4) Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Growing up in the 80s or 90s meant many things for those with a penchant for logging countless hours into video games. But one that stands head and shoulders above the rest for many people is falling in love with Nintendo’s array of venerable franchises — franchises that included the likes of The Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros.. And though the other two series remain very much in vogue to this day, 2014 proved to be a standout year for the latter, with The Big N bringing its mascot brawler to both Wii U and 3DS.
Heralding a roster of characters as big as the franchise has ever seen, the latest and arguably greatest entry into Super Smash Bros. proved to be a potent blast of nostalgia for fans, and offered up enough content and challenges to tide us over for months on end. But the content lurking beneath the game’s glossy, visually stunning surface isn’t the only impressive facet of 2014’s Smash. Mechanically speaking, as a fighting game, it’s simply on another level, with character animations and moment-to-moment gameplay rendered close to perfection.
Couple that with the brilliantly chaotic 8-player mode on the local multiplayer segment and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will teleport you back to your childhood and those nights of playing games with your friends by your side into the early hours of the morning — and, well, any game that achieves this is remarkable in its own right.