My top ten games of 2013 that are better than Brothers
By SecondPersonShooter 37 Comments
I finally got around to playing and finishing Brothers, which was my last game that I had any interest in playing in the year 2013. It was a fine, bite-sized experience, but the whole thing was over extremely quickly, and failed to make any sort of emotional impact on me. I present below my argument for ten games in 2013 that are better than Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons
10. Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies
It's been along time since the rather mediocre Apollo Justice entry into Capcom's unique brand of anime-court visual novels, but Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies is a completely refreshing return to the quirky, lighthearted and murder-filled world of Phoenix and the gang. The new 3D models for the character portraits look absolutely gorgeous, and surprised me with how I actually preferred them to the old 2D animations of the DS entries. I felt the story didn't quite hit the heights of the original trilogy, but it still offers up some satisfying twists at the end, and actually develops it's main characters extremely well, most of the focus being given to new protagonist Athena, who fits right in with the rest of the cast and is just one in many memorable characters that litter the adventure. This game is easily recommendable to any fans of the series, but is also a perfect point to jump in because all of the plot threads introduced in this game are unique unto themselves, minus a few forced-in cameos from earlier games.
Why is it better than Brothers?
Phoenix Wright is definitely a better game than Brothers because of characters. You might be inclined to say "But Brother's wasn't about the characters! In fact all the language and dialogue was purposefully left out of the game to let the player easily use the brothers as a proxy for their own personal experiences!" but my personal experiences never involved me being able to directly control me and my siblings via analog stick. This really broke the immersion for me and caused me to have an unwavering hatred of the game before the prologue was over
9. DmC: Devil May Cry
Ninja Theory succeeded in making a reboot to the game that possibly took the least liberties with the franchise of any reboot ever, and still managed to piss an ungodly amount of people off. I don't see why though, because I honestly think this is the best game in the franchise since Devil May Cry 3. The combat feels great, with switching up your attacks at the touch of a button being both easy to understand and satisfyingly difficult to use in practice. It definitely has the best boss battles of any game to come out this year, and despite people saying that the game tries to hard to be "edgy", in reality it is far more in line with the goofy nature of the original games.
Why is it better than Brothers?
Brothers has it's share of giant, disgusting creatures, both friendly and unfriendly, but do you really feel threatened by them when they don't speak words? This is 2013, almost everybody on earth knows how to speak English, would it have been that hard to have the creatures scream out some expletives? This would have definitely made the game's messages of loss of childhood innocence and rough ascension into adulthood more prevalent, but as it stands, the lack of "Fuck You's" in Brother's feels like a an oversight and a sorely missed opportunity for something special.
8. Fire Emblem Awakening
I have never been big for the strato', but after last years XCOM I deliberately put more effort into checking out a genre that I had previously neglected. This lead to me picking up Fire Emblem, and falling in love with it's complex systems and match-ups. Awakening has a disgusting amount of soldiers for you to recruit to your army and grind up levels with, each with their own unique stats and attributes, but throw in all the equipment management, class-changing, and being able to retain some passive skills from classes they have already leveled up in and you end up having a game that is delightfully overwhelming with it's scope. I'm obviously not an expert on the genre, but Fire Emblem Awakening is definitely a thoroughly enjoyable video game, with the capability of giving the player extreme satisfaction at a hard-fought victory with no causalities.
Why is it better than Brothers?
If there's one thing glaringly absent from Brothers, it's tactical combat. I think this could have been easily fixed, and if I worked for the game-factory that made Brothers, I would have definitely had them add random encounters into the adventure. This would have provided for a longer, more fulfilling experience, and offers the player an incentive to really care about the titular Brothers as they level up and gain more skills, giving them a direct agency into their overall development. A few goddamn romance options certainly wouldn't have hurt either.
7. Dragon's Crown
Dragon's Crown is extremely fun if you can convince some friends to play semi-creepy Japanese game with you, and the gameplay is probably the best the beat-em-up genre has ever seen. Each class has their own unique perks and abilities, so starting a new character feels completley fresh and makes playing the same levels over and over again never feel tired. It's a great game to pick up and play for 20 minutes at a time, making the Vita version the one to get in my opinion. Definitely way more worth picking up if you have friends along for the ride.
Why is it better than Brothers?
Brothers has the distinction of being the least sexy game ever made, which I think I speak for everybody when I say that is not why we come to videogames. We all come to videogames to have all of our pent up testosterone flow into our dicks simultaneously and explode out of our heads in the form of primal, guttural screams. Brothers failed to make me even a little bit hard, and if it did, I would probably want my Kinect camera to automatically contact the authorities.
6. Injustice: Gods Among Us
I hate superheroes, but I love fighting games, specifically Mortal Kombat, so I decided to pick up Injustice: Gods Among Us. I must say that this game exceeded my expectations at every possible turn, providing simple fighting mechanics with a lot of hidden depth when it comes to chaining combos efficiently. The mechanics are simple enough for most gamer's to pick up quickly, which makes for a fantastic local multiplayer game. I don't play many games online, but the exception is fighting games, and this definitely sucked me in for a while.
Why is it better than Brothers?
Brothers could have been a great super hero orgin-story, but instead of turning into Spiderman you just perform spastic gestures while having a stroke for three hours.
5. The Last of Us
The Last of Us is a the pinnacle of current-gen tech, providing one of the most distinctly beautiful experience I can ever remember in a video game, complete with a mature narrative that doesn't insult the player in the slightest,a and subverts expectation in all of the right ways to reach a conclusion that is devastating without feeling manipulative. The only reason I didn't place this higher is because the game-play wears thin by the end of the experience, and on the whole is less satisfying than the Uncharted series, but from a narrative perspective this game is pure dynamite, and it warms my heart to know video games are finally growing up.
Why is it better than Brothers?
It chills my heart to know that video games will never grow up. It's 20 fucking 13 and we still have a game based completely around moving a character with the left analog stick, the big innovation being that you can move another character with the other analog stick. Not only is this completely stupid, but it also makes it damn near impossible to snack on anything while playing Brothers because both of your thumbs are expected to be on the analog sticks at all times. In The Last of Us, its easy enough to twist your left hand in a way where your fingers can reach the buttons while still being able to manipulate the character around with your thumb, meanwhile your right hand takes a break to reach over to the Dorito bag. Good luck doing this in Brothers, a game that seems designed from the bottom up to make people starve to death.
4. Grand Theft Auto V
Other than GTAV being the best BMX game of the last 6 years, it is also the best open world game. This is the most expansive, immersive, and exhaustively detailed world I have ever seen in a video game, and you can lose hours walking around doing not much of anything at all. If you do decide to delve into the story however, you will be greeted with the most entertaining and well-developed characters the series has ever seen. It can't be overstated how refreshing the lighter mood is in comparison to GTAIV, and the tone just feels right for the type of games that GTA has always been.
Why is it better than Brothers?
Brothers has a few cute attempts at vehicular sections, but the lack of Britney Spears on the soundtrack ultimately renders them completely unsatisfying.
3. The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is absolutely the best short-form video game that I have ever played, with a sense of humor that is witty while simultaneously providing a significant amount of philosophical context upon retrospection. I saw every scenario of the game play out about three times and was always able to draw new meanings out of what was happening, because despite it having a quirky surface, The Stanley Parable eventually brings up quite a few uncomfortable questions. The game is completely enjoyable without heading off to pretentiousville though, and is filled with clever banter and unexpected turns throughout.
Why is it better than Brothers?
This is 2013. Genuine emotions don't exist anymore without some form of detached irony to them, and trying to create a game based around these so-called genuine emotions is just an exercise in futility.
2. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
I don't normally get all the way through JRPGs and consider them too much of a time-sink. Luckily, I had a friend living with me this summer, and it's much easier to play through an RPG when you can pass off the controller to someone else when you get bored. 80 hours later, I saw the credits roll on Ni No Kuni, and despite the last 20 hours completely destroying the combat systems that had been in place for the game prior, the game world is just so entrancing and looks absolutely amazing with it's cel-shading that it's incredible just to walk around and take it all in. Six months later, I just plugged this game into my system and lost a lot of hours walking around the world doing the postgame missions, and was shocked to find that I remembered everything about the game, from the rare crafting mineral farming spots to the specific components of alchemy. The game throws just about every RPG system in the book at you, but is paced so well that it never feels overwhelming, and by the time everything is unlocked you'll be navigating all the complex systems like a pro.Easily one of the best RPG's of the generation, and a great journey back into childhood
Why is it better than Brothers?
Because Brothers is a straight-up rip-off of this game. Not only does it also try to be a journey back into childhood, but the whole premise of Brothers, controlling two characters with both analog sticks, is covered in a mini-game for Ni No Kuni. Ni No Kuni did it first, and it's shocking to me that the industry as a whole is not up in arms about this. Brothers prides itself on innovation, but it is nothing more than a common thief. The game should be pulled off online stores for such dishonesty, and personally I can't believe that such a game got through the ESRB without being rated AO for frequent and pervasive LYING
1. Bioshock Infinite
I honestly cannot remember a video game narrative ever stringing me along so willingly as Bioshock Infinite did, and that's coming from somebody who was not even a fan of the original Bioshock. The setting of Columbia is rich with detail, and even though the game is ultimately quite linear, each area is filled with so much detail that I naturally wanted to explore, not for the promise of shiny collectibles, but just to see more posters and other hidden details put into crafting the spectacular world. The story is extremely well crafted, with massive amounts of foreshadowing that while seeming completely obvious in retrospect, are actually near-impossible to take as such until the game's conclusion is reached. Of course, people will complain about the timelines not making sense after drawing out numerous charts on the logic of the game, but the twists and turns really do make perfect sense in the context of the game's own story and how it's set up, and, simply put, no other video game this year pulled me in so completely, and out of reality, as Bioshock Infinite did.
Why is it better than Brothers?
I really don't think I need to explain myself any further. Brothers is a game that doesn't deserve to be on any top ten list of 2013 because I didn't like it at all.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
There is a lot to like about Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a game that starts as a fairly innocent journey and increasingly leans toward more violent images in what progressively becomes a rather dark tale. The development of the relationship and dynamic of the titular Brothers has an amazing amount of depth despite no comprehensible dialogue being spoken, and even though the graphics are simple, the environments still manage to look absolutely beautiful. Ultimately, the only reason Brothers missed my Top Ten Games of 2013 that are better than Brothers list is that it just narrowly missed being better than Brothers
The Pinball Arcade
The Pinball Arcade didn't come out in 2013, but it is definitely my most played game of 2013. I've never been super involved with Pinball games before, but that all changed when Playstation Plus gave this gem away for free. My friends and I became obsessed, buying every new table that was released, as well as touring around my city to find the real version of our favorite tables to play. Eventually, my friend discovered a website called pinside.com, which allows users to register their locations as well as what pinball tables they own, and a few short emails later, I was in a man's house that lived a few blocks away from me playing a fully functioning Bride of Pinbot machine in his basement. Pinball is the ultimate party game. It's accessible, skillful, and a lot of fun to play when getting progressively drunker. Long live pinball culture.
Bubsy 3d: Bubsy Visits the James Turrel Retrospective
as i gaze into the screen i can feel my eyelids start to become heavier
the world outside continues to fade as the orange fur of the cartoo
ng at a video game, i am staring at my eventual death hesitantly
i enter the coffin, ready for what comes beyondplunging downdowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndowndown