The action category was the strongest this year. We had some amazing action games that helped kick start the next-generation of gaming as well as usher in some new franchises and surprisingly fantastic sequels.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
Shadow of Mordor isn’t just the best Lord of the Rings game, but one of the best action games in recent history. The engine for Sauron’s Army is just revolutionary. Mordor has the first open-ended story that truly is based on your decisions. If you kill one Uruk and allow another to live it can change what happens later on when you get to the war chief. The game also looks fantastic and has some of the best combat since God of War and Batman: Arkham games.
I have never been a huge fan of Dead or Alive outside of the characters. The fighting system is convoluted, overcomplicated, and not always explained very well. Dimensions breaks this barrier with a great Chronicle story mode that introduces these complicated techniques little by little so you can absorb them, and it works great. The story mode is entertaining, but nothing to write home about. You play as various characters trying to stop Alpha-152, which is Kasumi’s evil clone. DOATEC is trying to use this to destroy the ninja clan, Mugen Tenshin.
The fighting system is actually complicated, but after the story mode, you can actually use it. There are the usual combos of kicks and punches, but you can juggle opponents and stun them in a critical state. You can throw and hold opponents, and holding is kind of a counterattack. You can actually counter a counter in this game. If someone counters your attack with a hold, you can counter back or get out of the hold. Understanding how to do this takes some getting used to, but it adds some strategy to online fights. You can also do a super stun, which is called OKing an opponent, and this means they can’t counter. There are also special stances that the characters go into, which can be used to strategically add extra combos without the opponent knowing. You can also delay attacks in combos to kind of trick the other player into thinking you’re done, so they stop blocking.
The fighting system is fluid and smooth, with great animations and controls, but my favorite part is that the combos are listed on the bottom screen, so you can tap them or just use them as a quick combo list. This is really handy and actually makes playing the game more enjoyable, so you aren’t constantly pausing the game to remember a combo. On top of this, you can now tag teams, which is fun and adds some great combos to the fray. I liked the extra modes, such as tag team and infinite mode, and of course the showcase mode, where you unlock figurines to take pictures in 3D.
There are a lot of costumes to unlock to make the females look sexier or the males look cooler, and StreetPass and SpotPass are wonderfully integrated into the system. I’ll have my 3DS in my pocket all day when going out, then come home and have a few challengers ready to fight online that I passed when going out. I might even drive by a few SpotPass areas and come back with some downloaded costumes. Dimensions really utilizes these features, and I have a blast using them.
With all that said, the 3D effects are amazing and really show off the features of the system in this way, but overall, the graphics are smooth and crisp and look very detailed. I highly recommend Dimensions because it’s the best fighting game on the system right now.
This was a strong year in fighters with lots of great comebacks. What makes the top fighter stand apart is a great cast of characters, smooth and responsive controls, but most of all a great fighting system. Stories tend to take the back seat in fighting games, but online multiplayer is also important.
Before you go off saying this won because I’m a die-hard MK fan stop right there. There have been past MK games that didn’t deserve the best fighting game. It wins this year because it is true fan service and brings the series back to its roots. This year saw a lot of remakes, but Mortal Kombat gives us great visuals, all the characters we loved from past games and brings it back its 2D roots which are when the game was strongest. Smooth and responsive controls as well as the great fighting system we grew to love, and a bevy of fun modes are what makes Mortal Kombat come out on top.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.