2016 was the year where I had a lot on my plate. In fact, if I try to look back everything it’s mostly a blur of surprise that anything happened this year. I had school, work, other work, being on shows, doing podcasts and videos... So when I wanted to write a game blog or whatever, I had a very small window to get something done before weeks go by and I feel like it’s no longer relevant to my interests.

I still want to write in long form about some of the games on this list, but for now I want to trudge through my best of, because if I get anything done by the end of this year, it’s a gawddamn list.

10. Watch_Dogs 2

Maybe I’m putting it on this list as an act of sympathy toward the game as a whole. Even though, let’s be honest here, Watch_Dogs 2 didn’t have that high of a bar to clear. It didn’t really achieve the impossible by having quirky/fun characters, and most missions didn’t feel like a pain in the ass when I just had gadgets to do the work for me. (Yeah, I spent most of the game just getting an RC car to do all the work for me.)

I mean at the same time, Watch_Dogs isn’t quite the hacker fantasy that I want it to be, and it might never be due to open world nature that it wants to nail down first. Still it’s fine enough, and actual quite memorable as a game and it was worth going back to. So maybe it’s not so much 10 on the list as it is me giving it a quaint little shout out.

9. Final Fantasy XV

This game, on the other hand I felt, had a bar that it needed to clear. The entirety that was FFXIII left such a bad taste in my mouth, it made me question if the franchise was ever worth going back to. Final Fantasy has been so far removed from the traditional RPG for so long, it makes me wonder why they even make these anymore.But here I am putting it on the list, because it definitely surpassed my expectations. The roadtrip and the effortless battle system aside, the game actually has a story being interested in. Though a good chunk of it is the movie, the short anime webisodes, dlc and cut scenes on their way to being patched in, I feel invested enough to go back to it. It might not be the game for fans and newcomers that it claims to be, but it says a lot for them to salvage a failed Nova Chrystalis thing and put something together (mostly comprised of little things) that has a lot of heart.

8. No Man’s Sky

Maybe it’s on this list because I’m a contrarian. It had too much hype towards release and didn’t really live up to anybody’s expectations, but it’s not fair to think of the game as ‘exactly what I would have wanted.’ It’s weird, because it’s visually interesting, calmly isolating and it came out at a time where I just needed something to be nothing.

It’s an exaggerated walking simulator with no audio logs trying to keep your attention, which is what the witness felt like to me but without the boring puzzles. Instead I just wandered around galaxies finding stuff at my own pace, and felt content.

I had gone back to it, to see it’s foundation update which I feel is an interesting start to the games additional content. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

7. Firewatch

It took me a really long time to accept this type of game. With Gone Home, I had the petty complaint that out of all the interactable objects, I couldn’t pick up my own bag, which made me feel like a stranger in what was supposed to be my own home. And the unforgiving pace of ‘Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture’ couldn’t bring me to see it through to the end, though I feel it is a wonderful Audio play.

Firewatch was both wonderful in it’s pace and it’s story telling. Giving you two characters always interacting with each other at every appropriate moment. Even while it was stringing you along a narrative, it managed to gamify enough so I didn’t feel completely alienated or confused on what to do next. Even managing to unravel a subplot as the most basic junior detective felt, pretty cool. It’s just a shame I never got a better pay off in the end.

6. Battlefield 1

Yeap, it’s battlefield, and yeap I’m a huge fan. BF1 continues to scratch the itch that I need scratched every once in awhile. The scale continues to be impressive, and the visuals have come a long way in being second to none, as DICE seems to be doing something that no one else can. Frankly there’s not a lot to be said about a game that continues to maintain the same amount of quality for me, So I’m just going to let it sit pretty in the middle of this list. (or you can just watch this video again.)

5. Dark Souls 3

I decided to get back into the Dark Souls after, quite frankly, being burnt out with the franchise. A game with the MO encouraging you to pace yourself really felt like they just kept making these games more frequently that I was willing to keep up with them.

So when 3 came around, I sucked it up and it was just like riding a bike. Everything felt like second nature to the point where the game was kinda easy for me. That’s not a knock by any means, it just felt good to know that I wasn’t getting frustrated with the game as much as a new comer would be. Unless they actually made DS3 to be easier, in which case, ehhhh. I still really liked it. You can tell that the developer learned things along the way to make the gameplay really solid. From Software is an amazingly underrated developer that makes me feel like I’m going to get caught saying “I liked them before they were cool.”

What they need to do is go back to making Armored Core amazing.

4. Overwatch

I know what at least two different people are probably thinking “This isn’t number 1 on your list? OMG!” or “feh, Overwatch is OVERrated and a terrible choice.” I mean, I’m imagining someone out there is the latter. (Given how much this game is talked up, I’m sure it’s exactly that scenario.)

I always wanted to be part of an online game like this. A community of gamerz competing against each other to be top banana or ice queen from hell and it has it’s ups and downs. But at least I’m a part of that. I can’t do the DOTA 2 or the CSGO thing with a drive to be good. I love just jumping on and having matches with friends, figuring out the best way to beat the other team, despite our team composition. There’s something to be said that even though some team compositions are better than others, there’s really no wrong way to play as long as you know what you’re doing. I love playing this with friends, this is what I wanted.

3. Bravely Second

The Bravely series is essentially what you’d consider the traditional Final Fantasy game at this point, right? Your four warriors of light painstakingly traveling across the world running errands and fighting bad guys. What helped me a lot with this game, was immediately getting into it when I finally got around to beating the first game this year. Having those characters fresh in my mind, made Second much more enjoyable.

The characters are the strongest asset to this game, and I think the developer realised that given every opportunity they could pack skits into. Travelling to familiar locations and new places that they apparently never thought of going to in the first game was an interesting way to look at the world, and bringing back old asterisk’s by introducing a difficult choice to getting them were cool scenarios as well. I mean Second takes place two years after the first game so a lot of the things they do make sense, characters and scenarios are in it because of course they would be, it’s a direct sequel to a game that gave me more of what I wanted.

(Oh, and it’s still a pretty solid case for street passing.)

2. Picross 3D round 2

I know what you’re thinking, “BON! THIS ISN’T NUMBER ONE ON YOUR LIST? YOU SEEM TO LIVE AND OR DIE BY THESE GAMES.” Yeah, and you’re not wrong. Picross puzzles are just amazing and they always will be a surefire addition to any of my game of the year lists (though I haven’t played Picross e7 yet, which is probably why you don’t see it on here). The challenge in their simplicity is why finishing these puzzles feel good, and adding that 3rd dimension to make your pictures more like objects were a smart direction for the series, and the concepts they introduced in round 2 make it even more captivating to my puzzle loving brain.

Though, dare I say it hasn’t taken the top spot, because I don’t savour these puzzles as much as I want to. Which is crazy because round 2 is packed to the brim with puzzles, and you even get additional ones with amiibo support. But I go through it too fast, barely a week goes by and I finish only wanting more. My only replayability is with the fact that I don’t have every single rainbowy gem thing. (which is a chore more than it needs to be sometimes.)

I mean, who am I kidding, even after I beat it, the game is still really fun to go back to… So what could have possibly taken the top spot?

1. Hyrule Warriors Legends

That’s right, my favourite guilty pleasure known as the Dynasty Warriors franchise mixed with the Legend of Zelda, felt new again on the 3DS this year. And don’t tell me about it’s flaws that come with being on the 3DS, because I do a lot of portable gaming and it being a downgrade is an excuse for what is still a pretty solid game. [Note: I also have to say, after playing it on both a new 3DS and a regular one, the poor quality between versions has not really been as terrible as many outlets have reported.]

I guess it’s really just game I’ve wanted, the way I’ve needed to play it. Always having enough time to play a couple of levels in the middle of transit/school/work has made it my favourite go to, despite other titles like Picross or Fire Emblem or Pheonix Wright. And those adventure maps, as silly as they can be, have added a lot of replay value to a straight forward game.

I can’t say that this being my game of the year would be a popular choice, but it’s a great choice for the platform that I spend the most time on. I would only be kidding myself if I didn’t acknowledge this game as the one I’ve spent the most time with. Dynasty Warriors games get a lot of flack for being what they are and ports to the 3DS are going to get flack for being downgrades of the original, but all that is meaningless when you enjoy the game for what it is.

I don’t know if they will ever make a sequel, but if they do there’s a lot of potential to make it amazing, and hopefully it can be a future title to see on Nintendo’s Switch.

Honorable Mentions

Let it Die, is too soon of a game for me to consider for my GOTY list because I also don’t have that much time to play it. But it’s worth considering because the style of Suda 51 games is still worth your time, even though the last game of his that I really enjoyed was also my first. Killer 7 was something that stood apart from everything else Grasshopper Manufacturer has made since it’s release, but Let it Die brings back that feeling I had all those years ago. Maybe it’s the Grim Reaper trying to relate to young people. Maybe it’s the dungeon crawling and murder death that you have to fight through as you reach the top of the tower. But the fact that it IS free to play means that I can’t recommend this game enough as something worth trying. If you are a PS4 owner you must do yourself the service and check it out. Because it’s the end of 2016 and Punk is still not dead.

[Shout out to Wakusei Abnormal to being one of the 100 bands in this game that really caught my attention.]

Super Mario Run, is one of those ‘on the fence’ kind of games. It’s a $10 runner game that is arguably too short and not worth your time. That’s probably what I want to say if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve been playing too much Toad Rally since I got it. Racing against another player’s level data is kind of addicting, and I finally found my edge over the christmas weekend spending time with family. For that it’s worth talking about. It might not be worth the price point that it is, but it does it’s single hand gameplay well enough, so it’s worth mentioning.

That’s it, that’s all I wrote. There’s a lot that I’m looking forward to in 2017. Right now I can’t wait to get my hands on Resident Evil 7, because I’ve played enough of the demo at this point to be comfortable with it’s direction. I may never want to play it in VR, but as a long running fan of the franchise, doing something new with new characters is something they’ve needed to do for a while (though I have happily defended its direction in the past.)

Yakuza games coming out next year is also something that needs to be mentioned. It’s the best japanese crime drama that I’ve ever witnessed, and it’s a damn shame that the franchise will never be as popular here as the fanbase wants it to be, but as long as they get released states side then we’re all winners.

So keep that in mind… in 2017, we’re all winners.