2. The Wind Waker
Remember those people who ripped on this game, with its silly cel-shaded graphics and timeless art-style? Those guys were douchebags. Some of them are still around, but theyre just an attention-starved minority. These days, The Wind Waker is considered a modern classic, a game as pleasing to the eye as it is to the thumbs. The HD remake is coming soon, but honestly, its not all that necessary; its visuals hold up better than any realistic game of its era. Hell, I bet it will hold up better than most games of this era. Of course, the Wind Haters out there complain about more than just the graphics. "Its too easy, bro," they say. As someone who plays video games for pleasure and not for some masochistic desire to be punished, Ive never understood this argument, especially when it comes to Wind Waker. The difficulty is lower than previous games, but I attribute that more to the polished-to-perfection combat than to shoddy game design. "Too much sailing, dude." Admittedly, the sailing does get a little bit tiresome after a while, but theres no denying the majestic feeling you get the first time you set sail and ocean theme kicks in. "The Triforce fetch quest was the most tediously awful seven hours ever." Well yeah, but actually Im not even going to try to defend that. It was pretty bad. These gripes may keep WW from claiming the top spot, but the bad is definitely drowned out by the good. The gameplay, music, the surprisingly well-paced story, and (of course) the visuals are all stellar. And maybe once the HD remake is released, this kids game could be bumped up to number 1. You know, as long as Nintendo replaces that fetch quest with a proper dungeon.