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HungryMatango

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My Top Games of 2019

Another year of great games. Since I moved several times and spent much of the year abroad in Japan, I didn't have regular access to consoles or my pc. I thus found myself especially drawn to the Switch and was grateful for all of the wonderful games (including ports) released this year. I suppose this meant I missed out on a few titles that I likely would have been drawn to--Outer Worlds, Control, and Judgement are certainly on my 'to-play' list for next year--but I also dedicated more time other games in handheld form than I would have otherwise. No, I wasn't able to limit myself to just ten games, but I have put them roughly in order of enjoyment. On to the list!

List items

  • Wow, I didn't expect much from this game since I hadn't played the past few entries in the series, but I became completely enthralled. No other game came close to capturing my attention and affection this year. I loved encouraging my students to grow academically and personally. Somewhat confusingly, the darker side of my nature also relished what became of the world and the fate of the students in the later half of the game. Old Yeller, welcome your newer, hipper, interactive cousin: Fire Emblem: Three Houses!

  • Ok, yes, its true this game was originally released earlier, and, yes, it is also true that it appeared on my list last year, but this was the year that I played it for dozens of hours and really fell in love with the characters and story. Everything about it feels like being wrapped up in a warm blanket and being read your favorite bed-time story. I just couldn't resist putting this gem on my list yet again this year.

  • Although lower on my list, this is easily my most pleasant surprise of the year. This is only the third entry in the Pokemon main-line series I have played and the first I have really enjoyed since the original. I almost didn't even bother picking Sword/Shield because of all of the online outrage over its lack of production value, but boy and I glad I gave in and gave it a try. The story is pretty non-existant, many of the characters are not just shallow but lifeless, and you get the sense that more work could have been done on the animations and graphical presentation. That said, none of those gripes really got in the way of my enjoyment of catching as many pokemon as I could in each area and gradually filling out my pokedex. Since I haven't been a series devotee, the vast majority of the pokemon were new to me, and it was fun to see so many bizarre designs. As with Fire Emblem, I take a sort of perverse delight in seeing my once cute pokemon evolve into grotesque monsters (are there any evolutions in which the pokemon actually get cuter?)

  • I may not have enjoyed this sequel as much as the original, but it still gave me that rare feeling of the excitement of designing your own game (or at least levels). I even enjoyed my time not playing but simply thinking up new ideas and designing levels in my head. I do hope, though, that if Nintendo releases a third entry they listen to some of the well-considered criticism surrounding the curation and sharing of levels.

  • Having never played the previous games, I can't vouch for how much this new entry improved on its predecessors, but I can say I was blown away by the charming graphical and presentation. The sound design was just as spectacular. I wasn't quite as captivated by the actual gameplay and haven't yet finished it, but even then it ranks as one of the most memorable games of the year.

  • I played through the original Link's Awakening at least three or four times, and it resides among my fondest childhood gaming memories. Playing this remake was both a nostalgia binge and a reminder of how stiff game design could be a couple decades ago. Thankfully I remembered the more obscure barriers to progression--a bush hiding a staircase here, a obtuse vertical dungeon design there--but I was left wondering how welcoming an experience this would be for younger generations. Either way, I loved playing through it once again and the graphical upgrade allowed my memory to leave on its rose-tinted glasses.

  • As with Super Mario Maker 2, I probably enjoyed the originality of the predecessor more, but the many small quality of life improvements helped keep me happy and engaged throughout. If I had one complaint it is just that I wish everyone were not quite so chatty! On the flip side, the non-stop waves of verbosity made me appreciate the economical writing in Dragon Quest XI even more.

  • As a fan of deck building games of the non-video variety, this is probably the best video game version of this kind I've ever played. The design is smart, the loop quick and addictive, and the strategy surprisingly varied and deep. After playing for hours and hours on PC even bought the game again on Switch and played even more.

  • Short but brilliant. I found the chopped up nature of the levels a bit jarring and agree with the many reviewers who suggested that the non-stop mode that unlocks after beating the game should have been the default mode from the get go. But that critique doesn't dim the shine of this stylish gem of a game. As a closet sucker for pop music, I also have listened to the album like twenty times.

  • One of the few PC games I managed to play before leaving my computer behind for the majority of the year. I can't help myself from the Anno series--when one is released I know that about 25-45 hours of my life will simply vanish in a frenzy of town layouts and trade-route optimizations. As a historian, I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the glorification of imperialism depicted here, but I'm not so much the curmudgeon (or perhaps I'm simply not principled enough) to let that dampen my enjoyment of this game too much.

  • As a fan of the first, more brutal, rhythm-based roque-like, I was so delighted to see this zelda/necrodancer mashup. Sure it was short and the difficulty curve plateaued a bit too early, but damn what a treat!

  • One of the few other PC games I was able to play this year, I had hoped that Imperator Rome would serve as a new starting point for me into Paradox Games wild world of grand strategy. I was initially excited that it resembled Stellaris in many ways...but ultimately I ended up just being reminded of how much I loved Stellaris and ended up abandoning Imperator and just playing a few more dozen hours of Stellaris.

  • And yeah...I had no intention of getting sucked back into this one, but Imperator Rome cast a spell on me and before I knew it, I was once again weaving my own space opera in my head as I gradually mouse-clicked my way to galactic domination (or really annihilation if I am honest).

  • This is a tough one. As a sci-fi fan, I really appreciated the developers pushing games at least into the lower reaches of the towering pantheon of sci-fi ideas that have been developed over the past seventy years. Beyond that though, I find myself somewhat guiltily disagreeing with the vast majority of praise for this game. The story is interesting, but I never found it profound. The game relies on the accumulation of knowledge to complete it, but I also didn't find that fact to be profound either. Yes you could complete it within fifteen minutes if you know what to do, but that is such an impossibility that I don't really see an enormous difference between typical progression and the knowledge-style progression models. Maybe it is more fair to say that I didn't find anything in this game to be any more profound than other walking simulators (of which I am very fond) such as Gone Home. I don't mean to put the game down or to claim some sort of superiority over other opinions just because I happen to have a sci-fi addiction and don't think this story stands out as particularly amazing. Its more that for whatever reason, I just wasn't grabbed by a game that by any measure should have grabbed me more than most. I attempted to play it twice (maybe getting five hours in) but try as I might I couldn't bring myself to finish it before I had to leave my pc behind for the year. In the end, I watched a full youtube run so I could at least see how the story wrapped up. I wish I could say I loved this game....I wish I could say that it struck me in a way that no game ever had...I wish I could say it was the best game I have played in recent memory...but I can't. I can, however, say that I appreciated the developers doing something reasonably novel and telling a sci-fi tale that wasn't the well-worn drudgery so common to other games. Maybe not a game for me, but it is still one that I will remember.

  • Fun puzzler and really the main reason I signed up for Apple Arcade for a couple of months.

  • The SteamWorld series is surprisingly solid, regardless of the genre of new entries. I loved the first couple of hours but eventually I was worn down a bit by the repetitive gameplay and dungeon design decisions. If I had to recommend a card-based game this year, it would be the more streamlined and elegant Slay the Spire.

  • As with Dragon Quest XI, I began my play through on the PC last year, but jumped back in on Switch. I love the battle system here--programming your characters actions with if/then type instructions is fantastic. The pacing and obtuse progression mean I largely ended up following a guide, which isn't my favorite way to play through games, but I stuck with it to enjoy the music, wafts of somewhat interesting story, and, again, the awesome battle system.

  • A picked this up on a whim and ended up being pleasantly surprised by this solid kart racer redone in compelling style.

  • I played through the originals when they came out, but it is hard to turn down a serving of Phoenix Wright.

  • Same as several games above, I actually began playing this last year on a different system but started a new play through on the switch. Hard to find a more relaxing platformer out there, and I would argue within this small genre, the Switch Spyro port actually beats this year's new Yoshi's Crafted World.

  • Fairly charming and relaxing, but I had a hard time sticking with it.
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