Games I Finished in 2014
I'm hoping this will be the year of buying less games and chewing through my enormous backlog.
List items
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I was definitely not expecting this to be the first game on this list, but here we are. I picked up the Vita version since it was super cheap, and finally managed to best Olmec!!! After hundreds of attempts, and owning the game on multiple platforms (because it's amazing!), I finally did it. Now to try and get through hell...
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Definitely a lot better (but equally buggy) than the first game. Having enemies appear on the map (instead of the insane random encounter rate from Book I) really makes things a lot better. I guess that's what happens when these games are parodying/celebrating JRPGs through the years - later games have better design & mechanics.
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I was in the mood for a dumb action game to offset all the RPGs I'm playing at the moment, and I pulled this "gem" out of my backlog. The only positive thing I have to say is that the soundtrack is pretty rockin'.
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This is about as close as you're going to get to a new Team ICO game before (if) The Last Guardian comes out. Not a terribly complex game to play, but it is a fun little fairy tale of a story. The sound design is really great and the soundtrack is beautiful. I might have gotten a minor case of the weepies at the end of the game...no, it was probably just all that rain...
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Not too bad for an obscure DS strategy RPG. The story wasn't anything to write home about, but the gameplay was solid. It also had a nice smooth difficulty curve that didn't require much grinding, so I was able to polish this off in only a little over 30 hours.
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The best Lego game yet! Really enjoyed this one, especially the very deep roster of characters. Some real deep cuts to be found here.
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I haven't COMPLETELY finished this (i.e., beating all the levels on RAD mode like a crazy person), but I got through all the normal levels + most pro levels. I enjoyed this game quite a bit, and I appreciated that it is more of a challenge than I had anticipated. I actually feel like I got quite a bit better at it over the course of playing.
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Brad inspired me to go back and finish this. I got about halfway through the first time I played it at release, but never followed through for some reason. This time, I lulled the Old One back to sleep like a champion. Feels good!
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Game is super rad, with a fantastic soundtrack. Nice to see Nintendo games in HD finally, the art style here really shines. Now I don't feel so bad about using some of my tax money for a Wii U ;)
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Finally beat Mom's heart, hurray! There seems to be a pattern where a GB staff member plays a game and then I go back and actually finish it :P
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Cat Mariooooooooo!!! There were some pretty inventive levels in this game, and I had a lot of fun, even just playing by myself. Nintendo does what they do well.
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This game was a ton of hilarious fun, and a who's who of references to the show from front to back (while also being a pretty good RPG to boot, I would recommend playing it on Hard for sure though). Definitely my favorite game so far this year, I think Alex's review was spot-on to how I felt.
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This is a pretty interesting visual novel. I like where the story goes, although the patriarchal space culture you're learning about is a little unsettling, even with it being something that has certainly happened throughout history (and even in some regions today, although maybe not to the same extent). There are some cool hooks in addition to just reading, including a computer terminal you get to use pretty frequently, and the way you can use the logs you are reading to interact with the AI characters.
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With this and Analogue, I apparently went down the anime visual novel rabbit hole without knowing it. Anyways! I thought Danganronpa was a fun murder mystery whodunnit with a lot of twists and turns - some of them obvious, others less so. It's not perfect, but I enjoyed it overall! I'm not sure how to feel about the ambiguous ending, though; on one hand it's frustrating, on the other it reinforces a big theme of the game.
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HD Pikmin is pretty rad. What a great series! I thought the new Pikmin in this iteration (flying, rock) were way more interesting than the fat purple and poison guys they introduced in Pikmin 2. The flying and rock dudes integrate into the puzzle solving and combat way better, it all just makes sense. I also really liked being able to use the Gamepad to relay routes to your different adventures, the final level is pretty harrowing and makes good use of this feature.
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This was...okay, I guess. This type of Mario game is pretty rote at this point, and pales in comparison to 3D World. Luckily it was a packin with my Wii U system. Maybe the Luigi DLC will be more interesting since it's supposed to be a little more difficult.
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I don't know what it is about this series, but I'm always up for a new Layton romp to tease my brain. And there are some interesting revelations at the end of the story as well...
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The endgame of this is fucked up. No save points for a couple hours (at least), and if you (for example) get to the last boss and die - whoops, you just wasted all that time!!!! Grrrr...I'm glad video games respect our time a little better these days. Anyways. This wasn't bad for an older FF game (besides the endgame), although I personally really like the PSP remake of FFIV out of the older games in this series.
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This is probably one of the better remakes of an older game that I've played. Short, sweet, and enjoyable.
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I blame the combination of Sony selling this to me for 99 cents and my nostalgia. Actually holds up surprisingly well (and I'm a man who has played a lot of mascot platformers over the years) - apparently well enough that I blew through it in 2 or 3 sittings.
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Not really a way to "finish" this, per se, but I've played a ton of it at this point. I haven't managed to beat every single challenge yet, but I'm working on it! Really love the way this controls and plays.
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All the coverage of HMH2 made me go back and finish this remake of the original game that I bought a while back. Still a ton of fun! I forgot how many levels there are due to all the branching paths and side quests, though.
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My mind works in weird ways; I ended up buying this from eBay after watching the Quick Look video for Secrets of Grindea the other day just because the art style was very similar, and I had remembered seeing this game at some point but never playing it. Anyways! Turns out this is a secret gem of the early DS era. It's a Zelda-style adventure that's fun and goofy and with a pretty fun tank battle mechanic. I really enjoyed this, I think I might actually write up a review on the site soon...
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Love me some Kirby! <(^_^)>
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This is a pretty unique indie puzzler with some cool mechanics and tricky levels. Got stuck a handful of times, but yay for Youtube walkthroughs!
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I know this game isn't as crazy as it could be, but I still quite enjoyed it.
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Nintendo's download services need more weird games like this that end up being surprisingly good.
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Eh, this wasn't that interesting. Thanks free Games With Gold on the Xbox?
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This game is kind of a technical mess, but man the story is weird and the characters are super sexual and there are dick knights, what is this game??? There seem to be a lot of post-game branches / alternate paths like Nier, so I'm gonna keep playing.
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This game just straight up rules, definitely the most fun I've had with a game in quite a while. Interesting mechanics, goofy humor, cool art style...I loved it all.
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A little on the short side, but I liked the art style and very Zelda-like exploration/puzzle-solving mechanics.
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I think this will be hard to beat as my favorite game this year. Fantastic from front to back! I don't replay games all that often, but I immediately want to run through NG+ on this.
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I really really liked this game; the gameplay wasn't too deep, but there were a lot of good action, stealth, and puzzle sequences that I still enjoyed. It covers a time-period in history that is often ignored, but has a lot of good stories to tell. The art is gorgeous, and isn't as incongruous with the tone as you might think, although I will say the last chapter of the game is much darker than the rest (and I'm not ashamed to admit the ending made me cry a bit).
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It's Mario Kart...but it looks fantastic! No complaints here.
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The Quick Look convinced me to buy this cute little game. I adore the art style and the writing is clever without being overly saccharine. And the puzzles actually end up getting pretty tricky by the end of the game once you have a whole repertoire of monsters to use. This is a delightful little game worth the few hours it will take you to finish it.
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This is an interesting little game. I like a lot of the concepts and weirdness, but there's not a lot of content to be had here. Once you get one of the characters leveled up decently, you can finish the game without a ton of trouble, assuming you have a decent grip on the combat and aren't just spamming buttons. There is a decent amount of depth without it being too technical, sort of on the level of a Smash Bros. game. The fact that you can't suspend your game partway through a run (which I found out the hard way) is a real bummer.
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I'm glad this game finally came to a platform I could play it on, thanks Sony! This game is fantastic and super addictive, with its "one more run" mentality. I think this will be my "2014's Game of 2013", for sure.
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I liked the setting and characters of this quite a bit. The storytelling was a little weaker than Walking Dead, but I still enjoyed it a lot.
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Really great puzzle game with fantastic atmosphere and an intriguing story.
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Glad I finally got around to rectifying this blind spot in my gaming history. What an amazing game! I see now why it is so revered. It's a very unique setting for an RPG, with fantastically funny writing and just the right amount of offbeat characters and situations. I'm glad this ended up coming out on the eShop, thanks Nintendo!
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I liked the battle system, but the writing and setting and story didn't really grab me. Art is pretty, though!
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An interesting little freebie that came with Azure Striker Gunvolt.
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Ended up sitting down with a friend and playing through the entire campaign mode in one go. Pretty dang fun for such a simple game.
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Well, now I know what this weird-ass game is all about. Really wish there were more levels that came with the game. I dig the game's style, though.
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I really like the aesthetic of this game, but I wish there were more to the mechanics and less repetition.
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As an avid Zelda fan and Dynasty Warriors / Musou fan, this is basically made for me. It doesn't do a ton to improve on the DW template, but seeing all these Zelda characters / locations / enemies in a different way is very exciting to me. All the characters play extremely different (which isn't always the case), and they give you reasons to go back and replay levels. This game has really gotten its hooks into me :)
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Probably the worst of the Golden Sun games, and a little easy for my taste, but still enjoyable enough.
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The cases were a little easy, but I liked the crossover interactions. I found the story/setting interesting for most of the game, but the revelations at the end were a little too farfetched, even for a Professor Layton/Phoenix Wright game.
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Paid 5 bucks for the Wii U version of this, feel like I got my money's worth to play through the campaign (which is all I would care about).
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Tough game, but quite enjoyable. Screw Launch Octopus, that boss sucks!
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This is essentially the third time I've played through this (Velocity, Velocity Ultra, and now Velocity 2X), but the improvements and additions to this version are totally worth it. The side-scrolling levels work really well, and do a good job of breaking up the ship sections with equally twitchy gameplay.
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Seems like a cool remake, I like the new artstyle, and I love having this on my Vita.
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This is the first game I've ever skipped all the dialogue and cutscenes, I just found it so hard to care. Great game for listening to podcasts while playing though!
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This is an excellent upgrade from the original game! Really what the original should have been. But there are so many songs and enough content and gameplay tweaks that I don't feel bad about about buying this.
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Picked this up off of the Wii U Virtual Console after reading some good things. I had never heard of this SNES game before, but it's actually pretty great. It has a Metroidvania feel where you get new powers and can go back and revisit old levels to get upgrades, and the actual jumping, fighting, and flying mechanics feel good.
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Had a great time playing a ton of this over the Thanksgiving holiday.
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I think Double Helix did about as good as of job as they could trying to remake Strider. Not a terribly difficult game, but still enjoyable. Looks great and runs smooth!
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Had a good time with this game. Really great looking, and the characters, script, and voiceover work were all surprisingly impressive.
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I think I'm of the opinion of Mr. Dan Ryckert on this one. Don't give a damn about Lord of the Rings, but had a fantastic time playing this game. My only complaint would be that the Nemesis system isn't as important in certain parts of the game as I wish it was (and you get a lot of the abilities like Brand a bit too late for my taste). This was a great alternative to Ubisoft's lackluster Assassin's Creed output as of late.
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What a silly game. The writing is particularly sharp, and all the family characters (especially the kids) are very charming. This is the most fun I've had with one of these gimmicky control games (not sure what to call the genre, but e.g., QWOP, Surgeon Simulator, etc.)
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This game is a hell of a fun timesink. The gameplay is a bit shallow, but there is a TON to do. Luckily, the writing is extremely sharp and funny, the music is great, and it is a fun world to explore. I put in around 50 hours, but I could have easily done way more, trying out some of the other jobs. At some point I figured I should actually finish the story content, so I did.
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I'm pleasantly surprised with how much I loved this game. I expected another fairly rote shooter, but the story and characters were surprisingly engaging. I appreciated that entire chapters were dedicated to just walking around and talking to characters; it also helped with the pacing of the game, which I thought was quite good, not just non-stop action. And on top of this, the shooting felt great, so I enjoyed playing it too!
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This is an incredibly solid third entry in this series. I liked having the structured campaign mode (with bosses!) and drone upgrades, they are minor tweaks that added a bit to the experience. My only gripe might be some of the level designs obscuring one's view a little too much in the campaign mode.
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This is a great idea for a spinoff Hitman game; I loved the familiar gameplay mechanics that they slowly layer onto the puzzles. The difficulty curve is just right. The art style is super fantastic as well.
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More of the amazing, over the top nonsense of the original that still plays amazingly, while being satisfying for both beginners and experts.
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