I feel like I don't have as much time to play the games I want anymore since I spend so much time streaming, but I think I've still gotten to play a lot of good games this year (though I didn't finish as many as I'd have liked to). Just thought I'd lay out some thoughts on some of the more interesting ones. Most of them are not actually from this year since I'm pretty slow at clearing out my backlog, but these are all games I played for the first time this year.
I wrote up all of these games and realized there are.... a lot of them.... oops, so I'll just put my top 5 most interesting ones up here at the top??? Not really my GOTY list--most of these aren't even from this year--but certainly ones that I enjoyed immensely.
In no particular order:
- Start Again: A Prologue - It had actually been on my hard drive for quite a while but I finally played this like, a month before In Stars and Time came out and I was hooked. I'm so hungry for ISAT, but I promised myself it will be my reward for finishing all of my work this year. TT-TT.
- BOSSGAME: The Final Boss Is My Heart - I had a great time playing BOSSGAME. A fun fast paced rhythm action game about beating up devils and maintaining relationships. Beat it twice. Showed it to my friend who was just like, "I've had these conversations with my wife. Oh god, this is too real."
- AI: The Somnium Files - I played both the first one and Nirvana Initiative. From my initial review of the first game: "This game is so weird. I'm honestly impressed because there are such moving story lines about parental abuse, neglect, found family, dealing with degenerative mental diseases. And then like, the main character's super power is that he moves 3x faster if someone mentions porn..."
I had thought when I started the second that I would like it more, but tbh, I kind of soured on it late in the game. It's a more ambitious game than the first, but I think it suffers from that (and also sequelitis a bit). If you're going to play just one of these (and they can be played out of order), play the first. - Tears of the Kingdom - Did that come out this year??? It feels like a billion lifetimes ago. I feel like I don't need to comment much on it, except that It's really interesting seeing how other people chart their paths through this game. I spent so long underground that my friends were joking that I'd become a cave troll. One person I knew only hung out in the sky for most of the time. One went to the Rito village last because he hates birds. Anyways, good game. What is time. Who am I anymore. Why did this year last 1000 years long?
- Triangle Agency - Not a video game but a ttrpg I picked up earlier this year. I had a blast and can't wait to run more games. It's really interesting and weird and the manual alone just fills my brain with cool ideas for games to run. Hopefully, I get more time to GM again next year.
Aaaaaand all of the other stuff I've played this year...
I won't say these are less interesting than the top 5, but they just stuck less in my mind, I think. Again, in no particular order:
- Christmas Nights into Dreams - No I have not played Nights into Dreams. I have only played Christmas Nights into Dreams, the original demo disk that's just one level and one boss and I kind of loved it??? And now I might have to actually play Nights into Dreams. I played it literally yesterday and I might be in love???? It's the second Saturn game I've played and the aesthetics are impeccable. (The first was the first level of Panzer Dragoon and the aesthetics on that one: also impeccable. That one's not making this list though, because I literally only played the first level.)
- Dragon Audit - Actually played about 30 min of this last year but didn't finish it until this year so I'm making an exception. Please play Dragon Audit.
- Sable - This one has been on my list for a long time and I missed getting it when it was fresh, but I'm glad I got to play it finally. I still haven't finished it because I literally installed it right before my computer died, but it's a lovely game--the atmosphere, the story, the game itself--and I should really get around to completing it one of these days.
- The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival - Not a game, per se, but a very cool and cute little experience. Every year for the past few years, the ghost town servers go up around Halloween. You can upload pumpkins you carve in game. There's a haunted hay ride, a labyrinth, and little photo ops and games you can play with other ghosts. It's very cute.
- SNAKE FARM - Snake farm honestly tickled me greatly. It's a fun play on the survivors genre (subgenre?) and... yeah that's it. It's fun! Lol play snake farm it's like $3 or whatever.
- Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - I watched a speedrun of this at GDQ and then I needed to play it. A silly little game. I played this on stream with my friends and we all had a blast.
- Lil' Gator Game - A game gifted to me by one of my streamer buddies. (Thanks, Vassago!) Very wholesome. Another game I played on stream. It really gets at the childhood fantasy of having a long summer break where you can run around and play all day.
- Vampire Survivors - Extremely addicting. I had this open in the background for like, 3 solid weeks. I would play it when I thought nobody was looking. It hurt my thumbs. A+
- CODE VEIN - This game is like anime vampires meets dark souls with a sprinkling of kingdom hearts and I honestly didn't have a high opinion of it before I started but I think I kinda love it???? 13 year old me would be sooooo into this game.
- Rusty Lake - I played nearly all of the Rusty Lake games. If I'm going to be perfectly honest, the first (Rusty Lake Hotel) is probably still my favorite. If you like point and clicks with relatively small puzzles and dark humor (and a little horror/gore), this is for you.
- Four Last Things - Just one in a series of absurd point and click adventure games built out of public domain medieval and renaissance art. Very fun. Very silly. I own the others in the series as well and just haven't gotten around to playing them, but I'm glad I did get to play this one. :)
- Crayola Scoot - Tony Hawk but you're a child with a scooter splattering paint everywhere. I knew what I was doing when I downloaded this. lol. I have no comments.
- Death and Taxes - A very delightful little game where you try to change fate as the grim reaper in a similar manner to Papers, Please. I had a great time. I gave up trying to 100% it because despite doing things differently, there wasn't much variety in the endings, but the first 3 or 4 runs were pretty fun. :)
- Super Mario Bros Wonder - I haven't finished it yet. I'm generally not a fan of the 2d marios and I wouldn't play this on my own, but I've been playing this with my friends and it really is quite delightful. The wonder sections really do put a cute, chaotic, or curious twist on each level that I quite enjoy.
- Elli - Never finished this one either, but I made it a decent way through. Just a neat little puzzle... platformer? Is it a platformer... there are platforms... Yeah, I guess so. Haha.
- Anodyne - Well, I'd heard a lot of good stuff about this from one of my friends, and I can see the appeal, but I think it's just not for me. This happens sometimes. I made it like, 90% of the way through and then put it down for too long and couldn't remember what I was supposed to be doing (which really is par for the course for me and 2d zelda-likes like this). Is that what you'd call this? You like, explore caves and whack stuff with your little sword and solve puzzles like ALttP or one of the Oracle games. I think it's fair to call it a 2d zelda-like.
- Tick Tock: A Tale for Two - An interesting two player, asymmetrical puzzle game. The visuals are lovely. It's almost like playing through a picture book. Bought this *years* ago and finally got to play it with my friend maybe a couple months ago. A couple puzzles were a little bit obtuse but they were also the last ones in the game, so I can forgive it.
- The Pathless - I nearly forgot I had played this this year. This was an interesting little departure from previous titles like Journey and Abzu with a focus on non-linear exploration and even a little combat. Some of the boss fights were kind of rough, but it's a gorgeous game and I loved wandering around the world and gleaning little bits of story piecemeal from the lands. Big SotC vibes but with Giant Squid's hallmark vibrantly colorful visuals. I still think I like Abzu more though.
- Tokimeki Memorial - What a game. Haha. It's a... SNES?? Game??? (or maybe a NES game... i'm trying to summon up what the color pallet looks like and I cannot.) I don't remember it was so early in the year, but it's a dating game. Manage your stats, date cute (or weird) girls. Okay but date the weird girls though. Date the scientist girl and let her experiment on you. It's the only way to go. Don't let your grades get too high or else everyone will think you're too sexy and they'll all try to date you and get angry if you say no and then they'll tell their friends that you said no and then all of the girls will be mad at you and you'll have to graduate from high school alone. It's really all very sad. Being a genius. Having such a big brain. It's lonely at the top.
Anyways, I love that there's a hidden social stat of your reputation and a girl can just ruin the rest of the game for you if you snub her too many times even if you don't like her. - Suika Game - Deliver me from this hell.
Honorable mentions go to some of the unfinished games and visual novels/text adventures(?) I started reading (some of which may be done now, but I haven't gone back to check)
- Bad Faith (Demo) - Interesting little lesbian nun vn about the toxic social structures of a peculiar, secluded convent where Absolutely Nothing Weird Is Happening.
- Touchstarved (Demo) - I don't read a lot of visual novels where the actual prose really grabs me. I usually can't stomach super flowery writing, but it strikes a good balance between descriptive writing and intrigue to keep me engaged. I don't normally go for long visual novels (because I have been scarred before), but... this one got me. >//>
I love a good cursed protagonist. - Bow/Arrow - A good suspense dripping with desperation and the feeling of being alone in space. It is finished now, but I just haven't caught up yet.
- Paper Lily: Chapter 1 (Demo???) - A horror adventure game in the style of rpgmaker horror, but I think made in Unity? I liked this one better than the prologue. Based on japanese horror and like, those copy pasta rituals that were popular about a decade ago (do they still make those? idk), though it's by a western team and it kind of has the feeling of like, an amerimanga. They play around with a lot of different ideas for gameplay and the art is quite polished. They're slowly building out the full game, not sure if the final will be paid, but the demo is free for anyone who wants to check it out.
Anyways, those are all of the games I can remember playing this year. I know I've missed a few browser games, but I can't search through my hard drive/steam folder for those by date, so those are just lost to the annals of my smooth little brain.
Uhh, if you made it all the way to the bottom, thanks for reading. I'm not quite sure why you did. Haha.
