Top Ten Games of 2018

While 2018 may not have reached the highs of 2017 in video games it was still pretty awesome. New and interesting games are only becoming more common.

As always I will list my top ten games of the year in descending order. These are my opinions based on games I personally completed in 2018.

10. Red Dead Redemption 2

I didn't like the original Red Dead at all. I tried my best to get through it and it could never quite hold my interest. I told myself that I was going to see this one through to the end, and I did. If you've listened to me talk about it at all you know I universally disliked the gameplay.

Despite that the story and characters held me through to the end for what may be one of the greatest stories ever told in a video game. It's just a shame that the video game part put me off so much.

9. Celeste

Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain as a metaphor for mental health issues. As someone who has battled with mental health issues it hit me pretty hard. The main character Madeline is deeply relatable and the whole thing never becomes too overbearing.

On top of that the fast paced platforming is top notch. Everything controls super tightly, so the high level of difficulty never feels insurmountable. Which I guess is another metaphor.

8. Donut County

Ben Esposito toiled away for many years to bring us the charming world of Donut County. You play as a cheeky Raccoon named BK as he controls a literal hole and swallows up most of the town he lives in. Each thing that falls in the hole makes it bigger.

It's almost like reverse Katamari Damacy. The music, dialogue, and art style remind me of Katamari as well. It's a fun game that takes up a few hours. It says a lot that I wish the game had a bit more content, because I wanted to stay in the world.

7. Forza Horizon 4

I hadn't played a racing game in a long time, so I was craving a new one. My issue is that I love the arcade style of Burnout, but don't want the intense simulation of Forza Motorsport. Forza Horizon comes in somewhere in between those two other games making it just what I was looking for.

The world is fun to race around in and is jam packed with so much content it's almost impossible to complete it all.

6. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I love Super Smash has a franchise, but over the course of the last few releases I became bogged down by the hyper-competitive nature of high-level play. This time I told myself I would play Smash for fun only and I have been loving my time with Ultimate.

It's very similar to Smash 4, but the mechanical changes do just enough to make it feel much different and in my opinion better. It has an almost comically large amount of content and works as an amazing Nintendo museum piece.

5. Spider-Man

As someone who loves Spider-Man it was hard to see game after game come to market and be totally awful. The last time I remember enjoying a game representing the franchise was Spider-Man 2. Thankfully Insomniac as able to finally bring Spider-Man back to video games in a big way.

The web-slinging feels amazing, and It's just fun to travel around the open world. On top of that they tell a great story in a well-tread universe. Spider-man is back and I couldn't be happier.

4. God of War

The previous God of War games didn't do anything for me. In fact, I'd say I actively disliked them. Sony Santa Monica was able to resurrect a dormant franchise and give it new and exciting life. It makes the transition to Norse mythology and completely re-invents the character of Kratos.

It's wild that I now enjoy the combat in God of War, but it's even more crazy to say that it had one of the most compelling stories of the year. Kratos went from being angry to struggling as a father.

3. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

It's no secret that I love JRPGs, so the fact that a Dragon Quest game is so high on my list isn't very surprising. However, I think that Dragon Quest XI is special. It doesn't do a whole lot new for the genre, but it takes something that has already been done before and does it as best as it can be done. Sometimes there is something to be said about something that knows what it is and it's good.

I don't have a lot to say about it other than it's a great JRPG. I loved it.

2. Monster Hunter World

As someone who came to Monster Hunter at its most obtuse it was amazing to see the franchise come to the western market and totally explode. It is now Capcom's highest selling game of all time, which is a testament to the core elements of the franchise. Capcom took a huge risk that could have alienated the core fans of their unbelievably popular franchise in order to elevate it to new heights.

This is the best Monster Hunter game by a country mile! It keeps the best parts of hunting while making it more accessible.

1. DJMax Respect

Rhythm games rarely make their way to the U.S. and if they do they're not very well supported. With DJMax Respect NeoWiz knocked it out of the park. New patches and DLC come to the game every few months to keep interest in the game up.

It's a deeply hard rhythm game, but getting better at it makes me feel awesome. Something about the gameplay and the wide variety of music keeps me coming back for more. I will keep coming back to it well into 2019.

Game Time - October 2018

Game: Super Mario Party
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Switch

I don't really like Mario Party and I never have. However, there's something special about getting together with friends and talking as much shit as possible. It ends up being fun for a few hours, but I never really want to go back and play more of it. I feel exactly the same about Super Mario Party.

The last few games diverged from the classic board game formula where each player rolls a die, moves some spaces, and collects coins to buy a star. They got rid of all that for everyone to move at the same time and collect star bits. Thankfully this game is a return to the classic Mario Party everyone used to love. The stages tend to be a bit smaller than in the past, but at least you get to see all of the board events in a single sitting. The mini-games are generally pretty strong. Some of them work as excellent showpieces for the HD rumble the Switch Joycons are known for.

For the most part it's another Mario Party game. The main difference is that each character can either roll a regular die, or a character specific die. These die have pros and cons, but they make choosing a specific character actually mean something outside of aesthetic pleasure. It's a cool addition that shakes things up a bit, but it's not quite enough to move the excitement needle for me. It's a solid Mario Party game, but that doesn't really mean a lot coming from me. It's fun to play with friends for a few hours, but beyond that it's not great.


Game: The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
Developer: White Owls
Platform: Switch (and everything else)

I first became aware of Swery 65 when I stumbled upon a video series about his game Deadly Premonition. The gameplay was abysmal, but the quirky characters and story pulled me in. He followed it up with the Xbox one launch game D4 where he attempted to make an episodic adventure game using the Kinect. Sadly Microsoft cancelled it after two episodes, which left him floundering for a bit. Recently he found his footing and started his own studio called White Owls. They Kickstarted a game called the Good Life about a town where everyone turns into cats at night. While that was coming together and being funded the studio was working on their first game called The Missing.

The concept of the game is certainly strange. You play as J.J. Macfield, a girl who is on a camping trip with her friend Emily. During a stormy night Emily wanders away from camp and J.J. desperately tries to find her. Very quickly J.J. realizes that she can get hurt and regenerate her body. This is the central mechanic of the game. J.J's body will get mutilated in various ways to solve puzzles. You'll need to weigh down platforms with limbs, catch on fire, get concussions, and roll through tight corridors as just a head. If it sounds a bit disturbing it's because it really is. The whole vibe of the game is a bit creepy and it's trying to convey something through its mechanics.

My biggest issue with the game is that I couldn't stand the actual gameplay. J.J. moves too slow, and every animation goes on for way too long. The overall performance was pretty rough on Switch, and I heard from someone who played it on PS4 that it wasn't much better there. I pushed through my low level of enthusiasm, because I know that Swery can tell a great story. In the end the game definitely delivered. I think it is an important story, but I can't really say what it's about without completely spoiling it. If any of this sounded interesting to you I suggest you check it out.


Game: Forza Horizon 4
Developer: Turn 10
Platform: PC (also Xbox One)

I haven't played a racing game in a long time, so I decided to see if Forza Horizon 4 would run on my PC. It's starting to get outdated, but I didn't want to have to bust out my Xbox One. Luckily the free trial of Xbox Game Pass allowed me to test it out for free. I'm glad I did, because it worked flawlessly. Much more importantly though I ended up loving the game.

Outside of kart racing games the last racing game I played for any extensive amount of time was Burnout Paradise and that was a long time ago. Most of the games on the market now are too much of a simulation for me. Thankfully Forza Horizon bridges the gap and sits somewhere between the insane acrade nature of Burnout, but isn't quite up to the hardcore simulation level of a traditional Forza game. This time you're attending the mystical Horizon festival in the countryside of England. In this fantastical world the Horizon car festival lasts all year long. This means that over the course of the game you get to experience all four seasons. I would have expected them to be purely cosmetic, but handling and weather actually change for each.

At the end of the day Horizon is a driving game. You pick one of the 8 billion cars you may have unlocked and choose a race to enter. There are tons of event types, so if you don't like something you don't have to do it. There are so many events that sometimes it's frankly overwhelming. It plays well and looks stunning. Even though I beat the "story" I have been going back in every so often to bang out a race or two.