1. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U; Is Super Smash Bros. for Wii U better than Melee? The answer is no, but then again, no video game will likely ever match Melee's impeccable combination of speed, depth, gameplay intricacies, movement options, game feel, and just general perfection (all while managing to maintain a very low skill floor and a very high skill ceiling). While Smash 4 doesn't have most of that, what it does have is, for my money, the most fun present in any game released in 2014. A smorgasbord of modes are available here, and while not all of them are hits, the ones that do hit are awesome. Smash 4 has the best classic mode in a Smash Bros. game to date. Master Orders and Crazy Orders are addicting as hell. Amiibos are way more fun to train than I could have ever expected. The online netcode works a lot better than I even hoped as well. Smash 4 might not have fan service quite on the level of Brawl's, but most of Nintendo's franchises are well represented here, from Mario to Xenoblade, even if I wasn't entirely pleased with the character selection. The core gameplay, while again not on the level of Melee or Project M, is a lot of fun and a huge improvement over Brawl's general floaty gameplay; the game still has my favorite general game engine of any fighting game released this year. The stage selection is also pretty great, an improvement over 3DS's and Brawl's, though not quite as good as Melee or 64's. The game's general art design and presentation represent Nintendo as a whole, far more than any previous title in the series. In fact, the way Smash 4 manages to maintain an art direction so cohesive throughout is quite a feat considering how diverse Nintendo's cast of characters are. In fact, I think the best compliment I can give Smash 4, though, is that this game feels like it hits much closer to Sakurai's vision of what he wants Smash Bros. to be than any other title in the series thus far. It's a casual fighting game that players of any skill level can enjoy to some extent, representing Nintendo's entire history extremely well.
2. Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire; In all honesty, Pokemon ORAS is probably actually one of my least favorite Pokemon games. I think I like it less than every other mainline release except for the original Red/Green/Blue/Yellow versions. That being said, if I don't put this game at number 2 then I'd be lying, because I like it better than the games I list at 3-10. The lack of Battle Frontier and new additions to gen 3 in this game were unforgivable. In some ways this game just felt they took what didn't work about gen 6 and applied it to gen 3 (why did Game Freak change Mauville City to be more like the City from X/Y that everyone hated?!). Gen 3 was a gen that I felt like had potential to be one of the best if it had more work done on it, but this game didn't fix any of its flaws. ORAS is also just way too easy. All of this aside, ORAS is number 2 on this list for a reason, and that reason is that Pokemon is my favorite series in gaming. The core gameplay here of building a team of pocket monsters is just so perfected and finely tuned at this point. There are so many options, so many different ways to play through each Pokemon game, so many different strategies and team combinations. For all of the shit I give them, Game Freak continues to expand upon this and perfect this absolutely winning formula with every entry in the series, and for that reason, I feel as though Pokemon is the epitome of the turn-based RPG from a sheer gameplay perspective.
3. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker; Treasure Tracker may just very well be my biggest surprise of 2014. At the beginning of the year we didn't even know this game existed, and when it was announced I was somewhat skeptical, but here we are. Treasure Tracker is Tokyo EAD's first game since Donkey Kong Jungle Beat that demonstrates why they can make games more unique than anything else in the industry. It's also the game that, more than any other Tokyo EAD game I've played, represents why I feel that Tokyo EAD is the best developer in the business. They can take a very, very simple concept, with very, very simple gameplay mechanics, and take it very, very far. Captain Toad is the epitome of addition through subtraction; by making a platformer-puzzle game without a dedicated jump, attack, or dodge button, Tokyo EAD manages to constantly surprise the player with how intricate their levels to be with such simple gameplay mechanics. By the end of the game I was really quite blown away with how brilliant the levels could be. Everything about Captain Toad is designed in a way that feels deliberate and makes sense; even the usage of the Gamepad feels intuitive and non-intrusive. Captain Toad, more than any other title released in 2014, is the game that exemplifies what I want the video game industry to be like. We need more games like Captain Toad, Super Monkey Ball, Elite Beat Agents, and Pokemon Snap; unique, nonviolent titles with a happy atmosphere. I won't lie, Captain Toad doesn't have a ton of content; even for 40$, the title felt as though it was over a little too quickly. But perhaps that's just because I was having too much fun, as throughout my playthrough of Treasure Tracker, I never stopped grinning from ear to ear.
4. Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions; Despite not being very good at the games, I love, love, love the Geometry Wars titles. The dual stick control scheme feels so intuitive, and the games just feel so perfectly balanced. The original Geometry Wars actually played a fairly big part in convincing me to get an Xbox 360. However, prior to the release of this title, it had been a while since I last played a Geometry Wars game, and I feel as though I'd forgotten why I love the series so much. Because, holy hell, this game is a blast. Building upon Retro Evolved 2's mechanics in every way, Dimensions feels like the peak of everything else in the series up until now. Adventure more is one of the most intense experiences I've had this year, and presents an insane amount of gameplay variety and progression. With its stunning visuals and polish, Geometry Wars 3 puts lesser titles like Resogun and Mutant Storm Empire to shame.
5. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call; Forget Bravely Default and its garbage ass groundhog day chapter, Curtain Call is the game that proves that Square Enix is still relevant in 2014. Curtain Call admittedly doesn't have a whole lot of depth, and its skill ceiling is relatively low, but it lacks in depth it makes up in quantity of content. Because, holy hell is there a lot of game here. 221 songs included in total, not even including DLC! Lots of quests to complete as well, and the RPG elements give this game a ton of replay value as well. Admittedly I haven't played this game as much as I'd like to yet, but I'd wager that even once I play this more in the next couple weeks I'll still feel as though I'm just scratching the surface. Even though the gameplay mechanics aren't too deep, they're a lot of fun, evoking some kind of weird combination between Elite Beat Agents and Taiko Drum Master. Theatrhythm Curtain Call is also just a great Final Fantasy fanservice game as well, treating the entire franchise with respect. Definitely one of the best 3DS games released this year and my favorite rhythm game of the year.
6. Puyo Puyo Tetris; Quite possibly the most obscure game on this list, it's quite a travesty Puyo Puyo Tetris didn't get released in the US, as it's probably my favorite Tetris game in nearly a decade. Like Curtain Call, Puyo Puyo Tetris's best asset is its quantity of content. There are several modes here, and most of them are quite fun, putting unique spins on the Tetris and Puyo Puyo gameplay. While a lot of them are quite unbalanced, giving some sort of edge to the Puyo Puyo side or the Tetris side, they still manage to be a lot of fun. The game just feels really slick as well, especially on the Vita, where it's really nice to just have some kind of variation on Tetris at all. The story mode is also fun in a really weird and goofy way. Other than that, there's not much to say, it's Tetris meets Puyo Puyo, it's pretty much what you'd expect.
7. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze; I'm not really a big fan of Retro studios or Donkey Kong (outside of the criminally underrated Jungle Beat), so it's quite surprising that this game managed to rank on this list. I've played a little bit of DKC1 on SNES which I didn't like at all, DK64 which I though was....okay, Metroid Prime 1 and 2 which I loathed (mostly for reasons related to genre, I'll give them another try with the Wii U rereleases!), and DKCR which I enjoyed but found largely forgettable. Tropical Freeze feels like none of those games. I'd compare it to last year's impeccable Rayman Legends, which managed to feel like the Super Mario Galaxy of modern 2D platformers, which its beautiful art design, speed and intuitive, near-perfect level design. While Tropical Freeze doesn't quite hit the same highs that Rayman Legends hit, it comes damn close at times. While TF has less worlds than Returns had, it makes up for it by having an insane amount of variety in its levels; no two levels feel alike. The game's difficulty is near perfect, managing to feel at times difficult but always entirely fair and never too difficult. And of course, the soundtrack, the wondrous, wondrous soundtrack. I've actually never been too big on David Wise up until now, I feel as though the first two DKC games have great soundtracks that were ultimately hampered by the SNES's soundchip. Tropical Freeze, on the other hand, feels like the culmination of all of Wise's work up until now. As
Pitchfork puts it,
Wise could supply the Donkey Kong Country sound with the HD grandeur it deserved, subbing in live instrumentation for effects and weaving together dynamic scores to match the rapidly-unfolding events onscreen. The end result is a masterclass in game music design, and by extension, kinetic soundscapes in general.
Grassland Grove, in particular, is not just one of my favorite songs in a video game but one of my favorite songs ever, period. Though, keeping all of this in mind, I do feel like I should highlight the fact that TF's boss fights were terrible and really brought the game down for me, all of them feeling like they went on longer than they needed to, with bosses that had hitboxes that felt unclear at times. All of this aside, Tropical Freeze is clearly the best pure platformer of the year.
8. DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair; I'm actually a bit surprised myself with how low this one is on this list, as actually playing through this one was one of my favorite experiences of the year. Nevertheless, DanganRonpa 2 is quite the ride. I like the DanganRonpa franchise a lot, though admittedly not quite as much as the Ace Attorney or Zero Escape series. DR2 started slower than the first game, and at first it was looking like this game was going to end up a disappointment. Then chapter 4 hits. I'm not going to spoil what happens in this game, but suffice to say that halfway through playing DR2, the game's story's insanity ramps up and never slows down. I ended up falling in love with all of the new characters, plot twists, and how well this game's story fits in with the first's. The minigames continue to be intrusive though, and I don't quite like the writing as much as AA/ZE for the most part, but DR2 is still a blast and one of the best experiences of the year.
9. Mario Kart 8; Much like how Super Smash Bros. for Wii U falls short of Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario Kart 8 falls short of Mario Kart DS for its less technical gameplay and balanced map design. But much like how I feel that Melee is the best game ever, I feel that Mario Kart DS is the best racing game ever, and that MK8 still manages to be a great game despite not being quite as good as MKDS. MK8 mostly just feels like a more polished version of MK7 with much more interesting track design, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as MK7 was pretty great. In fact, the tracks here are all quite great. While the anti-gravity gimmick present here ultimately means very little, the developers still managed to take it very far for what it is, which enhanced the track design quite a bit. The game is also just stellar in terms of music, art design, and presentation. Online works pretty well and is quite fun. Like Smash 4, Mario Kart 8 manages to be the culmination of what the developers at Nintendo envision Mario Kart to be.
10. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd; Miku~! I've been a fan of the Project Diva games since the first Japan-only title released on the PSP. The series has been pretty consistently great since the second one, and F 2nd is no exception. Admittedly I've actually hardly played this game (I traditionally play the games during the Summer, so I'm waiting until then to play more), but having listened to the entire soundtrack I feel confident in putting it at number 10. I've been a fan of Vocaloid music since before I've been a fan of the Project Diva games, and F 2nd manages to have a nice selection of Vocaloid tunes as always, with many of them being huge earworms for me. I'm not sure if I'm too fond of the new star note mechanic, but it works fine and isn't really detrimental to the core experience too much (and thank god for the option to set stars to the sticks in the Vita version this time!). Outside of everything here, PDF 2nd is just a really solid rhythm game. There's not a ton of content like Curtain Call, and the skill ceiling is higher (though admittedly not a whole lot, it's still not anywhere close to Bemani games or ITG2 or something), but Project Diva F 2nd is just an addicting, fun rhythm game, rounding out the bottom of my list.
Honorable mentions
x. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS; This game actually probably should be at number 2. I like it more than every game released this year other than its console counterpart, I've put more time into it than any other game that released this year, and I even bought it twice (once in Japanese, once in English). However, I'm not putting it on here simply on account of the fact that its sheer existence pisses me off. This game shouldn't exist. All of the content exclusive to it should be in the Wii U version. There's no reason the Wii U version should be gimped because of the 3DS version. This is the reason Ice Climbers wasn't in the Wii U game. This is the reason we can't play Smash Run on the Wii U. This game is the reason we don't have an awesome new Earthbound stage on the Wii U version. Smash 3DS, I love you, but fuck your existence.
x. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy; This game is just a 3DS rerelease of a rerelease of three other games (though, admittedly the original rerelease had some issues that were fixed in this one), and I'm not including rereleases on my actual list. So why is it on here? Well, taken as one single package it might be the best game released this year, or at least close to it. Individually each Ace Attorney game has its own issues and flaws, but the originally trilogy, treated as one big game, is just an amazing experience with a brilliant cohesive story with many reoccurring themes and characters. I laughed and cried throughout my original playthrough of it, and this is now the definite version. Seriously guys, buy to support more Ace Attorney in the US! (hell, you guys should even buy that awful Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney title that shouldn't even be mentioned near the rest of this list just to support that)
x. Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remastered; Again, not on the top 10 because it's just a rerelease. This was my first time playing FFX and its now my favorite mainline FF game, and if it did count this game would be quite high on the list. The characters and writing here are embarrassingly bad, but everything else here is great, which I guess just shows how much I don't care about story if it's not the selling point of a game. FFX has it all; a brilliant progression system, a nice, fun, snappy battle system, some of the better music in the series, and a world design that feels melds together with the rest of the game extremely well. FFX's biggest strength might actually just be how linear it is; FFX uses its linearity to its advantage, making you feel like you're on a tour of this grand world instead of feeling as though you're just walking down linear corridor after linear corridor.
x. DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc; I actually probably like this game more than Miku, but I didn't include it on my list because having two DanganRonpa games would be booooring. Anyways, most of what I said for the second game goes for this game, though I'd say it's more consistent throughout and has a more interesting setting and a better soundtrack. It never gets quite as crazy as its successor but by the end I was pretty emotional about the game's story.
x. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax; I didn't like this game as much as the first one and I'm not really sure why, because it feels like it improves upon it in every way. The P4A games manage to have extremely accessible gameplay for anime fighting games, and the titles also have pretty good story modes and represent the Persona 4 universe really well. I guess I was mainly disappointed with this game's online being less active than the first game's, and also less scrubby players for me to play with being present. Also, despite the cliffhanger in the first game's story, I still feel like it's kind of unnecessary to have two Persona fighting games.
x. Guilty Gear Xrd; I had pretty high expectations for this game, and honestly it met them entirely, but upon playing Xrd I realized that I don't really love what I expected this game to be anyways, and now I'm sort of confused as to why I was so excited for this game in the first place. That aside, Xrd manages to be a completely dazzling fighting game, with a diverse cast of characters and just the perfect balance of speed/combos for me. I wasn't a big fan of Accent Core, but Xrd is really everything I wanted from the Guilty Gear series. Additionally it probably has my favorite visual style in any video game....ever. All of this aside, Xrd is just too lacking in content for me to put it on my actual top 10 list, especially next to P4AU. Additionally I was pretty pissed off at how poorly the online was working for the first couple of weeks, even though they have that all sorted out now.
x. TxK; TxK is a trippy shmup from the mind of Jeff Minter, creator of Temptest 2000. It manages to accomplish what it set out to do fairly well. It reminds me of the sort of games that you'd find on the earlier days of XBLA, which is neat. It's also a bit odd that this game is a Vita exclusive but eh. There isn't a whole lot to TxK otherwise, it's just a neat, fun, arcadey game that I found to be a unique enough release to put on here.
x. Nidhogg; Nidhogg is a unique, completely insane fencing game that I have a blast with every time I play it. The reason it's not on the top 10 list is that there's not really much to its online and none of my friends have any interest in playing a game this bizarre with me. As a result there's not a whole lot here for me to experience, but what I did experience I had a blast with. It's nice to have unconventional fighting games like this and Divekick, though this game isn't as fully featured as Divekick.
____
Games that could have made this list but I didn't play but want to:
D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
Sunset Overdrive
Demon Gaze
Final Fantasy XIII: Lighting Returns
The Talos Principle
Pushmo World
80 Days
TowerFall Ascension
Velocity 2X
Freedom Planet
Gauntlet
Monument Valley
Anyways, despite how awful and repugnant GamerGate made this year, this was a pretty great year in video game software, even though I was pretty down on it for most of the duration of the year. There were even games from this year that I played and enjoyed but didn't feel inclined to put on my honorable mentions because I didn't really see them as anything notable.
