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majormitch

Playing FF7 Rebirth is giving me the Bad Thought of replaying other FF games.

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Gaming Memories: Elite Beat Agents

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games. I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

Once upon a time, Hulk was a star baseball player. The kids loved him. Until, one day, he inexplicably started to decline, and struggled to hit all those home runs anymore. First he was demoted to the minor leagues, then he resigned to be a janitor at the stadium. He was devastated. Then, out of nowhere, a giant fire-breathing golem appears and starts attacking the fans. The same kids that used to love Hulk. He wants to help them. So he does the only thing he can.

He calls out for help from the Elite Beat Agents.

Agents are...
Agents are...

At a glance, the titular agents don’t seem like they could help in this scenario. They are essentially a group of male cheerleaders dressed in snazzy suits and funky hats, but they nevertheless manage to solve problems around the world by dancing and singing. The power of song? Positivity? Magic?? No matter, it’s not meant to make sense, which is one of the fun things about Elite Beat Agents. It’s extremely silly, and genuinely funny at times - if not borderline insane. In the above example, the agents sing and dance, which inspires Hulk to use his baseball skills to defeat the golem and save the day. He defends by catching fireballs with his glove, he attacks by throwing fastballs, and he delivers the killing blow with a powerful home run swing of his bat. This all plays out as you tap your way through the song, and every song in the game is accompanied by a charmingly absurd situation. A young woman babysitting nightmare children. A lost dog trying to find his way back to his owner through busy streets. A weather woman trying to conjure the perfect weather day her son. Corporate intrigue, stranded on a desert island, an alien invasion. It goes on and on, and no matter how normal they seem at first, each scenario devolves into utter madness by its end. Elite Beat Agents’ sense of humor is one of my favorite things about it.

Of course, Elite Beat Agents is a great rhythm game underneath the quirky exterior; I wouldn’t like it so much if it wasn’t. As of the time of this writing, it remains my favorite rhythm game to date. I’ve always considered myself a fan of rhythm games, and at one point in life I was a solid band/music nerd. Yet a lot of them fall just short in one way or another for me. Either they manage to be too rote and mechanical, acting as glorified quick time events. Or they become too distracted with cumbersome peripherals, such as plastic guitars, drums, microphones, or dance pads. Elite Beat Agents, then, is able to leverage the Nintendo DS touch screen to find an effective middle ground. Tapping and swiping with the stylus is simple, intuitive, and precise in a way that elaborate peripherals often struggle. And the nature of touch inherently allows for more flair and style than basic button presses. I find the act of tapping and swiping on a touch screen to be highly satisfying, and the controls in Elite Beat Agents are responsive with great feedback; it may be the best use of touch controls I've experienced. It simply feels good to play, which is paramount to any good rhythm game.

GO!!
GO!!

It also allows the game to put the focus squarely on the rhythm itself. With nothing else to get in the way, Elite Beat Agents is as pure a distillation of the genre as any. That allowed me to fully absorb myself in the rhythm, and man, that rhythm is good. So good, in fact, that I couldn’t put the game down until I mastered every challenge it put before me. Let me reiterate this more clearly: I completed every. single. thing. I possibly could. That means for every song, all the way up through the highest difficulty, I got a perfect score. Again, that’s not just hitting every note for a full combo; I hit every note with perfect timing for a perfect score. And Elite Beat Agents is not an easy game. It took some serious effort, but because I loved the feel of the rhythm so much, I was excited to make that effort. I eagerly played each song over and over until I had, quite literally, mastered them. I loved the process of practicing, and the fact that it only had 19 songs was a boon for me. That smaller scope allowed each one to feel unique and hand-crafted, and showcase interesting patterns and design. This was counter to other rhythm games of the era, many of which contained dozens upon dozens of mechanically indistinct songs. Elite Beat Agents’ depth over breadth design, meanwhile, made mastering each song a delight. It remains one of my proudest video game achievements to date, and almost certainly my most impressive from a difficulty standpoint. It’s an incredibly rewarding memory I will always cherish. Even though I’m pretty sure my college roommate would rather die than hear any of those songs again.

Around 2006, when Elite Beat Agents was released, rhythm games seemed unstoppable. Gaming stores were flooded with plastic instruments, and it appeared that simulating rock stardom was the clear direction of the medium for the foreseeable future. But it was a quirky Japanese game about male cheerleaders saving the world that I couldn’t stop playing. I loved its sense of humor. I loved its wacky scenarios. I loved its rewarding challenge. I loved the variety of its songs. And most of all, I loved how it felt. Tapping and swiping was so satisfying, and it allowed the game to put rhythm above all else. I gave myself to that rhythm in full. In return, Elite Beat Agents gave itself to me, and is as much a part of me as any game I've played.

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Gaming Memories: A Link to the Past

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games. I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

I can still hear The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The pitter-patter of footsteps in the sewers. The swing of Link’s sword. Picking up a pot. Transitioning between light and dark worlds. Hitting a switch in a dungeon. Going up and down stairs, jumping in the water, firing the bow. The cry of a defeated boss. And the music. Gosh, the music. I can still hear all of it as if I was playing A Link to the Past right now. There aren’t many games I can say that for, but A Link to the Past is special. It’s a game that remains with me so many years later, as deeply as any game I’ve played. It’s a game I have a hard time not getting a little mushy about.

I know this place like the back of my hand.
I know this place like the back of my hand.

I imagine most of us have a handful of clear inflection points in our individual gaming histories, and A Link to the Past is one of mine. It showed me just how ambitious games can be, as its scope was heads and shoulders above anything I had played to that point. It took place in a single large, connected world, rather than across a series of self-contained levels. You collected a spread of interesting items that had many uses across said world. Numerous enemies, bosses, and dungeons tested your smarts just as much as your skill with a sword. There were countless secrets that felt magical, as if anything was possible; I came to expect the unexpected. This created a virtual space I wanted to actively poke and prod every corner of. It turned the focus towards a process of discovery, of learning the rules and intricacies of a world I had never been to. Unearthing surprising interactions remains one of my favorite things about video games at large, and A Link to the Past is full of them. You can identify hidden breakable walls by the sound your sword makes when it clangs against them? One enemy type turns into a helpful fairy if you sprinkle magic powder on it? Throwing your boomerang into a specific pond will produce a better boomerang? Such interactions may seem obtuse on the surface, but taken together they cultivate a mindset of curiosity and experimentation. It's that exact mindset that makes systems-driven and/or open world games so popular today, in 2018. But A Link to the Past was doing it in 1992, and it was the first time I thought about games that way.

That’s not to say A Link to the Past isn’t an extremely well-crafted game by traditional standards either, because it most certainly is. The Legend of Zelda series is regularly considered one of gaming’s best, and A Link to the Past exemplifies all of the series’ most positive traits. It remains a masterclass of game design, one of those rare games you point to and say "it does everything right." It controls well, it has a look that was stunning at the time (and still works today), and its soundtrack remains among gaming’s most iconic. Its world is meticulously crafted to afford the player ample room to explore and experiment, but offers just enough direction to not be completely overwhelming. The light world-dark world dynamic is an incredibly clever twist. There’s a great variety of enemies and bosses, and a progression of items and difficulty that feels right. The dungeons are full of great puzzles that test your spatial awareness, with rooms assembled just so to provide a consistently rewarding challenge. It’s the rare game that I find enjoyable to engage with throughout, without ever dragging or feeling tedious. Given the scope of A Link to the Past compared to games of that era, it’s hard to convey just how impressive that was at the time.

Did I mentioned A Link to the Past has many excellent dungeons?
Did I mentioned A Link to the Past has many excellent dungeons?

And still is. I revisited A Link to the Past earlier in 2018, for the first time in over a decade, and I was struck yet again by how well it holds up. This is the game that codified the template that would see one of gaming’s most defining franchises through decades of successful sequels, and looking back I can’t help but feel this particular entry stands the test of time better than any of them. Its freedom and sense of discovery is somewhat dulled in many of the sequels; consider how you can tackle some dungeons in any order, how some bosses and puzzles have multiple solutions, or how it’s confident enough to not tutorialize every detail. On the other end, A Link to the Past is never as obtuse as the original Zelda; you never have to resort to burning down random trees to find the next dungeon. Different people are going to land at different places on the Zelda spectrum, but to me, A Link to the Past hits a sweet spot of being neither too obtuse nor too directed. Aside from being a remarkably well-designed game in all aspects, that’s what stuck out to me more than anything when I revisited this classic again after so many years. Not many games, Zelda or otherwise, hold up this well for this long.

Zelda games have predominantly been, first and foremost, about a young boy going on a big adventure. Shigeru Miyamoto himself has talked about his inspiration for the series coming from his own explorations of caves, hillsides, and forests as a kid. A Link to the Past was my first Zelda game. And it was my first big video game adventure. Games have certainly grown in size in the decades since, but A Link to the Past was the one that made me realize just how big they could truly be; how much they could spark the imagination and provide spaces to explore, discover, and learn. I never looked at video games and their potential the same way in its wake. A Link to the Past is an important link to my own past, and defined how I viewed the entire medium going forward.

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Gaming Memories: Freedom Fighters

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games. I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

One of my favorite moments in Freedom Fighters happens whenever you destroy an important structure held by the invading Soviet Union army. You locate a bridge, a helipad, artillery, or some other critical objective, clear out the enemies around it, and plant your explosives. As the countdown timer ticks down, the blaring music fades, giving you a few seconds of silence amidst the chaos. Then, boom. Your target is engulfed in flames, and as your handiwork sinks in, a new choral song comes on loud and proud to highlight your accomplishment. You’re taking it to your invaders one big-ass explosion at a time. And it feels good.

Freedom Fighters is a game about mounting a resistance against an oppressive regime, and those moments where you land a critical blow are powerful. The narrative, while sometimes campy (in an endearing way), does a great job at connecting how these small victories add up in the bigger picture. Visually, the Soviet imagery shows just how prominently they have set up shop in New York, and seeing it crumble is stirring. Perhaps most importantly, Freedom Fighters underscores every moment with its epic soundtrack. I’m a vocal fan of video game music, and this one’s score sits near the very top of my favorites. Its unique combination of synth and choral sounds is bold and striking, and it was a grand step up from what video games were doing with music at the time; it felt like it raised the stakes for the entire medium. And it does it with impressive variety that always matches the game’s Cold War vibe. From the empire’s chilling march, to the resistance’s quiet resolve, to intensely desperate combat themes, Freedom Fighters’ soundtrack runs the gamut, and the way it dynamically changes tracks to match its big moments is highly effective. Any good soundtrack serves to enhance the game experience, and by that measure this is still one of the best.

But Freedom Fighters is much more than bombast and a great soundtrack; it arguably has more substance than its already considerable style. Its solid third-person shooting is driven by streamlined squad mechanics, and built upon stellar level design. I’m normally not one for dealing with squads in shooters, but Freedom Fighters’ arcade nature makes it simple and fun to command your surprisingly competent squad members around the battlefield. And the way each sprawling, nonlinear level is laid out provides all sorts of opportunities to spread out and tackle objectives from different angles. It goes a long way towards making you feel like you’re part of a team that’s working together to complete an objective; so many games miss the mark by having teammates that are little more than window dressing. Your squadmates truly matter here, so much so that they’re often more effective than you are. That makes it easy to become invested and rely on them, and the fact that you’re always convincing new fighters to join the cause furthers the game’s theme of mounting a resistance. You get to see your troops grow dramatically in number over time, which makes for some killer final levels where you are leading a veritable army against formidable fortresses. It’s a great payoff.

Team!
Team!

Yet my favorite design idea from Freedom Fighters is one I’ve not seen much since, and certainly not implemented this well. You regularly have multiple levels to choose from at once, and completing objectives in one will affect another. For example, destroying a helipad in one level will prevent helicopters from spawning in another. This creates an elaborate network of cause and effect, and you’re able to bounce between these levels at will; you can even leave mid level and see the effects of your handiwork elsewhere. The result is that you can strategically plan out how you go about systemically taking down the empire at an infrastructural level. Which, yet again (catching on yet?), supports the game’s theme of mounting a resistance against your oppressors. It’s rad as hell, and I had a blast exploring multiple approaches across multiple playthroughs. It’s dynamic enough to reward experimentation, and I enjoyed my later playthroughs on higher difficulties just as much as my first. It’s impressive any time a game gets so much mileage out of simple ideas, and Freedom Fighters is more robust than most. I remember all of my time with it fondly.

Freedom Fighters is a game about mounting a resistance against an oppressive regime. Not only is that apparent through its story, visuals, and music, but also through the very core of its mechanics. You inspire and recruit a team of rag-tag rebels looking to fight back. You plan out the best way to dismantle your invaders’ infrastructure. And you execute across superbly designed levels. I love how everything ties together under a central theme, and it’s much rarer than it should be for a game to put such level of care into everything it does. I’m a big proponent of cohesive design, and in that aspect, Freedom Fighters is refreshingly holistic. It’s also got spunk, super cool ideas, and (at the risk of beating a dead horse) a goddamn amazing soundtrack. It’s the kind of game I play and think “Why can’t more video games be this good?” Maybe that's overly idealistic, but at least we got Freedom Fighters.

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Gaming Memories: Super Mario RPG

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games. I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

SPOILER WARNING: This blog contains spoilers for Super Mario RPG.

There’s a fancy hotel in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars called Marrymore Hotel. For the most part it works like any other inn in the game: you can pay a small fee to rest and heal up your party members. But Marrymore also has a fancy deluxe suite, which functionally serves little purpose. It’s also way more expensive, and you can choose to stay there for more nights than you can afford. Most video games wouldn’t let you do something you can’t afford, but Super Mario RPG isn’t most video games. If you stay for too many nights, your punishment is to work as a bellhop, performing tedious tasks to pay back your debt.

Mario RPG's combat had a great idea that's not been used enough.
Mario RPG's combat had a great idea that's not been used enough.

Super Mario RPG is a game full of character. That’s not limited to the actual characters in the game, but also the game itself. It has fun with the little details like Marrymore Hotel, which pays attention to your negligence and makes you pay in a playful way. NPCs in the world idolize Mario, imitating his jumps or playing with toy figurines. It rains when Mallow cries, Bowser kisses Mario at one point, you fight what are basically the Power Rangers, and it has this music. It’s a supremely silly game, but also a competent one; it never sacrifices its solid mechanics for a gag, which is the downfall of so many funny games. Super Mario RPG’s core loop is typical by JRPG standards of the time -- this was a collaboration with the Squaresoft of the 90s after all -- and crawling through dungeons, leveling up, and finding more powerful items and abilities works just as well here as in its contemporaries. Most importantly, Super Mario RPG leans into one fresh idea that I still don’t think is used enough. Timing additional button presses on your attacks and blocks greatly increases their effectiveness, which makes its turn-based battles feel surprisingly active. You have to constantly stay on your toes, and execute with perfect timing if you want to survive some of the game’s tougher battles. It’s exciting.

But Super Mario RPG is also a game full of characters. You of course have Mario, who is as expressive here as he is in any game. He is joined in the fight by both Peach and Bowser, which was a real treat at the time to see them fighting alongside our hero. But it’s perhaps original characters Mallow and Geno who steal the show among the main cast; Square’s writing chops are really let loose with them, and also with the game’s large and diverse cast of supporting characters. There’s Toadofsky, who you aid with his “composer’s block” by jumping on tadpoles to create music. There’s Johnny, the honor-bound shark pirate who turns to your side after seeing the cowardice of a foe. There’s Valentina and Dodo, who take control of Birdo and temporarily rule the land in the clouds. There’s Exor, the giant talking sword that jams itself into Bowser’s Keep at the start of the game, driving Bowser from his home and into an alliance with Mario. And of course, there is Booster. Who, um, well... is Booster. Your search for the titular seven stars takes you to every corner of the Mushroom Kingdom, interacting with all its wacky inhabitants along the way. Your adventures are not limited to funny encounters either: there are just enough serious, tense, and heartfelt moments sprinkled along the way to make this a more emotionally resonant game than it initially appears.

Don't we all.
Don't we all.

All of those features come together to make Super Mario RPG a polished, endearing game that is a blast to play. It also has a great look to it, and a wonderfully energetic soundtrack that remains one of my favorites. But the 90s were full of solid JRPGs; it took something extra to wiggle its way this far into my heart, which Super Mario RPG most certainly did. Looking back, it served as a fitting coda to numerous facets of my gaming youth. The SNES was the first gaming console my brother and I had for ourselves, and Super Mario RPG was one of the last great SNES games ever released, mere months before the launch of the Nintendo 64. Nintendo’s next console marked the end of not only the SNES era, but the 2D era as well, and Super Mario RPG captured so much of what was great about both. The SNES is almost certainly the console that’s had the largest impact on my gaming tastes, and it was dominated by Mario-inspired platformers and Square-developed JRPGs. Super Mario RPG, then, was a celebration of everything both Mario and Square. To this day it remains one of the few dream crossovers that, quite frankly, doesn’t suck, and it’s hard to imagine a better send-off for possibly the most defining period of my gaming history.

I picked up a SNES Classic Edition in early 2018, and spent a couple hours revisiting Super Mario RPG. Before then it had probably been at least 15 years since I last touched it, but it all came back in an instant: I was quoting lines of dialogue as if I had just seen them the day before. Super Mario RPG is part of my gaming DNA. Its music, its characters, its world, its combat; it’s all a part of me in a way that few games are. And it wouldn’t even work if it wasn’t an extremely well-made game either. Super Mario RPG is the perfect blend of charm and execution, a magical gaming cocktail that feels like home to me, even as it made its own home in my heart.

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The Myth of Difficulty

Hollow Knight is a video game that first released in early 2017 for the PC. I played that initial release, and it ended up being one of my favorite games of 2017. There’s a laundry list of things I love about it too: The world is incredibly well-designed and full of details I love exploring. The art style does a lot to bring the world to life, along with the diverse set of creatures you encounter. It has a host of meaningful upgrades that alter what you can do. The music is great, the map system is clever, and the combat is effective in its simplicity and responsiveness. Best of all may be how it all comes together to create a singular, impactful vision. I could go on, but I think you get the idea; it’s a wonderful game that I appreciate for many different reasons.

Is Hollow Knight a
Is Hollow Knight a "hard" game? Does it matter?

And yet, Hollow Knight seemed to slip under the radar throughout 2017. Fast-forward to the summer of 2018, though, and everyone seems to be talking about it. That’s what a release on the Nintendo Switch gets you these days, and while I’m super excited more people are now playing and enjoying Hollow Knight, the main talking point doesn’t appear to be any of the things I most appreciate about the game. Instead, most blogs and reactions I’ve come across are about how “difficult” Hollow Knight is. So much so that a friend (who has no interest in playing Hollow Knight himself) asked me why I never mentioned the game’s difficulty before. The best answer I had was that I never really thought about the difficulty; it simply wasn’t all that important to my appreciation of the game. And I’ve always felt that way about the games I enjoy. But why is that? Why is this aspect of video games, which has defined much of video game history and culture (for better or worse) never been important to me? I’ve continued to think on the topic, and while that original answer I gave to my friend remains true, I think I’ve finally realized more fully why.

Difficulty doesn’t exist.

Difficulty is an entirely mental construct, and something we use to explain all sorts of things that have more to do with ourselves than a game itself. When we get frustrated by not making clear, tangible progress by a game’s metric, we call it difficult. When we feel lost, stuck, or have to reload a checkpoint? When we feel like we failed? The game must be difficult. But I would argue it reflects player behavior and/or mentality more than anything, and the key is that every player is different. Some players could lose progress in a game and get frustrated or get down on themselves, where others could simply acknowledge that they’ve learned from their mistakes or gotten more practice, and soldier forward without being bothered in the slightest. Others still may get excited about it, and say “Aha, I didn’t realize that could happen!” before jumping back in with renewed vigor. And of course there are the masochists that take it as a challenge, and see beating the game as an opportunity to test their skill. I’m not trying to argue than any reaction is better or worse than another (though I would be a happier person if I never saw the phrase “git gud” ever again), but rather that everyone reacts differently to different situations.

That gets to my problem with the idea of difficulty: it’s subjective and impossible to define, an unmeasurable and theoretical metric that isn’t actually present within the games we play. Is a game difficult if you can’t reliably make progress every second you play it? How do you even define progress? If it’s getting closer to beating the game, then doesn’t dying from a mistake, but learning from that mistake, gain you knowledge and practice that also gets you closer to completing the game? You could argue almost anything as a form of progress, a necessary step on each individual player’s journey toward their goal within the game. I think games and our relationship to them are more nuanced and personal than a simple, universal scale of player skill vs. video game difficulty. Everyone has their own path through each individual game; there are simply too many variables in play to codify the idea of video game difficulty.

I was a math major in college, and whenever anyone asked what my major was (you know, the typical icebreaker question) and I said math, the near-universal response was “Wow, math is hard. You must be smart.” But I never felt math was all that hard, or that I was all that smart. I’d then ask what their major was, and they’d say something like biology, or psychology, or business, or English. And I would think, “Man, those all sound way harder than math to me.” Math was something I enjoyed, and something I wanted to spend time learning more about at that time. Therefore, whatever potential challenges came with that didn’t seem all that daunting. Math excited me, it motivated me, so the individual steps of the process were fulfilling and worthwhile. Biology, on the other hand? I always hated biology, and the work I had to put into it always felt, well, difficult as a result. I eventually realized that the classes I found “harder” were nothing more than the classes I didn’t like enough to want to do the work for.

Fighting through adversity for things I love helps me grow.
Fighting through adversity for things I love helps me grow.

The same has been true for me with video games. The biggest and truest sign of whether I’m into a game or not has always been my gut reaction when I meet any form of adversity. If I die, for example, and feel excited and eager to jump right back in and try again, then I clearly really like that game. A favorite example of this was Resident Evil 4 -- a wonderful and fascinating game for many reasons -- which I played obsessively when it came out, including through many sections that tested me through many deaths. But I didn’t bemoan each death. Instead, I felt it was a chance to try again and figure out how to improve. Conversely, if I die and feel the urge to set a game down or go search for help, then I probably don’t like that game very much in the first place. The supposed roadblocks I hit are nothing more than indications I don’t really want to play the game in earnest and that it's not worth any more of my time; I was only going through the motions until that point because that’s often what people do until adversity strikes.

But how worth it is that, really? Just going through the motions in games that don’t provide any kind of adversity? I’ve read a lot lately about how happiness requires struggle and growth. Humans are real good at getting used to anything, and if you were to somehow obtain all those things we stereotypically think of as making us happy -- a great job, enough money to cover what we need/want, great relationships, all the knowledge and skills in the world, etc. -- how long would it be before you got used to them, and then subsequently bored. We need new problems to solve, new things to engage with and see, and new things to, you guessed it, challenge us. These challenges don’t always have to be back-breaking, but it’s through our struggles that we grow and learn, no matter how messy they may be. Most things that come easily aren’t worth much, because it’s often the struggle itself that provides meaning, that lets you know you are in fact growing and moving towards something you care about. There’s nothing wrong with simple pleasures, the games that go down easily and don’t push us to think or grow. But they’re like junk food: they feel good in the moment, and are well and good in moderation. But basking in it too much ignores the substantial stuff we need to be truly happy and healthy.

I would argue that if you’re not willing to work through adversity for something, then that something isn’t worth much to you to begin with. Conversely, if you enjoy what you’re doing to the point where you genuinely want to push through, then that struggle feels completely worth it. It’s not about “no pain, no gain” or “git gud” (gosh, did I really use that phrase twice in one article?). It’s about finding the things you’re willing to deal with any amount of adversity to pursue. That’s your biggest indicator of happiness, and once you find such games, you won’t even think about whether it’s difficult or not; you’ll be too absorbed in the process to notice. That’s why difficulty is a myth, and why I don’t think any of us should avoid adversity in the games we love, but rather embrace it.

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Gaming Memories: Burnout Paradise

Welcome to “Gaming Memories,” a blog series where I reminisce about my favorite video games. I will slowly but surely get to every game on the list, and speak to why each holds a special place in my heart. That not only means I’ll talk about why I think each is a great game that speaks to my tastes, but also where and how it affected me in a larger context. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

You’re speeding down the streets of Paradise City, jockeying among a pack of cars to gain the lead in a blazing race through the city. You could play this by the book, try to gain ground by gently slipping by on an inside turn, or just plain racing cleaner than those other cars.

But this is Burnout, so fuck that.

If your wheels aren't in the air, you're driving way too safely for Burnout.
If your wheels aren't in the air, you're driving way too safely for Burnout.

Instead, you’re more likely to take a shortcut, hit some big-ass ramp to launch yourself two streets over, or just wreck the living shit out of the other cars. Burnout is barely about racing; I prefer to call it a driving game. The series’ trademark features are its blazing sense of speed, impeccable car handling, and rambunctious spirit that promotes gnarly crashes over clean racing. It’s telling that perhaps the most iconic event in the series, Road Rage, is all about taking down other cars. As for driving lines? Car culture? Trying to avoid scratching up pretty licensed cars? That’s the kind of nonsense Burnout will have none of. You build your boost meter by doing things like driving the “wrong” way into oncoming traffic, nearly missing other cars, drifting around turns, and getting lots of airtime. And you’re encouraged to use that boost all the time to perform a “burnout” to refill it all on the spot. Burnout wants you to drive as fast and as dangerously as you can all the damn time, and the result is a fun-first driving game that aims to deliver high speed thrills at every possible moment.

I jumped on the Burnout bandwagon with Burnout 3: Takedown, which remains a wonderful game. But Burnout Paradise was where I truly fell in love. It was the first “open world” driving game I played, and as far as I know one of the first to successfully pull it off. And it was precisely that open structure that endeared it to me over its predecessors. Rather than follow mostly linear courses, you now had a sprawling city at your disposal to find a path to the finish line. This gave the game’s events a much more dynamic feel, where knowing the layout of the city (which came to feel like its own character) opened up all sorts of options. You were able to take any route you wanted; all you were given was a finish line to reach. More than being able to find your own path during events, however, was the freedom to cruise the city as you please in between them. In the end, the most fun I had with Burnout Paradise came from roaming the streets with no grand goal in mind, engaging with whatever caught my eye. Gates, billboards, ramps and super jumps, and whole playgrounds tucked away in random places made the world engaging at all times. And with how good the car handling was, all I needed was something fun to poke at while I drove around for hours.

It just might be paradise after all.
It just might be paradise after all.

I first played Burnout Paradise a few months after it came out, during the summer of 2008. I had that summer off, and really enjoyed learning the ins and outs of Paradise City, and completed a lot of the game’s events. But it was the next year where I really dove deep. Around the time the Big Surf Island expansion came out I picked the game up again and maxed out my license, smashed every gate and billboard, and played many of the online challenges. I never got as into those challenges as I could have; for as ingenious as they were (which I fully recognize), I wasn’t a huge online guy at the time. Fast forward a decade to the release of Burnout Paradise Remastered, and I found myself sucked right back in. I played a number of open world driving games during that decade, but none of them did it like Burnout. Sometimes they missed the mark in baffling ways too: what’s the point of an open world driving game if you don’t let players pick their own route, instead forcing them through an ordered series of checkpoints in a race? But mostly, it’s the sense of speed, the sick crashes, the still unmatched car handling, and the endless positivity I always miss the most. There’s an infectious spirit within Burnout Paradise that I haven’t experienced in any other driving game, which was made ever more apparent in the wake of its remaster a full decade later.

I even love the silly little details. I love that the cars don’t actually have people in them, like some robot utopian future. I love DJ Atomica’s spunk. I love how non-functional this city is, with its haphazard ramps and smashable objects set up in the most ridiculous places. I love the offbeat rock/punk soundtrack that’s not always great, yet somehow feels just right for this game. It feels like a big vacation for all involved, where you can leave your worries behind and just drive the open road. And I think that’s precisely why I keep coming back to Paradise City. I’ve revisited the game multiple times over the years, and many of those times have been stressful ones in my life. But Burnout Paradise always works as a pick-me-up. It’s a fun, positive, upbeat, carefree experience that also happens to play extremely well. The result is one of the most affecting and memorable games I’ve played, and a personal paradise of my own.

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Thoughts on Into the Breach's Squads

So, I've been playing a lot of Into the Breach lately. It's a fantastic game, and highly recommended to anyone who enjoys turn-based tactical games, or puzzle games (which I might argue it's more of the latter). There's a lot of little details about it that I think make it an extremely well-designed game, but that's not what I'm here to discuss today. No, I'm here to talk about the game's different squads.

For the uninitiated, you control a squad of three mechs in every run of Into the Breach. The game comes with eight unlockable prefab squads, plus custom and random squad options, and even a "secret" squad. I'm only going to focus on the eight primary squads here, as they are the ones that are clearly orchestrated to synergize in some pretty interesting ways. I also found that I liked different squads more or less than others, and I don't think all of them are equally powerful. So this is also serving as a ranking of how much I liked each squad personally (not always an indicator of raw power, though that's a big factor). I'm listing them in order from most to least favorite, and briefly describing what I like and dislike about each one.

A pair of important notes here. First, I've beaten the game on normal with all eleven squads (the primary eight plus the three special ones), so these thoughts are based on how I felt squads compared on that front. I have beaten the game on hard with a couple squads, but not all yet, so these thoughts apply only to normal difficulty for now. Second, there are some pilot abilities that can alleviate some of the drawbacks in various squads. However, I'm giving my thoughts on the squads proper, not any pilots or additional weapons that can improve them. Take that for what you will.

Anyway, let's dive in! Hope you enjoy reading, and let me know if you have different thoughts on any of the squads!

EDIT 5/31/2018: See spoiler block for updated thoughts after playing more!

I've played the game a lot more since first writing this, primarily on hard. A brief updated ranking with a few thoughts:

  1. Rift Walkers. Still the best- got a perfect game with them on hard (4 islands no casualties), and it wasn't even that hard.
  2. Steel Judoka. A lot of people seem to disagree here, but they are so versatile. I played 1 game with them on hard, 4 island victory with 1 casualty, didn't break a sweat. So good and so fun.
  3. Rusting Hulks. They're a lot more versatile than I first thought, though Pulse Mech is still borderline useless most of the time, and one of my least favorite mechs in the game. The other two mechs make up for it though, and are both among the better mechs in the game. They make this squad much better than I first thought.
  4. Flame Behemoths. They struggle a more on hard, as fire damage does not scale well. But I still love using them.
  5. Hazardous Mechs. Still lots of fun, not much has changed here. Their range and damage output is crazy good.
  6. Frozen Titans. Not much has changed here either, though the Ice Mech's freeze weapon scales well to higher health enemies and higher difficulties. It's kind of OP sometimes.
  7. Zenith Guard. I still struggle with Defense Mech a lot. I rarely have a good use for it, and unlike some of the other squads with a useless 3rd mech, the main 2 aren't good enough here to carry the team. I've had by far the toughest time with this squad outside of the Blitzkrieg, especially on hard.
  8. Blitzkrieg. Still the worst. Gosh I hate them so. I feel it even more on hard.

1. Rift Walkers

Simply the best.
Simply the best.

They're just the best. Despite being the starting squad, and also the most straightforward and least thematic squad, the Rift Walkers are, in my opinion, the strongest and most versatile squad in the game. Each of the three mechs deal good damage, and all of their attacks push at the same time. That means you have good killing power, but can also push enemies out of the way whenever you can't kill them or prefer to rearrange the board. These mechs all have decent range and mobility to boot, and when you put it all together they can find their way out of almost any situation. I don't really have any drawbacks to them; they're not fancy, but they get the job done. And really, Combat Mech might be the best mech in the entire game. Turns out punching shit to death just works.

2. Steel Judoka

The only squad that can possibly rival the Rift Walkers is the Steel Judoka. This squad comes with a passive effect that causes enemy Vek to deal more damage to each other, and all three mechs come with attacks that can push enemies around. The clear theme here is to arrange enemies so that they kill each other for you. That's a surprisingly powerful effect to have, especially since it scales nicely throughout the game as Vek both gain more health and deal more damage. This squad's raw damage output is not quite as strong as the Rift Walkers, which is the main reason they're not as good to me: in the rare cases where the Vek don't line up well, it can be harder to deal with them. Also, I think Judo Mech is a bit of a weak link more often than I'd like, as its Vice Fist can be tough to use in tight spaces. All that said, this is still a really reliable squad with a lot of board manipulation potential. I like using them a lot.

3. Flame Behemoths

KILL IT WITH FIRE
KILL IT WITH FIRE

Despite lacking any direct damage out of the gate, I think the Flame Behemoths are not only surprisingly effective, but a ton of fun. They come with a passive effect that makes your mechs immune to fire, and then have a lot of ways to set the board on fire and push enemies around. As I've found in my time with the game, being able to push enemies is often more useful than raw damage, and with this squad your enemies will also take constant passive damage from fire as you push them around. Also, Swap Mech just might be my favorite mech in the game. It's uncanny how powerful its Teleporter is in almost any situation, and to me it's the only mech who can rival the Rift Walker's Combat Mech. My main concern with the Flame Behemoths is that fire damage doesn't scale well to higher health enemies. It's possible I may change my tune if I tried for a four-island hard victory, but from my current experience this squad is awesome.

4. Hazardous Mechs

On paper this may sound like a crazy pick to have in the upper half, but I had a lot of success, and a lot of fun, with the Hazardous Mechs. Yes, they damage themselves when they attack, and don't even have higher health to make up for it. But their passive effect that heals them every time they kill an enemy is not to be underestimated; it even brings them back to life on the spot if they kill themselves while killing a Vek. With that freedom to be more reckless, combined with good damage output, great range, and pushing effects on all three mechs, the Hazardous Mechs are more powerful and versatile than they have any right to be. My main concern is that they can be, well, a little hazardous to others. They almost have too much range and pushing effects, and it can be hard to avoid damaging buildings in tight spaces. But if you are mindful of that, this squad is a blast.

5. Zenith Guard

The Zenith Guard is one of two squads based around lining up enemies for the prime mech's attack, in this case being Laser Mech's Burst Beam. It goes through multiple units, and can dish out stupid amounts of damage in the right situation; possibly the best raw damage in the game. But I also found it to be less versatile than I wanted: it can be hard to avoid hitting buildings, and it lacks any pushing effect. How much you get out of this squad depends heavily on how often you can line up that laser, and I think the other two mechs have contributing issues. Charge Mech's Ramming Engines is your best pushing ability and deals decent damage, but hurts itself without a good way to heal. And Defense Mech's Attraction Pulse is blocked by other structures and units, which makes it more difficult to use effectively than I expected. There's certainly a lot of potential with the Zenith Guard, but they're held back by some situational caveats.

6. Rusting Hulks

Unfortunately smoke only gets you so far.
Unfortunately smoke only gets you so far.

The Rusting Hulks rely more on disrupting attacks with smoke than dealing damage or pushing. And smoke can be powerful, shutting down any enemy's attack regardless of its stats; Jet Mech's high mobility makes its Aerial Bombs the star of this squad. Yet while smoke is helpful, sometimes you need to be able to actually kill shit, and that's where this squad struggles. Their direct damage output is modest at best, and while they have a passive effect that makes smoke damage enemy units, smoke neither travels with enemies nor scales well to higher health enemies. On top of that, smoke still prevents you from attacking. So once the board it littered with smoke, I've found it hard to line up attacks how I'd like. Finally, I really wish Pulse Mech flew, like comparable non-damaging mechs in other squads. I like the Rusting Hulks overall, but it's hard not to see where other squads outperform them in a number of comparable areas.

7. Frozen Titans

The Frozen Titans are a goofy squad. In some ways I find them charming, but they just don't hang with the other squads in any meaningful way. To me their main weakness is a lack of pushing ability, which may be the worst of any squad. Only Mirror Mech can push, and given that its Janus Cannon shoots in both directions, you have to worry about hitting buildings (or allies) with it a lot. And their damage and mobility are about average, certainly not good enough to make up for the lack of pushing effects. Most hit or miss is Ice Mech. The ability to freeze enemies is very powerful, but freezing itself proves tricky. If you can line it up over an emerging Vek or in the line of another Vek's attack to break the ice, it's pretty great. But other times it just takes itself out for a turn. There's really nothing about the Frozen Titans that they do better than other squads, even if I kind of had fun with them.

8. Blitzkrieg

Simply the worst.
Simply the worst.

Fuck the Blitzkrieg. They're the only squad I do not like, and the only one I had any trouble winning with on normal with. But boy did I struggle. This is the other squad built around the prime mech's attack, this time being Lightning Mech's Electric Whip. This attack chains through adjacent units to deal damage to all of them, and is the squad's main source of damage. But the caveats are numerous. First, the chain will hurt your own units, which will become a necessary evil at some point. Second, Hook Mech is almost useless for any purpose other than extending your chain, all of which is very situational. Third, and most importantly, YOUR CHAIN WILL DAMAGE ALL OBJECTIVES. Nothing can prevent this either, so any mission where you have to defend trains, bombs, tanks, etc. is drastically harder, as you cannot use your main damage-dealing mech to clear anything adjacent to an objective. It sucks, big time. And without building good chains for the Electric Whip, nothing about the Blitzkreig is as good as other squads, be it damage, pushing, or mobility. In my opinion, this is easily the worst squad. Boulder Mech deserves better.

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Ranking the Years in Gaming: 1991-2017

All throughout 2017, I heard a particular refrain on a near weekly basis: “This is one of the best years for gaming.” 2017 was definitely a strong year with a lot of very good games. But was it among the best ever? I wasn’t so sure, and expressed some skepticism about the claim in my own GOTY 2017 list. At the same time, I had never actually sat down and tried to rank all the years in gaming by my personal preference. After a brief conversation with @slag (thanks for sparking the idea!), I realized this could be something worth sitting down and doing. Where did 2017 actually stand for me personally?

What followed was a much tougher task than I could have anticipated, and far and away the most difficult ranking I’ve ever done. While ranking anything is a highly subjective and somewhat arbitrary process, I found ranking the years in gaming to be infinitely more so. How do you even decide one year is better than another? The year with the best game? The year with the most games? And how do you account for evolving standards over time? There are so many variables in play, and the longer I stared at this list the more I realized how impossible a task it was. Which means eventually I realized I had to toss out all the science and go with my gut. While it’s tempting to try and explain my process with all its caveats and experimental formulas, the only thing you really need to know is that this list is completely subjective in every way possible, wholly reliant on the games I played and my personal gaming tastes. As long as you keep that very important clarification in mind, this list will make a lot more sense than it would otherwise.

A few more other ground rules that may help:

  • I was born in 1986. That almost certainly influences a lot of my preferences here.
  • I decided to rank only the years 1991-2017. That’s 27 years for anyone counting, beginning with the SNES’ launch year, my first console. I’ve certainly played plenty of games released before then, but not enough to evaluate those individual years.
  • I didn’t do much PC gaming until the late 90s, and even then it was pretty sparse for about another decade. There are also some consoles that I had little exposure to or missed entirely, most notably Sega’s stuff.
  • I’m using original US release dates to decide what year a game belongs to. For games I played that never came out in the US, I use its original release Japanese release date. Also, I did not consider remakes, only original release dates.
  • The push and pull between years with a small number of amazing games (quality) vs. the years with a large number of generally good games (quantity) was a constant struggle on this list, and something I tried to balance. I don’t think there’s a right answer here.
  • More games come out every year than the previous year (think of it like a kind of inflation). This made comparing older years to newer years incredibly tough. I did my best to account for inflation and compare years based on their relative strength of their time.

Hopefully that covers the most important stuff. As I made this list, I came to realize just how valuable every single year is; they all have some great games, even the years that were considered worse at the time. So this list is all relative, and again, super subjective (and large chunks of it are splitting extremely thin hairs). I try to explain my picks as best I can, and if anyone has further questions feel free to ask! As difficult as it was, this was a fun and worthwhile exercise. I hope you enjoy it as well, and thanks for reading! Warning: this is long!

The TurboGrafx-16's finest.
The TurboGrafx-16's finest.

27. 1993. This is the only year in this span that didn’t have a single game I can point to as an all-time favorite, and it didn’t have the quantity it needed either. By any reasonable metric, 1993 couldn’t be anything but the bottom of my personal list, despite having a few really good games that I enjoyed. Reminder: I did not play many PC games in the early 90s (sorry, Doom).

1993 favorites: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Aladdin (both the SNES and Genesis versions), SimCity 2000

26. 1991. This is one of two years on the list to dodge the last place bullet by virtue of a single amazing game: Super Mario World. This is a personal top 10 game for me, and if we were judging years based on its best game (and in this case the wonderful console it launched with), 1991 would be near the top. It’s a shame, then, that its supporting cast was so sparse. For that, I can’t really justify this being any higher on the list; a single game does not a year make.

1991 Favorites: Super Mario World, Final Fantasy IV, ActRaiser

25. 2002. This is the other year that survives based on a single amazing game for me. And being Metroid Prime, it’s one of the few games I like as much or better than Mario World; this is one of the very few games that is a legitimate contender for my favorite game. 2002 also had a slightly stronger supporting cast than 1991, but for the most part I feel pretty similarly about these two years. Alas, Mario World and Metroid Prime really deserved better.

2002 Favorites: Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Metroid Fusion

In 2012's defense, I feel the need to say XCOM is an incredible game.
In 2012's defense, I feel the need to say XCOM is an incredible game.

24. 2012. At this point things step up a notch. 2012 doesn’t have the quantity issue anywhere close to the previous entries on this list, but it still lacks depth for me. It had a handful of really strong games, but dropped off fairly quickly by the standards of the time. There are going to be a few years that fall into this category, and to me 2012 is the weakest of them based on my enjoyment of the games themselves.

There’s another theme here as well. I always thought the period from 2012-2014 felt really weird, and you’ll see all three of these years together here. I have a hard time separating them. I don’t know what happened, but that transition period into the PS4 and Xbox One generation was a noticeable dip compared to the previous decade or so. These years get judged more harshly due to the standards set by the preceding decade.

2012 Favorites: XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Journey, Mark of the Ninja, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, Diablo III, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3, Far Cry 3, ZombiU, Rhythm Heaven Fever

23. 2014. This got a bad rap at the time, but when I looked back on it I found a surprising number of games I liked. It didn’t have many big standouts, and shared plenty of the issues I noted above with 2012. I think it was more of a quantity over quality year, but looking at it now, its quantity was solid. At least good enough to earn it a few spots on this list.

2014 Favorites: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Dark Souls II, Theatrhtyhm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, Far Cry 4, The Banner Saga, The Talos Principle, Shovel Knight, Titanfall, Transistor, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

22. 2013. Rounding out the 2012-2014 period is 2013, which had the best combination of quantity and quality of these three years to me (and the new consoles too), but otherwise suffered from many of their same issues: some solid games without many clear standouts, and then a noticeable drop off. Still, it did a little better in both regards, which earns it the higher spot.

2013 Favorites: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Pokemon X and Y, Papers Please, The Swapper, The Last of Us, Fire Emblem Awakening, Gone Home, Antichamber, Pikmin 3, Tomb Raider

It's easy to pick on now, but this game had a huge impact when it came out.
It's easy to pick on now, but this game had a huge impact when it came out.

21. 1996. This was a case of having a few really amazing games, and not much else. We’ll see this for a number of years in the 90s, and where these years place is dependent on the relative strength of those brave few games and how many good backups they could muster (which in this case was not many). 1996 was also notable for being the year that 3D became a thing for games in earnest, with the launch of the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64. If it only had one or two more good games, it would fare much better on this list.

1996 Favorites: Super Mario 64, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Diablo

20. 1997. Similar to 1996, 1997 survived on a few really amazing games, and not much else for me. The main difference between the two is that I simply liked these few games ever so slightly more. And yes, I was one of the people who was blown away by Final Fantasy VII at the time.

1997 Favorites: Final Fantasy VII, GoldenEye 007, Age of Empires, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

19. 2000. This year had a handful of really strong games, and it would be higher if a few of them connected with me more personally. Two big examples are Deus Ex, which I played way too late for it to have the impact it might have otherwise had, and Vagrant Story, which I always thought was neat but never actually finished. Following in the shadows of the previous two years didn’t help it either. Still, there were some good ones here, and it was a solid year to close out the N64 and PS1 era.

2000 Favorites: Chrono Cross, Perfect Dark, Final Fantasy IX, Banjo-Tooie, Deus Ex, Counter-Strike, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Yep.
Yep.

18. 2017. Ah, the year that inspired this list. I struggled a little on where to place 2017, as it’s still very recent. And it even landed lower than I expected, but after looking at all of this, I feel 2017 belongs somewhere in this section of years with a few big games followed by a drop off. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a masterpiece, and there’s a half-dozen or so other games I really enjoyed here. But perhaps I didn't like as many of 2017’s games as much as most people, or maybe I liked games from other years more than most people. I also judge it more harshly on this list due to the high standards of the time.

2017 Favorites: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Hollow Knight, Pyre, Persona 5, Cuphead, Nier: Automata, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Super Mario Odyssey

17. 2001. This year was the coming out party for two new consoles, GameCube and Xbox, and both had some big games for their launch. In addition to having some games I greatly enjoyed, 2001 felt like one of those years that signaled a step up for the medium; all indications were that with new hardware and a new player in the scene (Microsoft), things were about to get real. And sure enough, they did. The only reason 2001 doesn’t place higher is that I didn’t enjoy some of its more popular games quite as much as most, most notably Grand Theft Auto III, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Final Fantasy X.

2001 Favorites: Super Smash Bros. Melee, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Paper Mario, Pikmin, Civilization III, Halo: Combat Evolved, Final Fantasy X

The last Metroid! It's in captivity!
The last Metroid! It's in captivity!

16. 1994. This was, by far, the hardest year to place on this list. Between Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI, it has two legitimate top 10 games for me. And at least one (maybe both) of them are among the precious few games in my “favorite game” conversation. I seriously don’t think any other year can front a pair of games this important to me. The problem is, of course, there wasn’t a lot else to back them up. So what to do with a year with unparalleled quality, but disappointing quantity? Somewhere relatively close to the middle, I suppose.

1994 Favorites: Super Metroid, Final Fantasy VI, Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man X

15. 2015. This is the part of the list where I can stop making big excuses about lack of quantity or quality; from here on every year is generally solid in both categories. The main differentiator is simply how much I liked the games on offer. And given that, it makes sense that 2015 is at the bottom of this batch. It had a lot of games I really liked, but not quite enough stand out above the other, similar years. Still, it was a deep year with a lot of variety; something that doesn’t always get enough credit.

2015 Favorites: Axiom Verge, Super Mario Maker, Bloodborne, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Pillars of Eternity, Ori and the Blind Forest, Life is Strange, Rise of the Tomb Raider

14. 2011. There was a period in the late 2000s where I felt like big games were just coming out nonstop. 2011 seemed to cap that period, yet in a lot of ways I feel it suffered from heavy sequilities for the previous years’ games. That’s the main reason it felt less impactful to me, but there’s no denying it had a lot of really wonderful games. I mean, Dark Souls ya’ll.

2011 Favorites: Dark Souls, Bastion, Top Spin 4, Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Outland, Gears of War 3, Pushmo, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, Dead Space 2

Na naaaa, na na na na na, na na, na na na na naaa, naaaaaaa
Na naaaa, na na na na na, na na, na na na na naaa, naaaaaaa

13. 2004. By this point in time the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era was in full swing, and 2004 was a great year with a lot of games I liked for those platforms. As we’ll see later, it got heavily outclassed by the years just before and just after it, at least for me, which makes it feel less important in some ways. But when I look over this list of games, it’s still pretty amazing how many good ones came out in 2004. I even say this as someone who didn't care for most of 2004's most popular games, like Halo 2, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, World of Warcraft, or Half-Life 2, and yet I found more than enough past those. This was a great period for gaming, and 2004 held its own.

2004 Favorites: Ninja Gaiden, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Pikmin 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Katamari Damacy, Burnout 3: Takedown, Tales of Symphonia, Metroid: Zero Mission, Astro Boy: Omega Factor

12. 2009. This was an odd year in some ways, and it produced a lot of unique and personal picks. Like the previous three spots on this list, 2009 was a deep year with a lot of variety. But something about the particular games here connected with me strongly, even when they don’t always look like the best games on paper. It’s an admittedly personal pick, but that’s what this list is all about. I spent a lot of time with a lot of these games, and many of them hold a special place in my heart. I wouldn’t trade that for a second.

2009 Favorites: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Demon’s Souls, Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Shadow Complex, Resident Evil 5, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Little King’s Story, Rhythm Heaven, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Splosion Man, Dragon Age: Origins, Infamous

It's kind of hard to overstate how much I love this game.
It's kind of hard to overstate how much I love this game.

11. 2006. This was a year that didn’t quite have the depth of some other years near it on this list. But it got close enough, and the games it did have were real bangers. In the relative scheme of things it was a year for quality, and there are some big personal gems here that carry it a long way. It also felt like a transition year, with both the PS3 and Wii coming out, along with the Xbox 360’s first must-have games. For better or worse, 2006 gave us the HD era and motion controls. The results were exciting if nothing else.

2006 Favorites: Elite Beat Agents, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Gears of War, Company of Heroes, Final Fantasy XII, Okami, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Dead Rising, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

10. 1992. Trying to decide where to place the better years from the 90s was tricky; as I said in the intro, more games come out every year than the previous year. Given that, it’s important to remember the context for each year, and by that measure 1992 was pretty incredible. Not only did it give us The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, one of my absolute favorites, it also had a handful of really great games to back it up (including a pair of the all-time great beat-em-ups). That’s a lot by the standards of the time, making it one of the best years of the 16-bit era. And on some level it still competes with more modern times. That’s extra impressive.

1992 Favorites: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy V, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Super Mario Kart, Mario Paint, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Streets of Rage 2

9. 2010. This was another very difficult year to place. Between Mass Effect 2, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and Civilization V, it had a trio of games that almost no other year can match, all games I adored and spent a ton of time playing. They're all personal top 10 contenders, and 2010 gave them a few other strong games as back up too. I even say all of this as someone who didn’t like Red Dead Redemption. But I have to admit that, by the standards of the time, it drops off slightly too quick in the quantity department. If it weren’t for that it’d rise even higher, as the games it does have are incredible, and it has just enough of them to earn this very high spot.

2010 Favorites: Mass Effect 2, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Civilization V, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Limbo, Super Meat Boy, BioShock 2, Heavy Rain

Doom was robbed. #neverforget
Doom was robbed. #neverforget

8. 2016. If 2015-2017 is to go down as the defining period of the current generation of consoles, then 2016 is the one that resonated with me the most. It’s a combination of both quality and quantity too. In Doom, it had a game that rivals almost any out there for me. And the list of games I enjoyed from 2016 is surprisingly long and varied; there’s not many years that can beat it on quantity. I remember great games just coming out every month throughout 2016.

2016 Favorites: Doom, The Witness, Dark Souls III, Forza Horizon 3, Fire Emblem Fates, Civilization VI, Hyper Light Drifter, Titanfall 2, XCOM 2, Superhot, Firewatch, Hitman, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, Salt & Sanctuary, Inside, Picross 3D: Round 2

7. 1999. This had the impossible task of following up the esteemed 1998, but by my count it did quite well for itself; I think it’s very deserving of a high position all of its own. In the context of its time it had a lot of great games, and some really unique ones I got super into. It was also at the height of my personal JRPG fever, which defined a period of my life, and one of the first years I played a lot of PC games. So maybe there’s some nostalgia in play here, but I won’t hold that against it. 1999 was a fun time.

1999 Favorites: Final Fantasy VIII, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Super Smash Bros., Syphon Filter, Medal of Honor, Alpha Centauri, System Shock 2, Jet Force Gemini

6. 1995. Where many years during the SNES era had one or two great games, 1995 had four: two of my favorite platformers, and two of my favorite JRPGs. Those also happened to be the genres that defined the SNES for me. Even past those four it has a decent supporting cast for the time period. It’s often hard to compare years from the early 90s to modern ones for the sheer difference in the number of games released, but 1995 makes the comparison easy. It’s just good, and probably the SNES’ best showing for quantity and quality, at least for my tastes. The Genesis even got a great game in there, and if I was into PC gaming at the time I’m sure it’d look even better.

1995 Favorites: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Ristar, Mario’s Picross

<3
<3

5. 2007. It’s funny, when 2007 was happening I remember people calling it one of the best years ever. I was skeptical at the time, as I remember a lot of that talk being about first-person shooters, namely Halo 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and The Orange Box, which were not all games I loved at the time. However, when I sat down and looked at the games for this list, I realized 2007 had more variety than that. In retrospect I feel like 2007-2008 was the period where games really started diversifying a lot, and that’s not to be taken lightly. Over the next few years we started seeing new genres, new twists on old genres, and small games start to take the spotlight. 2007 was the start, and it was exciting. It also has some all-time favorites if there was ever any doubt about its quality.

2007 Favorites: Super Mario Galaxy, BioShock, Aquaria, Mass Effect, Portal, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, Picross DS, God of War II, Jeanne d’Arc, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Rock Band, The Witcher, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2

4. 2008. Speaking of 2008, it turns out that, at least for me, 2007 was simply the warm up act. 2008 outclasses it in almost every way, especially in the depth and variety department. While both years have a lengthy list of great games, 2008’s is stronger on the whole, and has a lot more variety too. There are some personal, quirky picks here, and 2008 was the real coming out party for indie games as well. Even past 2007, it’s hard for me to find many years with a list of games this long that I love this much. Hence such a high position, and if anything part of me wants to move it higher. The only thing holding it back is that my top games for 2008 aren’t quite as strong as those in the years above it, but they're darn close. And I didn’t even like Grand Theft Auto IV or Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, arguably 2008’s most popular games. What a year.

2008 Favorites: Dead Space, The World Ends With You, Burnout Paradise, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Braid, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, Valkyria Chronicles, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, World of Goo, Sins of a Solar Empire, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Prince of Persia, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2

An incredibly important game in a number of ways.
An incredibly important game in a number of ways.

3. 1998. Yes, I know, this is supposed to be #1. For the longest time, 1998 has been considered the pinnacle of gaming years, and it’s not hard to see why. It had a slew of games that were not only great, but also groundbreaking and influential. Genres were created and/or perfected this year, and it’s when 3D games really came of age in a big way. I think all of that is true, and nobody would be wrong to put 1998 on top. However, for me personally, some of the big games of 1998 didn’t grab me, primarily Metal Gear Solid and Suikoden II. Additionally, I haven't played a whole host of well-regarded games like Fallout 2, Baldur’s Gate, Xenogears, Thief: The Dark Project, Gran Turismo, Grim Fandango, and probably some others I’m forgetting.

Yet even with those caveats I think 1998 deserves to be near the top of this list. It’s importance to the industry is apparent, and I still liked a good number of games from the year. That includes a few all-time favorites of course, and by the standards of the time, my personal list of games I liked from 1998 is still incredible.

1998 Favorites: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, StarCraft (plus Brood War), Pokemon Red and Blue, Banjo-Kazooie, Final Fantasy Tactics, Half-Life, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

2. 2003. So how do you top 1998? Release a crapton of games I really like. This is where things get extra personal, as these top two years made their mark by having a long, long list of games I greatly enjoyed from all sorts of genres. The selections from both years include more all-time favs than any other year as well. In a way it’s weird that these are the two years on top, and part of this likely has to do with my age, and some amount of time and place. And there’s likely some degree of me liking a lot of these games more than most people did. Regardless, something about this period of gaming really clicked with me. The argument for these top two years is very simple: the quantity and quality of their games, from top to bottom, is more impressive to me and my tastes than any other year on this list. Given that, I figure the games should speak for themselves. There’s no caveats anymore; just a lot of games I really like.

2003 Favorites: Fire Emblem, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Freedom Fighters, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Top Spin, Gladius, Beyond Good & Evil, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Viewtiful Joe, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

On the right day, my favorite game.
On the right day, my favorite game.

1. 2005. For me, 2005 had it all. No fewer than four all-time favs, including two likely top 10ers in Resident Evil 4 and Civilization IV. The former is even a strong “favorite game” candidate. It had a long list of quality games in my favorite genres or franchises, with many of them among my favorite entries. It had some varied and wonderful brand new games that kicked off great new franchises, or did things I’ve never seen before. It was the coming out party for the Nintendo DS and the launch of the Xbox 360, which introduced the HD era and Xbox Live Arcade (an important first step for smaller games). It saw the aging GameCube and PlayStation 2 produce some of their best games. It was a conflux of platforms and technology that was kind of weird, yet somehow produced a lot of exciting stuff. That’s not even to mention some popular games I didn’t like or didn’t play.

I have no further explanation why 2005 turned out how it did, and I know not all of these games will connect with everyone. But this was a year where almost everything connected with me, and that’s what this list is about. By virtually every measure, 2005 is my sweet spot, and my favorite year in gaming.

2005 Favorites: Resident Evil 4, Civilization IV, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, God of War, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Shadow of the Colossus, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Mario Kart DS, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, Psychonauts, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

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2017: Ranking the Rest

I really like making and reading top 10 lists every year: there’s a kind of solidarity in everyone distilling all of the games they played in a year down to the 10 they enjoyed the most. At the same time, there are well more than 10 games worth talking about in any given year, and I often play a good chunk of them. That’s true yet again for 2017, and since I’ve stopped regularly writing about games I’ve found that ranking of all the ones I played from the year is an effectively quick way to talk about them. It’s also pretty fun :)

With that, for the second year running, here’s my new tradition of ranking every game I played from 2017. Obviously I can’t get to everything; some notable omissions include Resident Evil 7, Divinity: Original Sin II, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and Fire Emblem Echoes (all games I might get to someday). But I still touched a good number of games in 2017, and I do my best to rank them here. I consider this a “rough” ranking, meaning the margins are often slim, and I didn’t stress over it too much. But it’s close enough, and I had fun putting it together. Thanks for reading, and away we go!

1-10: See my GOTY 2017 list.

An emotional tale worth experiencing.
An emotional tale worth experiencing.

11. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. I like a lot of what Hellblade does, and it was my “tough cut” for 2017. From a presentation standpoint, the visuals are very striking, and the audio design is among the best I’ve ever heard; those voices are just gnarly. And of course, the performance by Melina Juergens is phenomenal. This was my emotional gut-punch game for the year, and hit me pretty hard. What holds it back is something I experienced in a number of otherwise good games this year: I didn’t really enjoy playing it. The combat became a tedious slog over time, and the environmental puzzles were tedious from the start. I could see the argument for that tedium being some kind of metaphor for mental illness, but the interactive parts still bugged me just enough to keep Hellblade off my top 10. Great game though.

12. Horizon: Zero Dawn. This is one of those games that I had a mostly good time playing, but once I put it down almost nothing stuck with me. I think it is a very well-made game in a lot of ways, and it’s downright gorgeous at times. But it perhaps plays it too safe to stand out more than that. As someone who’s not the biggest fan of traditional open world games, I had high hopes this one might break the mold more than it did. It was also too long and repetitive for my tastes, and the late game audio log dumps really got to me. Horizon is a good open world game that simply got overshadowed by other games that did more unique and/or impactful things for me as 2017 wore on.

13. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. This is a really amazing thing that (sadly) just isn’t quite my thing. As someone who’s not prone to sinking dozens of hours into a multiplayer-only game, I haven’t spent nearly enough time with PUBG to either get good at it, or have it endear itself to me in a lasting way. Still, most times I do play it are very fun, especially when playing with friends, and I think it is an amazingly cool thing with some smart ideas in it. I can understand why it’s the phenomenon that it is, even if I haven’t fully caught the bug. Though I did headshot that dude out of a car as he was trying to run me over with it that one time. That was cool.

14. What Remains of Edith Finch. This is another 2017 game that I like a lot of things about, but didn’t enjoy playing. Its narrative hooks are wonderful, and it tells a really touching and artistically creative tale about family, tragedy, and embracing life in all its brevity. I only wish I enjoyed playing more of its vignettes than I did. I think a few are great, with Lewis’ being the clear standout. But the majority of them I found too clunky, or too devoid of meaningful interaction. I think people’s mileage will vary a lot on this one, depending on how well the simple interactions connect to the narrative in their heads. For me that was generally very little, which left me not quite as enamored with the final experience as I otherwise could have been.

Title screen of the year.
Title screen of the year.

15. Nidhogg 2. Nidhogg is great! And Nidhogg 2 is more Nidhogg! Its weird art style eventually won me over, and I even came around on the new weapons (including the wonky bow). I think this sequel expanded on the core game in just enough ways to make it worthwhile, even if my favorite way of playing is basically like original Nidhogg. Oh, and the soundtrack is incredible. Really, it is. I had a great time playing this (even that one 30 minute match that wouldn’t end), and I’d put it higher if it simply brought more new to the table.

16. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. I played a lot of games in 2017 that I felt were simply too long, and Mario + Rabbids is probably the worst offender. There are a lot of really great ideas and mechanics in here, and it’s a super well-made and polished “my first tactics” kind of game with a lot of charm. I think the movement mechanics in particular are a lot of fun to engage with. But the campaign and your character progression are stretched way too thin for far too long. By the time I passed the 20 hour mark it had already become a real slog fighting through the same handful of enemies over and over. Which is a real shame, because I think there’s a solid core here, they just needed to tighten it up.

17. Prey. I’m still in the middle of Prey right now, and so far it’s been a mixed bag. On the one had, it presents a very well-designed space station to explore and scrounge for crafting materials. On the other hand, I feel like the pacing and balance (and controls) are all over the place. It feels almost confused at times, desperately trying to recapture the magic of System Shock 2 while introducing some new gimmicks of its own, all with mixed results. Again, there’s a good game in here, but it could really use some cleaning up and/or some more personality of its own. And it could be shorter… I’m hopeful I’ll finish Prey soon, but it’s at the point where every session feels like a chore.

18. SteamWorld Dig 2. I am also still in the middle of SteamWorld Dig 2 at the moment, and so far it is a very streamlined game that hasn’t fully grabbed me. In some ways, it almost feels too streamlined, to the point where I’m going through the motions without much real thought. Still, I can’t deny how polished this game is in pretty much all aspects: the controls, progression, upgrades, level design, and so on are all solid. This one could easily move up or down based on how the second half goes.

Same.
Same.

19. Night in the Woods. There are parts about Night in the Woods that I think are legitimately great. Primarily the writing, and how it effectively portrays a confused young adult trying to find their place in life. A few moments hit me pretty good, but in between those moments I feel like things drag. The light platforming has little merit, and I think all the minigames are pretty bad (yes, that includes the fake Guitar Hero sections). Perhaps most damning to me is the ending stretch. I see what they are going for, and those are topics worth tackling, but I think it’s a jarring transition that is not executed well at all. That kind of soured my final view of the game.

20. Metroid: Samus Returns. Yet another game I’m still in the middle of, but so far I’ve found it kind of boring; and I say that as a Metroid fan. I think it’s a combination of the game being much more linear than other Metroids, and the fact that you can douse the map to locate every single item. That makes it feel like exploration doesn’t really exist, and I don’t feel invested in the world as a result. And while the combat is better than most other Metroids, I don’t think it’s enough so to stand out as a pure action game. I will see this game to the end, and maybe I will come around on it, but so far it’s been one of my least favorite Metroid games. I think AM2R is the better Metroid II remake.

21. Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together!. This is a very well-made co-op game that successfully rewards players for working together. Unlike a lot of co-op games, you can’t solve most of these puzzles on your own, and it’s pretty creative in its design. It’s also very simple, and very short, and that’s what ultimately holds it back. I enjoyed the very brief time I had playing Snipperclips, but I don’t know how much of it stuck with me in the end.

I guess games really can escape development hell.
I guess games really can escape development hell.

22. Gang Beasts. Wait, Gang Beasts is officially out now!? It seems like this thing has been in development forever, and I’ve barely touched the 1.0 version; most of what I’ve experienced applies to the early access period. But this is a goofy and fun local multiplayer jam. There’s something about the physics and the level design that seem to consistently cause ridiculous things to happen, and while I don’t know that I’d call it a great game, it’s proved a reliable one for producing laughs among friends. That’s worth something.

23. Heat Signature. I really wanted to like this more than I actually did. The general loop of raiding space stations is fun enough, and there’s a lot of cool style touches and fun writing. But like a lot of games with a roguelike structure, I found it to get too repetitive too quickly. I burned out after a couple hours, and when I saw how far I still how left to go, it felt like too big of a grind for me to continue with. Maybe someday I’ll go back to it, but for now Heat Signature is a game I find interesting more than I enjoy playing for long.

24. Tacoma. I loved Gone Home, and while Tacoma is a similar game that is by no means bad, it never hit me anywhere near as hard as Gone Home did. In the previous game, I felt like I could take my time freely exploring a household of four people. In Tacoma, it feels like I’m guided more directly through the stories of six main characters. This means each one gets less depth, and I’m not sure the discovery process is as organic. I didn’t get as invested in the core plot either. Still, there’s some decent beats in there, and I think the rewind mechanic is an interesting way to digest a narrative. I just don’t know that I came away with anything all that meaningful.

25. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone. As a fan of rhythm games, I’ve been curious about playing a Hatsune Miku game for years. When Future Tone dropped with like a million songs, I figured it was time. I’ve put a few hours into it, and think it’s a decent rhythm game, if also very bare bones; it's a port of an arcade game that's a collection of songs and not much else. Which is totally fine if you like the mechanics and the songs, but I also found those to be very basic. I don’t know that this does anything new or better than I’ve seen in other rhythm games, but if I just want to sit down and jam through a crapton of songs you could certainly do a whole lot worse.

26. Super Rude Bear Resurrection. What a supremely silly game… but there’s something to it that kind of grabbed me. It controls well in a Super Meat Boy kind of way, and I think the whole idea of your previous body remaining in play is pretty interesting. It adds a light puzzle element to proceedings, even if it sometimes allows you to brute force your way through otherwise challenging platforming sections. Also, its style is something else. It’s not the most polished or varied 2D platformer out there, and I ended up not finishing it as a result, but there’s a certain charm to this one.

This game really took over the internet for a bit, didn't it?
This game really took over the internet for a bit, didn't it?

27. Doki Doki Literature Club. A game I respect more than I enjoyed playing. That opening hour or two was a real slog, and if I didn’t know something crazy was going to happen later on I would have never stuck with it (or even played it to begin with). It’s a tough line to walk, as the entire game’s success is based on subverting tropes that a lot of people (myself included) don’t like or want to engage with. And to be its most effective, the player has to understand and engage with those tropes, ideally without knowing they are about to be subverted. That’s a lot to ask. It’s a really interesting game that, in a weird way, I’m glad I saw through. But I can’t say I enjoyed the process that much.

28. Linelight. It tries to sell itself as a video game boiled down to its core essence… but maybe it boiled it down too much. It’s a very slight game, but at least what's there is generally good and well-designed. I had fun with this up to a point, and also enjoyed it’s chill aesthetic and soothing soundtrack; I became kind of zen while playing this. But it also got kind of boring quicker than I had hoped, and I didn’t see it through as a result.

29. We Were Here. This is a neat, free asymmetric co-op game. Each player performs a drastically different role, and your success relies entirely on communicating with your partner. Those kinds of co-op games are rare, and I was happy to have this one to play. Still, it’s very short, very simple, and kind of buggy/janky. And a handful of the puzzles are more frustrating than fun. It’s a “better in theory than in practice” sort of thing, but I still got some enjoyment from it.

30. Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator. This one's heart is in the right place, and it has a handful of moments I found genuinely touching. But I also think by and large it’s not executed that well. Being a very straightforward visual novel, it hangs virtually all of its success on its writing, and that’s where I think it stumbles the most… it’s not consistently good writing. I’m admittedly not a big visual novel person, but even I’ve played plenty with better writing, and more interesting stories to boot. Dream Daddy’s comically Utopian society also lost me a bit; I like the positivity, but I had a hard time getting invested in a world that didn’t feel real.

31. Voez. I played Voez mostly as a curiosity, as someone who generally likes weird/quirky Japanese rhythm games. And to be clear, it’s not terrible, and I think the basics are there… but not much more than that. It’s a very no-frills rhythm game, and my main frustration is a lack of feedback. I had a hard time telling when I missed a note or not, and the general act of tapping on the screen was never satisfying to me. As someone who’s favorite rhythm games have been touch-based, that really stuck out, and I didn’t play a ton of it as a result.

I legitimately can't think of a good caption here.
I legitimately can't think of a good caption here.

32. Rivals of Aether. Certainly not a bad game, and I can see why some would like it, but I did not get into it at all. That’s probably in large part due to me not being a big multiplayer guy (it’s rare that one makes me want to spend the time mastering), and also someone who’s never been a fighting game person. I probably should have known better on this one, even though I've been into Smash Bros. before. But I got bored of it way too quickly, and never got much out of it.

33. Shift Happens. This is a game that means well, but is just too broken to deliver on any of it consistently. I think its central co-op mechanic is neat, and I had fun spending time with my friend. But when looking at the game itself, there are big problems. The controls do not feel good at all, the game’s ideas are stretched too thin and repeated too often, and worst of all, it is riddled with technical issues; game-breaking bugs and glitches that forced us to restart levels were a common occurrence. Shift Happens is simply too sloppy for me to consider a good game.

34. Spaceplan. This game is, in a way, a perfect video game: it does everything it sets out to do flawlessly. It’s also the first clicker I’ve ever played to completion (there’s a story there I won’t get into right now), and I can now confidently say that I think clickers are a complete waste of my time. But maybe that’s the point? I don’t know. Either way, every second I spent “playing” this game was a second I could have spent on something, anything more meaningful. I’m sure there exists a clicker out there that has at least some ounce of merit to it, but I don’t know that Spaceplan is it.

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My Favorite Video Game Music of 2017

There’s been a lot of praise thrown around about 2017 in gaming (more on that later). But more than the games themselves, I think this has been an amazing year for video game music. Just wall-to-wall fantastic stuff throughout the entire year. I’m a big fan of video game music, and often feel the need to talk about how it's an important aspect to this awesome medium. This year though, I feel like I could just say “Dude, listen to this shit!” and it speaks for itself. But allow me to speak for it a little anyway.

This is, as per personal tradition, a collection of my 10 favorite video game soundtracks among games I played from 2017. I picked a representative song from each game, and they are ordered by original US release date, not by preference. I really like making this list every year, as I get to dig through and highlight lots of great music (shout out to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which barely missed the cut). I hope you enjoy listening as much as I do, and please share your personal favorites too!

Night in the Woods

Featured Track: Possum Springs (by Alex Holowka)

I think this score sets the game’s tone better than any other part of the game. Without it I might not be so invested in the lazy town of Possum Springs, but this puts me right into that place every time. Not to mention it punctuates the game’s climactic moments too well.

Hollow Knight

Featured Track: Dirtmouth (by Christopher Larkin)

Ranging from adventurous to somber to bombastic, this soundtrack does such a great job at defining each of the game’s many varied areas, as well as punctuating its more dramatic moments. It’s often just goddamn beautiful too.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Featured Track: Main Theme (by Manaka Kataoka)

I strongly believe that the minimalist approach to this score was the right choice, and paid off incredibly well; there's a power in silence. I was able to just be in this melancholy version of Hyrule, with the sound of nature perfectly punctuated by a couple well-timed piano riffs. That also made the times where it got more bombastic stand out even more.

NieR: Automata

Featured Track: Amusement Park (by Keigo Hoashi)

I… just, wow. I wish my existential journey sounded like this. It’s hard to even describe, but this soundtrack somehow manages to make me feel what the game wants me to feel every step of the way. It’s also bold and daring in some super weird ways that work unbelievably well. Like, having robots chanting “This cannot continue” transition into a song that’s legit good? Come on!

Persona 5

Featured Track: Life Will Change (by Shoji Meguro)

Persona soundtracks have always been amazing, but I think this is the first time they’ve put together so many lyrical songs in English that are this good. I had a different one stuck in my head each week while I was playing this game, and the lyrics and tone are so perfect for the game’s style, and very powerful for its narrative.

Pyre

Featured Track: In the Flame (by Darren Korb)

Supergiant Games has yet to put out a bad soundtrack, and Pyre is easily their biggest and most ambitious one yet. I love how all of the game’s characters have their own theme that plays when they appear on screen. And given the sheer number of characters in this game, that’s a lot of varied, fantastic songs. Some of the lyrical songs hit me pretty hard too.

Nidhogg II

Featured Track: Tiptoes (by Daedelus)

This soundtrack is funky in all the right ways. It makes me bob my head with glee throughout every wacky match I play, and matches the bizarre art style to a tee. I listened to it more than one reasonably should outside of the game too. It’s just fun.

Cuphead

Featured Track: Introduction (by Kristofer Maddigan)

Everyone likes to point out Cuphead’s art (rightfully so), but I think its music is almost as good at selling its aesthetic. It sounds exactly like you’d expect cartoons from that era to sound, and has a super fun jazzy and/or “big band” flavor that I really, really enjoy. I like that each boss has their own theme, that’s a great touch.

Super Mario Odyssey

Featured Track: Jump Up, Super Star! (by Naoto Kubo)

Mario Odyssey’s poster song is pretty freaking incredible, and there’s a lot of variety in the regular level music too. It may not be all that drastically different from the Mario music of recent years, but it's very good nonetheless.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Featured Track: Uberviolence (by Mick Gordon)

I love the characters and tone of Wolfenstein II, and said tone is all over the place. And yet, its score somehow keeps up with it. Surprisingly contemplative moments can turn into insanely gritty ones on a dime, and this score goes all those same places without missing a beat.

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