunes - which were already brilliant - and expands them to shine in a new way.
The updated artwork is perfect, too. Everything feels as though it's right where we left it, but it's all just a bit easier to see.
It was also one of the final performances by legendary voice actresses June Foray and Russi Taylor, titans of the industry who played some of these characters for many, many years.
37. Rad
A rogue-lite with progressive achievements AND a delicious neon '80s aesthetic? Umm...count me right the fuck in!
Rad is positively gorgeous, top to bottom. Despite its INTENSE levels of saturation, it still manages to use color to visually separate things in meaningful ways that really lubricate the game and keep it speedy.
You choose from one of ten post-apocalyptic would-be mall dwellers and/or skaters, venturing as them out into an oxygen-deprived wasteland that only they can survive.
There's also this neat Elder character, who guides you via narration once your game begins. I highly recommend disabling his "friendly" mode in the game's settings.
The world of Rad isn't super duper deep, but there is undeniable love and care put into what we do see of it, and despite it being a terrifying wasteland with monstrous amphibious creatures who spit poison at me and try to pinch my head off, I can't help but feel warm fuzzies while I'm in it.
36. Super Mario Maker 2
Any sequel that is a definitive, measurable improvement over its predecessor is a winner in my book, and that is certainly the case here. All the fun of level design is back, complete with an easier interface!
While it is absolutely true that the Wii U's hardware lent itself pretty perfectly to this game, the Switch does just as good a job (though I will say that using a stylus is pretty much imperative).
There was also the very cool addition of a Super Mario 3D World mode!
I'll be completely honest though: I'm into this series to play courses, not make them! I love love love seeing the grammar to which I've grown so accustomed over the last 33 years be used to build intricate puzzles, speedruns, mazes, and the occasional Rube-Goldberg machine. My favorite thing about Super Mario Maker will always be playing the most absolute ridiculous of courses on Courseworld.
So yes honey, please go forth and build that giant mario out of falling blocks, or that hidden picture puzzle, or that stack of 60 giant Bowsers that I have to take down with a single POW Block. I am here for your insanity, and I want to live in your nightmare. Envelop me.
