x. Persona 4: Golden ; I can't in good conscience award a remake a spot on my list (sorry to Okami HD as well). Moreover, this remake isn't as good as the original. Yes, it does have some improvements — it's mobile for starters, and also the functionality is more streamlined — most of what Golden does is simply not as pure as the original; The voice-acting changes are a huge miss, the new content is insipid, and man if the dungeons aren't so much easier it makes me significantly regret playing on normal. But they'd have to do a whole lot worse to this game to make me ever not love it. One of the five best games from 2008 on the go. With trophies!
x. Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack ; If you follow me on Twitter, you'd be the first. You'd also be wondering how this game isn't on my list, since I was doing backflips about it when it first came out on Vita, for only $8. So what happened? I liked Mutant Blobs enough to go play its predecessor on PS3 is what happened, and I realized just how similar they were. Obviously it doesn't make me dislike the game, but it's hard to want to put it on my list when there are other, more original offerings I'd like to honor.
x. Hotline Miami ; So close. So close to being something I could truly love, but much of the "creepy" style turns me right the hell off, and the weapons are just too poorly balanced. Soundtrack of the year though ("soundtrack" is different from "score," in my opinion).
x. Far Cry 3 ; Were you one of the thousands upon thousands of people who were surprised by how good FC3 was? I wasn't. I was impressed with the lush environments and incredible character that is Vaas since the E3 2011 reveal. However, I did not play this game this year, as once I saw just how much pointless animal violence there was, I just couldn't bite. I won't pay more than $20 to violate my moral code, Ubisoft! (Also it sounds like the narrative falls through the universe about halfway through)
10. Binary Domain ; I felt 2012 was a fairly weak year, saved only by the release of a new platform (the only handheld or mobile device I've ever cared about) and small, digital games, one of which has catapulted itself to being one of my favorite games of all time. I don't have a ton to say about Binary Domain, and I haven't even finished it. I was surprised at how well the characters were portrayed and voiced. I loved the design of the world — the thought put into all of it, to even the most mundane sign or vending machine — and the enemies, with their meticulously designed systems and armor. The shooting was more than good enough, and I never tired of seeing the cool robot enemies shatter into pieces and crumble before me.
Really, I'm getting sick of the shooter genre, but I like them in theory. They're just all so predictable these days, which is why Binary Domain stood out enough to make my list. The developers brought just enough fresh material, between its mechanics, presentation and story-telling, to make the experience worthwhile.
9. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit ; Hell yeah this game is getting a vote! One vote! From me. The art style and "gore"y nature of this title turned me off from the start, but I can't argue with good game design. There's so much variety in this title, from basic platforming (which functions impeccably), to twin-stick-shooting, to even Wario-Ware-like minigames that appear whenever you're about to kill one of the hundred "boss" characters. Hell Yeah! kept me coming back to it every night for a week because I could always count on it to keep me entertained, as I never knew what to expect. I can't even say "just when I was getting tired of the game, it switched things up on me" because Hell Yeah! moves at a far more frantic pace than that. Which was refreshing, in a weird way.
8. LittleBigPlanet Vita ; I had called this game the Vita's killer app before playing it, and I only regret it because I had neglected that this was the fourth entry in the series. Had Sony not squeezed this franchise for all it was worth in the past few years, this iteration on it would have been far more significant.
But having a great LBP game in your hands is still hard to ignore, and finally all the speciality functions of the Vita — touchscreen, back touch, gyro, etc — have some real use. They're not forced-in, like what most games do, but by the very nature of the quirky, customizable platformer, all things are possible. And the user-created content makes these specialities of the Vita what they were promised to be in the beginning — features. Not gimmicks.
7. Gravity Rush ; Making basic movement enjoyable is the key to almost all video games. I love open-world games in concept, but walking and driving is hardly what I would call fun, in most games at least. It takes some really stellar game mechanic to make traversing a huge world enjoyable at all times. Before Gravity Rush, I would call Infamous 2 the standard-bearer on this, with its many different mechanics; electric-grinding on rails, floating with static thrusters, and the simply awesome ice-launch. Because of all these systems working together, even the most tedious of activities, collectible-hunting, is entertaining, as just moving is immense fun.
Gravity Rush may not offer the same variety in how you can move around, but its core system, controlling gravity, offers more freedom in exploration than any game I can think of. Kat can quite literally fling herself up into the gorgeous space of her French-stone-air-city, pause, and go anywhere. Even on the undersides of buildings, bridges, the floating city itself. The combat of the game doesn't impress, but the characters, art, and being able to control all of gravity itself! Just wonderful. And really, I can not even begin to say enough nice things about the gorgeous orange, pink, purple, green skyboxes of the space, contrasting with the stone French buildings of the world. Just a joy to look at.
6. Gotham City Impostors ; Look, we all hate Call of Duty. And rightfully so! But it didn't use to be this way. In fact, Call of Duty used to be amazing, particularly its multiplayer, which in one way apexed with Modern Warfare 1, and then apexed in a different dimension with Modern Warfare 2.
Gotham City Impostors is the next and final dimension of this multiplayer formula, and it's a total blast. Just think of good Call of Duty multiplayer, with a wonderfully irreverent (to both CoD and the Batman license) tone and presentation, a vibrant art style, and more options than maybe even the original trend-setter of loadouts and perks provides. … Except now you're one of the lunatic, copycat Batmen or Jokerz, laying bear traps on the ground, shooting ice beams, and chasing squiggly lines of stink which permeate off your enemies. And much like the wonderful Awesomenauts, difference in movement is a key factor to variety and enjoyment. Whether you're bouncing around with spring boots, or pulling yourself across the map with a plunger-and-rope-gun, or gliding around fifty feet in the air with your bath-towel-cape (yes, seriously), Gotham City Impostors is always fun, even when you're not in combat. It's just a shame the noticeable lag and terrible load times prevent you from getting in Gotham and wreaking some havoc.
5. Dishonored ; Had developer Arcane not telegraphed the story twist, and then also punted any satisfaction thereafter which should have been delivered, this game could have inched its way a bit further on my list. I also would have greatly appreciated a mechanic that allowed me to drop onto and disable enemies without killing them, the lack of which really hampered my enjoyment as I tried to kill as few enemies as possible.
But yo, whatever. I was stunned by the amount of thought put into this world; its history, its people, its customs, its architecture, just everything. And then all of it is used as to enhance your virtual playground, which allows for some real agency in how you approach every mission, every encounter. It was real choice this time in that if you wanted to make your experience one more action-oriented, the action was actually fun for once. This too was enhanced by the detail of the world.
4. Asura's Wrath ; A month before now posting this list, which I know you've all been waiting for, I had a stack of games I wanted to play, which included Asura's Wrath. It was one of the games I wanted to give a shot to, but did not feel had much of a chance of landing with me. I didn't think I would dislike it, but I thought it would tap into my male-power-fantasy-bone, and resonate, but not enough to rank this highly on my list.
But Asura's Wrath doesn't tap into that bone at all, because I never even dreamed of doing the things you do in this game! I… I don't' want to spoil a single one of them, but they're all so ridiculous that they're awesome, or so awesome that they're ridiculous. I didn't narrow my eyes and nod my head as I was punching a sun that was being thrown at me, I threw my head back and laughed in pure joy.
3. Awesomenauts ; Definitely my surprise of the year: I would not have even tried this game if it weren't for it being free on Playstation Plus.
I had never played a MOBA before, and they don't look all that interesting to me, but I do adore good 2D platforming. That's the first part of what Awesomenauts does so right. The other? Every one of their characters behaves so totally different from the other, even down to their basic movement. Lonestar moves at a normal speed but has a double jump which can be upgraded to a triple. Froggy G moves fast, and can jump just once, but super-high. Yuri doesn't really "jump" so much as "transition into flight mode." Voltar moves fast and can do the jump-to-hover thing, like Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2. This all might seem very simple, but it's totally genius in that it changes how you approach every moment in the game, as do all the abilities, whether they be cloaking or throwing a handful of bouncing grenades or banking a laser off the ground or setting yourself to self-destruct.
Awesomenauts was just a blast to play. It is highly competitive while relying heavily on teamwork for real domination. Every character is so different from the other that I found myself not getting tired of the game and wanting to go play another, but just tired of a character and wanting to switch, finding more than enough change and enjoyment through that simple switch to keep me glued to the game for hours on end. It's telling that a game is really great for me, in this generation, when I have nothing left to unlock, no trophies left to get, other games I want to try, and yet I just keep plugging along on the game I have nothing more to gain from, other than more entertainment.
2. Darksiders 2 ; I've found the lukewarm (at best) reaction to this game to be baffling: In a year when so many so-called "shallow" games are being well-received to the dismay of so many, there is nary a game like that of Darksiders II.
Stuffed to the brim with content, Darksiders II improves upon its predecessor almost as much as its predecessor improved upon the Zelda formula to begin with: the worlds are bigger, the items and weapons are far more plentiful, and the combat, which already put Zelda to absolute shame in 2010, now rivals that of even dedicated third-person action games like God of War and Devil May Cry. The leveling-up mechanic doesn't just apply to the protagonist, Death, but even applies to your weapons, of which there are a select type, called "Possessed," which you can improve by "feeding" the weapon in question other weapons, all of which have unique stats and properties which can directly influence how your Possessed weapon improves.
Really, I'm baffled that this game wasn't a darling on GAF. Vigil and THQ seemingly took a list of all the things gamers would want in a game and tried to check them all off: A leveling system? Check. Dozens of hours of gameplay in even just your first playthrough? Check. New Game Plus? Check. A deep and rewarding combat system? Check. A choice in play-styles (melee vs. magic)? Check. Far more side-dungeons than proper dungeons in most Zeldas? Check. Tons of enemy and boss types? Check. Great voice-acting? Definite check. A soundtrack by Jesper Kyd? Yep, that too. It definitely has some issues — a beginning and premise that drops the ball of the first's epic ending, a poor final dungeon, and even some glitches — yet they all pale in comparison to the sheer amount of great content Darksiders II offers, so much so that my own almost-game-breaking bug is so minor in reflection that it is my penultimate game of the year.
1. Journey ; is so wonderful, so perfect a game that it literally took me weeks afterwards to even think of any flaws, and unlike any other game I've played in, hell, maybe decades, I can literally count those minor flaws on one hand. Easily (and no, I don't have the hand of a mutant). I would have to travel back in time and play the best of previous generations with a fresh mind to know if I've ever felt as confident about a piece of media like I do with Journey.
I could be even MORE hyperbolic if I wanted to be! Journey is THAT good!
Upon reflection, I find that what impresses me the most about Journey, or perhaps to sum it all up, is its total minimalism. It's not just simple in its art style, or its length, or in its ability to communicate with another person, but all of it together. In an age where every year the best-of-the-best in games are trying to one-up each other with textures, or lighting, or multiplayer modes, or bombastic set-pieces, thatgamecompany took a step back and seemed to take an honest look at where we actually are as an industry. They didn't try to over-deliver, they just fucking delivered. And in doing so, in a way they achieved a more powerful and honest form of multiplayer than anything anyone had ever done. And they did it by doing less.
Despite being a cheap downloadable title, Journey is perhaps the best-looking game I've ever seen. And by not even considering competing against the huge technical games of our time, it does what none of those will; remains timeless. In ten years, Far Cry 3 and Crysis 2 will have been long-replaced by something else as the supposed "best-looking game." But Journey will still look great, because it knows what it is.
I experienced a companionship the likes of which I've never even approached in other games, multiple times. If I were to list my five favorite moments of this year in games, all five of them would be from Journey. It surprised me, it scared me, it moved me. I felt triumph, I felt awe, I felt small, and I felt like the king of the world. All in 90 minutes.
