Best of the Decade – Number 1: 2015

Here we are. At the end. I actually played a LOT of games from this year, so strap in for a long grand finale. Despite the long list (including some really good titles), the winner is just a hundred miles ahead of the competition, making this a very easy pick. Some of you might know where this is going already, but let’s do this properly anyways:

Didn’t Play:

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Yakuza 5
• Yoshi’s Wooly World
• Her Story
• Just Cause 3
• Cities: Skylines
• Pillars of Eternity
• Dying Light
• Halo 5
• Until Dawn
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Super Mario Maker
• Xenoblade Chronicles X
• Splatoon

I definitely intend to play through all the Witcher games at some point (I’ve played a bit of the first, but never gotten around to finishing it), especially given how much people gush about Witcher 3. A few others definitely have my interest here such as Pillars of Eternity, Her Story, and Rise of the Tomb Raider, and I may get to those some day.

Didn’t Finish/Didn’t Like:

Sunless Sea – This one is a bit of both. The reason I didn’t finish it was because I just didn’t much care for it. This Lovecraftian journey through an underground sea full of monsters and grimdark horror seems like a great premise at at first, but honestly it just ends up feeling like a slow slog and grind. Didn’t keep my attention long enough to get to the presumably good part.

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate – This is officially the point at which I fell off the Assassin’s Creed series and marks the first main entry that I never finished. I played through some of it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to care much about it. Then again, this might be the last proper Assassin’s Creed game before it went full RPG, so I still might finish this one someday.

Rocket League – Didn’t play it much mainly because I never got online with my friends. Seemed cool though.

Bloodborne – It’s possible that I’m not the right kind of person for a true Soulslike game, but I’ve never REALLY sat down and tried to play one, so the jury is still out. Bloodborne is probably the one I’ve tried the most, and we’ll see if I can get back around to it one of these days.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – Just a delightful little game that I never actually finished. Definitely plan to finish it up one of these day though, because it’s just a lot of fun. No complicated story, just fun puzzle action.

Downwell – Really neat spin on a Metroidvania by mixing it with an arcade style, and a really bizarre vertical level design. A lot of fun from what I played, I just never got very far in it before something else caught my attention.

The Good:

Overwatch – While overall my feelings towards this game are complicated, I can’t deny that I did have a good amount of fun playing this. Lots of varied heroes, decent maps, colorful visuals, fast gameplay, a really tight shooting design. I’m not much of a fan of multiplayer only games, but Overwatch definitely managed to take a few hours from me.

RONIN – I picked up this neat little indie title because the gameplay looked a lot like 2013’s Gunpoint, which I absolutely adored. And it does have some similarities, but it’s definitely an inferior game. It’s still a fun time with a very unique turn-based battle system that does make you feel like quite a badass in the end, so I guess it was a success.

Titan Souls – An isometric action adventure boss rush game clearly inspired by Shadow of the Colossus. It has an interesting twist on the formula, as you and the boss each die in one hit (provided you can hit their unique weak spot), and you only have a bow and a single arrow to take them down with. Really well executed, though it is very short and lacks much of a narrative, as well as still being pretty damn derivative of Shadow of the Colossus.

Fallout 4 – Yet another game I’m very conflicted by. I was all set for this to be my game of the year, but it fell quite short of that mark. Still a solid and fun game, but marred by tons of problems from issues with the aging engine to pacing issues, plot issues, sub-par writing, and just a lot of new systems that looked good on paper but just didn’t pan out so well in practice. At the end of the day though, it’s still Fallout and you’ll have a good time, but I’d recommend New Vegas or 3 over it any day of the week.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number – To be honest, this is really just more Hotline Miami. Which there’s really nothing wrong with. The original was great, and so was this one. It adds more guns, enemies, powers, and levels, which is all you can really ask for. Unfortunately, it does drop the ball in the story department, in that it probably tries just a little bit too hard. It’s just way too abstract to the point that you can’t even tell what the hell is going on anymore. But I guess the biggest problem is that it isn’t THAT much different from the original, so at that point what’s even the point of playing it over the original?

Batman: Arkham Knight – Man, I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but this is yet another one I’m very conflicted on. While I enjoyed this more than Fallout 4, Arkham Knight still let me down a bit with a much weaker plot and writing than Asylum or City. Additionally, the Batmobile segments, which sounded great on paper, were just a slog and not fun at all. The city is still fun to explore with lots of great characters, set pieces, and it can be really fun, but this is another instance where I can just recommend the earlier entries over it (except Origins. That game was a train wreck).

Tales from the Borderlands – One of Telltales better games in my opinion. Not only was this a really fun adventure with great characters and high stakes, but it actually had a pretty significant impact on the Borderlands lore. It’s canonical, and they even kill off a fairly major character within it. Props for the sand to go through with such a plan, and it definitely panned out. Otherwise, just one of Telltale’s more solid adventure games.

Life is Strange – Yet another episodic point-and-click style adventure game, huh? Well, this one’s from Square Enix of all producers, and tells a really gripping story about a girl who gains the power to rewind time in short bursts and how the power affects the world around her. Despite a few stumbles here and there, it remains an expertly told story and one of the most noteworthy recent games in the genre. Now I just have to get around to playing the second season and Before the Storm…

Grow Home – Maybe a slightly controversial pick to be this high up, but this was just a game that came out of nowhere for me and was a lot of fun. And from Ubisoft! I have no idea how this game came from that company, but it was a really fun game about a robot growing a big plan to try and return to his mothership. Really, there’s not much else to say. The story is bare bones, but makes way for just some really fun exploration based gameplay with physics based climbing. It’s not revolutionary or anything, but a game as simple as this that’s this good definitely deserves applause.

Sorcery! 3: The Seven Serpents – Of course I have to mention the only part of the Sorcery! series I have yet to cover. The Seven Serpent was a unique game in the series because it’s probably the most open-ended one in the series, which does mean that its story is a little less connected, but the hook is still great, as is the writing, world, and characters, which really drives this one all the way to the end. The premise is that as you journey across this area, the evil king that you’re attempting to take down has sent a group of assassins; The Seven Serpents, to be precise. Seven literal snakes with various powers and weaknesses. You need to hunt them down and kill them all while making it across the country either in a timely manner, or by taking your sweet time and gathering as many items and stamina boosts as you can along the way. It makes for quite a fun game of cat-and-mouse, and makes hunting all the secrets and unique interactions even more fun. Highly recommend this and the entire series. Probably my favorite mobile games on the market.

The Best:

The Beginner’s Guide – Whoo this game. A walking simulator made by Davey Wrenden (creator of another great walking simulator: The Stanley Parable), and an absolute mindfuck of an experience. This is really a game you should play through blind to get the most out of it (not the last time I’ll be saying that on this list), but here’s the elevator pitch. Davey talks the player through a series of games made by a former friend of his: Coda. As the game progresses Davey will tell the player what was happening at that point with both of them in real life, how the game reflects what Coda was going through, and how Davey interprets Coda’s work. To say more than that would be entering spoiler territory, but trust me when I say that it’s worth going to the bitter end of this one. It ends on a ridiculously high note. Just an expertly told story that manages to make your hair stand on end by the conclusion.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – This is actually the only MGS game I’ve ever played start to finish (though I’ve dabbled in 2 and 3 and plan to play them more in the future), and damn is it good. It looks great, it has huge sandboxes to play around in, fun missions, tight controls, and freedom to approach the game how you like. The addition of a bunch of 80s music that you can find throughout the world and arrange into playlists (and blast from your helicopter as you enter and exit areas) was a really great idea and is one of my favorite kinds of collectables that makes you desperate to hunt more down. The story is a complete train wreck, but fortunately it’s easy enough to ignore it for the most part. It definitely has the Kojima weirdness all over it, but this was a pretty great way for the series to go out (since Kojima was fired by Konami and I seriously doubt Konami will ever put out another good MGS game on their own).

Ori and the Blind Forest – Possibly my favorite Metroidvania game. This charming adventure about a forest spirit trying to save its home is chock full of content. The world is fun to explorer, there are tons of abilities to unlock, great characters, and some just incredible visuals. The watercolor style it has going for it is gorgeous, and I never get tired of looking at it. Add to that a really excellent soundtrack, and you have all the ingredients for a game that just begs you to play it start to finish. It does have some frustrating moments, and the additional content from the Definitive Edition is a little questionable (adding an ability that kind of breaks a bunch of otherwise challenging areas in the game), and the ending definitely pusses out a bit, but otherwise this is an excellent game that I’d highly recommend. And in another year it might just take the top spot. But this is not another year, and there’s only one way this list can end.

Best of 2015:

And here we are at the end. It was a long road, and I almost didn’t even finish this series before 2020 ended, which would have been pretty embarrassing. But only one remains. Like I said, some of you might know where this is going, but regardless, it was a pretty easy choice for me on the top spot of the decade. Even against games that I thought were top class in their genres like God of War and Mario Odyssey, this one stands head and shoulders above the others for be a revolutionary title in gaming. A breath of fresh air that shows us the true potential of gaming as an art form. I’m talking of course about…

Undertale – Off the bat, let me just say that this is a game that’s best experienced completely blind. So if you haven’t yet, go play through it. It’s available on Switch, PS4, Vita, PC, Mac, and Linux, so you definitely have something to play it on. And its simple graphics mean that any potato of a computer should be able to run it no problem. I’ll avoid spoilers as I talk about it, but seriously, go play it as soon as possible. It’s short, it’s cheap, and it’s on a ton of consoles so you just have no excuse.

Anyways, Undertale was a game that kind of came out of nowhere. After a modest kickstarter success by creator Toby Fox, the game released in 2015 and immediately exploded in popularity. I heard about it from a friend and decided to give it a go. And I immediately spent 15+ hours to play through the game three times straight and see everything the game had to offer. And since then I’ve probably played it through at least two other times.

So what is Undertale? It’s hard to explain it without spoilers, but just a quick rundown: it’s an RPG that centers around a world of humans and monsters. Years ago a war broke out between the two races, but the more powerful humans prevailed and sealed the monsters away underground. Years later, a young child stumbles into the underground and must find a way home, along the way meeting a varied cast of characters battling/striking a friendly conversation with monsters, and performing actions that will ultimately decide the fate of everyone in the underground.

The game’s weakest point is arguably its graphics, but I find them appealing. They’re simple, but effective. Very reminiscent of old RPGs on the NES and SNES. And despite its simplicity, the game manages some really great visual humor at times.

The music is incredible. Toby Fox is clearly a skilled musician, and the OST to Undertale is just filled to the gills with bangers. What’s especially impressive is how the songs start very simplistic like something you’d hear on the NES, but by the end can turn into incredible orchestral numbers that can make it feel like the weight of the entire world rests on your shoulders.

The combat is also unique, combining turn based combat and bull-hell mechanics for one of the most fascinating combat systems I’ve ever played through. Not only does each monster have a unique attack pattern, but if you encounter multiple different monsters, they’ll combine their attacks for even more unique fights.

But where the game shines the brightest is its story, writing, and characters. This game is a rollercoaster of a ride. Again, I won’t spoil anything, but Undertale’s greatest strength is its ability to make you care about each character and their fate. And not only that, but its understanding of a typical player’s mindset of how they play through a game, approach things, and their attitude towards playing it for completion. The game doesn’t just interact with your character, but you as a player. Few games are able to pull this off without it feeling offputting, but Undertale just nails it. And it all culminates in several endings, each of which are incredible for wildly different reasons. The game will have you in tears, but more importantly, the game will shock you and even shame you. I’ve felt more emotion playing Undertale that just about any other game, or even most movies or TV shows I’ve seen. The game will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and have you coming back for more.

And of course, as I mentioned the characters and writing are top notch. The writing is capable of making you laugh and cry all within the span of ten minutes, and all of the characters within the game will stick with you for a long time. From Sans’ bone jokes to the chatterbox himself, Mettaton, Undertale’s cast is the glue that brings everything together beautifully.

I wish I could go into more detail, but you’ll just have to take my word for it that all of these elements add up to one of the most incredible gaming experiences I’ve ever had. If you haven’t yet, do yourself a favor and check out Undertale, my favorite game of the 2010s.

So for a quick recap, my final list is:

10. 2014 – Shovel Knight

9. 2019 – Slay the Spire

8. 2013 – Papers, Please

7. 2012 – FTL: Faster Than Light

6. 2016 – XCOM 2

5. 2010 – Mass Effect 2

4. 2011 – To the Moon

3. 2018 – God of War

2. 2017 – Super Mario Odyssey

1. 2015 – Undertale

Well, that’s it. Thanks for sticking with me throughout this project and I hope you enjoyed! I’m glad I got to finish it before the end of 2020, and now I can get working on two other lists I had planned: Best Anime of the Decade, and the Best Games of 2020. The former won’t be a series like this one, just a single article. And the latter will be natural continuation of this series, but perhaps with a formatting change. Keep your eyes peeled for those, and I’ll see you in the next one!

Best of the Decade – Number 2: 2017

Didn’t Play:

• Snipperclips
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
• The Sexy Brutale
• Yakuza 0
• Splatoon 2
• Nioh
• ARMS
• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
• Gorogoa
• Metroid: Samus Returns
• Sonic Mania
• Little Nightmares
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• Night in the Woods
• The Evil Within 2
• Assassin’s Creed: Origins
• Destiny 2
• Prey
• Persona 5
• Resident Evil 7
• Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2

A couple here that I really need to get around to one of these days. The Sexy Brutale, Sonic Mania, Hellblade, Persona 5, plus finally getting into Yakuza and Xenoblade. But I digress.

Didn’t Finish/Didn’t Like

Hollow Knight – People go nuts over this one. One of the big indie darlings of the year, which is impressive given how many good indie games release this year (which we’ll get to later). I started it out and liked what I played, I just need to get back into it and finish it one of these days. Just a Metroidvania/Soulslike game with really appealing visuals, and while I’m not much for the Soulslike half of the equation, I do quite like Metroidvanias, so I’ll definitely get back to this someday.

Nier: Automata – I’ve heard nothing but good things about this game, which is why it pains me to say that I only made it about an hour into this one. Not because I didn’t like it, but because it just kind of fell off my plate for some reason. I’ll definitely get back to this one at some point, because people just love to shower this game with praise, and I have to figure out what makes this one tick.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle – I don’t know why I never finished this one, because I got a good ways in and was enjoying myself. This is basically just a simplified version of XCOM, but with Mario characters. And watching Peach shoot a Rabbid in the face with a shotgun in an official Nintendo game is its own kind of satisfying. Still, I never finished the game, so here it will reside.

Gravity Rush 2 – Another game that I made a good way into, liked, and just never finished. I quite liked the first, and the sequel brought about some much needed quality of life changes, so I look forward to diving back in someday soon.

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus – Haven’t finished it yet, but so far it’s a bit of a wash with the original. The original had a much better and more coherent story, but this new one is very balls-to-the-walls and over the top, which I definitely appreciate. We’ll see if it manages to hold up that level of quality when I finish playing through it later.

Dead Cells – Honestly, not that different from Hollow Knight. Though in its case, replace the Metroidvania half with a Roguelike half. I love Roguelikes, and this is a fine game from what I’ve played of it. I even finished one full cycle (at least on the base difficulty; presumably there are more layers after that which I haven’t yet made it to), but I don’t that that was quite enough to formulate a complete opinion on this one, so I’ll leave it here.

The Good:

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – This one I’m a little divided on. I really like visual novels and Phoenix Wright, and the Danganronpa series has been scratching that itch. It has a great sense of humor, some really great mysteries, good characters, and a really cool premise. What lets it down is that it does a really horrible job of handling the larger story of the franchise. And V3 felt like the culmination of those problems where the writers just threw up their hands and shouted ‘FUCK IT! ROCKS FALL!” Okay, it’s not THAT extreme, but also not that far off. And it’s a shame, because V3 had a really great setup at its core, some great mysteries within, and it has the pieces of a great game, but the glue holding it together is weak. It’s still a fine game, but far less than it could have been.

West of Loathing – Speaking of games with a good sense of humor, West of Loathing is a parody of the Wild West Genre and can just get outrageously funny. Practically every line in this game is aimed at a joke, and while not every one hits, enough do to keep you consistently laughing, and they come at a fast enough pace that even when one falls flat, you’re onto the next one before you know it. The visuals are very minimalistic, but still manage to get some laughs out of some truly outrageous animations (such as the dozens of joke walk cycles). And it even does a halfway decent job of being a turn-based RPG. The parody is thick enough that there really isn’t much of a story, which isn’t a big problem, but one problem is the length. Not that it’s too short, but that it’s probably too long. By the last couple of hours the joke is starting to run thin and I feel myself wishing that they’d just wrap it up already. Still one of the better parody games that I’ve played in recent memory.

Horizon Zero Dawn – One of the hard hitting PS4 exclusives before Spider Man and God of War brought down the house. This is a really unique take on an open world game that basically combines the story of an old Western Native American story along with a cautionary sci-fi post-apocolyptic story. Those two themes do tend to clash a bit, and yet manages to pull off a sort of PBJ synergy and manages a decent message and comes across coherent enough. The game is very pretty, the battles are epic, the main character is likeable, the world is big, there’s plenty to do, and it’s well written. Game of the Year material, right? Well… no. I have two major problems with this game. For one, it does kind of a poor job of keeping you invested in the story, in part because protagonist Aloy is one of the only consistent characters we have from start to finish. It’s a shame, because the game has a prologue where it sets up a bunch of characters who seem like they’ll be important for the rest of the story, and all of them either die or stay behind in the starting area and aren’t relevant to the story again until the final couple of hours. Which definitely makes it harder to give a shit about the story. Additionally, the combat is just a bit of a clusterfuck. Mainly because most of your weapons are ranged, and even with all your traps, enemies are such giant HP Tanks that can close the distance to you so quickly that battles often devolve into dodge rolling away, popping off a few shots, then dodge rolling away again. Which isn’t to say that’s the ONLY way to fight, just that you’ll frequently find yourself forced into such a fighting style, and given the sheer number of tools at your disposal, it’s a shame that so frequently you end up either ignoring those tools or unable to effectively use them in the scenario. Anyways, I’m rambling a bit, so I’ll just say that it’s a solid game and hopefully some of the issues get ironed out in time for the sequel.

Golf Story– A really great game that came out early in the Switch’s life and helped solidify the console as a serious home for indie game. Golf Story manages to take the simple concept of golf and stretch it out into a fairly epic campaign with a good deal of variety. It’s damn fun. The only problem is, and you’ll have to bear with me while I explain this, but the game doesn’t have enough golf in it. Yeah, sounds weird, doesn’t it? Well, Golf Story is at its most fun when you’re just playing golf on its wacky courses, but so frequently the game bogs you down with busy work, mini-games, and other activities that are a good attempt at variety, but just make you wish that you could get back to the golfing. But the story is goofy and fun, the main golf is actually really good, and there’s a great variety in courses to play on. Don’t sleep on this one, and keep your eye on the upcoming sequel, Sports Story, as well.

What Remains of Edith Finch – The Walking Simulator strikes again! This game was obviously heavily inspired by Gone Home (which we talked about in the 2013 list), and shares a great deal in common with that game. Both are story driven walking simulators with a female protagonist exploring their childhood home after a long time away and trying to uncover both the secrets of the house and piecing together what happened to the family. And in some ways, Edith Finch is a better game than Gone Home. It actually has gameplay, for one, but it also feels much more fun to explore the house. While there isn’t nearly as much off the beaten path to discover as there is in Gone Home, the house in Edith Finch is much crazier and leaves you guessing as to what path you’ll take next and what’s around the next corner. Which also extends to the gameplay. As you uncover rooms for various Finch Family members, you’ll play through a short sequence with a unique gameplay mechanic which inevitably leads to learning about the untimely death of that member/ Though Gone Home has perhaps a more coherent story and ending (Edith Finch leaves several plot threads dangling by the end), Edith Finch certainly deserves to stand alongside it as one of the best titles in the genre.

The Best:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – I have a… complicated relationship with this game. I’ve long gone on record saying that this game is overrated. Now, to a Zelda fan, that may as well be me pissing in their face. How dare I? Look, I think the game is overrated, NOT BAD. The game is obviously quite good, I just see the game it COULD have been, and all the stupid design decisions that hold it back. That being said, the stuff about the game that’s good is REALLY good. The organic open world that encourages you to tackle the game in the order you like is really refreshing, and puts a lot of other open worlds to shame. There’s a real grand sense of scale and epicness to your adventure, and traveling around finding secrets never stops being fun. The main dungeons are creative and a blast (ESPECIALLY the final dungeon), the game has a great sense of progression and a lot of really great, fully realized ideas. HOWEVER… the bosses suck, the weapon degradation system is broken beyond belief, the story is half baked (where it could have been the most revolutionary story in the entire franchise), Zelda gets disrespected by being shoved to the sidelines for the entire game AGAIN, rain is the goddamn WORST, the mini dungeons range from incredible to incredibly lazy, the main dungeons are too short, the voice acting sucks, the music sucks, the draw distance is pathetic, the aforementioned weapon degradation system drags the combat down, a lot of really important features/NPCs in the game are hidden in hard to find places, upgrading armor is tedious, the devs appeared to have given up on the Rito questline entirely, and I can’t help but feel that with a few key changes, this game could have reached that legendary status. But what bothers me the most is that people ignore its flaws and call it perfect so they can be correct that their favorite game is also the best game ever. Whereas I just want to see the game get better in the sequel, and if we just keep pretending that there are no flaws, the devs won’t fix anything for the sequel. There’s nothing wrong with being able to overlook flaws in something you like, but you shouldn’t be blind to them.

Sorry. I needed to vent and let that out. But the tl;dr is that Breath of the Wild is a flawed game, but at the end of the day it’s still really, really good.

Doki Doki Literature Club – If you’re reading the list I assume you’re okay with spoilers, which is why I’ll open up by saying that Doki Doki Literature Club is a brilliant subversion of expectations. What starts as a cutesy anime dating simulator takes a sharp turn several hours in, transforming into a mind-melting psychological horror game. This game works on so many levels. For one, it’s actually a competent dating simulator with cute girls who are written quite well. On the other, the seeds of something sinister are clear from the start (unfortunately, the game has to offer a trigger warning at the start which spoils some of the surprise), and you keep seeing little things that hint at not everything being okay in this picture-esque anime world. And then when the hat drops, it drops hard. This game goes from zero (or, given those seeds I mentioned earlier, maybe ten) to a hundred in a heartbeat. The game is full of tiny little touches and easter eggs that even after several playthroughs you likely won’t see everything (especially since some of the secrets are guarded behind RNG, adding a bit of replay value). Even the title is perfect. “Doki Doki” is a Japanese onomatopoeia associated with the sound of a heartbeat. So while that would make sense for a sweet dating sim about finding high school love, it also makes sense in a heart-pounding psychological horror game. And it all culminates with this mindfuck of and ending full of even more touches and tons of dialogue that just add so much weight to everything. Plus an excellent soundtrack, great writing, and the fact that it’s completely free, and this game is the complete package. In another year, this could have easily taken GotY for me. The only small complaint I have with it is that for a game meant to parody the dating sim, it’s a little curious that there’s far more content on the dating sim side than there is on the horror side. The typical playthrough for the dating sim side will take significantly longer than the horror side, and perhaps take too long for the turn. It lures you into a false sense of security for sure, but also might turn some people off with how slow of a burn it is. But that’s a mild complaint in what is otherwise a stellar visual novel.

Cuphead – And the indie hits keep rolling. Cuphead is yet another indie darling, and maybe the best looking one I’ve ever played. This game was hand animated frame-by-frame which must have been a massive pain in the ass for the developers, but it all paid off with some incredibly fluid animation that looks like it was plucked straight out of the 1930s. The orchestral music further adds to that feel, and I’ve got to say that just the entire soundtrack slaps. Just jam after jam after jam. It’s a boss rush side scroller, and while on paper it seems like that would clash with the visuals, it ends up working beautifully. The game is tough, sure, but it makes you want to keep playing it just to see what the next boss is. And the bosses. Oh my, the bosses. Each one is incredibly creative and just challenging enough to keep pushing you along to the end. All look great, are animated great, and feel incredibly unique to each other. The story is simple, but does a damn good job of driving the plot along. And while on paper, this should be a short game, with how much time you’ll put into each boss, it’ll definitely give you your money’s worth. A must-play in my opinion.

Best of 2017:

This was actually a very strong year, and normally I might have a difficult time picking out a GotY with such a stellar selection. The three above could easily have fought to a near stalemate, but one other game released this year that I think stands head and shoulders above them all, fortunately making my decision easy.

Super Mario Odyssey – So here’s the funny thing. I really like Mario and I really like 3D Mario, but I’ve not played a lot of the games start to finish. I played 64 DS through, I think I played Sunshine through with a buddy over a TON of sessions when I was a kid, and I recently played through an emulated version of 64 (though I may have BLJ’d my way through the Bowser Stairs because I was kind of pressed for time). That being said, I had fond memories of the little time I did spend playing 3D Mario as a kid. Mario has always just been so fun to control in a 3D environment, and I’ve always liked the open-ended level design in (most) of Mario’s 3D outings.

With the pedigree before it, Odyssey had a lot to live up to. And not only did it meet those expectations, I think it exceeded them. This is one of the most shamelessly fun games I’ve played in my entire life. Just the entire game emanates this joy from it. Mario feels better than ever to control, the worlds are big, open, and full of secrets, the developers added tons of tiny details that they didn’t have to which give that game that much more authenticity. The scavenger hunt side quest that makes use of the screen shot function is well implemented, the bosses are fun and varied, the music is excellent, the visuals are bright, colorful, and varied, the game has a distinct visual style, it adds a great deal to Mario’s cast by smartly adding a bunch of new worlds… man, I could just gush about this game for hours. I think one thing that is worth mentioning is the Capture mechanic. I was a little apprehensive going into the game, but by the end, I was fully sold on this new mechanic. All the creatures you can capture make you reevaluate how you can traverse a level. They each control differently, have strengths, weaknesses, and can grant you access to new areas, and there’s enough variety that you won’t get sick of seeing one particular capture. And this smartly allowed the devs to create challenge rooms built around these captures, and also allowed the game to feature a couple of massive and really epic captures (including the now famous T-Rex Capture). The game is packed to the gills with content. 880 unique moons to collect, tons of outfits and stickers, new content unlocked at the end game including repopulating areas with moons and the insanely nostalgic Mushroom Kingdom. Most of all this game is just insanely addicting. You’ll pick it up and be unable to put it down for hours. It demands your attention, and deserves every bit of it. Just a supremely fun game that I barely have any complaints about (except Volleyball. FUCK Volleyball). Frankly, the only thing missing for me is Isle Delfino DLC. Maybe for Odyssey 2? Nintendo? Please?

Anyways, for all those reasons and more, Super Mario Odyssey is my favorite game of 2017.

Stay tuned next time when we go over the final year, and my overall favorite game of the decade. If you haven’t done the math yet, all we have left to talk about is 2015. Get excited, because the end is near.