Zelda, but make it tiny.
Games don't need to be difficult to be a source of joy.
Sure, this series started out on the Famicom, but we know it from its worldwide Game Boy Advance debut, so that's the name.
Bongos or no, Jungle Beat is the pinnacle of Donkey Kong platformers, because it's much more than "just" a platformer.
You could not make two Fire Emblem games more dissimilar than Awakening and Thracia 776, and yet, I like them just the same.
Doo doo do doo do do do dooooooo
To this day, the Thousand-Year Door is the best balance of all of the things that make playing Paper Mario games worthwhile.
Nintendo's best crossover is wonderful even if you're not familiar with either of the franchises involved, thanks to a fantastical premise.
Many of the Mario platformers that helped make Nintendo a giant of the industry don't hold up enough for our purposes here, but Super Mario Bros. 3 remains as wonderful as it always was.
The Art Style series games were generally good. PiCTOBiTS was a fantastic, original puzzler, and eminently playable over a decade later.
The return of a beloved franchise — and its sequel — are both better than anything from the original series that inspired them in the first place.
The best modern 2D Mario platforming isn't actually made by Nintendo developers at all, and it fills a gap left by New Super Mario Bros., to boot.
