I’m not going to make excuses: I dropped the ball hard on this list. For anyone who was following along with it, sorry for stopping halfway through. I had the list drafted and put a bunch of time into it, but it was never quite completed.

The good news is that, of the twenty games left on this list, only eight of the games actually released in 2015, so I’m able to just talk and gush about the others for 2016's most anticipated games list (which I’m also working on). Look forward to it!

As for the eight that were released, I’ll be going through them in this post with my anticipations and reactions to the games that have come out in 2015. Just a short paragraph for each game. So…. let’s do it!

#20 - Disgaea 5: : Alliance of Vengeance - PS4

Look, I love the Disgaea series and have sunk thousands of hours into the series. But as much as I enjoy them, it’s too much. These games are long and require significant investment, especially since A) I’m mostly in it for the gameplay rather than the anime-as-fuck storylines and B) Nippon Ichi has been solely concentrating on milking this series dry rather than constantly experimenting with the SRPG genre like they were on the PS2. All of that said, I’m still excited that the reactions to the game have been positive and still do want the game when I get a PS4… just in a few years once I’m less burnt out on the series and had time to have my fill of the last few…

#18 - Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - PS4/Xbone/PC

There is a significant allure to a game that you are unable to play due to a lack of translation. That lingering feeling that you’re missing out on something great creates a fantasy that you have been deprived of a classic gaming experience due to (to grossly oversimplify) “business reasons”. Yet, those expectations are largely just born out of our desire to have what we can’t, like a toddler yearning for the toy taken away and not the twelve already in front of them. And I know that. Type-0 didn’t launch to overwhelming fanfare over in Japan back in 2011 and neither did this HD remaster in March, but I still feel like I have to play it, just to experience what i couldn’t for a long time. I’m not expecting a lot out of it, but it’ll likely be one of the first games I pick up when I get a PS4 or Xbox One.

#15 - Axiom Verge - PS4/PC

Axiom Verge is one of those games that I am incredibly happy to see find success. From an announced Xbox Live Indie Game that no one really paid attention to one of the best reviewed games of 2015, it makes me happy that not only is Tom Happ’s hard work deservedly getting recognition, but that there are still these single developer success stories. As indie games become more diverse and impressive, so too does their expected bar of quality and budgets. With more games being made than ever before (just look at how many games are released on Steam, the App Store, and, hell, even consoles everyday) it’s damn impressive that these stories still find success in an increasingly cutthroat market.

As for the game itself, I still have yet to touch the Metroid loveletter, as I am one of those twelve people who are waiting on the Vita release.

#10 - Yoshi’s Woolly World - Wii U

This game is adorable in a way that, really, only Yoshi can be. The fantastic art style makes me want to just give the biggest hug to everything in the game, sure, but other games like Puppeteer or LittleBigPlanet have gone for that aesthetic and haven’t had nearly the same levels of success. It’s the expressiveness of that little green (and pink and red and…) dinosaur that adds that special something that makes this game not just cute, but CUUUUUUUTEEEEEEEEEE. There is a joy and wonder with every flutter jump or ground pound that makes every new level just a treat to play.

I’m not far in the game, but I think I’ve experienced enough to say that it isn’t Yoshi’s Island levels of platforming heaven, but it’s the closest Nintendo has gotten in the nearly two decades since the series began.

#8 - Etrian Mystery Dungeon - 3DS

I refuse to give up on crossovers. Even with some highly anticipated letdowns in recent years (not to mention that Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem turned out to be some sort of J-Pop idol game), I still can’t help but see the countless possibilities when you take two series, distill them down to their essence, and fuse them together. I do, however, acknowledge that seeing those possibilities to fruition while keeping hold of the series original identities is a monumental task that rarely will work out.

Etrian Mystery Dungeon is not…. bad per se, but it is a disappointment. It took a lot of safe options and undesirable compromises that diluted the appeal of both series, rather than fusing them into a nice, cohesive whole. In the end, though, it’s a playable game and even an enjoyable game. It’s a valiant effort that just didn’t quite meet that potential.

#4 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - PS4/Xbone/PC

The Witcher might be the weirdest game on this list, at least when it comes to my tastes. Open world games have never been my cup of tea and are a struggle to keep my attention for an hour, let alone the hundreds they usually end up being. It’s so European medieval fantasy it hurts. It’s a (primarily) PC RPG series with a lot of ties to old school western RPG tropes and mechanics. The first game had you collecting trading cards of women naked by sleeping with them.

So yeah, not a lot going for it.

Yet, something about the series stuck with me, even after I struggled through the original for a good 20 hours. I picked up Witcher 2, mostly on its word of mouth about its fantastic storytelling, great characters, gorgeous visuals, and challenging-but-rewarding combat. It exceeded all my expectations and ended up being on of my favourite games that year, but the aforementioned switch to an open world structure has me skeptical if Witcher 3 can do the same.

Like most of the other games on this list, the lack of a PS4, Xbone, or powerful PC prevented me from experiencing The Witcher 3, but it’s a world I hope to get lost in once that changes. I’m just hoping that I won’t get so lost that I’ll forget why I was ever interested in the first place.

#3 - Rock Band 4 - PS4/Xbone

I fucking love Rock Band. It was basically the game that defined my last year of high school. My friends and I cleared the endless setlist, a four and a half hour, nonstop playthrough of every song in the game, on three separate occasions, including during a nearly-24 hour new year’s party and after my fucking prom. The series has been a staple at parties, get-togethers, and xbox live groups ever since, but, only naturally, it faded from people’s minds as time went on.

Now, I knew that Rock Band 4 wasn’t going to be a “bigger and better Rock Band” experience from the get-go. Harmonix isn’t that kind of company anymore and they didn’t have the backing from a giant publisher like EA. It doesn’t take a game industry insider to put two and two together on that one. Rock Band 4 was going to be a platform that Harmonix was going to use to push DLC sales (new and old), put new instruments into players hands, and hopefully reclaim as much of their fanbase as they could to get the train rolling again.

Which isn’t to say this game was just there to exploit fans. This was all to the benefit of fans and Harmonix alike. New tracks are put in the game every week, new innovations made the formula fresh, and, slowly but surely, your rock band libraries are being moved over to the new consoles. But the biggest benefit to both parties is that Rock Band is back in the public consciousness again. Even if Rock Band 4 was a disappointment to some cause it had no online or the dlc transfers weren’t available from day 1, it still had people playing Rock Band, which was entirely the point.

And that’s basically my thoughts on Rock Band 4 in a nutshell: I’m just happy to see it back and people caring about it again. Hopefully the series has a bright future and this wasn’t the last hurrah.

#2 - Splatoon - Wii U

When Smash Bros. 4 was announced, I looked back at the new Nintendo games since Brawl for characters to add to the roster and came up pretty empty. What had even come out? Xenoblade? The Last Story? Captain Rainbow? There wasn’t much in the way of new series, new experiences coming out of Nintendo and there still hasn’t been, other than a little experimentation on the 3DS eShop front. If the game has a new and unique idea, chances are that the Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, etc franchises will be thrown on it in some way or another.

Splatoon wasn’t that. It was a brand new, very Nintendo take on the multiplayer shooter. But that was all I could really focus on when it was announced. “What does Nintendo know about shooters?” we thought. “How can they expect to make a multiplayer shooter when they barely can get online working in anything else?” These questions dominated the Splatoon talk for much of the lead up to release.

At the start of 2015 though, something in me clicked. Why was I so cynical and skeptical when this is exactly what I wanted Nintendo to do? Here they are, tackling a new series with it’s own distinct identity in a genre of games that Nintendo has never touched with feverish ambition and creativity and I’m sitting here wondering if they are risking too much on this unsafe bet. I realized I was, in some way, still part of the problem that stifles imagination in this industry, relying on sequels and well-worn design instead of originality and innovation.

Splatoon hushed the cynics in us. It was one of the best games of the year, one of the best games on the Wii U, and one of the best games in the genre overall. It was a fun, frantic take on the multiplayer shooter that somehow both grabbed fans of the genre and hooked new players who had never even thought about playing a shooter before. It had unparalleled post-launch support, a killer soundtrack, a fresh 90′s Nickelodeon vibe, an abundance of that Nintendo charm, and a surprisingly well designed single player mode, considering how basic it was.

Splatoon is one of the best things to come out of this industry in a good long time and I hope that, not only do we see more in the way of squid kids shooting water guns at each other, but Nintendo announces more games that makes me doubt them, just so they have more opportunities to tell the cynical side of me to shut the fuck up.

• Top 35 Most Anticipated Games of 2015 - #35 - #21