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uphc

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GOTY 2012

Played remarkably few full-retail games this year. XCOM and Dishonored both had brief rentals around the time my daughter was born, and I basically covered just the tutorial sections of both. (I've since picked up and started XCOM, and am within days of my first council review. XCOM is already a frontrunner to be my 2013 2012 game of the year; may not get to Dishonored until 2014.) I also have a few titles laying around that I flat out haven't gotten to, so my apologies to fans of Hotline Miami, Mark of the Ninja, FTL, Crimson Shroud, Dear Esther, and The Legend of Grimrock. Finally, no Xbox means no Xbox-exclusives, so no Fez or Spelunky.

(Xenoblade got a late-breaking bump once I got past the Tom Chick-approved breakpoint.)

List items

  • My top three were the exact kind of experiences I play games for - Journey forcing cooperation with strangers, and Super Hexagon testing me against myself - and The Walking Dead is no exception. My wife does not care for video games, is uncomfortable with horror fiction besides the AMC series, and can safely ignore comic books, so for the characters and story of The Walking Dead to have gripped us in the way it did was truly special. It's somewhat ironic that the best interpretation of the themes of The Walking Dead IP would be in a video game that not only tells a tight story from beginning to end but also contains easily the best-realized characters of this year in games, as the more traditional narratives of the comic and television series are filled with caricatures whose drive ranges from nebulous to dramatic. The only notable dip in quality was in an episode packed with more standard horror tropes, but the character-building and storytelling throughout easily overcame that very minor weakness. A cool, cool game. (Baboo.)

  • I'm a sucker for a fully-realized product, and that's exactly what Journey is. Everything in it contributes to its artistic whole, and if this were all it was as a single-player game, it would still be a major contender in these end-of-year conversations, but of course it did the whole Unprecedented-Anonymous-Cooperative play thing. I feel a little sad for people who weren't playing it on day one, before everyone had fancy stitching all over their white robes, and that part of the game is impossible to preserve.

  • The developer (Terry Cavanagh) has said that if a player can beat the first difficulty, then he has enough skill to beat all six. Having spent at least one day hearing Jenn Frank's voice ("Triangle." "Excellent.") more than those of my family, I can confirm that if you're willing to put in the time, probably anyone can get there. The first purely skill-based game in a very long time at which I've had the interest or will to become passably good.

  • I wish more big-budget games could borrow from film's vocabulary in the way that Thirty Flights of Loving did. The sense of disorientation combined with making meaningful progress shown in the airport / luggage cart scene's jump cuts wouldn't have been out of place in Heavy Rain's JASON scene. The brief scenes in the apartment before and after the wedding showed an adult relationship without getting all video-game-weird about it.

  • Tokyo jungle is my HGTV. I can sit down with one of countless variations on the same two basic premises and it's like comfort food gaming. Like PC Spelunky, I can sit down and play it with no expectation of meaningful progress and be totally satisfied by it.

  • Dyad went from being completely off my radar to a must-have about a month before it came out. Everything about it hit close to my interests, from Tempest to Rez to synthesizers to synesthesia. While it took me a few levels to figure out that you're not supposed to go for the trophies right away, the constant sense of progression and layering of mechanics made for every level starting as just barely manageable, but totally clicking once I'd figured it out. Well, clicking *enough* - I've only earned three trophies, and high-level Dyad play doesn't seem to be in my future, but beginning-to-end, it was a completely unique and memorable experience. Seemed to know exactly what it wanted to be.

  • Full of charm distinct from its nostalgia, Theatrhythm hit a sweet spot of unique rhythm mechanics tied to level progression. High level dark notes are tremendously satisfying, especially when you've got a low-level unlock with EXP Up and EXP Hound just waiting to eat all those delicious EXPs from, say, Blinded by Light. I thought the premise was incredibly hokey, but I'm ultimately glad I took a chance on it.

  • There's probably a way to "solve" Spaceteam, but I am entirely disinterested in what it could be.

  • Xenoblade is the closest I came to playing a retail game, and I'm at about the 13-hour mark, a little past the first boss of real consequence and up to 4 party members. It's made an excellent impression, even if it's seemed a bit easy, and while I have no idea how long it's going to take to finish, it's been a great start.

  • The only issue keeping this dumb little thing this low on the list was that it didn't better disguise itself as an edutainment game before going completely bananas. The running commentary on adding and removing the auto-aim powerup was totally great, even if it did show how much of an idiot I am for staying on the first screen for so long.

  • 2012's 2011 Game of the Year. Played through the first 8 worlds plus some of the special worlds as Luigi back in February, then cranked through to 100% the game in the fall. Loved the difficulty, though there's a special place in hell for the guy who designed the 30-second-starting-timer-plus-Galactic Mario levels.

  • 2012's 2010 Game of the Year. Haven't taken in a third-person open world game so fully since Infamous. Plus, it's got parenting in it! And you teach your kid to ride and rope broncos in an endgame tutorial section!

  • 2012's 2009 Game of the Year. Tightly designed, with just enough secrets to make being thorough worthwhile, rather than an interminable slog. Incredible fight mechanics, and great visual design marred only by incessant Bat Vision. (See also Dishonored.)

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