post about games you played this year in list form. do you just want to talk about this year's new games? did you just spend this year working on your gaming backlog? just want to list whatever fun games you got around to this year? i'm not your mom, go nuts. post about your year in gaming however it went for you!
For a good chunk of this year, I finished playing Yakuza 0 and Kiwami from last year, (re)played a ton of kingdom hearts games, and beat basically every single megaman game in the classic and X series in the leadup to 11. Oh, and I got Hollow Knight and beat that! Great stuff. Other than that.....
- Kirby Star Allies - I love the kirby series, so getting this one was a no brainer. I really enjoyed it at launch, though you could possibly call it a little lacking in some places. Then it started getting free updates every so often, adding bonus playable characters to represent a ton of different mainline kirby games, and then including a brand new mode with the latest update, along with an even harder version of this game's True Arena. It's really good stuff.
- La Mulana 2 - La Mulana was a game I was always fascinated with, but in practice, I never really engaged it at the level it was really intended to be approached, that is, making notes and trying to solve the game's puzzles on my own. Whenever I ran into something troublesome, I ran off to an FAQ to find the answer. The game was still a lot of fun, but I always kinda wished I didn't immediately jump to the answer all the time. So with the sudden release of La Mulana 2, I did just that. I basically wrote nearly everything down into a notebook, trying to solve it all on my own, and comparing notes with a friend whenever I was truly stumped, and I mostly kept to my vow of doing it on my own. And I ended up enjoying La Mulana 2 a hell of a lot more than I did with 1. The game is just a lot of fun to begin with, but it felt fantastic when I was trying to figure out some shit on my own, and after finally understanding how to piece everything together, finally reaching an epiphany, figuring out the right answer! It's satisfying as hell.
- Celeste - I'm gonna be honest: I enjoyed this game, but I kinda just played through the story and dropped it before trying to unlock the core or anything like that, and I'm kinda dissappointed I did that, because this game is really good! It's got great music, it's cleverly designed and I really wanna get back to playing some more of it sometime.
- The Messenger - This one's pretty dang fun. It's a really great ninja themed action platformer with some really great, funny writing and some really great design ideas that get explored. The second half has some issues with the direction it goes and while it's got really fun areas, it does let it down at times, which sucks, but not enough to sour the whole experience. Deffo worth checking out.
- Megaman 11 - megamans' is back, baby, it's good again. Aruoooo (wolf howl). it's been years since Megaman 10, and not only did they come out with a new game, they actually tried to make something new instead of yet another 8-bit throwback! Don't get me wrong, I loved 9 and 10, but they needed to do something to freshen up the series for it's return, and hoo boy did they deliver. the new Double Gear system works great, and the stages and bosses are just a ton of fun overall. Some stuff isn't as great, like Torch Man's stage, and the length of the stages making Normal difficulty feel a bit too much with it's lack of checkpoint placement, but the game is seriously a lot of fun, and is very worth checking out if you're interested in playing a good megaman game or just want to play a mega man game to begin with.
- Deltarune Episode 1 - Do I really need to say much about this game? it's really fun and cool and interesting, and I'd love to see what else Toby Fox would have in store for this. also i love both ralsei and susie, they're amazing
- Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass - If I'm going to recommend a single game from this year that more people should absolutely play, it's gotta be this one. It's a really fun and extremely charming earthbound-like RPG that takes place within the dreams of a little boy named Jimmy. It's cute, it's charming, it's intriguing, it's funny, and it's terrifying. Within the depths of Jimmy's dreams lurks all sorts of nightmares, and to make things worse, his dream world is being invaded by a mysterious entity called the Pulsating Mass, threatening both him and his family. And so it's up to him and his family to stop the Pulsating Mass before it's too late.
God, this game is so good, and it really sucks that it feels like I'm the only one who's played it around here, because it's really fucking good! It's a fun, funny game with really good writing. The RPG part is really fun, and thanks to the nightmares you run into, this game has some of the best horror I've seen in a game in quite a long time. And I mean proper horror with tension and atmosphere, not just a bunch of jumpscares or some shite like that.
If you're interested in a really great RPG or just a really fucking good game, absolutely go check this game out! I cannot recommend it enough. If I'm going to name something as game of the year for me, it's honestly going to be this.