What a generation it has been.
It’s been one full of incredible stories and countless incredible games that have kept players company for hours upon hours. It’s no secret that we at Press Start love our gaming and there has been a lot to love over the last console cycle.
In that time we’ve awarded five Game of the Year awards, given a perfect 10 to fourteen games, and reviewed a lot of others.
With one generation coming to an ambiguous, transitionary close, and with a new one approaching, we thought it was time to bring to you, our readers, a countdown of our very best games that this seventh generation of consoles had to offer. As is always the case, lists like these can draw a lot of discussion and ire from the gaming community. To achieve results we could stand by, we had to set a few ground rules for which games would be eligible and when the cut-off would be.
Cross-generational games were eligible in our deliberations, while our timeframe of eligibility extends from November 2013 to November 2020 which means there’ll be games coming out soon that do miss out. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the line we’ve drawn to make sense of it ourselves. The votes were lodged by ten members of the Press Start team, listing their top ten games in order for the generation with points being assigned by order.
Their #1 game would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their #10 game, which received a single point. Over fifty individual games received votes, though only ten could make the final cut. So, let’s begin.
#10 – Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario is a franchise that has endured since the inception of mainstream gaming, it walked so countless contemporaries could run. Though there have been several memorable entries in the series, they don’t come much better than Super Mario Odyssey which saw everybody’s portly plumber make his Nintendo Switch debut.
Armed with a sentient hat named Cappy, Mario went on another fantastical journey to save Princess Peach and protect her from the clutches of Bowser, his unrequited love, and mislaid marital plans. It’s a surprising journey that takes players to so many memorable kingdoms, it’s certainly sure to be considered among Mario’s finest adventures.
By the end of June 2020, Super Mario Odyssey had managed to sell 18.06 million copies which is an enormous effort for a console exclusive title.
In his review, Shannon said:
“I don’t know how Nintendo continues to do it, but they’ve managed to reinvent another classic franchise and push it further than imaginable. Super Mario Odyssey is the game that we’ve been waiting to play for more than 20 years. It feels like it borrows key elements from almost every Mario game that has come before it to create what is, possibly, not only the greatest Mario game but one of the best 3D platformers of all time.”
You can read the full review here.
He gave it a 10 out of 10, the highest praise Press Start can bestow, while it carries a Metacritic average of 97.
Congratulations to Nintendo on another feather in the old cap.
Top 10
10. Super Mario Odyssey.
