This is list is kind of broken, I started a new job this year and thus my time for gaming, drastically decreased. Some of the games here I'm still not done with but I played enough of to know they belong. To be honest I had a hard time trying to find 10 games I played enough of. These are the ones I have the strongest feelings about.
This game is the culmination of everything I ever wanted when I was a kid, I am one of those weirdos who sat in the back of class with graph paper making my own Mario levels
and dreaming one day I would work for nintendo. Well that dream came true in a since. I mean its obvious I don't work for nintendo but I do get to make levels for one of the greatest gaming series ever created, for the engine that made me fall in love with it in the first place. It would've been easy for nintendo, to only include the original Mario from the NES, which was exactly what I expected. Instead they surpassed my expectation and included 4 key distinctive engines and styles all with there own strengths, weakness, and quarks. I absolutely love this game. It an endless well of Mario and I keep drinking from it every chance I can get. Some key problems do hover over what would be a perfect game however. Like why the hell did nintendo not include a way to search for types of levels in game, instead you have to go to web portal. It's made me have to use the Mario maker reddit and other communities to find the "good" levels. Its an aggravation and a pretty hefty oversight. Regardless it's my favorite experience this year made all the better by getting the opportunity to share it with my Kids. Passing the controller to my little ones and watching them succeed where I fail is an amazing experience as a father and has made me laugh harder than just about any game has in years. Games are all about these kinds of experiences and Mario Maker delivers those weekly.
So I'm sitting here listening to the soundtrack as I write about it, just the soundtrack is causing such a stirring inside of me unlike anything I've felt in years. To me there is no other game out there this year that holds a candle to it, mechanically it is flawed in a few place but what it lacks in mechanics it more than makes up for with presentation. It's one of those games in a short list of games that made me feel something so deeply that I had to step away to gather my composer. The soundtrack alone is enough to make me have to fight back tears. It triggers something deep within my psyche that hasn't been triggered by anything short of my beautiful family in a while. It's become too easy to live your life Jaded, to look at a piece of art and say it looks like "bullshit" to me. All of this may seem hyperbolic, and I admit I tend to get that way when something really touches me. Thing is, I can't apologize for that, I am almost 30 and experiences like this come to far and few between to allow myself to not feel awestruck. This game by no means the second coming, but man was it exactly what I needed at the time.
Boy did this game come out of left field, I need to play this game again, it's a retro style RPG where you can chose to go through it killing everything in site or never harming a soul, but to be honest that explanation is so reductive to what this game is, it's one of the game where when someone ask me to explain it I don't know where to start. I have to ask question have you ever wanted to go on a date with a skeleton who cooks a mean plate of spaghetti, have you ever wanted to jam out to spooky tunes with a depressed ghost, well let me stop there because what makes this game is the characters you meet and your interactions with them. It's a game you have to play for yourself, with a pretty meaningful punch at the end, then when you discover the true nature of the game it's pretty amazing.
League of Explorers
Shut up I know Hearthstone officially released last year, so what if I used an expansion that released this year just so I can talk about it again. It's my list my choice, if you don't like it you don't have to read it. Seriously I've spent way too much time playing this game this year it is my go to, it's my comfort food not to mention this expansion has completely shook the foundation of just about every class. If you haven't played in a while it's only getting better. Give it another go.
This game disappointed me in a lot of ways but man did it impress me like no other game did this year. It's no secret that I am a huge FROM software fanboy, The souls series is by far one of my favorites. Let's start off with my gripes and there is one major one, this game has no build diversity whatsoever, you are pigeon holed into play a agile poke and dodge character. Fortunality for me that is my favorite way to play through the souls games ON MY FIRST RUN! When I play a Souls game I want to play it several times over the fun of these games comes from trying several different builds and finding that most are viable ways of playing. So true talk this is not a souls game, I knew that going into it I mean souls is no where in the title but that didn't keep me from expecting it to be. With that being said man is this game pretty and full of some of coolest gothic scenery I've ever seen in a game, it's brimming in atmosphere and character, more than any of the Souls games. I guess by reading this you would say I have more gripes than positive things to say, but as an avid fan I have to criticize the flaws, who better to see them than someone so invested. I still had a blast in the world FROM created and I can't wait for Dark Souls 3.
What a crazy way for Kojima to go out. Such a silly little flawed masterpiece, much line a train wreck B movie from the 80's. What a weird amazing little open world game. One minute it feels like a military sim the next a crazy mech anime. Had a lot of fun with it unfortunately I didn't finish it and not sure if I will go back to it. What I played of it however was certainly interesting.
Killer soundtrack...sure Roguelike...yes please DDR like game where you move your character along with the beat and wreck fools to that killer soundtrack...SIGN ME UP THAT SOUNDS GREAT.......well it was, you should buy it.
It's gonna sound reductive but it's my honest opinion, Fallout 4 is just more fallout. Don't get me wrong it's wonderful and they added so much stuff to lose hours of my life in, only issue I have is I don't have time for a game like that in my life anymore. If I were 16 again....My parents wouldn't see me for days. It's not a knock on Fallout, it's just a realization that maybe these game aren't made for me anymore, and that's okay. If only the main storyline is as well paced as the opening and if the game respected my time a little more it would have ranked higher on my list.
Fun roguelike where the main protagonists wheres rocking gunboots and REKTS fools while falling down a well(thus the name). The thing that really makes this game interesting though is the fact that your feet will never touch a platform if you get good enough. While doing this you rack up a killer combo and it is so satisfying making it through a whole level having never losing that multiplier.
I suck at this game and that's okay I mean technically it is rocket science. So I don't feel so bad. Kerbal is a delightful game that will scare the crap out of you if you let it. I have lost so many kerbals to the void of space. It's heartbreaking and almost alway hilarious.
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