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Namevah

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Favorite Games of 2014

Some have complained that 2014 wasn’t a great year for games, and while it wasn’t as strong as other years, that still feels like a silly thing to bitch about. Every console had at least a handful of entertaining games, and that’s what counts.

Not going to make the list is Alien: Isolation and Danganronpa, which were both Christmas presents. (It really sucks that these lists are created and posted just before the holiday season when people get new games and may have a decent window to play them.) I intend to create my “Other Games of 2014” later in 2015, where I hope those games will be included.

List items

  • The best BioWare games do more than cast us as the protagonist, but allow us to craft our own heroes with their own beliefs. My Inquisitor, an elven mage with a charming English accent and pink eyes, is a skeptic that questioned everything from his supposed role as the Herald of Andraste to his own people’s attempts to regain their lost past. And yet, when the big decisions needed to be made, he sided with the people and organizations that have kept Thedas running over the year over the upstarts.

    Of course, these decisions were often made through a trial by fire. BioWare has crafted a number of incredible set pieces that allow them to hand the player decisions without an easy answer. One choice, which will obviously not be specifically described to avoid spoilers, may be the most challenging decision I had ever been faced in a game, all because of the emotional investment I had built by that point.

    Take away that investment and Inquisition becomes much harder to enjoy. The gorgeous environments are littered by minor tasks mean to increase your faction’s “Power,” and lose sight of that and you have nothing more than a series of fetch quests. Grabbing that feeling that these tasks are growing the Inquisition and digging into the story-based missions in which those cruel decisions are cast are important for getting the most out of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

  • This spot belongs to the Wii U version.

    That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the 3DS version, but Smash on Wii U is simply more beautiful, controls better, and has modes exclusive to that version. Not to mention I enjoyed Smash Tour over 3DS’s Smash Run, and online matches have been generally more stable on the home console. Both versions are worth owning (and hopefully Nintendo someday bundles the two), but if you can only grab one.

  • I soured across the finish line of the Excitebike course and earned first place for the first time that night. It was also the only time as I faced stiff competition in the form of a group of users from a forum I frequent. After that race, I hovered around the fourth place position, which is respectable. Regardless of the results, it was a fun night, and that’s the night that Mario Kart 8 replaced Super Mario Kart as my favorite game in the series.

    It also helped that I had recently purchased Super Mario Kart on Wii U. I don’t recall the SNES original being so slippery, I must admit.

  • Forget everything that surrounds the songs; Yen Sid and the various realms are fodder for children to play around, but are unnecessarily heavy with tutorials and too simple to keep me interested long. The only reason to play through is to unlock the songs and their two remixes – a frustration since EVERYTHING needs unlocking. It's a step backwards from Rock Band 3, which had every song available from the get-go.

    And not every song is a winner, but that comes with the territory. Your enjoyment depends on your own personal taste, but playing through a song you dislike thrice (once to unlock the song, two more times for the remixes) is deflating.

    With all these complaints, how did Fantasia: Music Evolved reach such a high position? Because when you’re on a song you love and you’re waving your arms to the marks and changing the mixes so the drums have a different beat or the piano was replaced by dual acoustic guitars and you’re totally in the zone, there’s nothing quite like it in gaming.

  • Honestly, I am still very early with Persona Q, but that hasn't kept me from enjoying the hell out of it. This is partly because I am still attached to Persona 4’s cast, so I will gladly take more adventures with the Investigation Team. Meanwhile, the gameplay is an enjoyable and challenging combination of Etrian Odyssey’s first-person dungeon crawling and map creation with elements of Persona’s combat system. So why haven’t I progressed further? The challenge and overall slow-pace is to blame, but that’s fine. Remove those and you remove much of this game’s feel.

  • The problem with the Ace Attorney series is that the investigations that occur between courtroom scenes are dull, but Layton/Wright (as I will refer to this game as) sidesteps this by filling the space with Professor Layton puzzling. The results, although not the defining examples of each game (both puzzles and dealing with witnesses are easier than in their respective series), are immensely entertaining.

    What’s the most surprising is the story, a crazy tale that takes some long leaps, but it’s surprisingly enjoyable. I can’t imagine everyone taking as much pleasure in this story as I have, though. It’s an odd one, and not every explanation adequately works.

  • I don’t want to talk about how Shovel Knight is an incredible old-school game with modern sensibilities. Instead, I want to talk about Shield Knight, the female warrior that Shovel Knight (the character) dreams of several times during the course of his adventure. During these dreams, Shield Knight falls from high above with Shovel Knight aimed to catch her, but just before she reaches his arms, he awakens by the smoldering ashes of the previous night’s fire.

    It’s a cruel, but creative method of showing Shovel Knight’s regrets about failing to save Shield Knight. These dreams are a reminder of what Shovel Knight seeks – revenge – as he travels to the imposing tower in the distance, the same tower that cost him his beloved, setting the character for the finale and that last, somber cutscene.

    Even with so many words and voices, so many games fail to create a connection between a protagonist’s desires and the player. Shovel Knight does that beautifully though playable scenes lacking either words or voices. It deserves praise just for that.

  • If the original Theatrhythm is a greatest hits compilation, than Curtain Call is a box set with tons of the greatest alongside fan favorites and underappreciated gems. The amount of songs include in Curtain Call is staggering, and that’s alongside new gameplay modes and characters, creating an impressive package and one of the greatest compilations of songs available.

    The cherry comes from the DLC, which Square Enix has been using to deliver tracks from Bravely Default, Chrono Trigger, and Romancing Saga, among other lesser known games from their catalogue. Hopefully Theathrhythm: Dragon Quest comes to our shores, but I can’t imagine it topping Curtain Call.

  • In the annoying “games as art” debate, I present Transistor, which oozes artistry from every facet. It’s an incredibly beautiful game with a kickass soundtrack, and while the story isn’t phenomenal, it’s decent and well-told. (On that last note, I haven’t finished Transistor, so maybe the conclusion bumps the story into something special.) And there’s a “humming” button, which is fucking awesome. Meanwhile, the battle system is fun and unique, while the underpinning equipment system is amazingly deep without being confusing.

  • Like 2013’s Stanley Parable, Jazzpunk is a first-person adventure that exists simply to deliver jokes, offering little in the way of gameplay. And that’s okay.

    Jazzpunk is significantly stranger than The Stanley Parable though, tossing out non sequiturs over and over, and fortunately, most are pretty funny, assuming you’re a fan of this style of humor. Those who do enjoy watching a man being suddenly launched into the air by a flock of pidgins after being sprayed by an ointment dropped by a pidgin after being zapped by a weird device given by a man in an ally should enjoy Jazzpunk.

    Those who don’t probably didn’t even finish the previous sentence.
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