I know 2021 was yet another strange year within the 2020’s for many. For me personally though, it was a pleasant if somewhat eventful year for me. I got a full-time promotion at my job and that felt great to achieve. It was also the “Year of the Pasta Maker” for me since I made lots of different fresh pasta dishes with my Kitchenaid mixer and honestly, I rarely go back to package pasta unless I don’t have lots of time. I also went to the state of Colorado for the first time ever while visiting my brother. It was amazing to witness the sights of the state for the first time seeing various state parks as well as enjoy a lot of pubs and grub within Fort Collins and the state. Colorado is freaking great!

For video gaming for me 2021 was nearly a complete opposite to how I played games in 2020. Two years ago I played 12 games total (all of which were games that came out that year) and I put A LOT of time into certain games. I put 250 Hours into Animal Crossing New Horizons and over 100 hours (and still counting to over 150 from last year) into my 2020 GOTY Cook, Serve, Delicious 3. Not a single 2021 release reached the 100 hour mile mark for, but that evens out because I played 23 games that came out last year and 36 games overall counting old games I checked out in 2021 too. Part of that was also me playing games on my bro’s PS5, who was lucky to get one while I wasn’t. But that’s fine, because if anything I’ll look back at 2021 as a great year in gaming despite me still not having a current gen console…yet. What really carried the weight this year included Game Pass which I finally signed up for and this was a stellar year for the service, the Switch having a few heavy hitters and the indie gaming scene once again shining bright. And as how I usually type one every year, here’s the annual MocBucket62’s top games of the year list for 2021. Though I want to clarify that historically I’ve written some hefty essays breaking down my favorite games from years past. 2020 had 3 mini essays for my top 3. So with this format, I’m gonna try to type 1-2 paragraphs per game with a “Favorite Moment(s)” section of me talking about my favorite moments from each game (save for the last game though, which will have a longer writeup).

THE MOST HONORABLE MENTION/The Plus 1-New Pokémon Snap:

Here’s the one game that was so close to making my top ten but not quite making it. I never played the original N64 game, but picked this one up to see why the Original Pokémon Snap is so beloved. Basically, you are playing a light gun shooter but instead of shooting your targets with bullets you’re shooting Pokémon with camera shots as well as getting the best pics of these pocket monsters. If you are getting a Pokémon to act abnormally (like bopping a sleeping Arbok with a flufffruit and making it fall) that is worth more stars. I had a really good time trying to figure out how to get the Pokémon to line up for some money shots or get them to act out of their zone. If lucky the Pokémon can be seen fighting each other up close (Pinsir and Heracross are NOT friends) or they’ll interact in some wholesome, cute interactions. I do wish that this game allowed for complete freedom to explore the safari that my Photographer is in rather than do the classic Pokémon Snap style of being transported thru a route and take as many photos as I can before going back to the center. It also feels kind of grindy to unlock more areas as I spent more time in certain zones than I’d like. But this was my go-to game for most of Spring and while it wasn’t quite top ten tier for me, I wanted to give it a special shout out paragraph as THE most honorable mention. Its got my boys Blastoise and Crawbrawler in it and you can feed them fruit. That’s rad.

Favorite Moment: Essentially getting a Blastoise out of the water cyclone at the Sunset Reef level. Once I figured it out, I got a glorious animation of a Squirtle on top of a spinning Blastoise shell and that Squirtle surfed on that flying Blastoise shell that was propelled by its sweet cannons. Definitely one of the key reasons why Squirtle and Blastoise are some of the best Pokemon.

#10 Death’s Door:

I picked up Death’s Door after seeing a lot of buzz for it when it launched in July. Though funny enough Death’s Door didn’t start out technically great for me. The very first time I booted up the game it booted me back to my Steam Page and during the game I had weird bugs such as the whole level turning black which was fixed with a simple quit and relaunch. But thankfully a patch came in sometime after release and I didn’t have any more technical issues. Death’s Door as a game is a satisfying Zelda like action-adventure game that also takes inspiration from Souls games thru the combat but feels accessible to avoid being too complicated. Also like From’s titles you collect souls as you slay enemies and the many great boss fights. It also has a simple yet lovely looking art style and some very pleasant music to accompany the journey as you are a sword wielding crow who is recently employed to reap the souls of those who are in denial that their time has come. Though there’s more weapons than just a sword as there’s hidden weapons scattered around the game, with the hammer being my favorite overall. It would be higher on my list if it had a map even though Acid Nerve made the intended choice not to include one and I wish the upgrades from the soul store felt more meaningful. But its still a testament to how solid Death’s Door is that its still on my top 10 I can see why so many people see it as one of the best indies of the year.

Favorite Moment: I managed to beat the Urn Witch first try. Which that alone is great but how I did was even more special. For 2/3’s of that fight, I had one 1 pip of health left. After getting beat up early on, I studied the Witch’s attack patterns and found secret ways of stunning her which all helped me take her out in the initial fight while knowing one more blunder would mean defeat. That alone felt awesome.

#9 Moonglow Bay:

For those who don’t know what Moonglow Bay is, it’s a relaxing fishing RPG where the player is a marital partner who is saddened that their fishing expert partner has disappeared for 3 years. After their daughter comes in to encourage them to start getting into fishing themselves, they rebuild the fishing business that their partner had once run and that becomes the central economic force of rebuilding the wore down community of the titular Moonglow Bay. Now granted for the technical faults Death’s Door had, Moonglow Bay was also guilty of having its bugs too. There were moments where I got stuck on geometry and couldn’t go nowhere which meant I had to load my save that was 10-15 minutes ago. But that’s a bug that would be terrible for someone whose last save was hours ago. I even sequence broke a boss fight by accident and when I fought the boss proper, I couldn’t progress (I restarted the fight and it went back to normal).

So why is Moonglow Bay at #9 despite its issues? Well honestly as someone who has done plenty of real-life fishing, I have wanted a Fishing centric RPG for years and this game nails that feeling of reeling in big and small fish. The normal act of fishing itself is exciting as you pull against the fish’s direction, and it was always a joy to see what I caught. Whether it be a real fish such as Atlantic Cod or one of the fake fish such as the Chilli Squid (a squid that looks like chili peppers that's also called pepper Fish) I got a kick of what I caught. Expect for Moon Eels, which are the Magikarps of Moonglow Bay. There’s also Trap Fishing, Cast Net Fishing and Ice Fishing to mix up the fishing out in the water. Fish can also be donated to an aquarium Animal Crossing style, be sold in a vending machine to earn money or be cooked which typically increase their monetary value. The cooking itself had a very calming element as I’d play some Cooking Mama style minigame to either wash, chop, fry, boil or bake my dishes and try to get 3 star ratings on cooking dishes such as Boiled Lobster and Spicy Fish Tacos (which because of this game I cooked in real life). More recipes also unlock after reaching certain mastery levels of previous dishes too. It also felt very rewarding to make enough money to either get a major boat upgrade or finance a repair of one of the town’s run-down buildings, roads or parks. I played this on Game Pass and while I won’t say you should check it out there since the XBOX version has yet to be updated last I checked. I’ll say check out this calming, voxel art Fishing RPG when it’s updated on Game Pass/XBOX or get the Steam version which is more up to date. Also, this is one of 2 great OST’s done by the wonderful Lena Raine. Give the Reeling It In track a listen.

Favorite Moment: My favorite moment came from what’s really a simple medium size fish catch in the game but it resonated with me big time. It was catching the Red Drum. For those who don’t know Red Drum (or Redfish) are a species of fish that can be found from the coast of Massachusetts to the Gulf of Mexico and typically have white bellies, amber-red backs and a spot or more next to their tail. It’s a fish that my family and I have a special fondness for whenever we go fishing and the fact that Red Drum made their gaming debut in Moonglow Bay as well as catching one for the first time was an amazing highlight for me. I acted like how many people were excited seeing Sora get announced for Smash to be honest ha. I also yelped in excitement seeing Permit be in the game too.

#8 Age of Empires 4:

10-13 year old me would be livid it he saw me not put a brand-new Age of Empires game at #1 let alone top 5. Age of Empires 2 and Age of Mythology hold special places in my brother and I’s hearts for the RTS genre as we spent hours either playing the games’ campaigns, doing skirmish matches or even customize a random battle for fun. After 16 years we finally get a new Age of Empires title, and it is an impressive return to form for the series. Clearly its catering to AOE2 fans since the setting is back to Medieval times and much of the base building and army production is like AOE2 as well. I’ve heard some folks complain that AOE4 played it too safe and should have gotten more experimental with the formula. But honestly as someone who hasn’t played AOE in a long time nor has touched the definitive editions, I’m happy that Relic played it mostly safe and it’s making me positively nostalgic for the series’ hay day back then. I love how the campaign is set up as its presentation is very History Channel in tone that provides a brief history on the campaigns such as the Norman Conquest and 100 Years War. I also really enjoyed finding ways to achieve the various campaign missions as I was patient and planned out how to achieve those goals. I also love the inclusion of the Art of War challenges which for certain challenges add an unexpected Speed-Run like focus for AOE by clearing objectives such as collecting resources to advance to the next age. This is also the one game on this list that I have yet to roll credits in yet as I’ve only beaten the Norman Campaign and am working on the 100 Years War. That said I’m thrilled AOE is back and glad this is a quality RTS that can be played on PC Game Pass. It’s a bummer there’s no map editor at launch though. Hoping that gets added.

Favorite Moment: That would have to be clearing the Norman Campaign. Especially beating the Second Battle of Lincoln as I managed to crush the rebels outside my fort with the forces I had. But then my economy got better as I got a small village outside my fort to help get more resources. From there I patiently produced a large army of Men-At-Arms, Longbowmen, Knights and Trebuchets to squash the French camps that kept sending troops to interrupt my army. It felt so good to bulldoze those bases after getting constantly annoyed with the same 5 Spearmen, 4 Archers and a battering ram invading to poke at my troops.

#7 Unpacking:

Unpacking is such a unique and soothing experience that I loved playing on Game Pass. Unpacking is a zen puzzle game where the player is a nameless woman who is as the game implies, unpacking a bunch of boxes and is putting away all her belongings. The puzzle part is finding out where to put things such as a bunch of books the lady owns or where her stuffed pig toy she’s had since childhood belongs. But what makes this stand out is that each level is a part of this woman’s life and uses environmental storytelling to show where this woman’s life goes without any spoken dialogue (save for a few written comments that appear after you decide to finish a level). The first level has her as a young girl moving into a new bedroom. Later levels will have her go to college and be in an apartment with a romantic partner. After everything box is unpacked, the game will alert the player if any item is misplaced and sometimes finding where certain items belongs actually gives the story more emotional depth than expected. The moment I realized I had to out the diploma under the bed made me rage at the woman’s boyfriend not having any wall room for that. But even with some heavy emotional beats, Unpacking is a relaxing puzzle gem that worth a look. Its only 3-4 hours long, the pixel art is gorgeous and the audio design is incredible. The amount of detail hearing the various sound effects of putting a saltshaker on various surfaces is something. The act of moving items in their places is also pretty fulfilling to get everything organized, much like how the real act of unpacking boxes are. The soundtrack was done by Jeff Van Dyck who is responsible for one of my favorite OST’s Rome Total War. The fact that he goes from epic Roman Battle music to some calming guitar/8-bit tracks shows that he’s got range and is one of the best in the business.

Favorite Moment: I want to say for this it’s the fact that there is some sick pixel art for Gamecube titles such as Wind Waker, Metroid Prime 2 and all time classic The Simpsons Hit and Run.

But my real answer is between chapters 7 and 8. Warning, I'll put a spoiler block for this moment

#6 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury:

Simply because I never had a Wii U, I never got to play Super Mario 3D World when it first came out in 2013. But now that it finally got re-released on Switch, 3D World has skyrocketed into the S Tier of Mario games in my mind. It is just a great platformer that has clever level design and brimful of charm that comes from the incredible soundtrack and the lively visuals. My Brother and I got to play a few levels together in co-op and it were some of the most fun we had with any game all year. I haven’t been very keen in playing the Wii U lineup on Switch until 3D World finally came out and absolutely loved my time with the main game.

But this portion is really for the bonus expansion that came with 3D World and that’s Bowser’s Fury. Basically, they took the 3D World engine and created one large level named Lake Lapcat and all sorts of mini levels to create a miniature Open World Mario game. Each little area has their share of Cat Shines to collect and the more you collect, the closer you get to unlocking the Mega Cat Bell. Each of these areas re-use power ups, gimmicks and bosses from 3D World to give Mario familiar yet new challenges to get more Cat Shines. Those areas you once were at before will have some alterations to give the player new objectives. However, Bowser won’t snooze it out as a very huge and ink coated Bowser will awaken occasionally to murder that Plumber to one helluva metal track. But that Mega Cat Bell will get Mario to grow gigantic and go Cat Saiyan on Bowser which really makes the scale of Lake Lapcat feel petite as Cat Mario and Bowser have a Kaiju fight. Or get a Cat Shine and Bowser goes back to sleep. I had so much fun playing this that I was determined to get all 100 Cat Shines before the end of the year and loved what I played. I wish there was more than 100 Cat Shines personally, but Bowser’s Fury is a terrific experiment for 3D Mario that I hope is built upon in the next big 3D Mario title.

Favorite Moment: I mentioned how the player can get a Cat Shine to stop Bowser from Lashing out. But honestly my favorite moments from this game came from trying to clear one level to get a Cat Shine but if I was too late to get one, I had a back-up plan. There’s these Bowser Blocks where Bowser destroys them for Mario to get a reward, typically being a Cat Shine. If I knew where the blocks were and saw the rain come in, I was like “Oh hi Bowser. Nah it's all good just breath fire here where these blocks are and you can go back to sleep. Thanks pal!”

#5 Hitman 3:

The first time I played Hitman 3 this year actually came from my brother getting the free Level pack that included the original Cat Burglar Tutorial mission and the Dubai Map on his PS5 before he moved. I spent a good chunk of time playing the Dubai map itself but once my brother bought Hitman 1 and 2 we were able to finally experience the magic of ICA murder. We had such a great time lining up our assassinations on our targets whether it be by story mission or improv and couldn’t help but laugh from what dumb assassination tactics we completed. I have soft spots for taking out Silvio Caruso with the explosive golf ball and getting Dawood Rangan to fly from a malfunctioning fan.

Then came Hitman 3 in its entirety which I picked up on EGS at half price AND a $10 coupon. Yay. While I don’t think all of 3’s maps are all time greats, many of them I’d say are up there with the very best. Dubai is a good intro level and I loved getting the curmudgeon Carl all pissy before I set up my kills on him. Dartmoor has been constantly compared to Knives Out for good reason as it’s a huge British Mansion where there is a murder mystery that Agent 47 has the option to solve. But Dartmoor has so many possible death traps for 47 to toy around in that it makes for one of the most replayable maps in the series. Berlin has Agent 47 as the hunted and he must kill any 5 assassins within the parameters of a Berlin Night Club. Mendoza was also a huge highlight being a large wine party and the traps that can be pulled off there are rather gratifying. Killing Yates in a giant, electric Wine puddle after he was going Joker on his vineyard employees was sweet. I wished I like Chongqing and the Mountain Train more as I found both to have some neat ideas to change up the Hitman formula but in practice weren’t winners. Chongquing though I do want to credit for its story missions having interesting ways to take out the targets. But for one of them “COUGH, HUSH” I found it really annoying to do the exact process to get the kill right. But overall, I finally know what makes playing the World of Assassination so special. You can terminate the 1% with explosive rubber ducks and that’s always funny.

Favorite Moments: First multiple moment segment. For Favorite Story Mission is the Murder Mystery at Dartmoor as 47 takes out a hired detective to fill in his shoes and find out who killed Alexa’s brother. Gathering evidence by asking suspects and going into rooms to find clues makes it feel like IO could make a killer Mystery game if they so desired. If successful 47 gets both objectives on a silver platter. My favorite kill was in Berlin where I chucked a clothes iron to knock an Agent into a nearby lake and he drowned. I’m a sucker for blunt object kills.

#4 The Forgotten City:

We have my personal “Game that came out of nowhere” Award winner. I only heard about The Forgotten City on the week it got released and I heard it was a time loop adventure game set in an underground Roman City. The setting alone was enough to give this game a try on Steam. Little did I know that The Forgotten City conquered my playtime in the month of August.

The Forgotten City is a time loop game that values the player’s time and knows to make sure quests from past loops don’t need to be redone. Every time a new loop begins, the player is always greeted with “Uhhh, Salve Friend” from Galerius, the local farmer who after the players who will do what the player tells him to after a quest was completed. Every item obtained from each past loop carries over to the next loop to reduce any redundancy, which is super nice. The quests themselves are require you to help this small community of Roman citizens with quests which are simple yet cleverly done. Some of them have a concrete solution such as thwarting an assassin sent to kill one of the residents. Other quests are more open ended such as getting medicine for medic Lucretia so she can cure Iulia. There’s an option to make enough money and buy the medicine from scumbag Desius. But I just stole it and after my second attempt, I escaped the clutches of the Golden Rule. Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that the Golden Rule is the Key to the Mystery of this underground city. Once you speak to Magistrate Sentius, he tells you about how this city is peaceful by force because it’s under this spiritual law that turns everyone into gold statues if any 1 person commits a sin. But the act of sinning on your own can be exploited in your favor if smart about it. Each quest also threads into uncovering the mystery of this city and makes the journey of uncovering this central mystery very fulfilling. Its commendable that I have The Forgotten City ranked this high because this was originally a Skyrim mod and I’m someone who simply doesn’t vibe with Bethesda style RPG’s. Didn’t like Skyrim nor New Vegas when they came out probably because I hated the combat in those games. Yet this former Skyrim Mod clicked with me. It's not perfect as like those Bethesda games there are some weird glitches and hiccups that occur. I also got 2 of the endings including the final one which I’m not 100% hot on now after hearing some valid critiques of it. But it was still satisfying to reach that ending and despite its faults, I still look back at that ending fondly. If you love Time Loop style games or maybe have an interest in Roman History, The Forgotten City is a slam dunk.

Favorite Moment: Spoiler tags will be up for this.

#3 Psychonauts 2:

This year I really wanted to get a PS5 to play something like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. I’ve enjoyed the Ratchet series and getting a new game on the PS5 would have been awesome. But I never got the console so with me getting Game Pass, I noticed Psychonauts 2 was another colorful 3D platformer that received high praise. Despite not playing Psychonauts 1 at all, I dove into 2 with Game Pass and this is my Game Pass Game of the Year. Its also a major money saving victory for me as I played Psychonauts 2 on a service that I pay $9.99 a month for vs. Buying both a PS5 and Rift Apart which would have costed me more than $570. Also some of Ratchet’s voice cast is also in Psychonauts 2 with David Kaye being both Clank and Ford Cruller and Armin Shimerman is Dr. Nefarious and Augustus Aquato.

Psychonauts 2 is one of the most imaginative platformers I ever played. Every time I entered a mind to see what kind of level I was getting into I was enthralled with what crazy themes Double Fine cooked up. From a psychedelic Rock level that’s themed after the 5 senses and is accompanied by a ball of light voiced by Jack Black to a Bowling themed 1930’s city occupied by germs that are dreading for their doom from a giant Spray bottle. It is truly a joy to watch how all these levels are designed and even seeing what those minds say about certain characters in the game. Even when Raz isn’t in someone’s mind, The Mother Lobe hub and its surrounding areas are rich with story and side content. Raz can find a bunch of collectibles for worst intern Norma just to get his clothes back or catch up with the rest of the Aquato family. While there were a few instances where the platforming felt a little off, the controls are tight for the most part and it felt good to traverse in game. Raz’s starter psychic abilities such as Telekinesis and Pyrokinesis were a kick for combat and solving puzzles. But his new abilities really stood out such as Mind Connection which is basically a grappling hook that Raz uses to reach far away areas or to Scorpion harpoon enemies near him. The Time Bubble was also great to slow down speedy obstacles or to make fighting those dastardly Panic Attacks easier. Also since this is a Double Fine joint, the writing is superb as I got constant laughs from the characters but got very emotionally invested in the story. Psychonauts 2 is a triumph in game design and storytelling. Knowing that Double Fine is owned by Microsoft, it feels like the acquisition helped this game reach the best possible state. Oh and a fun fact, for back-to-back years my #3 GOTY has a character named Oleander in it. Them's Fightin' Herds has this Oleander and Psychonauts 2 of course has Morceau Oleander.

Favorite Moments: My favorite level has to be Compton's Cookoff, or going by its Game Show name Ram It Down! Where Raz enters Compton Boole’s Mind and it ends up being a cooking game show hosted by a puppet goat version of Truman Zanatto. Raz has to help Boole by using the food-based audience members for special dishes and needs to put them in different stations to prepare each ingredient properly. The level itself is a genius depiction on how Compton feels pressure from society to do something right or else he’ll be judged for any fault he and his work may have. But it was also a great level where it tests Raz’s abilities to get these dishes made by grabbing sentient food ingredients who really want to get boiled, sliced, fried or blended just to participate in a game show. Plus Goat Ford Cruller going “Slightly Better Than a Mouthful of Nails” always gets me. While we’re on the Booles, my favorite line came from the best intern Sam Boole. She can be found making Pancakes at the diner in the Questionable area and after Raz asks where she learned how to make Pancakes she says “Prison”.

#2 Metroid Dread:

My experience with the Metroid series is very limited. I played Metroid Prime for a small bit and embarrassingly enough, I dropped it after I couldn’t get through that one Giant Beetle mini boss very early in the game. I also played Zero Mission on GBA and while I personally liked that more, eventually my dumb kid brain got “Metroid Lost” and I stopped playing after not knowing where to go. Fast forward to 2021 and for the first time in 17 years, a Brand new 2D Metroid comes to a Nintendo System. It feels amazing to say that I have beaten a mainline Metroid game now and Dread kicks ass in nearly every conceivable way.

Dread is maybe the best pure gaming experience I had this year. The movement feels amazing where even before Samus gets her power ups back, she’s zooming through corridors and cliffs at a lightning pace. Felt like she didn’t need the Super Rush upgrade immediately. The combat is excellent as it starts fun by mild in variety where its either shoot enemies or parry them to get large refills of health and missiles. But as Samus gets more power ups, the more exciting the various possibilities are for taking out enemies and bosses as well as applying those weapons or tools to find countless secrets in the map. Speaking of the map, I was worried that I would have the same Metroid problem that I had with Zero Mission where I would find a wall and not understand how to progress, but that never happened in my playtime with Dread. I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing of Dread and how unlocking new tools helped find new routes in old areas. Dread delivers on making Samus feel more and more unstoppable as the player progresses. I was enthralled to see a reoccurring mini boss that gave me lots of trouble early on ended up being basic fodder as Samus got more upgrades. Dread is also home to the best collection of Boss Fights I played this year as each boss had their own unique challenges, but their patterns were accessible to learn and were really just difficult enough to be tough but fair bouts (or at least I found that to be the case). Though of course the huge new addition to the Metroid series in Dread are the E.M.M.I. sections. These areas seem to have a mixed reception as some feel those sections were outright unfair at times (the Water E.M.M.I. portion was annoying that’s for sure). But I was into the stealth/horror approach that these sections added to mix up the high-speed run and gun action that there was in the standard game. I’m not only happy that I beat a mainline 2D Metroid, but this was an unexpected yet fantastic comeback for the series. With Prime 4 still seemingly in development, the Metroid series needed a 2D comeback as well and Mercury Steam delivered on making not just one of the best Metroids, but one of the best Metroidvanias out there in the current market.

Favorite Moments: One standard gameplay moment I loved was basically whenever Samus got the Omega Stream and Blaster. It always felt good to finally get the weaponry to take out the persistent bots. Lining up the shots was immensely enjoyable by turning the game into a puzzle and figuring out which areas in the map gave Samus the best advantages to take out the E.M.M.I’s face shield and then outright kill ‘em. Favorite overall moment is spoiler heavy, but its basically beating the final Boss. Raven Beak is the primary villain of Dread and there was a huge build up to Samus’ confrontation with the Chozo General. Fighting Raven Beak was exhilarating where he tests Samus at her max potential (or even more if the player chooses to collect all the missile, health and power bomb containers). Raven Beak has 3 phases and while a few repeat some attacks, each phase provided its own quirks for the player to study and see how to evade his attacks effectively as well as find his weak points. There was a point where I thought it would take me 20 tries to beat him, but it was on my 8^th try where he went down. Not to mention that ending where Samus yells in denial against Raven Beak’s demands and getting the Metroid armor is one helluva great moment.

Before I reveal my #1 game of 2021, let me briefly talk about a little game from 2018 called Wandersong. This is a game that stars a cheerful bard who uses the power of song to solve many different characters’ problems. There’s a grander story on how the world is ending because the goddess of the Bard’s world wants to have a fresh start. The Bard with the help of a witch named Miriam is determined to prevent that from happening by trying to learn the titular Wandersong to preserve their world. It was a game that oozed in creativity in how it implemented its singing mechanic in various ways. The mechanic itself was an eight-direction wheel and using the left joystick is where you direct the Bard to sing in multiple pitches. The Bard can be seen performing in a concert and had to follow the leads of their band members by pointing the joystick in the same direction as them. In some levels the Bard could manipulate the environment by mimicking the tune of a bird and if they do, the bird will be happy and help the Bard jump higher. There’s even a portion where the Bard and a group of coffee loving Pirates sing together and their collective singing has the power to transport their ship through the sea. Yet it was very underrated when it released and it barely got much buzz. I mock myself for ranking it #6 on my 2018 GOTY list and having Octopath Traveler higher rated even though I much prefer Wandersong these days.

So what does Wandersong have to do with number 1 GOTY? Well the same lead developer of Wandersong Greg Lobanov was also the lead developer for my favorite game this year. Both games also share the same Sound designer Em Halberstadt and the sound design in both games are impeccable. It’s a game that I got immensely excited for when I saw its announcement, but it was a game that managed to exceed my high expectations of it.

#1 Chicory: A Colorful Tale:

Lobanov, Halberstadt, and their team of composer Lena Raine, artist and animator Alexis Dean-Jones and environment artist Madeline Berger launched a Kickstarter campaign to get Chicory funded back in 2019. Full disclosure, I helped back this project at $35. Chicory came out of nowhere for some people since it didn’t get much pre-release buzz but it was a title I very much looked forward to. I’m glad to report that Chicory like Wandersong before it is a lovingly made game where it takes a unique mechanic (drawing and coloring screens) and figures out how to keep that mechanic fresh when applied to various puzzles or gameplay elements. Heck Wandersong lets the player sing while talking to NPC’s and Chicory allows the player to draw and talk at the same time too. But even without comparing the 2 games, Chicory on its own is one of the most creative and unique games I’ve ever played and the experience of playing Chicory will be one that I’ll remember for years.

Chicory is charming immediately as the game asks the player what their favorite food is. I picked Prime Rib and from there the name of the cute painter dog I controlled is called Prime Rib. Every other cute animal NPC is named after a food within the large map of Picnic Province. Chicory as a game lets the player color in or draw how much or whatever they want and everything they draw will stay on the map unless the player erases it. Want to draw a picture of Homer Simpson drooling at the sight of a nearby donut shop (which in game the NPC’s call donuts Holeys)? It’s possible. It's also a game that values what the player creates. There are side activities such as designing a T-Shirt for a local café and not only can Prime Rib wear that shirt, but a few NPC’s will wear that shirt that I designed too. I absolutely love it when games give your own creations merit when characters wear something the player designs. Chicory however is more than just a giant coloring book as its designed like an NES/SNES era Zelda. It uses an overhead camera angle and there are a variety of dungeons that throw in a new gimmick that utilizes the Magic Paintbrush distinctly. Whether it be a gas bubble that blasts destructible objects once colored or drawing a path for paint hungry bugs to follow and for Prime Rib to ride on. It’s astonishing to see the mileage the dev team got from incorporating 1 gameplay mechanic into so many puzzles. Although if stumped, there’s no shame in calling in-game Mom and Dad for hints. There are even boss fights which provide a decent bullet hell like challenge and change up the puzzle solving formula. After defeating a boss Prime Rib’s bond with the brush grows stronger and new traversal upgrades unlock. From using glowing paint in dark caves to swimming in the paint Splatoon style, every brush upgrade felt meaningful and delightful.

I also need to praise Chicory for its music and art direction. This is the second 2021 OST done by Celeste and Minecraft composer Lena Raine. Like Moonglow Bay this year, Raine delivers on providing a varied but incredibly memorable soundtrack that I plan to listen to for the coming years. Major highlights include Dinners, The Big City, Grub Deep and Probably Ancient Evil. The aesthetic has a great monochromatic look that feels like a living coloring book. The way the characters react to your drawings as well as even seeing a flower grow after its colored is adorable.

But the characters and story deserve the upmost praise. Chicory is full of memorable NPC’s such as Beans the Cat who needs help getting lost kittens back to the Lost Kid Daycare and 4 of them are her children. In return Beans will give Prime Rib furniture to make room for the daycare and doesn’t care where you put it as she says “I ain’t the Cops”. There’s also Pickle the Fox whose texts bubbles are always in lower case letters and wants to be the wielder if you put a good word for them. *wink* Going into the main plot it's about the mystery on why the color has vanished and Prime Rib doing what they can to bring serenity back in Picnic Province. Though initially Prime Rib borrows the magic brush to help the current wielder Chicory the Hare temporarily. However, Chicory herself is dealing with burnout being the Wielder so she hands the honor to Prime Rib after P.R. tried to return the brush. Through these interactions with these characters, we learn about their own struggles that are extremely relatable. While Prime Rib is enthusiastic at first, they quickly learn that being the Wielder is drenched in so much responsibility. NPC’s are requesting Prime Rib to do things such as restoring an Art Museum’s missing art collection or delivering mail. All of this overwhelms Prime Rib and the high responsibility as well as questioning their lack of artistic experience causes P.R. to develop Imposter Syndrome and self-doubt. The way the game portrays Prime Rib in this state connected with me immediately as I’ve had moments where I’ve doubted myself on if I’m the right person for a task or more. I also got attached to Chicory as she wasn’t giving herself enough credit for her lovely art and I’ve been overly critical of myself and don’t always recognize the good my actions have done. Yet there is still an uplifting but real message of what a creative or any person may feel. It’s normal for anyone to feel sad or doubtful about not meeting their own or someone’s expectations. But no burden should limit what any artist or anyone can produce or do as whatever good intended creation or action has value. It is also important to talk to someone about how they’re feeling and getting the support needed can help them take steps to feeling better. The way it connects the lore of the brush, the character’s emotions and what is causing corruptions in the world is smartly done and the ending got me emotionally.

I know I broke my 1-2 paragraph rule for the #1 game, but Chicory is a truly special game that I wanted to gush about. It combines so many gameplay ideas from so many different games to somehow form its own one-of-a-kind experience. Its also a game that I had the pleasure of 100%-ing, which I rarely ever do. Plus the game has a very special reward for anyone who 100%’s it which I won’t say anything in particular. The only other game I’ve ever 100-ed is Contradiction: Spot The Liar. This is yet another amazing game from Greg Lobanov and his team and I can’t say I enjoyed any 2021 release more than Chicory, A Colorful Tale. It is 100% my GOTY.

Favorite Moments: Oh shoot. I still have this to do. Well for this I’ll do 2 moments where the Spoiler Tags are up.

There is one NPC that I saw often named Peppermint, who is a sweet little bird with glasses that is a humongous fan of Prime Rib’s work. Peppermint is even one of the NPC’s who wears the Café shirt. But the best Peppermint moment comes from when I greet them in their hometown of Brekkie. Earlier Peppermint was seen gushing over an art piece I did at the Art Academy where the prompt was to draw a cute creature and I drew a picture of my pet Boston Terrier Sam. Once I got to Brekkie, Peppermint shows me their own take on my Boston Terrier Art. It looks a little messy and is black and white since no other character can draw in color. But I was overjoyed to see the game memorize my own art and the fact that its fanart of my own fanart of my dog is wonderful! Peppermint is an angel.

Another moment of mine something I did in the game, but then the follow up action was something I did that mimicked a story beat in the game itself. So in Chapter 3, Prime Rib will find Chicory outside the Wielder Tower trying to paint a picture. Prime Rib suggests that Chicory can draw them, and Chicory agrees. She asks Prime Rib how they are feeling emotionally and what their favorite color is and then Prime Rib must draw a picture of Chicory so they can see the pictures of each other. Once completed, both reveal the pictures and Chicory is touched by Prime Rib’s portrayal of her. Yet she critiques her vastly superior picture of Prime Rib until P.R. stops her and says it’s amazing and they love it.

It’s a very sweet bonding moment between these two characters. However, the moment after this was something I did within the game which led to a real version of what happened in Chapter 3. Later in the game, Prime Rib arrives in a Pizzeria (or Slice Shop since NPC’s call Pizza Slices) and I had the urge to draw two portraits of the android duo from Cook, Serve, Delicious 3, Whisk and Cleaver. I drew the two androids on both sides of the shop and while I thought the depictions weren’t perfect at first, they were close enough and I felt obligated to share this pic on the CSD Discord. I posted the image on that Discord and my one of the things I said was “So yeah, this picture is an ok attempt at recreating Whisk and Cleaver with these emojis” as the art was based on Discord Emoji versions of the two characters. Afterwards the lead designer of the CSD games Chubigans responds saying he loves it and thought it looked incredible. So literally at that moment, I was Chicory where I initially didn’t think the art was super amazing looking. But Chubigans was Prime Rib where he was flattered by the art and adored it anyways. That portrait moment from Chapter 3 teaches an important lesson in art. Sure a piece of art may not be exactly how an artist wants it to be when making it versus how they envision it. But if the recipient is overjoyed seeing the art and appreciates the thought put into the work, that is what ultimately matters.