Happy 2019 everyone! Congratulations on surviving 2018. As always I decided to ring in the new year by looking back at games that meant something to me over the last 365-ish days. Without further ado, and in no particular order:

A List of 10

Monster Hunter World

After cutting my teeth on two previous Monster Hunter titles, I can unequivocally say that Monster Hunter World is the game that finally won me over. For one thing, Monster Hunter World finally (finally!) streamlines so much of the cruft that has plagued the series since the beginning. Tools and whetstones are now infinite! You can eat meals and access your full inventory in the field! No more loading zones! There are still some rough spots in the game’s accessibility (The UI and matchmaking experience in particular are pretty egregious), but if you’ve played any Monster Hunter game before this, these changes are substantial and incredibly welcoming.

Beyond the accessibility changes, MHW is the first game in the series where I truly came to appreciate the way you actually hunt monsters. The pre-hunt ritual of eating and deciding on loadouts adds a sense of weight to the upcoming fight and gives the player an incentive to actually plan ahead and think about their strategy. Learning the rhythm to each monster’s attacks as well as mastering MHW’s plethora of weaponry makes the actual fights enthralling and dramatic. Not to mention the game’s tendency to throw more monsters and environmental hazards at you in the middle of a tense battle. Getting carted back to your camp is disheartening, but landing that final hit feels so rewarding that it makes all the work you put into mastering the game’s core loop so worth it.

I could go on about palicoes and armor fashion and how cool charge blades are, but I’ll leave you with this: towards the end of a late night co-op session, I told a friend I was going to go on a quick expedition to fulfill some gathering bounties and call it a night. Said friend, who had no other pressing quests to complete at the time, decided to join me.

It started out casually enough. At the first gathering point, a low level Pukei-Pukei reared his goofy face. My co-op partner decided to initiate a fight with the monster while I gathered stuff. Two minutes later, a Rathian appeared out of nowhere to join the fight. Not wanting my friend to perish, I dropped what I was doing to help him defeat the monsters, only to have a Barroth saunter by immediately after our victory. Thus began a series of events in which I would desperately try to finish my bounties only to get sucked into yet another monster battle because my friend kept yelling “FITE ME BRO” at every beast that crossed his path. I just wanted to collect mushrooms. It should’ve taken five minutes. Instead, nearly two whole hours later, I finally grabbed the last mushroom I needed, along with my many new monster parts for weapons and armor. I was both exhausted and endlessly amused by what took place that evening (I believe my words to my co-op partner were, “I hate you so much; let’s do that again sometime”). It was an experience that has stayed with me throughout the entire year, and it cemented Monster Hunter World as one of my favorite games of the past year.

Also Meowester Chef is the best NPC of 2018, and I will fight you if you say otherwise.

Celeste

Celeste earns its classification as a masocore platformer. Besides being delightfully challenging, the game’s controls are precise and snappy, meaning that every time the player dies, they know why they died and (ideally) how to course correct. Each chapter of the game reflects a masterclass in level design, offering players the right amount of affordances to encourage experimentation while gradually introducing new mechanics to the proceedings and exploring said mechanics to their fullest.

But this isn’t what makes Celeste so memorable, and simply calling the game an exceptional platformer is a bit of a disservice. All of that brilliant design work is in service of a deeply human and personal story. Madeline’s quest to climb the mountain is a tale of self-discovery and acceptance. Her anxieties and fears shape a lot of the story, and her mental state is constantly reflected in subtle ways through Celeste’s gameplay and aesthetics. Many of the people she meets along the way are full characters in their own right and vital to Madeline’s growth. All along the way the game encourages players to keep going with messages of positivity. “We know this is tough,” Celeste says. “It’s okay. Breath. You can do this.” It’s a powerful and touching narrative about compassion, one that elevates Celeste above and beyond most other platformers.

It would be remiss of me not to shout out two specific elements of Celeste. First is the game’s assist mode. Accessibility in games is such an important design consideration and to see the devs include such robust options into the game, like infinite jumps and sliders for game speed, ensures that anyone who wants to play Celeste can do so regardless of skill or ability while still having a worthwhile experience.

Finally, the absolutely stunning soundtrack composed by Lena Raine, who does such a fantastic job creating atmosphere and tension through her music. Easily the best soundtrack of the year, and one of the reasons why I fell in love with Celeste in the first place. If nothing else, go listen to it right now. Also the remix album slaps just as much.

Tetris Effect

The year is 2018, and one of the best games of the year is Tetris. To be fair, this isn’t terribly surprising. After all, it’s a Tetris game produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi and made by the fine developers at Monstars and Resonair, i.e. the same people behind Rez Infinite. And if you’ve known me for any amount of time, you know that Rez is a very important game to me.

Everything that makes Rez special is on full display here in Tetris Effect. The game’s main journey mode offers about 30 audiovisual landscapes teeming with personality. One moment, you’re chilling, playing Tetris among a school of space jellyfish, the next you’re playing freeform jazz in a bustling metropolis. As corny as that sounds, these visual styles work thanks to Tetris Effect’s tremendous soundtrack. Each track builds and expands on itself based on your own playstyle. You as a player drive the visuals, the crescendos, the gaps and the silences in the music. The result is a surprisingly impactful yet meditative game, and the fact that Tetris Effect is also one of the best playing versions of Tetris in years doesn’t hurt either. I genuinely feel compelled to get better at Tetris, and I haven’t felt that way since Tetris DS.

As of this writing, I haven’t had a chance to check out Tetris Effect in VR, but I will soon. Regardless, Tetris Effect’s beautiful audiovisual style and incorporation of affective game design practices hit all the right notes for me.

Deltarune Chapter 1

On some level, I’m still trying to wrap my head around Deltarune. There we were, living our ordinary lives, on this ordinary world, when suddenly the Undertale twitter account started teasing the release of...something in 24 hours. Fast forward to Halloween morning and Toby Fox drops a link to a program suspiciously called “SURVEY_PROGRAM_WINDOWS_ENGLISH.exe.”

No other game has caused me so much bewilderment as Deltarune. I spent most of my first playthrough just wondering what the game even was. Was it a demo? A prequel? Something else? How far does this game go? Once I finished the game, I had even more questions than I had answers.

From a strictly surface level reading, Deltarune is the follow up to Undertale. It takes the iconic combat system of that game and expands on it in smart and interesting ways. Your journey takes you through another hidden world with a cast of instantly likeable and quirky characters, each with their own arcs. The soundtrack is splendid, though admittedly it doesn’t have as many bangers as the first game’s score. For all intents and purposes, Deltarune has the shape (and letters) of Undertale.

And yet.

Deltarune also carries this undercurrent of self-awareness that kept me off-kilter for the entire game. It knows it’s a follow up to Undertale, so everything that’s supposed to be evocative of that game just feels slightly too evocative. Without spoiling anything, a lot of familiar faces pop up in Deltarune, and many of them behave just slightly different than their previous incarnations. Likewise, the themes of the game cover a lot of the same material as Undertale with some minor twists, almost as if Deltarune was actually a fangame. This is a game that I spent most of my time with waiting for the other shoe to drop, and that fascinated me to no end.

Deltarune is very obviously a game in conversation with it’s older sibling, but because this is only the first chapter of the game, we only have a vague idea why or to what ends. And considering that Toby Fox revealed that he’s been wanting to make Deltarune since before Undertale was even an idea, and that Deltarune originally begat Undertale, suddenly Deltarune becomes just that much more exciting of a mystery.

I don’t know when we’ll see more Deltarune. We may never see any more. What I do know is that this first chapter had me feeling emotions very similar to the ones I felt while playing Undertale, and that means a lot. Deltarune is a fantastic successor to Undertale, one that clearly has much to say, and I can’t wait to see what else it does in the future. Hopefully.

Just Shapes & Beats

Just Shapes & Beats is a game that does a lot with very little. You play as one of four basic geometric shapes. Your goal is to get to the end of the level by avoiding all the pink things trying to attack you. Said pink things are also comprised of basic geometric shapes. There are, in fact, beats. Despite my extra dry description, Just Shapes and Beats is also very very good.

Each level is timed to some killer chiptune and EDM tracks, with enemies attacking to the beat of the music. This makes bullet patterns super varied and unique as each level or boss fight bends itself to the whims of the game’s vibrant soundtrack. It’s not as challenging as say a Touhou game, but given the creativity on display, JS&B doesn’t need to be.

Not only that, but Just Shapes & Beats squeezes a lot of charm out of its geometry. The story mode has its moments of drama, but is mostly light fare with a small cast of personable shapes characters. I also love the small flourishes and inside jokes found within each level, like the level set to Chipzel’s Spectra that consists entirely of hexagons. Or the boss fight set to Sabrepulse’s Close to Me that makes use of attacks and bullet patterns that require the player to remain physically close to the boss. Overall, the devs of Just Shapes & Beats put a lot of thought and care into the game, resulting in a wildly imaginative shmup using...well, just shapes and beats.

Also I am eternally grateful for the devs for choosing such a colorblind friendly palette to work with. Neon pink on top of muted blacks and blues is very readable for me, so thanks Berzerk Studio!

Detention

Set in 1960s Taiwan during the White Terror period of martial law, Detention tells the story of two students trapped in their high school during a typhoon. Inevitably the school starts warping into a bizarre nightmare and players are tasked with avoiding haunted spirits while exploring for clues and solving puzzles in order to unveil the game’s mystery. I don’t want to give too much away, but the narrative design in Detention is impeccable. Each part of the game revolves around key character driven moments that tie together brilliantly, offering insight into the protagonists’ psyches while connecting everything back to the broader story being told. In addition, everything from the levels to the puzzles to the enemy design is steeped in Taiwanese folklore. This gives Detention’s story a very specific weight as the game carefully and thoughtfully reaches for emotional and political depths that I haven’t seen in a horror game in some time. It’s honestly exciting to see Red Candle Games so fully embrace their culture in their art.

And trust me when I say the game is damn scary. I could speak at length at how effective the game’s sound design is. It does so much to create a relentlessly oppressive atmosphere where every moment drips with dread, and by drawing from Taiwanese folklore, the game’s horror holds a wonderful sense of place. Players are constantly left unnerved throughout the entire experience without constantly having to rely on jump scares. I honestly couldn’t get enough of it.

Detention is a haunting and tragic game. It is also, without a doubt, the best horror game I’ve played in years. If you like horror games, do not miss this one.

Into the Breach

I don’t know if there’s always a perfect solution to each encounter in Into the Breach. What I do know is that I’ve spent upwards of 20 minutes on a single turn looking for one.

The search for the perfect move is at the core of Into the Breach’s success. Every run consists of tiny turn-based skirmishes where you protect buildings and civilians from kaiju-esque bugs using a small team of mechs with abilities that range from movement skills and board control to punching bugs in the face . Unlike other tactical games, Into the Breach’s skirmishes are mostly deterministic. At the start of every turn, you know where the enemy is going to move, what they’re going to attack, and in what order. Maps are incredibly readable (so is the colorblind filter!), and the flow of the map ensures players are rarely caught off guard by what’s going to happen next. This is where the search for the perfect turn comes into play. You as a player have so much agency over how the battle unfolds that a one-size-fits-all solution always feels like a possibility. You just have to use the information that’s been given to you in the right way.

Because Into the Breach encourages this kind of playstyle, the game takes this opportunity to essentially rewrite the core objectives of the strategy genre. Attacking the enemy head on is not always the best solution, unless you picked the mech team that’s really good at punching bugs. Most of the time, you’re more concerned with protecting your environment or your team of mechs themselves. And honestly, sometimes sacrificing a mech to save an objective is the best choice. The result is a game that is constantly forcing the player to make difficult yet interesting choices that ultimately shape how the rest of a run to save the multiverse will be. And hey, if you couldn’t find the perfect turn this time, the game’s a roguelike so you can quickly jump into a new timeline and try again. Into the Breach is a brilliant microcosm of strategy design thanks in part to the affordances it offers players with each new run.

Return of the Obra Dinn

As a premise, Return of the Obra Dinn is a bit contrived, but as the core loop for a whodunit mystery, it’s surprisingly effective. You play an insurance adjuster, and you’ve been tasked with solving the fates of the crew of the long lost Obra Dinn which has mysteriously drifted ashore a derelict. Using a magical pocket watch, you locate corpses of crew members found aboard the ship and then magically teleport to the exact moment of their death, frozen in time. From there you collect contextual clues and use deductive reasoning to uncover the identity of each crew member and what or who killed them.

Obra Dinn’s strength comes from the way the game exposes information to the player. Each new corpse uncovers a new piece of the tale of this ship and its crew, typically out of order. Events that happen throughout the story catch the player completely off guard and the desire to uncover the entire truth keeps players on their toes. More importantly though is the fact that Obra Dinn only tells the player that their guesses are correct once they’ve successfully determined the identities and deaths of three crew members. Not only is this a smart way to disincentivize brute forcing solutions, it also leads to what might be the best moment of any game this year.

Picture this: You’ve collected enough clues to feel confident about two crew members but you’re missing some key information on a third one. There’s nothing directly in the game that 100% points you to one individual. But you’ve followed this person through their memories aboard the ship. You know who they spend time with. You’ve cross-referenced your own written notes. Just to be safe, maybe you’ve done a quick internet search on 19th century boating terminology. Using process of elimination you make what you think is the right prediction. Suddenly a musical trill plays and you watch as your handwritten notes get permanently printed into your record book. In that moment you feel like the smartest person in the world. That moment is so rewarding as a player that I couldn’t help but cheer every time I solved three more fates. Combined with a stellar 1-bit dithered aesthetic, and Return of the Obra Dinn makes for one memorable deduction puzzle.

Dead Cells

Spelunky is not only my favorite roguelike, but one of my favorite games of all time. That means that whenever a new roguelike crosses my path, I inevitably compare it to Spelunky, fair or not. I don’t think Dead Cells completely overthrows Spelunky for me, but it sure does come close.

Everything about Dead Cells just feels good. This is a game I love moving through as every dodge and attack animation feels fantastic. Experimentation in Dead Cells is a delight, and no matter what loadout I’m taking into a run with me, I always feel in control of my destiny. And with a focus on timing and spacing, combat feels smooth and rewarding in the same way a good fighting game can be.

Admittedly, the furthest I’ve made it in Dead Cells is just after the first boss fight. However, every run I make feels like progress whether I’m unlocking new weapons and traits, or simply learning the layouts and enemy patterns of Dead Cells’s ever branching level paths. And of course the breadcrumb trail of secrets and environmental storytelling in the game is very much my jam and will keep me playing Dead Cells for the foreseeable future.

Minit

Minit was a game I finished in about three hours, and that brevity is part of the reason why I love it so much. The game’s gimmick is relatively simple: it’s The Legend of Zelda, except every 60 seconds you die. Lift the curse, and you’ll stop dying. There’s a run like quality to Minit as you slowly make forward progress, finding new items and unlocking new waypoints around the map. Runs are frantic, yet engaging and focusing on specific objectives each run is vital. The time limit also means that something interesting is happening in the game every minute. Sometimes you uncover a secret hidden in an infinite desert, sometimes you get stuck listening to the one NPC who speaks for almost the entirety of a 60 second run. Minit finds a lot of joy packing so many bite-sized moments into its world, and its short length means the game’s core conceit never risks becoming stale. I wish more games would have the confidence of a game like Minit. It’s a small package packed with big amounts of fun.

Games That I Will Mention in an Honorable Manner.

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Easily the best fighting game to come out this year and I’m sad I didn’t play more of it. It looks gorgeous, plays great, and lead to the hypest Evo top 8 I’ve ever seen (we do not deserve SonicFox). For me personally, it was also a reminder that Dragon Ball is pretty great actually. Maybe a bit too many Gokus though.

Hitman 2

Hitman 2 adds a bunch of quality of life fixes to the Hitman formula while still playing like the 2016 game. The new maps are packed with hidden details and the game remains at its best when missions turn into a Coen Brothers-esque comedy of errors. And if you already own the 2016 game, you can play those original levels in the sequel in order to take advantage of the new UI and mechanics. Most importantly, Hitman 2 made me realize that I actually did need more Hitman in my life. Please go buy this so we can hopefully get a third one.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

I missed this game when it first came out on the Wii U, but I’m glad I got a chance to play it on the Switch. Not only is DKC Tropical Freeze a top tier platformer, but it’s at times a surprisingly striking looking game. The silhouette levels in particular are a class act in level design. Do not sleep on this one!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Smash Bros. 4 was another Wii U game I never ended up acquiring. As such, there’s probably a lot more stuff in Smash Ultimate that feels new to me. Regardless, this is the best playing Smash game in a long time, and I’m having so much fun getting back into the swing of things. The character unlocks are inconsistent and way too time consuming to be honest, but I appreciate how the rest of the modes feel. I still wish Geno had a chance of making it into the game. He’s still a better addition than yet another Fire Emblem person with a sword if you ask me.

Picross S

For whatever reason, 2018 is the year I got really into Picross. Picross S is not the best version of the puzzle game out there, but it was $8 and also on the Switch which makes it an excellent portable game, while satiating my Picross needs. I hear its recently released sequel is alright too.

Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle

This was a sokoban style puzzle game I found on Steam for free. I think it also showed up on a random Giant Bomb stream at one point. In any case, this is a pretty clever take on the genre, complete with a “cute” chibi Friday the 13th skin wrapped over it. A worthwhile time waster especially at an entry cost of free.

The Messenger

The Messenger is a fun homage to Ninja Gaiden with some neat movement mechanics in the form of regaining your jump every time you hit an enemy. I enjoyed the style and aesthetic for the first half of the game. However, there’s a twist mid-game that, while pretty clever, fundamentally changes how you play the game, and it admittedly left me wanting. I’ll probably go back and finish the game eventually, but I have no clue how the second half of the game will hold up compared to the first.

Fortnite

It was impossible to avoid Fortnite this year, and honestly, the game deserves the spotlight. It’s a fun, arcadey take on the Battle Royale genre executed expertly. It also incorporates a lot of good usability and accessibility principles into their core game design (their colorblind filters are really good!). It’s a game that’s easy to just pick up and play while remaining just as tense and rewarding as something like PUBG (a game I also really like). Sometimes games are popular because they’re good games. In Fortnite’s case, it’s earned that popularity.

Mario Tennis Aces

Mario Tennis Aces is secretly a fantastic fighting game. There’s a depth to the tennis mechanics that I was not expecting, and matches became this wonderfully competitive game of chess. I was so into this game when it first came out, but then I just...lost interest. I’m not entirely sure why, but I absolutely enjoyed my time with this game. Maybe once the holiday season has died down, I’ll revisit this again. I owe it that much.

Lumines Remastered

Oh look, a rhythm puzzle game made by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, developer of Rez. What are the odds?! In all seriousness, the remaster of Lumines is my first experience with the game, and I really like it! It’s a perfect Switch game, the visuals are excellent and the soundtrack is very choice. Play with headphones!

OK/NORMAL & September 1999

OK/NORMAL and September 1999 are short horror experiences made by 98DEMAKE and they’re both fantastic in their own right. OK/NORMAL uses trippy PS1 era aesthetics to tell a fairly dark and surreal story about addiction and mental health. Meanwhile September 1999 is a five minute found footage game that experiments with a more photorealistic visual style. Each game feels like it’s trying to do something different with the horror game genre and I highly recommend both games if you like your horror a bit more experimental.

Katamari Damacy Reroll

♫NA NAAAAAAAA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NAAAAAAAAAA♫

Games I still need to play

Mutant Year Zero

Don’t Forget Our Esports Dream

Ashen

The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu

Hades

Below

Octopath Traveler

Gris

God of War

Spider-Man

Iconoclasts

Donut County

Soul Calibur VI

Beat Saber

Astro Bot Rescue Mission

Moss

Déraciné

Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Heaven Will Be Mine

Mega Man 11

Destiny 2: Forsaken

Oh No, Wrestling has its Own Section This Year

Pro wrestling in 2018 was good. So good in fact, that I couldn’t narrow the year down to just one match of the year candidate. So here’s three matches this year that stand out to me for different reasons:

Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada (c) - IWGP Heavyweight Championship - NJPW Dominion

Of course this match is here. It’s one of the most dramatic, ambitions, exciting matches I’ve ever seen. And this is after Okada and Omega put on three of the best matches ever last year. The pair’s fourth encounter is a culmination of everything that’s come before it, resulting in a three act play that takes place across an epic hour+ two-out-of-three-falls match. It’s a match where the dynamic in the ring constantly changes and subverts your expectations, ending on a sweet note about the power of friendship and true love (yes, really). Go watch this match. Then go watch Omega and Okada’s previous three matches so you can watch this match again with more context. It’s really that good.

Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - Unsanctioned Match - NXT Takeover: New Orleans

Here is a match that had me literally jumping out of my seat by the end. Take one of the best tag teams in NXT and break them up by having Ciampa attack his tag partner Gargano after losing a match for the tag team titles, thus revealing himself to be the absolute worst person in the world. Have Ciampa leave NXT for a couple months to recover from an injury only to return and ruin Gargano’s life because, as previously stated, Ciampa is the absolute worst person in the world. After Ciampa costs Gargano both the NXT title and his NXT contract, the blood feud is on. There is so much to love about the resulting match. The just brutal intensity of the entire thing. The fact that the first fall doesn’t come until 1/3rd of the way into the match and it’s only a one count. Ciampa coming out to no entrance music, save for the incredibly loud chorus of boos because oh my god Ciampa you are literally the worst person in the world. And the ending payoff is just...what a masterpiece from top to bottom. Gargano and Ciampa’s feud would continue after this match, but this is my pick for the peak of their entire storyline.

Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch (c) - Last Woman Standing Match - WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship - WWE Evolution

WWE deserves a lot of flack for making some extremely bad business decisions this year. That said, finally booking a women’s PPV and (eventually) capitalizing on the well deserved popularity of Becky Lynch are two bright spots in an otherwise dreary year for main roster WWE. Becky and Charlotte have such great chemistry together in the ring and that’s on full display in this match. After feuding and trading wins for most of the fall, each fighter comes into this match hoping to finally prove themselves the better champion. And boy is this match physical, eschewing the early “feeling-out” portion of the match in favor of just getting right into punch-ups. The spots in this match, from the suplex into the chairs to the powerbomb onto the table come at exactly the right time and the crowd eats up everything the two performers bring to the table. By the end, both Becky and Charlotte come out as folk heroes, and rightfully so. This is easily the best main roster WWE match this year.

And This Other Stuff

Best Podcast - All Systems Goku

I typically try to use this space to highlight podcasts outside of the Giant Bomb banner, but if I’m being honest, the best podcast I listened to this year was the one where Jeff and Dan learned all about Dragon Ball and anime. DBZ came back into vogue in a big way in 2018, and I am here for it. As such, there was nothing more hilarious than listening to two people who don’t watch anime get really into DBZ. Whether it was falling in love with Vegeta, mispronouncing Frieza’s name, or (rightfully) chastising Goku’s parenting skills, hearing Jeff and Dan’s honest reactions to the DBZ universe never stopped being a highlight of my week. Speaking of memorable podcasts...

Lifetime (?) Achievement in Podcasting - The Adventure Zone

This is the last year I’m going to gush about The Adventure Zone, in part because I finally finished the Balance Arc. I’m still slightly mad at The McElroys for taking a goofy D&D comedy podcast and turning it into one of the best long-form stories I’ve heard in a very long time. The adventures of Taako, Merle, and Magnus were always silly fun, but I never expected to become so emotionally attached to them and their world. The finale of Balance is pure fan service, but because DM Griffin was so adept at making listeners care about these characters and their story, it all works at providing a fitting send off for the first incarnation of the podcast. If you’ve been sleeping on The Adventure Zone, go rectify that. You will not regret it.

Best Earworms - 2 Mello: Trunk Fiction

You’ve probably heard 2 Mello’s work in a number of popular indie games, including one of the B-side levels for Celeste. He also had a very prolific year writing original music, and my favorite thing he released this year was a drum & bass EP called Trunk Fiction. Telling the story of a culture that discovers a rhythm so catchy it leads to a renaissance, each track on Trunk Fiction is absolutely catchy, with crisp percussion and vibrant samples. The track Foot Traffic in particular is so crunchy and so jazzy that it stayed with me for days after I heard it for the first time. I highly recommend checking this EP out.

Best New Hardware - Xbox Adaptive Controller

I don’t normally get excited by new gaming hardware, but in the case of the Xbox Adaptive Controller, I’ll gladly make an exception. Charities like AbleGamers have been building and designing custom controllers for players with disabilities for years now. It’s exciting then to hear that they and several other organizations partnered with Microsoft to build a new, affordable controller to address the needs of players with limited mobility. The amount of research and attention to detail that went into making this controller is astounding. It’s completely customizable and uses generalized connectors so that a plethora of additional devices can be connect to the controller itself. Even the packaging the controller comes in was designed with accessibility in mind. It’s just such a cool device to see come out of such a large tech company and I hope this is a portent for more companies putting resources into accessible gaming.

Obligatory Shoutout Award 2018 - Games and Playable Media, UC Santa Cruz

The Games and Playabe Media MS reached new heights over the past 365 days. As we’ve expanded in student size, we’ve also expanded in our curriculum, giving students a much more robust education over five quarters instead of four. We also just launched a sister program for Serious Games, and we’re excited to see that program grow alongside us. Most importantly, our students continue to see success in the game industry. One of this year’s student projects, Dash Quasar, was nominated at this year’s Game Awards for Best Student Game. In another first for us, a recent alumni is building their own studio after receiving funding to turn their thesis project into a full retail release. Here’s to our students continued success in 2019!

Congratulations everyone! We made it through 2017 (and also one week of 2018)! I’ve marked the occasion once again by writing about the games that stood out to me the most over the past year. It’s safe to say 2017 was, at the very least, an amazing year for games. Which is partially why the list is so late this year. Turns out I had a lot to say about these games. With that, please read on for my highly subjective list of good games from 2017.

The List of 10

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Very early on in my Zelda playthrough, I found myself heading towards a collection of ruins just near the cave Link wakes up in. Night was falling and I was warned of traveling in the dark, lest I be attacked by dangerous monsters. Taking heed, I made my way to the ruins. As I approached, a familiar name appeared on screen: Temple of Time. A soft, familiar piano melody began to play. Walking into the center of the temple ruins, I suddenly felt the need to stop and take everything in. What I was seeing, what I was hearing, where I was in both the physical and digital space. It was a quiet moment of reflection that I carried with me throughout the rest of my time with Breath of the Wild.

It was also a moment of endless possibility. I had no idea what adventures lie ahead of me. I didn’t know that in a few hours, while attempting to befriend a bear in the forest, I’d accidentally awaken a giant skeleton ogre. I had no idea that, while fighting a mob of enemies during a thunderstorm, I’d accidentally throw my sword at them, only to have lightning strike the weapon and destroy the surrounding mobs. I did not know that I’d spend hours lost in the snowy Hebra Mountains, stumbling upon Sheikah shrine after Sheikah shrine. Or that on Satori Mountain, there’s a pond with a cherry tree, and if you visit that pond on a night when the mountain glows, you’ll find The Lord of the Mountain. Or that the distant island I was heading towards on my raft was this mysterious Eventide Island I’d heard so much about. Hyrule was out there, just waiting for me.

But at this moment, all I wanted to do was watch the world go by. So that’s what I did. I sat there in the ruins of the temple. Watching the sunrise. Listening to the music. I had not done anything like that in a game since...well, since Majora’s Mask probably.

Breath of the Wild captivated me like no other Zelda game has. It might be my favorite Zelda game since Ocarina of Time, and I do not make that statement lightly. Every mountain, every forest, every island, every village, every desert held the potential for surprise, for discovery. Provided the weather didn’t screw up your mountain climb, of course. It is a game that I never grew tired of exploring, of experimenting with, of just being there in that world. As other critics have more eloquently put it, there is always distance to be traveled in Breath of the Wild. I relish the opportunity to travel that distance.

NieR: Automata

I have been unable to stop thinking about Nier: Automata since I finished it.

Trying to externalize my thoughts on Nier without spoiling what happens feels like a Sisyphean task. By the time I finished what’s considered Route A of Nier’s story and started Route B, all my expectations for where this game was going were thrown out the window. Nier: Automata had its hooks deep into me, and no other game from 2017 affected me on such a personal and emotional level.

What makes Nier work is not just the story, or the characters, or the themes, but how all of these individual pieces unfold and build throughout the game. Nier is a game that has a lot to say about the human condition, about our cyclical history of violence and hatred, about how we try to connect to one another despite our continued failure at doing so. And even though these themes are by no means unique, the way they emanate throughout the entire game and drive the narrative forward makes the experience of playing the game so special. Being an interactive work is so vital to Nier’s narrative and the ideas it wants to explore. In some ways, the game is structured like classical theater, and I’m not just saying that because there’s a scene in this game where robots reenact Romeo and Juliet. This is all a lot of words to say that playing Nier: Automata is an unforgettable experience.

Nier is not going to be for everyone. While I appreciate how customizable the combat mechanics are, it’s still pretty shallow given Platinum’s pedigree. And let’s be honest, playing the game through all five story endings is asking for a huge time commitment from players. I completely understand how people might be turned off by Nier. But when all is said and done, I never felt like Nier was wasting my time. From the character arcs of 2B, 9S, and friends, to the barren war-torn environments, to the way the game’s side quests feed into the larger story, Nier: Automata is a sight to behold. It’s a beautiful, perplexing, off-kilter, funny, tragic, melodramatic, hopeful game and I’m incredibly thankful I took the time to experience it. I’ll be thinking about Nier: Automata for a long time.

Addendum: ALSO NIER: AUTOMATA HAS ONE OF THE BEST SOUNDTRACKS OF ALL TIME AND I CAN’T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT TO MENTION THAT SERIOUSLY THE SOUNDTRACK’S BEEN PLAYING WHILE I WRITE THIS GET IT TOGETHER COLIN.

Super Mario Odyssey

Joy. Joy is the most succinct way I can explain my time with Super Mario Odyssey. Every time I played this game, the biggest grin spread across my face. Playing Mario Odyssey just feels good.

For me, a lot of this comes down to Odyssey’s world design and movement. Each world is silly and colorful in its own unique way, but more importantly feels like a fully realized space. In addition, the game evokes little bits of Mario nostalgia throughout the entire game in a way that feels less like pandering and more like a celebration of everything Mario. As a result, exploring Mario’s worlds and uncovering new moons feels organic and freeform. I can’t count how many times I’d stumble on a new moon simply through exploration and experimentation. I never felt like I was simply checking off moons from an NPC’s todo list. To top it all off, moving in Mario Odyssey is superb. Controlling Mario is snappy and responsive, and the Cappy mechanic adds an extra layer of depth and execution to the proceedings. I honestly can’t wait to see what a Mario Odyssey speedrun looks like.

More than any other game this year, Super Mario Odyssey bubbles with personality and creative spirit. From its excellent design to its captivating worlds (New Donk City might be my new favorite Mario level ever), Mario Odyssey was a game that just made me happy whenever I played it. An incredibly bright spot in a year that desperately needed those.

Heat Signature

Heat Signature is great because it follows that “best laid plans” style of gameplay where the excitement comes from watching the game’s multiple systems interact in unexpected and usually hilarious ways. The progression of the game, undertaking procedurally generated missions for procedurally generated characters until they die/get captured/achieve their personal mission means that no two missions will play out the same way. In fact, most of the time your item loadout will make you wonder how exactly you’re supposed to kill the armored guard when you have no armor piercing weapons? And did I mention this all takes place in space?

It’s this ambiguity that, much like last year’s amazing Hitman, really allows Heat Signature to shine. No matter how well you plan your mission, there’s always the chance everything will come crashing down on you and you’ll be forced to improvised. That moment with the armored enemies I alluded to earlier? I succeeded that mission by firing a grenade into an explosives filled room as my target followed me in there. This destroyed the entire room (along with my target), but also blocked off the way to my escape pod. With moments to spare, and guards quickly making their way towards my location, I jumped out of the newly formed hole in the side of the ship and into the blackness of space. From there, I quickly remote controlled my ship to my body seconds before I died of oxygen deprivation.

And I have so many stories like this, some way more outlandish. Hell, I considered just copying and pasting all the conversations I’ve had with a friend of all of our increasingly hilarious shenanigans in the game and calling that my review. Heat Signature is a wonderful game that keeps on giving by letting its players find their own way through impossible situations.

Destiny 2

Guilty admission time: I haven’t really played a Bungie shooter since Halo 3. I never picked up ODST and I only played the first couple of missions in Halo Reach. I completely skipped the first Destiny mostly due to a lack of interest at the time. But there was enough positive buzz around Destiny 2 (and enough friends preordering the PC port) to convince me to give the game a shot. Totally worth it.

Playing Destiny 2 satisfied a number of long forgotten itches for me. As with Bungie’s previous works, the shooting in Destiny 2 is the star of the show. Each gun feels unique and shooting is crisp and responsive. Not only that, but the loot drop system always ensures your playstyle is changing and evolving through the entire level progression. When you finally reach end game and start solidifying your playstyle, Destinty 2 offers a plethora of customizable options to fit your needs. Even as the end game content trailed off, the core loop was strong enough to keep me playing on an almost daily basis.

More surprisingly, Destiny 2 became my go-to chillout game for a while. Something about the MMO grind relaxes me, and Destiny 2’s weekly quests helped with that aplenty. Having a circle of friends and an active guild to constantly play with didn’t hurt either. As a result, Destiny 2 was probably the multiplayer game I played the most of this year. My interest in the game has waned ever so slightly, but ultimately Destiny 2 was the Bungie reunion I never knew I needed.

Night in the Woods

There’s a realness to Night in the Woods that hit a little closer to home than I had anticipated. Ostensibly about a college dropout returning to her working-class town amidst spooky occurrences, Night in the Woods is a game about emotional vulnerability. Upon returning home Mae, the game’s protagonist, struggles to figure out what to do with her life while simultaneously dealing with mental illness. Most of the game’s story plays out through vignettes of Mae spending time with her old friends. Yet even though these vignettes are expertly written and offer comfort in their portrayal of small-town life, they also highlight the fact that life continues apace, even when you’re not there. Mae’s friends have moved on with their lives in her absence, and her once prosperous town is in much dire straits. None of this helps Mae’s sense of being stuck in a rut and it causes some severe schisms between her, her friends and her family. In that sense, I can’t help but empathize with Mae. I know what that feels like, more than I’d like to admit.

That’s why Night in the Woods works as well as it does. Throughout its story, Night in the Woods is honest about the way we struggle with our personal miseries and anxieties. It does not offer empty platitudes or tell us to look at the bright side. Rather, it acknowledges that our relationships with one another are susceptible to damage, and that rebuilding those relationships takes work. It’s a game that stresses the importance of solidarity, that we need others to make it through this life. This emotional honesty is core to the game’s philosophy, making the proceedings feel wholly genuine and real. Night in the Woods was the first game I fell in love with in 2017, and it’s the type of game I feel we need more of at this moment in time.

Pyre

Never before has esports looked so beautiful. Following in the footsteps of Supergiant’s previous work, Pyre is an absolute masterclass in art, sound, and world building. From the moment I first met my initial traveling party, I was all in on Pyre’s world. Each character exudes personality, and everyone’s individual backstories do an excellent job of fleshing out each NPC's desires, as well as the Downside itself. As my party grew, so too did my relationships with every member. Every instance of wizard basketball lead to learning more about these people, their unspoken histories, and the world that they all lived in. However, every game of wizard basketball also brought my teammates closer to redemption, forcing me as a player to give up those bonds of friendship for the sake of my party members. It’s a meaningful choice, one that wouldn’t work half as well if Pyre’s characters weren’t so well written. Not to mention, the wizard basketball part of the game is really fun and surprisingly deep once you start mastering its fundamentals.

Backed by Jen Zee’s luscious visuals and Darren Korb’s evocative soundtrack, Pyre contains one of the most lived in worlds of this year. Everyone should go play Pyre, but if you tell Rukey to shave his mustache, we are no longer friends you horrible, awful person.

PLAYERUNKNOWN’S Battlegrounds

By all accounts I should not like PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Battlegrounds. When I first saw the game in early access, nothing about it appealed to me. Visually, the game has the same flat “real” aesthetic as DayZ, H1Z1 and all the other offshoots made in the image of ARMA. The combat looked terribly dry and janky, while the UI was a mess. I was ready to write the game off as simply Not For Me. Then I started watching people stream the game. Which led to me finally purchasing the game.

Two elements of PUBG stand out to me. The first is the relentlessly tense nature of play. When you’re alone on a island with 100 other players, only then do you recognize how terrifying the overall scope and size of the game is. Death can come from any direction on such a huge, open map. The rapidly shrinking circle of survivable terrain means you can’t just spend all game hiding in a bathtub. You need to be constantly putting yourself at risk if you want to win. The way PUBG forces this tension on its players makes the experience so rewarding when you find yourself on the winning side of a skirmish.

Conversely, you have squad play, which involves you and up to 3 other friends causing havoc across the map until someone starts firing on your squad. It was watching these shenanigans on livestreams that really sold the game for me. One moment the game is a joyous romp across the map, the next everyone switches to super serious tactics mode until any sense of danger passes. The brilliance of PUBG is that there’s always a sense of danger.

Even if it’s still rough around the edges, the core loop of Battlegrounds is so strong, and the recent inclusion of a second map means I probably won't be quitting PUBG any time soon. I still have a chicken dinner to win, after all.

I’m so very, very close.

Doki Doki Literature Club

Doki Doki Literature Club isn’t the most original game I’ve played. Most of its tricks have been done before, such as in the excellent IMSCARED. That said, it’s the way in which Doki Doki executes on those tricks that makes the game so engaging. Starting as a generic anime dating sim, Doki Doki slowly begins to subvert your expectations, until you start seeing the characters underneath all the tropes. Only then, once you’ve had a chance to learn more about each character does the game pull the rug out from under you. Suddenly those cute little character quirks evolve into something much more alarming. As you progress, the game turns into both a condemnation and, ultimately, a reaffirmation of the storytelling devices many VNs employ. And like IMSCARED, the story unravels in a way that could only happen in a video game.

I’d say more, but I’m worried I’ve spoiled too much already . Regardless, Doki Doki Literature Club is a memorable game that left a strong impression on me. And by “left a strong impression” I mean I had trouble sleeping that night. Give the game a shot if you have an evening free. Just...make sure to take the content warning at the beginning of the game seriously.

Cuphead

I’m going to be honest: I don’t think Cuphead fully earns its difficulty. I think this stems from a number of factors, including a bad tutorial (yes, really), an occasional lack of player feedback, and a parry mechanic that is both extraneous and colorblind unfriendly.

Did these issues affect my enjoyment of the game? Yes. Did I still really enjoy Cuphead? Also yes. Mostly. When Cuphead is firing on all cylinders, it’s a master class in run n gun game design. The artwork absolutely carries the game, and when paired with an outstanding original soundtrack (MORE JAZZ IN VIDEO GAMES PLEASE), Cuphead nails the feeling of 1930s cartoons. The art also lends itself to some inventive boss battles, giving each boss unexpected and gorgeous transformations, providing a great sense of challenge and progression for the player. Some boss fights even feel like a complete short story thanks in part to the interplay between the game’s art and progression. Wanting to see what came next kept me coming back for more in spite of some of the problems I ran into elsewhere in the game. An absolutely outstanding visual achievement, Cuphead succeeds in spite of its flaws.

Games That Didn’t Make the List, but Deserve an Honorable Mention

Persona 5

I’ve loved the time I’ve spent with Persona 5 so far, mostly thanks to its strong aesthetic style and killer soundtrack. Seriously, this game has my favorite menus ever. That said, I’ve only made it through the first dungeon, and while I’ve loved the combat and the characters, hearing the middling opinions of where the game goes in its second half tempered my excitement for the game. I still plan on seeing this one through to the end though.

Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 is more Splatoon! This is a great and wonderful thing! The new maps and weapons are fun! Salmon Run is a great addition! And it’s all on a system with a much larger player base! Seriously, Splatoon 2 is a fantastic game that I keep coming back to. Just not as much as some other games on this list.

Sonic Mania

Easily the best Sonic game in years, Sonic Mania reminds everyone of all the stuff that worked about older Sonic while adding just the right amount of new tricks and surprises to make things feel fresh. Some of the later worlds and bosses drag a bit, but overall a pleasant experience, especially on the Switch. Also I can’t get enough of that animated intro.

The End is Nigh

Edumund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel’s new platformer feels like an alternate universe Meat Boy at times. Rather than rely heavily on reaction times, The End is Nigh is much more methodical, requiring players to commit to their movements and jumps. It’s an interesting take on McMillen’s previous work, but I admittedly fell off of it pretty early in. I’d still highly recommend it though.

Fire Pro Wrestling World

Fire Pro is miles ahead of any other wrestling game in recent memory. That said, it’s major selling point is less the game’s actual wrestling mechanics and more the intimidating depth of its character creator. And with Steam Workshop support built in, I will never get tired of watching CPU wrestlers battle it out for fake wrestling supremacy.

Getting Over it with Bennett Foddy

I love this game. I hate this game. This game is very meditative and zen. This game fills me with frustration and melancholy. Bennett Foddy’s voice and observations about game design are soothing and thoughtful. Bennett Foddy is a jerk who makes games designed to hurt people. I will get over it. I am not yet over it.

Star Fox 2

For being a cancelled sequel to Star Fox, Star Fox 2 sure is a neat little thought experiment, but I think I like the idea of the game more than playing it. This is mostly here to celebrate the fact that this game somehow received an official release from Nintendo in the year of our lord 2017. And preserving game history is always worth celebrating.

Night Trap

Night Trap is a bad game. Its mechanics are confusing, the difficulty unforgiving, and if you want to be good at the game, you have to completely ignore what’s happening in the story. The only reason this game received a 2017 anniversary release is because of the unwarranted infamy it gained during the US Senate hearings on violent video games in the early 90s. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have at least one entertaining night of drinking and playing this game with a group of friends. Like I said, preserving game history is always worth celebrating (I’m beginning to reconsider that).

Rez Infinite (again)

A new port of Rez Infinite came out for PC this year! And it’s still an amazing game! And Area X is still the most beautiful, transcendent VR experience on the market! Go play it already!

Undertale (again?)

A new port of Undertale came out for PS4 this year! And it’s still an amazing game despite the fact you have to use a d-pad instead of arrow keys! And this is beginning to sound awfully familiar...Go play it already!

Bloodborne (...again)

I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Anyways, I finally finished Bloodborne this year, and that game is still really good y’all. The combat system is top notch, and I still really love the setting and the enemy design. Bloodborne also has the best DLC of any Souls game, period. Go play it already!

Games I Still Need to Play

Yakuza 0

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Resident Evil 7

Nioh

Everything

The Sexy Brutale

Battle Chef Brigade

What Remains of Edith Finch

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Golf Story

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Tacoma

Prey

Hollow Knight

The Mummy Demastered

Dream Daddy

West of Loathing

Dead Cells

Gorogoa

Observer

Detention

And This Other Stuff

Pro Wrestling Match of the Year: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Kenny Omega - IWGP Heavyweight Championship - Wrestle Kingdom 11

The year was not kind to WWE fans. Unless you exclusively watch tag matches, most of WWE’s output this year disappointed. Whether it was bad matches (almost anything with Bray Wyatt or Randy Orton in it), terrible storylines (Jason Jordan revealed as Kurt Angle’s son), or mishandled wrestlers (HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU SCREW UP BAYLEY?), there was a lot more bad than good in WWE this year, and that’s saying something.

Thankfully 2017 did have some spectacular wrestling outside of WWE, and a lot of it came from New Japan Pro Wrestling. In fact, it took all of 4 days into 2017 for NJPW to produce not only the best match of the year, but the first in a trilogy of matches that could’ve all easily taken this spot. While both Okada/Omega II and III are incredible must-see matches in their own right, the first of their bouts is the one that stayed with me the longest. Maybe it was because it was the first time I ever paid attention to NJPW before, or maybe it was because I made the (right) choice to stay up until 4am to watch a live wrestling show, but Okada/Omega I was a revelation. Each wrestler oozed charisma and moved with such purpose in the ring. It was unlike any match I had seen before. Between the constant back and forth of counters and crazy table spots and near falls, this match reminded me why I re-fell in love with wrestling in the first place. Absolutely a classic from start to finish.

As of this writing, Wrestle Kingdom 12 is about an hour away from starting. Okada/Omega I was so good it convinced me to shell out money for this year’s event. In fact, NJPW had such a fantastic 2017, I’m even considering canceling my WWE Network subscription. I can only hope this show is just as good as last year’s (SPOILERS: IT TOTALLY WAS).

Best non-Giant Bomb related Podcast: The Adventure Zone (again?!)

I thought about giving this to another podcast, I really did. I almost gave it to S-Town, a podcast I binge listened(?) to for a month after it released. But if I’m being perfectly honest, this category belongs to The Adventure Zone. After falling in love with it in 2016, I continued listening to as many episodes as I could given all the other podcasts I keep in my RSS feed. Needless to say, The Adventure Zone just keeps getting better. Listening to the McElroys develop their characters and their style of storytelling has been a treat, and has led to some genuinely moving moments. I’m STILL not done with the series (only just started The Eleventh Hour), but TAZ still takes up most of my podcasting time.

You should also go listen to S-Town though. It’s really good.

Coolest game I found in Japan: Dance Rush

This year, I achieved a life long goal and visited Japan for the first time. It was an incredible two week experience that will stay with me for a lifetime. Naturally while I was there I spent some time in some of the arcades found in Akihabara and Nipponbashi. There were so many games I had never seen before from anime fighters to card battling games. But it wasn’t until the last night of my trip that I found Dance Rush. The game is essentially an evolution of DDR, replacing the arrow pads with a super flashy LED pad that lets players move around in all directions. It looked really cool, and I was totally going to play it, but the person in front of me was really good and started drawing a crowd. Needless to say, I was too chicken to play after that. I will play Dance Rush one day though. Even if I have to fly back to Japan to do it!

Did I mention the game has a super sweet remix of BUTTERFLY?

Best Fever Dream of 2017: Mouth Moods

I will never forget the night Neil Cicierega dropped his latest mashup album Mouth Moods. For one night, all of Twitter took part in an impromptu listening party, laughing, crying, and cringing at the auditory insanity we were subjecting ourselves to. At one point, I was talking to a friend online and mid-IM they interrupted their thought to say “I got to the last song. Colin, I’m so sorry.” That was all I needed to inadvertently scream “NO” in my living room (it was a clever use of the Kiss From a Rose intro if you care about such things). All in all, it was one of the more memorable Mondays of 2017 and reinforced Neil C’s status as a mad genius of internet culture.

Obligatory Shoutout Award 2017: Games and Playable Media, UC Santa Cruz

It’s been a busy 2017 for the Games and Playable Media program. This year saw our program grow to our biggest cohort yet and we couldn’t be more excited. Multiple student games showcased at this year’s E3, with project CTRL.SHIFT being singled out by Ars Technica as one of the top 10 games to watch for after the expo. Student game Phantom Jump made it’s official release on Steam, a first for the undergraduate side of our program. Finally, our program was featured on Waypoint as part of their Waypoint Presents documentary series! Shoutouts to Austin Walker and the crew for doing such an incredible job. As always, here’s to an exciting 2018!

The year's over! Finally! To celebrate this occasion, I've once again made an exhaustive list of the games I enjoyed over the last 365 days. As always, this list is super highly subjective, so don't feel bad if I didn't put your favorite game on my list. Lists aren't meant to be taken seriously anyway! Without further ado, here are the 10 games I liked the most in 2016, in no particular order.

The List of 10

Rez Infinite

When I was but a baby games researcher in the year 2009, I had the chance to experience my university’s CAVE for the first time. If you’re unfamiliar with that recursive acronym, a CAVE is a room with high resolution rear-projection screens across each wall that allows people to see images and models in a physical space while wearing 3D glasses. While the tech demos the faculty showed my group were impressive, I left the CAVE with one thought burning through my mind: “What would a game like Rez look like in a CAVE?”

Ever since my first experience with Rez, 2008’s HD remaster on Xbox 360, the game has been this quiet revelation for me. The music is phenomenal, combining perfectly with its Kandinsky inspired visuals. The rhythmic nature of Rez’s gameplay felt refreshing as it offered and encouraged players to explore, to improvise, to...well, play with the music. But apart from being a great game, Rez became so much more than that to me. It helped shaped me as a person and a researcher; the kinds of questions I wanted to ask, the type of research I wanted to work on. It’s no surprise then that when it came time to pick a research topic for my Master’s thesis, I chose Rez.

But the question of what comes after Rez continued to follow me throughout my career. Sure, 2011’s Child of Eden was a noble attempt, but the finicky motion controls and lack of tactile/haptic feedback left me wanting. Then Tetsuya Mizuguchi announced he was porting Rez to PS4, complete with VR support and an entirely new level devoted to VR. My heart skipped about four beats.

Without hyperbole, Rez Infinite is the game I’ve wanted since I first walked into that CAVE. It feels like the game Mizuguchi had in mind when he and his team first released Rez on the Dreamcast 15 years ago. Everything I loved about the original game has been fully realized thanks to the inclusion of PSVR support. The audiovisual style of Rez suddenly felt more alive than ever before as the game’s world opened up to me in a way I never expected it to, culminating in the beautiful new Area X. To say Area X had a profound effect on me as a player would be an understatement. Being surrounded by such a unique digital landscape left me breathless and awestruck, and that’s putting it lightly.

Yes, Rez Infinite is mostly a retread of the game’s original levels and modes. Thing is, Rez didn’t need many changes in the first place. The same fantastic gameplay experience is here and worth your time, no matter how long you’ve been playing Rez. But it’s the VR support that truly makes this re-release shine. It took a long time to get here, but I’m glad I finally got to experience Rez this way. Now here’s hoping Area X gets developed into a fully fleshed out VR game.

Doom

I’m still blown away by how good Doom is. This is a game that, up until release, seemed destined for the bargain bin. It languished in development for years as a Call of Duty clone with demons. The early trailers didn’t impress and the multiplayer beta received a tepid response. On top of that Bethesda didn't send out early review copies, a move that suggests a lack of confidence on Bethesda’s part regardless of their post-release comments.

Despite all of this, Doom turned out to be a brilliant reinvention of a classic series and one of the best shooters in recent memory. The core loop of the game modernizes all things that made the original Doom a classic without feeling like a shallow pastiche. Combined with some gorgeous locales and a tongue-in-cheek storyline (complete with a pitch perfect soundtrack), and you have one of the most memorable, high-octane games in years. It’s a game about constantly moving and getting into the thick of it while a swarm of demons surround you. There were times when I looked at a level’s map and thought to myself, “This is a Romero level” or “This feels like a Sandy Petersen level.” Needless to say, I had the dumbest grin on my face every time I played Doom, and I can’t thank the developers at Id enough for that.

Overwatch

If this list was decided solely on the amount of time I've spent playing any particular game, then this list would be Overwatch and nothing else. What Overwatch adds to the class based multiplayer shooter is nothing short of fantastic. Apart from having distinctive personalities, each character possess a wide range of unique abilities that makes everyone a blast to play, even if a particular character doesn’t fit your playstyle. There are support characters in Overwatch that I enjoy playing, and that says something. More importantly, the character diversity in Overwatch, although not perfect, is miles above many other games. When a game lets you choose between Egyptian sniper grandma and buff Russian lady with a cool haircut, you know your game is something special. Special enough that the game manged to foster one of the most positive, creative, and engaged (albeit sometimes crazy) communities for a multiplayer shooter ever.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to gush about Overwatch’s usability design because I absolutely adore it. The sound design is amazing, with so many small flourishes and effects that provide the right amount of information to the player. The post game votes and Play of the Game videos do a great job of keeping play positive (also no troublesome K/D Ratios!). There are so many options for colorblind players, you guys! ...Ok the colorblind filters aren’t great, but it’s a good start!

Bottom line, Overwatch took all things I loved about Team Fortress 2 and expanded on them in ways that opened up a plethora of possibilities for class based shooters. It was the game I kept coming back to all year, and that’s probably not going to stop anytime soon.

Aside: Mei is bae.

Hitman

The best thing about Hitman is that it knows it’s a video game. That philosophy is reflected across every part of Hitman’s design. Each level acts as its own little clockwork space, with layers upon layers of systems interacting with one another. It’s those interactions between the game’s systems that makes playing Hitman such a joy. As you continue to familiarize yourself with each level, you gain a better understanding of Hitman’s limits. This allows you, as a player, to push to those limits to their breaking point, leading to some truly memorable in-game moments. And despite becoming so intimate with the rules of Hitman, there’s just enough ambiguity in things like AI behavior that lead to these wonderfully organic moments of chaos. It’s this combination of mastery and improvisation that leads to some of Hitman’s best moments, and the interactions between the game’s mechanics and AI behaviors reminds me fondly of games like Spelunky.

On top of all this, who would’ve thought that IO’s last minute decision to make the game episodic would turn out to be the linchpin that brought everything together? With each new episode, I found myself more and more engaged with Hitman. And the elusive targets in between new episodes were great excuses to keep revisiting previous maps. I started 2016 having never played a Hitman game. As 2016 ends, I can’t wait for season two.

Ladykiller in a Bind

Ladykiller in a Bind is a game about so many things. It’s a game about social manipulation; about identity. It explores topics like relationships, sex, consent, body image, crossdressing, flirting, and so on. It is also Very Hot.

What makes Ladykiller work is a robust dialogue system. The dialog options you choose between surface as a result of multiple factors, including tone or the ability to unlock further dialog options down the road. More impressive is the fact that sometimes options will appear or disappear based on the context of the conversation. It’s a design choice that results in a lot more planning and consideration on the part of the player. In this way, it rewards the player with a more engaging, sometimes more realistic rhythm to in-game conversations.

But it’s the game’s attitude towards sex and relationship that stand out the most to me. Rather than treat sex as just a reward for picking the right options, the game encourages players to take an active role in these scenes , alongside the conversations surrounding them. Consent is at the forefront of these encounters (as well as the ones outside of the bedroom), positioning communication as a vital and essential part of the experience. The final product is a game that lets the player explore different relationship dynamics, while understanding that sex can be funny and awkward as well as fun. And hey if sex isn’t your thing, the game allows you to skip these parts of the game too!

Ladykiller in a Bind is a fun, sexy, well-written game with a wonderful cast of characters. I hope to see more games reference Christine Love’s work in the future. God knows the world is thirsty enough to need it.

Hyper Light Drifter

Hyper Light Drifter has the most lived in world of any game I played this year. From the moment that game starts, I was immediately in that world, ready for the journey that was ahead of me. This is all thanks in part to the tremendous amount of detail that Heart Machine put into the game. The visual style of Hyper Light Drifter is evocative of a world in ruins and the beautiful soundtrack by Disasterpiece helps drive home the haunting sense of loneliness and isolation in the world. On top of that, the use of pictographs instead of language provide a clear understanding of the game’s world and the trials of its inhabitants. The Drifter’s universe feels like a real location with its own history and culture, much in the same way as perennial comparison Dark Souls does. The attention to detail also permeates how the game plays. Movement and combat are extremely tight and enemy encounters keep players on their toes. There’s just something about zipping around an arena and slashing enemies that feels so satisfying. Even the upgrades you acquire during the game add to the otherworld feeling of The Drifter. The resulting game is one that hits all the right notes for me in terms of storytelling and worldbuilding. Surprising for a game that’s entirely wordless.

Monster Hunter 4/Monster Hunter Generations

Last year, Monster Hunter 4 almost made my list. Unfortunately, I just had yet to dig deep enough into the game to really understand its intricacies. This year was the year everything clicked for me. From the combat, to the mission structure, to learning why I should always be gathering mushrooms. The more I found myself mastering MonHun’s loop, the more the game sunk its claws into me. What also helped was sharing the experience with a regular group of people, some newbies like myself, others seasoned veterans. Nothing compares to the tension you feel as you try and take down a huge monster with your friends. And while my veteran friends felt this year’s Generations title was too much of a retread, I fell in love the with the game’s faster and snappier combat mechanics. There’s still a lot more stuff about Monster Hunter that I need to learn, but now that I’ve passed the initial learning curve, I’m ready for more.

Also, you can pet an alpaca in Monster Hunter Generations. So there's that.

Overcooked

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard and so frequently while playing a video game with friends. Overcooked is that special kind of couch multiplayer game that bakes chaos into its design, ensuring you’ll spend many a level yelling at your friends through tears of laughter. On paper, everything sounds so simple: You prep food, you cook it, and you serve it. Occasionally you have to wash some dishes. But in practice, Overcooked keeps tweaking the challenge in each stage ever so slightly, throwing a wrench in your team’s plans for well coordinated cooking. Sometimes the countertop shifts places forcing you to take on a new role. Sometimes you’re frying fish and chips on a slippery iceberg. Sometimes ghosts will shift the pots around because ghosts apparently want soup, but also like messing with the kitchen staff? When your team puts a plan together, playing Overcooked becomes a well-oiled machine that’s a sight to behold. But the game truly shines when everything falls to wayside in a ball of chaos and madness. Overcooked is a simple game that executes its ideas perfectly.

Reigns

As 2016 lurched forward, I found myself playing more mobile games than in previous years. Part of this is finally having a smartphone for the past two years, and part of it is the steady increase of quality games for mobile devices. Unfortunately, many of the year’s biggest mobile releases didn’t keep me interested for long. Playing Clash Royale became a daily occurrence for a while, but a combination of hitting the paywall and some truly toxic UX decisions made me bounce off that game harder than any other game in recent memory. And while I was fascinated with how Pokemon Go changed the way players interacted with their environments (and each other), the game was a bare bones minimum viable product at launch, and that’s only just starting to change now.

Thankfully, Reigns is there to keep me company. Part kingdom management sim, part tinder clone, Reigns does an excellent job of making you feel the weight of your decisions. Even when most of your decisions boil down to a “swipe left or swipe right” binary. What gives the game its longevity is that each king is the heir of the previous king you just got killed. The choices you made with your posthumous king may affect the choices and scenarios your new king must face. Reigns is a small, but well-polished game that keeps surprising me with new characters and new scenarios to find. It’s swiping mechanic is perfect for mobile devices, and I found myself playing Reigns for much longer than I intended to.

Frog Fractions 2

Disclaimer: I am friends with both Frog Fractions 2's lead designer Jim Crawford and lead artist Rachel Sala. I also playtested the game before it was released/discovered.

The jig is finally up! Frog Fractions 2 is out in the wild. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil the surprise here. If you want to know what game I'm talking about, you can check out recent posts on this very website. Regardless, you should all play Frog Fractions 2. It builds on its predecessor in a way that is at once familiar and completely clown shoes bonkers. I have a feeling the game is going to be much more divisive than the first one, but that’s beside the point. The point is, Frog Fractions 2 goes places and it is totally worth your time to track down this game. Just remember: It’s all about the friends you make along the way.

Games that probably would’ve made this list, but didn’t for one reason or another.

Titanfall 2

Titanfall 2 almost made the list, especially considering how surprised I was by both the game’s campaign and its multiplayer. Unfortunately, I’ve spent more time with Doom and Overwatch this year, and I didn’t want to flood my list with shooters (2016 was a really good year for shooters). Consider this the most honorable of mentions.

Devil Daggers

I love the hell out of Devil Daggers. Its look, its gameplay, ITS GORGEOUS SOUND DESIGN (2016 was a really good year for sound design too). All of it spoke to me. That said, the game didn’t hold my attention as much as I thought it would. That, and the fact that I’ve hit a bit of a skill wall that’s going to require some dedication means this game just barely misses the top 10. You should still go play Devil Daggers though.

Darkest Dungeon

I’ve only played about 2 hours of Darkest Dungeon, which is barely enough time to start feeling comfortable with the game’s core loop. The game is delightfully macabre, but I want to hold off on final impressions until I’ve had a chance to really marinate in the supposed endgame grind.

Dark Souls III

I bought Dark Souls III at a time when my laptop was on its last legs and I was waiting until new graphics cards were released before building a new desktop. As a result, I only made it past the first boss before bouncing off the game due to technical problems. The fact that I’m still working my way through the excellent Bloodborne hasn’t helped, but I want to return to Dark Souls III soon.

Owlboy

Owlboy looks amazing, and I love the Zelda in the Sky gameplay, and I made the mistake of buying this game towards the end of the year when I had other games I wanted to finish first. That’s about the long and the short of it.

Thumper

This game was so good when I played it at various shows and conferences. Problem is, it came out around the exact same time as Rez Infinite. And if the long essay at the top of this list wasn’t obvious enough, Rez is very special to me. Thumper is next though. Dear god is it next.

Stardew Valley

Let me be real here for a moment: I want to play Stardew Valley, I really do. I’ve never played Harvest Moon before, and this looks like a much better version of that. But a friend showed me his very intricate and complicated spreadsheets he uses for the game and it scared me. Also, I bought the game at the same time as Doom and Doom won the priority battle. I’m still gonna make that farm though. Just...need to not think about those spreadsheets.

Persona 5

WHADDAYA MEAN PERSONA 5’S NOT GETTING AN ENGLISH RELEASE UNTIL APRIL THIS IS GARBAGE I’M GOING TO LEARN JAPANESE JUST SO I CAN PLAY THIS GAME EARLY THAT’LL SHOW ATLUS.

Games I want to play but haven’t started yet

100ft Robot Golf

1979 Revolution: Black Friday

Abzu

Brigador

Burly Men at Sea

Civilization VI

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor

Dishonored 2

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

Final Fantasy XV

Furi

Gears of War 4

Inversus

Phoenix Wright: Spirit of Justice

Planet Coaster

Superhot

That Dragon, Cancer

The Last Guardian

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

Watch Dogs 2

And this Extra Stuff

Pro Wrestling Match of the Year: Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NXT Takeover: Dallas

If there’s one silver lining to the garbage fire that was 2016, it’s that there was a lot of great pro wrestling. So much, in fact, that choosing my favorite match from this year was actually more difficult than anticipated. If I’m being perfectly honest here, the 2-out-of-3-falls match between The Revival and DIY is probably the best wrestled match of 2016. It’s certainly the best tag team match I’ve ever seen. But in the end, nothing encapsulates all the different things pro wrestling can be quite like Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura.

There is so much to unpack from just this one match. On the one hand, you have the WWE debut of one of the best wrestlers from japan, complete with what might be the best entrance theme ever given to a wrestler. And here he is blowing up the establishment by being himself, amidst worries that WWE was going to micromanage the personality out of him. On the other side of things, this match is the last hurrah for Sami Zayn in NXT. Zayn is one of the wrestlers that helped me rediscover pro wrestling, and his work in NXT generated a system of expectations that frankly did not exist until he showed up and tore the roof off the place. NXT’s reputation as WWE’s wrestling show for fans who like wrestling is in part thanks to Sami Zayn. In the middle of these two is a crowd that’s ready to lose their goddamn minds over what’s about to happen in the ring. The match itself is pro wrestling at its purest: Two people with big hearts and something to prove facing off against one another. The match works as an introduction to Nakamura and his Strong Style of wrestling, as well as a farewell to Zayn, who is destined for bigger things after this match. The crowd even creates a new chant for the occasion (jury’s still out on how overused “Fight Forever” is going to get). Taken as individual set pieces, the match might seem a bit pedestrian. But once you put all of these separate parts together, you get something explosive and magical. Zayn vs Nakamura shows how great this dumb fake combat sport can be when it’s firing on all cylinders. Do whatever you need to do to watch this match.

Best non-Giant Bomb related Podcast: The Adventure Zone

The emergence of tabletop gaming podcasts has been a welcome addition to the podcasting format (shoutouts to Austin Walker’s Friends at the Table), and none of these podcasts entertained me more than The Adventure Zone. The Adventure Zone follows the McElroys, brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin, along with their father Clint, as they design characters and throw them into the many different kinds of shenanigans Dungeons and Dragons has to offer. The McElroy’s special brand of humor is on full display here as their D&D characters deal with whatever DM Griffin throws at them in the oddest and most absurd ways imaginable. Sometimes it even works out for the party too! Definitely check this one out when you have a long day of traveling ahead of you.

Most Precious Boy: The Boy Mayor of Second Life

Speaking of the McElorys, 2016 was the year I fell in love with these crazy brothers. The group has a chemistry and a sense of humor that speaks to me on an emotional level. Their magnum opus is Monster Factory, a show where Griffin and Justin make bizarre characters in video games and send them out on adventures. Somehow this show is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, and I don’t think I’ve laughed harder at something than the continuing adventures of the Boy Mayor of Second Life and his trusty secretary Totinos. Griffin and Justin are able to pull humor out of any situation, and their trip though Second Life was no exception. Whether it was a successful reelection bid against Duran Duran, his pro-dog voting platform, or simply hosting a massive election party above someone’s private Second Life property, the saga of of The Boy Mayor of Second Life provided me with lots of desperately needed laughs.

Seriously, you should go watch some Monster Factory. Like right now.

Most Wanted Character for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite: Phoenix Wright.

Yes, I know Phoenix Wright was in the last Marvel game. I don’t care. Capcom, you know what needs to be done. Put him in Infinite. Make him the god tier OP character he should’ve been in UMvC3. Don't forget to include a sweet remix of Cornered. Do it for me, Capcom.

Obligatory Shoutout Award 2016: Games and Playable Media, UC Santa Cruz

This year was a phenomenal year for UC Santa Cruz’s Games and Playable Media programs. Our reach as a premier game design degree program is expanding, and it’s been a pleasure to be apart of all of it. This year’s highlights include four UCSC games being chosen as finalists in this year’s Indiecade competition, with games Bad News and Threadsteading each taking home an award. In addition, a team of designers from our master’s program won $10k in a nationwide game design competition sponsored by the AARP. Student games were shown at various trade shows like E3, and a number of student projects are awaiting full releases on Steam. Here's to 2017!

I normally don’t compose GOTY lists. Partly because I’ve never felt compelled to, and partly because I rarely get the chance to play more than a few new games every year. But 2015 has admittedly been such a fantastic year for games that I couldn’t help but jot down some thoughts about what stood out to me over the last 365 days. So without further ado, here is my highly subjective list of games that I felt were pretty good this year.

Game of the Year: Undertale

Surprising literally no one who follows me on social media, Undertale is my Game of the Year. I knew very little about the game going in. It was an RPG where you could kill or spare monsters. Apparently there were jokes. Then a friend sent me a copy of the game with a message that read, “play this so I can talk with you about it.” About 45 minutes in, I understood why.

On a surface level, Undertale is simply a well-made game. Each of the game’s enemy encounters turns the shump inspired combat on its head, and choosing to spare enemies adds a great puzzle element to each encounter, which keeps battles unique and engaging. Meanwhile, the clever writing and the never-ending stream of jokes bolster the experience and keeps the game moving at a brisk pace. It has the second best soundtrack of any game this year (more on that later). I lost track of how many times this game put a big stupid grin on my face.

But it’s not until later in the game when Undertale really starts digging its claws into you. Rather than use its binary “kill or spare” mechanic as nothing more than a “good end/bad end” flag, Undertale asks players to pick an ethos and stick with it, and the game uses this dynamic to great effect. Regardless of which path you take, you earn your ending, validating each player’s story in a far more interesting way than a simple good/bad dichotomy. More importantly, it makes you feel the weight of your choices more than any other game I’ve played, thanks to some vibrant supporting characters and excellent worldbuilding. Ultimately, Undertale is a game about empathy, and what we’re willing to do (or not do) in the name of empathy. But the game also takes time to explore other ideas, including more pointed critiques about the way we play games and the nature of fandom culture. Sometimes Undertale even feels like a giant middle finger to ludocentric game design. The point is, this is a game that goes places and does things that few other games attempt, and the effort pays off immensely.

Don’t get me wrong, I had problems with Undertale. The game can be unnecessarily coy at times, especially when it comes to the early parts of the game where the player’s still learning how everything works. In addition, players who aren’t familiar/good at shmups may find the game’s boss battle frustrating. Despite this, no other game has crawled under my skin this year like Undertale has. It’s a game that has stayed with me long after I completed it, and I can’t think of any other game this year (or even the past few years) that I’ve enjoyed more. Now if you’ll excuse, I have a date with a skeleton.

Other Games I Enjoyed This Year

Super Mario Maker

Super Mario Maker convinced me to buy a Wii U. I could probably just leave it at that, but doing so would be a great disservice to the game. Mario Maker’s design tools are flexible and intuitive while offering level designers a plethora of content to play with. Being able to drop some objects down, test them out, then immediately return to the editor is immensely satisfying, especially for someone who’s as playtesting obsessed as I am. Not to mention how many fun little secrets the editor hides. I would often find myself playing around in the level editor to unwind after work before checking out the latest user made stages in the the game’s 100-Mario challenge mode. And even though discoverability of good levels is a big problem with the game (one that Nintendo has recently made a fix for...kind of), the amount of ingenuity displayed in the best user levels keeps me coming back for more. Super Mario Maker is the Mario game many of us have dreamed about for years. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had with a level editor, and I can’t wait to see what crazy ideas level designers come up with over the lifespan of the game.

Bloodborne

From Software has amped up their release schedule over the last year. We’ve received two separate releases of Dark Souls II as well as PS4 exclusive Bloodborne. Dark Souls III is scheduled for release in April. Normally, I would be bothered by this sudden annualization of a series, but I can’t help but be excited when the games themselves have been so wonderful. Bloodborne is a fantastic take on the Souls experience, replacing shields with sidearms to emphasize a more aggressive, in-your-face, combat style. Boss encounters are rewarding, and like previous From Software titles, the world of Yharnam is rich with details that make the city feel lived in like few other virtual worlds can accomplish. It’s only a matter of time before I lose hours to reading lore pages on the Bloodborne wiki.

And that’s really one of the greatest successes of Bloodborne. Whether it’s finally overcoming that one boss I’ve struggled with for hours, uncovering the mysteries of the world, or engaging in the game’s multiplayer options, the game never leaves me feeling like I’m wasting the time I invest into it. At an early point in my playthrough, I was introduced to the boss Father Gascoigne via cutscene. Once I regained control of the game, I charged at my foe with the ghosts of four or five other players following suit. It was a minor detail, but one that speaks to how Bloodborne rewards players on both a big and small scale.

Downwell

The most important aspect of Downwell is gravity. Gravity is both your best friend and worst enemy. As you fall towards the goal of each level, gravity relentlessly throws new enemies at you, forcing you to react in split second intervals or watch your run turn to trichromatic dust. That’s where the game’s progression mechanics come into play. As you complete each level you gain access to new weapons and powerups that give you control over your descent. Now your greatest weapon is harnessing the power of your momentum during your descent. Gravity becomes your ally as you attempt to spend as little time as possible on solid ground, stomping on enemies, collecting gems, and keeping your combo high. Sure there’s still no guarantee that you’ll survive your fall, but at least you’ll know it’s your fault and not gravity’s. Downwell has the tightest core loop of any game this year, and I'm not ashamed to admit I've lost multiple hours to this game when I only meant to play for a few minutes.

Disclaimer: Vivid Palette is best Palette.

Rocket League

Rocket League’s appeal stems from its simplicity. The game is literally soccer with RC cars, which is immediately understandable to most people. But what keeps people engaged with Rocket League well after its initial release is how deep that formula turns out to be. The key to playing Rocket League effectively is momentum. Matches become incredibly tense and rewarding thanks to the back and forth between teams at any given moment. The fact that the game’s controls are spot on doesn’t hurt either. Within the past few years, multiple games have tried to make "eSports" apart of their game's DNA, Evolve being the most recent example. Most of those endeavors failed because they didn't understand what makes a game competitively viable. Rocket League succeeds where other games have failed because it understands that eSports is an organic creation, one derived from exciting, deep gameplay, and the drive for competition.

Splatoon

The last multiplayer shooters I really paid attention to were probably Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead series. Otherwise, there just hasn’t been much that’s kept me occupied. But thanks to Splatoon, I now have a great new go-to shooter! Everything about this game is delightful. It’s game modes offer a terrific off-beat approach to third-person shooting supplemented by an excellent progression system that feels natural to flow of the game. I also can't ignore how everything from the art design to the soundtrack is brimming with personality. Not only that, but Nintendo, of all companies, has gone above and beyond by providing ample content and community events way after the game's initial launch. Nintendo! I don’t know what bizarro world we fell into where Nintendo has the best multiplayer shooter of the year, but I’m 100% ok with staying here for a little while longer.

Nuclear Throne

I’m cheating a bit here. Technically, Nuclear Throne has been in early access for a few years now. That said, the game officially released this month so it still totally counts! And honestly, I haven’t been able to put this game down since I picked it up in 2014. It’s a roguelike that hits all the sweet spots for me: challenging gameplay, unique weapons/items, a great soundtrack, and lots of cool secrets.

But what I really think Nuclear Throne deserves praise for is how Vlambeer kept the community involved throughout the game’s development process. With weekly livestreams and constant content/balance patches, Vlambeer gave their fans a window into the development process. Those fans would provide real time feedback on each update that helped make Nuclear Throne into the game it is today. The final result is a terrific roguelike that respects the needs of the player while remaining true to Vlambeer’s original intentions. In a year where companies still release content and features into the wild without consideration of how it affects the users (looking at you Valve), it’s refreshing to see a studio be rewarded for their efforts to involve their community in the game making process.

Cibele

Cibele is an uncomfortably voyeuristic game, and I really respect that. The story of an awkward, budding online romance between two young individuals, Cibele is simultaneously an intensely personal story and one that resonates with many different people. But what sticks out to me is how nakedly honest the game is. It’s a game about love and consequences and it doesn’t pull any punches when approaching that subject material. And while the player does have control over Nina’s desktop and the MMO she plays, I never once felt like I was supposed to be Nina. I was just a passerby, watching somebody else make very real, very human decisions and dealing with the fallout of those decisions. The fact that the game is able to pull this experience off through its design is an amazing achievement, and I can’t thank Cibele enough for letting me be there to witness it.

Hearthstone

Another bit of cheating, but it’s my list, so there. I’ve admittedly cooled off on Hearthstone since The Grand Tournament expansion, but I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t my most played game for the first half of the year. I’ve never been one to get into collectible card games and Magic The Gathering has been the bane of my existence since college. The fact that Hearthstone not only got me to play a CCG but also kept me playing for the past year and a half is something to be celebrated. Even as each new set of cards adds a wrinkle to the formula, the simplicity of the game remains relatively intact, and I still find I can make strong decks even without having every epic and legendary card available. I also can't help but fall in love with all the bells and whistles Blizzard crams into the game. Now if only they could improve on their spectating options...

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

I hemmed and hawed about putting Hotline Miami 2 on this list. At the end of the day, this game is inferior to its predecessor. The more open level design placed too much of an emphasis on gunplay for my tastes, and resulted in death by offscreen enemy too frequently. Meanwhile, the story was bloated and felt like it didn’t really have anything meaningful to say unlike the first game’s story (yes I have thought WAY too much about the story to Hotline Miami shut up). Despite these flaws, Hotline Miami 2 was the first game this year that I couldn’t stop playing. The core loop of this game is just so enjoyable, I found myself repeating stages well after I completed the game for higher scores and achievements, which is something I never do. Not to mention this game does the impossible by not only having THE BEST soundtrack to any game this year (shoutouts to Alex Navarro for fighting the good fight in this year’s podcasts), but also surpassing the original’s soundtrack by a healthy margin. There was a solid two months or so at the beginning of the year where I physically could not force myself to listen to anything else but this soundtrack. It is seriously that good. So while Hotline Miami 2 is a bit of a letdown, there’s still plenty of enjoyable stuff here. And with the game’s level editor dropping soon, I’m hopeful that the community will fix some of my lingering issues with this game.

Games That Probably Would’ve Made This List Had I Put More Time Into Them

SOMA

I played about 45 minutes of SOMA at this year’s Indie Games for Good marathon, but sadly haven’t had a chance to pick it up since. Needless to say, I love what I played and hope to return to this wonderful game soon because I am so down for horror games about AI and existential dread.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

I have a difficult past with the MGS series. Who doesn't, really? MGS1 is a classic, I’ve learned to respect MGS2 as time passes, MGS3 was pretty frustrating, and MGS4 is a glorious mess of a game. I’m currently 8 hours into MGS V with a 4% completion total. As such, I just don’t really have much to say, but I’m enjoying the game so far, despite some rather bothersome elements (forever side-eyeing the shit out of Quiet’s character design).

Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate

I like Monster Hunter 4, but I admit the game has some *really* quirky design choices that I’m still trying to wrap my head around. Because of that, the game hasn’t really clicked for me just yet. That said, the one time I did co-op with a friend was some of the best, most intense combat encounters I’ve had this year. I know where this road ends, I just need to figure out the path to get there.

Ori and the Blind Forest

I have a very hard time getting into Metroidvanias. I want to like them, but have never been able to play one for more than an hour or two. Ori and the Blind Forest looked to buck that trend, but performance issues on my laptop have kept me from completing it. I will finish this game though. It’s too gorgeous not to.

Games I Want to Play but Haven’t Gotten Around to Yet.

We Know the Devil; Her Story; Read Only Memories; Massive Chalice; Galak-Z; Until Dawn; Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide; Batman: Arkham Knight; Cities: Skylines; The Beginner’s Guide; Life is Strange; SC2VN (Sorry Tim!)

And This Extra Stuff

Pro Wrestling Match of the Year: Sasha Banks (c) v. Bayley NXT Women’s Championship Match- NXT Takeover: Brooklyn

The perfect payoff to two years of storytelling. Sasha Banks and Bayley wrestled an expertly paced match filled with tension, drama, high spots, and some amazing pro-graps catharsis. It is single-handedly the best women’s match WWE television has ever produced and quite possibly the most important women’s wrestling match ever. Even if you don’t like pro wrestling, I urge you to watch this match. Here’s hoping Sasha and Bayley continue to push the envelope for years to come.

Also that kayfabe breaking hug post-match is one of the most satisfying moments ever. Nothing is more pure in this world than wrestlers getting emotional about wrestling.

Most Surprisingly Good Beer: Broken Skull IPA - El Segundo Brewing Company

Given the origin of this beer (a celebrity collaboration with El Segundo and Stone Cold Steve Austin), I was expecting a run-of-the-mill IPA consisting mostly of cascade hops and not much else. What I got was a delightfully smooth beer with a lovely flourish of citrus overtones and a hint of sweet malt flavors. Light in color and body, the Broken Skull IPA caught me off guard in the best way possible. Seek this beer out if you can.

Best non-Giant Bomb Podcast: Serial

Yeah, I was a bit late to Serial, but that doesn’t matter. Serial does weekly storytelling in an incredibly captivating way that leaves you aching for the next part of the story. And with the second season now in full swing, I can finally get my fix after marathoning the first season at the beginning of the year.

Obligatory Shoutout Award 2015: Games and Playable Media MS, UC Santa Cruz

I've spent the last year working for UC Santa Cruz's Games and Playable Media Master's Program, and it has been an absolute blast. I've had the honor of working with some of the most well-respected people in industry and watching some incredibly talented students hone their design skills and create some really cool games; some of which you can find here! Needless to say, it's been awesome and the upcoming year looks to be equally fun.