Every Favorite-of-the-Year Honoree

Showing reviews of games that were one of my favorite things I played that year. The cream of the crop!

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Triangle Strategy

πŸ₯‡

Played New Game+ for the true ending, which was great. Fun to explore more characters and I was pleasantly surprised at how much variation there was in choices. Battles didn't get old, and while the late-game economy was a little unbalanced, the game remained fun throughout.

2024-02-04 Replay
26h 25m

A lovely end to an extremely cute trilogy. Tied it up perfectly, no notes.

2023-11-17 First Time
2h 49m

Similarly charming with marginally more gameplay this time around (but not really). Still a fun world and story though.

2023-11-15 First Time
1h 25m

What it lacks it gameplay, it makes up for in charm!

2023-11-13 First Time
1h 14m

INSIDE

πŸ₯‰

While this game doesn't explain anything more than its predecessor, I liked the setting much more. Instead of being in a black-and-white zone, you're in a series of industrial buildings that really give the game an eerie sense of place. The controls feel better and the puzzles are better balanced (if a bit easier). It also goes places I didn't expect, which feels like a rarity these days. I enjoyed it a lot for what it was.

2023-10-26 First Time
3h 0m

Tinykin

πŸ₯ˆ

Extremely charming platformer. Plays a lot like Pikmin-lite, but simplified in all the right ways. The animations and sound design are extremely cute and the NPC dialogue is a lot of fun. Each world is great to explore and they pulled the "pea-sized-person in a house" vibe off incredibly well. The only thing that fell flat was the story, which tries to be much deeper and serious than it needs to be. Luckily, it doesn't get it the way of anything and can be safely ignored. What a delightful time!

2023-08-19 First Time
5h 41m

Monster Sanctuary

πŸ₯‰

Great combat and team building. Exploration was decent. It was a little overwhelming having full skill trees for everyone, but certainly lead to a lot of depth and ability to customize. Story was decent. I liked that there's advanced game modes too.

2023-06-19 First Time
18h 54m

Hi-Fi Rush

πŸ₯‡

Stellar writing, gameplay, animation, and of course, music. Just the complete package. Doesn't overstay its welcome, but uses its time well. I love the attention to detail and amount of care put into this game.

2023-05-08 First Time
9h 14m

Trash the Planet

πŸ₯‰

Doesn't shy from the political, but presents it in a fun, light way. Great theming, varied gameplay, good music, and doesn't overstay its welcome. The complete package.

2023-04-23 First Time
1h 29m

Chained Echoes

πŸ₯‡

Absolutely superb. Follows in the footsteps of great JRPGs before it, modernizing and generally improving their gameplay. It's good a pretty decent story, great world to explore, cool abilities, great secrets, the works. I finished the main quest, every side quest, and a bunch of extra bits in 33 hours, which is amazing for a game like this. Usually it's dragged out much longer. It's a very focused game; there aren't that many locations, but there's a lot to explore. Doesn't hold your hand, but doesn't let you get too lost either. Very well constructed. I can't say enough good things about it.

2023-04-14 First Time
33h 36m

Horizon Forbidden West

🀝
πŸ₯‡

Took everything about the first game and improved it. Bigger world, better stories, more varied machines, better weapons, more interesting exploration, the works. The story was a little weaker, but set up some very interesting things. Plus, there's a lot of bits to find. And the stash system! What an improvement. Kudos all around.

2023-04-12 First Time
67h 32m

The Case of the Golden Idol

🀝
πŸ₯ˆ

Great puzzles, good art style. Liked the overarching plot and the approachability of it all. I could have used 20% more difficulty, but it was a superp addition to the detective/logic genre.

2023-01-17 First Time
5h 16m

Cinematically superb. Good characters and storytelling. Combat felt great and the weapons were distinct and fun. Biggest downside was the bloat- they could drop half the sidequests and 3/4 of the equipement and not lose a thing. There was more enemy diversity this time around and the abilities were more varied. Definitely a worthy successor.

2022-12-29 First Time
31h 16m

Triangle Strategy

πŸ₯‡

Good story and refreshing approach to character customization (that is, there's not much of it). Wish the ability trees were a little longer (I maxed out a number of characters, ability wise) but enjoyed the ride. Liked the exploration. Performance was fine, but certainly nice to have it on the go. Story was pretty good, and choices actually mattering was done well.

2022-11-03 First Time
37h 30m

Last Call BBS

πŸ₯‡

Superb collection of puzzles. Feels more like a NYT Puzzle Section than a single puzzle game, which is great. It sort of follows Elden Ring in that if you get stuck you can go try something else. I loved the little stories about game development and the varied themes of each game. What a swan song.

2022-09-30 First Time
40h 21m

TOEM

🀝
πŸ₯‡

Extraordinary. Extremely charming, straightforward but not too simple. Fun to explore and build a little vacation album (captures some of the magic of FFXV in that way). Great level design. Fun taking pictures of hard-to-find things and wear funny clothes. Just a delight, top to bottom.

2022-09-28 First Time
4h 52m

Astral Chain

πŸ₯‰

The combat was slick and the concept was cool. Story was fine, but the world and the investigations were neat change of pace. The combat got a _little_ samey after a while, but I enjoyed playing and the different legions felt interesting and distinct. The skill trees were fine wish there was more there. Pretty cool world to explore. I liked the two-brain-ness of the combat, but it definitely lead to some frustrating camera moments.

2022-07-21 First Time
21h 7m

Absolutely superb. Captures a lot of the appeal of FFTA, with their own spin on the combat and leveling system. There's a good set of jobs and maps are cool. My only big complaint is that it's hard to use the jobs you've maxed out because you don't want to be wasting experience. But, then you're on weird power curves because you keep resetting your learned abilities. But, I still enjoyed the heck out of it and will likely play it again eventually w/ DLC. Wild that I'm not even over it. Plot was good too! Decent characters and driving action. Occasional lack of clarity with some of the 3D layouts and I wish there was a quest log for side quests, but I still loved it top to bottom.

2022-06-14 First Time
55h 58m

Exo One

πŸ₯ˆ

Really incredible sense of scale and momentum. Didn't _really_ have a story, so the bits that snuck in were mostly distraction. Exploration was interesting and I liked the self-guided and stripped down nature of it. Serene and surreal.

2022-04-24 First Time
1h 47m

Tunic

πŸ₯‰

What it aimed to do, it did very well. There's a super-explorable overworld, great animation, superb sense of wonder and adventure. Unfortunately, some of the other systems don't support that well. The combat is fine, if basic. The targeting is frustrating and inconsistent. The bosses are pretty challenging for no real reason and don't mesh well with the rest of the game. There's a lot to like here, though!

2022-04-23 First Time
8h 12m

Sable

πŸ₯‰

Really interesting concept. Cool art style. I liked the self-directedness of it. Unfortunately, it was pretty rough around the edges bug wise; enough that eventually, it discouraged me from climbing/exploring more. But, the climbing + navigating was cool and the music was atmospheric. Writing was good too, I liked the concept a lot. So, there's a lot there, but it needs some polish and refinement.

2022-04-14 First Time
5h 0m

Persona 5 Royal

πŸ₯‰

Definitely a great RPG. Probably too long, but largely paced well. Characters were good and not too trope-y. Gameplay flowed well and had interesting mechanics. Creepy monster designs, but fun breeding and evolving them. Great gameplay for a dungeon crawler- felt much more dynamic than the dungeons of yore. Great style and soundtrack (though more battle songs would be great). Overall, loved it; wished it was a little shorter, but dang.

2022-02-10 First Time
105h 54m

The Pedestrian

πŸ₯‰

Pleasant, devilishly clever, and beautifully presented.

2022-01-31 First Time
3h 50m

Unpacking

πŸ₯ˆ

Very pleasant game! Interesting to example the story of a life via the ownership of things. Gameplay was light, but fun. Enjoyed seeing the subtle story unfold.

2022-01-25 First Time
2h 31m

Assemble With Care

πŸ₯‰

Wonderful! Delightful, tacticle little game. Cute story with heart. Nice music and sound design too.

2021-12-23 First Time
1h 15m

It Takes Two

πŸ‘₯
πŸ₯ˆ

Superb gameplay. Always new environments and styles to keep things fresh. Story was decent, but a little hamfisted. Presentation overall was great though, espeically puzzles and level designs. There's one really traumatic scene that Player 2 hated, but she had no other complaints. A good game for getting better at 3D platforming.

2021-12-16 First Time
14h 0m

WHAT THE GOLF?

πŸ₯‡

Really superb! Tons of teeny micro-puzzles. Constantly inventive. Really never knew what was coming next. Total joy. Beat the main story in 2:25 w/ 4322 strokes.

2021-11-08 First Time
2h 25m

Control

πŸ₯‡

What a neat game. Presentation and world design was superb. Enemies were creepy. Story was fine. Bosses were ok, but honestly sort of a weak point. Exploration was pretty good. Powers were very cool- great power fantasy. Worldbuilding was a standout. Finished the story in ~ 13 hours, kept playing for the plat.

2021-10-24 First Time
20h 0m

Bugsnax

🀝
πŸ₯‰

Very cute/horrifying game. Gameplay is simple, but layered. The characters have a surprising amount of depth to them, which gives the game a lot of legs. Had fun exploring the world; got the plat! --- Finished story in 7h 29m. Caught 52 on that play through on 9/24

2021-09-28 First Time
11h 52m

Really awesome storytelling and integration of gameplay with narritive. Fun to collect and power-up cards. Really liked basically all of it except the final fight, which was punishingly hard. But, good fun overall!

2021-09-05 First Time
30h 15m

Ape Out

πŸ₯‰

Audiovisually superb. Gameplay was decent, if a little repetitive. Didn't always seem totally fair. But, I liked how it expanded on the stylistic approach and had some enemy variety. Pretty short, pretty sweet. Died 83 times total, 56 of which were on the last world. Not a great diffulcuty ramp, all told.

2021-04-05 First Time
1h 12m

Stellar soundtrack and hand drawn animation. Good platform and ok boss fights. Good variety of levels, though it does sort of follow the regular set of levels. I liked the width of the puzzles you got with the mix of animals, equipment, and abilities. The story was basically non-existent, but that didn't really get in the way. There's some funny jokes thrown in occasionally.

2021-03-04 First Time
18h 19m

Hades

🀝
πŸ₯‡

Such a fun game. Great gameplay and art direction. Hugely dynamic text is impressive, as is the totally dynamic storytelling. The builds are varied and fun. There's a lot of agency. I think it does get a little repetitive, but there's a lot of levers to pull. I could have maybe done with more enemy variety though. Endgame difficulty levels definitely add longevity.

2020-12-31 First Time
37h 0m

Very atmospheric. Cool story that we get to experience and find. Puzzles were fine and didn't get in the way. Low-g was cool. Interactivity was great. All around very enjoyable! Didn't overstay its welcome, either.

2020-12-29 First Time
5h 0m

Carto

🀝
πŸ₯‡

Delightful game! Great art style and characters. Puzzles were light, but pretty good. Great core puzzle elment - they did a good job with it. Manipulating the map could have been a little more fluid, especially when trying to match pieces that didn't fit, but I really enjoyed it all the way through.

2020-12-02 First Time
4h 10m

Hypnospace Outlaw

πŸ₯‰

Really interesting game. Huge amount of content and atmospheric storytelling. The story was good and the puzzles were fine (the whole mechanic is basically just sifting through tons and tons of noise). The presentation is spectacular and there's certianly a lot to find. Does really well capturing the vibes of an era.

2020-10-04 First Time
4h 40m

Dishonored 2

πŸ₯‰

I think the story was a little less tight and emonitonal as compared to the first, but the level design continued to be great. I like that they rewarded exploration. Still don't love the way they do endings, but I suppose it adds nice consequence. Also, the non-lethal takedowns for story characters were well thought out.

2020-09-02 First Time
17h 3m

Frostpunk

πŸ₯‰
RTS

Very cool game. Good UI, great atmosphere, a ton of content and options. Beat the main story on the third try- knowing what's coming really helps guide decisions. Super fun though, and i'm glad there are a lot of map options.

2020-07-19 First Time
10h 33m

Death Stranding

πŸ₯‰

What a weird game. The core gameplay of buliding improvements into the world to make your tasks (delivery) easier is good. It's certainly relaxed and repetitive, but that's nice sometimes. The story and characters are both confusing and dreadful. Sort of can't believe they started with a blank slate and ended up here. That said, I did play it for a ton of hours (more than most other games I've ever played). Β―\_(ツ)_/Β― Like I said, the core loop is decent. I built all the roads and a bunch of ziplines. The mini stories were sort of good. I'd honestly rather see this as a little indie game rather than the over-long monstrosity that it turned into. Finished the campaign in ~50 hours (which included some road-building and other side quests).

2020-04-11 First Time
58h 48m

EXAPUNKS

πŸ₯‡

Honestly one of their bests. Coding puzzles are hard, but large resource limits (and no line restrictoions) help a lot to make it accessible. It also has the best atmosphere/story of any of their games yet! Highely enjoyed.

2020-02-09 First Time
19h 50m

DOOM

πŸ₯‰

Really fun! Awesome level design and secret hunting. Appropriately gross throughout. Cool enemies. Thrilling and intense. Pretty good gameplay. Decent weapon variety. Enough of a story to tie missions together and give purpose, but not so much that it was overbearing. Didn't take itself too seriously. Just like, fun!

2019-12-30 First Time
16h 0m

Outer Wilds

πŸ₯‰

Fun game. Really interesting sense of exploration. Lots of info to find, basically all of it self guided. I liked finding new things all the time. It was a little frustrating having to re-do dangerous sections when I ran out of time, since there's no checkpoints. Very cool dangerous feeling atmosphere. Lots of cool flavor and discovery. Definitely a subnautica vibe. Space physics were really good, too. Fun to boost around.

2019-12-23 First Time
15h 0m

Final Fantasy XV

πŸ₯‰

Woof. Ok. So, the game is gorgeous and has a lot of charm. Side quests are bad (lots of looking for a glowing dot on the ground) and samey. Main story is decent, if not muddled. They put a lot of important storytelling in the DLC. Combat actually feels pretty good once you get in the rhythm. For an open world game, it's locks you into a lot of stuff. Driving the car around is a lot of dead time, but sort of pleasant in a way. Didn't let me connect with the world much though. Surprisingly few equipment options and magic felt too strong and not strategic enough (despite options). Skill tree didn't feel impactful. Character development was eventually good. There were some cool locations shown briefly, especially later in the game. Summons looked cool but the systems were bad. Lots of side characters I didn't care about. Weird stealth sections. Big empty map with nice scenery, but not a ton to do (low density, there are dungeons scattered about). All that said, I did play the whole thing. I kept wanting to see what would happen next. Surprisingly emotional end. Good villain. It ended up being sort of inexplicably enjoyable despite having no right being so. The immersion was at some points great and at some points bad, which was extra jarring because of how good it is sometimes (car dialogue, picture comments, etc).

2019-12-05 First Time
46h 27m

Celeste

πŸ₯ˆ

Collected 38 strawberries. Died 1,741 times. Really touching story. Good level variation, mechanics, and music. Definitely tough, but rewarding. Tying the challenge of the game into climbing a literal mountain is an effective mechanic. There's a lot more to do if I ever want to come back to it, too! Very impressed.

2019-10-17 First Time
7h 15m

DEVICE 6

🀝
πŸ₯‰

Weird interactive puzzle / novel. Really amazing presentation, both at an audio and visual level. Sort of odd and meta, but in a very cool way.

2019-10-05 First Time
2h 0m

Return of the Obra Dinn

🀝
πŸ₯‡

Really great concept. Frustrating at times, but really rewarding to figure it all out. Enjoyed the art style.

2019-07-06 First Time
12h 30m

Detroit: Become Human

🀝
πŸ₯‰

Really impressive scope of choices and outcomes. Gorgeous game. A little heavy handed sometimes, but overall very good. They made the flowchart hard to navigate and replaying levels can't be sped up, so I'm not sure it's possible to go see all the other options in any reasonable amount of time.

2019-04-16 First Time
11h 31m

CrossCode

πŸ₯‡

Really fun game. Great art and quests. Some frustrating platforming where perspective was tough. Mostly good bosses. Great puzzles. Good writing. Tons of content. Really quite impressive.

2019-03-14 First Time
54h 45m

Slay the Spire

πŸ›‘
πŸ₯ˆ

Really really fun. Each of the characters feels unique. The art is fine (and improving). The mechanics are fun and I find the game itself quite challenging. Excited to see where they take it next. I didn't mark it as "beat" because I didn't finish with each of the 3 characters.

2019-01-09 First Time
20h 29m

Up Left Out

πŸ₯ˆ

Great puzzles. I previously liked another game of theirs. 50 levels. creative use of the mechanics and it builds on itself well. Good tactile feel. Great sound design.

2018-12-30 First Time
1h 10m

Hexcells

πŸ₯‰

Really slick game. A little confusing on a couple of rules, but well done. Difficulty really ramped up at the end. Had the satisfaction of games with no luck where you finally make a breakthrough.

2018-12-25 First Time
3h 13m

Gorogoa

πŸ₯‡

Really extraordinarily inventive game.

2018-12-20 First Time
1h 30m

Donut County

πŸ₯‰

next idea, surprisingly cute, good writing, great execution. Lacked the exploration of katamari, but was more inventive with the core concept. Had actual writing, too. Not much challenge and it's fairly linear (you have to get everything in a level), but it's pleasant

2018-12-20 First Time
1h 30m

Opus Magnum

πŸ₯ˆ

Definitely has the easiest campaign of a Zachtronics game that I've played. I really liked not being limited by space and having flexible inputs and outputs. This is really the evolution of the Spacechem formula and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's a couple of mechanics that feel a little tacked on in the main campaign (one specifically jumps to mind) but it's not that distracting and the game itself is a triumph.

2018-12-15 First Time
18h 35m

Oh man, what a game. The worst parts were how repetitive the crimes were. The best parts were everything else. The story, the environment, the variety of locations, characters, music, and feel. The map almost felt small, but mostly because you could move so fast. The challenges and science portions showed some of the cool spins they can do on the use of powers and objectives. Biggest complaint would be repetitiveness, but it was still wicked fun. Excited for more.

2018-10-13 First Time
31h 25m

Really cool! Pretty tough (even on normal mode), but a lot of surveying, trial/error, and coordination made it work. I really liked how there were multiple ways to do each objective and the levels had a lot of ways to move around them. It was a tight story and the characters were pretty good (except the accents, which didn't make any sense). Camera didn't bother me much. Overall very enjoyable.

2018-09-23 First Time
18h 44m

Really fun platformer! Some tough sections, but enjoyable. Movement was great, combat was decent, music and art were phenomenal. Touching story, lots more to explore. Update, I explored more. Really fun running around late game. Map could use a little detail and the zoom is annoying, but I am very satisfied with this game.

2018-08-02 First Time
9h 29m

God of War

πŸ₯‡

Wow, what a game. Amazing storytelling, great combat, pretty good collectables. Biggest harp would be the map, which was pretty useless for an open world game. Great character building and narrative control. Deserves the accolades it got for sure.

2018-07-20 First Time
25h 0m

Florence

πŸ₯ˆ

Short and very cute

2018-06-30 First Time
1h 0m

Horizon Zero Dawn

🀝
πŸ₯‡

What a beautiful world. Lots to explore. Good monsters, really makes you feel scared while hunting. Cool story, great worldbuilding. Never dragged, which was impressive. The inventory management was annoying and there were a lot of weapons that never got used. They didn't get in the way though, and it was just so fun to play.

2018-05-19 First Time
41h 40m

Ratchet & Clank

πŸ₯‰

Really really phenomenal. Probably the prettiest game I've ever played. Pro had upgrades and it looked great. Gameplay was the most refined version of the R&C formula to date. Nothing really new, but a great experience. No arena, but lots of racing. Maybe because the original was like that.

2018-01-27 First Time
12h 30m

LittleBigPlanet

πŸ₯‰

no additional notes, see rating

2017-09-15 First Time
8h 20m

no additional notes, see rating

2017-09-11 First Time
17h 11m

Else Heart.Break()

πŸ₯ˆ

no additional notes, see rating

2017-08-27 First Time
7h 18m

The Talos Principle

🀝
πŸ₯‡

Great "outside the box" puzzles paired with an philosophical story and beautiful graphics make for a great time.

2017-05-30 First Time
20h 23m

PokΓ©mon Sun

πŸ₯‡

no additional notes, see rating

2017-05-08 First Time
63h 0m

Klocki

πŸ₯ˆ

Great puzzles, cool design, components feel good in the hand.

2017-03-15 First Time
3h 0m

The Guides

πŸ₯‰

no additional notes, see rating

2016-12-31 First Time
Unknown Playtime

Factorio

πŸ₯‡

The pinnacle of automation games. There's simply nothing like it.

2016-12-08 First Time
25h 0m

Mini Metro

πŸ₯ˆ
RTS

no additional notes, see rating

2016-10-02 First Time
5h 14m

The Witness

πŸ₯ˆ

Very good puzzles (including atmospheric ones) and a beautiful, serene world. There's not really a story (even though it seems like there should be). Usually that would annoy me, but the gameplay here is so good that it didn't bother me.

2016-07-05 First Time
22h 57m