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criacow

ABC always be writing game of the year lists

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Game of the Year 2016

Hello, friends, and welcome to the 4th Annual Cow's Game of the Year List, where we don't talk about Trials of the Blood Dragon or Firewatch even though we played those. :3

First, a few honourable mentions. I cut the list of games I played this year down to 13, and then couldn't cut any more without at least giving a shout-out:

Honourable Mentions

Abzû: What this game got right, it really got right. It didn't hit me on quite the same level as Journey, but the moments of swimming with massive schools of fish were amazing and the soundtrack was lovely. That game is best when it's in pure environmental mode, just letting you be amongst the world. Every time it became an actual game, though, I found the controls lacking and the tasks not very interesting.

Alone With You: While I was playing this, I was really into it. The art and the setup are great. But even by the end I was struggling to care enough to finish it, and none of the characters or story really came together for me. It was enjoyable enough to get through, but it's built to encourage replayability and yet I don't see myself doing that at all.

Helen's Mysterious Castle: This was the hardest cut. I don't even know why I like this game; the controls are bad, the game plays in a tiny window, it feels in a lot of ways like a generic RPGMaker game. And yet, AND YET. The time-based battle system feels really good and interesting and there's just enough to the story that I keep going back, wanting to see more of it. There's something here, absolutely. Also, I think it was like two dollars? so.

...and now, on to the actual list. Oh, and apparently you can't put links in list items, so when I say "possibly-too-heartfelt piece" in Stardew Valley, that's where that link should go.

List items

  • My goodness, this game. It came out of nowhere, spread by word of mouth--I was three weeks into this game before Giant Bomb even mentioned it. I spent more hours on this than any other game, other than Overwatch. I even wrote a possibly-too-heartfelt piece about my winter with it. One person's labour of love, and such a beautiful thing it is.

  • I played the prologue, I knew I was going to love this thing, and I was still shocked by just how much I loved this thing. The writing, on every level, was great. The characters, the world-building, the interactions. It even made me laugh a lot, and games so rarely pull off humour. It's a great example of love and life amongst a dark world--and the creators live in Venezuela, so the 'dark world' examples are often straight out of their lives. I suspect we're all gonna need this as a guide to life in the coming years.

  • I don't play shooters. They're not my thing. I even did a free weekend with friends and was like...eh, maybe. And then, before I knew it, I'd lost an unbelievable number, a triple-digit number, of hours to this game. Part of that's because some dear friends also got into it; I never play solo queue and I don't think I'd play this game at all if that were my only option. But this cartoonish superhero game has warmed a place in my heart, and now it's too warm and I have to play Mei to get back to equilibrium. (I main Zarya with Mei, Reinhardt, and Lucío as my preferred others. :D)

  • The game that got me to dust off and charge up my Vita. This game will probably be my Dust: An Elysian Tail of the year, where I will yell to anyone who will listen about how powerful, how amazing it is and yet no one will ever play it. Brilliant art, good touch screen mechanics (a phrase I almost never say!), and a haunting world. Please, please go play Severed. Don't let me be the only one.

  • This game runs in 320x200 resolution and, according to Steam, will run on a Windows ME computer with a Pentium chip. It came out in 2016. And yet, even with only a few pixels to work with, they create a fully-realized world. The use of colour palettes and zoomed-in character portraits go a long way to make up for what's missing graphically. And the story, writing, and voice acting make up for the rest. I love adventure games, and Shardlight is my favourite in years. Every character is a little weird in a different way, but they all fit the world, and it lends to all these little touches that just add up to perfection. I keep thinking about this game. I've gone back and started listening to the commentary, and I NEVER DO THAT.

  • MAPPY WAS ROBBED by not even getting mentioned for Best New Character. Also, I can't think of a better recent example of retro-future in games.

  • What if you took Zelda, repainted it to be all neon and bright colours, made it really challenging, and gave Link *two* cloaks? y'all I think we're onto something. I came to this game really late in the year and still haven't finished it, or it might be higher up the list. This is...really something.

  • Oh my goodness, what a charming thing. You got my Dragon Quest in your Minecraft! But with actual quests and goals and progression. This won't blow your mind or redefine the genre or anything like that, but as far as fun little things to sit down and meddle with for a little bit at a time, you could do a lot worse than rebuilding the world of Dragon Quest 1 while blue slimes wander around.

  • Clicky Shit of the Year. I love adventure games and the Artifex Mundi brand of adventure + hidden object puzzles. This one's just...something else, even for their usual brand of nonsensical but awesome story. I think I described it to someone as "all cloaks and bondage gear". (There are a surprising number of puzzles involving handcuffs and chains.) But all of the puzzles are well done, I never once needed a faq or a hint, and the mask puzzles are something neat and original. These games are great when you just need something to relax and zone out to, and I had a really good time with this one.

  • I want to be better at Furi. I'm not. I am, in fact, terrible at Furi. The soundtrack, the art, the styyyyyyle, all amazing...I just wish I were any good at it.
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