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2019 Game of the Year & 2010s Game of the Decade - Printable Version

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2019 Game of the Year & 2010s Game of the Decade - A Black Falcon - 30th January 2020

I usually do not do Game of the Year lists and have not for some time, and for good reason -- it is impossible for any one person to play all of the great games released in a year, and I am no exception.  More games release now than ever before, so it is impossible for even a team of people to keep up with all of the games releasing, much less any one individual, no matter how much they follow this industry!

However, partially because I played more recent games this past year than I had in quite some time and partially just because I wanted to, I decided to try to make a 'my favorite games' list this year.  It is in several parts:

Table of Contents
-------------------

My Favorite Games of 2019
The Best Classic Re-releases/Enhanced Ports of 2019
Special Awards
My Favorite Older Games I Bought in 2019
Pre-Current Gen Games (ie no 3DS/Vita/X1/modern PC/NS)
Modern Consoles, games from before 2019
Worst Classic Games I Bought in 2019
My Favorite Games of the Decade of the 2010s
My Favorite Games of Each Year of the 2010s
Overall Top 10 of the Decade

My Favorite Games of 2019




Key: NS: Nintendo Switch; X1: Xbox One; 3DS: Nintendo 3DS; PS4: Sony PlayStation 4. Key: (DD Only) means that the game has no physical release on this platform.

The Best Games Newly Released in 2019
--
1. Super Mario Maker 2 (NS)
2. Etrian Odyssey Nexus (3DS)
3. They Are Billions (PC) (DD Only)  (final release was 2019)
4. Ding Dong XL (NS) (DD Only)
5. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (NS)
6. Samurai Shodown (2019) (X1; also on PS4)
7. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (X1; also on PS4, NS, PC)
8. Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands (NS; also on PC) (DD Only)
9. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (NS; also on PS4, X1, PC)
10. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (X1; also on PC, PS4)

Honorable Mentions: Dragon: Marked for Death (NS), Anthem (NS), Dead or Alive 6 (X1), Golf Peaks (NS) (DD Only), Puyo Puyo Champions (NS) (DD Only), Daemon X Machina (NS)


The Best Classic Re-releases/Enhanced Ports of 2019
--
1. Collection of Mana (NS) - (one game first US release in '19)
2. Gunlord X (NS) (DD Only) - (first licensed release in '19)
3. Sega Ages: Virtua Racing (NS) (DD Only) - (heavily enhanced classic port)
4. Commander Keen in Keen Dreams (NS) (DD Only) - (first console release in '19)
5. Arcade Archives Moon Cresta (NS) (DD Only)  - (first official console release in '19)

Honorable Mentions: Croixleur Sigma (NS) (DD Only) first US release in '19), Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Joe & Mac Returns (NS) (DD Only) (first official console release in '19)

Special Awards
--
Best Graphics: Anthem  - Sure, this game has its problems, but it looks absolutely incredible!  It's not as terrible to play as people say, either.
Best Music: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair - The Donkey Kong Country composers return, and are still incredible.
Most Addictive: They Are Billions, Mario Maker 2 (tie) - Both of these are games I have played versions of for years, and will surely continue to play for years to come.
Most Fun to Watch Others Play Online: Mario Maker 2 - I'll probably never be as good at this game as streamers are, but maybe that is part of why I so enjoy watching them play the game...

Game of the Year: Super Mario Maker 2 - This was an easy one, it's been my likely Game of the Year since its release and nothing since has changed my mind on that.

My Favorite Older Games I Bought in 2019

Key: SAT: Saturn; NES: Nintendo Entertainment System; JAG: Atari Jaguar; TCD: TurboGrafx =-16 CD (aka PC Engine CD); TG16: TurboGrafx-16 (aka PC Engine); 5200: Atari 5200; INTV: Mattel Intellivision; CVIS: Colecovision; GBA: Game Boy Advance; DS: Nintendo DS; DSi - Nintendo DSi (Digital Download games for eShop for the 3DS, now); GEN: Sega Genesis; N64: Nintendo 64; PSV: PlayStation Vita; CD-i: Phillips CD-i.

Pre-Current Gen Games (ie no 3DS/Vita/X1/modern PC/NS)
--
1. Tempest 2000 (JAG)
2. Jeff Minter Classics (JAG) (modern homebrew title)
3. Saturn Bomberman (SAT)
3. Mega Man 3 (NES)
5. Thunder Force III (GEN)
6. Seirei Senki Spriggan (TCD)
7. Monster Tale (DS)
8. SteamWorld Tower Defense (DSiWare on 3DS eShop)
9. Tempest (5200) (modern homebrew title)
10. Snafu (INTV)
11. Nova Blast (CVIS)

Honorable Mentions: Super Monkey Ball Jr. (GBA), Pepper II (CVIS), Iron Soldier (JAG), Space Fury (CVIS), Sonic & Sega Allstars Racing (DS), Zoop (JAG), Strikers 1945 (SAT)

Also Noteworthy:
BurgerTime (INTV), Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands (JCD), Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (CD-i), Link: The Faces of Evil (CD-i), Super Space Invaders (GG), TI Invaders (TI99), Stunt Racer 64 (N64), Gateway to Apshai (CVIS), Demon Attack (INTV), Atlantis (INTV), Marchen Maze (TG16), Donald Duck: The Lucky Dime Caper (SMS), Accelerator (CD-i), Loco-Motion (INTV), Lady Bug (CVIS), Dick Tracy (GEN), I-War (JAG), Moon (DS), Sengoku Blade (SAT), Moto Roader MC (TCD)

Modern Consoles, games from before 2019
--

3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (3DS) (DD Only)
SEGA AGES Sonic the Hedgehog (NS) (DD Only)
3D Streets of Rage 2 (3DS) (DD Only)
Super Mario Advance 4 - Super Mario Bros. 3 (GBA - Wii U VC) (DD Only)
3D Space Harrier (3DS) (DD Only)
3D Streets of Rage (3DS) (DD Only)
Rune Factory 4 (3DS)
Summon Night 6 (PSV)
ACA NeoGeo: Aero Fighters 2 (NS) (DD Only)
Monster Hunter Stories (3DS)

Honorable Mentions: 3D After Burner II (3DS)(DD Only), The Legend of Legacy (3DS), The Alliance Alive (3DS)

Also Noteworthy: Obduction (PC) (DD Only), Kamiko (NS) (DD Only), Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Gate of Doom (NS) (DD Only), Stranger of Sword City (PSV), Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Wizard Fire (NS) (DD Only), Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Joe & Mac Returns (NS)(DD Only), Hive Jump (Wii U), Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Super Burger Time (NS) (DD Only)

Worst Classic Games I Bought in 2019

Video Speedway (CD-i) - While far from the worst game ever, this game is very boring and bizarrely difficult.
Wizard Defenders (DSiWare on 3DS eShop) - This tries to be good but fails miserably.  It gets unplayably hard quickly.
Airlock (2600) - Lives down to its reputation, sadly.
Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Carnival (CD-i) - Bad minigames.
Medal of Honor: Underground (GBA) - The GBA is not a good platform for 3D_!
Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit (GBC) - It is unforgivable to not have an ingame map in a game like this, released when it did, on a handheld.

My Favorite Games of the Decade of the 2010s

Note: American release dates are used here, as always in this article.  Additionally,  I usually do not count re-releases of old games for this list and won't be listing classic-console re-releases here, such as Sega's 3D Classics line and such.  However, I ignore this rule for a few titles I really like.

My Favorite Games of Each Year of the 2010s:

2010
------
1. Picross 3D (Nintendo DS)
2. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
3. Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (Nintendo DS)
Honorable Mentions: Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Xbox 360), Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty (PC), Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii) (mentioned here for the addition of motion controls), 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3), Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

2011:
------
1. Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
3. Professor Layton and the Last Spectre (Nintendo DS)
Honorable Mention: Driver San Francisco (PC) (also on Xbox 360, PS3), Monster Tale (DS)

2012:
------
1. Growlanser IV: Wayfarer of Time (PSP)
2. Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
3. Gunlord (Dreamcast)
Honorable Mentions: Super Hexagon (PC), Hotline Miami (PC)

2013:
------
1. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
2. Fire Emblem Awakening (Nintendo 3DS)
3. The King of Fighters XIII (PC) (also on PS3 and Xbox 360 previously)
Honorable Mention: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan (Nintendo 3DS)

2014:
------
1. Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (Xbox 360) (also have for PC and Xbox One; also on PS3 and PS4)
2. Terrian Saga: KR-17 (PC)
3. TxK (Playstation Vita)
Honorable Mention: Under Defeat HD (XBox 360) (also on PS3; up-port of an older, Japan-only Dreamcast game)

2015:
------
1. Super Mario Maker (Wii U)
2. Splatoon (Wii U)
3. Pillars of Eternity (PC)
Honorable Mentions: The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match (PC) (previously released on other platforms), Rocket League (PC) (also on PS4, Xbox One, Switch)

2016:
------
1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U) (if you count an HD remaster)
2. Overwatch (PC) (also on PS4, Xbox One, Switch) (GOTY if you don't count the above)
3. Picross 3D: Round 2 (Nintendo 3DS)
Honorable Mention: Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo 3DS)

2017:
------
1. Starcraft Remastered (PC) (yes, it's a remake. I'm listing it anyway. The new graphics are great!)
2. Yooka-Laylee (PC) (also on PS4, Xbox One, Switch)
3. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
Honorable Mentions: Splatoon 2 (Switch), Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Playstation Vita) (later ported to PS4, PC, Switch)

2018:
------
1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)
2. Tempest 4000 (Xbox One) (also on PC, PS4)
3. WarioWare Gold (Nintendo 3DS)
Honorable Mentions: Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption (PC), Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Xbox One; also on PS4, PC)

2019:
------
1. Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
2. Etrian Odyssey Nexus (Nintendo 3DS)
3. They are Billions (PC)
Honorable Mentions: Collection of Mana (Switch) [particularly for the first US release of Mana 3, previously Japan-only], Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch), Ding Dong XL (Switch)

Overall Top 10 of the Decade

Super Mario Maker (Wii U) (2015) - This game redefines platformers in a truly special way.
Starcraft Remastered (PC) (2017) - The best game ever, redone with better visuals.
Picross 3D (Nintendo DS) (2010) - A puzzle game classic still to be topped.
Splatoon (Wii U) (2015) - Easily one of the best shooters ever made!
Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch) (2019) - Mostly better than the original, this game only suffers for the worse creation of the Switch's capacitive touchscreen versus the Wii U's reactive one.
Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) (2013) - A highly under-rated game, I hope it gets a Switch port soon!
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (Xbox 360) (also have for PC and Xbox One; also on PS3 and PS4) (2014) - This game was ignored by most, but I was totally addicted and played it regularly for a year.
Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii) (2010) - Kirby returned with a vengeance!
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U) (if you count an HD remaster) (2016) - The HD version of one of Nintendo's best games ever is probably the definitive version.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) (2011) - This game was slightly disappointing for a major Zelda game, but that still ranks it as exceptional.

Honorable Mention: Yooka-Laylee (PC) (also on PS4, Xbox One, Switch) (2017) - Everybody is wrong about this game, Yooka-Laylee is amazing and one of the best games of the decade!  I have played more of this game than Mario Odyssey and don't regret that.

So, for me 2012, 2016, and 2018 were the weaker years of the decade for games, while 2010, 2015, and 2019 stand out for the greatness of their libraries.  2017 is was a fantastic year as well.  Overall though, 2015 has to win because Mario Maker and Splatoon are two of my favorite games ever.  Quantity matters, and 2019 has that, but quality matters even more.  (They Are Billions, by the way, does not make the top 10 because the random luck of level generation and unfair nature of defeats make it incredibly frustrating, and not always for fair reasons. Maybe it should be on the list despite that, it's close.)


RE: 2019 Game of the Year & 2010s Game of the Decade - A Black Falcon - 11th February 2020

You don't need to make a list as long as mine, but nobody else has any thoughts about the last decade of gaming, really?


RE: 2019 Game of the Year & 2010s Game of the Decade - Dark Jaguar - 12th February 2020

The years blend together so much for me now that I can't even remember which year a game came out in.  Also, I totally missed this thread.

Let's see... games games games...

I liked Bloodbourne.  Loved it, actually.  First of all, it was a FAR better depiction of Lovecraftian horror than literally any other "Lovecraft based" game.  Every aspect of it was sublime.  It even perfectly captured the nature of those story's ideas on madness.  First of all, there is no "sanity meter".  There is "insight".  Instead of jokey 4th wall breaking gags involving your memory card, raising insight just lets you see "more" of the truth behind the world.  Or does it?  Because it's not a drainable "sanity meter", you're left in the dark about whether or not your character is going mad, or just learning the truth.  THAT is the nature of Lovecraft that something like Eternal Darkness completely failed to capture.  Even the section with the man dissecting people and slowly "going insane from the revelation", there was never any doubt that what was happening around him was real.  A good Lovecraft story is a story of an unreliable narrator, and doing that from first person is very hard.  Bloodbourne pulled it off.  By the end, I honeslty wasn't sure what I was even doing.  I kept killing more and more and more- and by the end I was starting to think the Hunter's Nightmare was my well deserved punishment for what I'd done.

The Souls style storytelling (learning about the world through subtle hints instead of direct dialog in most cases) is also vastly preferred, as it allows you to slowly sink into the horror.  I mean, the game starts as gothic horror involving werewolves.  That's what you think you're dealing with.  Then, you open the eyes on the inside.  Werewolves are nothing compared to the small part of reality you inhabit; this speck of time you flicker across.

Add to that the intricately crafted and interconnected world.  It's better than even the first Dark Souls, as there is no badly put together volcano section dragging it down this time.  The hunter's dream is also a very wonderfully made and integrated "Nexus" to come home to.  All I can add is the combat takes a different tact.  You're meant to run right up to enemies and engage them in a direct and brutal fassion.  This is not a game for those who cower behind a shield.  This is closer to Doom.  Now, I do LOVE me some "cower behind a shield" mechanics like the other games, I'm just pointing out the different philosophies involved.

--------------

Sonic Mania is a good sonic game.  Really good.  It also has the best mini-game for getting chaos emeralds across the entire series.  Honestly, it feels like a long lost 32X game we never got to see.  Also, for the first time in forever, there's a new Sonic mechanic that isn't horribly broken or just plain useless.  The drop dash is perfection.  There are only two downsides I can think of.  First, it would ahve been nice if ALL the stages were unique locations rather than a mish mash of revisted past stages and new ones that we got.  Don't get me wrong, the remade levels are new enough they don't feel stale, but here's hoping we get a Sonic Mania 2.  Speaking of, and this is a big fan request already but I can only add to it.  Amy Rose.  Rosey the Rascall.  Put her in it, in her retro Sonic CD form, with her ability set from Sonic Advance 2 (roughly, it can be retooled a bit).  She's the only one missing from the party.

Okay that's all I have to say about it.  Good Sonic game.  Do that more Sega.

---------------

Phantom Pain reignited my love of gaming and made me realize what parts of playing video games I love the most.  It's THAT good.  Yes, it's incomplete.  Yes, the story is both bad (compared to other Metal Gears I mean) and incomplete, but it is STILL my favorite Metal Gear game.  Why?  Because I can throw animal bait at a wild bear and lure it into a base behind a soldier currently distracted with trying to turn the lights to the base back on after my shenanigans.  Because I can shoot out my prosthetic arm like a rocket launcher to punch a line of soldiers currently staring up at the soldier I just abducted via balloon.  Because I can slide a box down a hill and part it behind a soldier only to pop up out of the box and hold him up.  Because I can make a horse go poop on the ground and make a Russian jeep spin out of control off the road.  Because I can crash another jeep into a telephone pole, break it, and simultaneously cut off power to a small outpost AND knock out the soldier that picked the wrong mud puddle to walk through that day.

Hold on I'm not finished.

Because I can drop in on a helicopter blaring "Take me On" loud enough to be heard across a major Russian base while chucking inflatable fake Snakes all over that say "kept ya waiting huh?" and when a soldier shoots it they get startled when it pops.  Because I can tell my dog/wolf I held up in the sun like this was the Lion King to sneak up on a soldier and take it out with a stun knife while I watch his flank through a sniper view.  Because I can SHATTER the mind of a soldier by setting up a ring of fake snakes, him caught in the middle, and watch as he freaks out unable to decide who to shoot.  So I step out of the ring and put him in a hold.  Hah!  One of them was the real me all along!

I'm not done Reginald!

Because I can fight a BOSS in the game by calling in supplies.  Target location for the air drop?  The very hiding spot that elite sniper is about to hide in.  Supplies arrive, the boss is knocked out by the drop crate.  Because I in no way played this game the way it was intended to be played, which is just what the creator intended me to do!

Okay I'm done.  It was good.  Play it.

-------------

Breath of the Wild is like Phantom Pain if they had finished it.  It's everything I said before, but with a glider, and telekinesis, and NPCs and quests.  Also, I can build a catapult and launch bombs and stuff at a camp of moblins.  This game competes with Link to the Past and Majora's Mask for my ranking of favorite Zelda game.

It's better than Phantom Pain and you can do all the same kind of crazy stuff there, well, pretty much.  I can wander aimlessly for hours.  In fact, that's the GOAL of the game!  You're told "Here's the boss, you can go right in there and kill it and beat the game.  Zelda's waiting for you.  Now, forget all that, here's the REST of the world. DO THAT! You'll get some cool stuff to fight Ganon with." and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  Now, yes, the story is supposed to be about a post-apocalyptic Hyrule and that Hyrule in question seems to be getting along just fine without a royal family at all.  It makes me wonder if it's even worth rebuilding Hyrule Castle.  Maybe everyone would be better off if Ganon was just killed and Link and Zelda just retired to live in one village or another.  No one really seems to be living in fear of anything.  Everyone seems to be living plentiful lives full of food and opportunity.  It's the most laid back apocalypse ever.  Heck there's even an established chain of horse stables complete with a giant logo on each building.  They're doing fine.  Anyway, so I killed Ganon and that was the most disappointing part of the game.  Big out of Ten.

------------

Doom!  I mean Doom 4, er Doom 2016.  Actually forget it I'm covering the whole series here.

This game's great.  Anyone that's been here long enough knows I kind of hated "Doom clones" way back in the day.  All action, no thinking.  A game for dumby dumbs.  I got Goldeneye and it changed my mind on what a FPS could even be.  Goldeneye involved complicated mission objectives and a focus on stealth, and Perfect Dark followed that up with more of everything.  Frankly no FPS since then has really pulled that off aside from maybe the Time Splitters series.

But, BUT!  Here's the thing.  I was all wrong I had the wrong tone.  I've recently replayed through Doom, Doom 2, Final Doom, Master Levels for Doom, and Doom 64.  All of them.  Oh, and some extra map packs made by Romero in the past couple of years.  When I was younger, I played the games but I was frankly terrible at them, awful.  I was struggling in later levels even on the lowest difficulty.  This came down to controls.  I was using default keyboard controls.  Unplayable in retrospect.  I simply hadn't stumbled across the Doom community online at the time, barely aware of this or that map pack I could download.  I had no idea of the vastly superior and now industry standard keyboard+mouse setup.  Plug that into Crispy Doom and you're off to the races.  The first time I beat those games, I cheated.  I cliped through walls, made myself a god, gave myself all the guns, and I ruined the experience.  I thought it was just "kill kill kill" because I never had to use strategy.  More recently?  I got myself the good controls and I changed my whole outlook.  Firstly, I started off with Ultra Violent.  This is what I'd consider the "base difficulty" now that you can spin around on a dime.  The first thing I learned is just how clever the enemy design actually is.  Each enemy fills a completely unique roll.  Human soldiers are fragile but deal unavoidable damage each time they shoot.  They're "scanline" enemies.  If they can see you and they pull the trigger, odds are you're getting hit.  Imps are more rugged than soldiers but their projectiles can be dodged.  Step aside and you're fine.  This is the gift actually USING strafing got me.  Just with those two, you can see how a fight needs to go down.  Focus on the humans first, they're the most dangerous but the most easily taken out.  THEN clear out the imps.  Then there's the pinky demons.  Those big bulls full of teeth are melee chargers.  Keep them away and you'll be fine.  Now you have a dance.  Run around the room to avoid fire from the imps and keep distance from the bulls while pecking off the soldiers first. Each new enemy past that introduces new elements, from rockets that track you to flying enemies that can attack from unique angles to enemies that produce other enemies to enemies that are both fast tough and hard to avoid (cacodemon) but flinch EASILY, so hey they can be taken down with a sustained chaingun attack while doing the previous dance with the others in the room.

And when I realized that, I realized that Doom requires you to be smart too.  You have to prioritize and change strategies on the fly to deal with an ever changing set of fighting arenas and combinations and placement of these "chess pieces".  It's genius, borne from experience making games that didn't have nearly that level of polish before Doom.

And then there's the secrets.  This game does what all good games with secrets do.  It gives you hints.  Keep an eye out for odd things, weird puddles of blood you didn't make, flickering lights on one small part of the wall, a texture misalignment here or there.  That's almost always a sign there's a secret door.  Beyond that, keep your ears open and the volume up for odd distant sounds.  That may be a hint that stepping across a certain part of a map has just opened a door somewhere behind you.  Each of the original Doom engine games has it's own focus.  Doom 1 had a focus on fully utilizing limited level space for those battle arenas.  Doom 2 had much MUCH larger levels, and put a big focus on fully exploring them.  It was more maze oriented.  Final Doom had two parts made by two different teams.  Evilution focuses very strongly on "monster hunts" in mazes, with difficult encounters resulting from numerous "traps" while Plutonia focuses purely on straight arena style combat through level after level.  Frankly I liked Evilution more.  Master Levels is a collection of individual disconnected maps.  Yes, some compilations sort it into a campaign but you're better off not bothering.  There's no difficulty curve, they literally sorted the level order of those "campaigns" by alphabetical order of the level name.  Doom 64 focuses on mood and unique puzzle design, since they implemented an upgrade to the engine that allows "room over room" to work, sort of.  It's good- just distinct from Id's design style.

Doom 3 goes a very different route.  It takes the "fear" component and focuses entirely on that.  The action and your abilities have been heavily degraded in order to focus on that experience.  It nails mood, but the fear element is kind of gone since well, it's Doom.  It's not all that scary.  Still, it ends up working if you just balance your stamina meter a bit and aren't wasteful of your shots.  It's just that the stages consist of straight corridors with almost no room for exploration.

Doom 4?  This goes back to the original style of run and gun, then ramps it up with all kinds of crazy things like double jumping, numerous weapon upgrades that significantly alter how each weapon works, and a return to wider secret filled stages.

Doom Eternal looks to be that ramped up even more, and I can't wait.  Yes, I'm a convert.  I love Doom now.

----------

Super Mario Odyssey is one of the best games in the entire Mario series.  The sheer flexibility of Mario's base, BASE moveset is incredible in the game.  The sorts of acrobatic tricks the game allows you to do, well, it's even beyond Mario 64.  That makes for every single moment of the game being an utter joy.  It has that "tangibility factor" that all the best games have, where you really feel like you're "doing" the thing and not just telling a character to do it.  I love that stuff.  Yea, I do still love me some RPGs, but as a rule those are games that excplicitely forgo tangibility factor so it's a very different sort of experience.

There's no hub world.  That's the only mark I can come up with against it.  Heck, even the story gets some props.  I love that Peach basically said "screw you" to both Mario and Bowser and went on her own adventure.  That's one of the best endings to a Mario game, the other being Super Mario RPG.