Oscar's Games of 2018

On a personal level, 2018 was a very good year for me. Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff that made this year so good meant that my time for playing video games VASTLY diminished. Because of this, I missed out on a lot of larger experiences like the very acclaimed God of War and Yakuza 6, and only recently managed to find the time to start Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (something that if I had the time to beat earlier in the year likely would have found a place on my list), and while not every game I played clicked with me (Red Dead Redemption 2 comes to mind immediately), I still had a tough time narrowing the list down to just ten entries.

Just as I did last year, I would like to make a list of honourable mentions before diving in to the list proper. They are as follows:

• Detective Pikachu
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• Forza Horizon 4
• Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
• Kirby: Star Allies
• The Sims 4 (not a 2018 game, but probably the title I spent the most amount of time with this year)

And now on to the list!

10. WWE 2K19

Now, I've been a defender of these games for quite some time, but if you told me at the beginning of this year that 2K would actually manage to release a decent WWE game, I don't think I would have believed you. Despite my defence of these games, I'll be the first to admit that the last few years have been less than solid entries. Sure, I've had fun with them, but nothing that would ever show up in my game of the year list. And yet...

The first major improvement starts with the actual gameplay. The new Payback system is brilliant and ads new dynamics that allow a great match to continue, or give the person on the ropes a chance to make a comeback. Beyond that, the return of the 2K Showcase, this year focusing on the WWE career of the old Daniel Bryan, is a welcome addition and serves as a reminder of just how many great moments he's had in his career with video interviews from Bryan himself talking about their significance to him. The showcase isn't the only thing that makes this the definitive next-gen wrestling game. The MyCareer mode has been completely overhauled and has cues taken from the more story driven modes in the NBA 2K series. Your MyPlayer now starts out as a struggling indie wrestler, working your way up to NXT, and eventually the main roster. This year, however, it also features fully voiced cutscenes with all the actual wrestlers not named John Cena, a surprisingly engaging story, Woken Matt Hardy sending you through time, Zombie Triple H, and the Tokyo Dome

9. Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Last year saw the release of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which as you may recall, ranked very highly on my list. Despite that, however, I wasn’t really excited for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy when it was announced. Growing up I had never played any of the PS1 Spyro games that much, and the series as a whole really has no meaning to me.

That said, I picked up the trilogy for curiosity purposes and after diving in to it was blown away with how much I was enjoying these games. One of the things I remembered pushing me away from Spyro originally was that I always felt the flying controlled poorly, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that either my memory was deceiving me or they touched up the games quite well for the remaster. One area that was DEFINITELY worked on were the visuals, which look absolutely gorgeous. The Reignited Trilogy is one of the nicest looking remasters I've ever seen, something that could definitely be attributed as well to having a very unique art style. It helps that the original PS1 Spyro games have also held up quite nicely in the visual department.

Of course, no amount of graphical improvements would matter if the game wasn't fun. Fortunately all three games included here are a blast. I feared this would be something a lot more in the vein of the N64 3D platformers made by Rare, but rather than the more collectathon style, it's focused more on pure platforming, just made unique by the 3D space. Playing this collection really makes me wish I never dismissed Spyro growing up because my childhood would have been so much better if they were part of it. Luckily my adulthood gets to have them in it.

8. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! / Let's Go, Eevee!

My controversial opinion is that I actually really like Pokémon Go. Sure, it's barely a Pokémon experience, but it's a fun little distraction, and working right next to a Poké Stop means that I'll always have a steady stream of Pokémon near me. Of course, this entry isn't about Pokémon Go, but the first proper Pokémon game on Nintendo Switch is inherently linked to the mobile titles.

Taking inspiration from the more simplified mechanics, Pokémon: Let's Go reintroduces in to the mix a full on story, battle system, and party mechanics. Outside of the wild Pokémon catching, everything in this game is what you'd come to expect from a mainline Pokémon title, but streamlined with a lot of very necessary quality of life improvements. Limiting the title to only the original 151 and retelling the story of Pokémon Yellow is a great decision for first time Pokémon players, but also for someone like me who is a long time fan of the franchise, but finds it mechanically incredibly hard to go back to those early titles. Even if the single JoyCon control scheme can be a little bit wonky at times, it's still an endlessly charming experience and has me incredibly excited to see where the franchise goes next.

7. Burnout Paradise Remastered

In a year where not one, but two very solid open world racing games came out it was very hard to decide which one deserved a spot on my list. Ultimately, it had to go to the one that I keep wanting to pick up and dive in to, and that is the remaster of the classic arcade racer Burnout Paradise. Like a couple other games on this list, it satisfies my most basic instincts when it comes to video games. It's a racing game that rewards you for going fast, crashing in to things, and jumping off of ramps.

Burnout Paradise may not be a game that's suited for long play sessions, but not a week goes by that I don't pick it up for a couple hours just to drive around Paradise City, destroy a few billboards, and blast Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend. And ultimately, what more could you want from a video game?

6. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight & Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

Sure, they're meaningless fan service, but I don't see anything wrong with that. Much like the previous Persona 4: Dancing All Night, these games are functionally re-skins of the Project Diva games with the characters and music of Persona 3 and 5, but rather than just straight up porting the already awesome Shoji Meguro music from the games, many of the tracks are featured in remixed form. Quite a few of these are absolutely inspired, such as Aria of the Soul, Blooming Villain, Rivers in the Desert, and especially The Battle for Everyone's Souls.

Progression is also different from Persona 4: Dancing All Night, as the story mode has been replaced with a more Harmonix era Guitar Hero style "play four songs then have a big cinematic encore before unlocking the next set of songs". That's not to say story has been completely removed, as all the characters now have Social Events that can be unlocked by meeting certain milestones. As I said at the top, this is ultimately nothing more than meaningless fan service, but it's backed up by a very solid rhythm game and the opportunity to spend more time with these characters is always welcomed by me.

5. Nintendo Labo

Nintendo Labo is maybe the coolest thing Nintendo has ever made. On paper (no pun intended), Labo seems like a ludicrous idea. A box of pre-cut cardboard that you put a JoyCon in to seems like a dumb waste of money, but in execution it's something that managed to recapture the feeling I had the first time I ever built something like a LEGO set. That pure joy is amplified when you see the JoyCon react to the infrared stickers used in the construction and watch as this sheet of cardboard and stickers turns in to a steering wheel, or a fishing rod, or coolest of all, a fully functioning piano complete with cardboard that can be used to effect the waveforms and tone of the music.

The absolute coolest part of Nintendo Labo, though, has to be the free create mode where you can use your own cardboard and spare infrared stickers to create and program whatever you would like. I wish Labo had been around when I was a child, because I know I would have obsessed over that mode. Just being able to look at what other people have done with that freedom is incredible to see.

4. The Jackbox Party Pack 5

I feel confident in saying that the fifth entry in the Jackbox series is the strongest one they've ever done. Barring one game, which isn't terrible - just not what I personally want from Jackbox, everything in this collection feels like the best possible forms of these archetypes. You Don't Know Jack is finally updated to work within this format, finding a way to smartly integrate an audience as well as eight players all on mobile devices, and Split the Room forces you to think smart about your answer and not just go for the easy joke or roast of your fellow player.

The absolute stars of this collection, however, are without a doubt Mad Verse City and Patently Stupid. Mad Verse City is a battle rapping Mad Libs where you fill in the end of a line and write a complete second line to rhyme with it which are then rapped out by robots with Microsoft Sam voices. That novelty alone makes this game worth the time it takes, but the game really shines through when you have a group of friends who decide to take the gloves off. Some of the most brutal roasts I've both witnessed and been on the receiving end of have all come courtesy of Mad Verse City and their synthesized speech boxes.

That brings us to Patently Stupid, the drawing game of the collection. Though just calling is a drawing game is rather underselling it. It combines all the best elements of Jackboxes past, making you fill in a prompt, then draw something based on another player prompt, name it, come up with a tag line, and then get up in front of the room and sell it. The range of products I've seen made are incredible, and the more freeform structure of the pitching lets a lot more of your comedic instincts come out in a way that a purely text structure of something like a Quiplash wouldn't completely allow for. The Jackbox Party Pack 5 is definitely the strongest collection they've ever put out and since its release has managed to be a staple of every single get together.

3. WarioWare Gold

It's a collection of the best microgames from all the previous WarioWare titles. What more could you want? Well, how about remade visuals and interesting twists on some of the older games keeping the experience fresh even for a long time WarioWare fan like myself! Games are split in to four control schemes; Mash, for button based games, Twist, for games which require you to move the system like WarioWare Twisted or repurposed Wii Remote games from Smooth Moves, Touch, for touch screen games, and Mic, for games that use the microphone, both of which were primarily used in WarioWare Touched.

At the start, games are split up by control scheme, but eventually you can have a combination of all the control types in one session which is where the real fun starts. The split second reaction required to readjust both your hand position and your state of thinking is exactly the kind of frantic fun that only something like WarioWare can provide. Throw on top of that a whole slew of unlockables and bonus games, including stuff like the Gamer mode from Game and Wario, and you really do have the ultimate experience from a franchise that's been away far too long.

2. Hitman 2

2016's Hitman is a near perfect game, and Hitman 2 is more of that. I was nervous when I heard that IO was ditching the episodic structure that I personally felt really benefited Hitman. Playing the maps over and over again to learn every nook and cranny, discovering every opportunity, and every crazy costume that you can kill someone in while waiting for the next episode to drop was something that made that game very unique.

Hitman 2 proved that it didn't matter, because if the game is great then you're going to want to replay it regardless. The maps here are just as full of life and opportunity as they were in the first game, be it through poisoning a cartel chemist's pile of cocaine, trapping a security guard in an explosive vault while you sell them a house, or dressing up as a corpse and stabbing someone as they pay their last respects. The fact that Hitman 2 is self aware enough of its premise, but still plays it completely seriously, is why this game works as well as it does. It's endlessly replayable, and no two playthroughs of a map will ever be the same. The cherry on top is that anyone that owned the first game gets the entirety of that game's content in Hitman 2 free of charge. The world truly is your weapon.

1. Marvel's Spider-Man

It was a VERY tough call whether or not to rank this or Hitman 2 as my number one pick, but the biggest reason Spider-Man is my game of the year is because this game satisfies the most basic, childlike instinct in me. Marvel's Spider-Man makes you feel like a super hero. Probably the smartest thing the game does is putting you in control of Spider-Man right away mid-action. There's no watching Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider or Uncle Ben spouting wisdom about power and responsibility, just straight in to the "you're Spider-Man, start swinging around the city and fighting crime". The thing that adds the most to this feeling is the incredible dynamic soundtrack that adds in just the right brass flourish to make everything you're doing feel like it's jumping right off the pages of a comic book.

Combat wise, Spider-Man wears its Batman: Arkham inspiration on its sleeve leading to some very fluid action, but the addition of swinging opens up a lot of new combo options. The story manages to work in appearances in some form from virtually every notable Spider-Man villain, as someone who has more of a surface level relationship with the masked hero I'm sure I missed a number of references, but even without that deep knowledge they still manage to make you care about who these people are and aren't just piling on references for the sake of references. Throw in some very fun stealth segments where you play as Mary Jane just for good measure and you wind up with one of the most purely enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in a long, long time.

And yes, the swinging feels amazing.