I was discussing the WiiU on a separate blogpost where I started looking at the top games I played on the system. Turns out, only 6 of the top games I played were WiiU games and the rest were Virtual Console ports of SNES and N64 games. List looks like this:
1. Breath of the Wild: 70+ hours
2. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE: 60+ hours
3. Mario Kart 8: 40+ hours
4. Mario's Super Picross(Virtual Console): 40+ hours
5. Musou Orochi 2 Hyper: 30+ hours
6. Super Mario Maker: 30+ hours
7. Ocarina of Time (Virtual Console): 20+ hours
8. Super Mario 3D World: 10+ hours
9. Super Mario 64 (Virtual Console): 10+ hours
10. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest (Virtual Console): 10+ hours
I had always thought that I had gotten a lot of mileage from my WiiU but looking at the list written out like this I don't know if I actually have. From 8 downward I barely cracked 10 hours. For comparison, my 10th most played Switch game is 40+ hours. I looked at my 3DS history and I played 5 games for longer than I played Mario Kart 8.
I was always of the opinion that the WiiU was an underappreciated system and got a bad rap because of the mishandling of the announcement and not making it clear that it was a separate console and not just a controller upgrade. The fact that Nintendo ported most of the games to the Switch and they're selling gangbusters for the most part shows that the games were good at least. But I guess it's also a sign that the second screen on the controller was mostly just dressing as you can play all those games perfectly fine on the Switch.
Super Mario Maker was pure lightning in a bottle and it's a shame that its sequel could replicate the X-factor it had that made the game so fun to make and share levels. It was also the system I introduced my son to video games with. When he first started to talk he would shout "Eiiiiighhhht!" along with Mario when I booted up Mario Kart 8. I was finally able to replay the N64 games from my middle/high school years through Virtual Console.
All in all, despite not clocking in as many hours as I have on other consoles, the WiiU still holds a place in my heart for the time I did have with it.
Well it's the end of 2023 and I'm going to give it another go at making a list. I played some games but upon reflection I did not play that many from 2023. Unfortunately, this will be a list of mostly past releases.
What can I say, I'm a Nintendo mark. I played Breath of the Wild on my WiiU. Put over 70 hours into it and loved it all. This game, according to the Year in Review from Nintendo, I put in a total of 146 hours. That's nuts for me. I don't usually put in 100 hours of anything. Only other game that reached 100 in my Nintendo account(including WiiU and 3DS) is Pokemon Sword. This game was special. Searching through Hyrule all over again and having all these toys I could make through Ultrahand was a delight. Having the sages be part of your journey as ghostly avatars was a nice touch and really added to the fights. GOTY by far for me.
I started playing this late last year and played up til about the day before the release of Tears of the Kingdom. It was a happy coincidence that my subscription ran out the day before. I got up to the ending of A Realm Reborn and I am really hoping to get back soon. This game really did start out kinda ho hum for me at first but then the story got kicking and in the last act I was hooked. So much happens and to think that there's all these expansions that I have to go through seems daunting but I'm down for it.
3. Super Nintendo World - Universal Studios Japan
I've got so much more left to do.
If anyone has been to the Super Nintendo World parks in either Japan or LA, you know this is basically a video game. I went there 3 times with my kids and each time I left knowing I hadn't gotten my fill of being there. There are 2 rides, Yoshi's Island and Mario Kart. Yoshi's Island is a pretty chill slow ride where you go through Yoshi's island and see various characters from the game. Along the way you'll see different colored Yoshi eggs and push the corresponding button on your ride to make them glow. Push them all and you get a stamp. Mario Kart is a must go even if the lines are long. You ride with an AR visor and race with Mario and co. against Koopa and the Koopalings. There's SO MUCH going on during the ride it's hard to keep up on the first go. If you look at the achievements you can get you can see there are hidden blocks and items you can get through the map. I just wish the lines weren't 3 hours long so I could try to get them all.
The food and environment is cool but it's the sheer amount of stuff you can do with the bracelets that makes it all worth it. With an app you can track your progress and gain stamps/acheivements that carry over to your next visit. Mini-games to get keys such as turning a handle rapidly to drop a Goomba or going through an underworld area to assemble a key that's been blown up by a Bob-omb or hitting a POW block at the right time to chain react a Koopa shell into a key and other games around the park. If you win enough games and you get enough keys to get access to Koopa Jr's castle where you are able to take on Koopa Jr. and get some more coins and stamps. Some stamps are easy enough to get. Visit Super Nintendo World in December - February, get a stamp. Others are more time consuming such as Collect 1000 coins in Mario Kart(Collectively) and I usually get just over 100 per ride. I'm sure if you did it more and figure out the meta it won't be THAT long but it still takes multiple rides of a 1-3 hour line.
Still looking forward to Donkey Kong Country next year.
Started playing this in the forums and been playing daily non-stop. It's like Wordle but for video games. Each day you need to guess the game based on 6 screenshots. You get 6 tried to guess it right. Each wrong guess reveals anothe screenshot as well as some information about the game: Metacritic score, platform, release date etc. Getting the game in 1 shot is such a rush especially when you know it. Best moment for me is either getting a lucky first guess tha I had no business getting right or making a last ditch guess on a game I've never heard of or seen before. Don't think it's a game? Guess the Game #322 says otherwise.
I haven't really played any fighting game since Soul Caliber 6 but the style and hype around SF6 got me to bite the bullet and go. It feels real good and playing online isn't all that bad. I haven't played that much lately but I do hop in every once in a while to play with a friend. Who then bodies me for 30 minutes and makes me question why I ever played in the first place. Ha!
I just platinumed this the other day. It's....alright. It starts out slow and really started picking up around hour 2 when I got a couple upgrades to my characters that allowed them to chain attacks and hit more than 2 times. But once it starts kicking off the story is all right and the feel of the combat is pretty good. But having to get 160 subquests to upgrade your town to the max level was a slog at times. Worst case was a man saying he just moved to town with his wife and kid and can't find his wife. Go down one screen and find his wife. Go back one screen and talk to the man again, quest complete. Repeated this exact sequence 2 more times for the wife and then the kid. Not the most engaging subquests and makes me wonder if they really needed the 160. I will say though that I received this as a backer reward for participating in the kickstarter to get Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes created so I can't say for sure if it is worth the regular price on it. A sale maybe.
I played this after seeing it on Guess the Game. It's alright but it has a bit too much RNG to strategize right. As far as I am aware of anyways. I will admit it's probably me. Match 3 tiles to attack enemies, gain mana to use spells and hope that you can win and continue the story. I lost too many times over unlucky draw with the falling tiles and the computer getting luckier. Maybe the sequels are better but I probably won't try unless recommended.
Only played about 2 levels but my kids have taken control of my Switch and it's like it's no longer mine. Will get to it someday. Elephant Daisy is too good.
Well, this is my first blog post after being a member of this site since 2011. Figured it's about time I do a thing. I played a few games this year, very few of them FROM this year, in fact. Reason is that I have a launch PS4 that doesn't run the newer games well, a Switch and until recently, a PC I built in 2012 that couldn't even run Gal Gun 2.*gasp* Hopefully, with my new PC and 3080, that'll change and I can play games that aren't exclusively 2D indie games.
Here's my list of 10 games I enjoyed this year. I guess I'll rank em in reverse order to keep it in the spirit of GOTY lists.
Hunie Pop 2 I'm totally playing it for the puzzles! Ahh who am I kidding? I like the girls too. The sequel is pretty much like the first game, addictive puzzles, plenty of items to keep things interesting and unlockables too. Very much a "Just one more round" type of game.
Portal The first one. I fired this one up for my kids to introduce a new type of game to them. We had a blast for a few days before their bedtime going through the different areas. I would ask them what I should do to clear the room and they were able to keep up in the beginning but as things got harder I was able to blow their minds with the various tricks you'd be able to pull off.
TMNT Shredder's Revenge Another "Game I Played with my Kids". They're not really familiar with the Turtles aside from playing Turtles in Time with me on the Super Famicom so when this came out I had to get this one day 1. It really does hit that nostalgia feel and has a lot of references to the cartoon that I had totally forgotten about, i.e. those space teens from space. Wished it had more contect after you beat the story mode. Kids were so focused on getting Casey Jones but when all you had after unlocking him was playing the same game over again, it didn't last long with us.
Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle to Daifugou no Inbou DX+ The spin-off series to the Professor Layton games. This follows Professor Layton's daughter, Katrielle, as she opens up her own detective agency and solves mysteries and also sate her sweet tooth. Unlike the previous games, this one is episodic and you will solve the mystery and move on to the next episode. This method of storytelling is much like watching a TV show but I prefer my Layton's to be more revolving around a grand central plot. Maybe there is one in this and I will one day get to see it. Love me some puzzles though. Playing the DX+ version allows you to replace the original celebrity voice acting with the cast from the anime which I honestly prefer.
Gyakuten Saiban 1 and 2 (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) I bought the 1-3 bundle on my Switch a couple years back and stopped midway through the first game. I decided to finish it off and man, what a good, funny game. Finding clues, catching murderers in their lies. The best. The rivalry/friendship between Naruhodo and Mitsurugi is one where you can see that while they're on separate sides of the courtroom, their golas are the same and when they realize they're on the same team, ain't nothing gonna stop them. The tone of the second really changed in the second one. Whereas the first was very straightforward as far as Killer = Evil, the second one had areas of grey where 'Someone is hurting inside and concocts to murder someone against their better judgement and the outcome is that a completely innocent third party dies because of it.' Are they evil? No, but someone did die and they must take responsibility for their actions and live with it. I am also aware that there is a popular Wright/Edgeworth shipping thing on the internet but I am totally Team Naruhodo/Mayoi. Sorry, The Internet.
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Man I love Cuphead. I unlocked all the achievements in the first game and couldn't wait to get at the DLC. It doesn't miss a beat. The bosses are tough but fair and the new weapons are fun to tinker with and Miss Chalice is a fun twist of the game. I stuck with Cuphead and Mugman for the majority of my playthrough though. My muscle memory just wouldn't allow me to dash into projectiles to parry or double jump. It was just so foreign! Will get back to it someday so I can finish it.
Rocksmith 2014 Started taking guitar lessons during the pandemic and this helped with trying to practice songs. Still not like taking actual lessons from a teacher though but that hasn't stopepd me from buying a ton of DLC and jamming in the Session Mode for hours.
Hades Never got around to it when it was on everyone's GOTY list. Glad I got into it late than never. I can't really say much that hasn't already been said so I'll just leave it at this: The hype was right. Oh, and hell yeah Hades 2!
Vampire Survivors I love the OG Castlevania and this games look and music really captures the essence of that world. I started this up on a whim and went through a time warp and it was an hour later somehow. Game is good. The feeling when you breakthrough and are just pushing left and never stopping cuz everything is disappearing before your onslaught of whips, holy water, pigeon lasers, axes, bullets and garlic. Unlockable characters brings a new strategy to the game and being able to see how to unlock everything from a list really helps me focus on experimenting with other characters instead of sticking to just the one guy. Oh, and extra bonus, I can play this on PC while holding my 1.5 month old child. 9.5/10, would survive again.
Fortnite - Zero Build Mode I blame Dan Ryckert for this. I played this two years ago and dropped off fast because I could not wrap my head around the building part of this game and when the GB crew started playing this I decided to reinstall this game and I haven't looked back. It is so much fun now that I don't have to build anything and the people at Fortnite HQ know exactly how to take my money with their skins from the movies of my youth. Being able to play as Indiana Jones and dance to BTS's Dynamite will never get old for me. I find myself thinking about Fornite alot and hopefully it'll get out of my system so I can get around to playing other video games on my new PC. until then, gotta unlock Doom Slayer on my battle pass so I can strap R2-D2 to his back while he glides down on Indy's inflatible raft.
Honorable Mention:
The Witness
Started this one up to see if my old computer would still run it. I played this back when it was new and the talk of the Giant Bomb crew and I wasn't able to get very far and fell off. Since I was trying to expose my kids to other types of games that weren't just Minecraft and Pokemon I picked one that I figured they'd be able to help with since dialogue isn't an issue. Highlight of my game: Watching my older son fiddle around with a puzzle and getting his "ah ha!: moment.
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