Players would need to swing the Wii remote with precision. No longer would the franchise’s iconic hero, Link, swing his sword with the press of a button. It took a series - renowned for its innovations over the span of several decades – and completely revamped its core controls, thereby fundamentally altering its core gameplay. Then The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword arrived. Yet what Wii lacked was a game that fully and comprehensively proved its notion of movement-based play was right, that it could not only redefine a franchise, but do it for the better.

Heading into 2011, even as the system was fading in popularity, Wii was home to dozens of great games, several of which can easily be regarded as some of the best in history. Publisher: Nintendo | Developer: Nintendo Super Mario Galaxy 2 will always be remembered as one of the greatest games in a generation. Whatever Mario on Wii U looks like, it's sure going to have a tough time beating this game. Even better is that Nintendo never dumbs down the difficulty, offering an adventure that is accessible to the inexperienced and experienced alike. Even more impressive is how new concepts are regularly introduced in an intuitive, logical manner. With level design alone, Galaxy 2 is a textbook example of taking simple ideas and expanding upon them in remarkable ways. What the title doesn't necessarily do in originality or innovation, it more than makes up for it in creative spirit and a true evolution of the 3D platforming/adventure genre. It might seem blasphemous, but it wouldn't be too tough to argue that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is better than Super Mario 64.

Publisher: Nintendo | Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo

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