Spelunky - Take a trip with me down memory lane—it's 2012, you're in your underwear in an apartment covered in hair and the smell of freshly-sprayed aerosol wafts thru the air (it's "Lavender Laundry"), mingled with some other unmentionable scent. It's 7:44 PM and you have a paper due the following morning on some cobbled together college topic of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Edward Said's "Orientalism", that seemed good at the time, but you're starting to wonder will actually illustrate that you're a two-bit hack that somehow conned their way into upper-division english courses.
So, anyway, you're looking for some sort of mental release for this pent up frustration and innate desire to conquer something. That's when you fire up the dust-blasting Xbox 360 and turn on Spelunky, a game that demands perfection, a fickle lover you will not please. A perfect alternative to the futile essay you've left to rot.
It's an older game, so it might be odd to see at the beginning of a post on games I consumed for the better in 2016, but I think this was the year that I truly did benefit from it as opposed to those darker college years. Like I said, Spelunky is merciless and mean and awful, but the thing about that is: it never does wrong, masterfully designed with airtight controls and fluid gameplay. The game is incredibly succinct and straight-forward: you must spelunk to the depths of a forgotten tomb and relieve it of its treasures, and go to hell itself if you desire to rip the largest rubies from the throne of great Yama himself. It's a game that lets you make of it what you will—will you be satisfied with a quick run-through to the finish line for a new record, will you try to collect every gold brick and jewel you can scavenge, or will you just explore the nooks and crannies for more secret levels/characters/weapons?
I've never beaten the game, actually. I've played well over a couple hundred hours in my years spent with it, and a majority of them being this last year as I prepped for grad school in between study sessions and application work, and I've only ever barely grazed the surface of the very basic ending. But it's not about beating the game for me anymore, somewhere along the line I just kept playing it because I just liked to play it. It's difficult to find a game nowadays that you can just keep going back to. It's pick-up-and-play performance is much more nuanced than any basic mobile phone game, and yet it feels easier for me to approach than an extended match in something like Clash Royale (by the way, may that rest in pieces) or even Angry Birds, two games that are really popular for their easy-access and addictive qualities.
Anyway, I like it, you should check it out sometime. You can also play it with up to three other players locally, but I'd only recommend that if Everyone Can Have Fun. Otherwise it is a scourge and a blight.
Enderal - For those of you who know me well, you will know I'm A Huge Dork about Skyrim. And if you were friends with me in my Junior year at college, I'm So Sorry.
Anyway, I won't wax anon about any more Dark College Stories, but yeahhhh Enderal was right up my alley. It's a free, fan-made overhaul mod using Skyrim solely as the base for the game. That means assets and engines and all the other doohickies that put the pieces of game code together, but it's its own game, a sequel in fact to another mod of its type for the previous Elder Scrolls game Oblivion called Nehrim. Enderal is basically Skyrim if: it had a better story, focussed more on physical world and lore density, and had much better mechanics that comprised the gameplay. It's fantastic and I was able to get sucked in for another 60~ hours despite the unknown hundreds of hours I've spent on Skyrim in the past—though they may at first seem aesthetically similar, any ES fan worth their salt will notice very quickly that this is a game of tougher stuff.
Enderal is a free download that you should check out for suuuuuure if you have/liked Skyrim and are interested in playing a game that takes its best aspects and makes a much better game. A world and story you'll actually care for and remember fondly in the years to come (as it's a perfect length for returning to in time).
Pokémon Moon - I feel a little odd about saying this is my "Game of the Year", but it was definitely the winner of my "Most Relaxing/Rewarding Time Spent in this Year" award. Pokémon is old, and it hasn't actually changed very much at all in a very long time. You find pokes, you catch pokes, battle pokes, and the game ends at some point when you meet the standard 8 Gym Leaders and obliterate the Elite 4, the last thing standing between you and (if you so choose it) the Meta-Game. For a lot of people this is fine and dandy—the only difference from generation to generation is a graphical improvement, some minor details with mechanical makeup, and roughly 100 new pokémon to hunt for.
But if you're a Snob like me, it's very difficult to justify playing the same thing over and over from generation to generation when you know there are millions of other games that are Cool and New and doing Great Things that are pushing the medium forward. Pokémon then gets kinda hard to enjoy! When Alpha Sapphire came out a little while back I beat the third gym and called it quits—it was one of the prettiest Pokémon games at that point, but its wash-rinse-repeat formula had started to fray at the edges and I just couldn't be bothered to care. Games like Yokai Watch (very similar in the collectible monster genre) were surging in popularity in Japan, beating sales for Pokémon merch, and giving The Pokémon Company a run for its money.
Yada yada yada, long story short, we know how this weird little blob of me talking about Pokémon not doing so hot ends, though. Pokémon Go was coupled very well with the hype of Sun and Moon's announcement and eventual release, featuring a lot of original Gen 1 pokes that even your mom could name, so it was no wonder that the sales would be the greatest of any Pokémon game launch (and Nintendo 3DS game launch, for that matter) of all time.
Sun and Moon did switch things up. It's a beautiful, tropical game (which already puts it at an 8/10 overall for me) that cherishes friendship and invites fans both old and new to enjoy fantastic creatures and share them with their friends. Spending whole days and late nights trading and battling and just spazzing about the game with friends reminded me of my effervescent Gameboy days, rekindling youthful excitement for just Having Fun, helping my niece figure out where to go next, and spending an embarrassing New Years Eve-ning getting walloped by friends and foes alike... The game is far and away my favorite in the series, but more than enjoying it as a fun game it was a great reminder of why I enjoy playing and sharing games in the first place.
Honorable Mentions
NiER Automata Demo - i'm convinced that this game demo is my game of the year. kbye.
Dark Souls 3 - i'm sure it would have been great if i'd finished it.
join me at 9PM tomorrow for something else
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