It's the end of the year, and I played a lot of games. There's gonna be some honorable mentions this time, either due to not being very far, or feeling like I'm gonna need to play more to see if it can qualify for this list or the list for next year. There's probably gonna be some obvious ones in here, but there's probably some surprises as well.
Sonic Mania / ソニックマニア
(Switch/XB1/PS4/PC, Developer PagodaWest Games, Headcannon, Publisher SEGA, 2017)
Sonic Mania is great. I wasn't too excited when it was first revealed, but when the game got closer to coming out, I was ready for it. Also, damn that music dude, gotta give the composer Tee Lopes a lot of credit for the arrangement and composition of the songs in the game. Some songs are still identical to the original Genesis versions, but with some added sounds and electric elements making them sounds more enhanced Green Hill Act 2's theme is amazing, and I remember Press Garden having good music too. The gameplay speaks for itself pretty much. The game is what it needed to be, which is just classic 2D Sonic physics, platforming and controls. Sonic is supposed to have simple controls, you literally just use the D-Pad and then you have a single button to both jump and use for spindashing and the new drop dash which I didn't use too much because it was hard to figure out, but I've seen how useful it can be.
It has a good mix of classic and new zones, and like what I said about the music and gameplay, it's great. It has zones that a lot of branching paths along with tons of loops and amazing art direction. The zones are all colorful and it's easy to tell which zone is which. They even mixed up how the older levels work, usually in Act 2, Chemical Plant has these bouncy jelly things that gave the levels a bigger emphasis on vertical movement, Green Hill Act 2 is underground and Flying Battery has interesting gimmicks using the thunder shield, which had gravity effects, causing you to get through the level in a different way. The game has tons of unlockables, a Knuckles & Knuckles mode and more. Special Zones were fun with the Sonic CD style 3D running thing and even having it in a flat 3D level. I recommend the game especially if you love Sonic and platformers. It's classic Sonic. The game was made by dedicated Sonic fans/modders in the community, and I would love them to make a sequel with completely new zones, massive props to Christian Whitehead and the team.
Ninja Gaiden / 忍者龍剣伝
(NES, Developer/Publisher, Tecmo, 1989)
This game is fucking tough. It took me a long while to beat the game even tho I played for about 2 weeks, was it one week? I dunno. But Ninja Gaiden was hard. The game is brutal, the enemies can be pretty cheap and some bosses were a bit crazy, however the music is great and the movement and controls are solid. The only thing that fucking sucks is when you get hit by an enemy, you get pushed back and you can't move until you land. So that means if there's an enemy on a single platform and you gotta get on their, you gotta either cheese them and keep them slightly off screen so they can glitch out (like that throwing guy in level 6-2), or you gotta power through it and go in. Thankfully you can get power ups and items that can be used a few times and can kill certain enemies. like the fire can shoot diagonally up forward and kill enemies, the shuriken does a long range attack too.
The game can be nunchuck-fucking hard however only some of the enemies are what make you suffer. The gun dudes, jumping frog ninja things and the dudes who throw objects at a certain angle and it's always in front of them. Also the fucking birds are horrible, they are made to murder you, and always show up in the worst sections, like in a huge ass pit. The respawning enemies can also be a huge pain in the ass and can always come up and kill you, or knock you in the pits. And no one likes those damn jetpack ninjas near the end of the game that do nothing but throw shurikens in all directions. I know this is mostly a ran on some of the levels and enemies but I love this game. I like the story with Ryu Hayabusa and his dad, him having to travel across the world for the dragon statues and the final boss was interesting. It has some great cutscenes and memorable moments. And of course Hayabusa is the best ninja. He may be the best ninja but damn this game can destroy you and crush your spirit. Like I'm sure it did to many people who owned it on NES. I'm happy I beat this game, it kicked my ass and brutally beat me, but I did it. Great game but it's fucking hard.
Assault Suits Valken / 重荘騎兵ヴァルケン
(Super Famicom, Developer Masaya, Publisher NSC, 1992)
This game is all about being a big mech, taking out other big mechs. It's a great action run & gun platforming game made by the same dudes who made Chou Aniki, which I found pretty surprising. Valken got localized by Konami as Cybernator in the US and had the character portraits and story removed for some reason. Konami and LucasArts also made a game called Metal Warriors which is basically the same as this game, gotta check it out then. Anyways, Valken is a great action game, you got guns, napalms and fantastic music and controls. You can jump, hover for a bit, switch between guns with just a one button, you can even dash to just run past some enemy mechs. You can block, but for whatever reason, I barely use the shield. Unlike the last game I mentioned, Ninja Gaiden, the game has a fair difficulty. The environments are all very detailed, tons of mechanical stuff all over. Even some of the levels with more nature look good, like the caves and and outer space look amazing. The music is amazing and extremely catchy, it's so good with all these jazzy 90's tunes. Also, please check out some of the soundtrack on YouTube. The SNES and arranged versions are fantastic.
The level design is pretty good as well, it has a good mix of completely linear paths like when you go in the enemy ship and the cave level, and some are a bit more open with some secrets where you can get power boosts and some of the new weapons like the first 2 levels. It even mixes up the way you move around. Most of the levels are on foot and the other parts are either a whole level or part of one where you use a jet pack and do a whole side scrolling shooter type of stage, like the asteroids in stage 2. Stage 2 also has the second part where gravity is go and you can moon jump and float all over the place, and it's still really easy to control. Just remember to hold L when you do those sections to lock your aim. The bosses also aren't too difficult and can be pretty fun. Overall this is a great game, definitely one of my favorite games on the SNES and probably in general as well. Seems that I definitely gotta check out the whole series like Assault Suit Leynos (Target Earth) and some of the Japan only sequels, and the new Leynos on PS4. I love mechs, just shoot the dudes.
Windjammers / フライングパワーディスク
(NeoGeo/PS4/Vita, Developer Data East, Publisher SNK, 1994)
GAY BONDING. This is one of the most fun multiplayer games I played this year. It's extremely pick up and play and easy to learn. It can get super crazy when you see a dude fucking the do supersonic shoot and you fail to catch that shit. There's 6 characters to pick from and they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but I pick the German dude because he's the best character. There's other characters too, but just pick the German dude. This game is where the fucking hype is.
The game reminds me a lot of Mario Tennis with how fast and crazy it gets. You're moving around so much, catching the disc, dashing around, throwing it and doing fucking SUPER MOVES just to score points. And all the characters seem to have their own moves. One of them does a fucking spinning fire throw and the German guy does a thunder move that zips around and can sneak past your opponent if they aren't ready. I played this game on fightcade with a friend and it's seriously the one of the best things I did online this year, it's so crazy trying to react to all the crazy shit going on even though all you're doing is throwing a flying disc. This game is the most radical 80's rad sport ever.
Donkey Kong Country / スーパードンキーコング
(SNES, Developer Rare, Publisher Nintendo, 1994)
This is a game that is actually pretty important to me. As either this game or Super Mario World were the first game I ever remember playing when I was about 4 years old, so that's probably how I became so fond of platforming games. So besides having some personal history with DKC, it's a great game. One of the first things you would notice immediately are the graphics and music. It's a unique look that not too many games did back when everything was still 2D, especially in the 16 bit era, so Rare deserves a lot of credit for the hard work they put into it. The music done by David Wise is memorable and really something else. To me, it doesn't sound like SNES music, and what I mean by that is that due to the way they handled the music samples and sound, it's almost like CD quality and it's amazing. There's a lot of ambient tracks, some great pop/electric songs like Funky's theme and I can't believe how good it is.
You, I've just been having a new appreciation for the SNES. I grew up with it, but don't remember playing too many games on it, but now over 15 years later, I can just enjoy the games and it's great. As for the game, the controls are spot on and the overall game flow and experience you have when playing it is great. The way you move is based on momentum, it's mostly about constantly moving and getting the level fast. In terms of moves you can do a roll attack, letting you kill enemies without jumping, and you move faster when you hit them, it's pretty nice going fucking fast. And you can hand slap too. Also, the game is very energetic and there's a lot of moments where you can just jump on a bunch of enemies to get to higher sections or to find secrets. The minecart levels are fun and a good way to mix it up, although one of the levels was fucking tough for some reason. There's tons of bonus levels and secrets so you can get a lot of extra lives, and they do a really good job at hiding them. Really happy I managed to complete the game as I never beat it as a kid, lots of memories.
(Super Famicom, Developer Masaya, Publisher NSC, 1992)
This game is all about being a big mech, taking out other big mechs. It's a great action run & gun platforming game made by the same dudes who made Chou Aniki, which I found pretty surprising. Valken got localized by Konami as Cybernator in the US and had the character portraits and story removed for some reason. Konami and LucasArts also made a game called Metal Warriors which is basically the same as this game, gotta check it out then. Anyways, Valken is a great action game, you got guns, napalms and fantastic music and controls. You can jump, hover for a bit, switch between guns with just a one button, you can even dash to just run past some enemy mechs. You can block, but for whatever reason, I barely use the shield. Unlike the last game I mentioned, Ninja Gaiden, the game has a fair difficulty. The environments are all very detailed, tons of mechanical stuff all over. Even some of the levels with more nature look good, like the caves and and outer space look amazing. The music is amazing and extremely catchy, it's so good with all these jazzy 90's tunes. Also, please check out some of the soundtrack on YouTube. The SNES and arranged versions are fantastic.
The level design is pretty good as well, it has a good mix of completely linear paths like when you go in the enemy ship and the cave level, and some are a bit more open with some secrets where you can get power boosts and some of the new weapons like the first 2 levels. It even mixes up the way you move around. Most of the levels are on foot and the other parts are either a whole level or part of one where you use a jet pack and do a whole side scrolling shooter type of stage, like the asteroids in stage 2. Stage 2 also has the second part where gravity is go and you can moon jump and float all over the place, and it's still really easy to control. Just remember to hold L when you do those sections to lock your aim. The bosses also aren't too difficult and can be pretty fun. Overall this is a great game, definitely one of my favorite games on the SNES and probably in general as well. Seems that I definitely gotta check out the whole series like Assault Suit Leynos (Target Earth) and some of the Japan only sequels, and the new Leynos on PS4. I love mechs, just shoot the dudes.
Windjammers / フライングパワーディスク
(NeoGeo/PS4/Vita, Developer Data East, Publisher SNK, 1994)
GAY BONDING. This is one of the most fun multiplayer games I played this year. It's extremely pick up and play and easy to learn. It can get super crazy when you see a dude fucking the do supersonic shoot and you fail to catch that shit. There's 6 characters to pick from and they all have their strengths and weaknesses, but I pick the German dude because he's the best character. There's other characters too, but just pick the German dude. This game is where the fucking hype is.
The game reminds me a lot of Mario Tennis with how fast and crazy it gets. You're moving around so much, catching the disc, dashing around, throwing it and doing fucking SUPER MOVES just to score points. And all the characters seem to have their own moves. One of them does a fucking spinning fire throw and the German guy does a thunder move that zips around and can sneak past your opponent if they aren't ready. I played this game on fightcade with a friend and it's seriously the one of the best things I did online this year, it's so crazy trying to react to all the crazy shit going on even though all you're doing is throwing a flying disc. This game is the most radical 80's rad sport ever.
Donkey Kong Country / スーパードンキーコング
(SNES, Developer Rare, Publisher Nintendo, 1994)
This is a game that is actually pretty important to me. As either this game or Super Mario World were the first game I ever remember playing when I was about 4 years old, so that's probably how I became so fond of platforming games. So besides having some personal history with DKC, it's a great game. One of the first things you would notice immediately are the graphics and music. It's a unique look that not too many games did back when everything was still 2D, especially in the 16 bit era, so Rare deserves a lot of credit for the hard work they put into it. The music done by David Wise is memorable and really something else. To me, it doesn't sound like SNES music, and what I mean by that is that due to the way they handled the music samples and sound, it's almost like CD quality and it's amazing. There's a lot of ambient tracks, some great pop/electric songs like Funky's theme and I can't believe how good it is.
You, I've just been having a new appreciation for the SNES. I grew up with it, but don't remember playing too many games on it, but now over 15 years later, I can just enjoy the games and it's great. As for the game, the controls are spot on and the overall game flow and experience you have when playing it is great. The way you move is based on momentum, it's mostly about constantly moving and getting the level fast. In terms of moves you can do a roll attack, letting you kill enemies without jumping, and you move faster when you hit them, it's pretty nice going fucking fast. And you can hand slap too. Also, the game is very energetic and there's a lot of moments where you can just jump on a bunch of enemies to get to higher sections or to find secrets. The minecart levels are fun and a good way to mix it up, although one of the levels was fucking tough for some reason. There's tons of bonus levels and secrets so you can get a lot of extra lives, and they do a really good job at hiding them. Really happy I managed to complete the game as I never beat it as a kid, lots of memories.
Tekken 7 / 鉄拳７
(Arcade/PS4/XB1/PC, Developer/Publisher Bandai Namco, 2015-2017)
I really like Tekken 7, even tho I'm not that good at it. It's a hard game to learn, especially coming from someone who prefers DOA and Soul Calibur, as this game have a completely different feel to it than those 2, it even has a completely different way of doing attacks. Like in the DOA games, you have individual attacks, you just have different buttons for certain attacks, like punch/heavy punch, kick/heavy kick, but Tekken has both of those, but they also have left/right punch/kicks which at first sounds crazy and very complicated. But after doing a lot of training and building up muscle memory with certain attacks and strings, you begin to understand that the whole left/right thing is not that hard and it becomes just as normal as the other moves from other fighters. The game is also highly momentum based, as you can do the super quick Korean Backdash, sidesteps are important too as well as when you gotta block. From my experience, the most important thing in Tekken besides understanding your character and what's good/bad about them, it's pokes.
Pokes are so fucking important. If you're both down to like 1 health, you gotta whip out a swift ass poke, if they try to go for a low, you punish that shit and either, parry and throw them on the ground or dodge and get that lest hit you need, but you'll both probably just be doing crazy footsies and moving around until one of you becomes open and the other goes for the kill. It can be really fun. I love Akuma and Yoshimitsu in this game, Akuma's Street Fighter moves actually work pretty well in Tekken's combat, and he has some good moves his games that he can use, like the Focus cancel and all that, giving him some unique options in battle. And of course Yoshimitsu is still the best to me. Eliza is great too, she's similar to Akuma and it's fun using her. The customization feels like a step down from things like Soul Calibur with the limited clothing and hair options, but giving Akuma silly clothes is a plus. I'm gonna try and play more Tekken 7 in the future as I wanna get as good at the game as I can, and even tho the online is brutal with people you run into, it's all a learning experience for me since it's the first time I've decided to try and actually learn how to play Tekken.
PuyoPuyo Tetris / ぷよぷよテトリス
(PS3/Wii U/3DS/Vita/PS4/XB1/Switch, Developer Sonic Team, Publsher SEGA, 2014-2017)
This game is so good, it's like crack. I'm not really a puzzle guy, but this is a great party game, and it also is really competitive. I've played PuyoPuyo 2 before and I've even played a bit of Panel de Pon and it got me a bit more interested in puzzle games. This game is really fun, and having it portable on the Switch and being able to share the Joycons with people you're playing with makes the multiplayer quick and easy to do. I didn't expect for this game to be so fun, I don't play it as much as I did a few months ago because I got preoccupied with other games. But trust me when I say it's incredibly addictive. Sonic Team earns a lot of points for how excellent this game is.
The game has a story mode that's pretty funny, where Tetris pieces randomly fall from the sky and the characters from PuyoPuyo gotta do something about it, and it seems like it gets from the bits that I played. There's a lot of different modes you can do. You can do endless Tetris which is my favorite, regular Puyo or Tetris (you can also do both in multiplayer with each person doing either Puyo or Tetris. And there's a really cool fusion mode, where you keep switching between a Puyo board and a Tetris board every couple of seconds and if you fail at one you lose, so it can really fuck you over if you suck at either mode. The graphics are really colorful and vibrant, with cute character designs and while it's dub only, it's nice hearing things like AWAKEN and PLANET POWER from a certain character. Really great Puzzle game that I should really play more often.
Mushihimesama / 虫姫さま
(Arcade/PS2/360/PC, Developer/Publisher CAVE, 2004-2015)
One of my favorite shooting games ever, and that's a fact. CAVE always makes shooting games, and all of them are crazy. Dodonpachi is good and has amazing music, and I've been meaning to check out their other games, I've known about Mushi for a long time, and it's a game I've always wanted to play, and obviously I'm so happy that I finally did. Even using a controller instead of an arcade stick, the game has good controls and it's actually not too hard to keep track of where you are. That's because pretty much all the enemy attacks are in a really obvious purple color, making their bullets easy to see, so you never get your shots mixed up. The PC version has all the modes from the 360 port including the Black Label and arranged modes, and you can do the original arcade mode as well.
The graphics and music are beautiful and fit the game perfectly, I really love the design of Reco the main girl who controls the huge bug, which is the replacement for the usual spaceships. The game is all about nature, with the first level being a forest, and there's a desert, a volcano, and two other stages I haven't gotten to. The game is also pretty flexible, it may be really tough, but it's not absolutely brutal. It does give you super bombs that can kill all enemies when in a pinch, you can also hold one of the buttons to move slower and do stronger shot, or weaker shots that let you move a lot faster, so both are good in different situations. The music like I said is beautiful, Manabu Namiki did a great job with the soundtrack, as he's done with other CAVE games. You have to listen to the soundtrack of both this game and the sequel Mushihimesama Futari. One of my favorite soundtracks ever.
Senran Kagura Estival Versus / 閃乱カグラEstival Versus
(PS4/Vita/PC, Developer Tamsoft, Publisher Marvelous, 2015-2017)
Gonna mainly be talking about the PC port and playing the game with mods, which there are many of. Estival Versus is a game I played pretty obsessively back when first came out in Japan in 2015. Probably spent over 100 hours playing it, and I eventually did get the Platinum trophy too. It's a really fun action game with a ton of sexy girls and tits everywhere, and some with small or flat tits. I feel Tamsoft did a great job with the game, minus a few issue, but I would recommend it if you want a fun action game, As for the port, it's a lot better than I expected. It runs well mostly, you can adjust various settings in the game, and installing mods is pretty easy and doesn't really require any external programs or anything. On sites like LoversLab, you can easily find and install mods to the game, just make sure you follow the steps.
As for what you can do with mods, you can remove the while flashes that cover the vagina and nipples when you completely strip your opponents, you can make the tits huge, or tiny, there's a lot of skin textures for added nudity complete with nipples and vaginas (which is super obvious since why would the game not be modded to add that) and some people were nice enough to even add pubic hair (thanks!) I've had a lot of fun just playing the game for a bit on and off m my laptop and messing around with mods, and in general, this and DOA5 Last Round has gotten more into mods which is now something I love about playing games on the computer. If you want a really good version of Senran Kagura Estival Versus, I'd highly recommend the PC port if you don't mind a digital copy and you get a lot of good mods. Having a way to mix up the visuals and stuff makes a game I've play for like over 100 hours more fun because I've literally seen every outfit and special stripping finish, so I need to see nipples and stuff after hours of nothing but white flashes and teasing.
Daytona USA / デイトナUSA
(Arcade/Saturn/PC/360/PS3, Developer Sega AM2, Publisher SEGA, 1993-2011)
Pretty much like the best racing game ever, and it has the best music too. Thanks to the almighty Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, we get the best soundtrack for a racing game ever with King of Speed being probably the second best in the game behind Sky High. His vocals are the fucking highlight of what makes this game so memorable. You must go listen to the soundtrack, it's the best. Funny thing is, this is for the home versions of the game. Since I've played the original arcade version via emulation, they actually had to digitize his vocals (which I think he did himself) and created different versions of the songs (technically the arcade version was first so, maybe they did the arranged versions later for Saturn...) Still regardless, it's an amazing soundtrack.
The gameplay is great, it's really fast and you have a lot of control over your car. You can choose between Manual and Automatic transmission. Manual lets you shift gears, changing your top speed and making drifts and turns easier depending on which one you use, so gear shifting is extremely helpful. And Automatic just handles the gear shifting for you so you can just focus on making turns. Manual is what I usually go with because I like having more control, so if I fuck up a drift, it my bad. The game only has 3 courses, but they're good, even the beginner track which is basically a simple NASCAR style track that only goes one way, feels like you still need skill as the turns you gotta make are still sharp. This game came out in 1993 and has amazing graphics, the polygons still look really good and that's probably because they didn't try to go for a super realistic look. It's all colorful and vibrant and it's amazing. And the game is always at a smooth 60 fps which is even more amazing. Back in the 80's and 90's, SEGA was always topping people with their amazing arcade games thanks to geniuses like Yu Suzuki. Him, Toshihiro Nagoshi and the AM2 team get massive points for making one of the best games ever, and this is probably my favorite SEGA racing game besides F-Zero GX and Sonic All-Stars Racing and Transformed.
ARMS
(Switch, Developer/Publisher Nintendo, 2017)
This game really surprised me with how good it is. It may not seem like much at first, you're just kinda flailing around throwing punches out, but this game actually does have a lot of depth, and it's one of the best things about ARMS. I remember first playing the original testpunch online beta and thought it was okay at first. The game was designed with motion controls and even tho it is, I prefer to use the actual buttons. For me, it's easier to focus on moving around and dodging the other guy's punches so then I can go in for my punches when I don't have to worry about where my arms are moving (pun intended). I'm really happy Nintendo went ahead and made a brand new game, as it's been a while since they made a new first party IP, the last one was Splatoon back in 2015, and even longer, PIkmin in 2001, so yeah.
Every character feels different from each other, and the one thing that brings them all together is punching and movement. Everyone has the same basic skill, dodging, charging punches etc, but they each has at least 2 traits that separate how they flow in combat. Charging punches also give the arms more damage and most have extra effects, like poison, freezing them in place, or disabling their ARMS by paralyzing them, so it gives you a love of variety in how you fight. Spring Man can cancel an opponent's punch from hitting him by half charging a punch and then dodging, giving him an easy opening. Best girl Min Min can fully charge and have her dragon arm which always has her left ARM fully charged. And Max Brass can buff up after charging and not flinch from uncharged punches for a short time, while still having charged punches himself. The game has a lot of modes like, the standard Arcade, 1 vs 100, Hoops, V-Ball, and Target Shot. Hoops and V-Ball are just basketball and volleyball, except in Hoops you throw EACH OTHER instead of a ball, and in V-ball you gotta punch the ball to the other side to make it explode. I've been enjoying the online in both ranked and party lobbies and it's a fun time. One my most played games on Switch I want more ARMS!
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (Remake) / マリオ&ルイージRPG 1 DX
(3DS, Developer Alpha Dream, Publisher Nintendo, 2003-2017)
It's still the best game in the series, and I already did a full review of the game on this blog, but I'll still talk about it. Like I said in the review, I was worried about the remake as the original is my favorite Mario RPG / favorite GBA game ever. And if they fucked it, I would have their head. Luckily they didn't fuck up the remake and what I got was the best Mario & Luigi game on the 3DS. I like how it took a remake to make things good again, as the recent games have been either meh or kinda trash.
Like I said in the review, I think the game looks great, they got everything right, it's what a remake should do, which is to make the original visuals better without ruining the art style and for the most part, they got it. I still got nitpicks like making the koopas generic instead of the armored ones, but every character maintains their original looks, especially Bowletta. A lot of the music sounds great in the remake, all of them got remixed and updated. The only ones that suck are Bowletta's final battle (how do you fuck that up) TeeHee Desert and the battle theme, but that last one is just a huge ass nitpick. The gameplay is sadly slower than the original, which was super quick and snappy and doing bro moves took like 2 seconds. Now everything in battle takes a lot longer, but that doesn't make sense since outside of battle, the game is pretty much the same as the original in terms of speed and overall gameflow. Still, this remake was one of the best things I could've hoped for, and I'm glad that the remake was overall amazing, minus my nitpicks, but those nitpicks are probably because I love the original game so much that some aspects just can't be changed in my eyes.
Chrono Trigger / クロノトリガー
(SNES, Developer/Publisher Squaresoft, 1995)
Amazing RPG that I'm finally happy I played. Originally I played based of the recommendation from a friend, and to get off my list of games I must play, but by the end, I ended up loving it based on my own experience. I haven't played many Square RPGs, mainly because I like other RPGs from companies like ATLUS Still this is an amazing game that people should play at least once. The game was made by a dream team involving Yuji Horii of Dragon Quest, Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy, and most obvious, Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball. You can really see the game shine with the passion these 3 guys and the team at Square. Almost everything here was made with care and attention. The music done my Yasunori Mitsuda is some of the best SNES music on the system, and a lot of the later tracks are memorable like the final 2 battle themes and riding the Epoch.
The story is simple even tho I kinda had trouble remembering everything, but when look back and think about it, it's easy to wrap your head around. The game has lots of good moments and even some very shocking moments that had me emotional. And the game is very smartly designed too, letting you mix up who you use in battle and trying out different strategies, techs and combined attacks to make the team that best fits your style. The game even has multiple endings which you can do in New Game+, giving it a ton of replay value. The original/main ending you get is very satisfying and you feel like you accomplished something. It does have some annoying moments like a few bosses and some areas in the game, but there's way more good than bad. The game really is something else. To me, it's probably one of Square's best RPGs ever and now I feel like I gotta play the rest of their good games like Final Fantasy VI.
Super Mario Odyssey / スーパーマリオオデッセイ
(Switch, Developer/Publisher Nintendo, 2017)
I've realized that I played a ton of Switch games this year, and this is definitely on of my highlights, which also includes ARMS. Movement is one of the best things about this game, and it's something I kept repeating to myself as I played it. It reminds me so much of Sunshine and 64, besides obviously going back to the open level design of those 2 games. I say it's more like Sunshine because of how the controls just feel nearly perfect, Mario can long jump and triple jump again, his momentum is great and the way the areas are designed really give you tons of options on how to get the Power Moons and beat the game. You can mostly do things your way and that type of freedom is what I missed in Mario games after Galaxy. Odyssey is probably up there with Sunshine as my favorite 3D game in the series, but I'm still not sure if I can say that yet since the game is still pretty fresh in my mind.
This just had me gushing the whole time I played it. Funny thing was that I beat the main story in one sitting, which took over 12 hours I believe on a full blind playthrough. One of my favorite things about this game is how intractable the levels thanks to the hat mechanics with Cappy. He might be a bit better than FLUDD since he feels a lot more organic to Mario's moves. He can let you do longer jumps by bouncing off him, you possess enemies, which is one of the best mechanics in 3D Mario due to how natural it feels to go from one enemy to another. You possess them to do certain parts of the levels and to get moons, and he fits the game and the mechanic almost perfectly. They have huge open levels and all of them are full of secrets, some moons are fucking hard to find and can bust your brain, so you gotta take advantage of all the tools the game gives you. Also the photo mode is really fun, with just one button, you can enter the photo mode and move the camera around to take some crazy shots. It's great. I didn't expect this game to come out this year and I'm happy it's such a good game. All of the outfits you can buy in the game with just coins and each kingdom's unique coins are awesome and full or references too. And having an in-game music player is a great option even if not all the songs are as memorable as Galaxy and the others, still Cascade Kingdom has the best theme.
Xenoblade 2 / ゼノブレイド２
(Switch, Developer Monolithsoft, Publisher Nintendo, 2017)
This one was probably a no-brainer and it has to be on the list because of how much this game continues to stay stuck in my head constantly. Other than Mario Odyssey, this was my most anticipated game of the year, and I gotta say a massive thanks to Takahashi and the team for making this game. I plan to make a full review of the game eventually, but I'll after this month/year is over so I can get all the things I wanna say ready for it. Xenoblade 2 is a sequel that is a lot more like the original game on Wii as opposed to X which was way more sci-fi and was extremely different with the way the game was structured, going for a more open world approach with story being second. This game however goes back to the more story driven focus but still has the huge ass environments and massive amount of quests, equipment, weapons etc, that you gotta do. The music is fantastic and I can't get it out of my head. It's full of guitars and string instruments like the original, and I feel a lot of the tracks might be better than Xenoblade, but some of the songs in that game can't be defeated. My favorite soundtrack of the year.
As for the game itself, it takes the gameplay from the last 2 games and does a perfect job mixing elements from both to end up being its own thing. The auto attacks and arts are still there, although instead you gotta auto attack which is like the cool down for arts now, the Blade specials are really cool and introduced elemental chains that can be combined with the classic Break/Topple combos from XB1, they added better methods of healing, now some attacks can drop potions that can heal the whole party when you touch them, fixing an issue Xenoblade X had with barely any healing arts and having to do the QTE to heal. The Rare Blades and elements add more layers of depth to the game, letting you create the team you want like I said about Chrono Trigger where it's very good at mixing things up. The influences from X are mostly outside of battle, since there's no double cooldown effects or giant robots. It's that all the environments being packed with tons of secret areas and being able to dig around and collect things, and being able to use the mini-map in different ways. The story is really good, it has a lot of good moments, Pyra and Rex are good characters as well which is all I'll say on that. And I love all the other main party members. As for the design of the Rare Blades, I had no issue with them, and for the main characters, both the main characters done by Saitou and the Torna group done by Nomura were perfectly fine despite looking pretty different. Overall, this is probably GOTY for me.
And that's about it for my games I enjoyed the most this year. This was a great year for game and there's a lot I didn't get to buy or didn't play enough of to add to this list, but we have all of next year to worry about that. Also a good amount of games I played this year actually came out this year, or got a port this year so that's cool. I was gonna have some honorable mentions, but I might include them in a part 2 or something, because I wanna give them a more room so I can talk about I feel about them. So look forward to when I eventually give my thoughts on Yakuza Kiwami, DOOM on Switch and probably some other stuff I didn't finish before making this list. Wanted to include them, but I gotta hold off on that. I will eventually do full reviews of games like Mario Odyssey, ARMS, and Xenoblade because I feel like I gotta go more in-depth with them.
(Arcade/PS4/XB1/PC, Developer/Publisher Bandai Namco, 2015-2017)
I really like Tekken 7, even tho I'm not that good at it. It's a hard game to learn, especially coming from someone who prefers DOA and Soul Calibur, as this game have a completely different feel to it than those 2, it even has a completely different way of doing attacks. Like in the DOA games, you have individual attacks, you just have different buttons for certain attacks, like punch/heavy punch, kick/heavy kick, but Tekken has both of those, but they also have left/right punch/kicks which at first sounds crazy and very complicated. But after doing a lot of training and building up muscle memory with certain attacks and strings, you begin to understand that the whole left/right thing is not that hard and it becomes just as normal as the other moves from other fighters. The game is also highly momentum based, as you can do the super quick Korean Backdash, sidesteps are important too as well as when you gotta block. From my experience, the most important thing in Tekken besides understanding your character and what's good/bad about them, it's pokes.
Pokes are so fucking important. If you're both down to like 1 health, you gotta whip out a swift ass poke, if they try to go for a low, you punish that shit and either, parry and throw them on the ground or dodge and get that lest hit you need, but you'll both probably just be doing crazy footsies and moving around until one of you becomes open and the other goes for the kill. It can be really fun. I love Akuma and Yoshimitsu in this game, Akuma's Street Fighter moves actually work pretty well in Tekken's combat, and he has some good moves his games that he can use, like the Focus cancel and all that, giving him some unique options in battle. And of course Yoshimitsu is still the best to me. Eliza is great too, she's similar to Akuma and it's fun using her. The customization feels like a step down from things like Soul Calibur with the limited clothing and hair options, but giving Akuma silly clothes is a plus. I'm gonna try and play more Tekken 7 in the future as I wanna get as good at the game as I can, and even tho the online is brutal with people you run into, it's all a learning experience for me since it's the first time I've decided to try and actually learn how to play Tekken.
PuyoPuyo Tetris / ぷよぷよテトリス
(PS3/Wii U/3DS/Vita/PS4/XB1/Switch, Developer Sonic Team, Publsher SEGA, 2014-2017)
This game is so good, it's like crack. I'm not really a puzzle guy, but this is a great party game, and it also is really competitive. I've played PuyoPuyo 2 before and I've even played a bit of Panel de Pon and it got me a bit more interested in puzzle games. This game is really fun, and having it portable on the Switch and being able to share the Joycons with people you're playing with makes the multiplayer quick and easy to do. I didn't expect for this game to be so fun, I don't play it as much as I did a few months ago because I got preoccupied with other games. But trust me when I say it's incredibly addictive. Sonic Team earns a lot of points for how excellent this game is.
The game has a story mode that's pretty funny, where Tetris pieces randomly fall from the sky and the characters from PuyoPuyo gotta do something about it, and it seems like it gets from the bits that I played. There's a lot of different modes you can do. You can do endless Tetris which is my favorite, regular Puyo or Tetris (you can also do both in multiplayer with each person doing either Puyo or Tetris. And there's a really cool fusion mode, where you keep switching between a Puyo board and a Tetris board every couple of seconds and if you fail at one you lose, so it can really fuck you over if you suck at either mode. The graphics are really colorful and vibrant, with cute character designs and while it's dub only, it's nice hearing things like AWAKEN and PLANET POWER from a certain character. Really great Puzzle game that I should really play more often.
Mushihimesama / 虫姫さま
(Arcade/PS2/360/PC, Developer/Publisher CAVE, 2004-2015)
One of my favorite shooting games ever, and that's a fact. CAVE always makes shooting games, and all of them are crazy. Dodonpachi is good and has amazing music, and I've been meaning to check out their other games, I've known about Mushi for a long time, and it's a game I've always wanted to play, and obviously I'm so happy that I finally did. Even using a controller instead of an arcade stick, the game has good controls and it's actually not too hard to keep track of where you are. That's because pretty much all the enemy attacks are in a really obvious purple color, making their bullets easy to see, so you never get your shots mixed up. The PC version has all the modes from the 360 port including the Black Label and arranged modes, and you can do the original arcade mode as well.
The graphics and music are beautiful and fit the game perfectly, I really love the design of Reco the main girl who controls the huge bug, which is the replacement for the usual spaceships. The game is all about nature, with the first level being a forest, and there's a desert, a volcano, and two other stages I haven't gotten to. The game is also pretty flexible, it may be really tough, but it's not absolutely brutal. It does give you super bombs that can kill all enemies when in a pinch, you can also hold one of the buttons to move slower and do stronger shot, or weaker shots that let you move a lot faster, so both are good in different situations. The music like I said is beautiful, Manabu Namiki did a great job with the soundtrack, as he's done with other CAVE games. You have to listen to the soundtrack of both this game and the sequel Mushihimesama Futari. One of my favorite soundtracks ever.
Senran Kagura Estival Versus / 閃乱カグラEstival Versus
(PS4/Vita/PC, Developer Tamsoft, Publisher Marvelous, 2015-2017)
Gonna mainly be talking about the PC port and playing the game with mods, which there are many of. Estival Versus is a game I played pretty obsessively back when first came out in Japan in 2015. Probably spent over 100 hours playing it, and I eventually did get the Platinum trophy too. It's a really fun action game with a ton of sexy girls and tits everywhere, and some with small or flat tits. I feel Tamsoft did a great job with the game, minus a few issue, but I would recommend it if you want a fun action game, As for the port, it's a lot better than I expected. It runs well mostly, you can adjust various settings in the game, and installing mods is pretty easy and doesn't really require any external programs or anything. On sites like LoversLab, you can easily find and install mods to the game, just make sure you follow the steps.
As for what you can do with mods, you can remove the while flashes that cover the vagina and nipples when you completely strip your opponents, you can make the tits huge, or tiny, there's a lot of skin textures for added nudity complete with nipples and vaginas (which is super obvious since why would the game not be modded to add that) and some people were nice enough to even add pubic hair (thanks!) I've had a lot of fun just playing the game for a bit on and off m my laptop and messing around with mods, and in general, this and DOA5 Last Round has gotten more into mods which is now something I love about playing games on the computer. If you want a really good version of Senran Kagura Estival Versus, I'd highly recommend the PC port if you don't mind a digital copy and you get a lot of good mods. Having a way to mix up the visuals and stuff makes a game I've play for like over 100 hours more fun because I've literally seen every outfit and special stripping finish, so I need to see nipples and stuff after hours of nothing but white flashes and teasing.
Daytona USA / デイトナUSA
(Arcade/Saturn/PC/360/PS3, Developer Sega AM2, Publisher SEGA, 1993-2011)
Pretty much like the best racing game ever, and it has the best music too. Thanks to the almighty Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, we get the best soundtrack for a racing game ever with King of Speed being probably the second best in the game behind Sky High. His vocals are the fucking highlight of what makes this game so memorable. You must go listen to the soundtrack, it's the best. Funny thing is, this is for the home versions of the game. Since I've played the original arcade version via emulation, they actually had to digitize his vocals (which I think he did himself) and created different versions of the songs (technically the arcade version was first so, maybe they did the arranged versions later for Saturn...) Still regardless, it's an amazing soundtrack.
The gameplay is great, it's really fast and you have a lot of control over your car. You can choose between Manual and Automatic transmission. Manual lets you shift gears, changing your top speed and making drifts and turns easier depending on which one you use, so gear shifting is extremely helpful. And Automatic just handles the gear shifting for you so you can just focus on making turns. Manual is what I usually go with because I like having more control, so if I fuck up a drift, it my bad. The game only has 3 courses, but they're good, even the beginner track which is basically a simple NASCAR style track that only goes one way, feels like you still need skill as the turns you gotta make are still sharp. This game came out in 1993 and has amazing graphics, the polygons still look really good and that's probably because they didn't try to go for a super realistic look. It's all colorful and vibrant and it's amazing. And the game is always at a smooth 60 fps which is even more amazing. Back in the 80's and 90's, SEGA was always topping people with their amazing arcade games thanks to geniuses like Yu Suzuki. Him, Toshihiro Nagoshi and the AM2 team get massive points for making one of the best games ever, and this is probably my favorite SEGA racing game besides F-Zero GX and Sonic All-Stars Racing and Transformed.
ARMS
(Switch, Developer/Publisher Nintendo, 2017)
This game really surprised me with how good it is. It may not seem like much at first, you're just kinda flailing around throwing punches out, but this game actually does have a lot of depth, and it's one of the best things about ARMS. I remember first playing the original testpunch online beta and thought it was okay at first. The game was designed with motion controls and even tho it is, I prefer to use the actual buttons. For me, it's easier to focus on moving around and dodging the other guy's punches so then I can go in for my punches when I don't have to worry about where my arms are moving (pun intended). I'm really happy Nintendo went ahead and made a brand new game, as it's been a while since they made a new first party IP, the last one was Splatoon back in 2015, and even longer, PIkmin in 2001, so yeah.
Every character feels different from each other, and the one thing that brings them all together is punching and movement. Everyone has the same basic skill, dodging, charging punches etc, but they each has at least 2 traits that separate how they flow in combat. Charging punches also give the arms more damage and most have extra effects, like poison, freezing them in place, or disabling their ARMS by paralyzing them, so it gives you a love of variety in how you fight. Spring Man can cancel an opponent's punch from hitting him by half charging a punch and then dodging, giving him an easy opening. Best girl Min Min can fully charge and have her dragon arm which always has her left ARM fully charged. And Max Brass can buff up after charging and not flinch from uncharged punches for a short time, while still having charged punches himself. The game has a lot of modes like, the standard Arcade, 1 vs 100, Hoops, V-Ball, and Target Shot. Hoops and V-Ball are just basketball and volleyball, except in Hoops you throw EACH OTHER instead of a ball, and in V-ball you gotta punch the ball to the other side to make it explode. I've been enjoying the online in both ranked and party lobbies and it's a fun time. One my most played games on Switch I want more ARMS!
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (Remake) / マリオ&ルイージRPG 1 DX
(3DS, Developer Alpha Dream, Publisher Nintendo, 2003-2017)
It's still the best game in the series, and I already did a full review of the game on this blog, but I'll still talk about it. Like I said in the review, I was worried about the remake as the original is my favorite Mario RPG / favorite GBA game ever. And if they fucked it, I would have their head. Luckily they didn't fuck up the remake and what I got was the best Mario & Luigi game on the 3DS. I like how it took a remake to make things good again, as the recent games have been either meh or kinda trash.
Like I said in the review, I think the game looks great, they got everything right, it's what a remake should do, which is to make the original visuals better without ruining the art style and for the most part, they got it. I still got nitpicks like making the koopas generic instead of the armored ones, but every character maintains their original looks, especially Bowletta. A lot of the music sounds great in the remake, all of them got remixed and updated. The only ones that suck are Bowletta's final battle (how do you fuck that up) TeeHee Desert and the battle theme, but that last one is just a huge ass nitpick. The gameplay is sadly slower than the original, which was super quick and snappy and doing bro moves took like 2 seconds. Now everything in battle takes a lot longer, but that doesn't make sense since outside of battle, the game is pretty much the same as the original in terms of speed and overall gameflow. Still, this remake was one of the best things I could've hoped for, and I'm glad that the remake was overall amazing, minus my nitpicks, but those nitpicks are probably because I love the original game so much that some aspects just can't be changed in my eyes.
Chrono Trigger / クロノトリガー
(SNES, Developer/Publisher Squaresoft, 1995)
Amazing RPG that I'm finally happy I played. Originally I played based of the recommendation from a friend, and to get off my list of games I must play, but by the end, I ended up loving it based on my own experience. I haven't played many Square RPGs, mainly because I like other RPGs from companies like ATLUS Still this is an amazing game that people should play at least once. The game was made by a dream team involving Yuji Horii of Dragon Quest, Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy, and most obvious, Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball. You can really see the game shine with the passion these 3 guys and the team at Square. Almost everything here was made with care and attention. The music done my Yasunori Mitsuda is some of the best SNES music on the system, and a lot of the later tracks are memorable like the final 2 battle themes and riding the Epoch.
The story is simple even tho I kinda had trouble remembering everything, but when look back and think about it, it's easy to wrap your head around. The game has lots of good moments and even some very shocking moments that had me emotional. And the game is very smartly designed too, letting you mix up who you use in battle and trying out different strategies, techs and combined attacks to make the team that best fits your style. The game even has multiple endings which you can do in New Game+, giving it a ton of replay value. The original/main ending you get is very satisfying and you feel like you accomplished something. It does have some annoying moments like a few bosses and some areas in the game, but there's way more good than bad. The game really is something else. To me, it's probably one of Square's best RPGs ever and now I feel like I gotta play the rest of their good games like Final Fantasy VI.
Super Mario Odyssey / スーパーマリオオデッセイ
(Switch, Developer/Publisher Nintendo, 2017)
I've realized that I played a ton of Switch games this year, and this is definitely on of my highlights, which also includes ARMS. Movement is one of the best things about this game, and it's something I kept repeating to myself as I played it. It reminds me so much of Sunshine and 64, besides obviously going back to the open level design of those 2 games. I say it's more like Sunshine because of how the controls just feel nearly perfect, Mario can long jump and triple jump again, his momentum is great and the way the areas are designed really give you tons of options on how to get the Power Moons and beat the game. You can mostly do things your way and that type of freedom is what I missed in Mario games after Galaxy. Odyssey is probably up there with Sunshine as my favorite 3D game in the series, but I'm still not sure if I can say that yet since the game is still pretty fresh in my mind.
This just had me gushing the whole time I played it. Funny thing was that I beat the main story in one sitting, which took over 12 hours I believe on a full blind playthrough. One of my favorite things about this game is how intractable the levels thanks to the hat mechanics with Cappy. He might be a bit better than FLUDD since he feels a lot more organic to Mario's moves. He can let you do longer jumps by bouncing off him, you possess enemies, which is one of the best mechanics in 3D Mario due to how natural it feels to go from one enemy to another. You possess them to do certain parts of the levels and to get moons, and he fits the game and the mechanic almost perfectly. They have huge open levels and all of them are full of secrets, some moons are fucking hard to find and can bust your brain, so you gotta take advantage of all the tools the game gives you. Also the photo mode is really fun, with just one button, you can enter the photo mode and move the camera around to take some crazy shots. It's great. I didn't expect this game to come out this year and I'm happy it's such a good game. All of the outfits you can buy in the game with just coins and each kingdom's unique coins are awesome and full or references too. And having an in-game music player is a great option even if not all the songs are as memorable as Galaxy and the others, still Cascade Kingdom has the best theme.
Xenoblade 2 / ゼノブレイド２
(Switch, Developer Monolithsoft, Publisher Nintendo, 2017)
This one was probably a no-brainer and it has to be on the list because of how much this game continues to stay stuck in my head constantly. Other than Mario Odyssey, this was my most anticipated game of the year, and I gotta say a massive thanks to Takahashi and the team for making this game. I plan to make a full review of the game eventually, but I'll after this month/year is over so I can get all the things I wanna say ready for it. Xenoblade 2 is a sequel that is a lot more like the original game on Wii as opposed to X which was way more sci-fi and was extremely different with the way the game was structured, going for a more open world approach with story being second. This game however goes back to the more story driven focus but still has the huge ass environments and massive amount of quests, equipment, weapons etc, that you gotta do. The music is fantastic and I can't get it out of my head. It's full of guitars and string instruments like the original, and I feel a lot of the tracks might be better than Xenoblade, but some of the songs in that game can't be defeated. My favorite soundtrack of the year.
As for the game itself, it takes the gameplay from the last 2 games and does a perfect job mixing elements from both to end up being its own thing. The auto attacks and arts are still there, although instead you gotta auto attack which is like the cool down for arts now, the Blade specials are really cool and introduced elemental chains that can be combined with the classic Break/Topple combos from XB1, they added better methods of healing, now some attacks can drop potions that can heal the whole party when you touch them, fixing an issue Xenoblade X had with barely any healing arts and having to do the QTE to heal. The Rare Blades and elements add more layers of depth to the game, letting you create the team you want like I said about Chrono Trigger where it's very good at mixing things up. The influences from X are mostly outside of battle, since there's no double cooldown effects or giant robots. It's that all the environments being packed with tons of secret areas and being able to dig around and collect things, and being able to use the mini-map in different ways. The story is really good, it has a lot of good moments, Pyra and Rex are good characters as well which is all I'll say on that. And I love all the other main party members. As for the design of the Rare Blades, I had no issue with them, and for the main characters, both the main characters done by Saitou and the Torna group done by Nomura were perfectly fine despite looking pretty different. Overall, this is probably GOTY for me.
And that's about it for my games I enjoyed the most this year. This was a great year for game and there's a lot I didn't get to buy or didn't play enough of to add to this list, but we have all of next year to worry about that. Also a good amount of games I played this year actually came out this year, or got a port this year so that's cool. I was gonna have some honorable mentions, but I might include them in a part 2 or something, because I wanna give them a more room so I can talk about I feel about them. So look forward to when I eventually give my thoughts on Yakuza Kiwami, DOOM on Switch and probably some other stuff I didn't finish before making this list. Wanted to include them, but I gotta hold off on that. I will eventually do full reviews of games like Mario Odyssey, ARMS, and Xenoblade because I feel like I gotta go more in-depth with them.
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