Long list, in no particular order
The Last of Us 2
The return of Joel and Ellie, and while controversial, honestly what did anyone expect from a game where in the original the man character made a selfish choice. The Last of Us 2 showcases two strong female characters and introduces a host of new enemies both human and infected. This romp through Seattle was a journey I thoroughly enjoyed and left me wanting even more.
Bugsnax
Is it the theme song that makes me love this game so much? The diverse cast of characters? The cute and deadly bugsnax? I can’t get enough and with how many snax there are to collect it gave me the same feeling as a pokemon game right out the gates. This is a game not to miss if only for the wonderful body horrors you can bring to your community.
Final Fantasy 7 remake
This year brought the return of Cloud and crew in a whole “new” iteration. One of the things I love about it was the expansion on the relationships between the characters. Bringing in the combat from FF15 it even felt improved in the way you can control the characters while still having the ATB system from the original. I will be interested to see how they will build an expand on this one since there is still a lot more story to be told.
Paper Mario: the origami king
I will die on the platform that Paper Mario was an all-star hit this year. From the puzzles of collecting Toads and the battle system down to the graphical design. It was a welcome surprise for a series I havent picked up since the original title. This Mario story is not to be missed especially with the surprisingly heavy themes it takes you into during your play. If this isn’t your flavor I will still recommend checking out the water graphics on YouTube. Go do it now.
Persona 5: Royal
Full disclosure I bought the soundtrack half way through my return to Persona 5 and it was worth every cent. If you enjoyed the original Persona 5 this release adds multiple new characters to interact with, improved systems, and less Morgana telling you to go to bed. You will get another 15 to 20 hours of gameplay on top of the normal 100 plus you get from the main story. This one feels like coming home to your friends and I cant wait to be able to set some time aside to play through again. As my favorite palace song goes “life will change”.
Welcome to Elk
We got to experience a plethora of stories this year and Welcome to Elk took me places I was not expecting. Then again I am a sucker for anything that gives me a dedicated puke button. However, this one is based on a group of real stories that were told and passed down. You get to play through them to some capacity but at the same time it thumbs the line between life, death, and what is real. Very often the best stories are those we can look back on and reminisce about with others. If you also add in all the neat mini games and it is worth a trip to Elk.
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
I was late to the game on this title, it dropped last year but I did not get it until the beginning of this one. What a treat from developer Respawn… I love Star Wars and the idea of a rogue-lite approach is different than anything else on the Star Wars list. Fallen Order can feel repetitive at times as it takes you from world to world but the locale you travel adds to the lore. Anytime you get to customize a lightsaber it seems to take me forever (even though its completely cosmetic in this case). I think there is a lot more that will happen with this series as the ending leaves it open for more.
Kill it with Fire
You kill spiders with tons of different and silly items. I dont know what else I need to say here. They even add in the creepy horror movie track whenever a spider pops out or you locate it. I love this idea and the follow through.
Waifu uncovered
I had to have at least one h-game on here, and this one is super tame. Actually Alex is the one who told me about it since this was released to the Nintendo Switch on the E-shop. Simple premise shoot all the monsters that are haunting the clothes of the women. It does happen that once you defeat the monsters the clothing can’t survive. Since its on the Switch there is no actual nudity so its fun for the whole family.
Star Renegades
The video game version of “Edge of Tomorrow”. Live, die, repeat and hope that this time you don’t suck. Each time I play you should get a little better, understand the way everything works, and hopefully win. I still have not made it to the last boss but it will happen someday. The characters and unlocks you can build towards will get me there once I master them. There is a fair amount of luck that goes into each attempt one of these times I will get lucky.
My Favorite Beta’s
No Straight Roads
Gori
Grounded
Mad Experiments: escape room
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