It’s a bit late, but I’ve written one of these things again. Have fun all six people who will read this.

Favorite Old Game – The Surge

If you’re familiar with The Surge then this really shouldn’t be a surprise. I’m a huge Dark Souls fan, and this is basically future robot Dark Souls! This game looked like a sort of B-list clone of Dark Souls, but after picking it up on a sale it really won me over. They have a lot of interesting mechanics that build on what you’d want out of a souls-y game, which adds a nice spin to how you handle dodging, blocking, and just overall encounters with enemies. I can’t recommend this game enough!

Runner Up: Titanfall 2

10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

It really shouldn’t be a surprise that this is on here, three years ago Smash made my list and now it makes it again! Honestly I don’t have a ton to say about this other than it’s more Smash, which is certainly never a bad thing.

9. Yoku’s Island Express

This is such a neat little game that I don’t think got a lot of attention, but hey, I liked it! It was a very unique blending of a standard puzzle-ish platformer with pinball of all things. Best of all it works well! I’m a huge fan of pinball so it’s great to see someone try to incorporate some form of pinball mechanics into a video game. Though we’ll never get anything better than Sonic Spinball.

8. Marvel’s Spider-Man

In terms of gameplay Spider-Man is really just another super hero game, but there are plenty of small touches and interesting story choices Insomniac implemented that really make the game stick with you. While I personally don’t think Spider-Man does combat better than the Arkham games, I do think the story blows it (and any other super hero game) out of the water. If you haven’t played it, you really should. I guarantee it isn’t what you expect.

7. Donut County

This game is just so pleasant. The mechanics aren’t really anything out of this world (heh), but it is a fun game, with a cute story, interesting style, and wonderful music. If you haven’t played it then do yourself a favor and check it out! Donut county is the cutest game I’ve played since Lovely Planet.

6. DUSK

DUSK takes you back to the 90s to experience the absurdity of Doom and Quake all over again. There isn’t anything to say in regards to story, the game is just pure fun. At the end of the day this game was the tribute to the 90s I never knew I wanted.

5. No Man’s Sky

I know, I know, this isn’t really a 2018 game but I feel their game changing patches should qualify. I decided to pick up No Man’s Sky after hearing the positive buzz around some of the mid-year patches they put out and am I ever glad I did! The game is phenomenal. I’ve never been much for the survival-exploration style of games but something about this game really clicked for me. In seconds you can go from foraging or battling on a planet to having a massive space battle in your ship(s). I can’t say there is much in the way of story, but the atmosphere and combat surely make up for that. No Man’s Sky has really evolved into a fantastic game.

4. Hitman 2

Hitman 1 was one of my favorite games of 2016. IO took a pretty much dead franchise and somehow breathed new life into with an episodic game. They’ve built on it even more with Hitman 2 and have managed to make the game even more enjoyable. The scenarios are wackier and you constantly find Agent 47 pulling off even more unbelievable impersonations. I do have my gripes with the game, but in the end I love it and will continue playing through all of the elusive targets and community content!

3. Celeste

Celeste is one hell of a game. The game starts quite easy, with an interesting narrative, but it eventually evolves into one of the most difficult platformers I’ve played since Super Meat Boy. If you just mainline the game it can be fairly straightforward, but the side quests/objectives really drive the game home and gives you that nice dose of brutality you’ve always wanted out of a game. In addition to gameplay Celeste also offers a fantastic story and wonderful music. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys difficult platformers.

2. God of War

It’s hard to believe God of War is one of the best games in recent memory…somehow it is. Going into this I was expecting the ridiculous story-less gore of every other God of War game. Well, I didn’t quite get that. Instead what I got was ridiculous gore paired with a phenomenal story, incredible visuals, and a fantastic soundtrack. God of War lands every punch it was going for and is one of the best things I’ve played in years. I thought it was my game of the year until this next one came along…

1. Dead Cells

Surprise surprise, I enjoyed an overly difficult run-based game with retro 2d graphics, crazy. Dead Cells is what I feel every run-based game needs to try to beat. The combat is fluid, the weapons are all unique in their own crazy ways, the music is the hottest banger, and the visuals are gorgeous. If you like getting your ass kicked then you should give Dead Cells a shot… over and over again.

 

While these are the games I loved, there are a few I wish I had the time for through the year. I spent some amount of time with them, but not nearly enough:

• Vermintide 2
• Pokemon Let’s Go
• Octopath Traveler
• Mega Man 11
• Tetris Effect

I’m sure there are others I have forgotten, but these four were high on my list to spend time with!

 

Note: I’ve been trying to write one of these every year but unfortunately managed to miss it last year due to an incredibly busy year. But just for posterity I’ll include my favorite game of 2016 at the bottom of this article.

This year was absolutely nuts with amazing hits coming out seemingly left and right, it was difficult to narrow this down to list of ten games, but I managed to do it! I’d like to preemptively apologize to Fortnite, Splatoon 2, Nidhogg 2, and Disc Jam. I’d love to have included them as well, but then that would be a weirdly long favorites list. Anyways, lets start this:

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