Top 7 - My Favourite Video Games of the 2010's

We are slowly approaching the end of these best of the decade lists, but we have to make a stop in the world of video games first. As an artistic medium, it's often argued that video games are the only medium that is constantly improving as technology advances. New advances in technology mean new things are possible in video games and so with each new generation, it becomes possible that even more advanced video games can be made. This decade, video games have been a great escape for me, offering both stories I could lose myself in and gameplay experiences that I have loved sharing with friends. Because they're so time consuming, please don't be offended if any games don't make it onto this list. I really wanted to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it was a very daunting prospect. On a similar note, games like Spider-Man or God of War have not made the list because I don't have a PS4 and therefore couldn't play them. Otherwise, all a game has to do to qualify is have its full western release within the last decade and to have been played by me at some point. With that said, we shall begin this weeks list!

35. Minecraft

If there were to be any definitive game of the decade, it would surely be Minecraft. A blockbuster hit when it launched, its popularity has only grown and even today, it's a wonderful game to lose a couple of hours or days in.

34. Mount Your Friends

Mount Your Friends is the game where you swing men around with giant floppy penises, yes, but it means more than that to me. For the first half of a round, you and your friends will all be constantly laughing but suddenly, the last half becomes excruciatingly tense and exciting.

33. Skate 3

I don't like skating but I do love me some satisfying physics and hilarious ragdoll mechanics. Skate 3 has both of those and it never fails to make me giggle when I play it.

32. Inside 

It's hard to know what to say about Inside. Fortunately, I don't have to work that out because my friend Jacob wrote a wonderful piece about this enigmatic slice of misery, which I highly recommend you read.

31. South Park: The Stick of Truth

It's strange that it took so long for a game to accurately capture the humour and visuals of South Park, but with The Stick of Truth, it finally arrived. It is as funny and outlandish as the show it derives from, while also being a pretty fun game to boot.

30. Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is hobbled by some really frustrating gameplay when you come to actually finish the game but I can forgive it, because that isn't the point. The point of Outer Wilds is exploration and I don't know if I've ever played a game where exploration felt this good.

29. Trials Evolution

The game of my early teenage years, Trials Evolution is a really well made motorcycle game that also has stupid fun physics, addictive multiplayer chaos that will have you ejecting across the finish line and a course creator that allowed the content of the game to expand to ridiculous lengths.

28. Super Mario Odyssey

The formula of Mario games is well worn at this point and yet, it's a formula Nintendo know how to execute perfectly, while also adding an extra twist. In Super Mario Odyssey, that twist is Cappy, a hat that allows you to take over enemy bodies. Simply, it is a game that feels very fun and very joyous indeed.

27. Celeste

A superb fusion of storytelling and gameplay design, Celeste is an incredibly difficult platformer that is only ever difficult in ways that feel fair. Mental health discussion have become cliche in indie games by now but Celeste does it so well that it's hard to be bothered by that.

26. FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL was one of the first games I got in my Steam library, drawing me into the possibilities of PC gaming. I've never managed to beat it but through its countless randomly generated worlds, I love failing again and again in FTL.

25. The Wolf Among Us

Though it became a clear example of the generic formula Telltale pushed to their own downfall, The Wolf Among Us was that formula before it got tired and uses it to tell a story I loved, with characters I really cared about.

24. What Remains of Edith Finch

The gameplay of What Remains of Edith Finch is very simple, but it uses that simplicity to tell a terrfic story. When it comes to the synthesis of gameplay and story, this is the high bar where I would start any new gamers.

23. Batman: Arkham City

I think Batman is really cool and Arkham City is a game that understands every facet of the caped crusader wonderfully. I personally prefer Arkham Asylum but that came out in 2009 and City is just as good in all technical aspects, taking that winning formula to an open world.

22. Bioshock Infinite

When I first played Bioshock Infinite, it was pretty much my favourite thing ever. Since then, the hype has died down a bit and I see that was maybe exaggeration, but I do still love the game. The world of Columbia is stunning, the gameplay feels great and the story broke my brain in all the best ways.

21. Return of the Obra Dinn

A little double bill now of puzzle games I would introduce new gamers to. Return of the Obra Dinn requires you to discover the fates of the crew of an abandoned ship by examining moments of death. No game makes getting a puzzle right feel this satisfying, difficult as it can become at times.

20. Portal 2

Part two of the puzzle game double bill, Portal 2 is the best kind of sequel, expanding everything that was brilliant about the first game in exciting new directions. Added to that, not only did you get a wonderfully challenging and funny single-player campaign, but there was a co-op campaign that has only ever brought me closer to the people I played it with.

19. Red Dead Redemption 2

I wasn't sure about putting Red Dead Redemption 2 on this list for three reasons. First, I'm still playing it and am still a way away from finishing. Second, the survival elements of having to constantly keep meters full annoys me. Third, Rockstar put their staff under appalling working conditions to make this game. However, much as they should, none of these things stop me loving the game. It's the first game in a very long time that I'm not rushing to beat and am simply happy to exist in the world of and if that doesn't earn a place on this list, nothing does.

18. NieR: Automata

By a long way, NieR: Automata is the most bonkers game on this list. You have to play it through at least three times to access its five main endings and by the time you've made it there, you'll have gone through a series of crazy events. However, it is fun to play, has a superb soundtrack and weaves themes of philosophy deftly through the entire narrative, including in its ending, an ending which serves as one of the best endings I've ever experienced in a video game.

17. Split/Second

Sometimes video games can tell profound stories that reveal something about ourselves or our world that we had never realised before, almost bringing us to tears along the way. Sometimes though, in the case of Split/Second, they're brilliantly stupid fun. The foundational driving gameplay feels great but the joy is elevated to stratospheric levels by your ability to destroy the world (and competitors) around you.

16. Halo Reach

Another game of my early teenage years, Halo Reach was the final Halo game from Bungie, the studio that created it. As a swansong, it doesn't get more fitting than this. The story is short but satisfying, though it's the multiplayer mode that kept me playing. Whether in Firefight or some appropriately crazy multiplayer mode, I wasted days with friends in this game and were I given those hours back, I would only waste them again.

15. Super Mario Galaxy 2

There is an innate joy in pretty much every Mario game but by combining that with the cosmic potential and total void of the universe, Super Mario Galaxy 2 excelled greater than even the original game. It is one of those games I dream about an HD remaster for, hoping to have another excuse to play through this gem now that I no longer own a Wii.

14. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

A little detour now into the world of multiplayer games, games that I am willing to admit may have made it this high up the rankings due to the fun times I've had playing them with friends. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is perfectly named because it is the ultimate version of everyone's favourite fighting game. All the characters from all the games are here, ready to beat the ever living shit out of each other. Though it's perfectly possible to get very good at the game, the real joy comes in gathering everyone around the TV, handing them a controller and wishing them luck.

13. Jackbox Party Pack Series

Slightly cheating here because I couldn't pick just one Jackbox Party Pack but if you've got a problem with this entry, write your own blog to complain about it on! As everyone who's played more than one game of it knows, the problem with Cards Against Humanity is that it's hard for the cards to stay relevant and they lose their appeal when you're overly familiar with them, a problem Jackbox easily overcomes. The Jackbox games allow people to use their phones to submit their own answers in a series of chaotic and fun games that are the perfect accompaniment to a night of drinking.

12. Rhythm Thief & The Emperors Treasure

Imagine if the Professor Layton games were set in Paris and instead of an old man doing puzzles, they were about a teenager doing rhythm games. No need to imagine, because Rhythm Thief exists and is just as delightful as it sounds! Actually, you might need to imagine because no one played this delightful game, which I will forever be demanding a sequel for. At least it briefly got to inspire a strange TikTok trend.

11. Sayonara Wild Hearts

Once again I am bringing up my friend Jacob, who recommended this game to me. We have fairly similar taste in games, so I trusted his recommendation and immediately felt very happy about that decision. Sayonara Wild Hearts is a hybrid of a game and visual album, which tells the story of a woman learning to love herself again after a heartbreak, while also being about some weird celestial highway. It is hard to explain and also only an hour long, but I have replayed this game as much as I replay some of my favourite albums. Sayonara Wild Hearts is a perfect execution of what it wants to be and I love what it was aiming for as much as I love its execution.

10. The Yawhg

In 6 weeks, The Yawhg will be here. You don't know what it is, but you are tasked with living your life in hopes of preparing for whatever terrible thing is coming. That's the setup of The Yawhg, which tasks four people of going about a fantasy town for six turns (which represent weeks) as they do strange tasks and have unexpected run ins with townsfolk. You get to create a strange series of stories and at the end, once The Yawhg arrives, you get endings based on how well you saved the town and lived your life. It is an absolute treat and whenever I make a new group of friends, I always try and introduce them to it. Truly, the only complaint I have is that there aren't loads of stories and if you play through the game three or four times, you'll have seen a lot of the bigger events. Fortunately that isn't too much of a problem and when you're playing with a new group, there's a perverse joy in seeing them be about to be bitten by a vampire without realising it. The Yawhg is a series of terrific stories that allow for you and your friends to make your own stories and I'm yet to be bored of it.

9. Rayman Legends

Would it be too controversial a statement to say that Rayman Legends is the best platformer of the decade? If that wasn't controversial enough for you, I would even go as far to say that there hasn't been a better 2D platformer since Super Mario World in the nineties. Rayman Legends deserves to be celebrated for so many reasons and I hope to bring up a few of them here. The platforming is incredibly satisfying and though floaty, still feels shockingly precise. The art style is superb and feels like a brilliant step forward from Rayman Origins and a needed step away (visually at least) from the Raving Rabids games. Importantly for me though, Rayman Legends is a game that never feels like the kind of bland, uninteresting, copy and paste games that Ubisoft pump out now. This is the rare AAA game that feels totally unique and whether you play through it alone or with friends, it is a game that demands to be loved by everyone.

8. Her Story

There's been a couple of games on this list that have gameplay that feels totally unique, but they all pale in comparison to Her Story. The premise is simple and the runtime can, depending on your detective skills, be short but that shortness works in its advantage. You are sat in front of a police computer, looking through old interview footage. In this footage, we only ever see one woman speak, the woman in the picture above. Using the database available to you and the interview footage you are presented with, you must search key words in this database to find more interviews in the hopes of fully understanding the case. Fun fact, I had to have a pad of paper and a pen with me when playing this game, frantically writing down words that seemed to offer more clues. The reason that this formula works so well is that most people who play Her Story are going to have completely different experiences. Perhaps you will immediately stumble onto the key that cracks the case, potentially you might have to slowly build up an image only for it to be torn apart by a new revalation. The brilliant thing is, Her Story is designed so that whatever order you piece together the story, it should click together. In theory, you could even end the game having not understood the narrative, but you will not be punished by the game for that. I don't want to say any more, this is simply a game that you should see knowing as little as possible. You could beat it in an afternoon, but the investigation will stay with you for a lifetime.

7. Grand Theft Auto V

The funny thing about Grand Theft Auto V being on this list is that I haven't actually beaten the story of it. Partly that's because it's a huge game, partly it's my fault for getting so easily distracted, but I bring it up because despite that it still makes it to number seven and I own it on four different platforms. This is a game that I constantly return to, unable to ever resist its appeal. I love doing the missions and all the silly action feels really fun but sometimes, there's nothing I love more than just getting in a car, putting on the radio and driving around the world. Los Santos is a brilliant world and Rockstar made the brilliant decision not to go for a massive world and instead created a world where every inch of it feels significant. Perhaps the craziest thing about Grand Theft Auto V is that it is still going. Grand Theft Auto Online remains ridiculously popular and with a new console generation on the horizon, both Playstation and Microsoft have confirmed the game will appear on a third generation of consoles. Seven years on, Grand Theft Auto V is just as much fun as when it first came out (although the newer versions added Lorde to the radio, which obviously improved the game markedly).

6. Spec Ops: The Line

On its surface, Spec Ops: The Line is yet another formulaic military shooter. You are a group of soldiers, sent to Dubai to hide behind cover and shoot a bunch of men who are slightly different to you. And yet, as the campaign plays out, it becomes something much greater, namely a retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Following in the great legacy of Apocalypse Now, Spec Ops: The Line is another retelling of a book I can't stand, done in a way I adore. The further you shoot your way into Dubai, the more you realise that you actually might not be the hero after all, the characters deluded by the institutions they've dedicated their life to, you, the player, deluded by the trappings of the military shooters we've all been indoctrinated by. Some have said the gameplay feels a little formulaic but I never had a complaint, loving every second of the gameplay until I very suddenly (and deliberately) wasn't. Spec Ops: The Line is a spit in the face of military shooters and in a time when Call of Duty games are re-appropriating real American war crimes into fictional Russian war crimes, it feels like now more than ever we need that question: do you feel like a hero yet?

5. Just Cause 2

It's great when video games tell a compelling cinematic story with characters you care about. The thing is, the thing people don't like to talk about so much is, that video games are best suited to being very fun and very silly. Just Cause 2 perfectly epitomises that, having a built in mechanic that literally rewards you for creating as much chaos as possible. You are a man named Rico Rodriguez and your job is to fly, drive or grapple hook around the massive country of Panau and blow shit up. Speaking of, it is that grappling hook which sets Just Cause 2 apart from other open world chaos games. With it, you can launch yourself onto cars, send enemies flying to their death or propel you into the sky, flying along with your parachute. Everything in this game is built around you having as much fun as possible and that's why, throughout the decade, I have failed to stop playing it. Just Cause 2 is unbridled chaos that has never been topped, not even by its two sequels.

4. Tetris Effect

The biggest question you probably have is why Tetris, a game that has been around since the nineties, has made it onto this list at all, let alone to fourth place. The reason you have that question is because you clearly haven't played Tetris Effect. I will admit that Tetris is basically a perfect game already but if there were any way to perfect it, Tetris Effect does. You'll have picked up from some of the entries on this list that I like rhythm games and in a strange way, that's what this game does. The main "story" of the game has you putting down tetrominoes and each time you do, there's a musical sting. As you play, the song builds and eventually soars, creating absolutely incredible music that I love to listen to over and over again. Alongside the wonderful music is excellent visuals, exemplified by this computer wallpaper above that I genuinely paid good money for. I love Tetris Effect so much that, at the recent Xbox conference, the news that it and a handful of new features would be coming to the Xbox was pretty much my highlight. Tetris is one of the best games ever made and Tetris Effect is the best way to play it.

3. Professor Layton and the Lost Future

I had a real Professor Layton phase for a while. For example, did you know that I own a limited edition copy of the original film Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, which contains a DVD and blu-ray copy of the film, as well as a storybook that I cannot read as it is entirely in Japanese? The point is, I am a big fan of the Professor and his adventures, a fandom that peaked with Professor Layton and the Lost Future. I love the plot of this game, in which the Professor and his sidekick Luke believe they have travelled to the future through a mysterious clock shop, a future in which they meet an older version of Luke and a young version of Layton's wife, who disappeared years ago. Along the way, we get to do a bunch of tricky but really satisfying puzzles and meet curious characters, both new and old. The journeys end alone is worth it though, an ending that is notable as being the only moment in any video game that has ever made me cry. Lost Future is an entry I struggle to completely rationalise but it's a game that really moved me and I love it completely. This decade, it is one of the games that has most significantly impacted me.

2. Disco Elysium

Another bold claim here, Disco Elysium is the best written game I've ever played. This is a fortunate claim, as Disco Elysium is almost entirely based around the written word. Why am I so confident in this claim? Well, I first played Disco Elysium at Christmas, played a good four hours or so. I had a great time doing it, the only reason I didn't play more was because I was quite busy at the time. Then back in April, I picked it up again and, even after months away from the game, I managed to remember everything I had done and everyone I had talked to within ten minutes. If you're unaware, Disco Elysium is a game where you play as a drunk detective, waking up from an apocalyptic hangover with complete amnesia, to find a body hanging in a tree. Your task, should you choose to accept it (and you can choose not to) is to investigate what went down and find out who you were before this all happened. In building your character, you are given total freedom to go as ridiculous as you want. Personally, I made my detective a depressed communist with a deeply held belief that there were forces larger than we know controlling the world (yes, an exaggerated version of myself). The world and characters of Disco Elysium are so immaculately constructed that it's the rare game where news of a TV show being adapted doesn't scare me too much. If the world is able to be accurately captured, both in terms of visuals and writing, it'll be enough for me. For any sane writer with tastes like mine, Disco Elysium would clearly represent the peak. Unfortunately, I've never been famed for my good decision making.

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Yeah. While I was planning out this list, I didn't think Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would make the top spot. It was always in the top portion of games but it didn't seem possible that it could be my favourite game of the decade. And yet, as I was sorting the games, I realised that there is no game this decade that has given me as much joy as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Not once have I had a bad time in this game and not in any state either. I have played this game drunk and sober, played it alone, with friends and with strangers and I have absolutely loved playing it each time. I don't even need to explain what the gameplay is like, you already know what Mario Kart is. All Mario Kart 8 Deluxe does is take that kart racing formula, already resplendent with flying and underwater sections, and add zero gravity racing. If you really know what you're doing, it changes the game, allowing your collisions to actually speed you up. Fortunately, even if you don't know what you're doing, it creates awesome looking visuals. To clarify, visuals more awesome than the already wonderful looking designs of the world and characters. The sound is also wonderfully designed, because when it comes to their in-house games, visuals and sound are an area where Nintendo can never put a foot wrong.

Just put a controller in anyone's hands and they will be giggling away and screaming at their competitors like they've been doing it their whole life.

I also quickly want to address the Deluxe part of the title. In case you weren't aware, Mario Kart 8 was originally a game for the Wii U, still an excellent game. Most of the content from Deluxe was already there and the entire core of the game was there completely. However, no one had a Wii U. In good news for Nintendo, their follow-up console, the Nintendo Switch, has been a massive success and Nintendo decided to re-release the games from the Wii U that no one played with shinier graphics. In re-releasing this game though, they didn't skimp on additional content. All the characters and maps that were DLC in the original game are included and there are even additional characters and maps added, so that this game has value even for people who already played the initial release. It even fixed the battle mode, one of the worst elements of the original game. At first, the mode was just the normal battle mode from Mario Kart, where you drove around full maps from the game instead of battle arenas, but in Deluxe, actual arenas were added, as well as beloved modes from previous games like Bob-omb Blast and Shine Runners. What I'm trying to say is that if you want to re-release an old game, this is the way to do it. More than anything else I love about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (and there are many things), the thing I love the most is how universal it is. I love playing Smash Bros, but that requires a great deal more explanation and has a far steeper learning curve than Mario Kart. Just put a controller in anyone's hands and they will be giggling away and screaming at their competitors like they've been doing it their whole life. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe best embodies the two things I love about video games: pure, unbridled fun and the ability to easily share that fun with the people I care about.

We are almost finished with Best of the Decade month, climaxing next week with films. Yup, finally, the biggie. I have destroyed my fingers typing it, so I would really appreciate if you tuned in next week. Thank you, love you, bye! x