This fun little list was kind of written up rushed but I do feel strongly about these games. I hope everyone played wonderful games in 2018! [I didn't play Red Dead (hate cowboys) and I want to play Spiderman still]

10) SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy

Combat in SNK Heroines is a tag fighter with the only way to KO is with a special. Each character has their own EX moves, or multiple, that can range from command grabs or any standard ex move. The game is essentially a three-button fighter, with one button dedicated for meter burning special attacks and a fourth button for blocking. A lot of the character’s signature moves are here with no real heavy button combos to get them to come out, which can come off to some people as a watered-down experience. Being a light fighting game fan, this wasn’t really a big problem for me because it seems like it’s painted towards casual players. This game is a fanservice explosion in both a perverted way but also a way that’s nice for SNK fans. I love character customization and the way you can play a dress up game with these characters with mix and match accessories from other characters is fun! The only limiting factor for clothing items is that there’s only four colors for each item. Overall, SNK Heroines was a fun game that I played story mode with every character in, dressing them up between fighting and listening to the fun soundtrack.

9) Lumines Remastered

Having never played Lumines when it came out but hearing the praise of the game’s puzzle mechanics tied with the soundtrack was interesting to me. I feel like I almost broke my hands while playing this game, playing match after match with no breaks on the switch handheld controller trying to unlock as many skins and avatars as possible. The game’s soundtrack is amazing, it’s a carry over from previous titles but it still holds up, especially hearing it for the first time in this game. The transitions are wild, the game pieces changing with the music is wonderful and the whole aesthetic pairing of everything is so tight and charming that it quickly become a favorite puzzle game of mine.

8) Dragalia Lost

It’s telling when there’s a mobile game that I’m still playing months after release. Dragalia Lost has the most control in a mobile game that I’ve personally played. That’s not to say it’s the most control any game has, but it does what it wants to do well. Movement is based on swiping or dragging in a direction with general attacking being tapping anywhere on the screen. Skills can be activated by pressing a button on the bottom of the screen and these are all vastly character specific. Every character I’ve used had fun unique skills with attack patterns that give them personality additional to their design, which is also wonderful. The chibi 3d characters are adorable, and the voice acting is also professional and fun in the missions. Dragalia Lost’s soundtrack is also full of hits. J-Pop star Daoko lends multiple tracks to the game which gives sometimes a dissonant and melancholiac tone to some boss fights. The fresh and modern soundtrack is refreshing, if I had to hear another orchestral soundtrack for a mobile game I’d just die.

7) Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!

I never liked generation one of Pokémon. I never finished generation one of Pokémon. Pokémon: Let’s Go finally remakes the worst generation of Pokémon in a way that I can enjoy. The separation of wild battle and trainer battle mechanics shakes up the game play depending on what you want to do. The motion and gyro controls on the capturing is fun enough that once you nail it, you’ll feel really good capturing those little, or big, monsters. I finished this game, I loved petting my little Eevee, Vivian, and honestly this was a really refreshing take on the Pokémon games. Depending on what happens with generation eight, we’ll know that this game was great.

6) Deltarune

A surprise that came out of seemingly nowhere, Deltarune is the “game that you could play after you beat Undertale,” but not sequel. Toby Fox pulls off the wonderful character writing once again and the actual gameplay has a new party mechanic. There’s no genocide or pacifism mode so you can get fully absorbed with what you want the main character to feel like in those situations. Spoiler alert, they’re probably kind of a loser/weirdo?

5) Killer 7

Okay so this game didn’t come out in 2018 but it did get a PC port in 2018 so it counts… right? Killer 7 rules. I can’t even completely talk about it because I haven’t finished it yet, but it breathes a style that makes me feel slick and killer. Every character has a unique weapon and skill that makes it a combination of a puzzle game but also with arcade first person shooter mechanics at any point you want to start to kill. It’s a wild mash of gameplay, aesthetic and crazy ass characters that are written in ways that are hilarious, scary and anxious.

4) Persona 5: Dancing Star Night

Hey, did you play Persona 4: Dancing All Night? It’s that rhythm games, with the amazing Persona 5 characters, good Persona 5 music remixes and a couple of fun bonus features. There’s no story mode in this game, but the story develops through clearing goals that are like: Finish 25 songs, clear 1000 perfect notes, or wear 25 different accessories. The story bits are fan servicey in a way that you’d think a spin off game would be but without reducing the characters to a one-dimensional person like Persona Q games tend to do. After finished about half of them you unlock a fun mode where you do a little scavenger hunt that can be completely optionally done in virtual reality. Seeing those rooms in VR made me smile until it hurt. Persona 5: Dancing Star Night is a perfect game for Persona fans who love the music and the characters.

3) Tetris Effect

Tetris is an amazing arcade puzzler combined with the beautifully hand-crafted music that perfectly intertwines with itself and blossoms into a firework that explodes with style. Playing this game in VR envelops you with a euphoria that overwhelms you into a concentrated state. It’s hard to talk about this game if you haven’t seen or played it yourself. It’s just Tetris but it’s not just Tetris but also, it’s fucking Tetris, one of the greatest arcade puzzlers of all time.

2) Super Smash Bros Ultimate

They made a better Smash Brothers game than the previous one. Not just that, they made the best Smash Brothers game with EVERYONE in it. It’s wonderful to hear everyone talk about how amazing this game is. Even Melee fans, the nastiest dust bunnies in the world, found enjoyment in this game. World of Light hit every note singing beautifully for me. I loved event modes in the other smash games, but this turned those up plus plus. Not even that it surpassed my expectations with things that happen later in the World of Light campaign. Spirits rule. Incineroar rules. Online has a couch co-op style menu for friend battle arenas.

1) Splatoon 2 (Octo Expansion)

Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion adds so much single player content that makes unlocking an Octoling feel extremely rewarding. The journey the Octoling goes though is extremely fun and evocative of Portal in terms of little “Tests” that she must go through to reach the surface world. The music is completely new and is some of the best music in Splatoon 2, a video game that has already some of the best music. Spoiler alert. The tone of the game shifts to something that’s extremely depressing, it made my stomach drop to think about what other’s have gone through before you, who you’ve been fighting and what the ultimate baddie wants at the end. There is a happy ending as your Octoling escapes, obviously you play as them, but it’s been an uphill battle for her that would make any person not be able to come completely back from whole. Octo Expansion is the best DLC expansion ever, nothing else has even touched to the amount of content, heart and thought as this.

It's a wonderful year for video jammin'.

Sterling Aceto, or known on the internet as aspexParsec, is the creator of faux-game series April and it's ""antagonist"" Brad the Hand. He is also a local catboy, radio DJ and android developer. You can enjoy some of his content on Twitter, Tumblr and personal Tumblr.

Hey-o, it's game of the year time which means we're bundling up for the winter and settling down for some new attractions in the '17. Honestly, lets reflect back to 2016 with some of the best video games I've probably played to date. I even made some personal accomplishments of my own! Having found out Um Jammer Lammy in 2015, I finally beat the game 100% and got to the secret level where you can just play all the tracks and listen to all of their variants. Turns out "Cool" mode doesn't sounds as good as the originals.

But anyways.... This is my top ten games of this year:

10. Final Fantasy 15

There's been a weird air around this game as of late that has caused me to put a pause on finishing Final Fantasy 15. I know what you're thinking, why preface your number 10 with something this teeter-tottery? The answer is pretty simple: Even though this game isn't quite as polished as it probably should be, it's one of the best active action games of the year. With really fun protagonists and colorful locations and monsters, I can easily throw a cover over my eyes and hold my ears until I need to stop where the story falls flat. If you don't know by the time you read this, there's an update coming to add story to parts of the game lacking it. I'm hopefully going to trudge up to there and stop, just so I can get the additional story without replaying. But until then, there's a carnival awaiting me.

9. Amplitude

This game was overlooked by many people, and honestly I would have too. I never played the originals so I have absolutely no frame of reference for this game and even less so because I hated Guitar Hero (I can justify that later if you want me to). But this game rocks, I mean literally. The music is wonderful, the visuals have a weird brainy sort of aesthetic that makes me want to just zone and spin around popping all the notes in the right order. If you're curious about what style of music gets me in the groove just, listen. Hold on a second I'm actually going to play this song for a second...

8. Titanfall 2

TF2 is a great game, you get a giant mech robot that talks to you and is really quip-y but in a really pleasantly written way. The guns just feel amazing and like, wall running is beautiful. This is one of those games that feels like it was avoided by almost everyone I talked to. The only way I could play with anyone at all really is by joining the Giant Bomb clan/guild/group thing. That's not really a negative at all though! This match-making system seems really helpful for playing with people who you know are at least going to be online at some point. Although I have to admit, I didn't really play the multiplayer that much, it's almost all about the story mode. Holy shit. No really holy shit. I'd bump this up to number one if these other seven games didn't exist. I know that sounds silly but like, please if you haven't experienced this story mode you're missing out.

7. The Witness

I love puzzle games. I love logic puzzle games. I'm not really an adventure game kind of person at all to be honest. I knew exactly what this game was coming into it and I enjoyed its style, its colors, its atmosphere and its jutting metal plates where you solve puzzles. I've heard a lot of complaints about this game. I feel like one of it's major faults isn't the game itself but how people compare it to Myst (which is an adventure game I enjoyed). But, this game is a straight up pen and paper logic puzzle adventure where you can just manipulate the world around you by solving puzzles. There's no real "mystery" to be solved either. It's just a weird sort of choose your own way to beat the game using the puzzles given you kinda thing.

6. Stardew Valley

In Stardew Valley you play as a farmer who takes over their dead grandpa's farm after having such a mundane office job for what seems like forever. This sounds exactly like the kinda weirdly veiled story that any of these games really need, and when I say "these games" I mean farming action adventure RPGs. It's weird how this game can combine almost zelda/rogue-like cave dungeon places with the love of what would probably be boring farming and fishing. But it's not even boring at all! I love plotting out my farm land, and feeding my chickens! In fact the only thing that really gets dull is the cave exploring and mining, but that's also because of how often I choose to do that. If you love simple fun, and having the ability to marry whoever you want in the village (pretty much), then this is totally a game for you. Also yeah I married Abigail cause she's a goth girl who eats rocks.

5. Fire Emblem Fates

The Fire Emblem series has been full of character(s) and holy cow I never got into those previous games. After beating Awakening this year, seeing how awesome the series could go into was something that sparked my interest in the sequel. After all the controversy that preceded the release in the west, I almost got to miss out on this really wonderful title. It's your typical static J-RPG trope-y characters but mixed in with what seems to be your (not) brothers and sisters? Since I almost always play these games as a girl, it's really tough to figure out who to marry, since they haven't figured out same-gendered marriages yet. But being the type of gal I was, in the game, I married what seemed to accurately be me and that was the furry boy. Thanks to that me and our lovely furry daughter can nya out way through the rest of the game.

4. Hitman

What else can be said about this game that hasn't already. No really. The guided kills, while many think they're off putting, are actually really rewarding and fun. I even beat this game to the ground trying to get 20/20 mastery in every episode. I'm excited for season two and hope that it's at least the same level as what we've gotten here this year. My favorite map is also Hokkaido.

3. Watch Dogs 2

Watch Dogs one was actually okay, in fact I loved it to death. Aiden Pierce was a terrible character but it was cool to see him at least portrayed as shitty when he was actually being shitty. But we're not here to talk about the first one, this is the second one that really hits it home. Watch Dogs 2 is so brilliant with it's fun world design, fun kills, fun weapons, fun music and fun characters that it just comes off as well... Entertaining. The game really isn't the easiest too, I had a some difficulty on the last parts of the game. The hacking is back and more streamlined that makes it feel a bit more empty compared to the first, but I guess that's a positive in a way. I also loved the little robot that you can zip around with.

2. Pokemon Sun and Moon

GUH.... GUHHH.... It's almost physically painful how good this game is. I've always loved Pokemon's quirky story as small as it might be to some people. As much as the meta game in Pokemon seems to be what most people put their eyes on, at least for the previous titles, I've seen more and more people loving the characters in the story. This game even has cutscenes out the gate, and I'm not talking just legendary monster pops up! There's so much I want to say about this game in its favor but honestly all I can say is that it's just not "Another Pokemon Game."

1. Overwatch

I dunno how they did it. It almost seems like a miracle that Blizzard got me to think about buying a game they made. I always thought that Blizzard was really sort of stale and static in almost an antagonistic way but this really flipped my world view. With characters that are fun and colorful and just awesome to play as, this game seems to hit every note that made me sour about first person shooters, and knock it out of the way. It's fluid movement and really friendly atmosphere in the game just makes me feel good. I still get super angry at the game but that's just the competitive nature of games in general. Overwatch at least lets me mute everyone who has a mic instantly through settings so I don't have to worry about hearing slurs that probably show up. My mains are also Mei, Mercy, Pharah and D. Va.

Well there you have it, my top ten games of the year. Doom honestly was a great game but I really haven't finished it yet. Consider it my number ten as well if it makes you feel happy. If you wanna hear more about my weird opinions or just wanna have a fun time with me hit me up on the twitter dot com.