Check This Hand: A Game Of The Year Story

Here's ten games I played this year that came out this year (In the west, at least) and subsequently thought were good enough to be amongst the top ten games of the year. This list is based purely on 'games I enjoyed the most' not necessarily 'games with the highest production values that most people seemed to really like.'

Runners up being:

11. Metro: Last Light

12. The Last of Us

13. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

14. Rogue Legacy

15. Tales of Xillia

16. Blood Dragon

List items

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  1. Gunpoint

  At this point, I'm running out of ways to say 'this game is really good,' so I'll just say this as simply as possible: This was the most fun game I've played in a very long time. Much too short, but the writing was fantastic, the soundtrack and design was fantastic, and the level editor - whist being a bit obtuse - was also fantastic. It's fantastic all around and it's my game of the year.

  I love Gunpoint.

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  2. Rayman Legends

  Soundtrack, astounding; Graphics, beautiful; Gamplay, fast paced and skill based; I could ramble on and on forevermore about how wonderful Rayman Legends is as a refinement and expansion of Rayman Origins, but I'll simply sum up what I feel about this game in two short sentences. I have been playing platformers since I was six years old. Rayman Legends may be the best platformer I have ever played.

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  3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

  I didn't expect this one at all. I was excited for it but that was simply because it was Zelda and I'm one of those infuriating bastards who buy things simply because it's got a brand name slapped onto it. However, ignoring everything else, this game was brilliant. My first Zelda was Link's Awakening, so I have a history with top-down Zeldas, and this was a fantastic return to form. Some of the best dungeons in any Zelda games I've ever played were in this game, and the Item Renting mechanic - whist at first seeming completely awful - actually revolutionises the way one goes about solving puzzles in dungeons. Sometimes they'll tell you what item to use, but more often than not, the decision of which item to use isn't based upon the fact that that was the item you just got, but upon your own problem-solving ability, meaning that most problems have several solutions. It's a fantastic idea, and quite a departure from previous games in the series; one that I laud Nintendo for.

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  4. BioShock Infinite

  Yes, we can talk all we like about Ludonarrative Dissonance and how pretentious the ending got, but removing oneself from the zeitgeist, the combat was exhilerating and fun (ignoring the Handymen), the environments were absolutely gorgeous, and the characters were wonderfully acted.

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  5. Saints Row IV

  I had my reservations going into Saints Row IV. I still hold Saints Row 2 up as the best Saints Row, because despite not playing very well, the seriousness of some elements of Saints Row 2 made that game's insanity have levity. I doubt I'll ever forget the beginning of my first playthrough when my Cockney British Thug walked into a bar dressed like Ash Ketchum and smashed a beer bottle over someone's head. For me, seriousness makes comedy all the funnier, and to have a rollercoaster of comedic moments is a lot more intelligent than non-stop insanity. However, as Saints Row IV proved, non-stop insanity can be pretty great as well.

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  6. Rune Factory 4

  This game was released in the US on October 1st and therefore is legitimately a 2013 game no matter what anyone else says, ever. Also, it's fantastic. I feel like a lot of the excitement I have about this game is one that other fans of the series would find rather rote, but as I bought this game on complete impulse and have never played either a Rune Factory nor a Harvest Moon game before, this game blew me away with the story and the characters in conjunction with the Animal Crossing-esq trappings of a Harvest Moon type game. One of my major problems with Animal Crossing was that you never really felt like you were inhabiting a world, you were always just occasionally dipping into one. In Rune Factory, you have to eat and sleep and you have a job and yes that all sounds rather mundane but it all comes together to make for an absolutely addicting experience that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the franchise, probably.

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  7. Fire Emblem: Awakening

  I have not played any of the previous Fire Emblem games. I say that so we can move forward together in glorious unbiased-ness: Fire Emblem Awakening is a fantastic game. The game had a habit of throwing curveballs that, Valkyria Chronicles-style, could lose you the battle you've spent the past hour slowly but surely winning, and that was incredibly frustrating. But it speaks volumes about the game that my only thought was to play that mission again and account for the thing that made me lose. Also, the characters are all lively and individual, and the threat of permadeath I imagine would make things a lot more dramatic, but at the same time the stop and start nature of the hard swings in the battles caused me to play in Casual Mode like the child I am, because I didn't want any of the characters to die. Which, when you think about it, also says a lot about the game.

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  8. Animal Crossing: New Leaf

  It's the best Animal Crossing they've ever released. It's still very much Animal Crossing, but if you like Animal Crossing, this is the best Animal Crossing ever. It's quite a dramatic increase in quality, and this coming from Nintendo, who, if anything else, are about refining a single franchise.

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  9. Pokémon X/Y

  Pokémon Y is the latest entry into the video game franchise that I have been playing since I was five years old with Pokémon Red. I feel qualified, then, to announce that Pokémon Y is the single greatest Pokémon game ever released. Yes, the first generation was the most nostalgic, and the second generation was a refinement of that and no, ultimately you cannot visit two provinces like you could in Silver and Gold, but that doesn't matter because seeing Pokémon finally elevate from sprites to full on 3D Models and to have them all be dripping with character and charm is something really, really special. And the story wasn't even that bad, either.

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  10. Shadow Warrior

  Shadow Warrior was dumb fun, and I loved it. I put it here to essentially stick a giant middle finger up at the majority of the FPS' that crowd the market showing that games can still be the cathartic murder-festival that they used to be and that can still be refined and made modern without trying to force it to be more serious. Shadow Warrior is a refinement of the most unrefined type of video game ever made, and circle-strafing around the back of a hulking behemoth to stab it in the back with a charged stab attack and then have it explode is something that Ghosts could only dream of.