2016 Games That Were Cool
Heres a list of the games I thought were really cool this year, doing 15 cause I cant slice it down lower than that!
List items
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Stardew Valley is what I remember Harvest Moon being, but not what it actually was. That is, it takes the feeling of what I remember, but implements it using modern conveniences and improvements, something that Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons has failed to do in its sequels.
As a result I lost too many hours to this game. Spending so much time building the perfect farm and learning about the villagers of Pelican town. This game is just a super pleasant experience with an amazing soundtrack.
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A surprise this year. Im not a fan of the DQ series, and when I heard about this game initially I just wrote it off, but after buying it on a whim, it quickly became one of my favorite building style games.
I love games like minecraft and terraria, but most games in that vein focus on gimmicky things (DINOSAURS) or rely on the inherent fun of Multiplayer to make you like them, but this game instead focuses on the single player.
The game presents you a simple, but enjoyable, story to progress through. It directs you towards building things in general, but leaves the specifics up to you to allow you to be a bit creative with it, and its chock full of little side things you can do in each chapter. Very fun in a relaxing way.
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I haven't played a Hitman since high school, and from the sounds of it I chose the right time to get back on board. This game is a perfect arcady type of game. It knows exactly what it is, dropping you in a lot of crazy scenarios and giving you lots of ways to solve them. Focusing more on making sure the game is fun than trying to justify why it works.
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Played this late in the year but fell in love with it quickly. The sequel to a fun, but short, game called Ittle Dew, this game ups the ante significantly from that game.
This game features a full overworld, 7+ dungeons, and lots of secrets to find. Its not the most difficult game in the world, but its very charming, and some of the secrets take some genuine investment and decryption to solve.
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The best Dark Souls game released this year. It brings the DS formula back to its Castlevania beginnings, melding the two into a great experience. Amazing exploration, fun secret paths, traversal puzzles, tough bosses, it has it all.
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The more light hearted of the Final Fantasy games this year, ended up being a fun romp through a pleasant story.
Some of the parts of it may not be as fun if you aren't as much of a fan of Final Fantasy, but the story in this game is good on its own, with some nice twists and turns along the way. The gameplay is also a novel twist on the Pokemon style of combat that most JRPGs have been adopting lately.
Also theres a cactuar train conductor in it, so you know.
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This is a great game. I hadnt played a full new Pokemon game in a long time, instead playing the remakes (HeartGold) and trying but failing to complete Black.
This game though I stuck with. This is the first Pokemon where I was invested in the story it presented, and the mechanics in it are great. The pokemon designs for this generation are adorable, and the attitude of this game is a refreshing sort of self aware. (Team Skull)
Popplio #1
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Was introduced to this game on the GB Extra Life Stream, and then proceeded to play it with friends and family over and over again this year.
I think it's fair at this point to say that Jackbox Games just dominates the party game space. The novel idea of using your phones to play introduced in the first pack continues to pay off as they find more and more novel ways to use it.
The best game in this pack is probably Tee K.O., but the other games aren't anything to scoff at either. Guesspionage in particular is a real novel concept for a party game.
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Another, in a long list of games this year, of games that Im not a fan of the series of, but got on board this year.
The story of this game is whatever, kind of a mish mash of plot excuses (that is mostly comprised of movie scenes spliced into the game), but its all made up by the wonderful gameplay.
They dont really make as many 3D platformers anymore (looking out for Yooka-Laylee), but this one is a great one of those. They will always have a place in my heart.
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Lets get it out of the way, This game was not as good as the previous 2, but then again I didn't really expect it to be.
999 was such a high to start on, that it was inevitable that the games coming after it wouldnt be up to the same task, and while VLR was insane and fun, it didnt have to wrap up a series.
So all that being said, while ZTD isnt quite at the level of those two games, its still pretty great. It brings it in the weird sci fi shit area, and it at least tries to wrap up the story in an interesting way.
Perhaps on some level I enjoy this game because its giving me even just a little bit of that 999 high, but even a little bit of that high makes it well worth playing in my book.
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One case where I am a fan of the franchise: Digimon. Though I have not actually played many of the games.
This game ended up being a really solid, if kind of low budgety, JRPG. Fun characters, fun quests, lots of side things to do, just a good solid JRPG time.
Plus its about Cyber Slueths, which is just a cool thing.
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3DS Kirby games continuing to be your place to go if you want some OG Kirby action, and not yarn/clay stuff.
This is just a really solid kirby game. The robot gimmick isnt over used, the levels are full of fun little secrets, and theres some great shout outs to long time fans of the kirby series.
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Maybe not as good as Fire Emblem Awakening, but still a great game.
I think how interesting the story is varies a lot by what game you get (Birthright being the more tame one), but of course whats important in these new FE games are the characters not the story, and in that vein this game delivered.
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This is actually my first foray into Picross and boy was it fun. I snuck time to play this game in all over the place in my daily routine. On the bus, in between projects at work, right before going to bed.
Just an overall enjoyable puzzle game with an insane amount of content.
Seriously I was convinced there were infinite puzzles in this game for a while, they kept unlocking.
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This game can be a little... up its own ass at points with some of its things, but undeniably its a great puzzle game. JoBlow continues to bring it in terms of generating all new types of puzzles and iterating/improving on them.
Although I really do wish this game had done more to accommodate peeps with some of its puzzles.
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The secret 16th game on this list, because its not a game from 2016.
But I played it this year, and damnit if It was in 2016 this would be in the top 5 for sure.
If you like difficult games, this is one of the best designed and most fair ones Ive ever played.
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