- Celeste - I mean, what hasn't been said about Celeste already? I'll just say this: I've been having a hard time dealing with my mental health over the past few years, and so Madeline's story really resonated with me. I know many people have dismissed it as being too simplistic of a take on the subject of depression, but I don't care. It's an amazing platformer that is a perfect storm of emotion thanks to its narrative, and its vibrant soundtrack.
- Octopath Traveler - I'm having a hard time describing why I am putting Octopath Traveler so high. It's certainly a divisive game, that has disappointed many people hoping for something closer to the golden age of Square's 16-bit era RPGs. And I understand that disappointment, but for me Octopath Traveler more than made up for it with its relatable characters, its fully orchestrated soundtrack, and most importantly, the battle system. I have nothing but praise for this game's battle system, it's a perfect balance of "easy to understand, hard to master" that kept me always learning new nuances about it during most of my 100+ hours soldiering though the game. It's definitely the game I spent the most time into in 2018, which wouldn't have happened if it were any less stellar.
- God of War - I had pretty much written off western AAA games since 2017 or so, but then in 2018 I decided to make an exception with God of War since it released just as I was taking time off from work. I did not regret it. I think the best way to describe it is that this game is to Santa Monica Studio what The Last of Us has been for Naughty Dog. It's a brilliantly executed game, that takes the God of War lore and repurposes it into a surprisingly mature narrative and handles that radical tone shift very well. Just like what Nintendo did with Breath of Wild, they were not afraid to make radical changes to an existing franchise, and it paid off immensely. And just like BotW it is also most likely to win GOTY here as well, so clearly this is something video games should do more often.
- Into The Breach - I'm a huge fan of FTL, and when I heard that the same developers made a turn-based strategy game I wasn't on board at first because I'm not a big fan of strategy games in general. But I gave it a shot anyway, and to my surprise I had an amazing time. In my opinion, ITB is less of a strategy game and more of a "damage control" game. Rather than being about planning multiple moves in advance, ITB forces you to into the present, or rather, the immediate next enemy turn, as you keep struggling to mitigate the possible harm done by the enemy's upcoming attacks. It's a unique dynamic that keeps you on your toes and sometimes forces you to make frustrating decisions as you are almost always outnumbered. Sadly the game eventually becomes stale as you start getting a hang of everything, but I expect them to add more content as time moves on. Maybe a year from now it will be exciting again.
- Iconoclasts - Joakim Sandberg made this game all by himself over the course of 7 years! That's fucking amazing! I wish I was even half as multi-talented (and hard-working) as him! Unfortunately his game released right next to Celeste which completely overshadowed it, although it did get a Switch port later which I hope did well for him. As for the game itself, yeah it's pretty solid. The most interesting part of its design philosophy is how it is very inspired by Metroid Fusion in its linearity, which makes it fairly unique among the endless wave of uninspired "metroidvanias" that have been flooding the indie scene lately.
- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Probably IntiCreates' best throwback game to date, this shameless ripoff of Castlevania 3 (intended as nothing more than a stretch goal incentive to the "main" Bloodstained game, no less) excels at doing exactly what it sets out to be. With just the right length and difficulty, and an excellent chiptune soundtrack led by SotN's Michiru Yamane, one might worry that it is so good that it may have raised expectations a bit too high for Ritual of the Night, which is still MIA…
- The Messenger - So following Bloodstained is yet another Shovel Knight-esque fake NES game. Maybe in a few years I'll be sick of them, but right now I still welcome them, as long as they manage to do something interesting. The Messenger doesn't quite feel like a masterpiece by any means, but it ticks off enough boxes for me, with the soundtrack, the multi-faceted art direction, and surprisingly, the writing, which I wasn't sure I liked at first, but eventually grew on me after a few "do you have any stories to share?". I'm also hoping for some sequels/spinoffs in the same universe, though I can't explain why without going into spoiler territory.
- Night In The Woods - This was a fun surprise to me, essentially a "walking simulator" kinda deal but presented as a 2D platformer (automatic bonus points for me), with a touching story of self-discovery and dealing with depression (yes, again). It also has a delightful art direction. Furthermore, the proof of concept prequel game included in the Switch version is fantastic, and makes me hope that the developers will produce more games with their engine.
- Nintendo Labo - (Variety Kit) I got it at launch aka. same day as God of War, and while I'm not going to pretend that it was nearly as memorable of an experience, I was surprisingly impressed by it. I know it sounds silly to say, but the whole package feel very high quality. Building all sorts of gadgets from nothing but just bending pieces of cardboard was very satisfying, and almost therapeutic. This is exactly the kind of weird stuff I wanna see more from Nintendo, and is a good reminder that they are the only truly Japanese console maker left, which is a damn shame. I'm probably going to buy the Vehicle Kit eventually, although the storage space taken by Labo is a genuine problem in my tiny apartment, so I have been reluctant so far.
- Tetris Effect - Tim Rogers describes Tetris Effect as "Luxury Tetris" and I agree that this is a pretty accurate describer. It doesn't do anything revolutionary to the existing timeless formula of Tetris, but it feels like a very polished and nice package of one of the best video games ever made (if not the best), and really, do we need anything more? The VR mode didn't do much for me though, I thought it would be the killer feature but I ended up playing more of it in regular mode.
- WarioWare Gold - It's the WarioWare equivalent to Rhythm Heaven Megamix! And it includes a superior version of the Game & Wario mini-game Gamer, hereby making G&W obsolete because that was the only good part of it! And there's more Charles Martinet voice acting than ever before! And… that's pretty much everything. Just like other WW games you can plow through it and feel like you've had your fill pretty fast. It's a good run, but just like the individual microgames it contains it is pretty much forgettable. It was going to be my #10 entry but then I remembered at the last minute that I forgot to include Into the Breach, so here it is as an honourable mention.
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