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tomrlholt

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Game of The Year 2014 Users Choice

I had a second kid this year, and spent many weekends outside playing with the first one. It was a busy year, but still I made time for games and tried to think more critically about them than ever.

At any rate, being as cheap as I am, I generally don't buy games full price in the year they're released, with some small exceptions. Below are the games I've played this year that I enjoyed the most.

Bayonetta 2 and Dark Souls 2 would be contenders, except I didn't beat them so I didn't get the full experience.

List items

  • God, what a game. I spent an inordinate amount of time playing this, ultimately getting the achievements for Speedlunky, beating Hell and 100% journal before taking an extended break. There were many nights where I'd sign on for the daily challenge, and then keep doing runs afterwards seeking to beat Hell - all the while the wife is playing beside me on her own run.

    Everything about this game is a delight. The music, the challenge, the mechanics, the learning curve, the random generation. There's so much depth to explore, and if I didn't have a burning desire to play other games I'm sure I would still be exploring this one.

  • Bravely Default is a successful modernization of the jRPG. Despite the contentious second half of this game, I really enjoyed picking away at it an hour a night while we watched TV. The main story is the least interesting part of last 4 chapters, but it was still functional and the final boss fight was at once both endearingly stupid and neat in how it tied mechanics to story. I was also stunned upon realizing my frustration at having the full story held back was intentional due to Airy's presence.

    But there's two parts to the back half that make this game my #2: The first is the characterization in later chapters. It took one-off boss characters and made them part of a broader cast. There's a lot to be learned about the Asterisk characters that you wouldn't just get from shotgunning the main story.

    But the best part, is the party customization. I was engrossed by looking at the various combinations possible and trying to maximize what I could do with minimal grinding, and even just looking at the boss encounters and trying to troubleshoot what I could do better. One of my favourite memories is facing off against the entire Water Temple cast and using getting killed almost instantly to my advantage.

    The whole back half of the game is less a way to extend the story, and more there to let you actually play around with all of the character classes now that you have them unlocked, and to learn more about the world you're saving. It does get long in the tooth as well, but that's a minor complaint compared to the joy it brings.

  • What a cool bit of platforming. Sadly I lack a lot of notes on this one, but I remember playing it on the gamepad and taking the time to play through every level as Luigi and Rosalina, getting all the green stars and stamps because I enjoyed it so much.

    They hit a lot of nostalgia buttons, but they also bring a lot to the table with some challenging levels in the later stages and unique talents for every character. The circus theme brought a lot of laughs, and the final boss fight with Meowser was incredible for the bad pun, but also allowing him to use power-ups.

    I still haven't beaten the final challenge world - something to look at in the new year.

  • Inspired by Metal Gear Scanlon, I borrowed MGS 1 - 3 from a friend with the intent of playing through all of them. I plowed through 1 and 2, but with 2 being so radically different from 1, I stalled out due to the sheer volume of text and the slow prologue of 3.

    However, MGS was my jam when it came to this series. It's Boss Rush: The Game, with some interludes for bananas plot, and that's something I can really appreciate despite the poorly aged controls. Multiple approaches for encounters, campy voice acting, varied boss fights with new mechanics for each, everything about this game was fun.

  • The first game to be included on my list not just because of mechanics! I also worked through the Sands of Time trilogy this year, because it was one of the classics not in my repertoire and it was well worth my time.

    I had to think hard about each game in the series to see which one I enjoyed the most, and why. Side note, but one fun aspect was seeing it slowly evolve into Assassin's Creed over the course of the trilogy.

    Sands of Time is a fun story about a spoiled Prince who acts like a total buffoon to Farah, but falls in love with her throughout the trials they endure. The parkour is enjoyable and the combat is minimally fleshed out, but functional enough that it doesn't interfere.

    Warrior Within really expands the combat and has kind of an unnecessarily dark tone and an incredibly stupid prince who thinks with his dick, and a lot of fun time fuckery. It added throwing people which was officially -the- best way to play combat encounters, although it backfired when I fought Kaileena and realized I didn't know how to fight well.

    The Two Thrones is the best of the trilogy, though. Taking the combat enhancements of the second one, placing it in an urban environment for parkour, and featuring a story of the prince finally growing up and accepting the consequences of his actions was incredibly satisfying: a redemption well earned. Outside of the character beats, it continues with Warrior Within's time fuckery and delivers a satisfying conclusion to the series.

    Two Thrones really stands alone as its own game well, but it definitely benefits from enjoying the trilogy as a whole.

  • This was the year for trilogies, apparently. Might and Magic 6 - 8 could be considering the Kreegan trilogy, sharing an engine and the through-line of those critters. Considering the trilogy as a whole, 7 was the best out of all of them.

    6 was overlong, featuring two gigantic fetch quests as the main story. 8 was a shadow of 7 trying to imitate what 7 did and while it was good, it was only okay.

    7 refined what 6 did mechanically, changing up the skill and magic system to encourage more varied parties, and it expertly built a world to host the story it was telling. I was constantly engaged with every zone I visited, and invested it what happened to Harmondale. It also had Arcomage as a fun distraction to play when you first hit up a town - my favourite thing I did in MM7 was sneak into hell to play a card game.

  • Confession time: Link to the Past was my first Zelda and I have so many fond memories of going to the variety store every Saturday, renting it and playing it with my brother. It's one of my fondest memories with him and it's a game I hold dear.

    With that said, it attempted to mix up modern Zelda games, with very little tutorializing and varying dungeon order. There were some callbacks that hit me in a sweet spot, like the fakeout with Blind and the Desert Palace first portion.

    The story was endearing with the alternate names making me laugh, although I could've done with Lunk instead of Ravio. The final boss was a fun challenge that could've featured Zelda more, although the other bosses were repeats with updated graphics.

    I'm torn on this game - I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure what other people without my experience would think.

  • After working through the incredible 3, I didn't think it could be topped, but IV proved me wrong. Saint's Row IV is not only an incredible super hero game, giving you the ultimate power fantasy with all the powers and customizable / ridiculous weapons it offers, it tells a story that's just one big love letter to old games.

    I know, referential humour is lazy. But the way it's executed in SRIV is loving and a send-up that shows that they appreciate their heritage, instead of deriding it or teasing it. When they recreated a 2D beat-'em-up in the same engine, I laughed long and hard while doing that segment.

    The side activities were great too, with the Rifts being the most fun. The platforming rifts were my favourite, although the speed rifts were okay too. I was disappointed by the new Genki, though.

    The DLC was pretty fun too - saving Christmas made me feel good on the inside for finally doing some good for the community.

  • This game hits everything I love about games - it's both a music game and a roguelike. The soundtrack is incredible and was my theme music while I was working for a few weeks, and the joy of jumping through a dungeon to the sound of the beat is unparalleled. I need to get back to it, but time is so precious right now - maybe when it get its full release.

  • Sadly, I didn't spend as much time with this as I would've liked to. I did some online multiplayer and got deconstructed, and the single player is functional but barebones. Playing it with friends was the real highlight of my time spent, but sadly that was only one night.

    Nothing beats playing Wii Fit Trainer and alternating between Praising the Sun and spamming taunts.

    Stretch those shoulders!
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