Top Ten Games of 2014

Since I've started this blog I've posted my top ten games of the year in text format. I'm going to continue doing that, but this year I also recorded a podcast where I discuss each choice a little more in-depth.

Keep in mind that these are my personal opinions, which may differ greatly from your own top ten picks for 2014. As usual I will start with the number ten game on my list and work my way to what I thought. If you want to read some more in depth thoughts on each game just click its name.

Let's this list going!

10. Transistor

The second game coming out of SuperGiant games, which shows they know how to make a good game. You play as Red, a singer who has lost her voice in a cyberpunk world. Armed only with a talking sword she must travel through the deserted city in order to find out what's going on.

The soundtrack, atmosphere, and combat blend together to create an unforgettable experience. I can't wait to see where SuperGiant goes from here.




9. Mario Kart 8


Mario Kart games don't really change much from year to year, but it's easy to tell when one is a quality product. Mario Kart 8 is certainly a quality product. It's the first HD iteration of the series and it looks beautiful. Nintendo has proven time and time again that they have the best art direction around.

On top of it looking beautiful it plays well. The karts have weight to them, and you actually have to slide in order to succeed. The game wasn't super surprising to me, since Nintendo knows how to make a solid kart racer. If you like Mario Kart, it's more of that!


8. Dark Souls 2

I got into the Souls franchise this year, and while the original Dark Souls is my favorite the sequel is pretty good too. It's more Dark Souls, but not necessarily as well thought out as the first. Still, you travel through numerous environment types and meet with infuriatingly difficult challenges.

With new mechanics it differentiates itself from the original, while keeping the experience fresh.




7. Rayman Legends

Rock solid platformers are getting increasingly hard to come by. Lucky for me Rayman Legends came out on current generation consoles, so I could take a crack at it. The Ubiart engine renders a beautiful world, that is backed up by some incredible platforming.

Rayman feels weighty, but glides through the air just right. More platformers should feel as tight as this does. It helps that there are a ton of unlockable stages and characters to boot!



6. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

This game made the list predicated entirely on the nemesis system. The Lord of the Rings elements
are completely ancillary to the experience. The nemesis system allows for you to make your own enemies and rivals. You get into fights with unique enemies who will remember you and react with tons of unique dialogue depending on the situation.

Rarely do I hope that developers directly steal from other games, but in this case I do. The nemesis system is super cool and I'd really like to see it in more games.

5. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

Guilty Gear has finally made its return. It looks incredible and is super fun to play. The story mode is like watching an anime, and more fighting games should follow its lead.

Very rarely do I go into training mode and practice combos in a fighting game, but with this I have. The combat system has been brought back down to a level that the average person has a chance of breaking in to. I'm not saying I'm going to get good at Guilty Gear, but I'm sure as hell going to try.


4. Super Smash Bros. for Wii-U

Smash is back. I love Melee, and what Project M is trying to do is admirable. I think that I enjoy
playing the new smash more than a mod though. The speed is the right distance between the slow motion of Brawl and the hyper speed of melee. It's a perfect blend of what makes smash very accessible and competitive.

The game is so jam packed with content it's hard to see it all. Out of all the games I played this year this one had the most fun multiplayer by a mile. Smash continues to be one of my favorite franchises of all time.


3. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call

Curtain Call brings back everything I loved about the original Theatrhythm, but adds the ability to
play multiplayer, and use the buttons as inputs. I still love to use the stylus, but it's cool that there is another option now.

The amount of music in this game is staggering. It has all the songs from the original, plus all of the DLC from that game. They then decided to add around one hundred more songs, and continue to throw out DLC. If you like rhythm games, and Final Fantasy you need to play this game.


2. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Initially I wrote this game off as being another dumb visual novel. I saw some footage of the game and decided to try it out. It's a visual novel, where you go into Phoenix Wright style trials, play insane
mini-games, and forge relationships. It mixes so many elements I love.

The main character is a talking bear, who wants high school kids to murder each other! It's over the top in a way that I can really get behind, but is appropriately grounded when it needs to be. The sequel somehow came out this year as well, and I'm chomping at the bit to play it.


1. Inazuma Eleven

I don't have the appropriate words to describe how much I love Inazuma Eleven. It's anime soccer on the DS. This year it finally got released in the U.S. on the 3DS Eshop. I bought it on a whim and couldn't put it down. Shortly afterwards my obsession with the game spiraled out of control and now I've beaten every game released in English and imported a European 3DS.

It's an appropriate mix of action, strategy, fun characters, and cool moves. There's a lot of content in Inazuma Eleven, and it's fun to find all of it. You put eleven players on the field and draw lines with the stylus to lead them, or tap the screen to have them pass/shoot. If they intersect with someone, or shoot on the goal they have the opportunity to use a special move, most of which are amazing. Axel Blaze catches the ball ON FIRE!

Inazuma Eleven grabbed me in a way that a game hasn't in a very long time. You could say I became obsessed with it. It was consuming every ounce of my free time for around three months until I had completed all four of the games released in English currently. It's a blast to play, and I'm glad I found it.

     -Manny

GOTY 2014 Podcast

2014 has come to a close, which means that Game of the Year is upon us. As usual I have selected my top ten games. For a change of pace I got together with Noukeo and we recorded our talk about what we believe to be the top ten games of 2014. Our lists are both quite different but share many similarities.

The audio is a little weird for some inexplicable reason. At random intervals my mic will echo for a few seconds. It seems to be some kind of feedback from when Nouk and I talk at the same time. *Shrugs* It's not too bad, but it was enough for me to notice it.

I hope that you enjoy our discussion! If you're not a fan of Podcasts I will be posting a text version of my list within the next few days.

Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack 1 Tracks

Yesterday the first pack of Mario Kart DLC came out. It came with four new karts, three new characters, and 8 new tracks spread across two cups.

I created two videos, one for each cup in order to showcase the new stages and their amazing music. I hope you enjoy them!

 

Party Game Sundays: Mario Kart 8

Yes, it's been quite a while since I've written an installment of Party Game Sundays. I think I've missed three now, but I'm not too positive on that. The main reason I haven't written anything is because for two of the three weeks we've played the same two games. One of those games being the hot new Wii-U exclusive Mario Kart 8. I'm actually on a vacation right now, but I have a bit of time to myself, so I might as well tell you all about it right now.

Mario Kart 8 came out on Friday, May 30th. Much like Sportsfriends I wanted to play it immediately, so Noukeo and I went to Landers' as soon as humanly possible. In a few hours time we unlocked every character, and it was super fun the entire time. 

Dear Nintendo, baby characters are terrible. Please stop adding them to your games.

I wish that I could tell you that Mario Kart 8 is a revolutionary title that's going to change the course of the Wii-U, but I can't. It's another Mario Kart game. While I think it's a damn good Mario Kart game it's still the same thing you've played for years, but this time it looks much prettier. For a lot of people, like me, that's enough. What's weird is that I actually got to play Mario Kart 8 at a Best Buy last summer. Nintendo was doing there weird demo tour, and Noukeo and I went to play Mario Kart. Much as I had expected, it was some Mario Kart-ass Mario Kart.

What makes Mario kart 8 different is that your car can ride along walls, and go upside down. The karts and bikes can do so by transforming quickly mid-race. The wheels turn into some kind of crazy anti-gravity discs. This allows for the new courses to get all kinds of crazy. In one of my favorite courses you're literally driving straight up a waterfall. The retro courses also incorporate the anti-gravity mechanics in ways that make the old feel new once again. It helps that Mario kart 8 retains some of the new features of 7, like being able to drive underwater and glide through the air. 

The anti-gravity aspect of the game makes the courses super interesting.

One thing I noticed immediately about this Mario Kart is that it's harder to control. In the Wii version, I often drove automatic, because I didn't want to have to deal with all the power sliding shenanigans. In Mario Kart 8 there is no choice, so you have to power slide if you want to do well. Without power sliding it seems like most karts have little to no turning ability. It takes a while to get used to, but now I'm able to drift around corners like a pro. 

As you may have seen from footage of this hot new Mario kart product it looks incredible. Nintendo continues to use art direction to their advantage to somehow have their games look better than everything on higher spec platforms. Never before has Mario's mustache looked so incredible. The game doesn't look quite as amazing in multiplayer though, because they need to keep the frame rate up. It's still fun as all hell to play with friends though.

This is a hot highlight reel I uploaded. I was Rosalina.

Normally Nintendo seems as if they're painfully out of touch with what most people want or look for in video games, but in this game they actually did some really cool stuff. At the end of each race you can watch a sweet highlight reel of all the best moments from the race. You can even watch the entire race if you want, but that's just crazy. What's really crazy is that you can upload the 30-60 second highlight reels straight to Youtube for everyone's viewing pleasure. It's not the most exciting thing ever, but I feel like it shows that Nintendo is trying to get more in touch with what everyone in the modern world is doing. Another part of that is that the online multiplayer in this game works competently, which is pretty shocking to me. 

Describing Nintendo games, especially iconic ones like Mario Kart is getting increasingly weird for me. I love them, but they've been largely the same. It's easy to see that Nintendo is trying to change things up, but they're doing it incrementally. All I know is that Mario Kart 8 is a super fun game. If the Wii-U keeps getting titles like this it might actually be worth owning at some point in the future!