Donkey Kong Bananza
Just a side note: I believe in Ebert's "judge things for what they're trying to accomplish" mantra, and I try my best to do that, but it's hard here to not wish this was just a little bit different. I know what I'm about to describe here is basically Minecraft in some sense, but what if it went beyond being a great 3D platformer and just got the Breath of the Wild treatment? Mainly I'm talking, make it fun to explore. Have cool things you can find. Let the excellent destruction mechanic live in an open world. I don't really indulge much in collectathons so I get that people who do get more than enough here. And the funny thing is, I'm also tired of open worlds. But when Nintendo does it, the way the systems dance with the open world, it's awesome stuff. It does flirt with it though, with the different challenge places you can find. But even as is, this is one of the best games of the year and I can see why some people would think it is the best.
Mini Review: The first while I played this it was a 10/10. The initial smashing was, as I saw someone say, an "OCD simulator." It was so satisfying though. But as that wore off, the game became a 9/10 for me. But that's maybe just a me thing, and a 9/10 isn't a bad score at all, especially for someone like me who doesn't enjoy 3D platformers as much as I do 2D ones. This still oozes charm, creativity (in both the regular world and the challenge areas) and great music.