It's probably smart to wait this long to do one of these. As a hobbyist I feel it's hard to have a great GotY top ten in a timely fashion because of selection bias (hard to evaluate what you don't acquire) and time limitations.
You got some big surprises (to me anyway) in there, which is always my favorite quality in a list. Always glad to cases for new (to me) games that I might otherwise not play.
Maybe I need to give the GoT telltale game another shot. It just seemed really under produced and janky compared to Tales from the Borderlands.
I think your case for Life is Strange might be one of the more amusing snippets I've ever read on a GB list. "usual car crash of asinine adolescent angst" is a fantastic turn of phrase!
Great list duder! I gotta say Sonic did get me when it came out.
Thanks man! Yeah Sonic grabbed a lot of ppl I knew and justifiably so. The Genesis was a quality system, there wasn't a wrong choice to be made there. I just didn't have my own income back then so I could only get one system. And I wasn't going to leave my three favorite series behind to see what Sega had to offer.
Nice list Slag! Looking over your entries made me realize I don't think I've ever bought a system for a single game! When I was younger and got consoles/handhelds it was always because I wanted something to play video games on and less so that I wanted to play that game. Recently though, it's always been a case of never having enough money to justify spending on a single system. Otherwise I would have 'em all!
Although, I actually bought a 2DS a couple of days ago because it was pretty cheap and I couldn't find a place near me where I could buy a Vita. I don't really know what the "killer apps" for it are so seeing Fire Emblem here is pretty helpful for me! Also, I had no idea this thing could play DS games so thanks for that info!
Thanks blzzzrrttt!
I definitely don't buy a system these days for a single game anymore, but when I was a kid that was all it took for me to really want one, which I'm sure is common with most young kids. Fortunately for me I had parents who liked game and were willing to spring for systems for us. Given the price of games back then, most of what I played was rentals. The games were short anyway so 3 days was often enough to power though a bunch of them.
Once I started having my own income I started being more systematically selective eventhough it probably doesn't like it up there.
These days I don't have a hard number or formula that makes me pull the trigger. Now that I tend to own multiple platforms to get anything other than a new primary usually needs to have a dozen exclusives or so that interest me of which 5-6 need to games I consider "must plays". Or in the PS TV's cases, just be cheap enough to make it a nonissue. Even today gaming is still a pretty expensive hobby, I got a budget and I tend to stick close to it. I can be patient and wait for a game to get super cheap before buying it.
I was thinking about this the other day to decide whether or not Uncharted 4 was worth the purchase of a PS4 for me personally. At least for me there still isn't enough. I can only think of 3 games I'd really need a PS4 for at this point and a bunch of maybes. Bloodborne (which realistically I probably wouldn't play given how many Souls games I still have backlogged), Until Dawn (which I've already seen/played), Uncharted 4 (and I haven't played the first three yet, that's on my todo list for the summer. The rest is pretty undetermined right now
Horizon: Zero Dawn (probably), Final Fantasy XV (if it doesn't come to PC), Wild (maybe), Persona 5 (only if the PS3 version gets cancelled), FF Vii remake (if it doesn't come to PC), Hellblade (maybe), David cage's new game (probably), Deep Down (if it still exists), Ni-Oh (maybe), Ni No kuni 2 (maybe), Nier: automata (maybe if it really doesn't come to PC)
If all those hit and are quality, I may need to start saving money. But we'll see. My backlog is huge as it is. I'm in no rush.
Re:2DS - Hey man congrats! I hope you enjoy it! I don't know if the 2DS version can or cannot play DS games (I think it does). If it does though, the DS library is incredibly incredibly deep. I'm still chewing through DS games, what 12 years after the system first launched? Enough so that to the point I've barely scratched thee surface of the 3DS itself. You won't find it hard to find dozens of great games if you like Platformers, RPGs, rhythm games, puzzle games, Visual Novels and SRPGs. The lineup on handhelds can be bit a thin on things that are more 3d action oriented like sports games, action adventure and shooters, but the sheer depth in the others more than compensates imo.
Plus now that DS games are getting older, Gamestop etc tends to be purging their inventory out at decent prices. So you can build a quality library fairly inexpensively even if you aren't buying new releases.
If it helps this is a list I sporadically update of 3DS games I want to purchase. It doesn't have the games I already own on their for self explanatory reason, but might help as a starting point if you are new to the ecosystem
Good list. Mario used to be such a major system seller back in the day.
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Thanks man! Yeah every Mario really was. It used to be such an event, before the Mario brand got seemingly diluted into every aspect of Nintendo. Kinda like what Halo was awhile.
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I personally suspect that's partially many old timer gamers like myself sometimes tend to be so curmudgeonly about the New Super series instead of appreciating that series on its merits. Because we had gotten used to ever new Mario being a radically innovative new experience, so it was deeply upsetting to some to his series kinda go the Mega Man route of just being solid iterative platformers.
or for that matter why Jeff has a such a kneejerk distaste for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
I don't feel that way (after Sunshine I realized I was ok with Mario just being another great game and not the game that that was going to blow my mind every 5 years), but I know plenty who do and I can sympathize with the feeling.
Dynasty Warriors 2 definitely caught me by surprise.
While it may seem crazy now, Dynasty Warriors 2 was a pretty big deal at the time. When I was in college, my suitemates had a PS2 in the common room. Of all the titles they had that year, the one game they had that made me freak out and want to play it was DW 2. Even FF X was something I kind of watched others play and didn't have much interest in playing. At the time, it felt like magic that they could fit that many enemies on the screen at once. DW 2 also birthed the musou genre (remember DW 1 is a 3D fighting game, not a musou), so it was actually fresh and original at the time.
My grades suffered first Semester that year thanks to that damn game.
Hah I believe it Cav!
I'm totally with you, it was the showpiece of a pretty solid launch lineup. The one you only had to see 60 seconds of gameplay to realize, holy cow I've never seen anything like this before.
Fantavision might have been the prettiest but it was kinda boring. Summoner was the one I thought I was going to love, but hated it. Madden, DOA2 and Timesplitters were very impressive, but their improvements seemed mainly limited to graphics on existing ideas. And Ridge Racer was the obligatory car game (but Midnight Club was the one people actually wanted to play).
I will say I never got see SSX at the time, so that one might have grabbed me more if I had. But I doubt it.
I didn't read most of your blog Sparky since I'm avoiding spoilers but that's very cool you like the new KQ! Coming from you I know it must be decent given what I know you know of Sierra stuff.
Given how incredibly slow the release schedule is, I'm personally waiting till the whole thing is out before buying. I find playing episodic games episodically just doesn't work for me. I detach too much emotionally and just don't have the drive to finish them. I don't know if that's some personality flaw I have or if games are somehow just that different from TV/comics etc where I have no problem waiting a week/month etc
And hey congratulations on the novel! That's awesome man! I hope you get a good response to it!
I feel the same way. That last mission soured me on the whole thing.
Got to be honest the seeming randomness in how she would deviate from her projected arc I felt was an annoying artifact that just wasn't a fun mechanic.
but what annoyed the most was the smug help messages that rotated nonstop at the bottom of the screen. Very irritating. At least when I played there seemed to be no option to turn those off
Man I did not have those issues with the lag in the controls at all. That's a bummer it negatively impacted your play experience that much Mento.
I haven't played Tobal 2, but I'm pretty sure the devs said somewhere in an interview that they were inspired by Smash Adventure like you noticed. Down to even the combat system which is smash-esque to me.
Sorry it didn't click for you. The story is pretty crazy if you get far enough into the game to piece it out.
I missed Metroid in its time only coming to the game something like 10-15 years later. One of my bigger regrets from the NES era, but there's only so much a kid without a job can get.
I personally differ about the map though
I can live without a map, I don't mind making my own if I need too. In some cases like Metroid I almost prefer it, as it Maps I find can give out all sorts of unintentional spoilers (in terms of exploration) like the size of of an area just by the implied size of the map.
The killer for me was the lack of a save system. Having to start each session with just 30 points of health just sucked. It's one thing if I died, I can "git gud" if I have to, But I was playing on the GBA and I don't often like to game on handhelds for more that 30 minutes or so. And well once you get used to friendly modern checkpointing, it's hard to go back.
Damn, I just got a PS TV last year to avoid having to buy a Vita. I guess I'm going to have to find a system cheap somewhere now because they looks sweet.
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