GOTY 2019 (Adjusted)
Same deal as the other "GOTY (Adjusted)" lists. The idea is to build GOTY lists that are constantly in flux, ever adapting themselves to a new year's worth of catch-up gaming. Like the Borg, but for video game lists. With enough time I should be able to play through every 2019 game that piqued my interest and construct a list that ideally represents what that year meant to me in terms of games, but that wasn't going to happen on the year in question: too many full-price new releases, too little time.
2019 was the calm before a deeply unpleasant storm, and being squeezed between two very memorable years for gaming ('17-'18) and one of the worst ('20) for reasons that went far beyond just the game industry alone kind of robs 2019 of any identity. It had its highlights, but I suspect this will be a year like 2014 where we'll have to dig into the records to remember what actually came out. I will say one positive in the year's favor: it saw the debuts of a significant amount of new IPs, some from developers famous for other more-established series and others from relative newcomers. Even the sequels on the following list were from franchises long ago lapsed. I was happy to see these risks happen in a year where they could hog more of the spotlight than usual, in lieu of too many big headliners.
Here's the original 2019 GOTY list, for posterity's sake. Reviews included only for the top twenty.
GOTYs | (Adjusted) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
(2019 Games Yet to Play: Code Vein, Remnant: From the Ashes.)
(2019 Games Yet to Buy: Astral Chain, Blacksad: Under the Skin, BoxBoy + BoxGirl, Disco Elysium, Life is Strange 2, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Minoria, Picross: Lord of the Nazarick, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Super Mario Maker 2, Trails of Cold Steel III, Yoshi's Crafted World, Zanki Zero: Last Beginning.)
[Last edited January 2024.]