The Game Awards have started to feel more like?? an advertising campaign than an awards show, but it still is an important way for the best games of the year to get some major recognition. TGA is ?heading towards its 11th year, and in the past decade it’s had the chance to highlight some of the best games ever made. 

2014 - Dragon Age: Inquisition - Bioware

The Other Contenders

• Bayonetta 2
• Dark Souls II
• Hearthstone 
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

The Game Awards kicked off in 2014, and that year’s top contenders and GotY winner established a bit of a trend for the show â€?the tendency to favor sprawling, open-world fantasy games over smaller titles and sequels over new IP. While that trend may not be ideal, it shouldn’t reflect poorly on Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is a great RPG that you can easily sink hundreds of hours into even if you haven’t played the two games that come before i??t. 

2015 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - CD Projekt Red 

The Other Contenders

• Bloodborne
• Metal Gear Solid V
• Super Mario Maker
• Fallout 4

Wild Hunt had some stiff competition in 2015, but it ended up winning not just Game of the Year, but also Best Role-Playing Game, and Developer of the Year for CD Projekt Red. Thanks to its fully realized character, masterfully crafted world, and staggering amount of side content, The Witcher 3 is still looked at as one of the best ??RPGs ever made. 

2016 - Overwatch  - Blizzard Entertainment 

The Other Contenders

• Titanfall 2
• Doom
• Inside
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

The 2016 Game Awards were the best yet for multiplayer games. Though it had some strong competition, Blizzard’s Overwatch came out on top. The first-person, team-based shooter put another notch in Blizzard’s belt of astounding successful multiplayer games. It inspired legions of fans and led to a much less well-received sequel. 

2017 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo EPD

The Other Contenders

• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
• Persona 4
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo had two chances to win Game of the Year heading into the 2017 Game Awards. While the contenders are all great games, no one was surprised when Breath of the Wild walked away with the award. The game completely rewrote everyone’s expectation for a Zelda entry and gave us an open world that?? is still one of the most fun to explore in all of gaming. 

2018 - God of War - Santa Monica Studio 

The Other Contenders

• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Marvel’s Spider-Man
• Monster Hunter: World
• Red Dead Redemption 2 

2018’s Game of the Year winner also rebooted the formula of a longstanding franchise. From combat to storytelling, God of War improved just about?? everything that previous games had introduced, and it breathed life into a franchise that hadn’t seen a new entry in half a decade. Its sequel was also a GotY contender, but for my money I’d take the 2018 game. 

2019 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - FromSoftware

The Other Contenders 

• Control
• Death Stranding
• The Outer Worlds
• Resident Evil 2
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Sekiro brought FromSoftware back into Game of the Year territory, and it’s easy to see why. It took the mechanics fans loved from the other Souls games and combined them with entirely new exploration and stealth systems. It also laid the groundwork for FromSoftware’s next masterpiece: Elden Ring. 

2020 - The Last of Us Part II - Naughty Dog 

The Other Contenders

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• Doom Eternal
• Final Fantasy VII Remake
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Hades

The Last of Us Part II is arguably the most controversial Game of the Year winner, but that has less to do with the situation at The Game Awards and more with the general reception of Part II in the first place. Despite the controversy, Part II undeniably pushed the envelope on video game storytelling, and it did that while making significant gameplay improvements to The Last of Us and showering ??us with eye-popping visuals. ??; 

2021 - It Takes Two - Hazelight Studios

The Other Contenders

• Deathloop
• Metroid Dread
• Psychonauts 2
• Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Resident Evil Village

It Takes Two really stands out among the other GotY winners because it's co-op only, a feature that’s as integral to the story as it is to the actual gameplay. It’s becoming harder to find good co-op games, especially ones with couch co-op as an option, and It Takes Two remains one of the very best options for playing with a friend that there’s ever been.&n?bsp;

2022 - Elden Ring - FromSoftware

The Other Contenders

• God of War Ragnarök
• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Stray
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3
• Horizon Forbidden West

Just three years after winning Game of the Year with Sekiro, FromSoftware was back at it with Elden Ring. We’ve got to pour one out for the Horizon franchise that just can’t seem to catch a break, but it’s hard to argue that Elden Ring didn’t earn the award. It not only created one of the biggest open worlds ever, but it filled that world wi?th all kinds of secrets to discover, areas to explore, and bizarre NPCs to meet (and kill). 

2023 - Baldur’s Gate 3 - Larian Studios

The Contenders

• Alan Wake 2
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Resident Evil 4
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder

In the best and worst year for gaming, 9,000 people working in the industry l??ost their jobs over the course of 2023, and at the same time we saw some incredible games debut. The level of detail, and the freedom of player expression in Baldur’s Gate 3 ??is absolutely mind-boggling, and it raises the bar for the entire art form.

The post All The Game Award for Game ??of the Year winners in order appeared first on Destructoid.

Lethal Company has enjoyed enormous success since it launched just a couple of months ago. From smashing its player record not long after releasing to being the top-selling game on Steam (where it still sits), it's been quite the journey for indie developer Zeekerss. Now, t?he title could walk away with? one of gaming's greatest honors.

The Steam Awards recently revealed the player-voted nominations for this year. With categories such as Labor of Love, Best Game on Steam Deck, Most Innovative Gameplay, and more, there's a lot of competition about. However, it's seeing Lethal Company up for Game of the Year that's most intriguing.

Obviously, we're aware of just how successful the release has been, but it says something that it's able to go up against the likes of Baldur's Gate 3 and Resident Evil 4. Those are some elbows Zeekerss' game i?s rubbing against, and it'll be interesting to see whether it can come out on top a?gainst such names.

Something of an underdog story

In a world of AAA flexing and classic releases being given a new lease on life in the form of remakes and remasters, it's tough for independent games to stand out. Whether Lethal Company takes the Game of the Year award away or not doesn't detract from the fact that it was nominate??d in the first place.

At the time of writing, it's still going strong, and I have �rather asha??medly �still n?ot got round to playing it.

If you want to vote on your favorite in each of the Steam Awards categories, you can do so from December 21 (when the Steam Winter sale begins). Voting w?ill close at 10am PT on January 2, so you've got the holiday period to make your choices.

The post Lethal Company is up fo??r Game of the Year at The Steam Awards appeared first on Destructoid.

There are very few years that aren't "winners" for Nintendo.?? You can set your watch to the publisher putting out at ?least one Game of the Year nominee annually. Now, it's time to decide the best of 2023.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Obviously, all eyes are going to be on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. As a follow-up to Breath of the Wild, it was expected to deliver: But I don't think anyone could have anticipated just how much it would iterate upon the fantastic framework we already got with the launch of the Switch in 2017. People may have been worried that Tears would operate like an "expansion pack" to the 2017 modern classic, but those fears were completely unf??ounded.

We also got a new Fire Emblem game, another Pikmin entry (which might be the best one to date), a slick remaster of a great Kirby title, a killer Xenoblade Chronicles DLC, and Paranormasight. ??2023 was packed and succeeded in h??itting us across the head with a steady stream of prior-delayed games at once.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Super Mario Bros. Wonder has been called "the best Mario game since Super Mario World" by many and is the perfect prescription for folks who have been burned by the constant deluge of the "New" subseries series. Although most Mario games are shoo-ins for nominatio??ns, thi?s one feels different.

Fire Emblem Engage

Any given Fire Emblem game is going to appeal ?to certain types of people, but this one grabbed me really early on. It helped tha??t the DLC leaned into the whole "all-stars" angle, and brought multiple generations of the series together in one bright and accessible entry.

Pikmin 4

I can't say enough nice things about Pikmin 4. When I w??as playing it, I couldn't stop. There's so much to do and explore, and just when you think it's over, the game completely opens up. Oh, and it's still incredibly cute.

Paranormasight

You can always count on Square Enix to surprise us, sometimes in the most unlikely way possible. One month I looked up and realized "wow, there are multiple Square-ba?cked RPGs coming out this month, and I haven't heard about any of them for weeks." Paranormasight crept up on a lot of us but managed to leave an impact on most of the staff. Once this game gets running, it doesn't let up.

Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe

Kirby's Return to Dreamland is low-key one of my favorite Kirby games, and I was happy to see it return, with some bells and whistles, in 2023. There's not much to say about Kirby that hasn't already been said: it's comfort food at worst, and in the case of Dreamland Deluxe, it's a high bar that hearkens back to the era of Kirby Super Star.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

I have an entire room of my house that's littered with just Xenoblade pictures, and I really need to up my game and get some Xenoblade Chronicles 3 scenes in there. Future Redeemed was a fa?ntastic bit of DLC that both continues the story of the third core entry and ties the entire univer?se together.

Check out the nominees below, and come back next week for our f??ull reveal!

Here are the nominees for Destructoid’s Best Switch Game of 2023:

• Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• Pikmin 4
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Paranormasight
• Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe
• Fire Emblem Engage
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

Our final results will go live next week, starting on December 18 with the winner of Best Indie. Stay tuned thro??ughout this week for the rest of our nominees, as we build up to the Overall Game of the Year award on December 22!

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best Switch Game of 2023 appeared first on Destructoid.

(I mean their characters, obviously)

FromSoftware's stellar, (and stellar-selling), release Elden Ring is now a little over one year old, and publisher Bandai Namco has released a new infographic detailing the adventures, escapades and many, many deaths suffered by players at the hands of Malenia, Margit, Limgrave, and the other deadly denizens of The Lands Betwe??en.

Since launch, there have been over nine bi??llion player deaths in the famously challenging RPG. 69% of these were at the hands of enemies, while the remaining demises are divided between long falls, status effects, or on the blade of other players, (though the latter only counts for a measly 2%. Players have sta?rted 5.9 billion boss battles, with 329 million players foolishly standing up to Malenia, Blade of Miquella.

When it comes to battle plans, the most popular spell cast is Rock Sling, followed up by Crystal Torrent, and?? then Glintstone Pebble. In regard to incantations, Blessing of the Erdtree?? is the most acquired variant, with Bestial Sting and Golden Vow close behind. One billion summons have been called into battle, with 88% of these being instances of co-op. It seems that people certainly aren't too shy about asking for a helping hand.

As I'm sure you don't need me to tell you, Elden Ring was also not only the best-selling game of 2022, but also walked away with an abundance of Game of the Year awards, (including our own), and is still one of today's most played games, 13 months on from release. There is more adventure en route, with expansion DLC Shadow of the Erdtree currently in developm??ent, though there is currently no release date.

Elden Ring is availa??ble now o?n PlayStation, PC, and Xbox platforms.

The post Elden Ring year on??e saw over 9 billion? player deaths appeared first on Destructoid.

The 'I'm walkin' here' award goes to...

Yesterday saw the New York Videogame Critics Circle host its 12th annual New York Game Awards, celebrating ??the best releases to hit the PC, console, and mobile gaming mark??et in 2022.

In a ceremony packed full of, frankly, oddly monikered categories Elden Ring was the big winner of the evening, taking home the "Big Apple Award for Best Game of the Year". In addition, FromSoftware's highly celebrated fantasy RPG also captured the "Statue of Liberty Award for Best World". Elden Ring, as you will no doubt be aware, topped many outlets' "Best of" lists at the end of 2022, (including our own), whic?h is a te??stament to the title's appeal in aesthetic design, gameplay, and atmosphere.

Other big winners of the night included Poncle's Vampire Survivors, which won the "Off-Broadway Award for Best Indie Game", while actor Manon Gage took home the "Great White Way Award for Best Acting in a Game", for her affecting performance in Sam Barlow's Immortality. The "A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game" was won by card-battle Marvel Snap, while the "Herman Melville Award for Best Writing in a Game" went to Sony Santa Monica's brutal and evocative sequel God of War: Ragnarok.

Here is the winners' list for the 2023 New York Game Awards:

• Big Apple Award for Best Game of the Year: Elden Ring
• Off-Broadway Award for Best Indie Game: Vampire Survivors
• Herman Melville Award for Best Writing in a Game: God of War Ragnarök
• Statue of Liberty Award for Best World: Elden Ring
• Tin Pan Alley Award for Best Music in a Game: Metal: Hellsinger
• Great White Way Award for Best Acting in a Game: Manon Gage (Immortality)
• Coney Island Dreamland Award for Best AR/VR Game: Moss: Book II
• Central Park Children’s Zoo Award for Best Kids Game: Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game: Marvel Snap
• Freedom Tower Award for Best Remake: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
• Joltinâ€?Joe Award for Best Esports Player of the Year: Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto (VGBootCamp/Red Bull Esports)
• Chumley’s Speakeasy Award for Best Hidden Gem: Signalis
• NYC GWB Award for Best DLC: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
• Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism: Justin Heckert (Vanity Fair)
• Elizabeth Jennings Graham Award for Best Educator: Ryan O'Callaghan
• Andrew Yoon Legend Award Recipient: Phil Spencer

The post Elden?? Ring b?ags another Best Game trophy at New York Game Awards appeared first on Destructoid.

Vote or Die (not really)

[Update: Closing the polls at 3 PM Central US time]

Step right up, it's time for you to make your voice heard in the annual jbsgame.community Game of the Year vote. We've already laid out all of our awards for this year, so now it's time for you, the best community i??n gaming, to stamp your approval on one of the hundreds of games that released this year. Those of you who have been around for a few years, the process will be quite similar to the last few, but I'll go over the tenants of our democratic system for those who don't know.

Here at Destructoid we use the ranked voting system to decide which game wins the coveted Community Game of the Year. It works like this, you get three votes for Game of the Year. Your first choice receives three points, second choice two, and third choice receives one. Then at the end of the voting period, we tally up the points, and whoever h??as the most points wins. It gives smaller games at least a fighting chance to win while also allowing you to choose the big-name releases that you ??enjoyed as well.

Below you will find a form to submit your vote through. I've compiled a list of 200+ games that released during the previous year of eligibility (December 1, 2021 - November 30, 2022) and while I tried my best to get what I could, I'm sure I missed some. The exhaustive list of games on the ballot are listed here so you can peruse it and then go into the form and make your selection. If there's something missing that you want to vote for, hit up the comments and I'll slot it in a?s best as I can.  There are a few rules thou??gh;

1. One vote per person, more info on that down below
2. You cannot vote for the same game more than once on a ballot as it defeats the purpose of ranked voting
3. Ballot stuffing is going to be curbed this year. Previously we've had issues with the votes getting overwhelmed by some people with too much time on their hands and whereas in previous years I've let it slide, that ends now. Any votes that look suspicious will be wiped. Hate to do this but in order to limit everyone to one vote it would require me to have people sign in to a Google account and I don't think people would like that either.

The voting form can be found: here. We will continue to accept votes until Friday, January 6, 2023. Thank you for reading and being a part of this wond??erful community that we call our internet home.

The post It’s time to vote for Destructoid’s Community Game of the year for 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

Cblogs of 12/24 to 12/31/2022

-TheBlondeBass writes a retrospective ??about all the games he completed in 2022 ?and a personal update as well.

-Taterchimp ranks all the games they played in 2022.

-TroyFullbuster celebrate??s game randomizers and wri??tes about why you should give them a try.

-Virtua Kazama details his hopes and expectations for Virtua Fighter in 2023.

-Dinokaiser does a deep dive into Midgard (1998)on ?the?? PC, an early 3D Action-RPG with a unique history.

-PhilsPhindings discusses the similarities between the soundtrack of Final Fantasy VII and Soul/Gospel music.

�strong>PhilsPhindings discusses the similarities between the soundtrack of Final Fantasy IX and traditional Irish Music.

-ChronoLynxx opens t?his week's TGIF community forum for random discussions.

Thanks for the blogs this week, folks, not just this week, but for the entirety of 2022. We really do appreciate each and every one of them. Thanks to Lord Spencer for their tireless work in ensuring that they are r??ecapped weekly for their appearance right here on the front ??page.

As always, if you wanna join in on the HOT TAKE party for the discourse of 2023, (and there will be d??iscourse), then head on over t?o the Cblogs section right now. Spill your thoughts on all matters gaming, and you will find yourself recapped on this here front page next week. We are aware that the editor has been incredibly testy this year, and for that, we apologize. We hope we can encourage someone more tech-savvy than ourselves to take a look at it in the new year.

The post Did you get to all of the relea?ses you wanted to in 2??022? appeared first on Destructoid.

Live A Live

When I first covered the rumor that Square Enix was reaching well into its own past to dig up long-lost Super Famicom release Live A Live, I will admit that, despite being pleased with the preservation element, I didn't really think that the endeavor would amount to much. After all, various '90s classics have been resurrected time and again, only to fall short of their former glories or, in the worst cases, miss the point entirely.

But Live A Live was something different. Live A Live, la??unched in 1994 at the tail-end of the 16-bit reign, was both ambitious and way ahead of its time. The unknown release featured a slew of characters and worlds, multiple backstories, and a fascinating chrono-conundrum set against the backdrop of eight different ti?me periods �from prehistory and Imperial China, to the American Midwest and the far-flung future.

To build this complex story �complete with wildly different stylistic settings �for the humble Super Famicom was an incredible feat, and conceptually beyond anything available on the console at the time. A feat readily achieved by director Takashi Tokito (Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger), designer Nobuyuki Inoue (Sword of Mana, Mother 3), composer Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), and the rest of Square's t?alented RPG sector known ??as Development Division 5.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbzZl49kklU&ab_channel=Destruc??toid

And yet, despite the high praise received for the title at launch, Live A Live would never officially see the light of day outside of its native Japan. Launched just too late for the suits, already eyeing up the fledgling 32-bit market, Live A Live would not be localized for western audiences, spoken of only vi?a word of mouth, gaming magazines, and newsletters... And now, it is readily available for Nintendo Switch.

Developed by Square's Team Asano, and overseen by Tokita himself, the Live a Live remake wisely avoids tampering with the original title too much, merely cleaning up the visuals, accurately translating the dialogue, and offering small tweaks to elements of its gameplay, control, and U.I to better present the title on modern technology to modern audiences. The delightful characters and worlds were redrawn by Naoki Ikushima, while Shimomura, having lost the master tapes, recomposed the entire soundtrack by ear �a task she admitted held momentous weight, given fans' love of the game's score.

Finally released in the summer of this year, the Live A Live remake retains all of its power to capture and charm an audience's imagination. Importantly, it finally cements over a large pothole in the history of developer Square Enix, and sees one of the most pioneering and ambitious RPG releases ever developed to player??s young and old, many of whom now have the opportunity ?to experience this fine adventure for the very first time.

It may have taken almost three decades, but Live A Live can finally bask in its long-deserved spotlight.

The post Destructoid’s award for Best Remaster/Remake of 2022 goes to… appeared first on Destructoid.

How many Switch consoles do you have at this point?

It was a very good year for the Switch. The console/portable hybrid skyrocketed in sales, landing squa??rely in the top five all-time listing: directly below the PS4 (though Nintendo is poised to beat that with their next earning's report). Things are going well for Nintendo, but we also got a ton ??of great games in 2022.

Bayonetta 3 completely wowed me, and showed me what Platinum Games could really do all over again. Pokemon Legends reinvented the wheel in many respects with the aging Pokemon formula: and outshined a full-on generational release. Triangle Strategy and Kirby and the Forgotten Land reminded us all of the raw sticking power of SRPGs and K?irby respectively.

But Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is one game I really need to shout out here in this post, as Monolith Soft deserves the credit. They've consistently been pumping out bangers for years, sometimes completely out of nowhere, and keep delivering. They're one of the best studios Nintendo has ever hosted in its organization, and the team clearly gets what makes JRPGs special: ??including str??ong characterizations and worlds that are easy to get lost in.

It's studios? like Monolith Soft that help Nintendo secure Game of the Year nominees that are actual exclusives, year after year. Without further ado, here are Destructoid's Switch nominee??s for 2022.

Here are the nominees for Destructoid's Best Switch Game of 2022:

• Bayonetta 3
• Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
• Pokemon Legends: Arceus
• Triangle Strategy
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• Splatoon 3
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best Switch Game of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

I know when that hotline bling, it can only mean a new set of challenges has unlocked

After relenting for far too many years, the biggest releases on mobile in 2022 finally convinced me to get one of those Xbox controller attachments that hold your phone. After about five minutes of using it, I tossed it in the bin. The whole set-up was just too heavy and flimsy, even if it made playing games like Diablo Immortal and Apex Legends Mobile an absolute dream. No, if I'm going to get a controller for my mobile, I'm going to need to shell out the big bucks for one of those Backbones. And considering what's on the horizon for next year, it'll likely be worth? it.

For this year though, I was perfectly happy playing through the best mobile games of the year with touchscreen controls. Whether I was digging up treasure in Shovel Knight Dig or scoring the winning goal in Rocket League Sideswipe–a game that was technically released in late November 2021 but wasn't actually playable until a few days later? in December so we're counting it as eligible–touchscreen controls continue to evolve and improve with each passing year and each crop of new games.

Except for in Wordle where my fat fingers keep typing the wrong letters. Yes, we're counting Wordle for this year's GotY awards as well because while it might have started up last fall, no??body outside a small group of people was playing it until December.

W??e didn't cover as many mobile games on Destructoid this year as we have in the past, but that doesn't mean we weren't playing them.

Here are the nominees for Destructoid's Best Mobile Game of 2022:

• Jetpack Joyride 2
• Marvel Snap
• Poinpy
• Rocket League Sideswipe
• Shovel Knight Dig
• Slice & Dice
• Wordle

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best Mobile Game of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

PC indeed

As someone who heretically prefers to play games on a controller, PC may not always be my first choice. But even I have to admit that it's a platform that has some of the most compelling releases of the year, every year. When it's easier for small, independent teams to publish to platforms l??ike Steam or itch.io, the cream usually tends to rise to the top, so that PC is? always one of the most stacked "best of the year" categories, in my opinion. 2022 was no exception, because this banger-filled list is making it really difficult to try and decide which game is gonna take my vote.

First you've got Signalis, which is not only an awesome tribute to classic horror games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil, but also one of the most stylish and heart-wrenching games? I've played in a long time. Everything from the art style to the soundtrack to the puzzle design elevated the creepy, slow-burn atmosphere, and it's a game I've been left thinking about weeks after having put it down.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KFiOp2o4L8

Citizen Sleeper is yet another innov??ative title that released in 2022 among a swath of other games that are moving the medium forward. Its focus is on a tabletop-inspired, dice-centric narrative, and it executes that premise with all of the polish you can imagine. What it is able to achieve in unique yet somehow familiar gameplay, it also wins you over with its stories, even after leaving us wi?th some mysteries to explore on our next adventure.

For all the shoot 'em up fans out there, Vampire Survivors has you covered. The game has minimalistic art and gameplay design, but with good reason �the gameplay loop is so well-designed and lean, it doesn't need any of the extra fluff. It's one of those games that's perfect to sit down and play in little bouts, but every time you do, you know you're gonna have a blast. Vampire Survivors snuck up ??on me for sure, but it did indeed turn out to be one of the highlights of 2022.

Trombone Champ is the obvious stand-out of the year. At a glance, it's not a game I think any of us would have expected to appear on a list like this, but when you look more closely, it's all there. It's simply a well-designed rhythm game (going so far as to actually imitate how it feels to play a real trombone ?with a scary amount of accuracy), the visual style is downright hilarious, and the soundtrack has the perfect lineup of songs that you're either super familiar?? with, or make you go "I know this song but I never knew what it was called."

It was one of those ideas that the team would make or break in its execution, and they absolutely nailed it. If nothing else, the entire gaming community's reaction to Trombone Champ is enough to warrant its place on this list, I think, because there was something magical about seeing a game collectively bring all o??f us joy upon its release.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpQ8a3c7EAQ

If you're not a speedrunning person, you will be after playing Neon White. While you can really take or leave the story, the gameplay alone is enough to land Neon White on this list. It's bombastic, it's creative, and of course fast-paced, and it'll make even the most tepid players (aka me) twitching to set a new record. This title is really able to capture the raw, tactical fun that only tightly-designed gameplay can really deliver, and is maybe the best game to do so since the release of Hades.

Then there's NORCO, which is easily one of the weirdest games of the year, in the best way. It's a Southern Gothic point-and-click narrative set in the marshlands of New Orleans, and let me tell you, it is one wild ride. NORCO has absolutely beautiful prose and breathtaking pixel art, and then you'll encounter one of the most strange set pieces you've likel?y seen in a game in a while. I found the game incredibly moving, and easily one of the best narrative games of the year. If nothing else, it simply deserves more eyes on it, because it was an absolute delight to? play.

Last but certainly not least, we have Victoria 3. It may not be for everyone, but for those who are fans of grand strategy games, the newest release from Paradox Interactive is considered a truly great title. The cult following of the Victoria series has been long-awaiting the series' third installment, as Paradox themselves call it "one of the most anticipated games in Paradox’s history." The general consensus is that Victoria 3 did in fact live up to the hype, making it one of the best grand strategy games to come out in recent years, and certainly in ?2022.

Here are the nominees for Destructoid’s Best PC Game of 2022:

• Signalis
• Citizen Sleeper
• Vampire Survivors
• Trombone Champ
• Neon White
• NORCO
• Victoria 3

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best PC Game of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

A movie star, a priest, and Master Chief walk into a bar...

The year is?? coming to a close, and so it's time to look back at what 2022 held, particularly for Xbox fans. Microsoft had a seemingly quiet year, but this year's nominees for Destructoid's best-in-class Xbox games spoke volumes.

As a reminder, our awards season here at Destructoid runs December-to-December. So while Halo Infinite wasn't eligible last year, it is this year, and it's likely better off for it. While 343 Industries' FPS struggled right out of the gate, a series of updates have been gradually turning the narrative around. The recent Forge beta and quality-of-life improvements are starting to make Infinite feel a bit more like what folks might have ho??ped for at ?launch, and so it's worth noting that.

Obsidian wound up being the standard-bearer for Microsoft's first-party efforts in 2022, with not one but two games making our nominations. The first, Grounded, launched out of Early Access, and those at the site who checked it out really dug Obsidian's take on co-op survival in a backyard world. Pentiment, meanwhile, is a passion project with some stellar art, direction, and writing. It captures life in the 16th century through a thrilling, emotional tale of art and legacy.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyMlV5_HRWk

Of course, Xbox these days isn't just about the first-party offerings. Xbox Game Pass had some stellar games arrive on the service, and the rest of our list shows that, as they've all been on Xbox Game Pass this year. We start with Nobody Saves the World, an early 2022 hit from Guacamelee developer Drinkbox that we dug ?and didn't want to see fall out of our collective recollection c?ome GOTY season. It's colorful, inventive, and its transformations are a blast to mix and match.

Tunic barely needs an introduction, as it seemed to capture many hearts and minds over the last few years. Underneath a cute action game was a FEZ-like puzzle waiting t??o be solved. I also just like a game t?hat has a manual in it, okay?

The latest from Sam Barlow and the Half Mermaid crew, Immortality, is one of the more innovative games on this list. The way it turned racking and reeling footage, like you were using an old film machine, to tell a? spooky and resonant story about creation and art has stuck wit?h me, months after I rolled credits. It's also, in my humble opinion, a game you absolutely have to play using a controller.

The many, many rodents of A Plague Tale: Requiem close out our Xbox ballot. It's a gorgeous, emotional adventure, and as our review details, it shows how Asobo Studio has found a strong beat in this tale of two beleaguered si??blings. Check out t??he official ballot below, and come back later this month to see who takes the top prize.

Here are the nominees for Destructoid’s Best Xbox Game of 2022:

• Grounded
• Halo Infinite
• Nobody Saves the World
• Pentiment
• Tunic
• Immortality
• A Plague Tale: Requiem

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best Xbox Game of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

Can you even buy a PS5 yet?

2022 has been a pretty action-packed year for Sony's premier gaming brand. And while arguably the first year that saw its two-year-old platform, PlayStation 5, accelerate its sales past the 25 million mark, the past 12 months have still seen a wide variety of new releases squeezed onto its best-selling predecessor, PS4, hardware that simply refuses?? to go gently into that good night.

Even visual stunners such as Guerrilla Games' Horizon Forbidden West and Sony Santa Monica's God of War Ragnarok were causing the PS4's modest CPU to sweat ?away, ensuring that the full transition to the ninth ge??neration remains mired in a strange limbo. It's a good situation for the players, as the PS4 has an incredible install base of over 100 million users. But, as someone who previously worked retail for many generations, I can't remember a gaming generation that took this long to become mainline.

Still, there were some PS5-only releases, many of which boasted incredible visuals, dazzling effects, and very welcome high-speed load times. All in, it's a pretty good time to be a PlayStation owner. Many new titles are still compatible with PS4, while its bigger brother spearheads the charge into the next half-decade of gaming... Even if the physical console itself is still far, far too large for anybody's TV stand.

Here are the nominees for Destructoid's Best PlayStation Game of 2022:

• Cult of The Lamb
• Elden Ring
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Sifu
• Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
• Stray

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best PlayStation Game of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

Step into the (Elden) ring

Believe it or don't, the arrival of April officially sees us one-third into 2022. It seems like only yesterday that I was watching the clock strike midnight and thinking abou??t how much promise the new year would bring, and, just like that, we're already four months into the year and I??'ve already lost all of that well-intended hope!

Jesting aside, (I'm not jesting), there's no denying that the opening chunk of 2022 has brought with it a boatload of grand releases �many of which were simply late to the party having been held over from 2021. These delays resulted in something of an embarrassment of riches for video game fans, particularly across Febru??ary and March, as many heavy heavy-hitters came out swinging, providing fans of all genres with what must be the biggest opening salvo in modern memory.

While many of us tend to find our Game of the Year during the busy spring and fall periods, it seems that we've already been gifted a huge selection of great-to-excellen??t titles to choose from in 2022.

Whether it's FromSoftware's fantasy adventure Elden Ring, Nintendo's period piece Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Guerrilla Games' stunning Horizon: Forbidden West, Sloclap's hard-hitting dust-up Sifu, or even the colorful silliness of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, truly there has already been a five-star release for everybody. And that's without even mentioning the slew of fantastic indie games such as Norco, Tunic, Nobody Saves the World, and Infernax.

And so, I open the floor to you, our beloved community, to ask what one title is currently frontrunner for your Game of the Year 2022. There is still everything to play for. Not only will you have not experienced everything 2022 has offered so far, but there are still a whopping eight months of releases ahead until the arrival of the much-vaunted "awards season". Regardless, there is likely to be something currently crowned King of the Hill, prepared to fe??nd off all-comers as the rest of ?the year plays out...

..??.Cause baby, it ain'?t over 'til it's ooooooooo-veeeeeeerrrrr...

The post One third into 2022: What’s your early frontrunner for Game of the Year? appeared first on Destructoid.

Super Auto Pets was robbed

Another trip around the sun has been completed and so we conclude our year-end look at the best video games that came out in 2021. While the staff has had their say, we here at Destruct?oid love to give the community a chance to voice its game of the year opinion as well.

As? always, I reached out to various community members and moderators for insight as to how the selected games affected them. It also helps since I apparently was vastly out of touch with the community at large and didn't touch a single of the games in the top five. So without anymore brouhaha, let's get into the top five games of 2021 as selected by you, our community!

5th place - Shin Megami Tensei V

JRPGs have always had a good home on Nintendo’s systems, all the way back to the golden days of Final Fantasy on NES and SNES. For proof that the Switch is living up to that proud tradition, look no further than Shin Megami Tensei V.

Shin Megami Tensei V quite noticeably decided to put gameplay first, but neve??rtheless managed to expertly set the post-apocalyptic scene. From the opening cutscene detailing how the Christian God took divinity from all other deities and reduced them to mere demons, all the way to the very end, it’s easy to get sucked into the dark setting filled to the brim with religious commentary.

That said, the real draw of SMT V is the combat system, as well as optimizing your team of increasingly stronger demons. SMT after all, is not unlike Pokémon, if Pokémon had you fighting alongside Loki, Quetzalcoatl, Shiva, and some ridiculously obscure monster from any culture’s folklore you care to name. Also unlike Pokémon, Shin Megami Tensei V forces you to constantly change up and improve your team. Every level-up ?comes with new opportunities to recruit something stronger, and you’ll constantly be making new decisions about how to spec for upcoming bosses.

Pair all of this with the series staple “Press Turn�system, which massively rewards exploiting enemy weakness, and you’ve got a JRPG that is endlessly addicting. Every time I wanted to put the game down, I realized that just one more level would let me finally get that d?emon I’ve been eyeing for hours. Every time you turn a corner, there is some distant landmar??k calling your name. And every time you start wondering when the story is going to progress again, some impressive scene of gods, angels, and demons is there to greet you.

Long story short: if you’re a fan of JRPGs, if you’re looking for some of the best combat of the genre, and if you like your ‘mons to be a little more dark and serious, look no further than Shin Megami Tensei V.

-ShadeOfLight, Moderator

4th place - Resident Evil Village

The Resident Evil series reminds me a lot of Lady Gaga. Reinvention is a word that comes to mind. Also, meat dress. The success of Village comes from the RE team’s ability to balance the sensibilities of the franchise while moving it forward into the future. This was evident in how Village felt like a greatest hits collection of the franchise. The four lords domains each took cues from prior game?s, a gamble that paid off. Taking the player back to the halcyon days of wandering a baroque mansion solving puzzles had me grinning like a kid again. Then I went to the doll’s house.

We don’t talk about the doll’s house.

The RE team has shown that they know what makes Resident Evil work. They get the atmosphere, the horror, and the camp. You’re playing your fav??orite straight-to-video horror movie that somehow got a summer blockbuster ??budget.

Village played to its strengths. It had so much of what we’ve grown to love and celebrate in the RE series but it still felt fresh and new. That’s all I’ve ever wanted from my beloved Resident Evil games.

Meat dress. Doll’s house. This game was awesome.

-Occams Electric Toothbrush, Lead Moderator

3rd place - Psychonauts 2

Was the original Psychonauts 16 years ago, or three days? The answer depends on whether you ask us gamers or the characters in Psychonauts 2. The newly released sequel continues the story from Psychonauts without a single hitch.

Be that as it may, video games have moved forward quite a lot since 2005, and it goes without saying that Psychonauts 2 incorporates many?? improvements t??o the formula. Platforming feels a lot smoother, combat is a lot more involved than it ever was, and the mental worlds you visit look better than ever.

However, Psychonauts 2’s greatest achievement is i??n its characters, level design, a??nd how incredibly well the two align with each other. Many characters whose minds you enter suffer from some kind of mental illness. This ranges from addiction to overstimulation, and from anxiety to losing a sense of identity. Each of these is reflected directly in its respective level as well as in its enemies.

For example, jumping into the mind of the character who gets overstimulated leads yo??u to a psychedelic landscape of oversaturated colors where lots of objects just move too fast. While there, you encounter Pan?ic Attacks. That is to say, enemies representing panic attacks. They are fast, scary, they hit you when you’re not looking, and just seeing them pop up fills you with dread. In short, they’re an apt representation of real panic attacks.

Psychonauts 2 thus deals with me?ntal health in a very respectful and recognizable way. Every character is handled with a gentle touch, and each is integral to solving their own issues, albeit with a lot of outside help on the part of the player.

Of course, Psychonauts 2 never sacrifices tight level design, fun, and wonder to make its points. If anything, its mental worlds go far beyond what the original managed to pull off. Great set-pieces, beautifully themed worlds, and new surprises around every corner make Psychonauts 2 one of the most heartfe?l??t and imaginative games of 2021.

-ShadeOfLight, Moderator

Runner-Up - Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread had a lot to live up to, being the first entirely new 2D side-scrolling Metroid game in about 20 years since Metroid Fusion and its direct sequel as well. Fusion also happens to be the game that got me into Metroid as a franchise, being my first experience with it so I was nervously excited for this game. MercurySteam’s previous effort remaking Samus Returns was a good game, and I figured Dread would be good at worst, but also accepted it probably wouldn’t live up t??o its pre??decessors.

I'm glad to report that I was wrong. This game is great and in my opinion, deserves to stand amongst the other 2D Metroids. Additionally, Dread fixes many of the criticisms I had with Samus Returns. Map design is good and it generally keeps nudging you in the right direction, with teleporters cutting down on transit time as the map gets larger. Areas look really good with a solid variety of biomes, lot?s of nice attention to detail and the EMMI chases can be really tense and exciting, even if a little more variety or personality would have helped them stay fresh. The new ?monster designs are pretty appealing and/or downright repulsive, and I think this might be one of my favorite suits of power armor that Samus has worn.

One of the best elements of the game is the gameplay. It feels so good to play and it has been refined very well. It's fun just to move, and it's obvious lessons have been learned from other Metroidvanias that have come about in the intervening years since Fusion. I think generally the combat flow is good, especially as you begin to click with it (an option to rebind controls wouldn’t go amiss though). The aiming feature and being able to stand in place while firing is a welcome continuation from the Samus Returns remake and the slide among other combat abilities allow combat to get more complex, with some pretty enjoy??able and challenging boss fights.

The story is also surprisingly enjoyable despite a few quibbles, building on the previous lore and the universe proper in some positive and interesting ways. Samus shows her personality in cutscenes and in gameplay without needing to say a word in a way that greatly reminds me of Doom 2016 and there's a lot of good attention ?to detail? in the animations generally.

I adore Dread if my gushing hasn’t made it obvious, and I think one of the highest compliments I can pay it is that immediately after I beat it at 100%, I started a new save. I know not ever??yone gels with it, but speaking purely for myself I love it, and I still almost can’t believe that it even exists. And I’m hungry for MORE.

-Gamemaniac3434, Community member

2021 Community Game of the Year Winner - Deathloop

Time loops constituted one of the biggest trends in video game storytelling in 2021. Whether you were exploring a roguelike planet in Returnal, trying to find your way out of a doomed city of antiquity in The Forgotten City, or spending six hours committing some very questionable acts in 12 Minutes, it seemed many games writers wanted players to get the most out of a short period of time last year. Each of those titles handled the concept in their own unique way, but I don’t think any game in 2021 was as effective in utilizing this storytelling technique as Deathloop.

Expectations were high for Arkane Studio’s oft-delayed follow-up to its past hit titles like Prey and Dishonored. Thankfully, outside of one horribly misguided plot twist at the end, Deathloop delivered. Not only did it feature outstanding stealth gameplay, a sati??sfying feel to all of its weapons, and some creative ways to kill your enemies thanks to the slabs, but it also approached the concept of a time loop in an extremel?y thoughtful way.

Each run of the day, each failure on the part of the player, only made Cole more efficient, more capable, and more deadly. With the most stylishly designed world of 2021 just chock full of little areas of interest, Deathloop slowly transitioned from a game I thought I could kill a few hours with into one I never wanted to end until I was sure I had s?een it all.

Sure, other players hopping into my game as Julianna to kill me right before I made my escape was a real kick to the shins, but it was all part of the fun. I’ll admit, it took me a while to really get into Deathloop. For whatever reason, it just didn't click right away. Probably all those damn tutorials. But once I got into the flow of things, once I started knocking off those Visionaries and stealing their powers, I didn’t want to put the controller down. Undoubtedly well worth the wait, it’s easy to see why so many votes were stuffed into ballots this year to name Deathloop as the jbsgame.community Pick of 2021.

-CJ Andriessen, Staff Editor

And there you have it, congrats to Arkane for putting out such a loved and cherished game that it received 70 community votes for top game of the year within the span of an hour! The final results of the vote, as well as the top 25 games chosen and a full rundown of the points amassed, can be viewed here.

As a reminder, a game? that got voted in the top spot received three points, while a game receiving a runner-up vote received two points, then the third-place vote got one point.

Don't you worry Hell Let Loose, you're still number one in my heart.

Thanks as always to all? the readers and community members for continuing to be a part of this little slice of the internet.

The post The 2021 jbsgame.community Game of the Year winners are… appeared first on Destructoid.

Pandemic: Year 2 Edition

It has been a long and str?enuous year, but hopefully, you and your loved ones have made it through as best as you could. It's not easy living during a global pandemic, in fact, sometimes it's downright terrifying. Thankfully though we have games and people to play with to get us through. You've already heard from the staff here at Destruc??toid about what we thought were the greatest games of the year, now it's time for you the community to voice your opinion for the 2021 game of ??the year.

Similar to last year we're going to be utilizing a preferential voting system so you can have three choices for game of the year! The way it will work is this: you'll select your choice for game of the year, as well as a second and third choice. Each choice will then be given a point value based on their ranking: first place will get three points, second place two, and third place one. Finally, the votes will be tallied and a final standing will be selected?.

Because it is a preferential voting system and that system can be gamed by a single game being picked multiple times on the same ballot, any ballot that has a single game picked on it multiple times will be thrown out. Also, a gentle reminder that the eligibility period runs from December 1, 2020, to November 30, 2021. Halo: Infinite, you have been saved...

There are 174 games to choose fr?om for the 2021 Community Game of the Year award, which is a lot for a dropdown menu. T?o make things easier, you can peruse this list to make sure there aren't any games that y?ou forgot.

Voting will remain open until Noon CST, January 11, 2022, so make sure to get in there and make your voice heard!

The post Vote for the Destructoid 202?1 Community ??Game of the Year appeared first on Destructoid.

Please, no objections

Well, then. 2021 is over. A series of 365 days that decided, "what if we did 2020, again?" It was the remaster we did not need. But all that said, in spite of the continued effects of the pandemic and other nonsense, it was ??a good year too—one with good times, fun stories, and a smattering of new games to call my favorites of the year.

When I ran down the list of what I've played last year, I realized how all over the place it's been. There weren't a ton of tentpole games like there have been in recent years. Maybe Halo Infinite, but Xbox's heavy hitter launched a little late in the year for me to feel like I know where I'm at with it. I got to dive back into the Mass Effect series with the Legendary Edition, an honorable? mention for this list; I didn't include it because it was my umpteenth time playing through the whole thing, but I'm glad those games have a unified home now.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8i53TtQ6IQ

2021 was another year of stellar indies. 2021 was a year of surprises, even in the AAA space. 2021 was the year of revivals, group plays, and long, late-night visual novel reading binges. Heck, by the end of it, I was even into Final Fantasy XIV. Never say never.

It was also the first year of my words finding a home here at Destructoid, and I just want to take a brief moment to thank all of y'all. If you've been hanging around in the comments, reading our work, and supporting the cool stories, interviews, reviews, and silly blogs we did here in 2021, thanks a ton!

Well, let's get this going? Here are? some of my favorite games? from the year 2021, in no particular order except the final one.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

Holy flark, I did not see this one coming. I had admittedly written off Guardians of the Galaxy after the launch of Marvel's Avengers, and the Guardians aren't exactly my usual cup of tea when it comes to Marvel content anyways. Something about its Mass Effect Andromeda-ness appealed to me though, and after hearing enough people shower surprised praise on it, I g??a?ve it a shot.

What a pleasant, surprisingly heartfelt, and genuinely funny game. Honestly, Guardians of the Galaxy could still use a tune-up on the combat side. But the massive appeal of Eidos Montreal's Marvel journey is its writing and its characters. They got me to genuinely care about Drax, Gamora, and Rocket, with some genuinely fantastic writing at times. And all the barks! It was a good year for combat barks. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy was the surprise I did not expect this year.

Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139...

After Nier Automata put the Nier series on my radar, I was very, very eager to see what its predecessor was like. And Nier Replicant did not disappoint. Though maybe a little bit more tedious than Automata, the modernizations of this year's Replicant remaster went a l?ong way toward making an old game very fun to play through again and a??gain.

It was also great to see additional ties made to Automata with some added content. Both games serve as halves of a whole, to me; Replicant can gut-punch you about something, then hit you again in Automata, or vice versa. I'm curious to see what's next for Yoko Taro and the crew behind these games, and especially eager to see how the heck Nier plays out inside a critically acclaimed MMORPG. But Replicant felt like I was t?ying off a loose end of gaming, mining the depths of sad?ness and despair as I went.

The Forgotten City / Inscryption

This one's a two-parter, and I'll explain why: earlier this year, I wrote about my newfoun?d joy in playing games with a?? group over Discord. Since I was young, I've always enjoyed the many-people, one-control??????????????????????????ler way of playing certain games. It doesn't work for everything, but it can make some experiences really click.

In the driver's seat portion of this entry, The Forgotten City was a wonder to pick apart. In a year of time loop games offering all kinds of approaches to mystery and narrative, The Forgotten City stands above the pack. It's such a concise, contained loop that still finds so much space to work in. It waxes on and on about philosophy and history, with so much detail and care put into framing the story at hand wi?thin the world at large. And the reveals are still just incredible.

On the flip-side, Inscryption is the game I still haven't played myself, but have back-seated through multiple friends. It's a refreshing take on the deck-building genre popularized by games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train. But it's also not just a good deck-builder; it's a good mystery, a good adventure, a good puzzle gam?e, and oh so much more. I've been a fan of developer Daniel Mullins for a few years now, and it's been great to see him get so much recognition for the kinds of?? games he does oh-so-well.

Before Your Eyes

Honestly, I feel like I got this take out best a little while ago. Before Your Eyes is simply the one game from this year that I think everyone, and I mean everyone, should play.

In the time it takes to watch a modern movie, Before Your Eyes takes you through a life, one blink at a time. The way that dev?eloper GoodbyeWorld Games uses the blinking mechanic is so simple at first and becomes so clever as the story goes on. It's really an experience that I think anyone and everyone should try at least once.? Get a webcam, hook it up, and experience one of the most genuinely moving games of the year.

Dungeon Encounters

Sometimes a game shows up and it is exactly what you needed, despite being something you'd never think to ask for in the first place. Dungeon Encounters feels experimental. It feels fresh and new. It's like getting to see the results of an internal game jam, only it's coming from the minds behind some of Final Fantasy's best.

The minimalist approach can seem sparse at first, but it really lets you fill in the spaces as you go. The deeper into the dungeon you go, the less it feels like a barren, unfinished game world, and the more it feels like a dive into a virtual tabletop. Its b?at??tle system is so brilliant and twists on itself in interesting ways. And the way systems and menus intertwine creates such a compelling experience of building and managing not just a party, but a whole company of adventurers. Everyone remembers their first Petrified journeyer, or when they discovered how to recruit more members.

I truly hope Dungeon Encounters is a sign of more to come from Square En?ix. More offbeat, interesting gam?es like this from big publishers, please!

Life is Strange: True Colors

I've fallen a bit behind on Life is Strange. I loved the first season but never got around to the others. I think by the time Life is Strange 2 was releasing, I was burned out on the episodic model. One of the smartest things Life is Strange: True Colors does ??i?s keep the episodic structure, but deliver them all at once. You know, like what streaming services used to do.

The other smartest thing it does is introduce Alex Chen, the heart and soul of True Colors. Between the incredible voice acting and really spot-on motion capture, Alex just feels like a relatable, endearing protagonist that carries the weight of the small-town mystery so well. Deck Nine really found a winner in the small-town story of True Colors, and it's giving me hope that more adventure gam??es from the episodic era can keep it going into the future.

Gnosia

Going into 2021, Gnosia was already on my radar. Its announcement at a winter Nintendo Indie World showcase was so exciting because I'd heard whispers about this game from a small studio in Japan that was making the rounds, one of the last Vita exclusives making its mark and now finally coming to Switch. And to me, Gnosia did not disappoint.

Gnosia is what I loved about old Flash dating sims, mixed with modern rogue-lite narrative ideas. It's another looping game, only this one has you getting stronger run over run, able to sway debates, and discern impostors at a glance. And all the while, you get smarter too, learning more about thes??e characters. Who they are, their prefe??rred method of verbal warfare, and what they're hiding about the predicament you're all in.

If I had to pick the most overlooked game of the year, it's Gnosia. It's also decidedly not going to be everyone's cup of tea; I have a feeling this is one from 2021 that will have video essays made about it years from now. It's as much a game to analyze and dive deep into as it is to play in the moment. But it really did so many things that took me absolutely by surprise. And what a true ending, too. Gnosia is the little indie you shouldn't overlook.

Wildermyth

Speaking of small indie projects that up-ended my world, Wildermyth is both a game I can't yell about enough and a game I'm excited to see keep growing. Its melding of XCOM-like tactics and D&D narrative, with a hint of ?overworld management, might seem a bit? dense. But it all works in conjunction to make a tabletop campaign come to life before your eyes, with procedurally generated engines driving the story behind it.

Wildermyth is, to put it bluntly, an engine for building myths and legends. Every campaign is a new story, and a new opportunity to see a humble farmer called to greatness. And then turned into a part-crow wizard with a penchant for archery. Or a stealthy huntress able to set enemies ablaze with her hands. Or a warrior, warm and cheerful among friends, slowly fading away thanks to the stone that pierced her heart. These are all stories that Wildermyth served to me on a silver platter.

The team at Worldwalker Games LLC has been doing a good job at updating Wildermyth too, adding new events and options. And it has Steam Workshop support, wh??ere the modding scene is only growing. This game has a lot of potential to become even more in the years to come, and I can't wait to see it happen.

Tales of Arise

This was the revival the Tales series needed. Tales of Arise isn't just a show of force for Bandai Namco, putting in a significant budget and graphical upgrade compared to previous en??tries. But it scales up without losing its so??ul in the process.

Characters still loudly declare DEMON FANG and call out long incantations in the heat of battle, a symphony of special moves and responses. The story is grand and moving, yet there are still so many wonderful skits to uncover. Cooking is still here! And the cast is a genuine all-timer lineup of Tales party members.

Tales of Arise ultimately falls prey to some of the series' known shortcomings too. Its last act sags a good deal, and there are still odd spikes in levels and one very annoying recurring villain. But despite the falters, some of my favorite moments this year were seeing the animations for Boost Strikes over and over. The Boost moves felt like the glue for Tales of Arise, bringing the party together and really making fights feel like an all-out brawl. The horizon is very, very bright for the Tales series, and that's a good feeling.

The Backlog of Shame, 2021 Edition: Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Lost Judgement, Unsighted, Shin Megami Tensei V, Death's Door

The Honorable Mentions, 2021 Edition: Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Dyson Sphere Program, Scarlet Nexus, Loop Hero, New Pokémon Snap, Operation: Tango

And my favorite game of the year goes to...

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

When I finished the final case in The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, I knew ??two things. One, I needed a moment to just breathe and take it all in. And two, there was no way this game wouldn't be on my end-of-the-year list.

I've been a fan of Phoenix Wright for a while, from the original trilogy up through the newer games. And as much as I love Phoenix, Apollo, Athena, and the crew, Great Ace Attorney is a breath of fresh air. No high-tech mechanisms or spirit channeling—the focus is solely on some basic forensics and deductions. And ?oh, the deductions. Herlock Sholmes and Ryunosuke Naruhodo doing the dance of deduction is such a treat.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles benefits greatly from being two games packed into one. And where I can see how fans wouldn't like the cliffhanger and obviously unanswered threads of the first game leading into the second, as a duo they are nigh-unstoppable. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a ten-case powerhouse that weaves threads and stories throughout its entire run, building up to huge showdowns in court with honor, reputation, lega??cy, and even lives on the line.

This is the game I'd hand to anyone looking to get into the Ace Attorney series. It's a lengthy one, but so, so wor?th your time. And there's no doubt it's my favorite game I've played this year.

The post Eric’s favorite games of 2021 appeared first on Destructoid.

Because you can't review them all

Any??body who says that 2021 was a lackluster year for gaming must have been asleep for the past 365 days. Despite a lot of titles getting kicked down the road to 2022, there were plenty of games for every type of player last year. Like, so many that you don’t even have to look that hard to find them.

If anything, there were too many good games last year. The cup runneth over in 2021, and like many sites, Destructoid wasn’t able to cover every single one with a proper review. Thankfully, my actual 2021 GOTY, Death's Door, was given an excellent review by our own Chris Moyse. I guess I could review all these games right now during this incredibly slow month, but if my experience with?? being a games blogger has taught me anything, it’s that very few people give a shit about a review after the game has been released. So, I’ll do the next best thing and round up the five best games I played last year that Destructoid didn’t review.

5. The Artful Escape

One of the most disappointing aspects of the games industry for me is there is more money being injected into this hobby than ever before, yet all we seem to get out of the big developers are games that strive for realistic presentations. Don’t g?et me wrong, I think it’s cool that there are artists out there trying to make cheek skin and chin stubble look as realistic as possible. But I grew up in an era where games were set in fantastical worlds with imaginative art direction where nobody gave a shit if each blade of grass in a field was rendered individually.

Thankfully, indie developers have picked up the slack in this regard over the past decade or so. And in 2021, there was no more visually interesting game than The Artful Escape. Released in September, the Beethoven & Dinosa??ur developed side-scrolling adventure game takes protagonist Francis Vendetti on a psychedelic journey to the stars to find his alter-ego. It’s a great little story, if a bit too neat, about the creative process and breaking away from the expectations that burden you. As somebody still trying to find my voice in this world, it’s great motivation to keep on keeping on.

If I’m being honest, you don’t actually have to play through The Artful Escape to get the complete experience. Like many “story-first�games that have become more common in the age of the indie developer, if you can find a good Let’s Play where the YouTuber keeps their mouth shut, you should be fine treating it ??like a long movie.

4. Hoa

At the other end of the indie visual spectrum is Hoa, a lite puzzle platformer from Skrollcat Studios. Unlike The Artful Escape, the game isn’t trying to melt your mind with its outrageous visuals. That’s because nothing about Hoa is outrageous. Instead, this two-ish hour adventure featuring a Borrower cosplaying?? as t??he Traveler from Journey is a more tranquil experience, with beautiful ha??nd-drawn visuals and a soothing soundtrack that keeps the whole affair in a place of quietude. 

It’s not going to blo??w anybody away, but making my way through this world was the video game equivalent of meditating last year. And if there is anything I needed in 2021, it was entertainment that put my soul at ease. I should probably keep this game at the ready on my Series S, just in case 2022 turns out to be as much of a nightmare as last year.

3. NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1

A couple of years ago, the developers at Cardboard Robot Games?? finally put the finishing touches on their long-in-development fighter Pocket Rumble. It was a pretty okay game, but what excited me about it more th??an anything else was that it was a glimpse into an era of gaming that I completely missed out on. 

For most of my adolescence, we only had one console at a time in our house. Because I grew up in a pretty rural area, that meant we only got access to the biggest names in the industry, i.e. Nintendo and PlayStation. I didn’t even know what a NeoGeo Pocket was until I was in college and made the crushing mistake of wanting to be a games blogger. With no financially feasible way to get my hands on the dev??ice, I thought the NeoGeo Pocket would always be something I’d view wistfully from afar.

But last year, SNK threw me a bone with the NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1. Bringing together 10 of what I hope are the better games in the handheld’s catalog into one package, it provided me with a crash course of sorts on the history of the NGPC, and I loved every second of it. From Gal Fighters to SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium to Big Tournament Golf, there isn’t a game in this co??llection I ?haven’t spent at least a half-dozen hours with.

Here’s to hoping SNK contin??ues ?bringing these games to Switch and that it releases enough of them to warrant a Vol. 2.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1AtpOv9kxg

2. Melty Blood: Type Lumina

In my book, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars is the greatest traditional fighting game that’s ever been made. Unlike our own Chris Moyse or Chris Carter, I never got deep enough into the genre to master all the special moves and combos that professionals like SonicFox and Tokido pull off with ease. That’s why I love TvC so much. It simplified the formula enough that a simpleton like me could not only understand how the fighting engine works but actually get pretty damn good at it. Of all the fighting games I’ve played since then, Melty Blood: Type Lumina is the only one that's been able to simulate th??e sensation I experienced the first time I threw down the fisticuffs as Frank West or Jun t?he Swan.

I know nothing about the Tsukihime series and how the hell it spawned a fighting game spin-off. All I know is I love this game enough that I actually can see myself getting back into the genre. Despite having a lot of mechanics to consider as you fight your foes–including the Magic Circuit, Blood Heat, Last Arc, and the Moon Icons–Type Lumina is incredibly easy to get into with some newcomer-friendly additions like the Rapid Beat auto-combo. As somebody who is routinely looking at this genre from the outside in, I can’t stress enough the importance of allowin??g new pl??ayers to feel powerful even if they don’t fully understand all the mechanics of the game. Looking like a badass right out the gate only makes me want to learn more of the finer details this outstanding engine has to offer.

Despite being one of the few original fighting games of last year, this one flew so far under the radar that no version of it has an official Metacritic score. If you’re in the market for a new fighting game as we wait to figure out how Capcom will screw up Street Fighter VI, it’s not a bad choice. You may not care about the story or the characters, but just like with Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, it’s the fighting engine that ma??tters, and the team at French Bread has put together something really special here.

1. Unpacking

O??ne thing you should?? know about me is that I tend to move around a lot. I have moved to several different houses and apartments over the past decade as my job and living situations have changed. I move around so much I stopped bothering with plain, brown boxes to pack all my crap into and instead have a nice collection of plastic bins that most items don’t get taken out of when I schlep them from place to place.

So it should be no wonder that Unpacking is one of my favorite games of 2021. I first heard about the game after somebody I follow on Twitter tweeted out a short clip of the sounds the items make when you place them on different surfaces. The cur??iosity born from watching that clip fueled me to finally give it a go over Christmas break.

Unpacking immediately spoke to me with the first room I decorated, if only because that room is a near spitting image of my childhood bedroom. I too had the bunk bed with the desk underneath, a dresser full of toys, and too much stuff on my shelves. As I continued to help the unseen protagonist unpack their life with each subsequent move, I ?was reminded of all of my past changes in address and how each item I’ve kept with me throughout the years has a story of why it hasn’t been donated to Goodwill yet.

That same story is being told throughout Unpacking. Just like with a real person, you can learn a great deal about the person making all of these moves just by looking at the items they keep with them through each life-altering event. Environmental storytelling at its finest, I've actually played through it three times now just to see if I could paint a full mental picture of who this person is, which is not something I thought I'd do with this puzzler. Unpacking is easily the most human game I’v??e ever played, and it’s a damn shame I didn’t get around to playing it in time for our Game of the Year aw??ards.

The post CJ’s five favorite games of 2021 that Destructoid didn’t review appeared first on Destructoid.

Bad year, great games

Hey kids! I hope you had a fun and frisky 2021. I guess it's possible that you did, but for most of us, it was pretty torturous. I know I shouldn't complain. No one close to me got super sick, I kept my job, and despite the constant stress and drain that came from maintaining in the midst of year two of a global pandemic, I still managed to get a bunch of cool projects done. I even have a sheep named after me in The Good Life.

But I also shouldn't pretend to be happy with 2021 when I'm not. This year was disillusioning, both in and out of the games industry. Many great titles were relatively ignored while mostly-worthless trends like NFTs seemed to be everywhere. Tons of people in power throughout the industry were revealed to have done terrible things. And to cap it all off, the CEO of Square Enix capped off the year by saying that he wants to move in a "games are not for fun" direction. The cream was sinking to the bottom while the ?turds rose to the top. It's enough to make you ?want to throw in the blood-soaked, stinking towel.

But there were many??, many games that kept that towel soft and warm. Just playing games, as opposed to writing about them, talking about them, or thinking about them, did more to keep me going in 2021 than any other in my adult life. My total playtime with games was five times longer in 2021 than it was in 2020. Some of that was coping. Some of it was also keeping my kid engaged when he couldn't play with his friends. But most of all, it was a way to make a deep connection w?ith the people who made the games through their work, in a year when connection was in short supply.

Here are some of the games of 2021 that did ?the best job of that.

My favorite surprise of 2021: Astalon: Tears of Earth

I'm a sucker for games that are made by small teams, and they don't get much smaller than LABS Works. Matt Kap, artist on Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and Castle in the Darkness, founded the studio in 2018, and their debut game is a stunner. In a world packed to the gills with indie games of all shapes and sizes, all vying for your attention, Astalon: Tears of Earth humbly plops itself on your lap and says "Hey, remember Xanadu, the Japan-only PC prequel to Faxanadu, whi?ch is a weird NES game that you probably don?'t remember?" Sadly, most people seem to have answered "No."

And they're missing out! But how can I explain that to you with just words? Well, if that Faxanadu reference was lost on you, then maybe you've heard of La-Mulana, the notoriously mean Metroidvania series? Astalon is like La-Mulana but fair, and with five distinctly different playable characters that have really fun powers. And it's got key art by the creator of the 90's anime series Dragon Half! It's great stuff! But sadly, it just didn't stand out for a lot of folks amid waves hands around furiously all of this 2021 shit.

I have been following Matt Kap for years, but I may not have known about Astalon if he didn't cold email me and ask me to play it. As I did, I felt like I was sitting over Matt's shoulder as he struggled through making the game, grinning big when a particular puzzle really came together and sighing just as big when he hit a major setback on his way to the finish line. For people who love the 8-bit era of sword and sorcery adventure games, Astalon is as authentic a love letter as they come??. Anyone who loves? the genre is sure to feel just as loved.

My favorite guilt-free game to play with my kid: S.U.M.

2021 was the first year that I ever had to teach a child (my son) how to do math. It's harder than you might think. In? a year that was already filled with massive problems to solve, there weren't many days when, come 7 p.m., my brain was energized with great ideas on how to explain why a "10" is actually "ten ones" and not "a one?? next to a zero".  The hardest, and also most interesting, thing about trying to teach a kid something new is you can only rely on the knowledge they already have for context.

You're also restricted by their limited list of motivations. You can't squeeze blood from a stone, and you can't get a person whose brain naturally wanders towards blowing up monsters in Dusk (the boomer shooter) instead of tips and tricks on how to add up to solutions higher than 20. One night he announced "I want a game with monsters, where you don't see the character you play, and you kill the monsters. That?'s al??l I'm going to do." He was putting me to task.

After searching the Switch eShop store for a few minutes, I found a game that met his criteria. S.U.M. Slay Uncool Monsters met all his criteria, and it also taught the boy basic addition and subtraction (it also has the option to do multiplication and division, but we're not there yet). There were many times I wondered if I was making the right choices in 2021. Should I have let him even play a bit of Dusk, No More Heroes 3 (with the swears turned off), Axiom Verge 2, and Metroid Dread, or would they give him nightmares for life? Should I have instead been engaging in non-nightmarish, fatherly fun like tossing around the football and telling him about how good vegetables are for his skin?? Or is that its own kind of nightmare?

I'll never know for sure, but I have no doubt that we shared some virtual adventures that we'll never forget, and that ??at least one of them made him way better than his friends at basic addition and subtraction.

My favorite "It's great but I wish it was even better" game of 2021: Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread is the franchise's Force Awakens. It sticks to the formula to a fault, calling back to all the surface-level things that fans praise in the series while shaving off all the rough edges that may not appeal to modern audiences. The problem for me is, those rough edges are exactly why the series has stuck with me all those years. My ideal Metroid moment-to-moment steps are: 1) Be thrust into an illogical, alien world 2) Get stuck 3) Ex?periment with new things (too??ls, techniques, and or strategies) 4) Discover what works 5) Master what you've discovered 6) Repeat.

There was definitely some of that in Metroid Dread, but the developers' urge to turn Samus into "The Badass Action Hero that you know from the Smash Bros. series"  instead of a "plodding, slow jumping astronaut with little mainstream appeal" led Dread to feel more like a 2D Bayonetta title than anything else. And that's not a bad thing! I really had fun with Dread. It just wasn't a full return to the things about the series I really love. I didn't get lost once! Everything was so clearly signposted. I also rarely felt afraid or intimidated. After getting killed by a boss or an E.M.M.I. a few times, their tells and patterns became clear, and they all became pretty easy to beat. And that's cool! It's nice to see Samus be fully empowered?? early on for a change.

It's also a relief to see her finally win her psychological battles. More so than any other game in the series, Dread shows Samus come to terms with her trauma. In the end, (Spoilers) she fully embraces the ways others have altered her, and the rage she feels about it, and masters it all. Self-acceptance is a beautiful thing, and it was very loving of Nintendo and Mercury Steam to want to give that gift, and many others, to their #1 Sci-Fi Action star. It's just that in order to also make the game a crowd-pleaser, they made Dread a sweet, super-powered bre??eze instead of the confounding storm of escape rooms that I grew ??up with.

My "I heard it wasn't great but it's actually amazing" game of 2021: SkateBIRD

When you love someone, their imperfections look beautiful. You can see why other people may not feel the same way about them, but you wouldn't change them for the world. That's how I feel about SkateBIRD. I get that, especially pre-patch, the game felt chunky and tough to grasp. But that's exactly how real skateboarding feels for ?me, a 45-year old man who has definitely ollied once, but it was a long time ago. Even then, it really may have been more of a half-olly that mostly failed. At this point, who's to say?

SkateBIRD embraces that kind of subjectivity. Come to think of it, there are a few ways that it feels more like classic Metroid than even Dread does. Instead of being a human with bird alien DNA trying to navigate through a bird alien hideout, you're a bird wearing people clothes trying to do people things. The world of humans is not built for you, but with the right mix of tenacity and curiosity, you can go place??s you never thought possible, pulling o??ff moves once thought unthinkable.

And that soundtrack! Imagine the music from Jet Set Radio, but with samples of bird-obsessed scientists awing at a majestic Heron Gull one minute, and a confident young lad declaring that the president is a racist transphobe the next. It's truly an album for the ages.

My favorite "I heard it was bad but I wish it was even worse" game of 2021: GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

I cannot legitimately enjoy the GTA series. I have tried and tried, but on the whole, they just feel bad. I don't think I would like the people that came up with them. It feels like they don't even like video games that much. Sure, they like what games can do, but instead of embracing the surreality, the creativity, and the heart of the medium, they just want to recreate Quentin Tarantino's '90s movies. They want to let you be a sociopath who... loves to explore? I don't get it. Playing 3D GTA games feels like working a boring-but-demanding job for asshole bosses, all at the cost of doing anything worthwhile with your time (and from some accounts, making them feel that way too.)

Of course, I've felt pretty alone with that opinion for the past 20 years or so. For a long time, it felt like there were two kinds of people in this world; the ones who steer clear of "Grand Theft Auto" because it sounds like a deep dive into the dank dumpster of our collective cultur?al consciousness, and the ones who can't wait to take that dip. The folks in the first group usually think all video games are trash. That's definitely not me. The folks in the second group usually have an attraction t??o being the "bad guy" in games. That's not me either! So that's been my pickle for the past two decades.

For the record, I also like the Star Wars prequels, hate Space Jam, and think that the N64 is Nintendo's worst console by a country mile. For a long time, people thought I was a dunce for these opinions as well, but for whatever reason, time seems to have brought many over to my way of thinking. Apparently, the prequels are cool again, Space Jam ?is largely recognized to be an overwroug?ht McDonald's commercial, and people think N64 games look terrible! Welcome to my brain, everyone!

And that's exactly how I felt when I saw how much people hated the recently released GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. "Hey, this game looks like crap..." Yeah, they always have! "These missions are repetitive and dull..." Yes! Always has been again! "The rain in thi?s game looks like bukkake..."

Well,?? that one's new, bu??t it's definitely still on-brand.

These three remastered GTA games looked like cheap cash grabs, unloved and uncared about. That felt honest to me. A series about stealing stuff for easy money was trying to get away with a criminally shitty "definitive" version of their "classic titles". Even better, they were so broken that they finally felt like video games again. Human faces suddenly appear in walls, cars grow to massive sizes for no reason, and people trash-talk before blasting off into space. Purely by accident, GTA had finally gotten weird and silly, and had become a worthwhile self-parody in the process. I was ready to buy the physical Switch port (the most broken version) on day one, just for laughs.

Then it was delayed indefinitely, as the publisher was surely aghast at these games finally getting the low review scores they always deserved. It's a bummer that, after GTA finally went to being "so bad it's good" from "so bad it's boring" that Rockst??ar is undoubtedly trying to make them blander again. But who knows, maybe they will go full Cruelty Squad with the Switch port when it's finally sold on the cartridge. One?? can hope.

My favorite small game of the year: Mon Amour

At the same time, I was feeling alone with my dislike of the GTA games on the PS2, I was falling in love with another open-world game on the console: Chulip, the exploration and kissing game. It was everything that GTA wasn't: cute, funny, kind, and quick to punish you fo???r stepping out of line. And in this game, you're in line for a smooch!

Once again, history has proven my weird taste in games to be the correct one. Chulip is now worth a bunch of money on the resale market, and people much smarter and more interesting than I talk about how great it is all the time. The creator of the game has taken notice as well. His latest game, Mon Amour, returns to Chulip's smooching concept but makes it a simple Flappy Bird-esque arcade game. That doesn't sound that great, does it? But it is! The music, the graphics, the comedy, all top-notch, but my favorite thing about the game is the way if feels. In real life, it's hard to know if you're doing things right, and that goes double for moving in for your first kiss. Mon Amour replicates that feeling of "moving forward cautiously, following your instincts, but ready to fail at any moment" p?erfectly. Subjectively, it's perfect??.

My favorite medium-sized game of 2021: Axiom Verge 2

Axiom Verge 2 is also about boldly moving into the unknown. At the start, it's not a lot like the first game, eschewing old-school Metroid aesthetics for a more athletic, organic exercise. It's about a new lead character doing new things in a new place, and while lore-hounds for the first game will find plenty of allusions to the original, this game definitely didn't need to be called Axiom Verge 2. In fact, calling it that w??as a pretty big risk, at least f??rom a marketing perspective. But the risk paid off, and in the end, it makes sense.

Just as the original Axiom Verge was, intentionally or not, an accurate reflection of the o?ne-person development team's psyche, the sequel catches us up with where Tom Happ, the creator of the franchise, is in his life today. He's a dad now, working to create both a good life for his kid with one hand and to make even better games than he has before with the other. The path to meet both goals is indelibly intertwined. He can't make money for his family if he doesn't make good games, and he can't make good games unl?ess he creates honest work that could only come from him.

I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entirety of my playtime with Axiom Verge 2, waiting to see exactly if, and how, Tom would pull off this dual aim. In the end, he nailed it.? My only complaint about the game is there isn't more of it. ??When the credits finally rolled, I was not ready to quit. Then again, that's true of just about every one of the games on this list. Thankfully, most of them are sure to get some sort of sequel and/or DLC expansion at some point. They all did pretty well, so we probably won't have to say goodbye to them anytime soon.

My favorite big game of 2021: No More Heroes 3

I can't believe this is goodbye! No More Heroes 3 has so many hints of where the series could go from here, from movie adaptations by Takashi Miike to Back to the Future-style forays into the far-flung foibles of Travis's offspring. (SPOILERS) I ??mean, he cuts his brother in half, and like five minutes later, is decapitated by him??! And we still don't know exactly how why! This can't be the end, can it?

It is.

In retrospect, you can tell Suda51 was planning to make this the last game in the series. Last episodes of TV shows often swing for the fences in the same way. For a series, all the episodes before the final one have a specific job to do; to get you to want to watch the next one. The last ep?isode doesn't have to pursue the audience in the same way. It exists in a time where there's no tomorrow.

[embed]//www.?youtube.com/watch?v=8wVs3NDHRAs[/embed]

For Quantum Leap, that meant capping things off with a bunch of small talk among characters you'd never seen before. For Jim Henson's Dinosaurs, it meant bringing a heavenly Apocolypse down to Earth. For No More Heroes 3, it meant all that and more. We've heard that even more magic was planned for the game, and fans will always wonder what could have been, but there is no doubting that this is the fullest, most fun entry in the series. Just as our old pal Jirard "The Completionist" Khalil. ?He put hundreds of hours into the game and is one of the few people in the world to truly see it all.

Someday, I might see it all too. No More Heroes 3 is a game I plan to play for the rest of my days. It's broken in all the right ways while fixing all of the things that were less than perfect about its predecessors. More importantly, it loves No More Heroes, and its fans, with all its heart. In a year where it was easy to lose sight of what was good, games like this reminded me why I love the medium, an??d I'm grateful for it.

The post Jonathan Holmes’ favorite games of 2021 appeared first on Destructoid.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139�/h2>

While many video game brands have a strong global fanbase from the very beginning, it sometimes takes a franchise a little longer to become a household name. There is perhaps no better example of this than Sega's Yakuza, a series that had already released multiple games across three generations before Yakuza 0 made its grand debut on PS4 and opened up the city of Kamurocho to the mainstream gaming community at large. It had always bee??n there, it just needed the right opening with which to welcome the people to its neon-infused streets en masse.

Another example of this phenomenon comes in the form of Square Enix dystopian franchise NieR. Already a spin-off from the equally obscure Drakengard series, the 2010 action RPG had its fair share of fans, but did not really turn western heads en masse. Then, in 2017, developer PlatinumGames unleashed the critically acclaimed hack 'n' slasher NieR Automata upon the world and �thanks to its mesmerizing storytelling, wild action, and eponymous protagonist, 2B �NieR was no longer a cult brand, suddenly finding itself referenced alongside more mainstream gaming series such as Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, and Bayonetta.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkuEe2y8R9o

And thus, it comes as little to no surprise that when the original NieR was remastered this year as NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139�/em>, it immediately found better favor and fortune than its original 2010 release. Appealing to an entirely new audience of fans �gatewayed into Yoko Taro's incomparable universe via 2B's exciting escapades �NieR Replicant was able to reintroduce its fascinating worlds, characters, and lore to an audience now more attuned to the series' tone, lore, an??d calm yet utterly apocalyptic style.

Better still, NieR Replicant allowed the original RPG to return loaded for bear, featuring fully-voiced character dialogue, and with deeper context and resonance added to its tale of love, loss, adventure, and redemption. While all of these upgrades add polish to NieR evocative and emotional narrative, NieR Replicant's gameplay also received a technical upgrade via an overhauled combat system (courtesy of PlatinumGames) and gorgeous remastered visuals from developer Toylogic, allowing the title's engaging cast of characters ??and grim, yet oddly calming vistas to shine like never before.

NieR Replicant is a remaster/remake done correctly. More than a nostalgia-baiting cash-grab, or a half-hearted retread, the 2021 revisit demonstrates growth �Growth in technology, growth in its creators, and growth in the franchise itself. While it might have taken over a decade for the people to experience its evocative, heartstring-tugging adventure en masse, it has most certainly been worth the wait. The critical success of NieR Replicant and NieR Automata only galvanizes this uniqu?e and ?compelling sci-fi series. For a franchise built in bleakness, the future remains curiously bright.

The post Destructoid’s award for Best Remaster/Remake of 2021 goes to… appeared first on Destructoid.

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