Oh man I'm way behind, just commenting on the first page for now.
I don't know how you managed to play close to a hundred games in a year, that's impressive. I probably played like 5 this year, maybe 10 if you count screwing around with RC Pro Am for an hour and stuff like that.
Braid is great, I probably still rank it in my top 5. Although when I did replay that one (which might have even been this year) the impact was diminished a bit. The puzzles and mechanics are good but what really blew me away was the atmosphere, especially some of that licensed music you mentioned. The cryptic text stuff also really worked for me, even though in retrospect I think it's probably one of those things that means less than it seems to rather than more - I think it's written just to sound cool rather than to convey some meaningful message - but it's still cool
JFA is good. Trials and Tribulations is still my favorite, guess I'll see if that makes this list.
I love the description of Majora's Mask as a OOT romhack, and it makes me appreciate the game more too and the fact that Nintendo actually did it.
---
I made a living on time trial blowing myself off to cross the finish line at ludicrous speed. -transience