A direct sequel to Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy that is a radical departure in tone, difficulty, and structure. While it does still have a strong sense of humor, it’s much darker than its predecessor, replacing the bucolic setting of the first game with a techno-dystopian walled city and opening with Jak being subject to torturous experiments for two years that leave him with a superpowered “Dark Jak” side. It’s also a great deal more difficult, both because the player is tasked with much more challenging objectives and because the structure has changed such that the player can no longer pick and choose which objectives to complete. The Super Mario 64-like hub-and-spokes framework has been discarded in favor of an open-world mission progression of the sort popularized by Grand Theft Auto III. Sometimes you’ll have multiple plot threads open simultaneously and you can choose which mission chain to tackle first, but you still have to complete all the missions in order to advance the story. The player thus has less freedom, but this also means that the story can be more complex and better integrated with the gameplay, and correspondingly there are far more dialog scenes and more characters who matter to the plot.

A 3D platformer in the mold established by Super Mario 64 (a series of hub areas with multiple non-linear levels each with several objectives that can be tackled in various orders but a certain number of objectives that is fewer than the number available must be completed to gain access to the next part of the hub with the next set of levels) but that evolves the formula to incorporate more story, character development, and world-building. The game takes place in a single continuous world and there are dialog scenes establishing character motives and contextualizing the various objectives along the way.

A top-down action adventure set between seasons one and two of Stranger Things and modeled after classic The Legend of Zelda games, in particular A Link to the Past. (Nevermind that the show is explicitly set eight years and two console generations before the release of that game.) Gameplay consists of a series of dungeons connected by the overworld of Hawkins, Indiana, with combat and puzzle-solving in both environments. Unlike in Zelda, however, you can play as multiple characters. You start with Chief Hopper and unlock other members of the main cast as you go. You can switch freely between them and each has their own special ability.

A budget-priced downloadable Color Picross game. The visuals and soundtrack are a bit unpolished, but they get the job done and you really don’t need more than that for a Picross game. The game comes with 150 puzzles ranging up to 20x20 in size, though the largest of these are a bit awkward on the 3DS with the vertical clues displaced to the top screen. There are also several DLC packs available with puzzles grouped by size, the largest of which go up to 35x25 and are only available on the Wii U and not the 3DS.

An incredibly influential game that popularized the template still followed by many 3D platformers today. Progress through a “hub” area (Peach’s castle) that presents access to several themed “spoke” levels (Bob-omb Battlefield, Whomp’s Fortress, etc.) that each have several different available objectives (defeating specific enemies, reaching specific destinations, collecting eight red coins, etc.) that each reward the game’s main collectible (stars). Get enough of the collectible to open the way to the next part of the hub and gain access to the next set of levels.

A procedurally-generated 2D pixel-art run-and-gun shooter very much like its predecessor. Run to the right, pick up weapon powerups and shoot enemy soldiers, use crates for cover and try not to take too much damage yourself. Blow up a few enemy beacons and get to the chopper to clear the stage and fight a boss at the end of every set of stages before moving on to the next level with a different setting and tougher foes.

A procedurally-generated 2D pixel-art run-and-gun shooter. Run to the right, pick up weapon powerups and shoot enemy soldiers, use crates for cover and try not to take too much damage yourself. Blow up a few enemy beacons and get to the chopper to clear the stage and fight a boss at the end of every set of stages before moving on to the next level with a different setting and tougher foes.

A simple life sim casting you as the manager of a campsite. Collect fruit/bugs/fish/seashells, give them to the humanoid animals camping nearby in exchange for crafting materials, build furniture to decorate your campsite and your camper van to be able to invite more villagers to your campsite and become better friends with them.

A puzzle game in which your mini character automatically moves forward until hitting an interactable part of the environment, such as bouncing high on a springboard or entering a warp pipe. You have partial ability to manipulate the level - some pieces can be removed and replaced elsewhere, such as girders that can create floors, ramps, or walls. Most available characters have one additional power, such as Yoshi’s ability to eat enemies and Mario’s ability to wall-jump. Your goal is to set things up such that your character avoids obstacles and hazards, nabs all collectibles, and finally makes it to the exit door - then it’s on to the next level.

A cooperative puzzle game where each player controls a shape that can ‘snip’ and thus modify the shape of other characters and sometimes parts of the environment. Players must cooperate to create the shapes necessary to solve puzzles such as making scoops to pick up and carry objects or gears to rotate mechanisms. This simple and easy-to-understand gameplay is used in the service of a wide variety of goals - creating a complex specified shape, moving objects with various characteristics through obstacle courses to a goal, redirecting the flow of fluids to fill containers or protect other objects, and more. My personal favorite were the “Princess Power-Up” levels where the players are tasked with creating a course for the “princess” to traverse and collect all the power-ups along the way.