2015 was a great year for games. Rather than just giving my opinions to friends that aren't always eager to listen, I decided to try to articulate them here on this very website. That is what the internet is for, after all.
Also, I decided not to rank these in anyway. At a point, the rankings become so arbitrary that they undermine the very concept. I will, however, point out my favorite once the time comes.
Rocket League is my favorite game of 2015
I’ve always preferred arcade sports games to their more realistic counterparts. As the latter games strive for realism with each annual release, they tend to make more gameplay concessions than I care for. Arcade sports games, however, tend to embrace their videogameness and aim to make their gameplay as over the top and fun as possible. Rocket League is in the same vein as these arcade sports games, replacing soccer players with cars much more agile than your average Subaru. Driving, jumping, and shooting all handle super well, making it easy to jump into, while also leaving enough room for players to hone their skills and take them to the next level (The ways some players can use their boosts is kind of awe-inspiring). Rocket League’s mechanics all come together to create the most fun multiplayer experience I’ve had in years. It has become my go-to game to play when I’m between other games or just short on time. I don’t think that will change anytime soon.
Being the jaded 22 year old that I am, I really dislike most slasher movies. It’s hard for me to shut off the part of my brain that can’t help but criticize their cliched characters and the horrible decisions they so often make, leaving me feeling confident that I could prevent their inevitable deaths. With Until Dawn, Supermassive Games rolls all of these cliches into a ball, hands them to you and says “Prove it.” The agency the game gives you over its branching story immediately makes every situation more tense than your average slasher scene. Until Dawn balances this ongoing tension with just the right amount of jump scares to keep you on your toes. Seeing how drastically the game’s “Butterfly Effect” system can influence the story based on your actions helps maintain this tension throughout, even if some of these actions truly only give to the illusion of choice. Sure, it’s not devoid of the problems its slasher movie inspirations have, but the game manages to turn enough of the genre’s tropes on their heads to make the others forgivable. Until Dawn finally makes good the Heavy Rain style of interactive storytelling. I’m excited to see what Supermassive Games does with the format in the future.
I didn’t catch the Persona 4 bug until early this year. Even after Golden’s fairly lengthy run time, I was still itching to spend more time with these characters. I came to Dancing All Night looking for little more than that, so I was surprised to find that it offered a fun rhythm game filled with music that I mostly overlooked during Persona 4 proper. I may have only bought the game for the characters, but the gameplay kept me coming back well after I completed the story mode.
Yoshi’s Wooly world is simply delightful. Not only is its artstyle adorable, but it features some of the most clever level design I’ve seen in a 2D platformer in years.
I could make some lame joke about how Nintendo gave the shooter genre a fresh coat of paint, but I'm not going to do that. I want to limit the amount of head shaking directed towards this list. What I will say, is that Splatoon is a much need change of pace modern shooters. It's a bright and colorful beacon in genre that spends so much time in grey and brown wastelands. It doesn't rely on style alone, though. Swimming through my team's ink as a squid is fast and fun, and I never tired of scouring stages for surfaces to claim in my team's name. Plus, Nintendo has kept a steady trickle of new levels and weapons that kept me coming back.
Few things in life are more satisfying than clicking on things and seeing progress bars fill. Fallout Shelter offers a free to play, post-apocalyptic take on this that kept me glued to my phone more than I’d like to admit. Bethesda has also kept me coming back with updates like companions and tie-in to Fallout 4 (Which I’d like to try out some day). Best of all, it doesn’t shove its free-to-play elements in your face. It’s entirely possible to play and enjoy Fallout Shelter without ever spending a dime.
Super Mario Maker has what are probably the best in-game creation tools to date. It’s amazing how well it illustrates the full breadth of tools at your disposal and all their applications without an overwhelming number of tutorials. Anyone can pick up the controller and get going in only a matter of minutes. Sure, you won’t be able to create the variety of levels you can in something like LittleBigPlanet, but you won’t need to. There is more than enough to do with the tried and true Mario mechanics to allow plenty of experimentation. These successes have helped the game maintain a steady player base, ensuring that there are always new, worthwhile levels to checkout.
Much has been about how Undertale skewers 16-bit RPG mechanics and tropes. Due to in part to my age, I don’t have the points of reference these people have, so I was worried the game resonate with me the way it has with others. Luckily, there is plenty more to Undertale than that. I fell in love with Undertale’s weird and charming cast of characters. The story also goes to some equally weird, interesting places.
Cibele's story is not one I immediately identify with, but that didn't make combing through Nina Freeman's first love any less interesting. I found myself checking and rechecking files, making sure I didn't miss any anything that could help me get in her headspace and understand these events through her point of view. Freeman holds nothing back and tells what seems to be a very personal. It's daring and enthralling throughout.
