Game of the year is the hardest category to choose and I often think about this throughout the entire year. While there were so many great runner-ups, like there is every year, the one that makes it to the top for me is the most memorable. It’s not a mathematical score of what game received the most awards or had the highest score, but what was the most fun and memorable. A game has to leave something with me and resonate. A game that needs to be discussed and admired and something even revolutionary or groundbreaking.
Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil isn’t just a great remake, but pushes a game further in an already genre defining franchise. Resident Evil 2 is sparking a whole new revolution in remakes and setting a brand new standard and you can’t go wrong with that.
Platformers are no longer the main staple in gaming like they used to be 20 years ago. Rarely will you ever see a platformer make a game of the year, but they still hold a strong audience and can be killer apps on any system?
Super Mario Maker 2
While there were plenty of amazing platformers this year, Super Mario Maker 2 takes an already tried and true gameplay formula and design and makes it incredibly fun and addictive. With every Mario generation present and all of the weight and physics that go with each one, including a massive level editor, there are hundreds of hours of platforming fun thrown in. Nintendo created levels are amazing and truly test your skills. This is a behemoth of a package that is hard to beat.
Nintendo always has a knack for making one huge innovation to their franchises per console cycle, and the Switch is no exception. Odyssey is a well-crafted game, taking many years of experience and gameplay honing to create one of the best video game experiences in the last decade. Odyssey is massive, with dozens of hours of content and a variety of things to do.
Like all Mario games, there’s not much of a story, just your typical Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach story again with no cut scenes or anything else, but that’s fine as Mario is all about the gameplay. The main gameplay hook in this Mario game is his hat. He can throw it to take control of enemies, for combat, and to get out-of-reach items. The hat works so naturally and feels great to use that I never had any issues. Once you arrive in the Cap Kingdom, you will be leaping and bounding similarly to Super Mario Galaxy in the way Mario moves and jumps. Taking control of certain enemies gives you special combat abilities or allows you to access certain areas Mario can’t. It’s so much fun, and I always looked forward to the next thing I could control.
Another element is the new 2D levels. These are hidden throughout the game and give you moons that are needed to power up your Odyssey ship to get to Bowser. There are 880 moons in the world. I know it’s a monster of a task, but it’s so much fun. Your first playthrough allows you to get the first batch, and then after you beat the game, there are meteor rocks that you can smash in each world, and they send the rest of the moons flying. Anyways, these 2D levels are just like the 8-bit games with Mario wrapped around the 3D world, jumping and hopping along.
Mario can also swim, fly (with controller enemies), and pretty much do anything you can imagine, as the game is so varied and there’s so much to see and do. Not one world is alike, and each one has new things to do and discover. Mario can also change his hats and outfits this time around by buying them with coins or using special world-specific coins. Some outfits are needed to access bonus areas. These bonus areas are actually the most fun and challenging, but well worth it for the moons.
There are boss fights with Bowser minions, the Boonals, which are evil bunnies. The boss fights are really easy, and so is Bowser at the end of the game. It’s clear that the game doesn’t rely on bosses for challenges, as some bonus areas had me stuck for over an hour, restarting until I got all the jumps right. Thankfully, most of the game is a perfect challenge, and some of the challenges are just figuring out how to get to the next moon or bonus area. Some are in plain sight, while others require you to think a little bit and do certain things. There are music note challenges as well as scarecrow timer challenges. All of these things combined make for an exciting game that is incredibly hard to put down.
I really can’t find anything negative to say except that all you do is collect moons, and there’s no other end goal. There are at least a few fast travel points in each world, so even that isn’t a problem. The visuals are fantastic, and the entire game just feels alive with character and personality. It’s hard to hate a game made this well, 30 years of perfection really shows with zero control issues, framerate problems, or anything else. No matter how you slice it, this is essentially a perfect game. The amount of variety just boggles my mind, and I don’t know how the developers managed to make every bonus area, challenge, and world completely unique, especially to house 880 moons.
Overall, Super Mario Odyssey is a must-have for Switch fans and a good reason to buy one. There is no other platform that offers this kind of gaming perfection other than Nintendo. They are masters of video games, and it shows in every one of their unique main titles.
This is always the hardest category for me to pick and I always spend weeks thinking about it. What makes a game better than all the others? Does it have to be revolutionary? One of a kind? Bigger than any other game? Not necessarily. GotY is usually for a game that exceeds expectations and feels solid, structured, fun, and memorable, and just stands out as a whole over any other game. This was a hard year to pick from as there were so many fantastic games that fell under these criteria.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I’m just as shocked as you are about this. I was on the bandwagon that BotW was overrated, hyped-up nonsense, but after getting a Switch during the holidays and really playing it I started to see just how wrong I was, and how blind all the naysayers are. Nintendo always gets a bad rap for their hardware and using the same franchises for 3 decades, and I get that. However, BotW is something different, something unique and revolutionary for Nintendo themselves. They stepped out of their comfort zone and looked at other popular games that helped influence BotW. BotW has so much going for it, gorgeous visuals, unique puzzle-solving, a vast open world, and so many secrets and things to discover and explore. 30 years of Zelda has all accumulated and is playable in one game. I can’t think of another game that was this ambitious and this well done this year.
Artistic graphics don’t necessarily mean the most impressive technically. They probably won’t push your system to its limits, but instead, provide a fantastic visual experience that you won’t forget.
Cuphead
Cuphead is one of the most visually pleasing games I have ever seen, using early 1900 Disney style visuals with inspiration from cartoons like Steam Boat Willy, Cuphead just looks and sounds like a piece of moving art. This isn’t just the most artistically impressive game this year but in gaming history. No other game out there looks and sounds like Cuphead.
We may not have gotten many puzzle games, but this was a great comeback for platformers. Usually, this is the weakest category in which I have to wring the release list dry to find just a couple of decent games. Here we saw many major AAA releases which are good news for this dying genre.
Surprisingly enough, this was a hard decision this year. However, the king of platforming returned with an all-new Mario experience, and I mean all new. Not since Super Mario Galaxy have I felt the wonder and magic of Mario, and Odyssey returned this feeling. With new mechanics, a way to explore, and story ideas that break the Mario mold for the first time in decades, it’s something I will remember long after the game is collecting dust on the shelf.
This was one of the strongest console launches I can ever remember. For a first-year, Nintendo pumped out some fantastic games, as well as the strongest third-party support they have had in a decade. The system still has room to grow, but so far it’s impressive.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Breath of the Wild isn’t just a superb open-world game set in the Zelda universe, but it changes the Zelda formula forever. One of the most popular and well-known franchises in entertainment history has just changed everything on the Switch, which is the biggest deal since Ocarina of Time nearly 2 decades ago. It pushes the Switch to its limits, looks gorgeous, plays amazingly smooth, and is so immersive and deep.
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Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.