Videogames were really damn good in 2019. Some things I played that were very good but didn't make my list include:
Wargroove
VOID BASTARDS
Destiny 2: ShadowKeep
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Sea of Thieves: Anniversary Update
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn/Heavensward
Nintendo Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit
Dark Souls: Remastered
BoxBoy! + BoxGirl!
The Outer Worlds
Tetris 99
Some games I'd still like to play from the past year include:
Remnant: From the Ashes
Cadence of Hyrule
Luigi's Mansion 3
Baba is You
Daemon Ex Machina
Devil May Cry 5
Sayonara Wild Hearts
What the Golf
Dragon Quest 11 S: Definitive Edition
Killer Queen Black
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
10. Pokémon Sword & Shield
The discourse around these Pokémon games has been a garbage fire ever since it was announced these would be the first mainline games to not be compatible with the entire back catalog of Pokemon. In my opinion this was the only way forward for the series, the enormity of the full roster is just incongruous with any reasonable evolution of the franchise. And while it does indeed make a valiant effort to do just that, too much of the new stuff seems rushed and half-baked. But where are some things I loved about it.
Hello, if you're reading this congratulations! You have stumbled upon the definitive list of the best video games of 2018!
Before we get to the list itself there is some house-keeping to get out of the way. Namely games I played this year that I must highlight but for whatever reason don't "count".
Destiny 2: Forsaken
Destiny 2 vanilla was one of my favorite games of 2017. Destiny 2 in 2018 had a lot of ups and downs. At the beginning of the year I wasn't playing too much of it, Monster Hunter World was filling the void very well. I heard Curse of Osris wasn't great so I skipped it. It wasn't until Warmind that I decided to get back into the game. But instead of continuing my ps4 save I decided to make the jump to PC. )ne of my best friends was playing on pc and they were part of a great PC clan that I was able to join as well. Shouts out to Goonies and Goldman Shaxx.
Anyway, Forsaken was a very good expansion. I greatly enjoyed it's initial campaign and it seems like it added more endgame content than any expansion before. While it's impossible to please everyone, I do think Destiny 2 is at a great place right now. It's easy to play casually but if you want it to be, THE game you play everyday, it can be. And I don't think it's ever been able to strike that balance before. So yeah Destiny 2 is good.
UNDERTALE/DeltaRune
Undertale is a video game from 2014 that I played for the first time in 2018 on the Nintendo Switch platform. It is one of the best games I have ever played. I will talk more about Undertale when I get to my number 1. Oh also Delta Rune is chapter one of a not sequel to Undertale and it's really weird! I love it. But it's not a full game and Undertale came out 4 years ago so that's why neither make the list. But like I said, I ain't done with Undertale yet.
Lumines/Tetris Effect
I played Lumines for the first time this year (on Switch) and had a transcendental experience. Maybe that's why Tetris Effect wasn't quite as profound for me as for others. I really liked Tetris Effect but I liked the music in Lumines better. Shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin' shinin'.
Also please don't make the best Tetris game since Tetris ds and don't include a multiplayer mode! I get that the game was built around vr but that shouldn't stop the game from having one mode that doesn't work in vr. Or hell they could have done something cool and had a multiplayer mode where one person is in vr and the other is not. Also I still haven't been that last level of Journey mode so I can't even do the visualizer yet!
Okay onto the real list, for the big boys.
10. Marvel's Spider-Man
Spider-Man sort of had a big year huh? Spoilers for Infinity War: He died. Spoilers for Into Spider-Verse: he died again. Luckily one big piece of Spider-Man media in 2018 did not involve the death of Peter Parker and that was Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4. A game that is so fun to swing around in that everything else about the game just can't shine as bright. That's a little harsh, the game has a great story, fantastic performances from it's cast and it just looks incredible the whole time. The combat cribs just a little too much from the Arkham games and the forced stealth sections kill the momentum it has going. It's not a perfect experience but it sure is pretty.
9. Monster Hunter World
Monster Hunter World is the giant leap forward that it needed to be. Not just for the franchise but for Capcom at large. This game could have easily skated by with a simple new coat of HD paint after the series was stuck on 3ds for years. But it's the million little and not so little, quality of life and accessibility improvements that are the real star of the show here. While Monster Hunter is still not for everyone, it is suddenly now for people like me, that always thought the idea of hunting giant monsters sounded really fun but never got past the many layers of archaic bullshit. I also think this game got really lucky that a destiny was in a but of a lull when this released last January. Maybe you wouldn't think that there would be much cross over between those two games but turns out that people that like to grind in one game like to grind in another game. But it's still Monster Hunter and it still has some issues. It's online component was workable but had a couple big problems. Not being able to join other players until you watch a cut-scene of a monster appearing is dumb and bad. Not being able to join a clan without the person who started the clan being online is dumb and bad. That the hub area and the online hub area are two separate places are dumb and bad. Here's to hoping they sort that out sooner or later.
8. Astro-Bot: Rescue Mission
The only reason this game is not higher on my list is because I only played through the first world of this game. That was enough to completely blow me away. Tetris Effect was the game that convinced me to get PSVR. Astro-Bot is the game that convinced me VR fucking rules. Astro-Bot is a truly delightful 3D platformer made for VR. It's hard to describe why it's so damn good, you really just have to play it for yourself. Really, play this game by any means necessary, it is an essential experience.
7. Octopath Traveler
I really liked this game!! Best turn based battle system this year by a mile. Gorgeous pixel art inspired graphics. It's a love letter to RPG's of yesteryear and it comes packed with new ideas. I know a lot of people weren't into the structure of the game, 8 playable characters with 8 separate stories. And when I first started playing I saw why people were unhappy, the stories are so separate that it doesn't seem like the characters interact at all. However once I got into the chapter two's, the game started to offer me unique scenes within the different stories depending on which characters were in my party. Once I got my mind wrapped around how the game was handling it's characters and stories I had really great time with this game. Oh and did I mention the battle system is incredibly fun? Seriously it's really really really fun.
6. Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight came out last year on pc but few can argue that 2018 wasn't it's year. It was the "and it's available today" announcement of Nintendo's E3 and with that spotlight it was able to succeed in a way it would have never if it just remained on pc. I had eagerly been anticipating the Switch port as soon as it was announced. The look of the game just immediately won me over and it was a game I knew I needed to play. Thankfully the game is more than just a fantastic art style. The game understands the true appeal of the metroidvania genre more than most recent would-be entries. Some people were turned off by it's map system but I loved it. For the same reason I loved Breath of the Wild, exploring is the most fun when you can actually get lost. The world of Hollow Knight is one of my favorite game worlds of all time. It's big and diverse and it feels like it has a real history. It's "environmental storytelling" is maybe the best execution of that concept in a game? The revelations that are hidden in plain sight are more affecting than any "dark souls explained" video I've ever seen. Oh and the combat is really fun and it's power up system leads to some really wacky builds. There's a ton of content in this game and it's all incredibly high quality. It's can also be really fucking hard.
5. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate
This is the best Smash Bros game. Everyone is here. There is a slavish devotion to details and fan-service in this game that is unprecedented outside of Smash itself. I love the way this game looks, I love the way this game feels to play, I love the soundtrack. I love pretty much everything about this game. I unlocked all the characters straight in a row while playing through everyone's classic mode and it was a complete fucking joy. While I wish I could play with friends IRL more often the games single player modes are substantial in a way that hasn't really been seen in a Smash Bros before. While World of Light doesn't have as many cutscenes as Subspace Emissary it easily outpaces it in terms of things you can do. The main gimmick of the mode is that you are fighting "spirits" of game characters that inhabit fighters from the roster. The way the game bends to represent 1000s of extra characters is always at least interesting if not fucking delightful. I look forward to playing this game for years.
4. Pokémon: Let's GO Evee
Hi my name is Ethan, I'm 28 years old and when I was in third grade Pokémon was the biggest thing that ever happened to me or anyone I knew. I've never experienced a "fad" that saturated my peers so completely. Literally every kid I knew in 3rd grade was into Pokémon in some fashion. Be it the games, the anime or the massively popular card game. I've played every generation since but I still return to gen 1 from time to time. I still have my original Red cartridge, I still have the replacement Red cartridge I got when I lost my original Red cartridge. I immediately bought Red again on 3ds when it was re-released. HOWEVER for whatever reason I skipped the original Gen 1 remakes on GBA so this is my first time revisiting Kanto in a new game since the post game of Gold and Silver.
And it's fucking fantastic. Forget fan service, this game is straight up wish fulfillment. You can fly around on the back on your own Charizard! Pokémon now just exist in the overworld for the first time ever! Which means the incredibly tired mechanic of random battles is finally gone for good. The go style catching actually works really well! Since you can catch Pokémon much quicker than before, you now get bonuses for catching the same kind of Pokémon many times in a row. Bonuses like, multiples on exp and increased chances of rare spawns including Shinies! I'm actually shiny hunting! I've been playing these games since 97 and this is the first time I've actually devoted time to hunting for the slightly color swapped Pokémon.
I really loved my time with this game and I could keep rambling on about it but let's move on.
3. God of War (2018)
This is a very good video game. It could have easily been my number 1. I was happy when The Game Awards gave it game of the year over Red Dead, because I think ultimately it is a better "game" than Red Dead. I haven't been this into a character action game since the original God of War. It is a bold reinvention that doesn't discard what came before it. In fact it uses its past in ingenious way, Kratos is still the man who did all the terrible things he did in the old games. But he has deep regrets and he is desperate to not repeat the past. The art design is absolutely astounding, a technical achievement for sure but it would be nothing without it's brilliant use of colors. I finished this game and was dying to play more. God of War 2 can't come soon enough. And I believe that for Kratos, while he may be done with the past, the past ain't done with him.
2. Dead Cells
Dead Cells is the most fun to play video game released in 2018 and it's not even close. The game feel of Dead Cells is perfect. If I ever just want to have "fun" as fast as possible I turn to Dead Cells. I played a bunch of this game in early access on PC but it wasn't until the Switch version came out that I became truly addicted. I think I've put in close to 100 hours into the Switch version alone. And I still go back to it all the time. Like God of War, Dead Cells could have easily been my game of the year and for a moment it absolutely was. So why wasn't it?
1. Red Dead Redemption 2
It's because Red Dead Redemption 2 came out and totally fucked me up in a way that a video game has never before. The only game that has ever come close is a little game I mentioned earlier called, Undertale.
When I first started playing RDR2 it was my intention that I would play as a totally evil, black hat, motherfucker. And boy did I try. I robbed a lot of people and I killed most of them. I went out on loan shark missions to fuck people up if they didn't pay up. I was a really really bad man. And it fucking wore on me! And maybe more importantly it wore on Arthur. RDR2 is one of the most immersive game experiences I've ever had. And as such I had never role played to the degree I did in this game. So when one of the women from camp came by one day and asked if I wanted to talk I said yes. Arthur sat down with his friend and told her about how he's been killing and robbing people for no good reason and it was tearing him up inside. This moment was a small one. But begins to get to what this experience meant to me. Later on in the game Arthur is faced directly with is own mortality, he reflects on the life he's lived and he finds himself regretting the path he's walked. The game then gives you the opportunity to try to make amends in some small but very significant ways. The end of my time with Arthur was filled with teaching a Widow how to hunt, helping a family get out of a very rough spot and hanging out with an old veteran.
Much like Undertale, the game got me to actually care about the characters in the game. To the point that I didn't want to be a bad person. I wanted to help people. Even if the people were just npc's in a video game. I did not expect this game to be such a lesson in empathy. But I'm so glad it did. I wish I was a better writer. I could spend a long time breaking down exactly what this game does to elicit this reaction from myself. For example, a big push I felt from the game to be a good person instead of a bad is that you simply see more story if you are good. If you ride past a person asking for help, the bad thing to do would be to not help them, or even harm them. This ends whatever narrative is being set up before it even starts. Simply as a consumer of media, I want to see what happens. So even before my Arthur took his turn, I was doing good stuff for people because that's just how you see most of the content in this game.
I don't have a good way to wrap this up, so I'll just say Red Dead Redemption 2 was a special experience for me. And it gives me, Hope For The Future.
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