Game of the Year 2013

(This is a copy-paste from my Tumblr post so that I can submit it to Community GOTY.)

As everyone’s releasing Game of the Year, I wanted to write mine before reading a bunch of other people’s. I’m quite happy with it. But first, four games I didn't play (or play enough of) that seemed neat and probably would've made this list, except, well, I can't say at this point.

a. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Some people took one of the greatest video games of all time, made a sort-of-sequel and spiritual successor to it, and nailed it. I played it at a pre-release event and did play a few minutes of it, but I haven’t played enough to really know — but from what I’ve heard from everyone, I can’t wait. This is probably going to eat most, if not all, of my trip to see my family this week.

b. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

For a series that seemed to be busy finding new depths to plumb while crawled up its own ass, it sounds like Ubisoft somehow completely struck gold this time. From the ridiculous awesomeness of what they do to the Abstergo concept to “we took AC but now it’s just pirates and sea shanties” (COLLECTIBLE SEA SHANTIES!) to, from what I’ve heard, a trans? or genderqueer? or something? member of your crew but handled well and awesome (!!)…yeah. I’m actually catching up on AC now just so I can play this damn game.

b2. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation

I PLAYED THIS ONE and IT CAME OUT IN 2012 but NONE OF YOU PLAYED IT NONE OF YOU AUGH WHAT THE FUCK so I HAVE TO CAPSLOCK HERE A BIT. You play as an escaped/freed slave, a woman of colour in colonial New Orleans, and your task via the Assassins is to do things like liberate slaves, sneak into rich people balls and stab them in the face, etc. It even has a costume mechanic that is thinly veiled social commentary. AND NONE OF YOU PLAYED IT.

It’s being rereleased in HD on PS3 on the 14th of January 2014. GO FORTH AND PLAY OMG. THIS WILL BE ON YOUR FINAL EXAM.

c. The Last of Us

Slight variation on a theme here, as I’m about 2 hours in and haaaaate it. But I’m told it sucks hard for the first three hours, and then once you get out of Boston turns into a completely amazing experience. So I’ll stick with it and see.

AND NOW THE ACTUAL GAMES YAY!

List items

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  1. Gone Home

  My idealized, nostalgized childhood in a video game. The relationships I almost had but never quite; the music I loved, but missed because I was a little too young; the world I wanted to be in, but couldn’t be because I grew up on the wrong coast.

  Everything about this game is amazing, from the little interactions with every item, to the voiceover work, to the story, to the posters and music and everything invented, to the truly palpable feeling of terror of being a teenager alone in an empty house where you don’t know what happened. Even the part where she’s led such an active fantasy life that you can’t even tell if she’s (you’re, as it’s first-person) afraid of something real or something you’ve made up in your head…man. A game that truly captures the spirit of being a young queer teenager on the verge of adulthood and of coming into your own life and personality and dealing with rejection from family but going ahead with your life anyway and and and.

  It’s three hours. It’s twenty bucks, but has been frequently on sale as low as five. If you haven’t played it, even if you don’t normally play video games (it’s essentially a point-and-click adventure game; you don’t need twitch reflexes or anything to play it), I recommend grabbing it and trying it out. I’ve even bought copies for friends who needed this and couldn’t afford it. It’s that powerful, and that necessary.

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  3. Papers, Please

  This is one of those games that’s hard to explain if you didn’t play. You’re an immigration inspector in a small fake Soviet country in the 80s. Everything is going to hell around you. If you don’t work hard, your family will die. Even if you do work hard, they might, because nature is cruel and it’s cold and nobody has enough food. And it gets darker from there.

  There’s a lot of depth—20 different endings, some of them surprising and interesting, and not all bad. Your choices and how good you are at your job have a lot of influence. And even if you do a complete playthrough, it’s maybe an hour long? So that’s fun. Glory to Arstotzka.

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  4. Animal Crossing: New Leaf

  Caveat: this was my first Animal Crossing. I hear your first one’s always the best.

  But holy cow, this game took away a lot of the summer from me and many of my friends. I remember one point where scowlowl and I sat at his university’s grad student pub (in another city from where I live) trading items. I took the train to BARRIE. BARRIE. to spend an afternoon hanging out with people and swapping around Animal Crossing bits.

  Isabelle is the true greatest character ever. And so much love to my various townspeople, especially Walker. I miss you guys.

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  5. Super Mario 3D World

  You get to play as a fart-powered princess cat. WHAT MORE DO I NEED TO SAY? THIS IS GREAT.

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  6. Fire Emblem: Awakening

  I love strategy RPGs. Final Fantasy: Tactics was one of the best games of all time. So, here’s a solid strategy RPG, with well-designed systems, an actually good story, beautiful art, and it’s on a portable system so you can do a battle here or there while on the subway.

  Oh, and somehow it turns into a dating sim as you go.

  Awesome.

  One major caveat: all the relationships are het-only. That’s really about the only thing keeping it from true greatness.

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  7. NES Remix

  OH YEAH. This, along with #5 and #2, are enough that maybe you might consider getting a Wii U. It’s $15 on eShop, and it’s a thing where they’ve taken a whole bunch of NES games, pulled 10-15 second snapshots, and make you do things. Sometimes it’s straightforward, especially in the early going (they don’t assume you’ve played these games, so the first few levels in each game are things like, “Collect all the coins!” or “Ride for ten seconds without falling over!”). The remix bits are where it gets really neat, as it jams five or six things together WarioWare style where you’re just playing the high-action bits of a bunch of games, and then suddenly the thing fades out, or goes dark, or .. yeah. Lots of neat stuff here, and I’m still unlocking games.

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  8. BIT.TRIP Presents: Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

  This is the first game on this list that isn’t an honourable mention—the first one where I feel like I can say, hey, they made a complete game! Yay for them!

  And most years something like this wouldn’t make the list, but hey, it was a really, really lean year in video games. So. This is…just like Bit.Trip Runner, except with a little more to it (a world map, some collectibles, etc). This is pure mechanics. You run. You kick, you block, you jump, you slide, you run loops. And you run more. Everything is static (nothing is random in level design) and you keep doing it until you get it right.

  But hey, it was free on PS+. And it’s fun.

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  9. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

  Another one to go with my #10, except it’s a bit more playable. Level-5, makers of awesome games, makes a JRPG animated/drawn by Studio Ghibli. How is this not fantastic?

  Well, it’s a bloody grindfest where your fucking obnoxious comic-relief sidekick (WHY MUST THERE ALWAYS BE ONE WHY IT’S NEVER FUNNY AND ALWAYS AWFUL STOP THAT) constantly ruins everything. Also the mechanics and combat are just “throw everything ever into a food processor and hit blend” — it’s partially Pokémon, but with party combat, with action RPG thrown in, and then elemental affinities and zodiac stuff and…no seriously it’s a complete mess. But the story’s all right, the world is truly beautiful and charming, the story’s ok, the characters (ASIDE FROM THE COMIC RELIEF AUGH) are great… yeah. It’s worth an honourable mention.

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  10. Remember Me

  Okay I’m kidding ever so slightly. This game isn’t quite a dumpster fire, but it’s real close. The mechanics are awful, the combos don’t work, the gameplay is bad. But oh man, it’s beautiful. Just a beautiful world (Neo-Paris, 2084) in a well-made cyberpunk way (a megacorp makes a thing where they can save and replace your memories, and begins to evolve into cyberpunk evil megacorp blah blah memory blah; you’re an Errorist, a member of a cell who is basically trying to free everyone; the game starts with the megacorp having captured you and mostly erased your memories, but not entirely, and you have to break free and then regain your memories slowly while fighting back).

  YOU GUYS IT’S EVERYTHING I WANT IN A GAME except the game itself sucks, oops.