5. Tiny Tower (iOS)
This was a tough choice for me. Tiny Tower isn't strictly speaking a game. You might hear the name and look at the screen and think that maybe it's a tower building simulation like SimTower. It's not. There's no game here. You can't win, you can't lose, there's no strategy, you simply need to invest more and more time to progress further.
In Tiny Tower, you build a tower. Each floor costs money to build. Once a floor is built, you can put either a business (one of five types) or an apartment in it. Building businesses and apartments are free. Apartments can hold up to five Bitizens. Each Bitizen has a dream job, and performance stats for each of the five business types. You choose a business type and get a random business--when you pick food you might get Mexican or a Burger Joint or Vegan Food or many other choices. Each business can hold up to three employees. The first employee allows you to sell the lowest quality, lowest cost, lowest value item. The second the second item. The third the highest value item. More skilled employees give you more of a discount on items. Dream Job employees stock up double the quantity of the item. Sales proceed automatically and there's nothing you can do to speed them up. When you run out of stock, you restock. If a business runs out of all its stock, it closes until it gets new stock.
So what you do is busywork. Restock. Got enough coins. Build a new floor. Build a new type of business. Build apartments to put people in the business. Day in, day out. You can play as little as about 10 minutes a day or as much as hours and hours a day, but it will take you 2-3 months to get your tower into the stratosphere. You can dress up Bitizens, repaint or rename businesses, evict underperforming Bitizens, read what Bitizens post on "Bitbook" (this is hilarious, just FYI), upgrade your elevator. All of this is nothing. It's not strategy, it's not skill, it's just a time sync.
It seems like I'm being negative here. Why Tiny Tower made my list is the wonderful job they'd made wasting your time fun. Bitizens have costumes and clothing and their own little personalities thanks to Bitbook. The game scratches the min-max itch very well with constant opportunities to optimize your efficiency, even if it's all irrelevant and even the shittiest employee choices will lead to success. Finding out which business you get has a Gashapon style "What am I gonna get this time?" feeling. You play Tiny Tower, and then you want to play more Tiny Tower. The game doesn't have any gross IAP model (in-app purchasing is useless after about your first week and not super useful before then) or friend-spamming. It's just a really feel good game. The presentation is gorgeous, the game has received many updates. It's just a good way to kill time. It's not a game, but it's my #5 game of the year.
Tiny Tower is free, and it's also available on Android but I understand the Android port is totally poop.
4. You Don't Know Jack 2011 (Xbox 360)
You Don't Know Jack is the best trivia series of all time. Whereas other games like Trivial Pursuit and Buzz settle for simply asking you trivia questions, You Don't Know Jack makes it so that every question is as much about understanding the joke they're making (often a multi-layered pun) in order to get to the question they're trying to ask you. In the screenshot above, Buzz would ask "Which US coin does not have ridges?" You Don't Know Jack forces you to think about it.
So much care is put into everything. When you start the game, if you choose not to put in a name, the game assigns one to you. Frequently these names are insulting, and often form a theme (two anonymous players might be called "Dumb" and "Dumber"). Every round is brought to you by a fake product placement sponsor. These are hilarious--Ted's Drop Dead Gorgeous Body Bags. Each round has one INCORRECT answer which is related to the product placement. If you choose this, you get major bonus points. So the game keeps you thinking because if you too quickly answer correctly, you'll miss out on the wrong answer of the game.
Different rounds have different question types. One question type involves the narrator recounting a screwed up dream he had last night, and you need to decide what movie he watched before he had the dream. One question type is the DisOrDat where you are given a series of objects and asked to decide whether they are part of Category X or Category Y. An example DisOrDat would be "Tell me if these things are a type of tree or a medical condition" -- Bladdernut, Buckeye, Saddleback, Black Gum, Club Foot, Shadbush, Old Man's Beard. "Tell me if these are Britney Spears songs or Catholic Popes" -- Innocent, Lucky, Urban, Outrageous, Hilarius, Toxic, Lonely. What a hoot. You can also "screw" your opponents by betting that they will get a question wrong. Especially good when someone accidentally says "I don't have a clue what the answer is".
The subject matter in YDKJ is often pop cultural, historical, and often American. Sorry for any Europeans who feel at a disadvantage. Expect to see questions about Lincoln mixed with jokes about Snooki, often in the same question. The game has a very cynical, hip, Gen-X kind of attitude towards things. I can't stress how funny the game is.
If you've ever liked trivia games like Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, Buzz, Jeopardy!, or even old trivia shows like Win Ben Stein's Money or Reach for the Top, you'll love YDKJ. The 2011 version is $29.99 MSRP on consoles, $19 on PC. The PS360 versions have online play and extra DLC packs (all worth it) while the Wii/PC versions don't. At least I don't think they do. The game comes with 75 rounds of questions. Questions are always the same per round, as are answer orders, so you can really only play a given round once or twice, but you should be able to get several months of frequent play out of the game before you exhaust the content. This is and will be the best game in its genre all generation. There is also a question about Stumps so I am contractually obligated to include the game in my list.
3. Bastion (PC, Steam)
Bastion is probably loosely classed as a sort of click-based dungeon crawler / action RPG. You play an apparent mute Amnesiac wandering around a world that has already ended, playing through stages to get items to rebuild the world. You can choose two from a wide variety of weapons all of which feel very different. As you level up, you gain the ability to equip more tonics. Tonics have specific effects, and so mainly serve to buff. Combat is spiced up by timed dodging/blocking which keeps you concentrating rather than maybe falling into the Diablo-style click-click-click pattern. The RPG elements are very light and the game mostly feels more action and reflex oriented. Levels feel like basically random mazes, so the hallmark of different levels is more their aesthetic than their specific design. Some people claim this makes the game feel same-y or uninteresting, but I don't agree.
The first thing I want to highlight that the game does really well is pacing. Each level is just the right length, maybe 15-20 minutes. Most levels contain a weapon to unlock, so the pace at which you're switching up your armaments is very brisk. You always feel like you're doing something new and when you start to master it, something new arrives again. In between levels, if you want a little nugget, there are shooting gallery style challenges where you are asked to master particular weapons. The game also gives you a list of tasks to complete which require varied play, so you generally feel like you're getting something done. The story is spaced out so that just when you want a little more, you get a little more. Half-way through the game you begin to unlock arena-style challenge rooms which are very difficult. If you find the game too easy, you also begin to unlock penalties not unlike Halo skulls to challenge yourself. Using these gives you more experience but also makes the game significantly harder.
The second thing I want to highlight is that in between levels, you come back to a central home area called the Bastion. This is the area you build up. Building isn't as complicated as something like Actraiser, it's more of a checklist kind of thing. Drawn to Life's town mode is a good comparison. Or Legend of Mana's house. The game does an extraordinarily good job of making this feel like your home base that you want to come back to. It has a very strong sense of its own identity. There's lots of little stuff to play around with and at the end Bastion has quite a few buildings.
I won't spoil any of the game's story but the best way I can describe it is slight but well-executed. There are two possible endings and a new-game plus. The game actually has a fair few set piece moments so despite the less than memorable nature of the levels, you'll still remember a lot of moments. The final gameplay sequence in the game is incredibly good--it's a very, very, very well executed parlour trick and I'll leave it at that. The presentation is probably the best ever in an independent or downloadable game. Crisp, well animated arts, lots of style varieties across the levels, the world really feels dead. The music is great, like a dust-bowl old west sort of feel. The music almost evoked the Grapes of Wrath to me. Not the film, the book. It's nice. There are two vocal songs, both of which have a haunting and memorable quality to them. The menu and non in-game art are also gorgeous. The game has New Game+ and the skull-like penalties provide a great incentive to replay.
Bastion is, I guess, $15 or something. I paid $5 for it. It was a genuine thrill to play. It didn't overstay its welcome and constantly mixed things up. It lasts maybe 6-7 hours, but because that time is properly allocated, you won't feel like you were ripped off due to low length. You also probably won't feel at all bored when you get to the end. The game is on XBLA, PC, and apparently there was some web / Chrome release. I can't vouch for that. PC is the way to go, your toaster can play the game, so you might as well get the best version.
2. Adventures of Shuggy (XBLA) (Disclaimer, I made the
OT for this game)
Shuggy is a puzzle platformer comprised of 150 or so levels, mostly single screen. You are Shuggy, a vampire that inherits a haunted mansion and needs to drive the ghosts out. What's cool about Shuggy is that it's basically a kind of a buffet approach to the genre. There are probably a dozen or so different level types throughout the game.
To list a few:
- Every 15 seconds a new Shuggy ghost is spawn and retraces the old Shuggy's path. You need to use your ghosts to hold switches to open doors for you, but if you touch them, you die.
- Shuggy can't move, but you can rotate the stage 90 degrees.
- Chunks of the stage randomly rotate, creating new permutations that may or may not be accessible
- Shuggy can have a sort of bungie cord rope and swing around the level. Use the bungie cord to turn gears, but don't accidentally cut the rope.
- You switch between many Shuggys, controlling them all. Watch that one you're not paying attention to doesn't get hit by an obstacle.
- An AI controller computer partner works with you.
- Autonomous goo is crawling around the floor or ceiling. Touch it and it will jump from ceiling to floor or vice versa. Get the goo to certain areas.
- Potions in the level can make you super huge or super tiny, make sure you're the right size to get through.
- Moonjump; in these stages, Shuggy can jump super high
- 36 unique co-op levels which prove to be a great twist on the above mechanics.
The game is very clearly done by a guy with help from a few of his friends. He worked on it for several years, and it didn't do great on XBLA, fewer than 10k copies sold I think. It's a real quality product, the kind of thing that people would jump on if it were available on Steam. The art is simple although cute, there's no fancy cutscenes, and the game is 4:3 with borders. If you liked Braid or PB Winterbottom or if you like flash games or really any kind of 2D puzzley platformer, you'll like this game. It's a simple, humble game, but it's a good one. I'd like to see the guy who made this hired as a designer for bigger games, because he nails the level design and ideas so well. Adventures of Shuggy is a meagre $10 and while the 150 levels don't last for hundreds of hours, it's great value for money and supporting a good, hardworking developer. It is XBLA exclusive.
1. Hamilton's Great Adventure (PC, Steam)
Hamilton's Great Adventure is also a stage-based puzzle game. It's funny, if you look at my list you'd figure I don't play any action games, just puzzle games. It couldn't be further from the truth. This was simply a bad year for retail releases, and a wonderful year for lower scope puzzle titles. You play as the titular Hamilton, a sort of pudgy Indiana Jones type. The presentation of the game has an older Hamilton recounting his youthful adventures to his granddaughter.
The game is top down, I just chose a screenshot that looked appealing. You walk on a grid-based terrain, square by square. There are essentially no* timed elements, so you get the opportunity to think your way through the levels. You work through fairly standard mechanics, finding keys to match doors, riding moving platforms, avoiding enemies that chase after you, avoiding things shooting arrows at you, collapsing tiles, etc. If you know the type of game this is, you know the type of mechanics you'll get.
I think what appeals to me is that the levels really do feel like old-timey puzzles to me. Most of the levels feature large amounts of collapsing tiles that you can only step on once. While there may be multiple paths through the level, there's probably only one path that will let you collect all the coins while doing so. It was fun to redo levels and really unpack the way they flowed and visualize Hamilton moving through them, finding the perfect path. You don't need to be a genius to play this game, in fact it's easier than most puzzle games. But it's rewarding when you understand how every component of the level fits together and get the job done.
The game looks great and is well presented. THe music is good, the characters are cute, but most important the levels are very well designed and there are lots of them. When I say lots of them, I mean around 50 or so, it's not one of those puzzle games with enormous amounts of padding.
The game doesn't seem epic enough in scope to win game of the year, but it's my game of the year. What I can tell you is that I've recommended it to a lot of people, some of whom have very similar tastes to me and some of whom don't, and all of them agreed with me that the game was a great execution of its genre. If it sounds like the kind of thing you might like, you'll love it. The game is $10 and was also released on PS3, I gather with Move support.
If you do decide to pick up any games based on my recommendation,
please PM me as you play them, whether you love them or hate them. I feel like I've done a good job explaining what I like about these games and why I've chosen them. You might not agree, and it's clear that my tastes are not all about polished hyper high profile cinematic action games, so if that's what you like, you might not like these. All the games I've chosen are cheap or free.
I'd also love for anyone who reads this and thinks I've said something wrong, right, or interesting to reply. I finished about 75 games in 2011, many of which were 2011 releases, so if you're wondering what I thought of Shadows of the Damned, Tintin, Arkham City, Duke Nukem Forever, Red Faction Armageddon, Homefront, Resistance 3, or any other games, just ask. I own every console including 3DS. My 2010 game of the year-in-2011 was Deadly Premonition. My 2010 game of the year was VVVVVV.
My full ballot from last year is available here.
Official Vote
1. Hamilton's Great Adventure
2. Adventures of Shuggy
3. Bastion
4. You Don't Know Jack
5. Tiny Tower
6. Stacking
7. Bulletstorm
8. Portal 2
9. ilomilo
10. Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer