2014 GOTY and Future Updates
Happy New Year everyone! I wanted to take a second to reflect and highlight of some of my favorite games I played in 2014. Last year, my favorite game I played was
The Stanley Parable with an honorable mention going to
FTL. This year, I'd like to highlight not only just my overall favorite game, but give recognition to other games that do specific things well. So I've come up with several categories for my Games of the Year:
Best Soundtrack - Awarded for games whose soundtrack not only stands on its own, but compliments its game to help create style and atmosphere.
Best Art Style - Awarded to games that have a striking and memorable visual presentation
Best Narrative - Awarded for games that excel in storytelling, have a gripping plot, raise important questions or otherwise can challenge the player to think
Best Mechanic Design - Awarded for best implementation of innovative, thoughtful or original game systems
Best Game You Probably Haven't Played - Awarded for excellent games that I think flew under the radar
Game of the Year - Awarded to my overall favorite games I played this year.
The games eligible for my GOTY awards don't necessarily have to have been released in 2014. My only criteria is that I played through these games for the first time in 2014. The games that fit that criteria are:
Spelunky (2009)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (2013)
The Swapper (2013)
Elite Beat Agents (2006)
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (2012)
Risk of Rain (2013)
Towerfall: Ascension (2013)
Hotline Miami (2012)
Thomas Was Alone (2012)
Home (2012)
Nidhogg (2014)
The Wolf Among Us (2013)
Device 6 (2013)
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (2001)
Shovel Knight (2014)
Goat Simulator (2014)
A Story About My Uncle (2014)
Proteus (2013)
Ether One (2014)
Off (2008)
Clock Tower (1995)
Parasite Eve (1998)
Smash 4 (2014)
Beyond: Two Souls (2013)
A Bird Story (2014)
Depression Quest (2013)
So without further ado, here are my games of the year:
Best Soundtrack Runner Up: Shovel Knight / Yacht Club Games - 2014
In any other year where I didn't play Hotline Miami, Shovel Knight's soundtrack would have been easily good enough to take the top honors here. Jake Kaufman's chiptune compositions are so catchy. It really helps to take you back to the 8 bit era and the golden age of platformers. I found myself whistling along with each level's music just like I used to do all the time as a kid when playing platformers.
In the Halls of the Usurper is another excellent track that I failed to mention in my review. It just screams classic Mega Man to me.
Best Soundtrack: Hotline Miami / Dennaton Games - 2012
This is the best and most important soundtrack to any video game in at least the last 10 years. I'm serious. Ever since the early 2000s when game hardware was capable of making music other than chiptunes or MIDI compositions, for whatever reason the games industry as a whole has really gravitated towards using orchestral scores all over the place in game soundtracks. Hotline Miami is not afraid to help buck the trend and forge its own unforgettable musical identity with its unique electronic/techno soundtrack. I'm not even usually a fan of that genre of music, but it complements the gameplay and the neon Miami aesthetic so perfectly that I can't think of the game without the soundtrack or the soundtrack without the game. Killin' dudes to
this was just sooo satisfying. I've heard a few tracks from the Hotline Miami 2 OST and it seems like we're in for another treat
Best Art Style Runner Up: Parasite Eve / Squaresoft - 1998
"What!? A game from 1998 is your runner up for best art style?" Why yes, hypothetical reader, yes it is. Parasite Eve's 3D characters are typical blocky, low-res models of the PS1 era, but the hand drawn backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous in a way that totally stuck with me. Hey hypothetical reader, are you familiar with the Final Fantasy series? Let's do a quick experiment. Try to picture in your mind the coal mining town of Narshe in FF6 or the Luca blitzball stadium in FF10 or the cities of Cocoon in FF13. Try to really think about what those places look like. Okay, now picture FF7's Cosmo Canyon at dusk or FF8's Balamb Garden or FF9's massive, sprawling city of Lindblum. Which were easiest to recall? Which ones are the clearest mental images that you can pick specific architectural details from? For me, the hand painted backgrounds from the late 90s Final Fantasies hold so much more beautiful detail and are so much more vibrant in my mind. Parasite Eve was the exact same way. I'd really like to see some modern games that use fixed cameras try to copy this art style.
Best Art Style: Device 6 / Simogo - 2013
Yes, I know Device 6 is mostly text and still images. But man, I have never been so struck by the audiovisual presentation of a game before. The way the physical locations of the lines of text convey architecture and location was so cool to me. You get a sense for the layout of a building not by actually reading the text, but by watching what the text is doing and where it's going. The parallax scrolled images are a nice touch and serve to cap off Device 6's unforgettable visual presentation.
Best Narrative Runner Up: The Wolf Among Us / Telltale - 2013
I wasn't the biggest fan of Telltale's Walking Dead game, but that had more to do with my fatigue of the subject matter than anything that had to do with the game. I also had no prior exposure to the Fables universe, so The Wolf Among Us had an uphill climb and a lot to prove with me. But I found it's thrilling whodunnit murder mystery set against the backdrop of fairy tales living in dark and gritty New York City to be very immersive and interesting. Deciding which characters Bigby would befriend and which he would reject and also determining how Bigby would act in certain situations made the narrative more interactive and made it seem like the player was shaping Bigby's character rather than having that development be predetermined. Admittedly, the most interesting parts of this game are its beginning and end with some of the middle, especially chapter 4, feeling like unneeded filler. But The Wolf Among Us is still an enjoyable play and it tells an interesting story.
This is one of those games that kept me thinking about the plot days and even months after I had finished it. The game is admittedly longer than it needs to be, but there are so many surprising twists and reveals throughout the game's story that are especially impactful if you played
999. The game's final twist is even more insane and mind blowing than the original's. I'm guessing VLR was probably targeted towards adolescent boys as there seems to be abundance of ridiculously suggestive dialogue and unnecessary juvenile humor throughout the game. Even still, VLR is incredibly well written and it's author, Kotaro Uchikoshi, has an undeniable talent for writing thrilling murder mysteries with interesting characters and scenarios. I'm really pulling for Uchikoshi and Chunsoft to secure funding for the third game because VLR does unfortunately end on somewhat of a cliffhanger
Best Mechanic Design Runner Up: Towefall / Matt Thorson - 2013
My favorite part of the mechanical design of Towerfall is that the core gameplay is so solid. The core design of just shooting arrows, dodging and jumping could have worked by itself here. Thorson could have stopped with that and released the game in that state. But instead, he polished the crap out of it, added different arrow types, multiple stages, different game modes, hazards and even a whole single player campaign. The result is a game that is just pure fun to play. If you have enough controllers, 4 player Towerfall is always a surefire fun night with friends.
Best Mechanic Design: Spelunky / Derek Yu - 2009
Spelunky was the very first game I reviewed this year. It was back when I only knew that I wanted to write about games, not how I was going to do it. I still don't think I'm great at writing, but I'm better than I was back in January where my post ended up being more of an overview of the game than an insightful criticism. My review doesn't do justice to what a smartly designed game Spelunky is. Each time you die in Spelunky, you know that it was your fault. That is, unless you're playing with your unruly friends in multiplayer. But usually, each Spelunky death seems preventable. "Aww, if only I had done X", or "If only I was a little more careful there". Each death also teaches you a lesson like "Watch out for booby traps!" or "Don't jump on that enemy!". With randomized items and levels, Spelunky also forces players to adopt new strategies and playstyles on each run which keeps the game challenging even for experienced players. Excellent game design all around.
Best Game You Probably Haven't Played Runner Up: Device 6 / Simogo - 2013
I can't overstate how fresh this game felt when I played it. Often when I'm describing a game to someone who hasn't played it, I use comparisons to other games. "It's like X, but...". Device 6 is not like anything. Yes, it is a puzzle game, so in the loosest sense, Device 6 is like other puzzle games. But its presentation, narrative, and even the way it conveys its puzzles really makes this game stand out from any other title. It's a shame that I think Device 6 got somewhat lost in the sea of time-wasting apps, freemium games and other shovelware that is the iOS app store where players aren't going to find anything unless they're specifically looking for it. If you're craving for a totally unique, refreshing and creative experience, Device 6 is your game.
Best Game You Probably Haven't Played: The Swapper / Facepalm Games - 2013
The Swapper released last year to critical acclaim, but very little buzz. Even from outlets I follow that exclusively cover indie games, it seemed like The Swapper was being brushed aside. If you like puzzle games, The Swapper is an absolute must-play. It's right up there with games like Braid or Portal where you may spend minutes just staring at the screen and thinking about how the game systems work to come up with a solution to a puzzle. This game also draws a lot of aesthetic influences from titles like Alien and Metroid to create an excellent spooky atmosphere in a lonely abandoned space station. I very much enjoyed my play of The Swapper and was disappointed to not see this game get more attention
Game of the Year Runner Up: Spelunky / Derek Yu - 2009
I love this game for pretty much the same reasons I loved
FTL last year. The game's randomized level design and randomized play experience give Spelunky a huge amount of replay value that kept me coming back to it over and over again throughout the year. It's a smartly designed game and a great couch co-op experience to share with friends. I anticipate coming back to Spelunky many times in 2015
Game of the Year: Towefall / Matt Thorson - 2013
Just like Spelunky, Towefall is a fantastic couch co-op game and I forgot to mention Towefall's co-op mode in my review. But it's best played as a 4-player party game. This has become my go-to game when I have several friends over and we want to laugh, yell at the TV and just generally have a good time. I read that Thorson plans to release a level editor for this game soon which should be a blast to play around with and further enhance the replayability and wacky fun found in Towerfall.
I am proud to have completed my goal of reviewing a game a week for a whole year. It's been a fun project that has allowed me to expand my capacity for writing, conveying information, and critical thinking on what exactly can make a video game good, fun or interesting. I hope you've enjoyed reading along! In 2015, I'd like to dedicate more of my free time to creating games of my own, so I will unfortunately no longer post weekly reviews. Fear not, I'll still be posting occasional reviews, but one a week has become a pretty exhausting pace. I'll try to post something at least once a month to keep this blog from dying out. I've actually been playing a few games recently that I'm planning reviews for, so keep an eye out!
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