There’s a good mixture of the usual suspects and a few surprises, and we hope you enjoy a little trip down memory lane.
First of all, though, some numbers and housekeeping.
After removing re-releases and ports from the equation, Nintendo Life has given out 10/10 scores to 69 games over 20 years. (Yes, yes, that’s just the number it happens to be!) That averages to just under 3.5 ‘Outstanding’ games per year.
That might sound a lot, but it’s worth remembering the sheer number of reviews we’ve published, including migrations from the VC Reviews era and our newer Mini Review format. Remember, also, that Virtual Console releases resulted in an influx of 8-, 16-, and 64-bit classics, producing a clutch of ‘vintage’ 10/10s early doors. The site may be 20, but we’ve covered nearly half a century of video games!
For the Switch 2 generation, NL switched from using first-person plural (‘we’) in reviews to the singular (‘I’), partly to help remedy confusion for readers who weren’t familiar with the convention. “How can you give GAME X a 7 when you gave GAME Y a 9, and this is objectively better?!” Erm, is it? Did I? That was a different person… *checks notes* over a decade ago.
Continuity is preferred, with one writer tackling the same series, for instance – something we endeavour to do whenever possible. Regardless, a review can’t be anything but the subjective opinion of the writer, and a snapshot of their thinking at the time. That should be self-evident, but nevertheless, it seems to confuse a lot of people! Likewise, it is not an editor’s job to arbitrarily push scores up or down according to personal preference or what ‘the site’ awarded a similar game.
Some games below might have you raising an eyebrow, and a couple you might not have even heard of. Just remember, if there’s something below that you wouldn’t give a 10…that’s fine! In some cases, you’ll find comments from the original reviewer exploring if they still hold the game in such high esteem years after the fact. (A big thank you to those who contributed!)
Executing perfectly and having ‘nothing wrong with it’ isn’t enough these days – there has to be an ambition in a game’s design that pushes at the limits, that expands the possibility space.
For instance, a sequel to a game we gave 10/10 years ago doesn’t automatically get one for being ‘better’ by comparison. You’ll see several games below that got re-released later and didn’t hit the same high in a modern context. Games evolve and the medium moves forward; the best examples must go beyond simply refining what came before. In some fashion, a 10 should break new ground.
It’s worth remembering, too, that there really is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ game. Let’s remind ourselves of our current criteria for awarding our highest score, as communicated in our Scoring Policy:
Okay, enough preamble. Enough caveats. Enough signage to tap when the comments come in. Below is every video game Nintendo Life has awarded a 10/10 score in its 20-year history, presented in release date order.
Let’s start at the beginning and celebrate some exceptionally good video games ‘we’ have had the pleasure of reviewing…
We begin with an all-timer, one of the finest NES games ever made.
“Mega Man 2 is a textbook example of a sequel done right,” said Philip J Reed, dearly departed friend of the site who rated this one very highly in his 2013 Virtual Console review.
Building on the strengths of the first game while refining the bits that didn’t work so well, whether this or its sequel is the best Mega Man game is a debate that will rage forever (and Mega Man X says hi), but it’s tough to disagree with Philip’s assessment. This is an 8-bit masterpiece.
What is there to say? It’s the game that tops our Top 50 NES list, it’s the best NES game on NSO, it’s the jewel that is Super Mario Bros. 3.
Wondrous when it was first released, it’s one of those rare ‘old’ games that doesn’t need caveats or a history lesson for any player of any skill level to appreciate and enjoy in 2026. It’s still, simply, outstanding.
Including various VC releases and the GBA port (the snappily titled Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3), we’ve had four reviews of this on the site over the years, each one a 10.
And eyebrows across the land remained absolutely horizontal. Perhaps the next one might prove more divisive?
Perhaps not. From one GOAT to another, Super Mario World is…well, it’s Super Mario World, isn’t it.
“I remember reading the 96/100 scoring review in Issue 112 of Computer and Video Games magazine,” says our original reviewer Jamie O’Neill. “The game was hyped as being special right from the Super Famicom’s launch, so I went on a journey of saving for a PC Engine to buying a Mega Drive instead, but I was convinced to sell my Mega Drive to play Super Mario World.”
As with its predecessor, time hasn’t dulled this, either. “Its Nintendo artistry feels even more special now,” says Jamie, “to the point that I have a Super Mario World cartridge permanently slotted into my spare, original Game Boy Advance, with 326 lives accumulated on one save slot.”
I promise, there will be a couple of ‘Huh?’ moments, but this list, naturally, is propped up primarily by pillars of the medium.
The Legend of Zelda rolled out the blueprint, which Zelda II promptly rolled up and threw out the window. A Link to the Past, true to its title, went back in time to the source and laid the foundations for a quarter-century of the series.
Even after the move to 3D, Zelda III (as nobody calls it) remained the one to follow, the one to beat. Poor Zelda IV never stood a chance…
Link’s Awakening: “Hold my beer.”
Link’s Awakening took its predecessor’s template and, remarkably, shrunk it down to Game Boy proportions without diminishing the series’ scope or imagination, throwing in some Lynchian spice to stunning effect. “It would be difficult to argue against The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening being the pinnacle of gaming on the Game Boy system,” Corbie Dillard said in 2009. Difficult, indeed.
This affecting little adventure came back colourised in DX form, too, gaining another NL 10 in the process – something that the Switch remake couldn’t quite manage. “The HD remake is charming, gorgeous, and unnecessary,” says Jacob Crites, our reviewer for the GBC version. “Link’s Awakening (and the colourised DX) remains a timeless, dreamy labour of love, which first began as an after-hours project by a handful of passionate Nintendo programmers.”
Okay, that’s the classic Marios and Zeldas out of the way. Doubt there’ll be many more of them showing up down the line.
The Alpha to Symphony of the Night‘s Omega, Super Metroid — much like A Link to the Past — took the elements of the 8-bit original and codified them into a genre.
The wall-jump timing may be finickier than we’d see from Nintendo today, but it’s difficult to find fault with this first-party masterpiece over three decades on. Various VC releases mean we’ve had a trio of Super Metroid reviews over the years, all from different reviewers, all 10s.
Yes, everything appears to be in order. Moving on.
A beautiful journey from the mind of Shigesato Itoi, EarthBound left an indelible mark on a gaming generation who connected with this RPG’s touching themes, surreal comedy, and modern-day setting.
“It remains an absolute must-play for any Nintendo fan,” said Dave Frear in our 2016 retro review, and Europeans who missed out in the ’90s have thankfully been able to catch up in the years since. Easily playable these days on NSO, check out Zion’s brilliant video if you’re after a taste of this game’s magic, and why it’s so meaningful to so many.
Naturellement.
More than 30 years on and Squaresoft’s epic RPG has aged like the finest fermented grape juice. “Chrono Trigger is, and will always be, one of the most unforgettable RPG experiences ever to grace a video game console,” Corbie said 15 years ago. Quite right.
Mario’s back, although to be fair, this is a Mario game in name only. Yoshi’s the star of this remarkable piece of software, a game which brought a pastel wonderland to life on 16-bit hardware in a way never before seen.
“If what Miyamoto and Tezuka crafted isn’t a work of art, then the definition of ‘art’ needs to be amended,” said Kaes Delgrego in our 2009 review.
The jury’s still out on Baby Mario and his anxiety-inducing wails, but I think we can all agree that Yoshi’s Island is indeed a work of art.
“A true classic and an essential undertaking for strategy RPG veterans everywhere,” is how the lovely Gonçalo “Shiryu” Lopes described the game in 2016. Does he feel the same a decade on?
“Being a late-generation Super Famicom game, the pixel art alone rivalled next-generation 2D games (in fact, it was re-released untouched on the PS1). But what really impresses is the amount of lore the plot brings to the table. An amazing medieval fantasy world to explore, one tactical battle at a time.”
And would you still give it a 10 today, Shiryu? “Absolutely, yes.”
Lovely. For a minute there, I thought this list would be nothing but plumbers and elves in floppy hats, plus the occasional bounty hunter. Looks like we’ve finally moved o—
Hmm. Well, yes. Of course. Mind-blowing, genre-defining, industry-shaping, paradigm-shifting – you know the drill.
It’s Super Mario 64‘s 30th anniversary later this year, so let’s not go using up all the big words on it today. We’ve got from now until June to think of something new to say about it.
In the meantime, have a listen to the Dire Dire Docks theme and get a little misty-eyed at the memories it conjures and the exciting gaming frontier first explored in this game.
The last entry in the Gaia trilogy never launched in North America, meaning that, for once, it was American and not European gamers who missed out on a classic. Terranigma is an epic adventure that rightly sits in the pantheon of great SNES RPGs alongside your Chrono Triggers and your Final Fantasies and your Manas.
“There are honestly very few role-playing game experiences quite as enjoyable or engrossing,” wrote Corbie back in 2009.
A personal favourite, this one. I appreciate that the gentle double entendres and goofy humour don’t work for everyone, and the typical camera control caveats of the era apply, but this is a lovingly crafted slice of fairytale platforming perfection. It’s got everything you could want from the genre, warts and all, wrapped up in a beautifully presented package that doesn’t outstay its welcome.
The familiar and obvious Mario 64 comparisons do it a disservice, and praising one doesn’t mean crapping on the other. They’re both excellent games, and Nintendo set an industry template, absolutely.
If, for some arbitrary list-or-podcast-related reason, I could only choose one 64-bit platformer to play forevermore, though, it would be Banjo.
And there it is. Both the N64 original and the 3DS remake got a 10/10 on this here website from Corbie and former editor Thomas Whitehead respectively.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Zelda series, so, as with Mario 64, let’s not scrape the barrel for hot new Ocarina takes today, hmm? If you’re reading this and haven’t ever played it, to the N64 NSO app with you! (Make sure you use the proper pad, though.)
Possessed of the finest subtitle ever bestowed upon videogamekind — none of that ‘Origins’ or ‘Retribution’ rubbish here! — Ogre Battle 64 was a remarkable strategy RPG on a system which lacked RPGs of almost any stripe. “When the most well-known one on the system is Quest 64, you know things are pretty dire,” says Marcel van Duyn now, who reviewed the game for us back in the olden times (2010).
“An intriguing tale of considerable length with rather deep tactical gameplay, it’s still well worth checking out to this day.” With a subtitle of this calibre, you’d be a 64-carat fool not to.
Prime 1 takes the prime spot in both its original and Remastered guises, the latter being “the definitive version of the studio’s magnum opus,” according to our resident (evil) staffer Ollie Reynolds, who reviewed both the Switch remaster and the latest series entry.
“Even removing the obvious nostalgia for me, Prime is still an incredibly special game. Exploring its unique biomes is a constant joy, and in shifting over to a first-person perspective, Metroid never felt so immersive.”
“It will ruin lots of modern fighting games for you,” said PJ O’Reilly in his recent retro review of SoulCalibur II, and that’s the only negatiove he could come up with. The GameCube release was the only one to come with Link as a playable character, which made it the de facto best version of Namco’s multiplatform fighter.
“I love this game so much, and spent so much time with it when it released that I was a little concerned replaying, years later, that time would finally have taken the shine off, but it’s as fantastic as ever! SC2 just has that special fighting juju that always feels great to jump into. Facts.”
“In the TWENTY(!) years since the release of Resident Evil 4, the only game that can truly hold a candle to its pioneering blend of action and horror is its own remake,” says Andi Hamilton, who reviewed the GC original back in 2005. “Everything changed after Resident Evil 4 and we’re still seeing games influenced by it. It was the easiest 10 I’d given back then and it’s still an easy 10/10 right now. Class never fades.”
And two years later Push Square editor extraordinaire Sammy Barker put the Wii Edition through its paces for us, handing out another 10. Hey, Sammy. would you still give it top marks in a post-REM4KE world?
“Yes, I think I would,” Sammy hollers over the wall of our digital cubicle at Hookshot Towers. “It’s an all-time classic that changed third-person shooters forever. And I actually think it’s a rare example of Wii controls improving the gameplay.”
It’s Elite Beat Agents+. Or Elite Beat Agent Redux. But not really. The relationship between the Japan-only Ouendan games and EBA is appropriately unconventional; the only solution is to play and enjoy them all, of course. Over to Marcel for his 2026 thoughts:
“Nintendo was weirdly enthusiastic about rhythm and music games in the mid-2000s, bringing us not just Donkey Konga, but also Rhythm Heaven, Band Brothers, Wii Music, and of course, Ouendan. Ouendan 2 is a stellar successor to the first title – it’s absolutely loaded with content, has plenty of replay value, a smashing selection of catchy songs, a bunch of completely insane scenarios and incredibly addictive gameplay.
“Elite Beat Agents was an excellent attempt to Westernise the series, but in my eyes Ouendan 2 remains the pinnacle. It’s a shame we haven’t seen the series since, but at the very least its legacy endures to this day in the fan-made PC game Osu!.”
Yes, it’s a 10 for Galaxy. Specifically, the Wii version, using the controller it was designed for, with an accurate infra-red pointer that doesn’t need resetting every 30 seconds.
Nintendo Life founder, CEO, and overlord Anthony Dickens reviewed this one way back in 2007. Is Galaxy still a 10, Ant? “Tough question. I find the controls with Switch a bit janky (compared to the Wii remote).”
Ollie likewise found the controls a little finicky with the Switch version, and Ant “wouldn’t recommend it over Odyssey,” although, “if I were still in 2007, then yeah, the 10 was correct. It set the bar.”
Another game which, great as it is on Switch, is hampered to a degree by modern gyro-based pointer controls slipping out of alignment every few seconds. Seriously, while they eliminate the possibility of accidentally picking up your Christmas tree lights, the loss of the Sensor Bar was a massive blow to pointer games that required accuracy. The Wii’s infra-red original still feels incredible, though.
Part of the indie-game vanguard back in the late ’00s, Corbie awarded World of Goo top marks way back in the WiiWare-World.com days (shoutouts to the faithful who remember those), and 2D Boy’s blend of perfect, gooey puzzling, exquisite art and audio, and caustic, comical social commentary still holds up beautifully. Definite 10 material.
This Trilogy collection left the base games pretty much untouched, content-wise, but added widescreen support and Wiimote control options, plus a few other bits and pieces. “The beefed-up visuals and agile controls make the experience feel new to old-comers,” said Jon Wahlgren in NL’s 2009 review, “and the tight presentation is icing on an already delicious cake.” Yum.
Purists lamented some missing water ripple and beam effects, tweaks which stopped it being 100% definitive for some, but in a pre-Remastered world when the Prime series was indeed a trilogy, this was a stunning disc and one of Nintendo’s best compilation releases.
Wrestling with Superstar Saga as the best Mario & Luigi game on our reader-ranked Mario RPG list, Bowser’s Inside Story is the only M&L to get the “Outstanding” treatment from us, and one of only two retail-released DS games on this list.
Corbie summed it up thusly in 2009: “Bowser’s Inside Story is the kind of game that will remind you why you love playing video games in the first place and is easily one of the best DS releases”.
Some people turned their noses up at this branch of the Super Mario Bros. series from the beginning, and many a player raised on the highs of the 8- and 16-bit entries wasn’t impressed by the ‘New’ eras sterile polygons in the Wii-DS days. I get it. Those incessant ‘wah‘s can be a bit much, and modern-day comparisons to Wonder‘s expressive animation have only hardened those criticisms.
It’s easy to forget, though, just how well-received New Super Mario Bros. Wii was, and Corbie, in particular, adored it. Bringing hectic party-style four-player to a Mario platformer for the first time, it also contains a brilliant single-player which got overshadowed in the multiplayer-focused marketing. You’ve got to love that red box, too.
Perhaps it’s too early for a reappraisal (give it another decade for the nostalgia to really hit with Mario’s ‘prequel-trilogy’ generation), but this was a novel, creative, and dare I say underrated Mario game, if such a thing exists. If you passed over it in 2009, give it another look before those prices shoot up.
That takes us to the end of the ’00s. Head to the next page to pick things up in the 2010s…
