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man i really want to post my list in here because i want to gush over my favorite games but there's still like 3 weeks left in the year and honestly i'm gonna have more gaming time between now and the 31st than i have in the last few months and i've got some things i want to try/progress in
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Dec 12, 2019 02:50
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i wrote this while i was bored and probated so here's too many thoughts~! Honorable Mention: Astro-Bot/Tetris Effect/Superhot VR I got a PS4 this year finally, and some of the games I got to play for the first time are further up on this list but honestly the first thing I did when I got my PS4 is try out my new VR software, because I had never tried VR before, and I really enjoyed it. Tetris Effect was the reason I got VR in the first place and it was sufficiently mind-blowing, but I think of the three games I tried so far, Astro-Bot is the one with the best exploration of the new hardware. The only reason none of these are on the list is I didn’t feel I had enough time with them, so I’m hoping that 2020 will give me more of an opportunity to explore them and some of the other VR experiences I’ve picked up.  Honorable Mention: Nintendo Labo This poo poo is really fun! It’s not a “game” in the traditional sense (although the open world you can control with the Labo creations you make is an interesting prototype) but I loved the act of building. I didn’t have an issue with the construction at all, everything fit perfectly, was all there, and I didn’t have any issues with cardboard fragility, and the builds themselves were not short things. There are a few issues with the UI for the building software but it’s minor and I recognize that I’m not the target audience. I’ve got alerts for the variety kit and VR kit in case they drop in price like the Vehicle kit is doing, I’d love to make some more fun Nintendo Cardboard creations! Honorable Mentions: Solitarica/Konami Pixel Puzzle/Puzzle Quest/Tetris 99 Puzzles are good and how I spend most of my time gaming when it comes to pure hour counts. These are all examples of really really good puzzle games that I already knew in some fashion (wether it’s a direct port like Puzzle Quest, the same format like KPP or a multiplayer take on a classic like T99), and I played them a bunch, but ultimately they didn’t end up on my list.  Honorable Mentions: Yoshi’s Crafted World/Mario Maker 2/Link’s Awakening I inevitably buy most Nintendo first party games because I know that even if they’re not 100% my poo poo they’ll still be well-crafted and some of the the best examples of their respective genres but the three of these each had some issues that kept me from loving them more than I wanted to. Mario Maker 2 was a nice expansion on the original but was missing just enough features that it didn’t really sustain a community in the same way the first one did (although the single player content is substantial and well worth the game’s price, plus it’s still getting updates. Link’s Awakening definitely had the design of an older game (and some performance issues that, while not really game-affecting, were definitely noticeable) but it looks gorgeous and is well worth exploring just for that. Yoshi’s Crafted World is much the same, an incredibly lovingly crafted world that is fun and exciting to explore, but just fell short of my list, just because it didn’t capture my attention quite the same way.  10. Luigi’s Mansion 3 You know how I said that the reason I buy Nintendo first party games is because of how well crafted they are? Well here’s the best example of that Nintendo craft from 2019. Luigi’s Mansion is incredibly well made, one of the best-looking Switch games (due in no small part to the stellar art design), and the animations for all of the characters, especially Luigi, are really on the top tier of what Nintendo is capable of. The gameplay is fun and does that Nintendo thing where it takes a few simple concepts and stretches them a lot of different ways, and through the first half of the game (which is where I left off because I haven’t had a lot of time these last few months) it’s been very fun to explore every nook and cranny with my Big Sucking Boy and his Ghost Dog. The controls are the biggest knock on the game and are what keep this from being even higher but the game sort of knows that its controls are bullshit and does its very best to not make that a huge deal (except for a few key parts).  9. Return of the Obra Dinn Such a loving cool idea. It’s not quite like anything I’ve played before, and as a big fan of logic puzzles, it feels like the most maximalist version of one of those logic puzzles with the rows and columns that you put Xs and Os into as you eliminate/discover options. The look and the story and the feel and the music and everything is perfectly cohesive, and aside from some struggles to get to where I want to go (or should I say when…?) towards the end, I don’t have much bad to say about it. 8. SteamWorld Quest My first real deep dive into a deck building game, and I’m glad it’s from a developer that I really like and trust. The battles and story seem a little separated from each other, and the story is definitely a very basic fantasy outline, but the characters are lots of fun, the whole world is incredibly well realized (a staple of the SteamWorld games) and the combat has lots of options and depth to really dig into.  7. Control This is still very much a TBD slot for Control, as I haven’t finished it in full yet but it’s already wormed its way onto my list because of its world design and the very concept of the game itself. Telekinesis is always fun to play around with but what really makes me love Control is how much there is to find when you dig around the office, all of the writing in the world building documents is really good. This could still go up as I keep playing.  6. Mortal Kombat 11 I’ll get the negative out of the way right now: I’m really not an online gamer so there’s a lot of the game that’s just worthless to me, and in the early days of the game the economy was so hosed up I thought I was gonna just give up on it entirely. Plus the Krypt feels about 3/4-assed (which is more than previous Krypts, but still not quite where I wish it was) and like its held together with string and tape. But then I get into the fighting itself and it just feels so good. I’ve always really liked MK games most out of the traditional fighting game series but ever since MK9 I feel like Netherrealm has really put their blood, sweat and tears (mostly from their underpaid, oft-harassed temp workers, who should absolutely UNIONIZE) into making their games play well. The story is also the perfect level of big dumb blockbuster, and told a much better time-travel story than that big dumb Avengers movie. 5. Ratchet and Clank (PS4) R&C games might have the absolute most satisfying gameplay loops in gaming. There’s something about the way the boxes break, the nuts/bolts add up to more inventive, fun weapons to buy, and blowing up boxes and enemies with those weapons earns EXP which make them blow things up even more effectively, all wrapped up into a really tight platformer with shooting elements. The remake also shows off the smart writing that R&C games specialize in, totally taking the piss out of the idea of a remake while still hitting all of the required remake boxes. Just a whole lot of fun, exactly what I expected from a new Ratchet and Clank.  4. Pokemon Sword I could just say “it’s a new Pokemon game” and leave it at that. So I will.  3. Pic-a-Pix Deluxe I think the amount of picross that I have played in my life has probably rewired my brain in ways that I can’t even comprehend. Every time a new one comes out I have to play it through, and because of its portability I can play it anywhere. All of Mercury’s picross efforts are wonderful and instant Day 1 purchases, and the last one had a new color-based mode that seemed interesting, so after I finished the new B/W puzzles I tried the color puzzles and fell in love with them, and immediately sought out more. I was pointed towards Pic-a-Pix by a fellow Picross addict, with the warning that the UI really leaves a lot to be desired, but I played through all of the puzzles, then started buying DLC puzzles, and still just kept buying DLC puzzles. As of this writing, I’ve finished over 1500 puzzles since I bought Pic-a-Pix earlier this year, everywhere from tiny 5x5 puzzles to absolutely massive hour+ puzzles that get up to 35x45, and I just keep consuming them as if they were oxygen. Pic-a-Pix is easily my game of the year if we’re talking pure hours of gameplay, because I’ve spent entire evenings on the couch watching basketball/football and just plowing through puzzle after puzzle into the wee hours of the night and it never gets old. I will keep solving these puzzles as long as they keep making them; the lovely people who made this game are my heroes and I love them very much.  2. Spider-Man I know it sounds like a cliche reheated from all of last year’s reviews of this game but swinging around New York City feels like a blast in this game. It is easily one of my favorite renditions of Spider-Man in a long time (it would probably be my sole favorite had it not come out in the same year as the excellent Enter the Spiderverse), and everything coalesces into a really great gaming experience. The side-quests, the story, the exploration, it all just adds up to one of my favorite open-world games ever. 1. Fire Emblem Three Houses I almost didn’t buy this game. It came out in the summer when I had lots of time to play but it also came out right after Mario Maker and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and before I decided to just suck it up and get another pair of vouchers while they were still a deal, I really didn’t expect to buy 3 Houses. I’d played FE in the past (Awakening on the DS, which I enjoyed) but this one seemed incredibly anime in all the wrong ways and combined with the negative reception that Fates had gotten, to the point where I didn’t even bother, those factors left me not really looking to buy it. About a week before its release, however, I started hearing some very positive word of mouth from reviewers, and one of my co-workers was also excited for it, so I figured I might as well take the plunge, especially considering MUA3 was pretty underwhelming. I started it up at work on the big screen, watched the big fancy opening video, played through the opening mission, and then got a chance to meet the lineup of characters, and all of my thoughts were pretty much “oh man this is really, really anime.” But I kept playing. And the game kept revealing itself to be much more than just “really, really anime”. The characters who all feel like really thinly written cliches turn out to be much more than you would expect. The story goes in directions that, even if you can predict the twists and turns, always feel like they’re well-crafted even in the most cliche moments. The two different gameplay cycles both fed into each other in really rewarding ways. By the end of the game, it was not any less anime than I thought it was at the beginning, but I was the one who had changed. I was totally bought into all of the anime bullshit because the core of it was so solid. I’m really not one to engage in fanbases beyond talking about games I like most of the time but we’re now almost 6 months after FE3H came out and I’m still checking the FE reddit every few days for new fan art and to hear other people talk about the game and the characters and the shipping and oh my god if you told me 365 days ago that I’d be that person about a game like this I would have told you to gently caress off. FE turned me into an obnoxious fanboy with a best girl (Dorothea and anyone who says anything else is wrong) and really that’s been the most rewarding gaming experience of the year, because it allowed me to indulge in being really really lame and not feeling bad about it because the game I was being really lame over is just so drat good.
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Dec 18, 2019 01:42
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Endorph posted:im glad you now understand that anime is good this is also the year where i rewatched Evangelion in its entirety for the first time since my creepy anime nerd phase in junior high so either i'm becoming enlightened or i'm totally regressing to when i was 12
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Dec 18, 2019 08:22
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