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The servers were busted more often than not, the hour count was artificially lengthened by a huge list of repetitive side missions, and drop rates for cool gear and skills were WAAAAY too low. Having said all that, this is the best DBZ game since Budokai 3. The arena-based fighting, while simple, is the best it's ever been. The Anime TimeCop premise was novel and it had an original story written by Akira Toriyama. Plus, you can play as a black, female Super Saiyan. How rad is that?!
Splatoon is the freshest game on the block. Its blend of colorful Nickelodeon Gak, '90s raditude and modern fashion sensibilities create one of the most striking video game aesthetics in years. Plus, you really can't understate the importance of a non-violent, kid-friendly shooter that can be enjoyed in short bursts. The lack of voice chat is one of the smartest design decisions I've seen in a multiplayer game in years.
Specifically, Destiny 2.0 with The Taken King's expansion content. I noted on the list I made last year that Destiny was frustrating for me because I could see the potential, which made me play far more of the mediocre launch edition than I should have. Bungie reeled me back in with The Taken King, an expansion that makes Destiny feel a hell of a lot more like the game it always should have been. The endgame progression is far more reasonable now, eschewing the abhorrent light gear system for an overall light level that averages your overall attack and defense. In doing so, they created a game that you can enjoy for a month whenever new content arrives and then put away for a while, which is ideal for me.
My secret shame is that I've only put about 10 hours into this despite owning it since the day it came out. I'm honestly having more fun watching people struggle to create and play through wildly fucked up torture machines than attempt to play them myself. Still, there's no denying the brilliantly approachable creation tools, the stylish as hell presentation and constant Mario Paint references. This should have launched with the Wii U.
It's like F-Zero with slightly looser handling and Ikaruga's color-swapping mechanics tied to boost strips. They don't make games this like anymore, and this one is just good enough to make me really want a new F-Zero.
Games like Dragon Age: Inquisition soured me on immense, 100-hour open-world RPGs for almost an entire calendar year. Although I was ready to be done with it for about 10 hours before it actually ended, Xenoblade reminded me why I like that style of game so much in the first place. Its incomparable sense of scale, both in the size of the game world and the indigenous creatures that inhabit it, made me truly feel like I was running around a dangerous, unknown planet. I haven't seen a game do that this well since Metroid Prime. Getting my mech license (and later, the flight pack) made it feel like a completely different world in a joyous way. I was also surprised and delighted by missions that dealt with human-alien race relations, the necessity and easily-corruptible nature of organized religion and class struggle. How do we decide who is worth saving when the world is going to end? Special mention goes to the soundtrack, which made this western RPG-inspired game feel distinctly Japanese.
This might also be my most disappointing game of 2015. Avalanche built an incredible set of mechanics for both destruction and traversal, and forgot to give you many compelling ways to apply those mechanics. The world is not nearly as fun to explore or weird as Just Cause 2, and outpost liberation was little more than a repetitive scavenger hunt. Almost every main story mission revolved around protecting a person, stationary object or vehicle, which is counter to the chaotic joy that is possible with a wingsuit and rocket launcher. Still, disappointing Just Cause is still Just Cause, and there's merit to that.
Count me among the people who came away from the public beta bummed out by the simplicity and lack of variety in DICE's Battlefront-in-name-only reboot. As a Battlefield fan, this game felt shallow from the get-go. However, I picked it up in a sale a few days ago and I've honestly had a lot of fun with it. I've come to realize that this simply wasn't made for Battlefield fans, and that's a good thing. DICE made an accessible shooter that Star Wars fans can casually enjoy without worrying about the complex upgrade and loadout systems you'd see in something like Battlefield. It's an exceptionally gorgeous game and the faithful sound design is the best part.
I mean, yeah.
It's more Fallout. Having skipped New Vegas because I burned myself out on Fallout 3, I was more accepting of its similarities to its predecessors because I hadn't played one in six years. Still, I put about 30 hours into this one, finished the main questline, and put it down. I didn't feel the same urge to just walk in a random direction and find something fun to do like I did with Fallout 3 and Skyrim. The settlement system is neat, but the material benefits didn't appeal to me and I simply don't have the time or patience to build gigantic skyscrapers out of scrap metal. Nick Valentine, though, is a wonderful character, and the voiced protagonist and Bioware-esque conversation system added some more personality to the Bethesda formula, which I've always felt is a little dry and lifeless.