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isturbo1984

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All the Games I've Beaten in 2016 + Personal GOTY Countdown

**A work in progress**

Please remember this is a work in progress. If you are taking a peek at this list before I've reached my #1, it may seem a bit lacking. Thanks for your understanding.

A few notes and a couple of disclaimers

This is a list of all the games I played and beaten in 2016 alone, even though not all of the games were necessarily released in 2016. I've beaten ALL the games on this list to the end of the campaign or main story, no exceptions. The games on the list are not 100% accurate in terms of which platform I played them on, as the GiantBomb database is not complete. My commentary consists of my own opinions and nobody else's and relies on basic gaming knowledge of the game and the genre when reading them. And lastly, this is in no way, shape or form, a review.--I'm not describing the individual games, I'm describing my experience with them.

It's been a wild ride. Some duds, but for the most part, I enjoyed 2016 very much. In order from worst to best, starting with #49...

*Reminder: this list is in inverted order

List items

  • #48

    Down here in the forty-somethings on the list, it gets a bit fuzzy. I don't know if Goat Simulator rests firmly at #48, or if it is more accurately represented as #45. All you need to know for sure is that whatever title you see, it's definitely better than the one immediately above it.

    I've heard of this game, as with everybody. I didn't get to play it until it got console-side. I just couldn't get behind what it was trying to do. I enjoyed small slices of the game at 10-mins at a time, for sure. But as an actual game, it was clunky, repetitive and ugly at its best. But being a purist that likes to beat all of his games, I probably put more time into this hunk than most did. It overstayed its welcome.

  • #47

    Not a bad game. Just not a good one. I don't have overwhelming positive things to say about it in actuality, but I admire and appreciate what it was trying to do. I wish I could say it was a brilliant 2D, side-scrolling adventure game with inspiring puzzles and great story. But it fell short on all fronts. If this game got some polish however, I could see something on the level of Shovel Knight.

  • #49

    Not anyone even knows there was a game. There was. It was a bad movie tie-in that released digitally a week before the movie came out. It was free. A rag-tag development team was quickly hired to piece this thing together solely to promote the movie. It played like trash. It was unfun. And it literally had PS2 graphics. Not only the worst game I played in 2016, but it is also the worst game I have played this generation.

  • #46

    Like Whispering Willows above it (you will see I often like to compare the titles above), this game was not bad, just not particularly good. Super Time Force had some really great ideas, they just weren't executed on an amazing level. The game... worked. But my little characters bouncing around the screen got overwhelming and tiresome. This game literally hurt my head after playing it. With all the characters, bullets and platforms flying around on the screen at the same time, in bright, pixilated graphics no less. Only about a 2-3 hours game, but I could only stand to play 20-30mins at a time. Just goes to show that not every innovative idea in the vg industry necessarily means it should be a thing. Nonetheless, I did enjoy my time with it. The first level and the beginning challenge modes were quite fun. Gets VERY convoluted later in the game and forces you to bruteforce your way through the stages and bosses.

    Despite me ragging on this game, it was still in a league of its own, better than the title before it on this list.

  • #45

    These Lego games are always great. At least, they used to be. This had been sitting on my shelf ever since it came out. It was a launch game for my Xbox One and I was really in the mood for another Lego game. The newest game in the series I had played at this point of time, it was arguably bigger and better than all the other Lego games before it. But it just wasn't what I had come to expect anymore. The game felt exactly the same as the older ones. And I am just tired of the way they played, the no-fail mode, the endless collectables, ect. I just can't do these games anymore. At least it was an actual game with polish, compared to the titles above. Still, I was glad to move on after it was over.

  • #44

    Now we are getting into games that I enjoyed with less critical backlash from myself.

    I thoroughly enjoyed this little title. I heard about, but never played the original on PC and mobile. The console (Evolved) version seems to be a bit better visually. But it is a straight-forward sim game, easy to pick up and understand. After a very short time with it and some frustrations later, I finished all the campaigns and walked away satisfied. One of those games not everyone will enjoy, but everyone should at least try once.

  • #43

    Another semi-famous game I have heard about but haven't bothered to play until recently. Now you know why so few of the titles on this list were actual games from 2016. I've been too busy playing catch-up.

    Dear Esther is a first-person adventure game with no combat. Not much more. I enjoy the genre quite a bit, and this apparently is the first in "walking simulator" games. It was what I expected as the first in the genre.--Very short with a great narrative. I liked how melancholy the game was. I did enjoy it, but it being so short went a long way. I don't imagine a game like this being 10 hours long. Not a whole lot more to say.

  • #42

    I loved this game as one of the hallmark gems on the 360 and enjoyed the Remastered version again here. Although not nearly as much as the first time. This was a comfort game for me. The humor used, the art style and the beat'em'up gameplay is not the best compared to other more modern games. But it is still a fun title and a complete package of the previously mentioned. The music is fantastic though, and holds itself up on its own merits, even compared to other titles. I remembered while playing it however that I did not really enjoy the grindy nature of the game in the end. But overall, a fun revisit.

  • #41

    You're going to see a few Walking Simulator games on this list. I enjoy them. But this one wasn't terribly great. Still a pretty good game though. I consider myself a Telltale enthusiast. And for me, their Batman game fell a bit short. There is an episode of Impractical Jokers on television where they joke about making a video game titled "Superman: Just the Clark Kent Stuff" as a point for boring. I sorta felt this was that game, but Batman rather than Superman. But this isn't a joke, it's a real game. Not as bad as I am making it seem, just the weakest Telltale game imo in a series of similar games in the genre that all meet or exceed my expectations.

  • #40

    I wanted to love the Adventures of Pip, but I only just liked it. Still, I liked it a fair amount. No real complaints. The game was not terribly hard, but not quite casual. The collectables weren't inane or overwhelming. And the story and concept were cool. If this retro-style game had came out back in the early-mid 90s, it would have revolutionized the platforming genre with its cool concepts. But today, it's just a mediocre platformer as is.

  • #39

    Now we've reached the thirties on the list. Everything from here on out is a certified good game imo with no exceptions. That doesn't mean I would recommend each and every one of them to everybody, but based on their tastes, I would recommend all of them to at least somebody. Starting with Yoshi's Woolly World here.

    At it's core, the game is a brilliant, stylized, colorful platformer. And Yoshi "& friends" were so damn cute. As a man in his 30s, that is not a word I use often. The complaints about this game by many are valid, as the game is overly casual in a lot of ways. But if you can ignore the insta-win options Nintendo has been putting in their recent games, you are left with decent platformer. I enjoyed Adventures of Pip above, gameplay-wise, just a tad more... but as a complete package, this game gave me more joy to play overall. Still was not the return to form I was hoping for. But crushed hopes and Nintendo go hand in hand. Oh well.

  • #38

    Okay. Besides No Man's Sky, this was the most controversial game in 2016. Was the game really what everyone said? Yes. But that doesn't mean it is as bad as everyone makes it out to be...

    This game did not break me and I did find some enjoyment out of it. The story and characters are amazing, but the game is riddled with technical problems and bad gameplay. Now what most people on the internet do not talk about when it comes to this game is the real problem with it, and the reason why so many people seem to be split: The game just seems to be stuck in time. That is not a pun. As far as open world gameplay design goes, this game feels and plays like an early-mid 2000s sandbox title. And that is the crux of the negativity and why it just didn't bother some people. But all that aside, I did get some enjoyment out of it, even if the game itself overstayed its welcome. I quickly got bored with gathering all the collectables and the side-missions. After about 10 hours or so, I gave up on what I usually do in open world games and just blasted through the story as quickly as I could. But again, I want to stress that I did enjoy my time with this game. It just wasn't the absolute best of experiences.

  • #37

    Wonderful take on classic Pac-Man! I loved every minute of it. It's Pac-Man. But in super form.--Even more so than the recent Championship Edition. It is very fast-paced, addictive and can be one of the best couch co-op party games. Only if Pac-Man 256 wasn't just a dumb app and more of an actual game, I would have rated it much higher on the list.

  • #36

    This hidden gem is a "brick breaker" game in the style of Zuma. It is probably the best overall brick breaker I have played. The graphics were nice and colorful, the gameplay was sharp, there were noticable innovations to the classic game and there is room for mastery challenge-wise. Just a really good package. I know what the game looks like to most, but it is definitely worth a look if you enjoy these games.

    There is a sequel too. Another brick breaker, this time in the style of the Luxor games. I haven't played it yet, but it looks just as fun.

  • #35

    This game, despite being a good, was a big letdown for me. I played and loved the original Bayonetta back in 2009 and was expecting this title to be one of the best games I would play that year. It wasn't, obviously, as it rests on the lower half of my list here. It was a solid action game, but was far from GOTY. Just goes to show you can never trust raving fanboys. Nintendo fans may have never played anything like this in their lives before, but me... I have. And was expecting it to deliver the world with how much praise this game got. A decent hack'n'slash, but honestly I enjoyed the DMC reboot just the year before a whole lot more.

  • #34

    MUCH more fun and satisfying that Mafia III, this open world sandbox title was just fun to play. The game hands out upgrades and new gear as the main missions progress and you complete challenges. So I'm afraid those who poked around for a few hours, just gliding around, did not find all the depth this game had to offer in terms of combat and mobility. That said, the game is pretty simple and straight-forward. And again, a whole lot of fun. In the end, this game suffered a lot from the same thing as Mafia III, which is it just played and felt a whole lot like an early-mid 2000s open world game. Compare to more modern titles like GTAV and The Witcher 3, it really contrasts how slow and uninteresting these games can be and bog the experience down.

  • #33

    Hands down, one of my favorite games of last generation. Shadow Complex is a competent "Metroidvania" title. I was very eager to jump back in again in this Remastered version on next gen platforms. Not quite as satisfying the first time around, but I still had tons of fun. This time, I managed to get 100% of the collectables. Usually a chore, but I really did not mind in a game this fun. Besides, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity since I missed doing it the first time around.

  • #32

    The game itself and how the story unfolds is pretty cool and made the overall experience better. If you haven't heard, the liberal echo chamber likes to point out some things about this game as some sort of selling point. But I'm not a teenage hipster, so I didn't much give a crap about any of it. But the game was pretty fun, nonetheless. I do enjoy me some Walking Simulators.

  • #31

    Another Nintendo game that does not deserve all the praise it gets. If they just fixed a lot of my gripes however, this could very well be one of the shooters of the decade. But the controls and the lack of voice chat absolutely kill this otherwise gorgeous and fun to play game. Just the way the battlefield unfolds and puts emphasis on how you play, even if you aren't a huge team shooter player, really is a breath of fresh air. Let's hope Splatoon 2 retains everything what makes this game great and ditches the stone-age video game restrictions.

  • #30

    I told you I enjoyed Walking Simulators. Particularly the Telltale brand. This game was good, but not my favorite. I would rank this title of theirs somewhere in the middle tier compared to their others. With the original Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us at the top. I liked the humor and characters, but it gets old after a while. The first episode kicked off with one of the most explosive first episodes in a Telltale game imo. But the story starts to drag after that some. While the ending was very climactic, too many dips and ebbs in the overall story and gameplay kept this one from being one of my favorites. Overall, I enjoyed it very much. Don't really have anything bad to say about it other than the minor things I already mentioned.

  • #29

    With 49 total games played in 2016, here in the twenties on the list you are starting to get to the creme of the crop. I said with number 39 that all the games beyond that point I consider good games, but not necessarily recommend them all to everybody. Now starting with number 29, I can definitively say all the games beyond this point are great and I actually would recommend everyone give them a try.

    Oh, look at that, another Walking Simulator. Not too many left on the list though, I promise. Anyway, Michonne was a fun Telltale experience. It was dubbed a Telltale "mini-series," consisting of only 3 chapters. The chapters themselves were average length, but the entire story was condensed to just the three. As a fan of the show, I really liked the backstory of the main character in this game. And the overall story had some great pacing. I was never bored or too eager to get the story to just move onto the next part like I sometimes want. Expected levels of gore and heartache. A bit immune to it all, especially after the very first TWD Telltale title, but as an overall game, I enjoyed this one very much. Even more so than the full Tales From the Borderlands series, obviously.

  • #28

    My first game in the less-popular racing series. TrackMania Turbo was almost everything I could have wanted out of a game like this. If anyone has played the 2D, hardcore racing platformers in the Trials series, then you know what to expect from this game. TrackMania plays exactly like Trials, a series that I love. The only difference being that this is in the first and third person view as you drive the car. But the time trials and split/second (another racing game pun) precision controlling are what really sets this game apart from other arcade-style racers. I said it was "almost" everything I had hooped for... While the game was great fun and had a ton of content, the game did suffer from bad stuttering sometimes that can absolutely break the game for anyone serious enough about tackling the time trials and scores. When I say this is a precision game, I mean even a half-second stutter can kill your level progress, forcing you to restart the entire level from the beginning. Unacceptable in a game like this, of all titles. If the game was a buttery-smooth and consistent 60fps, this would have made it in my top 10.

  • #27

    Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. Star Fox Zero beats out all the previous games you've seen on my list. Why? Because it's a great game and loads of fun. This SF title felt like a SF64 remake with alternate controls. It tackles the story of the Star Fox team following Fox's father's disappearance, leading up to the finale with Andros, the story you've all heard before. It really was a retelling, complete with most of the characters from the old games and all-new ones. Even the art style and some of the sound effects "Good Luck" was reminiscent of the original Star Fox on the SNES. The game had a surprising amount of depth to the story and lore of the SF universe. You probably learn more about the universe in this one game, than all the others combined. Even Kat makes an appearance in this game, before the series eventually replaced her with Krystal, lol. Gameplay-wise, it uses gyro controls of the Wii U gamepad. Not my preferred way of controlling the game, but if you can just set aside your bias for a half an hour at a time when playing this game and just accept it for what it is, you will have tons of fun. And really, that is all I asked for and this game gave that to me in spades. Controls were fairly responsive and accurate, but wonky sometimes. And aside from the massive difficulty spike with the end boss, my frustrations were kept to a minimum throughout the game. Game looks dazzling and beautiful graphically, btw. And the music was top notch. My only gripes besides the difficulty spike at the end is in fact, the controls.--As it stands, this game was an amazing ride that served me up a joyous experience at a 20 mins at a time. But with a little bit more padding and normal controls, this really could have been a more core experience.

  • #26

    Yet another Walking Simulator. Get over yourselves, fanboys. This game was the worst in the series...

    Let's just get the bad out of the way so I can attempt to praise this game for once. Nobody was more letdown by this title than I was. I am not one of the many people who pretend that a more "narrative, cinematic experience" is what this series is all about. Nein! The series is about action, platforming and gunplay! And every one of those was dumbed down in this game. I don't know what the hell happened. But between the no-fail platforming sequences, the bogged-down gunplay, shoddy stealth mechanics, melee combat mechanics that were completely removed, kindergarten puzzles and cutscenes that played out while the game made you hold forward on the thumbstick outside of a cinematic... all landed this game well below the quality of even the first title in the series in terms of being an actual GAME. Making Uncharted 4 a glorified walking simulator.

    All that said, the story, characters, narrative and acting were all phenomenal, as well as the graphics. My God!--To think that TLoU2 will look even better will blow my mind. It's just too bad that all that I just mentioned in the above paragraph was sacrificed just to deliver these points. This just isn't what the series is supposed to be. While my gripes are many, I still enjoyed this game enough to rate it this high on a massive list, even if my word choice doesn't seem that way. It just wasn't GOTY-material for me.

  • #25

    Having only two PlayStation exclusives on a list and putting Until Dawn just one higher than Uncharted 4 to make a point... sounds like something I would do. But believe me, in this case, it's just a coincidence. I wanted to talk about that for a sec. I felt like Sony hasn't had tons of masterpieces or games that were that interesting to me. Both games I played last year of theirs I was beyond stoked for. But neither really did tons for me. Good games, both of them, but ultimately I was left feeling more let down by each.

    Speaking about its genre, I feel Until Dawn had a fantastic presentation and concept. The genre I am talking about, of course, is general "horror," not necessarily the Walking Simulator adventure game genre. I was more impressed (scared) when playing other horror games, although I was impressed with what the devs were trying to achieve with this title. Still way too much "game" for a walking simulator for my tastes though.--Being tortured to aimlessly walk around and fiddle with switches or try and figure out which hallway to go down before a gauntlet of locked doors that funnel your movements gets old fast. Especially when playing a game that hinges everything on being a suspenseful thriller, it can break the experience fast. But fortunately, getting back into that suspenseful feel is quick, as the game does what it does very good. I liked feeling like the game was a web of open-endedness. In the end, the game did its job very well and was exactly what I was looking for that October, even if I was wishing this game would have made it in my Top 10.

  • #24

    Such a great spin on the point-and-click adventure game genre. Best way to describe this Walking Simulator is that it is a semi-open world game, divided up into chapters, where the world around changes within each chapter. I thought it was very different compared to the likes of Telltale game or even the way something like Until Dawn. It just had a very different feeling, gameplay-wise. The game had an interesting mechanic layered on top of that too, which is your character can control time to a degree, fast-forwarding or rewinding time. Makes of some interesting puzzle-solving. Overall, a great game. The characters and story were surprisingly enthralling too. Probably one of the most interesting and surprising games I have played all year in terms of just how tantalizing the story and character involvement was.

  • #23

    Layers of fuckin' Fear. I had the bejeesus scared out of me with this game. and that is such an understatement. I've lined up three Walking Simulators back-to-back-to-back. In the end, my experiences are my own and I make no excuses. That said, as an overall game, I enjoyed Life is Strange more than Until Dawn, even if the former is is arguably the most "cooked" as a tripleAAA game, and I ultimately enjoyed Layers of Fear more than LiS. Layers is a stright-forward walking simulator. There is very little "game" to the game. You just walk throguh a series of rooms and hallways, trying to figure out where to go next while shitting your pants. Full disclosure, jump scares aren't everyone's Achilles heel in the horror genre. Some get scared more by grotesque imagery or suspense. But when you are playing alone at midnight in a pitch dark room with noise-cancelling headphones, the jump scares in Layers of Fear are quite effective. Let's not do this again for quite some time.

    As an experience, I couldn't rate this game lower than any of the other of the adventure games on my list. It was fun and entirely frightening from start to finish. So with that being said, it is my pleasure to announce this is the last "point-and-click" adventure game (Walking Simulator) on my list.

  • #22
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