BAKOON is Bay Area artist Oliver Leach. When he's not creating his art, he's being a good boy on Twitter and Twitch.
Hello again Giant Bomb readers.
A real stinkhole of a year, but it left a lot of time to stay inside and game. I found myself wanting to go back and finish things and series I hadn’t had time to get to yet, so apologies if this list isn’t all newer titles. My gamer's fancy goes where it likes and I have no choice but to follow it.
Hades
Probably the best game last year, right? One of the best rogue-ish/like/whatever games ever I would say. Presentation was excellent, and mechanically it felt tuned extremely well. Reminded me of my favorite parts of great games--the incremental choices from Risk of Rain and the movement from Dead Cells/Galak-Z. Five on the GamePro fun factor meter.
Yakuza 4
This game came out 10 years ago but it's one of the best games I played this year. I didn’t get around to Like a Dragon yet. Have been muscling my way back through the remasters. Single-player games you can take your time getting to them. Yakuza 4 has one of the best side/minigames in the series, a little sim where you build up a stable of MMA fighters. Training your beef boys in the ring and at the bar. Strategies in the ring and in the bedroom as well. People spit on it when it came out but it has only gotten better with age, I think.
Serious Sam
I recognize that it is a game from the Bush years, but they put it out again this year, so lay off.
I still love the men with no heads that scream, run at you and then explode. The purity of it is admirable. Bless those Croatian dudes.
Dragon Quest XI
Excellent Japanese role-playing game, the kind that I enjoyed in my youth. Extremely mindless, great art by Toriyama. All the edges have been smoothed down so it goes down easy, like a candy coated Advil.
Destropolis
A very small game that I enjoyed a lot.
An intersection between Crimsonland and Time Clickers. If you know what I am talking about, you will say “hmm!” to this.
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Falcom is triumphant. This was basically a really expensive Ys game. Can’t really judge it otherwise outside of being a product of nostalgia and it works really, really well on that front. Music was constantly surprising.
Huntdown
I did not get around to the Cyberpunk 2077 game and I probably won’t for a hot minute. I never got around to the Witcher games either, so I wasn’t going nuts all jazzed out about it like the rest of the world, and it looks like I dodged a bullet on that one, huh. Huntdown was great though. That same double dipped nostalgia of nostalgia of '80s sci-fi action and cyber pop culture, but this one is a complete and bug tested game that does not crash or give you seizures. Very simple and well put together game, reminded me of a good Contra.
Maneater
I have beaten the Jaws game on the NES dozens of times. I destroy that little shark. I know the exact timing of when to hit the strobe to make that nasty goose pop out of the water so I can harpoon him. This new shark game is fine as well. Reminded me of E.V.O. on the Super Nintendo, one of the finest of action/RPGs.
Katamari Damacy REROLL
I did not play this on the Nintendo when it was released because Katamari doesn’t feel right to me unless the analog sticks are parallel. Other wise the sticks aren’t the tiny princes little hands moving the Katamari ball. It is still one of the best games ever made. Soothing in a way that cleaning a room thoroughly or destroying a very tall house of cards can be.
Beastmaster
It still rules.
That bit with those bat guys that melt that tiny little man into green slime and bones, so sick. And his little ferret friends.
Dreams
This game came out like three weeks before the plague really dropped and everybody got stuck inside. With LittleBigPlanet people just fiddled around with the editor for a week and then dropped it. With Dreams though, they kept at it. Watching people deal with the anxiety of the situation through these ClayFighter looking sculptures of Peter from Family Guy and Pickle Rick was something else. I hope they are archived somehow, it is a really fascinating thing.