Using what was essentially mid-tier, five year old cell phone hardware, Nintendo delivered an incredibly detailed physics engine that gave players a frankly irresponsible amount of freedom. (I cannot imagine how many edge cases they must have had to fix before launch.)

But that physics system not only works the way we humans generally expect things to work, ...it works fast as lightning and smooth as butter... Buttered lightning, I suppose. All while running AI, rendering a huge draw distance.

People give Nintendo crap for using weaker hardware... But maybe they should be turning that inside out - Look what Sony/MS have to use to mimic a fraction of Nintendo Power.

Half-Life: Alyx(2020)

A monument to the potential of VR gaming, HL:A still stands far ahead of the pack. If you've only watched a playthrough or played it with a pancake mod, you've missed out on what makes it special. Valve made us feel like we were truly inhabiting the world of Half-Life. Ransacking rooms is a lot more fun when you're doing it yourself vs pressing A-to-search.

It set a high water mark that has yet to be exceeded even four years after its release.

Kirby's Adventure (1993) This wasn't Kirby's first game, but it was the first to include the iconic "copy" ability. Kirby's Adventure was one of the later games released for the original NES and (for my money) is the most gorgeous game on the console. It pulls together parallax effects, detailed, multi-color sprites, clever animation cycles and surprisingly tight platforming.

I've never been "big" into Kirby games, but this one is the exception. It's one of my favorite NES titles. I'd replay this over either NES Zelda any day.