Game of the Year 2015 (Retrospective...Sort Of)--Clagnaught

My Original GOTY 2015 List

It has been a tradition of mine to write a Game of the Year Retrospective list, to cover any games I missed, any games I didn't quite finish, or games where in hindsight I had a different opinion of. This list is my look back at my 2015 GOTY list and make any changes I think are worth making.

Unfortunately...This is going to be a boring list. You see, there were plenty of games I didn't play in 2015. Some of these I mentioned by name in my blog include Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Splatoon, Tales from the Borderlands, and Tales of Zestiria. I also only scratched the surface of The Witcher 3. So I had plenty of games to catch up on during the slower months, but, the thing is, I didn't really have a lot of time to look back over 2015. Like at all.

So I played more Nuclear Throne and I think more highly of the game than I did when it came out at the tail end of 2015, but not quite enough to put it on a list of 10 games. Beyond that though? I honestly can't think of anything, except for one other thing, which is technically DLC: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth. Is Afterbirth even worth considering as a "game" released in 2015? Nah, not really; especially with how a lot of that extra content is mixed in with vanilla Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

So...Now what?

The one addition I think is worth making is also based on a technicality, and it is a pretty bland reason, even for me. Let's talk about Undertale. Conceptually it is an amazing game. It is emotionally resonating and it has some of the funniest moments in a game I played that was released in 2015. It is also a game I never actually finished. I was real close when I was writing my list last year, but I also hit a wall and never came back to it. A part of me thinks I should swap it entirely with Nuclear Throne, but even with Undertales's many faults / things I don't like about it, it is a good game and the highs are just overall higher.

So here it is, my (kinda) retrospective of 2015:

• Nuclear Throne is better than I originally thought it was, but still not that great.
• The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth is better than most of these games, but it's DLC that throws a couple more ingredients to Rebirth's stew.
• I never finished Undertale, so let's swap it for Heroes of the Storm.
• I still haven't played any / enough of The Witcher 3, Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Splatoon, Tales from the Borderlands, or Tales of Zestira.
• The other 90% of my list stands as is and pretty much everything I wrote about these games in 2015 still holds true. Life Is Strange and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain are still by far my favorite games from last year, and I still kind of want to have them officially tie, because they are so close to me in terms of investment and quality, yet so different in terms of actual games.

So, yeah, not the greatest list, but tradition is tradition. Now, back to crunching for GOTY 2016....