Top 10 Games of the 10s

The 2010s was a fine, fine decade for video games. We received the best last hurrahs from the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii, two new handhelds in the forms the 3DS and the underrated PlayStation Vita, the Wii U, which was disappointing but wound up having a handful of great games, and the launch of our current console generation. While I spent the beginning of the decade playing mostly Xbox 360, the PS4 and Switch became my two go-to systems for the majority of the decade (which will become more apparent as you read on), though that's not to say I didn't play plenty of Xbox One as well.

The thing that I think the last decade really excelled in is the advancement of the indie game space. Two indie games make my top ten, but I would wager a bet that I wound up playing more of the smaller indie games than I did the triple-A juggernauts.

So let's get right into it. Here are my top ten games of the 2010s.

10. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Five years after the release of Shovel Knight, it has managed to stay relevant through downloadable content. Each of the three expansions are equal to or greater than the size of the main game and allow you to experience the game in a whole new way with characters that control differently than the titular hero.

Plague of Shadows puts you at the helm of Plague Knight, using bombs and your many concoctions to traverse the world in an effort to steal the essences of the Order of No Quarter to create the ultimate potion. You play as Specter Knight in Specter of Torment, a prequel addition that asks you to recruit the members of the Order while periodically giving you glimpses of Specter Knight's previous life. The most recent expansion, King of Cards, puts you in King Knight's shoes. King Knight is not only the most easily accessible in terms of his control, but King of Cards is also the largest piece of content in the Treasure Trove not only in the sheer amount of levels, but also due to the inclusion of a very well-crafted and addicting card game called "Joustus."

However, it's the original campaign, Shovel of Hope, that made me fall in love with the franchise and character of Shovel Knight. I remember purchasing it on my 3DS the day of release and being swept back into the golden gaming age of my youth. This isn't surprising, as the small crew at Yacht Club Games will be the first to tell you that Shovel Knight is a throwback to the NES, taking elements from games like DuckTales, Mega Man, Castlevania, Super Mario Bros., etc. Over the course of the last five years, I've wound up purchasing Shovel Knight four times. Digitally on the 3DS, then digitally on the PS4 when it was released there. Then they had the physical releases, which I bought on the PS4 and then recently again on the Switch with the Treasure Trove edition. I may have a problem when it comes to Shovel Knight. But I have no regrets if it means that Yacht Club sees the support that fans have for this IP.

9. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I consider myself a casual fan of The Legend of Zelda. I like them, but I'm certainly not head over heels for them. I typically prefer the 2D games over the 3D ones, with A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds being my two favorite in the series. That is until Breath of the Wild was released and took the world by storm.

The Nintendo Switch was the first home console I've ever purchased on launch day. I knew I wanted to play Breath of the Wild, and I knew I didn't want to play it on the Wii U. Since Nintendo didn't have a track record of updating their systems with new revisions (their home consoles, anyway) I thought it was a safe bet that I wouldn't need to buy an updated version of the Switch anytime soon...until I bought a Switch Lite "for my wife" two years later. Nevertheless, that home/handheld hybrid has seen a lot of mileage over the years, and no game contributed to that mileage more than Breath of the Wild.

The launch lineups of the new consoles this generation weren't exactly stellar, but with the Switch, having a game like Breath of the Wild gave us more than enough to do. Not since Skyrim had I had a desire to explore every inch of a world. I was so taken in by the watercolor art style, the intricacies of the combat, and the way no detail was overlooked by Nintendo that I sometimes just chose a direction and spent hours just seeing what I could find. Even after I surpassed the 100 hour mark and the game was updated to show you everywhere you had traveled, there were still huge swaths of land that I had never even come close to.

Even greater than the game itself was the way the internet was completely enamored with it. It was impossible for me to scroll through social media and not see a video of something in Breath of the Wild, whether it was a secret that I never would have discovered on my own or a crazy new way to break the game, the internet was bombarded with Breath of the Wild content for several months after release.

Even after putting dozens of more hours into Breath of the Wild with its DLC releases, solving each of the 120 shrines, upgrading Link's health and stamina to max, and saving the land of Hyrule, I still can't begin to fathom what I didn't see. And with the impending release of the sequel, I'm ready to get lost for another 100+ hours.

8. Horizon Zero Dawn

Had I known how good Horizon Zero Dawn was going to turn out, I would have bought it on day one and put off a Nintendo Switch and Breath of the Wild. Horizon came out less than a month before Zelda and are similar games in terms of gameplay, but Breath of the Wild has the cache of being a Legend of Zelda game as well as being the hot title for an anticipated console launch.

Horizon may not have the scale and sense of discovery that BotW has, but what it lacked in those areas it made up for in combat and story. Practically from the get-go, I knew Horizon was my kind of game. Taking place in the 31st century long after a world-ending event where humans have reverted to the tribalistic ways of prehistory, the player controls Aloy, a young woman cast out from her tribe at birth that eventually comes to discover not only who she is but also why she's so important. While that may seem like nothing more than the "chosen one" trope we see in all types of mediums, Horizon's unique take on the post-apocalypse is what makes it stand out. While there are certainly human enemies, the standouts of the game are the "Old Ones." These machines are modeled after animals--mostly dinosaurs--and I never got tired of the challenge that came with taking them out. I loved using the various tools at my disposal to try an ambush or sneak attack. I enjoyed the challenge of fighting a Thunderjaw or being in a jungle with multiple Stalkers nipping at my heels.

There were so many different ways to approach each encounter that combat never grew stale. Setting up traps followed by a swift attack to the weak spot of my oversized mechanical foes was exhilarating from the first time to the last. Some encounters felt cheap at first, but once I figured out how the game wanted me to approach it I began to employ new strategies that felt much more rewarding than they would have had I been able to brute force my way through them.

Horizon Zero Dawn was developed by Guerrilla Games, previously best known for the Killzone franchise, a run-of-the-mill futuristic shooter series that I always enjoyed but was never going to make Guerrilla a revered name in video games. Horizon changed that, and even if the long-rumored sequel doesn't happen, I'm excited to see what the studio comes up with next.

7. Super Mario Odyssey

2017 has a strong argument for being the single best year of video games ever. Between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, and my personal favorite game of that year, Super Mario Odyssey, it's easy to see why it could lay claim to that title. That's not even mentioning games like Cuphead, Persona 5, and for better or worse, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

In 1996, Super Mario 64 revolutionized console video games in terms of what we thought was possible with 3D graphics. In 2007, Super Mario Galaxy revitalized the dying platforming genre and is probably my favorite game of the last 20 years. Nintendo continually iterated on the face of their franchise over the years with stellar games like Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario 3D World/3D Land, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii/Wii U. Super Mario Odyssey, however, is where I feel they truly changed the game again.

Eschewing a level/challenge based format of the previous games, Super Mario Odyssey employs a more open-world format, plopping the mustachioed hero down in the middle of a large area and commissioning the player to explore and see what they can find. To add to that, Mario's new companion, Cappy, allows Mario to possess dozens of different characters and use their abilities as his own. Shout out to Moe-Eye for being the best new Mario character since Blargg.

The first time fans saw a photorealistic t-rex in a Mario game, it took us aback. When we saw Mario standing out against the more proportionally correct humans in New Donk City, we smiled ear-to-ear. Lush jungles, beaches, a kingdom constructed entirely out of junk food, it was always tough to decide if I wanted to keep exploring the current kingdom for more moons or move on just because I wanted to see what Nintendo had concocted with the next one.

Odyssey contains more secrets than any other Mario game and has tons of unlockable outfits for Mario himself, many of which are throwbacks to classic Mario appearances like an American flag getup from NES Open Tournament Golf or his construction outfit from Super Mario Maker. Much like Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey is packed full of so much content that few players will ever see it all.

6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

It would be difficult to read anyone's top games of the 2010s and not find Skyrim on their list. I'm no different, Skyrim was a phenomenon and my first successful foray into the open-world RPG. I say "successful" because I tried several times to play Fallout 3 and never clicked with it. But I clicked with Skyrim, that's for sure.

Skyrim was special for me not only because of the game itself but because of where I was in my life when I played it. To put it simply, I was nowhere. I was 26, wrestling wasn't working out for me the way I wanted it to, I had moved back in with my parents after some bad luck, worked at a job I hated, and was taking college classes despite not really knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I was depressed and angry at the world, so I chose to lose myself on the continent of Tamriel. I have vivid memories of spending my Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays sitting on my couch at 2am with my late pup, Muldoon, at my side while I navigated the winding corridors of Skyrim's many dungeons. By the time I was done playing Skyrim, I had met the woman that would become my wife. Over the years, Skyrim has become the game that I associate with both the lowest point in my life and one of the best times in my life.

Sentimentality aside, Skyrim was the first game that I remember getting truly lost in. There were games that I would play for hours at a time like Assassin's Creed II or Borderlands, but I never truly got invested in those games. I always knew I was playing as Ezio or Roland, but with Skyrim, I was the Dragonborn and could shape that character to my liking. In case you're wondering, I was a Wood Elf who looked like Nathan Explosion and specialized in stealth and archery.

I mentioned with Breath of the Wild how sometimes I would just pick a direction and go, but Skyrim was the first game that made me want to do that. The compass at the top of the screen was so great about showing you that there was something of significance close by, and I spent hours traveling from new site to new site anticipating what I would find. Sometimes it would lead to a new quest or something interesting to see, and other times it led you to an overpowered enemy that would utterly annihilate you. I doubt I'm the only one that returned to The Seven Thousand Steps just to take out that frost troll that gave you a rough time earlier in the game.

Sometimes games the size of Skyrim are intimidating. They also have a tendency to be broken in many ways. I actually encountered a bug that prevented me from completing a main story mission, causing me to start a new game just to complete it. Apparently this bug occurred because I had finished a certain other quest while that main story quest was active. It eventually got resolved, but I didn't care too much because of the sheer number of things to do. I was able to continue playing for dozens of more hours without ever needing to return to the story.

Given Bethesda's recent track record, I can only hope that The Elder Scrolls VI turns out close to as good as Skyrim. Hopefully it comes with a sweet nylon drawstring bag.

5. God of War

The 2018 reboot/sequel God of War is a special game. I've been with the series since the beginning, and I had grown attached to Kratos despite him being a pretty terrible person and little more than a grunting/yelling soundboard. The reaction Kratos got at the God of War E3 reveal was out of this world, but I still had my reservations. I was so accustomed to the arcade-style hack-and-slash of the previous games that this new over-the-shoulder perspective felt wrong. We've all played games with this perspective, but with Kratos it looked off to me. The switch from Greek to Norse mythology was an interesting move. I actually have a pretty good knowledge of Greek mythology, so this was a nice opportunity for me to learn about one I had little understanding of. Most curious, however, was the new weapon Kratos wielded in the trailer. The Leviathan Ax seemed cool, but the Blades of Chaos were as synonymous to the franchise as Kratos' ashen skin. And who is this whiny kid hanging around? Is Kratos a dad again? That didn't turn out too well for his first child.

Then I played the game and all reservations were banished. The new perspective felt great, Norse mythology was just as interesting as Greek, the Leviathan Ax became my preferred weapon even after the Blades were reintroduced, and Atreus turned out to be the best tag team partner in video game history. But the greatest curveball of all was the fact that God of War had an excellent story. Six games of angry guy doing angry guy things and not caring about anyone but himself, and suddenly we get a compelling story of a father and son coming to understand each other. Not just Kratos and Atreus, but God of War is filled memorable characters. For instance, Mimir, whose constant narration was not only informative and sometimes comical, but also made those long boat rides enjoyable. Brok and Sindri's constant bashing of each others blacksmith skills made you laugh but also made you wish the brothers would make amends. Baldur was an excellent and formidable villain. And somehow, the character with the most personality is Jormungandr, the great sea serpent.

The ability to craft new armor, the addition of runes, and the many skill trees available to sink your experience into made the game much deeper than its predecessors and felt more like an RPG. Being able to see what a skill will do before you choose it is a nice touch that I wish games of the same ilk would employ.

The attention to detail in God of War is second to none; nothing feels out of place. Every aspect of the story, the combat, the backdrops, it's all exquisite. The fact that God of War is shot in a one-take fashion is something that many people likely didn't realize until someone pointed it out to them. So many moments stand out, but none more so than when Kratos returns home to recover the Blades of Chaos. This five-minute sequence legitimately gave me chills, and the player is able to infer so much of what is going on in the mind of Kratos without him having to say a word. That's the kind of stuff that makes the 2018 reinvention of God of War so great. There was even an entire documentary about the game that's more than worth your time.

4. Stardew Valley

In my life as a gamer, no game has surprised me the way Stardew Valley did. I had heard about the game here and there from various podcasts, but chalked it up to being nothing more than a Harvest Moon clone that I wasn't interested in. However, my wife had great interest in Stardew Valley and I decided to pick it up for her when it was released for home consoles. 150 hours later, I'm starting to think maybe I need to play more Harvest Moon clones.

Upon first glance, Stardew Valley seems very simple. Plant some crops, chop down some trees, mingle with the townsfolk, the things you typically expect from a game like this. What I didn't expect was an incredibly in-depth crafting system, a 120 story mine to explore, a community center to rebuild, a major corporation to run out of my small town, a wizard, and a cast of characters that were a joy to get to know.

I continually return to Stardew Valley between other games. I've come back to my farm several times, and each time I do I find something new to sink my time into. I had spent over 100 hours in the game before I cooked for the first time. I focused individual sessions on catching every fish, crafting every item, and mining for every museum piece (currently in the middle of finishing this one). I have a very meticulous day-to-day structure that begins with speaking to my wife (Haley), saying good morning to my two children (Christopher and Grace), petting/feeding my dog (Muldoon), and then immediately heading to the barn to check on my various animals and harvest my crops. It's not glamorous, but it's honest work.

What started off as a game that I didn't expect to hold my attention became one of my all-time favorites and quite possibly the most bang for my buck that I've ever gotten out of a single game. I suggest Stardew Valley to anyone, even those who think they don't have an interest in the life simulator genre. It's the type of game that you can intend to only play for thirty minutes and wind up losing an entire afternoon to. I constantly found myself thinking "just one more day, I just need to see if my crops are ready" and the next thing I know Spring is becoming Summer. Stardew Valley is so peaceful and chill that I found myself never wanting to leave.

3. The Last of Us

If Stardew Valley was the most peaceful game I played last decade, The Last of Us was probably the most stressful. After what may be the best (and must gut-wrenching) opening sequence in gaming history, The Last of Us never relents, and that's what I most respect about it. Not once does The Last of Us offer the player a glimmer of hope. It's a depressing world, and Naughty Dog doubled down on that concept. People are doing everything they can to survive, there is no comic relief or ray of sunshine to get you through. Joel and Ellie get through because they just want to survive in a world where allowing yourself to die sometimes seems like the more desirable option. It reminds me of The Road, which is not an easy film to watch and one whose most traumatizing scenes are still burned into my memory. There's no hope. I respect a piece of media that's willing to withhold a happy ending from the consumer.

The reason so many people love this hopeless world is because of how well the relationship between Joel and Ellie evolves over the course of the game. When we first meet Ellie, we probably all felt the same way Joel did about her. She was a nuisance, a weight holding us back, but a weight we had to carry for the good of the cause. By the end of the game, however, anyone who even thought about laying a finger on Ellie is getting a shiv to the skull. The villainous David from the Winter chapter is one of my most hated villains in gaming history because of how much I had grown attached to Ellie. Even those of us without children imagined someone trying to do that to our own daughter. Seeing David get his comeuppance was disgustingly cathartic.

The Last of Us tows the line well between action, stealth, and survival horror. One minute you're shooting your way out of an abandoned apartment complex and the next you're sneaking your way past "clickers" and hordes of infected. You'll come to cherish the brief moments of reprieve the game affords you. In a lawless world such as this, it's nearly impossible to know who you can trust, if you can trust anyone at all. The only people Joel and Ellie truly trust are each other.

While I respect The Last of Us for sticking to its guns with its world-building, I also want to recognize the final sequences. A lesser game would have given the player the choice to save Ellie or to let the Fireflies go through with their plan and hopefully develop a cure at the cost of Ellie's life. I like that Naughty Dog didn't give us that choice. They had a story they wanted to tell, they wanted to tell it their way, and this is the way the story ends. When the credits began to roll, I sat there contemplating "Was that the right decision? Would I have done the same thing? Does Ellie believe Joel?" These answers will hopefully be answered with the upcoming sequel, which is at the top of my most anticipated games list.

2. Borderlands 2

My wife and I have played through Borderlands 2 so many times that I've honestly lost count. The series in general is one that holds a sentimental place for us. When we met, we bonded so much by replaying through the original Borderlands together over Xbox Live. Every night we were chatting with each other while working our way through hordes of Pandora's most dangerous residents. It was a beautiful time. Two weeks after we got hitched, Borderlands 2 was released to the world. We were there on day one, two TVs set next to each other while we sat on the couch and laughed and shot our way through the beginning areas. Even with the release of Borderlands 3, it'll be B2 that we will come back to consistently for years to come.

I'll never forget the first time I saw the original Borderlands. It was on the cover of Game Informer and looked like just another run-of-the-mill action game. I had no interest, I didn't even bother reading the article. After a graphical overhaul and coworkers suggesting the game to me, I picked it up and loved every second of it. Borderlands 2 took everything that was great about the original and cranked it up to 11. Bigger and better areas to explore, more enemy types, a more substantial story with a now iconic villain, more guns, more humor, more vehicles, better NPCs, a more fleshed-out skill tree. Fans got more of what they loved, and Gearbox did a great job of changing the game just enough to keep it fresh for veteran players.

Then we got to the part where Tiny Tina shows up and I broke the disc in half. Not really, but in case you didn't know, I really hate Tiny Tina. Although, the DLC expansion centered on Tiny Tina (Assault on Dungeon Keep) is the best expansion Gearbox has released to date. A lot of games have season passes that don't offer nearly enough content compared to what they expect you to pay for it, but I've never felt like I haven't gotten my moneys worth from Borderlands DLC. Over a year after launch my wife and I were still knee-deep in new Borderlands 2 content. To my knowledge, Borderlands was the first (or at least one of the first) games to offer this amount of additional content post-launch, before the term "Season Pass" caused red flags to rise. Borderlands 2 continued to get new content after The Pre-Sequel was released and even more prior to Borderlands 3.

As much as my wife and I have enjoyed Borderlands 3 (which got much better after I wrote my GOTY blog) and its recently released Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot DLC, I think Borderlands 2 remains the torchbearer of the series and will remain so for many years.

1. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

"Boo hoo! We're not playing as the real Big Boss! They put the real last mission on a bonus disc! Chapter 2 is just replaying the same missions on harder difficulties!" You know what? Shut up! The Phantom Pain is the best looking and best playing game in the franchise. This is how Hideo Kojima always wanted Metal Gear Solid to play.

Yes, yes, I understand the complaints, but those things didn't bother me. My only real complaints were replacing David Hayter with Kiefer Sutherland as the voice of Snake and that The Phantom Pain has the weakest rogues gallery of the series. Skull Face was a boring villain and the Skulls Unit soldiers were no fun to fight. I actually had to exploit those battles in various ways just to beat them.

Outside of that, The Phantom Pain is near perfect. For those that complained about MGS4's extensive cutscenes, they were fewer and further between. For those that complained about overly long Codec conversations, The Phantom Pain tells a lot of story through recordings that don't hinder gameplay. For those that didn't like Snake Eater's camouflage system, this game negates the need for one. The calling card of MGS has always been the amount of freedom you have in regards to enemy encounters. This is made even better by TPP's open-world structure and optional companions, allowing the player to not only choose how to attack but also where to attack from and who to bring along with them as a companion, adding several new layers of depth and strategy. Many times I would fail a mission only to retry with new ideas and ace it.

The turmoil between Hideo Kojima and publisher Konami was well publicized prior to release. Under those circumstances, I think The Phantom Pain turned out far better than expected. It tied up some loose ends, told the origins of characters well known to series veterans, and despite the rage that the reveal induced in some players, I think this is a fantastic sendoff for one of the most iconic franchises in video game history. I think even those who don't consider themselves fans of Metal Gear or are put off by Kojima's insane storytelling methods can still appreciate The Phantom Pain based on gameplay alone. My love for Metal Gear is well-established, I've never held back my fandom, but I know lots of people that don't share the same kind of fervor that I do that found The Phantom Pain to be one of the finest action experiences they've ever played. Any fan of action games, stealth games, or third-person shooters owes it to themselves to give this one some of their time.

Hey, you! Yeah, you! Thanks for reading. My writings should become more frequent, so keep checking back every so often just so you don't miss anything.

-Dustin