The Sixth Annual Moosies Video Game Awards Extravabonanza Turbo Double+ Good Edition!!

Hey guys! Now, I know what you're thinking: The Moosies are a bit late. I know. What happened was that while I got the important writing done early enough, one of my friends came up with a pretty good idea. He suggested that he, another friend, and I do a Moosies themed podcast. But, as with everything we do, it was last minute enough that we couldn't get it recorded until last Saturday (as of when this blog was posted), and then it took several days after that to get it edited. But, it's here, and I hope you listen to it, and enjoy it. It's almost three and a half hours long. Maybe read this blog first.

Podcast link!

Keep in mind, I didn't edit it, and only listened to enough of it to know that I sound like a complete idiot less than a minute into it, so I think it'll be a fun one. If, for whatever reason, you can't download it, or it won't play, tell me, and I'll see what I can do. I won't make any promises, but hopefully any potential issues can be sorted out.

I'd also like to record more podcasts with these knuckleheads in the future, so if you do like it, let me know. Also any comments or anything with regards to the podcast itself, should we decide to record more of them.

And if you're a true super-fan of the podcast, make sure to track us down and pester us for autographs at PAX East this year. We'll all be going. Oh, right, these guys on the podcast with me are fellow GB fans, so give @ilostonjeprody and @cjduke a round of applause for recording this stupid thing with me. They had fun too, but still.

Anyway, from this point on, unless noted otherwise, everything was written prior to the end of the year 2014, so I present to you your regularly scheduled Sixth Annual Moosies Video Game Awards Extravabonanza Turbo Double+ Good Edition!!

How is it that another year has passed? A whole year since the last time I did a Moosies GOTY thing. Man. Time sure does fly. And the last year has certainly been a roller coaster, for me at least. Diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, self published my second novel, came out, made friends, lost some others, starting writing my third novel, eventually mostly gave up on it, became a Giant Bomb moderator, lost that too, got my driver's license, and had my usual ups and downs with depression. It was a year of extremely high highs, and extremely low lows. And it's coming to a close now. But before I look forward to the future and some other inspirational nonsense, let's take one last moment to look back on the year in video games, or at least the year in video games that I played.

However, I'm very, very sorry to inform you that I was unable to get a Luigi Based Text Adventure together in time for The Moosies this year. It's just, between having a lot more family stuff to do this year than I had expected, my ever present depression keeping the amount of work I was able to get done lower than I had expected, and what I had written not meeting my usual writing standards, I just decided to scrap it all. I'm really sorry. :'( Blame Waluigi.

And now The Moosies! This year it's a top ten with award breaks between the top ten games for the games that didn't quite make the cut. Anyway, I spent (presumably, given that I wrote this intro at the beginning) a lot of time writing this stuff, so I hope you enjoy it! :D

10. Transistor.

Out of all the games on my top ten this year, this is maybe the one that's the hardest to write about, at least at this moment in time. See, Transistor is a fairly complicated game, and I haven't really played it since fairly close to its release. Aside from an attempt to jump in the other day when I was preparing for all this writing, but jumping in midway into a New Game Plus where I had all the modifiers that make the game harder turned on was not perhaps the thing to do. I did at least think to turn the modifiers off, but I still got wrecked.

That said, this is a game that I knew from the first time I played it that it was something special. Everything about it, from the graphics, to the music, to the actual game itself. Part of me wants to say it's not like anything else I've played before, but that's not really true, at least for the aesthetics of the game. For as beautiful as the game looks (and I'd say it's the most beautiful game I played all year), it does share a lot stylistically with Bastion, which makes sense given that the game is made by the same people. Same with the music, and the narration from the same voice actor (well, effectively narration).

But all that stuff's irrelevant because as good as it is, it was the core game play that hooked me on Transistor. Transistor was able to do what other, similar games have done, but do it in a way that made it so that I could actually play it successfully. See, I've tried to play "strategy" games for years, but never been able to be any good at them at all. From Advance Wars, to the recent X-Com, to even this year's Dragon Age, I'm just terrible at anything that involves me ordering people around in fights like that. But unlike those games, Transistor mixes the pause-y put in commands stuff with real time stuff in a way that is totally approachable and easy enough for my dummy brain to understand. And unlike Dragon Age, I'm actually encouraged to mix the two, instead of just using the real time combat and ignoring the tactics stuff.

Now, I know, I know, Transistor isn't actually a "strategy" game, just like Inquisition isn't. Just let me have this as a point of reference. Anyway, being able to pause, move Red (the lady you play as) around, and issue commands is implemented a whole lot better than in other games I've played with similar things. Okay, really, the reason I have this on my mind now is because of how poorly Inquisition does it in comparison, though I had been hoping to write about this game without turning it into a thing about another game. But as odd as it sounds, playing Inquisition with its terrible tactics mode made me appreciate how good that stuff was in Transistor even more.

Simple things like having all of Red's movements and abilities tied to a bar that empties when you do stuff, and making it really simple to undo actions before you decide to do them. But it's not just that, it's also the crazy amount of depth in customizing the different skills that you use in combat. Want to send (damaging) sparks flying when you dash? Create robot dog buddies that you can command in the fight along with Red? Make enemies fight for you? Add spread shot, or rapid fire, or any number of other things to your skills? All possible if you equip the right skills as modifiers to other skills. That stuff made the combat in this game really really enjoyable to me. To the point where I spent a lot of time in the challenge type modes in the game. You know, the thing put into a lot of games to help pad it out a bit and keep you playing longer. Though, I do think it's done better in this game than most, partly because of the robustness of the skill customization stuff. Things like making you use a certain set of skills, which made me consider tactics and things I wouldn't have otherwise. Really smart design.

But, really, the thing that makes it click so well for me is how well everything comes together. The game play, the graphics, the story, the voice acting, and the music all fit together supremely well. This was a game made with focus, with a vision, and it achieved that vision about as well as any game could. Definitely more focus than I had working on The Moosies this year, but that's enough inside baseball. Transistor is a rad game, and I should finish that New Game Plus at some point.

And there's a hum button. A button dedicated to making Red hum along with the music. Such a good game!

Awards Break!

Transistor wins:

1. Best Use of a Strategy Or Tactics Type Mode Thing.
2. Best Use of Humming.
3. Best Justification for having a silent protagonist instead of just having one like a lot of games with bad writing.
4. Best Customization of Skills and/or Abilities.
5. Most Beautiful Game.
6. Best Sword in a Game.

Best Use of Literal Nazis in a Video Game: Wolfenstein: The New Order.

In a way, Nazis have become kind of a punchline over time. And when I say, "become," I mean they've basically been that since the end of World War II. Or at least since the first episode of Hogan's Heroes. Or even before the way ended, I dunno. Anyway, most video game Nazis are Nazis purely to create a villainous force so that the player won't feel any regret about gunning them down. And while that's probably the reasoning behind the Nazis in the original Wolfenstein, The New Order actually goes out of its way to demonstrate that Nazis are, in fact, assholes. Genocidal assholes, no less! Whether it's the villains who do terrible things, or the SPOILERS level that literally takes place in a concentration camp, SPOILERS, this game makes it very clear that the Nazis are assholes. Assholes with mechs and a moon base, but assholes nonetheless.

And as much as I really like a whole lot about the game, in the end, it wasn't quite top ten material. I definitely liked some of the downtime and non-shooting parts of the campaign, but there was too much of that, overall. And too many times when the game would take away all my hard earned guns at the start of levels. Sometimes I just want to remorselessly gun down Nazis whilst duel-wielding shotguns, but not if the game doesn't give me two shotguns!

Best Game Within A Game Award: Super Pole Riders.

Super Pole Riders is pretty simple. Two teams of two (or teams of one) try to get a ball to hit a target, using poles to push the ball, or preferably to pole vault up and kick the ball. It's also one of the dumbest, and funniest games I've ever played. I played a couple hours of it on New Year's Eve with my dad and my cousins, and we had tons and tons of fun. At one point my dad was literally crying from laughter at the game and what was going on. Because that one moment in video gaming was so good, I had to come back into these awards after writing them and add this in. Yes, meta-commentary, this is the only part I wrote (unless specified otherwise) after the year of 2015 began.

It's so dumb, you should play it.

9. Mario Kart 8.

If you had told me at the start of the year that a Mario Kart game would be one of my favorite games of the year, in the year 2014, I doubt I would have believed it. And even if I did, my reasoning would have been, "Either 2014 was a real lousy year or that's a really fantastic Mario Kart game." The truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in the middle. Yeah, 2014 won't go down in history as one of the greatest years in gaming, but I don't think it was as bad as a lot of people seem to make it out to be.

That said, this is still probably my favorite Mario Kart game. In a lot of ways, it may very well objectively be the best Mario Kart game too. It definitely is the best looking one (as it should be), it has a huge cast of characters (though I'm still sore about the lack of Birdo), and a huge number of (great) tracks. And most of those tracks are very good. The driving feels good, and the online works pretty flawlessly.

But there's the reason why this game ended up on my top ten over some other games. There's the reason that I've spent over 60 hours playing this game. The online. I got really into playing this game online, both against random people, and with friends. Mostly just a specific friend, but in a very rival-y kind of way. The game is super fun to play casually, but man, losing repeatedly to the same person, but coming just close enough that you know you can do better is a good way to motivate yourself to play a whole lot more of a game than you would have otherwise. It's a good way to motivate yourself to actually practice and try to get better, and a good way to get yourself to actually put a lot of thought into which racer you pick, which kart, which wheels, etc. Learn all the shortcuts, master drifting and boosting. Keep fine tuning and practicing everything until I got to the point...where I would actually win a fair amount of the time. I actually had this at number 10 on my list, but bumped it up after playing some more of it the other day and remembering its rad-ness.

As much as I do love this game, it still has issues. And, really, they're the same issues the series has always had. Namely, the items. Now, some of them I still really like and think improve the game. Green and red shells, mushrooms, and other items of that sort are fine. I mean, getting hit by a shell is never fun, but the set back is small enough that it's usually not a big deal. And I never hesitate to use them, so it'd be hypocritical of me to be saying things against them. Even the blue shell doesn't bother me that much, especially now that there's an item that counters it. And there's the new 8 item that gives you 8 other items, which is really silly and dumb, but usually doesn't actually help much because I just spam the item button and use them all as fast as possible.

No, the sore spot for me is the Lightning Bolt. It affects EVERYONE, and leaves everyone shrunk down for what feels like a very long time. Every time it happens I get annoyed, and wish it wasn't in the game, or that there was a way to turn it off. And that leads to another issue I have, which is that there should be more options. There are options for the items, but it's not specific enough. It doesn't let you turn things on and off individually, it lets you set it to things like "Mushrooms only," or "Shells only." But no option for, "Everything but the stupid lightning bolt."

But one bad item isn't nearly enough to diminish how much pure fun I have playing this game. How much joy I have in driving down the slopes of Mt. Wario (a course so long that it's one giant lap with checkpoints instead of the usual three laps), or the thrill of just narrowly avoiding the giant fists of stone Bowser in Bower's Castle. The stupid grin I have on my face every time I play that one course that is mostly underwater with moody underwater music, but then the silly saxophone starts playing at the end just as you emerge from the water. In fact, there's a lot of courses where the music changes as you progress through the course, and all of it sounds fantastic. And there's a lot of saxophone, which I think is silly and great. I think it's adorable that saxophones have somehow become a very Nintendo music thing. In my mind, at least. I don't even like saxophones very much, but I really like them in this game.

And then there's the DLC! Mario Kart 8 is somehow the game with the best DLC this year. Or, at least, my favorite DLC of the year. A bunch of really fun tracks, both new and old, and Link! Link! Driving a horse shaped motorcycle! Plus there's an F-Zero level, and it's definitely my favorite in the entire game, not least because of the saxophone infused version of the Mute City music. It's a winding super fast course that perfectly evokes the spirit of F-Zero in a way that makes me really sad that it's been ELEVEN YEARS since the last F-Zero game. :'(

There's also a Hyrule course with a small "puzzle" to solve to open up a short shortcut, and an Excite Bike course that is randomly generated every time, with something like 200-ish different variants (at least I think I read that somewhere, but it's definitely at least a bit random). But those are fantastic courses with elements of the original games brilliantly worked in! Again, it's small stuff, but a TON of craft and care was put into reasonably priced DLC, and that's wonderful.

Also that Mercedes Benz DLC.

But really, everything about this game just screams of being made with love by people that love Mario Kart, and that was made for people that love Mario Kart. And it was able to melt its way into my cold, dark heart and make me feel genuine joy for a Mario Kart game. Even writing this is making me want to go and play more right now. Let's cross out fingers and hope the next DLC pack (which I will download because I bought the thing with both DLC packs) is as good, if not somehow better than the first one! Also that they add Birdo eventually, because Birdo is getting a raw deal these days.

Awards Break!

Mario Kart 8 wins:

1. "Hey Pastor, Pastor Maldonado" Award for Best Racing Game.
2. "REVENGEANCE" Award for Best Dynamically Changing Music .
3. Dan Ryckert Award for Best Use of Waluigi.
4. Best DLC.
5. Most Consistent Online Experience.
6. Fiscal Year of Luigi Award for Meme of the Year - Luigi Death Stare.
7. "God Damn it Nintendo Please Make a New F-Zero" Award for Best Reminder That We Need A New F-Zero Game.

John Carmack Award for Best Use of Colored Lighting: inFAMOUS Second Son.

Second Son, in a lot of ways, is exactly what I think when I think of games that are released early in the lifespan of a console. It looks gorgeous, is pretty fun to play, but ultimately feels like a lot of it was stripped out to meet a deadline. And ultimately, for as much fun as I did have playing the game (twice, no less), I just didn't feel like it quite met the standards it would have needed to in order to actually be on the top ten list. Especially when compared to its predecessors, it feels scaled back in a way that screams, "we had deadlines to meet."

But man, does it sure look good. And when a game is about a dude that runs around shooting colored lighting out of himself, it's a good thing when it looks good. And the lighting in this game, colored and otherwise, is really good.

Most Egg-citing Game: Pix the Cat.

I wasn't actually going to do this but then I thought of that egg pun and had to. Also the game is pretty all right. It was a cracking good time, even if I get pretty scrambled when I play it and usually get fried.

8. Dark Souls II.

In a lot of ways, it's kind of hard for me to sum up my feelings on Dark Souls II, so many months after the fact. It's a game, that, more so than any other sequel I played this year, feels like it suffers the most from the baggage of its predecessor. Not in the sense that the game itself is worsened by it, more that Dark Souls II had a seemingly impossible task, which was to follow up on Dark Souls, a game that many (myself included) absolutely love. A game that I consider among my favorite games of all time. A really hard game to follow up on. And as a result, I feel like this game got a worse reaction than it would have otherwise.

On its own, with no comparisons to Dark Souls, Dark Souls II is a fantastic game. Fun to play, great art design, some really good bosses (along with some bad ones), lots of atmosphere, and some good level design (along with some bad level design). But compared to Dark Souls I? It's a ghost, a shadow, a pale reflection of what was. It feels like a group of people were told to make another one of those games, and to make some occasional tweaks to the core mechanics. Things like how upgrading the Estus Flasks work. But no massive changes to the core formula. So, a lot of people, myself included, ended up feeling kind of disappointed with Dark Souls II. Felt like it was a game chasing after something it had no dream of achieving. A game trying to be something that it couldn't.

But, the more time that passes, the more I've come to appreciate Dark Souls II. Without that extra baggage, without the shadow of its predecessor looming over it, Dark Souls II is a pretty great game. It's fun to play, it's rewarding, and its story is...interesting. In a lot of ways the game feels like it's retreading the same ground as the first, in a way that seems like poor and/or lazy design. But the deeper you dig into the story, the more it feels like it's on purpose. The more it feels like Dark Souls II is trying to send a message.

That message being that everything repeats. That there's no way to break the cycle. That the choices you make don't matter, and no matter what you do, you're doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again until the end of time. And then whoever or whatever follows in your footsteps will do the same so why even bother trying to break free it's all meaningless anyway so just-

Ahem. Sorry about that. Anyway, even without comparing it to the first game, it still has issues. The biggest one being that you have to warp back to Majula every time you want to level up. There's not really any benefit to doing it, and the load times aren't great on consoles. And some of the bosses (I'm looking at you, Giant Rat (even if you were optional)) were kinda pretty bad.

And something else (that it took me taking a break, and sleeping on it to remember) that I should mention. A lot of why this game deserves to be on this list is because of the aura of mystery surrounding it. The release of a Souls game is an event. Everyone has to try to figure out all the systems, all the things hidden in the game. What does this item do? How does this weird system work? What's the purpose of this NPC? How'd you get that to work?

Half the fun is all of this going on close to release, and there aren't many games like that these days. Most games are known quantities, because they don't hide things. They don't obfuscate things. They want the players to know what's going on, and understand how to do things. They want the players to see every last bit of content in the game. But not this game! At least not beyond the core controls. So when a game like this releases, being able to be there on day one was super fun. I didn't do that with Dark Souls I, but I did here, and I don't regret it at all.

Here's hoping Bloodborne continues the tradition!

Anyway, Dark Souls II is a bit misunderstood, but still one of my top ten games of the year. Also, Gavlan Wheel, and Gavlan Deal!

Awards Break!

Dark Souls II wins:

1. Most Punishing Game (in a good way).
2. Most bosses.
3. Best Merchant character (Gavlan).
4. Most Rewarding Victories.
5. Most Knights.
6. Best Game to watch live streams of.

John Romero Award for Best Use of Satan: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Now, I know, yes, this is technically a re-release of an older game. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to give an award for "Best use of Satan," so I fudged it a little. I know Satan wouldn't mind. There's a lot of Satan in this game, both literally, and figuratively. Lots of Satanic items, and whatnot. It's good to see the devil getting his due in modern games.

Hail Satan.

Best Use of Product Placement: Chester Cheetah DLC in PvZ: Garden Warfare.

I know I probably shouldn't be rewarding a game for including DLC where you could dress up a plant and a zombie like Chester Cheetah. Honestly, it's not even the best product placement of the year, that's Mario Kart 8's Mercedes Benz DLC. But, while I'll likely never buy a Mercedes Benz, I might buy Cheetos at some point in my life. Also I wanted an excuse to write a little bit about this game. It's way better than it has any right to be, which is to say it's actually kinda fun. I kinda hope I'll have a chance to play it again with friends. It was pretty fun that last time. They know what I mean.

7. Shovel Knight.

Over the years, I haven't exactly been kind to the concept of new games being made that look like old games. Not that I've ever gone out of my way to avoid them, but at a certain point there were so many of them that even the idea of it seemed displeasing to me. It didn't help that, even today, I think a lot of them kinda look terrible too (like how a lot of not great games back in the olden days also looked terrible, to be honest). Same with the old timey sounding music in a lot of those games. Pretty bad in a lot of them, really. But Shovel Knight?

Shovel Knight is rad. The game looks rad, sounds rad, and plays rad. Just, top to bottom, an absolute joy to play. Above all else, it's a rock solid platformer with great level design. Pretty hard, some of the time, too. That or I'm just really bad at this game, because there were a lot of times where I died quite a bit. Definitely during a couple of the bosses, which I think is definitely on me being bad. Well, aside from Plague Knight, which I did not enjoy fighting. (Never mind that some people, cough, Patrick, cough, seemed to think the game was too easy (I kid, and I wish the man the best of luck and am still super bummed that he left).)

But, even when I died, even when I died repeatedly, I never felt deterred. I always came back for more, because I was having so much fun. And that's saying something, when even failing I was having fun. Not many games can do that. Though, the game does have a Dark Souls inspired element where dying results in some gold being lost. It'll remain floating near where you died, and if you can get it, it's yours. But if you don't, and you die again, whatever you missed is gone, and new gold bags will be floating near your most recent death. It's a good way to lose a lot of gold pretty quickly if you're bad at the game, but also a good way to add some more weight to dying than there would otherwise be. And if you're feeling extra spicy, you can even destroy the mid level checkpoints for extra gold and treasure. I never did that, because I'm not spicy at all. But that's a cool concept that I'm surprised isn't in more games (or some variation on it).

The whole game is filled with cool ideas. Like the fact that Shovel Knight uses a shovel as his weapon. Not a whole lot of shoveling in games, and even when there is, it's not done super well. It's either something like Dead Rising where you can use shovels as a basic melee weapon, or it's something like Fable II where you use a shovel to dig up the loot your dog finds in the world. But Shovel Knight? In Shovel Knight you use the shovel as BOTH a weapon AND a digging tool! And a pogo stick! Well, not in the sense that you can pogo at any time, or use it to cross spikes, but you can use it to bounce off enemies and destructible blocks.

The game also has a bunch of magic items that kinda work like the sub-weapons in old Castlevania games, except you can swap between them at any time, and several of them actually work better as traversal tools than weapons. One creates a little platform thingy that can roll across spikes (with you atop it), and another just straight up lets you air dash. It's cool things like that which give this game extra depth that isn't apparent at first glance, and helps keep it so good through to the end. And past the end, really, because even sitting here, writing this and listening to the soundtrack (on YouTube because I'm cheap and/or poor), I kinda just want to stop writing and go play more Shovel Knight. Aside from playing a bit to refresh my memory, it's been months, and I'm getting that shovel itch again...

You know, I don't play a ton of platformers, but this is definitely one of my favorite ones from the last few years. It's a superb game that everyone should play. Unless you have a fear of shovels. Then maybe stay away from it. But not if you don't like shoveling. I hate shoveling in real life, but I love this game. It doesn't hurt my back like real shoveling does. Though, writing this hunching forward on my couch for extended periods of time because of course I use my laptop on my couch isn't doing anything great for my back. So, in a way, Shovel Knight is actually doing bad things to my back! Still less than actually shoveling would though.

Shoveling. Oh yeah, there's some really good writing in the game too. Lots of puns in a few key places. I don't remember them off hand, but they're in there. The Baz is also in there, for some reason. As Baz Knight. It's a silly game.

Awards Break!

Shovel Knight wins:

1. Best Olde Timey Looking New Game.
2. Best Olde Timey Sounding New Soundtrack.
3. Best Shoveling.
4. Best Platforming.
5. Best Use of Knights.
6. Ron Galaxy Award for Best Use of a Divekick Character.
7. Best Knights.

Award for Most Iconic Hat Goes to: The Hat from Watch_Dogs.

I don't actually have anything to say about Watch_Dogs, I just thought it'd be funny to mention that iconic hat one last time before the year ends. The game isn't terrible, but it's pretty forgettable, overall.

Best Arcade Style Game and Best Use of Figurative Nazis Goes to: Luftrausers.

Luftrausers is a game that I could not stop playing for about three hours. I mean that literally, in that one night I spent three hours playing that game nonstop. Well, minus a few very short Twitter breaks, and maybe getting up to use the bathroom once. Still, the game is a whole lot of fun, but didn't manage to keep me coming back for more. Probably because I'm not particularly good at it. It's a hard game, and eventually I had unlocked all the plane parts, and didn't seem to be making much, if any progress toward the in game challenge system. So I stopped playing, and I haven't played it since. I feel like I should though. I probably would if it was on PS4, and not PS3.

Also, I really like the game's styyyle. Not even so much the actual graphics as much as the fact that you play as figurative Nazis. I know there was that whole hubbub around the game with the Nazis thing, and the developers tried to say it's not Nazis. Whether or not it is, I like the style, and I think it's pretty evocative of Nazis, which I like. Which feels weird after that bit I wrote earlier about actual Nazis being assholes.

6. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

Where do I even begin with this one? You know what? I'm just going to skip all the game play stuff, all the stuff about how short the game is, and get to the real reason why this game is on this list: I am obsessed with Metal Gear. Addicted to Metal Gear. I am a Metal Gear Addict. If there's been one constant in my life, since my mid-teen years, it's been my love of Metal Gear, and it continues strong to this day. Nothing can, or will ever get in my way to stop me from playing a Metal Gear game at this point. Nothing. Not the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, not nanomachines, not PMCs, not even DEATH ITSELF will stop me.

I spend a lot of my time thinking. And I spend a lot of my thinking time thinking about Metal Gear. Sometimes thinking about game play mechanics, sometimes thinking about the story. Sometimes thinking about insane theories about the story. Like Big Boss's shadow. Ever notice that it doesn't have any hair in Ground Zeroes? And that's despite Big Boss having a majestic mullet in the game. Yet, the shadow is that of a bald man. I noticed. "Oh, Moosey, you're just being silly, it's an oversight, or a glitch."

OH REALLY?!

Why then, does Chico's shadow have hair? Why does the cables for Chico's earphones have a shadow when the shadow of the guy you play as doesn't even have hair? Do you really think Kojima would let that slip through? Solid Snake's mullet had a shadow in MGS2 way back in 2001! If it was really a graphical issue, don't you think it'd have been sorted out for the recent PC release, which isn't restrained by console limitations? Or that they would have cut corners somewhere else to get the shadow looking right? HM?!?!

What if, I told you that you're not really playing as Big Boss, and instead it's all just Kojima trying to FOOL US?! HM?! What if you're really Gray Fox reliving Big Boss's memories?! HUH?! What about that?! IT ALL MAKES PERFECT SENSE!!!!

That's been a lot of my year, this year. Spending time watching videos about this stuff, coming up with theories, and staring super closely at Phantom Pain footage to try to discern if the shadow in that game has hair or not. It's harder to tell because he has a small little ponytail instead of a large mullet. I want to say I saw the ponytail casting a shadow onto his back in some of the TGS demo footage this year, but I've yet to see any other footage that has hair shadow, so the jury's still out on that one.

Right now, if you've actually read that stuff, you've probably either just sloughed it off as, "Brett's being weird again," or you think I'm completely out of my mind. If you don't, then that means you've fallen down the rabbit hole like me, and probably won't be able to get out any time soon. I know I won't be able to. But I'm fine with that. I'm fine with being stuck on this insane roller coaster as it slowly careens out of control the closer and closer we get to the release of The Phantom Pain. Whenever that may be. I wouldn't be surprised if the game got pushed to 2016. I mean, it's one of the biggest upcoming releases, and it doesn't have a date yet. Not even anything as nebulous as "holiday 2015."

Either way, my obsession, my addiction isn't ending any time soon. But I'm still waiting for The Phantom Pain. Ground Zeroes gave me a taste, a nibble, a small portion. But I need the full course. Need it. I need to explore those vast open areas Kojima is promising. I need to be sneaky in boxes. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE STORY. But not like, in a "I'm going to read actual leaks or anything." No, I'll wait for the final game, thank you very much! Trailers are one thing, Kojima expects us to see those (especially when I'm pretty sure some of them have footage that doesn't end up in the final game, based on something that was shown of Ground Zeroes that wasn't actually in Ground Zeroes).

But whenever Phantom Pain comes, I'll be there. It doesn't matter if that shadow is intentional, or if it was a mistake, I'll be there. I'll be sneaking, I'll be CQC-ing, and I'll be blowing things up. I can't overstate how excited I am for The Phantom Pain, and Ground Zeroes belongs on this list solely because it was able to give me a glimpse into that. I don't care if it exists because a man in a suit made Kojima put out a game this year. I don't care if you can beat the main mission in under an hour. I don't care if it's just a glorified demo. It's Metal Gear. And that's enough for me.

That said, it is kinda short and I couldn't really justify putting it any higher on this list than I did, even if my overall playtime ended up being over thirty hours (because of course it was). Plus the shadow thing does actually take me out of the game when I notice it. Breaks the immersion. See, that's why I hope the shadow is just a mistake, and one that'll be sorted out by The Phantom Pain. It breaks the immersion, and if it is a clue to some dumb plot twist, it's a bad one because it takes me out of the moment. It reminds me that it is just a game, with dumb technical things that get in the way of what it should be.

I mean, Kojima can do what he wants with the story. I'm not going to go out and say, "Oh this game isn't canon to me because of some dumb plot twist I don't approve of." But if he really feels the need to alter a shadow to hint at a plot twist, and do it in a way that I can't unsee because I noticed it? That's lame. I wish that's not the case. But I've harped on it enough.

Oh, and also the game plays super well and is great if you like stealth games. Which I do. About the only thing that ran at sixty frames per second on PS4/Xbone this year too. Well, I mean, not literally, but seems like it. Feels like it, if nothing else. Video games.

Metal Gear.

Awards Break!

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Wins:

1. Best sneaking and stealthing.
2. MacGyver Award for Best Mullet.
3. Award for Most Disturbing and/or Messed Up Game.
4. Best Villain Name - Skull Face.
5. Best Use of "Licensed" Songs - "Here's to You," "Ride of the Valkyries."
6. The "Hopefully hiring Kiefer Sutherland wasn't a bad idea because his performance seems good but I'm still not sure if he won't talk enough in the final game" Award...Something, I dunno.
7. Best Rain.

Game I Wish I Played Most: D4

I feel really bad that I haven't played D4 yet. Deadly Premonition is one of my favorite games of all time, easily on my top ten list of all time. And yet I've been unable to play his latest game, which sounds like it does what you want a Swery game to do. Namely, be weird and have strange but interesting characters in bizarre situations. Hopefully I'll be able to play it eventually, but for now, it's on the list of games I know I should play, but haven't been able to.

Runner up: Velvet Sundown.

Velvet Sundown is a bizarre thing that I've gotten loads of enjoyment out of watching others (the GB Crew and Dave Lang) play online. It's the sort of thing that I just know I would really enjoy playing, and it's a shame that my lack of a good PC means I can't. But some day I'll be walking around that ship pestering people to save whales, trying to mix drinks, or retrieve a lost pair of panties.

5. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Much like Mario Kart 8, I wasn't expecting a CoD game to be on my GOTY list before I actually played it. Not that I haven't had CoD games in my top ten before. I've quite liked some of them, especially the Black Ops games. But between it being a new developer, and Ghosts being not so great last year (at least based on what I read/saw of the game, I only played a few minutes of it (split screen) at my cousins' house), my enthusiasm for a new CoD game wasn't exactly very high. But between being peer pressured by friends, and the positive reception, I got it.

And you know what? I think it's my new favorite CoD game. The campaign is probably my favorite one, not so much for the story, but more for the variety, pacing, and just general fun-ness of it. There's no other CoD game where you can hide in a bush and use a grappling hook to pull in guys like a sneaky Scorpion telling people to "Get over here!"

But, the reason why this game is as high as it is on my top ten is because of the multiplayer. Not only is it the most fun I've had playing a CoD game online yet, it's also the first one that I've actually played with friends. With voice chat and everything. Turns out, that's a pretty good way to improve your online playing experience! Running around like an idiot double jumping and dying a whole lot is only fun for so long. On its own, at least. But when you combine that with idiot friends to talk about the dumbest, stupidest stuff? Waaaaaay better. It's also helped me through a few...rough spots. Just being able to go online and shoot (digital) people whilst talking about nonsense so that I can take my mind off my troubles for a while. It helps. :)

And when we play online, it feels like there's one mode we always come back to...Uplink. If you haven't played Advanced Warfare, then it's basically basketball except you get more points for dunking instead of throwing. It's dumb, but in a good way, and it works perfectly with the new Exo abilities. Specifically the double jumping and air-dashing (because, frankly, none of the other Exo abilities are worth a damn in the online (well the side dashing on the ground is good too, but that's counted under air dashing because it's the same thing just not in the air)). Anyway, with or without friends (but mainly with), it's a super fun mode, and my favorite in the game. Definitely a big part of how this game got this high in my top ten.

That said, as much as I loved the campaign, the fact that the "die constantly" multiplayer is a lot less fun without friends kinda prevented it from being any higher on the list. Had it been something that I could enjoy almost as much on my own, maybe it could have been higher. Though, that's not really the game's fault so much as it is mine. It's not the game's fault that I'm bad, you know?

Anyway, it's a fun game, but I've run out of things to say about it.

Awards Break!

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare wins:

1. Best Use of Kevin Spacey.
2. Worst Use of a Mostly Silent Protagonist.
3. Best Online Multiplayer Mode - Uplink.
4. Best Excuse to Just Talk About Nonsense With Friends.
5. Best Reminder That Pre-Rendered Cut-Scenes Still Just Make the Actual Game Look Worse.
6. Phantom Pain Award for Best Use of a Prosthetic Limb.
7. Best Shooter Campaign.

Best Use of Bananas/Best Looking Fur: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

I had a lot of fun playing this game. It's got great level design, looks really nice, and has a fantastic soundtrack. But, ultimately, it was just a bit too hard in spots, and too many of the levels were hidden behind secrets exits that it didn't quite make it onto the top ten list. I understand the appeal of having bonus content for people who want to put in the time and effort to find all of those secret exits, but I think they went too far. Oh well!

Hm? You want to know about the actual awards I gave it? Uh, well, I don't actually like eating bananas, but I like saying the word "banana" quite a bit. The fur does look very nice, though. That part wasn't just me coming up with something stupid.

Best Phone Game: Threes!

So, I recently got a smartphone. My first one, actually. It's an Android phone, because I still have a Matt Rorie-like stance on Apple products. Also it was reasonably priced and a good phone. Anyway, I got a handful of phone games for it, but Threes! is the one I keep going back to, and the one that I've spent the most time playing. Part of me wanted to give this award to Hitman Go, for being more of a "traditional" game, and having a more linear progression or whatever. But Threes! is just so much fun I couldn't not give it to Threes!

4. Bayonetta 2.

Few games exude joyfulness as much as Bayonetta 2 does. This is a game that revels in insanity, violence, sexuality. This is a game that knows it's good, and flaunts it. There was absolutely zero question as to whether it was going to make it onto my top ten. The question was how high it was going to end up. And, at the end of the day...fourth was where it ended up.

This is the part of the top ten where the decisions as to the placement of these games starts to get really tough. Genuinely difficult. Especially when the games from here on out and kinda substantially different in terms of what kinds of games they are. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, and don't want to spoil anything. I just don't want you to think that this game being fourth on my list means I didn't love this game to pieces.

But, as much as I love Bayonetta 2 when it's at its best, it still has a few issues that kinda held it back from being higher on this list. Mostly relatively small things too, like that I don't like the "compartmentalization" of the fights in this game. Every fight begins with magical barriers erecting that prevent your progress. Then you kill the enemies, get ranked on it, and watch Bayonetta destroy the barriers (either by blowing a kiss or shooting a heart shaped barrage of bullets). I know Bayonetta 1 did it, and REVENGEANCE did it, but I'm kinda getting tired of Platinum's style of breaking up fights like that. I know a lot of people really like the ranking stuff (and I have nothing against that), but it stops the action just long enough that it gets a little annoying.

Again, not a huge issue overall, especially when the game itself is just sooooo damn good. Timing a dodge right, activating Witch Time, and using it to punish enemies by beating them to bloody pulps never gets old, and feels so good every single time. I used the word joyful before, and that's really the best way to describe how I feel playing the game. That's why stuff like that previous paragraph is kind of a bummer. I get that the game can't be literal non-stop action, that would get tiresome. But stuff like that, and some of the platforming type stuff (which there's less than the first game, thankfully) break up the action too much, and end up hurting the game as a whole. For me, at least, I know there's plenty of people out there that don't mind it as much as I do.

And the only reason I'm stressing it is that I feel like what I'm writing here for each of these games in my top ten is to explain why each game is where it is on the top ten. That means harping on kinda nit-picky things like this. And really, if the core of Bayonetta 2 wasn't as absolutely spot on as it is, this would have been much lower on the list, or excluded altogether.

Conversely, this is also a game with a four stage boss fight that begins with Bayonetta on a street fighting a human sized opponent that leads to her and the opponent fighting on a platform while one of Bayonetta's hair demons fights a giant angel in the background (above a field of lava), that then leads to Bayonetta and her opponent flying above the field of lava while an even bigger hair demon and angel fight, which then leads to what is basically Punch Out between the hair demon and angel. This is a game that pushes it to 11, decides that's not good enough, and keeps pushing it until it gets to about 14 or 15. And all the while it plays and runs beautifully. It's the kind of game where you can often see where they cut corners to get it running as well as it does while running on the hardware that it does, but man, in some ways it's definitely one of the most technically impressive console games of the year. Not quite, but what Platinum managed to do with the Wii U is something else.

It's so good. Now I just want to replay it. I gotta finish writing all this top ten stuff so I can get back to actually playing games!

Awards Break!

Bayonetta 2 wins:

1. Michael Bay Award For Most Ridiculous Game.
2. Best Punching and Kicking Simulator.
3. Best/Most Use of Demons and Angels.
4. Best Running Online Co-op.
5. Most Framerate in a Console Game.
6. Best Hair.
7. Best Artistic Design.

Luigi Presents The Award For Best "Retro" Game of the Year: Super Mario 3D World.

The "Retro" Game of the Year always goes to a game I played for the first time that came out in a previous year. And this year, it goes to last year's Super Mario 3D World, a game that, like Bayonetta 2, is just a pure joy to play. I played a lot of really good games from years past this year, so coming up with just one wasn't the easiest, but in the end, this was the one. And I'm already behind on getting this stuff written so writing a whole separate thing for "Retro" games like that one year I did is out of the question.

First Runner Up: Spec Ops: The Line.

Spec Ops: The Line is a special game. You don't see many games like this, and I don't know that I want a ton of games like this one. Games that make you feel really, really bad for some of the stuff you do in the game. But it's also definitely a game that I think everyone should play at some point. Unless you have PTSD or something that this game would trigger. Then maybe stay away. But man. It's a game that's going to stick with me for a long, long time.

Second Runner Up: Spelunky.

For the longest time, Spelunky was just a game that I enjoyed watching those couple of GB videos where Brad died a lot. But then Patrick started doing those daily live streams of it on GB, which just happened to happen right around the time the game was on sale for about $4 on PSN. So I downloaded it, and ended up really loving the game. I was bad at it, of course, and still am bad at it. I've only managed to beat Olmec (the game's "end" boss) once, and even then it wasn't until I started playing it again on PS4. I kinda feel bad for falling off it again after doing that, but I'm sure I'll return to it some day. It's one of those games that I can come back to any time and have fun with. Definitely a game I wish I had started playing earlier than I did.

3. Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Of all the games I played this year, this one was the wild card. This is the one that I had the least clear idea about how I would react to it. I didn't go into it completely blind, thanks to chatting with people like my good friend @andrewb about it, but I hadn't played the previous games. And my track record with non-Mass Effect BioWare games ranges from, "never played it," to "I don't like KoTOR." Actually, come to think of it, KoTOR is the only other non-Mass Effect BioWare game I've actually played. Huh.

Anyway, this game was a big question mark for me. And it was a game that I really wanted to make sure that I had at least finished the main story of before working on The Moosies, so I could judge it properly. And I'm glad I did, because it's a game that took a while to really click with me. At least some aspects of it. I was able to get into the story fairly quickly, because it's the same sort of thing, with the same sort of writing that I've come to expect from BioWare games. Yeah, the overall story with its world-ending-ness is not the best, but the minute to minute writing is still stuff that I enjoyed a lot.

And, you know, I could write about the combat again, and how it took me a while to get into, but let's be real. The combat is not why this game is in my top ten. It's the story, it's talking to other characters, it's exploring and discovering things about the world that I loved. But mostly talking to other characters, because I've written before about how the world feels kinda lifeless and static.

Actually, now that I'm trying to write about why this game is not only in my top ten, but number three, it's not coming as easily as it has for some of the other games. Which is not to say this game doesn't deserve its spot, because it does. It's just a game where no one thing about it is truly extraordinary, aside from a few really great character moments throughout the game. It's a game where, to use the old, really clichéd line, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It's a game that invokes a certain sense of...adventure. Of something grand, and large. It's the sort of thing that I didn't really see much of this year. Or, at least, this is the only game that made me feel that way.

Like I was on an adventure. A quest. I feel like the last game that made me feel that way was Skyrim. Which, to be fair, was the last fantasy "RPG" I played, and that was several years ago. That said, big budget fantasy "RPGs" are few and far between these days, and I needed something to fill the gap before The Witcher III next year. But that's being dismissive of this game, just comparing it to an unreleased game.

Really, this game is on my top ten, and so high because I love the universes that BioWare crafts. This one might not be as immediately appealing to me as the sci-fi one of Mass Effect, but I still loved learning about this world. Learning about the characters, their back stories, and their motivations. Learning about the world, the nations, the factions, the deep and rich lore that BioWare has crafted for this series. And, honestly, part of why this game will stick with me is that this process kinda extends beyond the game itself, with all the time and trouble @andrewb took to get me caught up on what had happened in the first two games. Yeah, I know something like that could be taken as a negative (ie, needing to be told these things and have gaps filled it), but it's like Mass Effect 3 a few years ago. Everything around it, and my deep interest in the deeper goings on helped keep it alive and fresh in my mind. And that's part of what makes games special to me, that I end up thinking about them outside of the game itself.

This is a game that made me spend a lot of time thinking about it. Whether it was trying to decide what to do in big story events, second guessing my previous decisions, or just pondering about the world, it got me thinking. That's more than most other games this year did.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Dorian. You know, the fully gay mage. In a lot of ways, this was kind of a perfect game for me to play after coming out. Granted, it came out a good seven months after I came out (almost to the day, actually), but playing it after coming out still affected the way I played the game. Like, since I still live with my dad, and play games on the big TV in the living room, I probably would have been too worried with irrational fear to romance Dorian. Why? Well, it's hard to explain if you've never had to hide something like that, but like I said, it's mostly irrational fear.

Instead I went for it, and Dorian's story arc combined with my romancing him is something that's going to stick with me for quite some time. In a way, I cared for him so much that I actually split up with him in game to try not to hurt him. Sort of. I mean, I've said before I also kinda wanted to see how the game would handle that, which maybe undermines my point a little, but let's just ignore that. His story arc spoke to me in a way that I'm sure it doesn't for people that haven't ever hidden something like their sexuality. I mean, yeah, that's not exactly what his story was, but you get what I mean.

Even thinking about the game now, I just wish aspects like the combat, and the NPCs not moving around much were better. This game could easily have been my game of the year if the combat had been more to my liking. But as it is, it's a game that I will remember fondly for a long time, will probably play hours more of in the near future, but is just short of what's needed to be a Game of the Year for me. I almost put this game at number two on my list, but...well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Awards Break!

Dragon Age: Inquisition wins:

1. Ryan Davis Memorial Award For Best Use Of Facial Hair.
2. Best Adventuring.
3. Most Adventuring.
4. Best Writing/Story.
5. Best Voice Acting.
6. Best New Characters: The Iron Bull/Dorian.
7. Award for Most LGBT Representation in a Game.
8. Best/Most crafting.
9. Dumbest/Best Hats.
10. Worst Use of Menus - Making You Use the Control Stick Instead of the D-Pad.

Best Original Soundtrack, Best Use of the Color Pink, and Best First Person Shooting goes to: Destiny.

Sorry, did you really think I could go the entire length of The Moosies without at least MENTIONING Destiny? Well, for better or for worse, I couldn't. Regardless of how my feelings about the game as a whole developed over time, the soundtrack is still amazing. Absolutely some of the best music I've ever heard in a video game. Though, I've still avoided listening to that apparently awful Paul McCartney song, but I won't hold that against it. The music in there is so damn good that it would have been a crime to not award it for it. At least with my musical tastes, of course.

Also, that one pink shader just looked so good/dumb. Really nice for my change in opinion on the color pink this year too. Started using it because I thought it looked dumb, only to slowly come to actually like it.

Okay, but real talk. Even if this game's heel turn toward grind fest once you hit level 20 did make it so that I can't justify putting it on my top ten, I did still enjoy a lot of this game, and it's still the game I spent the most time with this year (especially if you include the Alpha and Beta). But...I just couldn't do it. Not when there were other games that I didn't start to slowly hate over time that I could put on the list instead.

It really does have the best shooting of all the games I played this year, though. Soooooooo goood.

2. Far Cry 4.

If I had to sum up Far Cry 4 in one sentence, I think it would be to call it a Nonsense Simulator. It exists purely to let me go around and mess around with stuff, blow stuff up, light stuff on fire, and get in all sorts of nonsense, hijinks, shenanigans, and assorted buffoonery. Shooting grenades down from gyrocopters, killing enemies with C4-laced elephants, driving cars off cliffs, flying through the air, and cackling maniacally whilst setting everything you can ablaze is only the tip of the iceberg of the level of idiocy that is achievable in the beautiful, violent, and dumb open world in Far Cry 4.

I know a lot of people think of this game as just being Far Cry 3 but with a different setting and a few other changes. And to a certain extent that's true, but there's one key difference. The console version of Far Cry 4 (specifically PS4, at least) isn't a frame-rate-y mess like it was for Far Cry 3 on PS3. And when your primary means of enjoying the game is to mess around with stuff, trying to do things as stupidly as possible, it helps when the game doesn't feel like it's on the verge of self-destructing.

Actually, I'm being unfair to the actual core of the game. While the story is pretty forgettable and...well, I've forgotten most of it...But the actual missions in the campaign are pretty good. I mean, for a big open world game, at least. Better than Far Cry 3, overall. Good mix of action and stealth, good pacing, etc. Clearing outposts by trying to be stealthy, sniping at long distance, then coming in with a bow and mopping up the rest, but usually being seen and blowing up the rest of the guys never ceased to be fun. Actually, that didn't really happen that specific way much, but you get what I mean.

But really, the reason this game is number two on my list is that I had so much fun just running around having fun whilst nonsense was happening. Really fun to play co-op too! Though, the frame rate takes a hit when playing online, and you can't do story missions. And the co-op partner doesn't get collectibles. So it has issues, but it's still really fun to get up to trouble with a friend online. Wish I had played more of it online, but I suppose there's always time to do it again in the future.

I feel like no matter how much I write, I'm not going to get my point across, so instead I'll just embed a "brand" new video made from footage I recorded! By which I mean I uploaded the video earlier this week, but hey, close enough.

Awards Break!

1. Best Nonsense Simulator.
2. Best Use of Wildlife.
3. Nolan North Award For Best Use of Troy Baker (Pagan Min).
4. Smokey the Bear Award for Best Forest Fires.
5. Best Explosives.
6. Best Online Co-op.
7. Best Vehicle: The Gyrocopter.
8. Best Animal Friend: Tony The Tiger.
9. Big Bo Award For Bow of the Year.

Best One Trick Pony Award Goes To: Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Shadow of Mordor has become a pretty widely loved game. At the top, or near the top of a lot of people's Game of the Year lists. Even Giant Bomb gave it Game of the Year, or Best Game, or whatever they call it. And I don't blame them, it's a great game. There's a lot of things to like about it. But...I dunno, something about it just ended up rubbing me the wrong way by the time I got to the end of the game.

The core of what I found appealing about Shadow of Mordor is the Nemesis System, which, as you already know, allows procedurally generated and named enemies yo remember their past encounters with you, and comment on it when you see them again. In the early parts of the game, when there's enough of a challenge that you actually encounter enemies multiple times, it's great. It gives a lot of personality and unique-ness to the encounters in the game. Being taunted by a captain you failed to kill and had to run away from is cool. Fighting someone you thought you killed, but has come back for vengeance is rad. I had one in particular that hounded me early in the game, and ended up being my Nemesis at the very end, which was definitely a highlight of the game.

The trouble is that the game basically throws all of that away midway through the game (aside from the aforementioned Nemesis moment, which I've heard falls flat for a lot of people). Eventually you get the ability to dominate captains, and order them to do things. On paper, it's great, because it allows for you to set up all sorts of backstabbery, and other things. But in practice, it robs the game of the thing I loved most about it. If I'm just bending all the captains to my will, they're never going to come back for vengeance. They're never going to show up randomly and try to kill me.

There's no limit to how many you can have dominated, and the game never gives you a reason to not dominate them after you have that ability. And by that point the game's upgrade system makes it so that you're so powerful that the game becomes a joke. I went from feeling like the game was a genuine challenge to seeing it for what it really is. A generic action game with a fun twist, but a twist that isn't enough to get the game into my top ten. If the story, or the main missions had been really good, I could have over looked these issues more easily, but as it stands, Shadow of Mordor is a game that almost got onto my top ten, but just couldn't quite make it. And I actually mean that in this case, this game is my number eleven for this year.

Maybe next time?

1. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U!

Deciding my Game of the Year this year was pretty tough. I had a ton of fun playing Far Cry 4, and Dragon Age Inquisition came very close as well. But in the end, it could only be Smash Bros. The latest, and I think greatest entry into the franchise was destined to be a game that I loved, but my sky high expectations were not only met, they were exceeded. Everything about it is just an absolute joy to play.

Really, that's been the common theme in most of the games on my top ten this year. JOY. A few exceptions, sure, but the thing I keep coming back to when I write about these games is JOY. This has been a year, where no matter what happens, I feel like I just keep reverting back to being depressed, sad, and just plain sick of life. Sometimes it's nice to have games that simply make me happy. And damn it, this game makes me HAPPY.

I'm not lying or exaggerating at all when I say that this game is the one I've had the most fun playing this entire year. Whether alone, playing online, or with other people in the room, I just adore this game. They're all different experiences, and all good in their own ways (even if the online gets pretty laggy some of the time), but it's the local multiplayer that really shines. It's getting a whole bunch of people in a room and playing with the new 5-8 player mode (sadly I still haven't been able to try with more than six people (not counting AI)) and just reveling in the pure madness and chaos that ensues. It's coming up with stupid in-jokes and references that no one else will ever get or find funny, even if you try to explain them to people. Like, no one who reads this will ever understand why "Mario's pet goat Roberto" will always be funny to me. Because that's something stupid based on something that happened once while I was playing with my dad and my cousins.

It's a joy to play, and it looks absolutely gorgeous too. On top of that, it's the first game in years that I feel like really, REALLY benefits from HD. Of course all games released these days do, but I mean beyond just seeing higher resolution textures, or smaller fonts. When you're on a huge level, and the camera pulls out all the way because several smaller fights have broken out in the different parts of the level, you can actually tell where people are now! And of course the game looks great beyond that too, with Nintendo's amazing artistic design shining through every little facet of the game. Just gorgeous.

And the soundtrack! It's exactly what you want, which is to say literally HUNDREDS of songs from Nintendo's vast library of music. Some in their original form, some remixed. And man, Nintendo has put out games with some of the best music in the history of video games. Not that I needed to remind you, of course.

The cast of characters is the largest, and best it's ever been in the franchise. Aside from the lack of Solid Snake, there's not really anything negative to say about it (unless you love the Ice Climbers, for some reason (I kid, it'd have been nice to see them return as well)). I love that Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles is in (and that he has an underwear outfit). I love that the dog from Duck Hunt is now a character, complete with a duck buddy! They even managed to make the "clone" characters stand out enough from the originals that I don't even have anything negative to say about them. Hell, Lucina (a clone of Marth) is probably my second favorite character in the whole game (after Shulk).

But the most important thing is that the game is actually fun to play. I'd even go so far as to say that it's the best playing of the bunch. Then again, I think Brawl is a better game than Melee, so that might invalidate my opinion on the matter to a lot of people. And you know what I'd say to those people?

"Let's all just enjoy games, and be happy."

In a lot of ways, 2014 has been a pretty bad year for a lot of people. Whether it's in personal lives, in the greater video gaming community, things on a national level (whatever your country), or the world as a whole, it feels like things have gotten pretty rotten. It's easy to lose perspective, and just focus on the negative. To forget the good, and just fall into a seemingly bottomless pit of despair.

But the hell with that! We've got video games, we've got each other, and we should be striving to focus on the good. And if we can't find any good, then try to create some good. We should all make that a goal for 2015. Try to do some good.

:D

But then again Waluigi is just an Assist Trophy and not a playable character so never mind, this game sucks. Moving on! ;)

Awards!

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Wins:

1. The Sixth Annual Moosies Video Game Awards Extravabonanza Turbo Double+ Good Edition!! Game of the Year.
2. Best Local Multiplayer.
3. Best "Remix" Soundtrack/Best Overall Soundtrack.
4. Most Artistic Design.
5. The, "It may be the last new one I ever see," Award for Best Instruction Manual.
6. Most Descriptive Title.
7. Mega Man Game of the Year/Pac-Man Game of the Year/Sonic Game of the Year.
8. Best Use of Yoshi - Being Able to Beat Up Yoshi.
9. Best Reminder That There Are a Few Pokemon After The Original 151 That Are All Right.
10. Best Collectibles - Trophies.

Are you still reading this? Thanks! I hope you enjoyed it. I won't take any more of your time, so I'll just say thanks once again. :D