I played a lot of games this year that I have missed throughout my years of gaming. It has been a joy to catch up on the many must have classics that I have missed and I can't wait to keep chugging through my backlog once more in 2015!
This is the one game where I constantly think "This is a motherfucking video game." In fact it may be the most "video game" video game of all time. There is something endearing to its zaniness. The wacky characters, out of this world boss fights, and whatever the hell plot it has going for it. Then there is the gameplay. Challenging, yet rewarding fights make this one of the most enjoyable feeling games I have played it quite some time. The ability to alter your moveset is genius and I loved playing around with different attacks. This is surely a game that I will keep playing going into 2015 and beyond. Thank you Shinji Mikami for this wonderful gift to this medium.
Oh man the characters in this game. I remember pulling an all-nighter to finish this game over the summer. At about 6 a.m. I decided I couldn't muster the energy to get to the true ending and beat that monstrous one-eyed freak boss and just went with the normal ending. Watching as the credits rolled and my crew chase my train I couldn't help but have the biggest grin on my face. In such a short time I had come to connect to these characters in a way no other game has done. The life-sim elements stood out in a way that I was excited to go through the day-to-day activities with the various characters and build our relationships. The game is endlessly funny and the writing/voice acting were fantastic throughout. Effectively charming and bursting at the seams with such wondrous personality, Persona 4 is one of those games I am so happy to have experienced such a beautiful masterpiece
Demon's Souls is the Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) of the Souls series. It is motherfucking raw and will not hesitate to chop off your fucking head. Dark Souls may be my favorite game in the series, but Demon's is the game I respect the most. The art design for the individual worlds is stellar and I found it as rewarding as it is punishing.
I picked up a 3ds this year during Black Friday sales and immediately knew what game I wanted to get for it: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. I've been waiting with feverish anticipation on a good deal for a 3DS so I could grab this game (I had also played A Link To The Past this year so my thirst for more of that was at an all time high). ALBW took the expectations I had for this game and blew it out of the water, the planet, the galaxy, and the fucking universe. The freedom to attack each dungeon in whatever order I wanted was such a freeing and wonderful experience for a Zelda game. The ability to merge into walls was such a wonderful addition to the mechanics and gives a wonderful twist on puzzle solving. I also found the characters pretty damn charming, especially Ravio, and the story quite wonderful. The ending was a wonderful surprise that capped off an exhilarating journey. This Zelda ranks up there with the best of the series for me and I hope Nintendo can carry this momentum up in future releases.
Last year I played Earthbound for the first time and was amazed at how well it had aged. This year the same thing happened with Super Metroid. The movement in the game feels so damn wonderful and precise. The exploration is perfectly done and I was excited to see what the game had hidden in each new area I came upon. The boss fights are all perfectly challenging, but not unreasonable. Overall, yeah a pretty much perfect game.
I just loved to keep playing through this game over and over again. One hell of an over-the-top story grouped with exhilarating combat. I appreciated the parry system how the game always kept me on the offensive.
The stark, barren world design of SOTC is the setting for one hell of a game. The game just out all the bullshit and emphasized one thing (the bosses) spectacularly. Figuring out how to get to each boss was already an enjoyable puzzle. When it comes to the bosses themselves, it was always an awesome experience trying to figure out the method to besting the beasts. The size and scope of each boss was exceptional and left me in awe. Add to that an amazing soundtrack and beautiful ending and you have the seventh best game on this list.
I absolutely adored The Witcher 2. I decided that I should give the first Witcher game a try despite it being quite a different experience compared to its successor. Boy am I glad I made such a decision. The writing is stupendous and the characters outstanding. Each area had its own unique story to tell and I loved exploring each of them. I wasn't big on the final act of the game, but I loved the journey to get there.
Speed. So much speed. Vanquish goes from 0 to 9000 in about .2 seconds. An amazing achievement in pure visceral thrills. Mikami and company did such an amazing job taking the third person shooter genre, turning it on its head, and then shooting it into the sun. It's ridiculous and fun and I wish every TPS could be as good as this one.
Spectacle. That's the one word I can use to describe this amazing adventure. Each set piece perfectly encapsulates the perfect action move thrill ride. Visually stunning and pretty much perfect until the attack of the blue people, I can say for certain that Uncharted 2 is one of my favorite games in recent years.
