This list won’t comprise entirely of 2018 games. There were a ton of non-2018 games that really shaped my year in gaming for various reasons I’ll detail below. They're also games I actually finished, which is more than I can say for may other excellent 2018 releases.
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This is undoubtedly the best version of Monster Hunter from a mechanics standpoint. I’ve been a fan of the series since Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on the 3DS, and I’ve played every iteration since. The one knock I have against this game is that it lacks the huge roster of monsters that it’s 2018 Switch counterpart has. I’ll be waiting for that G-Rank expansion pass, hopefully sometime soon.
This is not an ordered list, but if it was, God of War would be at the top. I’ve always been interested in Norse mythology, and I have a passing familiarity with most of the major stories. I really appreciated how this game treated the mythology. It rewarded me for knowing details about the characters and events they referenced, and it portrayed the mythology in a new and captivating way. I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel.
I played this game when it came out on PC, and bought it again when it came out on the Switch. I think I play about 20 minutes of this game almost every day. I love turn based strategy, and this game distills those mechanics down to their essence and wraps them in a killer theme.
I know this is the year we get a new Smash Bros. (as of this writing, I have just unlocked all the characters and look forward to many hours of getting my ass side smashed and countered to hell). Prior to Smash Ultimate's release, my friends and I were fueled by our excitement and decided to make playing Smash for Wii U a regular thing. I haven't played a Smash Bros. game regularly since I received Melee on the GameCube for Christmas like 17 years ago. A few hours into our first session, and my heart was back in it. These regular sessions of 2 v. 2 Smash rekindled that feeling I had playing Melee - it's Nintendo's Greatest Hits wrapped in a quasi-fighting game I can actually get decent at.
I always admired this game from afar. The original release never found it's way into my Christmas stocking or wrapped as a birthday gift when I was a kid. Even during the Metroidvania resurgence that arguably began last console generation, I never really thought about playing Symphony of the Night (despite my immediate reaction of "Alucard looks dope" every time I would see the game in action). This summer, I worked a job away from home, and I spent some time away from my home consoles. In anticipation, I loaded up all my portables with games to entertain myself during downtime. I was surprised to see that, some time ago, I had purchased Symphony of the Night on PSN, and it was now available to download on my Vita. I proceeded to completely devour this game (though I'm not quite at 200.6% just yet). I'm a fool for missing out on this one sooner. Furthermore, as you'll see in my next entry, this put me one step closer to a true education on what it means to be a "Metroidvania," from the original games themselves.
When I was a kid, I never had a Super Nintendo. I was certainly in the right age group, but I got stuck with my NES until my parents saved enough to buy me a Nintendo 64. I skipped the SNES generation entirely, and I’ve spent some portion of my adult gaming life trying to make up for that gap. This year, I finally managed to snag a SNES Classic, and thus had a nice was to play SNES games on my big television. I’m glad I finally got this game under my belt. I had a great time with it (despite my hatred for Maridia).
Cuphead was my white whale. This game looked astounding, the music is fantastic, but damn is it the hardest platformer I ever subjected myself to. There were times where I wanted to twist my controller and snap it in half, or light my PC on fire and never have to play this game again. But I persisted. The most satisfying feeling in the world is when you're looking in 8 different directions at once, trying to avoid the boss, the minions, and 18 different projectiles while simultaneously continuing to deal damage to the boss and you suddenly hear the announce go "KNOCKOUT!" It got me every time. It also provided a great cue for a resounding cheer from my lovely girlfriend.
When Nintendo announced Luigi's Mansion 3 for the Switch, I told myself that I should go back and play the first game. It's short enough to complete in a weekend, and it was around Halloween time. It was an incredibly charming and fun experience. I love the way the game handles music (transitioning from Luigi's humming to a full score when you enter a dark room). I also love that Luigi, despite his fear of ghosts and other spooky entities, seems to be in this almost entirely to get money. Also that theme song is dope, especially when E. Gadd calls you on your GBA-phone.
A theme is beginning to emerge with my 2018 games list - here's a game I always wanted to play, passed up because for some reason, and found myself finally paying attention to when I had a free moment. One thing that drew my to finally playing the first Devil May Cry was the announcement of Devil May Cry 5. I realized I had never played even one game in a franchise that thousands of people swear is one of the best in the business. Also, coming off of Luigi's Mansion, I had a weird desire to play something else with an early-2000's game design aesthetic. I had a great time playing this game. I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable saying it "holds up," because I'm hardly the expert on the state of stylish action in 2018. I will say that, despite its PS2-era design, I still thought it was a good time.
This game has no business being on this list, except to round out the recurring theme mentioned above: things I wanted to play and never did. I did not find this to be a compelling strategy game. This game consisted of pointing and clicking blobs of units around, occasionally using special abilities by pressing Y. I also could not stop playing it until the very end. It reminded me of how much I love the pre-Halo 4 world of Halo, when things were just about cool Marines blowing up metallic looking aliens, and not driven by weird AI soliloquies about the nature of existence.