Top Ten Games of 2012

2012 is ending and that means that another year in gaming has come and gone. Initially I thought that this year had been disappointing for me, but when it came time to make my game of the year list I had quite a bit of trouble deciding on the ten games I thought were the best.

The following is the final list of games that I came up with. Keep in mind that these are my opinions, but I still think you should check these games out if you haven't yet. We'll start from ten and work out way down to number one.

10. Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed isn't quite as good as its predecessor, but it's still a competent kart racer. Like the previous installment it feels different enough from Mario Kart to justify its existence. Every race is all about the drifting. Sadly drifting doesn't feel as tight when you're a boat or a plane, but at least those additions add something more than new tracks and characters.

It's a whole lot of fun and at the budget price of $40 it's worth checking out.

9. The Last Story

Much like Resonance of Fate a few years ago The Last Story is one of the few JRPGs that has a unique battle system. It's a third person shooter, but with swords and magic. You're supposed to use strategy to beat your opponents, but the strategy element of the game never quite takes off. Despite that the battles are still fun.

The story and characters are memorable to boot. The game clocks in at around 20 hours to complete, which is good because it doesn't give you enough time to tire of anything.

The visuals push the Wii to its limits, which can sometimes make the frame rate less than desirable. Don't let that discourage you though. If you have a Wii The Last Story is definitely something you should check out.

8. Asura's Wrath

Quick time events are often lame, or at the very least implemented poorly. Asura's Wrath is the exact opposite. The entire game is basically a string of quick time events and it couldn't possibly be any more awesome.

Asura's wrath is balls out anime craziness. It's more or less an interactive movie, but somehow it feels like you're actually doing your fair share to help out in the madness. It's super satisfying to nail every single quick time event and have Asura burst in order to pummel his enemies into the ground. The action is non-stop and it's always complete insanity.

YOU STAB THROUGH THE EARTH WITH A SWORD!

7. Pokemon White/Black 2

Every year a new Pokemon game comes out and every year I play a whole bunch of it. I'm 22 years old and I still love Pokemon games. I almost feel bad for putting it on a game of the year list time and time again, but it needs to be done.

While games that rehash the same thing year in and year out get old that never happens to Pokemon for me. They change enough to keep me coming back every single time. In fact with Pokemon Black and White 2 I think Game Freak outdid themselves. Sure, people who casually play the games might not notice, but as a long time fan I appreciate it. It's cool that I can fight every gym leader in a world tournament, or actually fight Pokemon higher than the mid-50's after I've completed the game.

Game Freak and Nintendo know what they're doing, so get ready to see another one of these next year.

6. Xenoblade Chronicles

It may have taken NOA a while to bring it to the US, but we finally got Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii. It was certainly worth the wait.

I played Xenoblade so much that I burned out on it and wasn't able to complete it until months after my initial binge. My final save ended up being around 113 hours ,which is a pretty sizable chunk of time. I now know why people worked so hard to bring it over here.

It's not a revolutionary JRPG, but it takes steps forward for the genre. A lot of JRPG mechanics are contrived now and Xenoblade tries to remedy some of those issues. Everything is streamlined and as user friendly as possible. The game works hard to keep you engaged with its fast paced battles and easily navigable menus.

The plot and characters of Xenoblade are memorable, but still a bit cliche. The game will be remembered for its combat and the way it tried to modernize the genre.

It looked and played incredibly for a Wii game, which makes me excited to see what Monolith is going to be able to do on the Wii-U

5. SSX

SSX is back! While it may not be better than ever EA still made a decent attempt reviving a dormant franchise. SSX is just pure fun for me. Racing down a snow covered mountain while jumping off of everything in sight gives off an incredible sense of speed. The controls are tight and feel just right for the fine movements the game requires.

While the new survival tracks aren't the best part of the game they add something new to the SSX formula that can hopefully be improved upon in new releases. Overall I think that this SSX reboot was well done and hope to see EA do some more with it in the future.

4. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

I was expecting absolutely nothing from Theatrhythm, but I had to find out what it was all about. As you might be able to gather from its position on this list I ended up enjoying it a whole lot more than I ever imagined.

Rhythm games tend to have a short lifespan by nature. You play through all the songs a few times and then you're done. Well I somehow ended up playing Theatrhythm for over 26 hours. There were so many things to keep me coming back. Multiple difficulties, an RPG leveling mechanic, character unlocks, song unlocks, and even equipment.

Even more than that the gameplay is fun. Tapping and sliding the stylus along to the many classic Final Fantasy tunes in the game works amazingly well. Theatrhythm  was clearly crafted with a love that I didn't think Square Enix had in them anymore.

3. Borderlands 2

I played an obscene amount of the original Borderlands and the amount of time I spent with Borderlands 2 is no different. I don't particularly like First person shooters, but when paired with loot and RPG mechanics of Borderlands I can't seem to get enough.

Gearbox hit it out of the park for me on this one. The gameplay was improved in almost every way from the original. The game as a whole ran a lot smoother and everything just seemed to work better in general. Gearbox heard what fans had to say about the original and took it all to heart.

It's fun to play alone or co-op. Whichever way you like to play don't miss out on this great game.

2. The Walking Dead

I don't like zombies at all. In fact when zombies are involved in anything I almost immediately write it off as being something I'm not interested in. For some reason I decided to give the first episode of The Walking Dead a chance and was completely blown away.

Even if you don't like adventure games The Walking Dead is something that I think everyone has to play. It shows that choice in video games can actually work to great success. Every choice you're given seems like it matters, whether or not it actually does. This is amplified by the fact that the story if actually emotionally affecting. The characters are some of the most memorable I've ever come across. Somehow they actually managed to make a likable child character!

Words are not enough to explain the majesty that is The Walking Dead. If you like video games do yourself a favor and check out what it brings to the table. You won't be disappointed.

1. Mass Efffect 3

I don't care what anyone says about Mass Effect 3. Sure, the ending wasn't as desirable as I would have liked it to be and there were too many half-assed sidequests, but the journey as a whole was still outstanding.

I enjoyed the time I had with Mass Effect 3. The universe still managed to hold every ounce of my attention as I flew to every single planet and talked to every person I possibly could. No matter how much I disliked the ending nothing can take away the love that I have for the Mass Effect Universe and its characters.

Mass Effect 3 ended the story of Commander Shepard. I'll never be able to forget the time I spent with it, so that's why its my favorite game of 2012.

     -Manny

Game Time - August 2012

Now that it's the end of August I have returned to tell you all about my various gaming exploits. I managed to fit in a decent bit of gaming despite the fact that I started and finished watching Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. It was surprisingly good, but this isn't a blog about anime. It's all about the video games.

As you already know I played a fair bit of Persona 4 Arena, which you can read about here. Even though I played it a whole bunch more my thoughts on it didn't change a whole lot. So if you want to hear about it go read what I already wrote.

The games I spent the most time with were Kingdom Hearts 3DS, and The Last Story. That's right, The Last Story finally stopped getting delayed long enough to come out! Since these are both fairly sizable games I have a lot to go off about.

I haven't done one of these in a long time, so I'm anxious to get all of these thoughts out. Let's not  waste any more time. It's game time!

Kingdom Hearts 3DS

I've been a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series since its inception. I really liked it back then, but with each passing game I find myself growing more apprehensive about the series. For some reason Square thinks it's a good idea to keep releasing non numbered Kingdom Hearts sequels. I understand that the series makes them a literal ton of money, but now it's getting out of control. It wouldn't bug me so much if each new entry in the game didn't seem to factor heavily into the overall plot of the series. To make it even worse they're all on different consoles.

Originally it seemed to me that Nomura had an overall plan for the series that he was following very closely. With each passing game however, I feel that he's making everything up as he goes along. A lot of the time it's not even necessarily making the overall plot better, but more convoluted. That's where the true issue with all of these non-numbered sequels lies. How the hell is anyone going to know what's going on in Kingdom Hearts 3 if and when it ever comes out if they haven't played all these games? I've played most of them and read wiki pages on the games and I still barely understand what the hell is going on half the time.

A lot of the Kingdom Hearts 3DS story is kind of like a fever dream.

I liked Kingdom Hearts 3DS, but it took the plot of the series and made it infinitely more convoluted. I'd go into more detail about it, but it would basically spoil the entire game and I never want to do that. On top of that the story itself is told in the most convoluted way ever. Instead of showing things linearly a lot of the important cut scenes are shown as optional flashbacks, which could have easily been shown chronologically. On op of that you're switching between two plot lines every twenty minutes against your will, but more on that later.

So it probably sounds like I hate everything about this game right? Well now that I got all of my grumpy complaining out of the way I'm glad to let you know that I actually did like it. What's it all about you ask? Here, I'll let you in on the basis of the plot.

Yen Sid thinks Sora and Riku suck, so they need to become TRUE keyblade masters.

Turns out Sora and Riku aren't strong enough to take on Master Xehanort (See, if you didn't play Birth by Sleep on the PSP you don't even have any idea who that is). Since his impending return is short at hand they need to take every chance to power up. In order to do that Mickey and Yen Sid have decided that they must take the Mark of Mastery Exam in order to become true Keyblade masters. In order to do this they are sent into a dream world to find the keyholes of sleeping worlds in order to awaken them. This is pretty much old hat in the Kingdom Hearts universe.

As you may have guessed you will be travelling from world to world fighting monsters. This time they're rainbow colored things called Dream Eaters. Since you'll be playing as Sora and Riku in a dream world they don't have partners. In order to remedy that you'll be crafting your own Dream Eaters, which is where you'll be getting your skills from. If you want to get extra crazy you'll be able to pet and feed your Dream Eaters much like Nintendogs.

The Cyber Yog is just one of many Pokemon knock-offs you can pet.

The gameplay itself doesn't stray much from the rest of the series, but it most closely resembles the gameplay in Birth By Sleep. Sora and Riku each wield keyblades, which you can swing with the push of a button. Chaining hits together will get you into a combo. When you add skills into the mix the combat gets a fair amount deeper. A set amount of skills can be equipped to your command deck, which you will be able to cycle through in battle. Some of them are special keyblade attacks, while the others are magic. Combining all of this stuff together makes for a fun combat system that has a reasonable amount of depth for those looking to find it.

Sora and Riku don't fight very differently, but have totally different plot lines that end up converging in the end. In an attempt to have two simultaneous stories someone came up with the drop system, which absolutely sucks. Every twenty minutes no matter what you're doing the game forces you to switch between the two characters, which makes the story even harder to follow for absolutely no reason. When this happens in battle you'll have to do the entire thing all over again, which is a serious pain in the ass. Sure, you can up the time limit a little bit, but it never stops it from getting in the way of the experience. I don't see why they couldn't do what Birth By Sleep did where you just do one story at a time. Then again, I'm not a game designer.

I had a fun time playing Birth By Sleep and it got me super pumped up for Kingdom Hearts 3. What I had issues with were all of the things that the series seems to be actively doing to make itself obtuse. Let's just hope that Kingdom Hearts 3 is the next game and not another random non-numbered sequel.

The Last Story

Earlier in the year we saw the release of Xenoblade Chronicles here in the U.S. Now, a mere four months later we are finally seeing another Wii title targeted by Project Rainfall. Once again, we don't know if the release of the game and the mass outcry related to Project Rainfall were related, but I'd like to think that they were.

I'm going to go on record here and say that Xenoblade wasn't exactly all it was cracked up to be. Sure it was a pretty good game, but it wasn't some super next level game or anything. Yes, it did do some awesome ideas on how to make JRPG gameplay better and more efficient and I appreciate that.

Considering the way I feel about Xenoblade I wasn't expecting a whole lot from The Last Story, but what I got was pleasantly surprising. The plot is that of a standard JRPG, but the gameplay is something else entirely. By that I mean that the combat is interesting, but not exactly super great. Have you ever wanted to play a third person cover based shooter, but instead of having guns all of the characters have swords? Perhaps you wanted some of them to cast magic? If so, then The Last Story is the game for you.

You'll be in cover often during battle.

Yeah, that's right. The Last Story is a third person cover based JRPG. You control the main character Zael who has gained the mysterious power of The Outsider. In battle the power allows him to glow blue, which pulls all aggro towards him. In the beginning all you can do is attack with your sword, duck behind cover, roll, shoot a bow, and use the power of The Outsider, which doesn't really leave room for a whole lot of strategy. Therefore you have to go buck wild on the enemy with your sword until they die.

As the game progresses Zael will gain abilities that make the battles much more interesting. Your magicians, along with the enemies leave behind magic circles when they cast spells. If you hold down the attack button you will be sent to a bird's eye view of the battle, where you have been turned into a targeting reticle. If you target a magic circle Zael will use his Gale Slash to break it. Depending on what type of magic was cast various buffs and debuffs will occur.

Eventually you'll be able to issue orders to your party members. It's a shame that you can't give them strategies, because you can only have them use skills or run away. Zael gets more skills, but none of them are super useful. He is able to run up walls, but I think I only ended up doing that a total of three times in the game and it was during a boss fight where I had to. The reason I say the gameplay isn't super great is because it shoots for strategic combat, but misses entirely. Strategy is very rarely, if ever required to win a battle. I often found myself mashing my sword attacks until the enemy was dead, while occasionally breaking magic circles. It's weird, because there was a lot of setup for a very strategic game it's just not executed properly. Almost as if the designers didn't know how to make the battles strategic.

Should we break the magic circle, or break the magic circle? Strategy!

I had a lot of fun fighting battles in The Last Story, although I guess a lot of people didn't. The game defaults to having you auto attack as soon as you get near an enemy. I did that for the first battle, and it sucked. It made it feel like I had absolutely no control over what was going on. That's why I think that anyone thinking about playing the game should switch the controls to manual. It makes the game a whole lot more enjoyable.

Outside of the battle system I really liked the first half of the game. For some reason the chapter format and color scheme reminded me a lot of Resonance of Fate, another JRPG with interesting battle mechanics. However, unlike Resonance of Fate the story of The Last Story makes sense. Zael is a part of a band of mercenaries. It's their overall goal to become knights. Early on in the game Zael falls in love with a mysterious girl (SURPRISE!) and from that moment on his life changes. The game's plot eventually sees Zael and crew entering the castle and mingling with all of the nobles. Also there's war (SURPRISE AGAIN!).

The plot starts off innocent enough, but then like most JRPGS the plot gets needlessly convoluted and totally stupid near the end. This is something I've been noticing a lot lately and it's really starting to annoy me. Where the plot of The Last Story does right is in it's characters. They all feel very real and that's not something you get very often in games these days. It sort of helps that they all have british voice actors, because just like in Xenoblade it makes everything feel more foreign than it actually is and that's refreshing. To top it off the game looks incredible for a Wii game, but the frame rate is a total disaster. So maybe it wasn't worth having it look so good?

The Last Story could have benefited from the higher specs of the PS3 and the 360.

Oh yeah it's also got some multiplayer.... It's uhhh not so great...

NEXT MONTH IS GOING TO RULE!

Thus concludes another segment of Game Time. I hope that you enjoyed my complaint riddled descriptions. If these games weren't exciting enough for you, then perhaps September will have more to offer. I know for certain that I'll be playing an obscene amount of Borderlands 2, along with Tokyo Jungle. I'm most certainly going to throw in some One Piece Pirate Warriors for good measure. So look forward to that.

See you in a month for another one of these and probably before that with something entirely different.

     -Manny