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Well... here we are. There has not been a single title in the Wii U's multiple year history that has justified the gamepad to the best of it's abilities better than Mario Maker and as the platform heads toward what may very be it's final year as a relevant machine in Nintendo's history, Mario Maker exists as a high-point not only for 2015 but the Wii U as a whole.
Mario Maker's approach and embracing of user-generated content in a way that works, the sheer amount of celebration of the franchise's 2D history, and the amount of creativity seen across the globe in terms of level design was all I needed to cement Super Mario Maker as my Game of the Year.
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Few games in existence have ever had a deeper emotional impact on me as a person as Undertale has. The cast of characters (Even ones that are ultimately morally questionable in their actions and justifications) are some of the most well-written and endearing monstrosities you'll ever see in video games, and the humor of Undertale is something you'll never forget. The gameplay is no slouch either, being a bizarre merger of Earthbound and a bullet-hell shooter that changes and brings you new concepts that will always come back all the way to the very end.
And depending on how you play and what order you play the various paths the game has to offer, it could very well be a heartbreaking end at that.
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Look, Just Cause 3 is a technical nightmare on consoles and sure, it's ultimately just more of Just Cause 2. But the fact of the matter is, the sheer jackassery of Just Cause 3's open sandbox is one of the most fun experiences I've had this year and the entire game's awareness of why people play this series just seals the deal for me. They know you're here to blow stuff up and act like a dumbass. They know you're here to dick around with physics and vehicles and blow up every single gas station you see. And I welcome it with open arms.
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I've never cared for the Demon's Souls or the Dark Souls series, but something about Bloodborne grabbed me the right way, and I'm not quite sure what it was. All I know is there are few games that left me as satisfied in my accomplishments as Bloodborne. If you mess up, that's your fault. If you keep messing up? Your fault. Panicking and not thinking has no place in this game, and while there's no overt rewards for learning your lesson in this game outside of progression? I wouldn't have it any other way. Thank you for not holding my hand, Bloodborne.
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2011's Mortal Kombat game was incredible, with some of the most solid gameplay the series has ever seen and one of the best story modes in a fighting game in... well.. ever. MKX took the ball and ran with it, with some of the most aesthetically hard-hitting and intense kombat the series has ever seen, somehow improving on the last game's gameplay and overall design. It might not be the BEST in the series, but it's a klear indicator that the series that will never die has a good future.
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The only way to get me to love the precision-based jumping of a game like Super Meat Boy more than I already do was something I've been wondering for the years after that game's release. Turns out, the easiest way to improve such precision controls and tight platforming was to slap the Super Meat Boy jumping mechanics into a Metroid-style game with some of the best sprite-based artwork I've seen in years. Ori and the Blind Forest is a moody and atmospheric game, but the sheer amount of control you have and the variety of mechanics in the game solidifies it as one of my favorite games of 2015.
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After Advanced Warfare, I didn't know what to think about the Call of Duty franchise. Advanced Warfare was the first Call of Duty that clicked with me in a long time. Hell, it was #2 in my Game of the Year list last year. Black Ops III is not a rapid improvement like Advanced Warfare was but moreso an iterative upgrade to the tried-but-true left trigger/right trigger gameplay that is the Call of Duty franchise, in fact tThe comparison to EA's Titanfall from last year doesn't end with Advanced Warfare's replacement with Black Ops 3 as if anything the comparison is even more valid now with an even more prevalent focus on movement and inertia. For Black Ops 3 it's all about presentation and keeping the franchise running forward, and while I don't think the leap is as big as last year I am confident in saying that Black Ops 3 is one of the best games of 2015.
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Yeaaaaaaaaaaah, so... I like Halo. A lot. And while I feel the campaign of Halo 5 fell short in more than a handful of ways, it's speaks volumes about the quality of gameplay that Halo 5 is still one of the best Halo games in my book. The shooting itself is tighter than ever, the new Spartan abilities make you feel like a badass without feeling overpowered, and the multiplayer (while lacking in variety) is what finally makes me feel that the Halo franchise is in good hands again.
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When Platinum Games is on fire, they know how to knock a game out of the park. Transformers: Devastation may not be exactly what one would expect from a Transformers game in a post-High Moon world, but what Platinum delivered on was a solid action game in their traditional style all wrapped up in a world that is an enormous love letter for the Transformers fans out there.
Now about that Decepticon-based sequel...
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Between being a sequel to the virtually unknown Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, and launching on the often-forgettable Playstation Plus free games offer Rocket League had virtually everything stacked against it, leading to one of the biggest surprises of 2015 and yet I don't know why. Was it the insane difficulty curve? The basic, yet intense action of robotic car soccer? Was it the fact that it came out in the middle of an empty spring? We'll never know, and frankly I don't care. The game's just that good.
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