by mocbucket62
Thinking back when you think of the best years in gaming specifically within the 2010's many would say that 2017 would be the best year of that decade. Obviously with games that released such as Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Nier Automata, Hollow Knight and Persona 4 those games make a great case that 2017 is the best year for gaming not only in that decade but all time. Though one year that I'm getting a greater appreciation for from the 2010's for gaming is 2019. Its a year that I felt good about my top 10 with many wonderful titles that released on the Switch 1 as well as a great selection of indies that I think are under the radar. Though at the time I didn't play what I consider the Big 3 Indies of 2019 which I consider to be Outer Wilds, Disco Elysium and Slay the Spire (I have played one of these games and find out which game it is on the list). But in the past few years I have played a few more 2019 games that I didn't get to play in that year and my appreciation of 2019 has grown. Playing more of these games realize it was certainly a fantastic year for games on any platform and certain games that won GOTY at the time deserved it! Though after playing these games, it has me re-evaluating my past top 10 games this year. The games that were on the list before are games that I still really like or adore. But with what I have played recently I'll say that my GOTY back then isn't my favorite game from 2019 anymore. Heck there is one game from that list originally that I'd rank a little higher. But anyways with these 2019 games that I have played I wanted to revisit that top 10 and make changes based on how I feel now. For those curious I wrote a blog way back writing about my top 10 games of 2019 back then if you want to read it. But if you just want to see the list here's my top 10 games of 2019 back then:
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
Later Alligator
Luigi's Mansion 3
A Short Hike
Super Mario Maker 2
Wargroove
Baba is You
Cadence of Hyrule
Untitled Goose Game
Anyways, here's my top 10 now:
Showing 1-10 of 10 items
Of all these games on this list, Sekiro has the biggest redemption story of them all. So shortly after I got my gaming laptop for Christmas, I wanted to play some games that a console could run. One of those games is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. This was supposed to be my first From Software game as I bought it full price on Steam and I was ready to give this very difficult From game a try. However, whenever I tried to play this game it would run at an unplayable framerate on standard settings and when I got to play just a tiny bit of the tutorial on the lowest settings the Framerate was at 10-15 FPS and the graphics looked atrocious. I refunded the game on Steam and since then I would eventually get a PS5 to play 2 From Software Titles (Elden Ring and Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon). Then I noticed that Mike Minotti and Dan Ryckert had both streamed playing this game and with both loving that game, they gave me the inspiration to give this game another try. Thankfully Sekiro was on a nice digital sale on PS Store earlier this year and I picked it up knowing that I have a machine powerful enough to play Sekiro this time! I managed to beat the game myself and wow this is now my favorite game from 2019! Sekiro has probably the greatest combat I've felt in a video game. It may be limited compared to Elden Ring where your primary weapon is a Katana vs. making your own build and specialize in a specific weapon. But the deflect mechanic feels awesome to pull off once you time the deflects and build up you enemies' and boss' posture meter up. Plus there is some variety in the combat anyways with the prothestic weapons that you can use in battle and you can upgrade specific prothestics to suit your style or for gaining an advantage in the boss fights. Need something to stun beasts or a General Mini Boss? Get those Firecrackers ready! Need to prevent a boss from improving their posture meter? Throw a Shuriken from afar to cancel their recovery. The sense of traversal might be my favorite in a From Software game where using your prosthetic arm as a grappling hook feels smooth to go from tree branches to roofs. Plus Sekiro himself is very fast on the ground and has no stanima meter to worry about whenever he dashes or attacks. The boss fights lived up to the hype as well as they were quite challenging but fair. I struggled with Lady Butterfly and Genichiro the most since I was not timing my parries consistently right at the time and had trouble keeping my posture from breaking. With Lady Butterfly I eventually had her pattern figured out but Genichiro had so many options to hit me with his Sword, Bow and Lightning. When I did finally beat Genichiro it was so rewarding to find a blind spot and it gave me confidence that I could beat this game. The Guardian Ape was a chaotic but thrilling fight that I wish I had not seen the twist of that fight from a Videogamedunkey video years ago. The Corrupted Monk in her forms were fun fights to figure out the timing of her attacks to deflect. The Grand Shinobi Owl fight was one where I was happy I did way better than I expected as I beat him in 5 tries and the key there was different to other fights where I was figuring out his openings to attack and strike when I saw those opportunities. I actually enjoyed the rematch more and that might be my favorite fight in the game. Though Isshin the Sword Saint was an incredible finale and I'm willing to say that is the best final boss fight in all of From's library that I've played so far. Sekiro has become one of my favorite games ever now and is easily my new favorite game from 2019. I definitely see why this game won GOTY at The Game Awards as well as earning GOTY wins in various outlets. Its a masterclass in combat as it feels so satisfying to land deflects, attacks and prothestic tools and using your revives in fights can feel awesome to get that 2nd chance of finishing the fight. To think if I had a more powerful PC or a PS4 in 2019 this could have been my GOTY then. Thank you Mike and Dan for the inspiration and now I should watch Sekiro-choa to watch Jan take care of business in Sekiro.
Going from a game that I couldn't run on my PC back in 2019 to a game that actually ran well on my PC back then. Ace Combat 7 happened to release in a packed month of games in 2019 where games such as Resident Evil 2 Remake and Kingdom Hearts III released in January 2019. KH3 wasn't on PC then and I don't care for Kingdom Hearts anyways so I avoided it. Resident Evil 2 Remake looked great but I was too afraid of Horror games back then (but more on this game later in the list). Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown was out but on consoles and it didn't release on Steam until February 1. I decided to wait until February where Ace Combat 7 would release on Steam and try a fairly big franchise out on my Laptop and I ended up really loving this title. While this game was my number 2 then and its currently ranked higher than the game that was my GOTY then Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I think its that way because between those 2 Ace Combat 7 is the game I most want to go back to. I also think more about Ace Combat 7 nowadays than Three Houses from its awesome mission variety to its very earnest but bizarre story. I wasn't bored with the variety of missions as one mission might have you sneak your way thru some a sky survellience system to later send a rescue team to save Osea's Former President James Harling while another would have you reach a point goal of destroying an enemy aircraft base and its aircraft. The story wasn't something I was into at first but it comes together learning that you are a pilot framed of murdering the former president and you are assigned to a squadron of convict pilots who are sent on near-suicide missions to find Eursea's weak points during the war. But this also leads to some dogfights between your pilot Trigger and Milahy, a legendary pilot whose great skill set seems to be the basis on one of the villain's focus on developing a Drone Based Air Force. This is my first Ace Combat game and too this day the only one I played and beat. And back then I was blown away by the cloud technology at the time. I got lost in how good the clouds looked that on my first mission I got distracted flying thru the clouds to eventually diving into the water where I yelled in shock and I crashed my jet and then laughing about it after that. But I managed to beat this game in 2019 and to this day really love it. If anything AC7's greatest legacy for me personally is the Soundtrack. I'm not kidding when I say this might be the best video game soundtrack I've ever heard. The slow build up to this adrenline filled orchestral battle musci gets me going everytime and has me hyped. Some of my favorite music tracks from this game are Charge Assault, Long Day, Magic Spear I and II and of course Daredevil. The last one is probably the greatest boss level theme of all time. Honestly I should play AC& again before AC8 releases but yeah its awesome and still one of my favorite games of 2019.
This game dropped a few spots and its kinda shocking. Three Houses was my Game of the Year at the time and for good reason. I spent over 100 hours getting through the Golden Deer Campaign to help my man Claude show that his house was the best in Fodlan. Also spent so much time doing the turned based battles to level up my students into specific classes, recruit new students from other houses and even build up those bonds of those students between themselves and with my protagonist Byleth. It was a game that came out in an intersting place where I viewed Fantasy Media where I was not happy with how Game of Thrones ended in 2019 but here comes this Turn Based Japanese RPG with a cast of characters I felt compelled to follow and got engrossed in the overall plot. It absolutely deserved to win GOTY for me at the time and I still look back at 3 Houses as some of the best Switch 1 games I've played? So why did it fall a few spots? Well Sekiro happened for me this year and that's my new favorite 2019 game. And as I stated before I think about the moments of Ace Combat 7 moreso these days than 3 Houses so that has jumped over it in recent years. Plus I haven't gotten back to play the other 2 Houses and see where the 3 other playthroughs would go. But if I did choose a new playthrough it would be with the Blue Lions. But overall I still think Fire Emblem 3 Houses is an excellent fusion of Turn Based RPG and school sim. I think the School aspects are super engaging and give you a good reason to care since they connect to how your party fights on the battlefield. I ended up spending more time cooking school meals, eating meals with party members, growing flowers and fishing than I expected Plus it feels gratifying to get one of your students (or sometimes facilty members) to get to a certain class you've been getting them towards and see them wreck foes in that role. Lysethia demolished enemies and bosses as a Gremory whereas Rapheal made for an excellent Grappler for fist melee combat and knew how to throw an axe. Plus it feels fairly gratifying that I choose the Golden Deer route since some claim that is the canonical choose given who you end up fighting as the final boss. So yeah I still Love 3 Houses as its one of my favorite Turn Based RPG's ever and I'm excited for Fortune's Weave later this year. But I'd say its a top 3 2019 game for me nowadays.
Honestly Numbers 2-4 and very close to each other in rankings for me. Obviously I still adore Ace Combat 7 and Fire Emblem 3 Houses but on any given day I might rank this game above or below them. Right now its below but its another game I didn't play in 2019 and that is Resident Evil 2 Remake. I played this game on my brother's PS5 in 2021 on my first trip to see him in Colorado. I chose the Leon Campaign feeling that is probably the slightly more popular route. I mean the original RE2 was where Leon Debuted and there's an argument that he's the most beloved RE protagonist out there (He's my favorite). And as I managed to get through RE2 Remake as Leon I think I might make a bold statement that I think this might be as close to a perfect horror game that you can get. Granted I'm not an expert on the genre and my brother has played way more in that genre that I think he's more well versed into the subject. But man RE2 to me is a game that has excellent atmosphere where its legitimately daunting going through RCPD and its dark corridors. The sense of dread is masterfully utilized here as I got spooked from seeing a zombie get closer to me than I thought and of course Mr. X could just walk up to you and knock you out nearly anywhere. But also the gunplay feels immaculate as its super satisfying to shot down zombies when you are likely not gonna carry too much ammo. Resident Evil 2 also does a great job making Leon look like such a rookie. Obviously this is before he went to Spain to save the President's daughter and WAY BEFORE he was butting heads with Victor Gideon in Requiem so seeing a Bright Eyed Leon see the horrors of what becomes of Raccoon City is very fun. He didn't quite develop his pun game much then so he says "Jesus Christ" a lot. I certainly need to play more Horror games period. But I've played a good amount of Resident Evils. Between this, 3 Remake which funny enough is my first Resident Evil, 4 Original and Remake and Requiem I say 2 Remake is up there as one of my faves. Again the balance of Horror, Gunplay and Puzzles which oh by the way are pretty fun too I think makes for a Horror Game experience that is nearly unmatched. 4 Original and Remake might be better games but they're not that scary. Resident Evil 2 Remake is absolutely fantastic and perhaps I need to check out the PS1 original at some point to see how that compares.
Here is one of those "Big 3" indie games I was talking about. I still need to play Outer Wilds and maybe Disco Elysium but I'm not sure if I'll dig the latter's gameplay format. But I played Slay the Spire 1 last year when I was asking my brother some card game recommendations on Switch since I had played so much Balatro that I wanted another Roguelike Deckbuilding card game to play. Slay the Spire was what he suggested first and I picked this game up on Switich. I have now put 50 hours into Slay the Spire and while I've only had 3 victory runs I get why this game is so beloved. Slay the Spire is a masterfully made Deckbuilder where you pick from 4 classes (3 of which are unlocked as you play them) and you are working your way up these areas to go Slay the Titular Spire. Each class starts with a deck of basic strikes, defend cards and 1-2 special cards for the class specifically. The Ironclad will always start with a Bash which eats 2 mana but makes the enemy vulnerable for 2 turns but the Silent always starts with a Survivior card which give her more defense than usually but you must discard a card from your hand if you have any. But where the game gets addictive is building your deck to a certain style that your find successful and getting those cards after winning fights, buying cards at a shop or getting lucky in a random event can be key to a winning run. The Silent was my favorite class and on my first victory run I went big on Dexterity (which gives your defense cards a boost) and I was getting high defense numbers to take little damage as well as going big on Shiv producing cards to give The Silent Free Attacks. For the Defect I went big on Lightning cards where Storm would channel Lightning orbs if I played Power Cards and Static Discharge was great for countering bosses where lightning orbs channel and would cause previously loaded orbs to attack the boss. it took me a while to win a run as The Ironclad but eventually did so with a big defense going for many block cards and using Juggernaut to attack random enemies even after playing a Block card. Oh and I've yet to win a run with The Watcher since I gotta be real, I don't find her class to be all that fun to play. But yeah Slay the Spire is great even though i don't win many runs in it. Its now my new favorite Indie game from 2019 which is saying something since I LOVE the Indie games in my top 5 at the time. I should check out 2 in Early Access and see how the old classes play and see how the Regent and Necrobinder classes are.
This was my #4 game of 2019 and while it's fallen a few spots it still ranks above my then #3 game of 2019 Later Alligator. I'd say the reasoning there is because looking back Luigi's Mansion 3 was a more fulfilling gaming experience. Anyways Luigi's Mansion 3 was so much fun to play. It's taking the Luigi's Mansion format into a hotel where every floor has a theme to it and Luigi has to get over his fear of ghosts once again to save Mario but also Princess Peach and the Toads. It was meant to be a vacation but things went south quick. Luigi you should have known something was up when the hotel staff was wearing some sus masks. Though gotta say capturing these ghosts feels more fun than usually where now Luigi's Poltergeist can not only vaccum ghost but now he can slam ghosts on the floor to reduce their health and even hit other surrounding ghosts to get them weaker too. There is of course the inclusion of Gooigi where E Gadd invented a gooey version of Luigi to solve parts of puzzles where Luigi couldn't access such as metal barred doors. That's also a big Co-Op option but Gooigi was great for single player content too. As I said before there were a lot of fun themed floors for this haunted hotel to explore. Luigi starts with some basic hotel areas such as the Lobby, the floor with the rooms to check in and a dining hall. But later on you'll be exploring a floor that's a giant movie studio and you are assisting a director Ghost to film his masterpiece. Or Luigi might find himself in an overgrown floor turned into a garden and on that floor Luigi can vaccum and circular saw and can destory everything in a room which felt incredibly satisfying. Plus while I didn't play Dark Moon I learned that in that game it had many generic ghosts to capture with no Portrait Ghosts from the original that gave that Gamecube game a whole lot of personality. In 3 Portrait Ghosts are back in spirit being the main bosses of specific floors. You will fight a King Ghost who challenges Luigi to a duel on a Medieval Floor and then on a Pirate Themed seafood floor you will fight a Pirate Ghost Shark on his Galleon (this was my favorite boss fight of the game btw). Luigi's Mansion 3 is so good. It's fallen a bit in my rankings but it's still a top 20 Switch 1 game for me and one I like to play on Halloween often.
This is the game that took the farthest fall and it is a bummer that it fell down to 7. Why? Because personally I think Later Alligator is the funniest video game ever made. Later Alligator has you play as a Hitman Alligator who was accidently hired by a Young Alligator named Pat who has these suspicions that his family is trying to rub him out and hires this Hitman by accident thinking he's a detective and wants to get the details on what his family and friends are planning. You go talk to all of these family members and friends and get into these funny conversations about who they are, their relationship to Pat and then being forced to play a minigame and if you succeed you get a detail on what's being planned that night. When I say this game is the funniest game ever, I mean that in it excels at both the writing and its funny yet beautifully hand drawn art style. Pat's paranoia about his assassin suspicions does lean into some funny writing where Pat thought Assassins were dropping from the rafters of the hotel he's at and asks if they taught you DARE in school. As in: Dude, Assassins Really Exist. Really good acronym play there. The mini games themselves also get really funny as in the first mini game you talk to Slick Mickey whose a streetside card dealer and he challenges you to find the queen on the table and despite thinking he's a genius he doesn't move the queen card once. If you have your mouse over the queen he gets nervous but if over another card he gets all cocky thinking he's actually outsmarted you. The animation again is wonderfully done by Smallbu animation who you may know for their shorts of Baman Piderman. All the Alligators in Alligator New York city animate with so much life to them but in many instances they way they move feels reminiscent on why seeing a Muppet move around is funny. There's this endearing charm to seeing these goofy versions of a very dangerous animal act silly. Oh and the music is tremendously done by 2Mello as I've listened to Pat's Theme and COME ON EVERYBODY (a DDR like track) often. This game took a bit of a fall because one I think I like Luigi's Mansion 3 more as a game and while the mini games are hilarious, I wouldn't say all of them are fun to play per say. But again I firmly believe Later Alligator is the game that I've laughed the most with in any game. I've played a few other comedic games such as Day of the Tentacle, Simpsons Hit and Run and Thank Goodness You're Here and while I'd say some of those games are better designed, I still think the comedy of Later Alligator has yet to be topped and the journey to the very end (with replays since it is short) is worth it!
This was the last 2019 game I beat in that year and what a great way to end 2019. A Short Hike feels like this combination of Animal Crossing Character as well as Art Direction but has a 3D Platformer feel that feels quite fun to play. In A Short Hike you play as a young bird named Claire who is in this park visiting her Aunt May who also happens to be a Park Ranger at Hawk Peak Provincial Park. Claire really wants to reach the top of the park's Summit because that's the only part of the park with a good phone connection and Claire is awaiting a very important call. The game lives up to the name as its certainly a short game and you can go straight up to the peak if you like though you won't have upgrades that can help you. But that's also part of the point of the game in that there is quite a lot to do to explore the park and meet so many other characters and do certain things. You'll find a walrus fisherman who will show you how to fish and A Short Hike has a very fun fishing minigame where you try and catch plenty of freshwater fish. You might find another bird on a beach who invented a new sport called Beachstickball where the point of the game isn't to score on the other side of the court unlike Volleyball but rather you and the person on the other side are the team and are trying to keep a rally going for as long as possible and you hit a beachball with a stick in order to keep the rally alive. These discoveries in the park not only unlock some fun minigames but also the sense of discovery in A Short Hike ends up being pretty impactful being able to find these people and what activities they have in store. Also you'll get meaningful upgrades to make the path to the peak more manageable. There are golden feathers scattered across the park and those will help Claire soar longer in the air. Early on you'll want to join the Rock Climbing Club when offered by a Rhino so you can get the ability to climb walls. All of these upgrades make that trip to the summit easier but the sequence of climbing the mountain and reaching that peak both very exciting for a cozy game and very rewarding. A Short Hike rules. It doesn't take long to beat but its so pleasant to play and has a delightful low poly aesthetic and soundtrack to boot. I called this the "New Endland Clam Chowder or Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Soup" of games in my blog then and I still stand by that statement.
I put a lot of time in Super Mario maker 2 in 2019. I put over 60 hours into that game from playing through the Single Player mode, other people's levels and making my own levels. It is a great level editor that seems to build on what made Super Mario Maker 1 so special on Wii U by including new enemies like the Angry Sun and new features that couldn't be made in the original such as Slopes and new level themes like Forests and Desert. Its a game that I think in another universe I could be playing on a yearly basis and keep making new levels but kinda dropped off of it after 2019. Make no mistake I still had a great time playing Super Mario Maker 2. I actually really enjoyed the single player campaign where its these wacky Mario levels designed by the main dev team and they showed off the new features of the game in some interesting ways. Although it is a choice to make the first Angry Sun level one in the New Super Mario Bros Wii U style since he looks more perturbed than Angry and has this clay mated style that doesn't even fit the aesthetic of the style. But again some great levels. I also had lots of fun seeing what other people made. My brother made 2 levels but both were bangers where one was meant to be a climb to a mountain and the reward would be the really Thick Mushroom where Mario could jump on hard blocks and break them. He also made an incredible Metal Gear Solid level where Mario is sneaking through a SMB3 version of Shadow Moses Island and it ends in a huge showdown with a Mario-fied Metal Gear Rex. For me I made a few other levels that I don't think are super amazing such as a messy level based on the ronny/lily epside of Barry in the 3D World style. But I'd say my best level was a puzzle level where you had to kill 38 Goombas but to do so you were trying to use these contraptions to get to enjoy parts of a spa. Whether it be opening doors for Thwomps to give Goombas massages or opening panels to have them fell into a giant sauna of water. I made one Airship fortress level after 2019 but it is a game that I enjoy watching other people play nowadays and see what amazing level designs they come up with. A shame that Mario maker 2 didn't take off as much as 1 but I still think this is one of the best level editors out there.
At the time I had Wargroove ranked above Baba is You because I thought it was a really cool fantasy take on the Advance Wars format and once it clicked I loved the strategy of that game. But overtime I feel like Baba is You is the game I think of more fondly and the one I'd put in the final 10 spot of this list. It is a game where some of the later puzzles became too hard for my brain and admittedly I looked up some videos to clear some of these puzzles. But also I believe Baba is You is one of the most Ingenious games ever made. I remember seeing the trailer for this game in an Indie Direct I believe and I was sold on the premise then. A puzzle game where you change the conditions of the puzzle by changing the words in a sentence to reach a goal is brilliant. In one puzzle a sentence says, "Baba is You And Sink" and without spoiling too much but you can move one of those words to take advantage of the puzzle. Sometimes you can change the sentence to "Pillar is You" and you play as a Pillar or a few pillars if they are available. Its a puzzle game that I frankly have not played before. I feel like there could have been a sub genre of puzzle games inspired by Baba is You where the point of the puzzles is to change the rules of it and use those changes to benefit you. Perhaps there are plenty of those puzzle games out there but I have not really seen that many games that use Baba is You as inspiration. But if you haven't played this game yet, I highly recommend checking out Baba is You if you are into logic puzzles and being able to change the game design of those said puzzles. Also worth mentioning that Baba is You has a terrific soundtrack that's mellow but catchy..