TheMasterDS

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My 2012 Awards

I did this last year. First 5 categories are the same, second 5 are new.

List items

1. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

"Best Game I Replayed This Year" - Paper Mario Thousand Year Door is fucking great in every way. The mechanics are as good as Paper Mario has ever got, the characters are as rich as they've ever been in the Mario franchise, the world is really well done in how shady everything is, and the chapters are just full of amazing structural and situational variety. There is a chapter where you become a professional wrestler. There is also a chapter that focuses almost entirely on solving a mystery on a train. You can't argue with that.
2. Katawa Shoujo

"Biggest Surprise" - I checked this out a week before 2012 was over and in that week fell in love with it. I never thought games in this genre could actually be respectable and catch my interest but Katawa Shoujo blows my mind. I love it. I'm kind of sad and depressed now that its over and its making me think about stuff like no other entertainment product has this year whether it be book, tv show, film or video game. You should probably give it a chance, it might hook you hard.
3. Paper Mario: Sticker Star

"Biggest Let Down" - During what little of this game I've played I was so repulsed I could hardly make it to the first save. Everything this game does is a total turn off. Even though I originally bought a 3DS ostensibly for this game I can not bring myself to play it because it is deformed beyond recognition.
4. Syndicate

"Game I Want More Of" - Syndicate was fucking awesome and it's core mechanic was so fresh yet so perfectly implemented I can't help but want more. It doesn't hurt that the gun play was also spot on. Especially with the Kusanagi Rifle. That thing's a beast!
5. Bell Tower

"Best Thing I Made In Minecraft" (Bell Tower from Fez) - We built the Bell Tower from Fez in Minecraft! It's on the Tested server, you should check it out! It's awesome! Every block on the tower in the game is on the tower on the server. It's incredible.
6. Botanicula

"Best Humble Bundle" - Maybe it's best to say this isn't necessarily the best more my favorite. And it was my favorite because it packaged a game that was awesome, no one had played before, and was awesome. Part of the reason I pick this humble bundle is because of the humble bundles I've purchased this year only this one had a game I finished but it goes deeper than that. The fact was this humble bundle had a marquee brand new game and, for a while, the only way to get it was through the bundle. That was great.
7. Darksiders II

"Worst Ending" - It says a lot that this beats Mass Effect 3. It's an abrupt ending that comes out of nowhere, supposedly raises humanity but doesn't specify or explain how or when that's happening, has Death sacrifice himself only to be immediately brought back to life because the end of Darksiders I showed him alive, and is entirely anticlimactic. It was so bad I started thinking worse of Darksiders II immediately after finishing it. While playing it I thought it was up there with the rest of my favorite games that year, afterwards it didn't even make the top 10.
8. Sid Meier's Civilization V

"Best Steam Sale Purchase" - Civ V is awesome. While a lot of the time you don't feel like you're doing a whole lot the process is just entirely addicting and satisfying. It's extremely well made and I really got my 10 bucks out of it. Then I bought the 30 dollar DLC for it. I figure I'm still good far as value goes.
9. Teleportation

"Ability I'd Most Like To Have In Real Life" - Before playing Dishonored if you asked me what Starcraft 2 ability I'd like to have in real life I'd say probably Blink though I'd say strong cases could be made for invisibility or jetpacks. Now after playing Dishonored I'm sure. If I want anything I want to be able to teleport a short distance because it's super useful for traversal it turns out.
10. The Walking Dead

"Best Walking Dead Episode" - Episode 4. I felt it did the best and both having a great through line and offering a variety of venues and set pieces. Plus it sets up the conclusion so perfectly and introduced a ton of great characters.

4 Comments First to Last Latest

Posted by TheMasterDS - December 09, 2012 at 10:53 PM

Runners up for "Game I want More Of" include Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door & Sound Shapes.

Posted by Fearnavigatr - December 19, 2012 at 8:08 PM

Charm is certainly still there in Sticker Star, gameplay works just fine and it's not all removed from story elements. Certainly though, it shows worrying development when even what seemed to be the safest haven of story-driven Mario gets touched by Miyamoto's inexplicable crusade against the same.

Was Bowser's Inside Story the last narratively immersive Mario game? Dear lord I hope not.

Posted by TheMasterDS - December 19, 2012 at 8:33 PM

@Fearnavigatr: Especially considering how Inside Story had the worst helper support character I had ever seen at that point in Chippy. Man, Chippy was a cunt. A terrible character, I hate her because she is deplorable in the way that she talks and the respect she does not pay to Bowser. PAY BOWSER YOUR PROPS HE IS THE ONE THING GOOD ABOUT THAT GAME.

Posted by Fearnavigatr - December 19, 2012 at 9:39 PM

@TheMasterDS:

Funny, I don't even remember Chippy thinking back on that game until I see her mentioned. Shows how uncharacteristic she was. But the game actually did stand out to me as being one of the strongest Mario RPGs in terms of storytelling, mostly thanks to how it managed to have Bowser in a protagonist role along with the Mario brothers without any sort of personality compromises, allegiance setups or disruptive changes of viewpoint.

So yeah, I really like Bowser's Inside Story, I only wouldn't want it to be the last story-heavy Mario game on the simple basis of there not being any more if that were the case.