I was LT a lot of P this year, so it's hard to pick one. I'll reflect on all the good stuff I played this year.
Ace Attorney
I burned through the entire series this year, save for the new one in Japan and the Layton crossover. I enjoyed every game thoroughly, easily one of the most distinguished series I played. The first game seems to be the most distinct from the rest. The second game is a low point of the series, although the final case was a ride on its own. The third game had a nicely woven story, and Godot is awesome. AA4 doesn't get enough credit; it actually kept me guessing when for the other games I could more or less narrow down the culprits early on. Dual Destinies was a major disappointment all around, but it looked pretty and still played well enough.
Investigations has the best OST of the whole series. Investigations 2 was imo the best overall of the entire Ace Attorney series. I love how varied the gameplay was, taking a departure from the tutorial court case->investigation->court->court->investigation->court etc. pattern. I also never expected the final villain.
Sonic Generations (challenges)
When I first played through the game, I never bothered with challenges besides the modern Sonic races, as I figured that would be simplest when doing the required challenges. What this really did for me was cut off a huge section of the game. The challenges are full of unique minigames not found anywhere else. You get to try out classic features like flying with Tails, or new ones where you get to use Rouge to arouse Eggman's robots, which were designed to be capable of arousal for some reason. The minigames help you learn how to use new abilities and how to navigate familiar levels' terrain. By the time I was done, I had finally mapped out all the game's levels much like I had with the original Genesis games. Felt nice.
Devil May Cry
DMC1-4. I have yet to try DmC beyond the demo. The first game's sense of atmosphere and exploration in the castle is unparalleled by any of the other games, so it sticks out as the most memorable to me. The second game was unbelievably bad, not even just disappointing. I didn't enjoy any of it, really. The third game was better than the first gameplay-wise, although everything else was a bit rough around the edges. I had more fun in it than the first game, but again the atmosphere wasn't anywhere close. I think DMC4 was the best overall from the series. Didn't mind playing as Nero most of the game, and fighting Dante was pretty fun. I'd like to see another DMC game like 4.
Ghost Trick
Simple and fun. The endgame plot twists mindfucked me deep.
Good soundtrack.
Hotel Dusk
It was cool to see a game use the DS vertically, although I initially wasn't crazy about using the stylus to move everywhere. Game has a unique art style that I really enjoyed, and questioning people to figure out the mysteries behind Hotel Dusk was fun as well. I'll be giving the sequel a try once I get a copy.
Monkey Island 1, 2, 5
I had previously only played 3, and Steam was having a summer sale, so I just had to bite. Easily the funniest games I have ever played. My cheeks hurt often when I took Guybrush through these weird adventures. Tales of Monkey Island, however, was a big disappointment. 3D simply doesn't seem to work for point-n-click adventure games. The character models and world don't seem to have as much personality in their designs compared to the 2D Monkey Island games. Most of the characters seemed to use the same model basis and had the same facial expressions. Furthermore, exploring a 3D world in a genre where you're supposed to be able to click on anything on the screen just didn't mesh well imo. I still wish to play Monkey Island 4 if it ever becomes available again, but I'm not looking forward to the 3D aspect if it's done like MI5.
Katamari Damacy, We Love Katmari
Fun in its purest form, and no game quite like it. Katamari is a nice stress reliever. I loved Damacy and WLK even moreso, but I heard the later games are just copypastes of WLK designs, so I will hold off on that. A proper new Katamari with brand new levels and modern visuals would be to die for.
Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and
Virtue's Last Reward
I made the mistake of playing VLR first because I was recommended on the gameplay alone. Don't do that lol. Somehow despite all this, I was able to play without spoiling 999 for myself, probably because I'm pretty dense and didn't pick up on any of the foreshadowing and references. Ultimately I prefer VLR over 999, but I also feel like 3D models and executive meddling took away from VLR. 999 had perfect amounts of suspense and horror. Holy hell, are these games a ride. Tears may or may not have been shed. I won't talk about what happens since that's the spoilery main draw, but I wholeheartedly recommend this series if you're a mystery fan. Just play in release order like I should have.
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and
Spirit Tracks
Just beat Phantom Hourglass a couple days ago, currently working my way through Spirit Tracks. Once you get past the forced stylus-controls-all interface, these games prove to be just as fun as any Zelda title. Linebeck is awesome in the first game, a true badass. I really enjoyed
how this boss made use of DS hardware in a way unorthodox to Zelda. I wish more Zelda titles would experiment like this. Final boss was also nice. However, repeating the Temple of the Ocean King was not fun at all imo, not counting the final tour. Spirit Tracks seems to be an improvement in all areas, and so far the tower doesn't need to be re-explored every single time. I enjoyed train travel at first, but it's getting really old really fast. Those enemy trains are very annoying. Currently just beat the underwater temple place.