Game of the year 2015: Part 1

2015 was an excellent year for games. There is some bais there following up after 2014, a year that wont be remembered as a great one, and even outside of that fact I think on its own merits it has been a fantastic year for video games.  We got a great mix of independent and triple-A games, the revitalization of some uncommon genres, and a lot of unexpected diamonds in the rough.  I spent a lot of my time over my yearly holiday vacation this year consuming a wide variety of 'Game of the Year' content from various websites and media outlets, and really enjoyed it. It inspired me do some writing, so I decided that it would be a good exercise in figuring out my thoughts on the year as a whole, and an excuse to take a deeper look at the games I enjoyed.

This year I played more games that came out in the same year than I ever have in the past. With a good job and some incentive programs that I can exchange performance bonus points for games, I was able get a good amount of games this year (and hopefully some good perspective). That being said, I didn't play every good title out this year, I didnt even play every game I wanted to play, so upon reading keep in mind that Im not a journalist or professional games writer. I don't get review copies for games or access to events, everything I played this year I paid for one way or another.

But enough with the pleasantries! I had a lot to say about a wide variety of games this year, so I decided to divide my thoughts about 2015 into two articles: this one, with some award cateogries based on my thoughts and some ideas from game websites I like such as Giant Bomb, Rock Paper Shotgun, and Gamespot. And, a second article, which will be my first ever 'Top 10' list of my favorite games of the year, that the internet seems to get so hot and bothered over. So without further adieu, I present "Colorblind Gamer's Game of the Year 2015: Part 1"

Best Looking Game

WINNER - Splatoon 

I have already written thousands of words about why this game is amazing in just about every way, especially with its looks. It has amazing style and keeps it consistently throughout, with a mix of 90’s nostalgia, modern day chic, and japanese fashion. The style even goes beyond the expected with even things like vendors and NPCs with unique and interesting appearence. The bright colors and excitement about finding the next cool hoodie or water gun often kept me returning even when I wasn't enthused about playing a shooter. It is obvious that a lot of time and effort was put into the details, especially the maps and weapons. For my full thoughts on the game you can look at my review here.

RUNNER UP - Axiom  Verge 

While this game builds on the classic games of its genre in a way that favors iteration over innovation, I think it’s a beautiful take on the classic pixel style. There are groups of the community that believe the pixel art is becoming overused and played out in the industry. While I understand the sentiment after the deluge of indie and mobile games that use the aesthetic, I think the way it is used in Axiom Verge feels fresh. Axiom Verge's gameplay mechanic that allows you to ‘glitch out' the enemies and environments adds some unique flavor that subverts expectations, but meshes with the aesthetic as a whole in a really unique way. The monstrous and unnerving creature design, created from inspirations like Metroid, Life Force, and even H.R. Giger, really ties together the pieces of a game in a gorgeous yet uncomfortable fashion that makes me look forward to the day when I return to the world of Axiom Verge. 

RUNNER UP - Bloodborne 

This game combines dark victorian cityscapes, steampunk weapons, and comsmic horror in a way that made for a neat and unique setting. In true Lovecraft fashion, the enemies in this game are scary and unsettling, to say the least, often complete with extra long limbs, tentacles, mandibles, and their own interesting weapons to boot. When Bloodborne was first shown, I was very excited to see more about the game because the early parts that were shown off of the city at night were amazing, and From Software has had a history of making interesting and varied settings. That being said, a big part of why it's not the winner of this category has to do with exactly that: outside of a few small instances, the game doesn't really shy away from dark victorian architecture and ruined city streets. Bloodborne set fourth with some specific style goals, and succeeded to hit all of them in a way that looks amazing, but I just wish it would have mixed it up from time to time.

 
Best Music

WINNER - Undertale

Of all the games I played in 2015, Undertale was the one that I had the most mixed feelings about as a whole. That being said, I never had anything but positive feelings when it came to the music. The game is full of fun and interesting tracks start to finish, and I was always excited to find a new area or enemy just to hear if they had a new tune, or often an interesting variation of an old one. The music changes in style and ‘generation’ several times throughout the game. Some music is reminiscent of of the 8-bit era, while other pieces use recognizable bits from Super Nintendo, Gameboy Advance, and even some modern electronic and metal guitar riffs that keep the player on their toes. While I have spent a significant amount of time listening to all of the music from the games on this list outside of the game, the Undertale soundtrack has been by far the most frequent listen, and if that’s not the best praise I can give music from a video game I don't know what is.

RUNNER UP - Splatoon 

This soundtrack prefectly blends Nintendo’s traditional upbeat quirkiness with modern pop, punk, and hip-hop music influence. Like the rest of Splatoon, careful consideration was put into how they wanted to use music to set the mood and setting of the game. The bright colors, happy squid kids, and bubbly music makes for a really interesting juxtaposition with Splatoon’s somewhat dark storyline roots. It does start to get a little repetitive after long sessions of multiplayer because there aren't too many tracks for the online mode, but overall I think it had not only some of the best music of the year, but also some of the best modern music Nintendo has ever produced.

RUNNER UP - Axiom Merge

The music in this game is eerie and unsettling, and it fits the setting absolutely perfectly. I have some mixed memories as a child of watching my older brother play super metroid and and combination of the visceral alien art style and the ominous music gave me literal childhood nightmares. The music fit the setting: a bounty hunter exploring an alien planet alone, and in doing so made it feel that much more immersive, even with the more simple 16-bit graphics. The music used synth vocals and modern electronic sounds that suited each individual area really well in Axiom Verge, akin to a modernization of Metroid’s different area music. This soundtrack was not successful at giving me nightmares, but the tracks really tied together the elements in a way that made the game feel like a whole well thought out package.

Biggest Disappointment

WINNER - Galak-Z

Is it a rogue-like? or rogue-lite? or rogue-like-like? I never know what to call games of this kind anymore, at least not in a fashion that is both accurate and doesn’t incite the ire of the entire internet. Either way, games of this genre are some of my favorite games of all time (Spelunky anyone?) and because of that I had really high expectations. Maybe, even too high of expectations. There are a lot of things about Galak-Z I really enjoy. The style is off the charts, and the nouveau 80’s & 90’s giant robot anime aesthetic is executed perfectly, down to the pause and menu screens looking like an actual paused VHS tape with a VCR menu.  That being said, the game is structured in a way that I found really unappealing. Like the genre dictates, when you die you are done, game over, and you need to start over, and I have no problems with that concept. But, the problem here is that the game is structured in multi-part episodes that function like worlds in Mario, and ramp up in difficulty significantly. Galak-Z gives you the option to restart the game from the beginning of any world, but it's essentially a useless feature because the difficulty curve is such that starting the game over halfway through, you wont have found enough equipment or items to make the game an approachable difficulty level. Now before you go thinking ‘this color blind dude’s just sum bish that dun play hard games’ I can assure you some of my favorite games are challenging and hard to approach. Amongst my favorites are games like Spelunky or Dark Souls, but they take a  better approach to the challenge. I hear rumors of an ‘Arcade Mode’ that addresses some of my issues with it that’s available on the PC version, but as someone who played the game on PS4, this is not currently available to me without buying the game a second time. I want to go back and spend more time with it, but every time I do I just find myself wanting to play a better game in the genre and I think that’s telling of the game as a whole.

RUNNER UP - Just Cause 3

It feels strange putting this game on this list because of how many hours I put into it, but despite how much I enjoyed it, I always left every play session wanting more. Not wanting to play more, but wanting there to be more to what I was playing. I only dabbled in Just Cause 2, but seeing more new features, and wanting more time with the ridiculous Rico Rodriguez intrigued me to give it a try. After the intro video with the highly-stylized character portraits, the unexpectedly awesome cover of Prodigy’s “Firestarter”, and the opening sequence of gameplay, I was more excited about it than I had thought I would be. What came after was a frustrating combination of skill challenges and repetitive missions. There is a highly-customizable gear mod system that allows to you upgrade based on your playstyle and preferences, but every single upgrade is locked behind random, repetitive, and uninteresting skill challenges. There is so much about this game I really liked, but the gear progression system is so flawed it made me upset with Just Cause 3 on that ground alone.  The game makes a lot of promises about cool explosions and being a one man military-base-destroying-machine. While they do fulfill those promises, the fact that the tools to make it easier, more fun, and less tedious are locked behind ‘Fly through the rings’ or ‘shoot the targets’ challenges really soured me on the experience as a whole.

RUNNER UP - Witcher 3

Let me start off by saying that I did not play The Witcher 3 to completion. I only put about 25 hours into it, and I know that's a ‘shame’ for the fans and the developers since the game supposedly has 200+ hours of content. I am not going to say the thing that what a lot of writers are saying regarding the game ‘not respecting my time.’ I love games with hundreds of hours of content, I put over 150 hours into Fallout 4 alone this year, and I’ve done similarly with games in the past, but I just couldn’t do it in the Witcher. There seems to be a focus in the game on the mundane that really didn't mesh with me. I appreciate deep systems that allow for flexibility, but the skill system was confusing and underdeveloped. I think some of the folks over at the Giant Beastcast did the best job of explaining my feelings: It was tedium, and not the kind of tedium that makes me feel immersed in the world, its the kind of tedium that makes me feel like i just got done building a piece of ikea furniture or going to the post office. The combat wasn't interesting to me, systems for creating oils and bombs didn't even seem like you needed to engage with them to do well. The world is an interesting one, and the characters are too, but if you tie that up with a bullshit inventory systems, technical problems, and a skill system that left me with constant unspent points because it didnt encourage diversification, I am not going to feel encouraged to continue the game, doubly so for hundreds of valuable hours.

Best Multiplayer Experience

WINNER - Jackbox Party Pack 2

In 2015, Jackbox Party Pack 2 became the go to passtime for my group of friends. We spent many hours with all the games, be it the newly remade version of the original Fibbage game, the always funny and inappropriate Quiplash, and even the pixelated little brother to ‘Keep talking and nobody explodes’ called Bomb Corp. The games they added are interesting and fun, but don’t go too far out of the traditional Jackbox equation: simple but clever game + snarky host + great music.  Typically I would fault a game from not going out of their comfort zone or trying something new (Bomb Corp is pretty different all things considered) but, said equation works so well I don't think you need to venture out of it before you use up the design space you have. Overall, I have made more memories with my friends and family playing this game than I think I have with any game in years and I’m looking forward to playing it with more people for years to come.

RUNNER UP - Rocket League

I don’t even know where to start with this one. While it is a game where you play a ‘sport’ so to speak, in a lot of ways Rocket League is a better facsimile to soccer than FIFA or even the beloved Amiga classic Sensible Soccer. I think Danny O’Dwyer over at Gamespot did an excellent job of talking about why the game is so amazing, and I won’t do his thoughts justice, so just check out this episode of ‘The Point.’  I feel like this game went from little-known weird sports game on PC to multiplayer gaming sensation overnight. I can't even count  on two hands how many people I know who don't regularly play video games, that when presented with Rocket League, wanted to play and see more. It is easy to learn, hard to master, fast paced, fun, and legitimately exciting.   When it comes to the multiplayer, it has multiple ways to play online, both a fun for all mode where you simply play online, and a ranked mode for players more interested in harder competition. You can play online with a friend next to you on the couch and team up, or even host your own private games with your friends, the limit is only your imagination! (and how many PS4s you have and bandwidth etc.) I have since fallen off of it, but the game is fun to pick up and play, approachable for friends family, and is a total blast online solo, or with friends.

RUNNER UP - Splatoon

What can I say about Splatoon that hasn’t already been said. Listen.. guys.. I really like this game. Go read my full length review of it here because I had a lot to say. But, in general the multiplayer was really good, and I feel kind of bad putting it this way as a big fan of the company, but in a very NOT Nintendo-like fashion. They have notoriously been weak supporters of online multiplayer, save things like Monster Hunter, and seeing how smooth and functional the game is online was a breath of fresh air. Both the normal online ‘Turf War’ mode and the more advanced ranked mode work flawlessly. There is still a good population playing the game online, even more than 6 months after launch, and Nintendo has not been stingy with the free content adds and player events. On top of that, since launch they’ve added a constructed team-play mode, private custom games, countless weapons, and enough new maps to make returning to the game after months almsot like a brand new experience. I took a few months off and returned to the game recently and its just as fun as it ever was. I hope they not only continue to support it for 2016, but maybe work on a sequel for the NX in the near future. Either way, I will continue to play, and enjoy, Splatoon for what it is: the best multiplayer shooter of 2015.