GOTY 2012
As we fortify our living rooms with gaming PCs and hope for a new start with shiny new consoles, we nibble on these weird and wonderful smaller games.
List items
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Going into 2012, I had thought that the title which would be bringing me back to those salad days of challenging puzzle worlds a la the Myst series would be The Witness. It was a complete surprise to find myself making numerous notes as I explore the richly detailed environs of Fez. The puzzles sometimes are hard enough that you need to take them offline, which is a bit of a departure from traditional platformers where the puzzles are often solvable at a glance. The platforming itself does not become too taxing, which is probably for the best. As you get deeper into the game, you'll find the tempo slow as you sit and ponder what you've found. And the game seems to understand this, with its energetically animated, inventively realized environs and stellar soundtrack. There are some graphical hitches, and show-stoppers, but overall its a wonderful experience for both fans of platformers and puzzlers.
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The game company makes unique interactive experiences which challenge the medium. Journey tells a short, abstract story with incredible visuals and sound. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this journey is that you are joined by other players thoughout the narrative, but you don't invite them or stay with them the whole way. This ambient co-op has a marvelous effect on the tone, since it adds a human element to the proceedings.
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Impressive visuals, light-hearted, often self-aware dialogue, and a chef's menu of battle-tested gameplay mechanics.
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I never played the original PC game, but instantly feel in love with the XBLA release of this high-energy platforming rogue-like. Multiplayer is a lot of fun, if you can find a group willing to tolerate the madness.
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The sound of running water and dripping stalactites. On a cave wall, painted in phosphorescent blue paint, is a diagram of a transistor. This somehow captures the essence of Dear Esther completely; a Greek tragedy in a modern setting told in a modern medium. Unlike Papo & Yo, which also tells a personal story about loss, it does not feel the need to present the player with obstacles and simple puzzles. It draws clear inspiration from games like Half-Life with its environmental storytelling and ever-present beacon on the horizon. But since it has no challenges, its not a game -- there is no play. But that would be inappropriate given the tone of the piece, so its to the credit of the developers that they did not succumb to the temptation to lock progression behind puzzles.
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Video games are not often very good making players feel sad. Often, you have a gun in your hand, a meaningful goal and the power to carry it out. Death is more silly than sad; as you die dozens of times in every campaign, and you're immediate reaction is "haha, well that's not how it's suppose to go," as your lifeless puppet slumps over. In short you have no window for sadness, even in the face of horrible tragedy, because you are action manifest. The genius of the Walking Dead is that success is just as horrible as failure. So it is able to be truly sad, because you're helpless to accomplish anything but a lesser evil. So I did cry. I pressed the A button, because it was the only thing that made sense, and I cried.
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tap tap tap tap-tap tap tap tap tap-tap...
My heart pulses to the beat of this simple yet punishing rhythm game. The presentation is so playful and energetic I can't help by try to master its series of wacky challenges.
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Stylish and imaginative platformer that's a blast to play.
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Its tempting to cull little games like Frog Fractions simply by scope. But I measure the weight of a game by how much of an impact it had on me, which is terribly different from the size the project. What starts as a seemingly simple browser-based game continues in a trajectory that can only be described as skit comedy. In fact, its hard right turns and mild shock humor is very much in the spirit of what Monty Python was doing on BBC all those years ago.
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Same feel as the previous iteration of the series. Tons of fun to play with a group of friends, but becomes surprisingly bogged down by large enemy encounters, at least on hardware that's a couple years old. The story is absolutely flat, to the point that its a wonder they spend as much time on it as they do. Regardless I had a lot of fun with it while it held my attention.
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