**** THIS LIST IS A WORK IN PROGRESS ****
Showing 1-10 of 19 items
The epic journey across two giant sleeping gods that starts off as a tale of revenge and ends in a big creationist clusterfuck is my favorite game of 2012. Xenoblade came out over here back in 2011 but I played the majority of it this year and since its North American release was this year as well, I think listing it is appropriate. The gorgeous and immensely huge environments are just jaw-dropping, the musical blend of electric guitar tracks and classically piano and strings based songs perfectly accompany the adventure and enhance the tension in fierce battles. A very deeply layered combat system that shows you new stuff and allows for a wide variety of strategies and encourages switching up your active party constantly keeps things interesting while additional systems like character relationships, gem-crafting, city-rebuilding and side quests that encourage exploration and force you to keep track of inter-NPC-relationships across the entire game flesh out this already enormous adventure. By the way, I still went "WHOA!!" in shock and awe after 100 hours every time I came into a new area and almost ran into an enemy that dwarfed me both in size and level.
Man, talk about underrated! EVERYONE wrote this game off at E3 when Nintendo decided to make this the most boring stage demo during a press conference ever. So much love has gone into crafting this game, it's not even funny. This is NOT a mini-game collection. This is a game-collection. The multiplayer-only attractions are the most accessible in terms of quick fun. The multi/-singleplayer hybrids offer a steep challenge for solo players and ask for good communication if you're playing with other people. It's very rewarding. The solo-games (which can be even played by two people via assist-play) offer some of the most addicting gameplay in the package. Making it through the multiple coursef of Donkey Kong's Crash Course is absolutely nerve wracking, the F-Zero inspired racing game adheres to its inspiration by being an incredible tough obstacle-racer. Yoshi's Fruit Cart is brilliant and pure genius. You can skip ahead but you will miss out on points. Moving targets, hazardous obstacles and limited continues--this is throwback arcade gameplay to the fullest. A fantastic package that shows the promise of two-screen gaming and was the most sheer fun I've had playing games this years.
This game is tense. It's also addictive. And buggy, according to some. I never had any issues, though. Turn based strategy made accessible without sacrificing depth. A lot has been said about this game already so I'm keeping it brief.
I still haven't finished this game but I got exactly what I wanted ever since they first showed off ZombiU. Constant tension, paranoia, crisp moody visuals that, paired with the superb sound-design, create a dreadful atmosphere. Combat is a scary affair since you're no super hero in this game--you miss and you're likely toast.
Super Mario World. Bringing back the world map, key enemies and gameplay elements from the aforementioned game and extremely varied levels are what make this game fantastic.
If only this had been a Wii game. This game is not the most fun to control but having direct control of the reticle is pretty important so it has to either be a stylus or a Wiimote. Once you got accustomed to how the game feels, it becomes pure joy. Gambling your hearts away by setting the difficulty a bit higher each time and possibly failing is a brilliant design decision. The action is frantic and never stops, always appropriately scaled to the difficulty you selected (and bet your currency on). The game is also incredibly funny and features stellar voice acting (Palutena!) and some of the best writing out there. And I haven't even checked out the multiplayer (online 3v3 multiplayer!). Shame it has been so overlooked because of the controls issue.
