It's been speculated since 2016 but we got the official announcement this past Monday on Raw; On January 28th, 2018, in PHILADELPHIA, the women will compete in the first ever all women's Royal Rumble match. Hurray! I'm all for women's wrestling so this is big for not only the fans but the women involved in the match up and the division. Word is is that the women were kept in the dark regarding the announcement so when Stephanie McMahon said it on Raw, the women's reactions were all genuine. We had heels Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax smiling from ear to ear and hugging like they're clean cut babyfaces. You had Absolution raising their hands with Alicia Fox, who they attacked a week prior. It didn't make sense kayfabe wise but it was still a great time for the women's wrestlers. I mean, we all know everything is staged anyway so who cares if you have heels standing with faces, celebrating a historic moment. Wrestling fans can be so jaded sometimes.
Anyway, the exact number of competitors is unknown. Being that it's now two Rumble matches, one could speculate it will just feature 20 women and that would make sense as there's just about 20 women, excluding champions, on both brands, but that doesn't leave room for surprises and if it does, that means someone from the current roster of women might be excluded and that's not fair. Although women like Dana Brooke or Lana might not get a lot of in ring time, they should still be apart of the match, being that they are women and apart of the active roster. I say let's do 30. To fill in the gaps, you can use women from NXT obviously and bring in surprise entrants. We know, as of now, Naomi from Smackdown and the entire Raw women's roster excluding Maryse, who's pregnant, and Alexa Bliss, who's the champion, will be competing.That includes Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James, Dana Brooke, Alicia Fox, Nia Jax, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Paige and Asuka. I fully expect the remaining women from Smackdown (Natalya, Carmella, Lana, Tamina, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan and Becky Lynch) to be apart of it. That's 19. Nikki Bella will most likely make her return, edging it out to 20. That leaves 10 spots. That's a lot but if they do 5NXT and alumni, then they'll be OK.
If I'm picking women from NXT, you have to use names on TV. NXT Women's Champion Ember Moon has to be in the match if it's for a shot at either the Raw or Smackdown's Women's Title. Mae Young Classic winner Kairi Sane and the runner up Shayna Baszler, should be considered for the match. Nikki Cross is another one. The Iconic Duo of Peyton Royce and Billie Kay should be at the top of the list, considering their run in NXT looks to be coming to an end.
As for surprise entrants, Trish Stratus is at the top of my list. Rumors have it that Trish was originally going to be the one who faced Asuka at NXT Takeover Toronto but she ended up getting pregnant so that was off. Trish isn't mentioned that much during the whole women's revolution thing and she wasn't present during the Mae Young Classic, despite being a focal point of the division in the late 90s and early 2000s. She's good to go now and I think if she came out at #2, the crowd would blow the roof off the Wells Fargo Center. I know I would lose my composure. Trish teased an appearance on Twitter right after the announcement was made. Could this just be wishful thinking on her part or have WWE contacted her? You have to believe WWE isn't stupid and know the demand to see her compete would definitely add even more intrigue to the match. Lita, Trish's biggest rival and counterpart through their entire careers, (they even retired from WWE within the same two month period) is a big name that people would want. Lita has been more active with WWE over the last few years, being apart of some of the big moments for the division, like introducing the new Women's Title at Wrestlemania 32 and commentating the Mae Young Classic with Jim Ross. Could you imagine if Trish came out, not at #2 like I previously said, dominated for a bit then the next entrant that came out was Lita? How awesome would that be to reignite the best women's feud, even for just two minutes? After that, they could get eliminated by Nia Jax or Absolution or The Riott Squad, getting some major heat.
Recent WWE Hall of Famer, Beth Phoenix has to be another big name for the match. The Glamazon was one of the biggest stars in a post Trish/Lita era, where women's wrestling was really struggling, especially in a PG era. Her HOF induction has to help push her close for a spot in the match. And it would definitely be nice to see Phoenix mix it up with former ally Natayla and best rival Mickie James. James/Phoenix is one of my top women feuds so that's another good one they could ignite during the match. Other names include Kaitlyn, who WWE has been fond of making a comeback, Victoria, another great women's champion in WWE and of course, Stephanie McMahon. If Triple H has taught me anything, the boss could compete too. I'm sure it would piss many fans off if she made it to the final four, three, two or, Lord forbid, the winner, but the inclusion of the most powerful female authority in the company in the first ever all women's Royal Rumble, come on, it writes itself.
The biggest rumored surprise entrant is definitely Ronda Rousey. The Four Horsewomen of WWE VS The Four Horsewomen of MMA has LONG been discussed and talks especially heated up this past summer, when MMA Horsewoman Shayna Baszler competed in the Mae Young Classic. After some heelish actions from Baszler, she had a staredown with Charlotte, Bayley and Becky Lynch. It was INTENSE. They also did a backstage (well, outside) interview with Rousey, who was with Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, who is Roderick Strong's girlfriend. It led to another staredown, teasing a future showdown. Rousey being in it could potentially lead to the match for Wrestlemania or even Rousey against one of the girls in a single match. Rousey can be an entrant, but shouldn't win the match. If I'm picking winners, it comes down to Paige or Asuka. I think that's the smart match to have at Mania this year if they're not going to do Sasha/Bayley. If Rousey does win, then Charlotte/Rousey is the biggest match they could do. And they could still do Sasha/Bayley, just have to put the right pieces in place.
Regardless, the Royal Rumble just got a lot more interesting with a 2nd match added. Will it be overkill? I don't think so. The Royal Rumble is my favorite match type. The mystery, the stakes, the set up for Wrestlemania matches. It's got it all. I just hope WWE give the match 30 entrants like it deserves. Anything less is ridiculous. Can't wait!
Friday, December 22, 2017
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Top 10 Games of 2017
2017 is just about in the books and it's been a hell of a year for video games. For the first time since I've been gaming, it seems like every month this year was filled with a major game I wanted to play. Usually they are spread out but 2017 didn't get the memo. The after holidays drag? Gone. The summer drought? Also gone! The holiday shopping season, as usual, was filled with quality releases but one month in particular was so wallet crushing, it forced me to buy 6 games in the month. That's a first. Hopefully a last too....anyway, 2017 was a fantastic gaming year, filled with amazing adventures, shocking twists and more sequels that I can count on with two hands. These 10 games are my favorite of the bunch. Now, I only included games that I completed so games that should be on this list, like Nier Automata or Nioh, aren't because I'm a horrible gamer and tend to stockpile games and forget a few releases. Some games that I have completed didn't make like the list, like Agents of Mayhem or Danganronpa V3. Great games, just not better than my favorite 10. Let's do it!
A Spoiler Alert is NOW in effect for all games on the list.
10. Sundered
DISCLAIMER: Some of this is pulled right from my post on Sundered back in October so I can spend time on the other games.
Metroidvania is one of my favorite subgenres of games out there. Collecting new powers, exploring a massive map and finding secrets are some of the highlights I love. I mean, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is my favorite game of all time and that was it done to perfection. Sundered has the same elements as that game but done in its own way with a great art style and a choose your own upgrades system.
Sundered was created by ThunderLotus games, who created the great Jotun, which I've played but didn't complete. It features that same hand drawn art style but instead of inspiration from the Vikings era, it takes cues from H.P. Lovecraft and his works so it's a very dark fantasy like world filled with horrifying creatures.
As a Metroidvania game, there is a lot of running, platforming and going to areas you don't have abilities for yet. Eshe, the main character, starts off with nothing, as she's pulled into these ruins by an unknown force. Over the course of the game, Eshe will gain a protective shield, the ability to double jump, gain a massive cannon for crowd control, be able to charge her attacks, gain a midair dodge, run up walls and use grappling hooks. Eshe has the ability to corrupt her abilities by gaining these things called the Elder Shards. Depending on your actions, you can either corrupt your abilities or destroy the Shards. I went full on embrace for my first playthrough and the powers you get are pretty amazing. If you corrupt your abilities, your shield will damage your enemies when you get attacked, you can glide after your second jump, the cannon turn into a laser beam, the charged attacks become much stronger, the midair dodge becomes a midair teleportation ability, you can climb on all walls instead of just running up from the base and the grappling hooks will now allow for an extra boost after locking onto it. The corrupted abilities are game changers, especially crawling on all walls and the glide ability, especially in the last area, which is mostly floating islands.
The boss battles are intense, screen filling affairs and are one of the major highlights. The game's camera pans out, so you can see the huge monsters and Eshe looks like an ant in comparison. While they are amazing, there is only a few of them in the game, so relish them while they last. They aren't entirely too difficult either, with the exception of the two bosses in one fight one. Focusing on attacking one and trying to evade two different attack patterns can be pretty challenging. The last boss is a challenge as well, at least on my route. There are three different end bosses depending on if you embraced the Elder Shards, destroyed them or did a combination of the two. Humanity, the last boss for the Embrace path is intense and I was only able to defeat it thanks to a glitch.
Sundered is an amazing title for the hardcore Metroidvania/rouge-like gaming crowd. The difficultly spikes in certain regions, especially while exploring, but overcoming all the obstacles makes for a satisfying experience. If you enjoy Castlevania but love the challenge of games like Binding of Isaac and Enter The Gungeon, play this one.
9. Hellblade
Hellblade, in gameplay, is a very straightforward game. If you played any hack n slash game in the last ten years, you'll know what to expect. What Hellblade does so well is how it tackles the main issue of its protagonist Senua. She is suffering from psychosis and is experiencing the symptoms of it, hallucinations, voices in her head, etc. It's a truly riveting cinematic experience and one that must be experienced first hand.
Hellblade is all about Senua trying to save the soul of her dead lover Dillion. On her journey, she is constantly tormented by what she thinks is a curse, which are the voices in her head. During the game, you learn of Senua's dark backstory, how she met and fell in love with Dillion and just how messed up her father really was. It's a deep story that's pretty difficult to explain without experiencing it but it's all about the five stages of grief and accepting who you are no matter what.
Again, Hellblade is a basic game in terms of how it handles fighting and exploration. The game is played from third person, behind the shoulder, more akin to Resident Evil 4 or the Gears of War series. Senua has a sword she uses in combat and has a few basic combos with it. It's nothing deep like Ninja Theory's DMC or Heavenly Sword but it gets the job done and you can take the enemies out stylishly. When you're not fighting, you're exploring, solving puzzles. A lot of the puzzles involve you looking around at your surroundings, trying to line up certain symbols to open doors.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice won't win any awards for its gameplay, as it's just there to get the story across. The way the game handles a psychological disorder and learning of Seuna's journey into darkness is amazing. I also LOVE how playing with headphones deepens the experience and you truly feeling like you're not alone while playing it. If you want a different experience in gaming, this game is worth a buy. It's $30 and only 6-8 hours and well worth the investment.
8. The Evil Within II
The Evil Within 1 is one of my favorite survival horror games from the last two generations. With Resident Evil taking a backseat on the genre, (until this year) EW1 stepped up and made a truly unique and frightening experience. This continues in Evil Within 2 and it becomes a game that surpasses the original in all aspects. It's dark, it's gory and it will scare you at least once.
EW2 takes place 3 years after the events of 1. You play as Sebastian Castellanos, the protagonist from the original, who has quit his job as from the police department to investigate the mysterious group who causes the events of the first game. Sebastian is tormented by the disappearance of his wife Myra and the death of his daughter Lily, who died in a mysterious house fire. During one of his bar sessions, he is approached by his former partner Juli Kidman, another protagonist from the original. She reveals the Lily is still alive and the same group that caused the events of the first game, MOBIUS, has her and they need Sebastian to go inside the STEM program to rescue her as they've lost contact with her. The game sprawls out of control from there into the same nightmare as in EW1, with nasty mutations and evil people who want to control the system for themselves.
Evil Within 2 played the same as the original and follows Resident Evil 4's gameplay model from 2005. If you've played the original, you know what to expect. What is different in 2 is that it's more open world than the linear Evil Within 1. You were always on a straight path, there wasn't a lot of room to explore but that is gone in 2. Within an hour or so, you're given the option to roam around Union, the town you're sent to. There are sidequests to do, houses to go through to find materials and plenty of evil creatures lurking around, prepared to kill you. EW2 is more generous with supplies than the first one, at least on the default difficultly setting and with the ability to craft ammunition, I never felt really overwhelmed like the original. The game still has memorable boss encounters, including a kind of boss rush near the end that calls back to creatures in Evil Within 1. It's a great shout out to fans who've experienced both titles.
Evil Within 2 expands upon what made Evil Within 1 such a delight in 2014. With a happy ending that has an ambiguous post credits scene that will hopefully lead to a sequel, Evil Within 2 gets the job done. It took 15 hours to complete and was a thrill ride from start to finish. A must play for fans of the original.
7. Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil, for me, will always be the king of survival horror. Yes, I know 4-6 weren't up to the same standards of horror as the first three or Code Veronica but they were still great games. Well, 6 is a mixed bag for most. There is no denying 7 though. It is a scary game as it goes back to its roots of survival horror while adding a whole new level of fright being first person. It's a great return to form for the 21 year series.
Resident Evil 7 stars Ethan Winters, a basic man. He's not a solider, a cop, or a special obs agent. He's a normal man who travels to Dudley, Louisiana thanks to a message from his wife Mia, who he thought was dead for the past three years. Ethan arrives and explores an abandoned house, only to find Mia in the basement. They escape together but Mia becomes very violent and attacks Ethan. This forces him to kill Mia. Ethan receives a call from a woman named Zoe who offers to help but during that, Mia comes back to life and cuts off Ethan's hand. It's all very surreal. Jack Baker, who is the head of the Baker Family, who apparently lives in this house, kidnaps Ethan. Zoe is able to staple Ethan's hand back on. At a dinner table, we are introduced to Marguerite, Jack's wife, Lucas, Jack's son and a elderly woman. Ethan is able to get out of the restraints holding him and then he tries to escape the Baker house.
RE7 is experienced ENTIRELY in first person view. There is no option for a fixed camera or even the behind the shoulder camera. If you have it on Playstation 4, you can play in all in PSVR as well. I didn't have a PSVR when I first played this but no that I do, I'm definitely thinking about revisiting this nightmare again with the helmet. First person view makes this game 100 times scarier. Not knowing what's behind you, seeing everything from Ethan's eyes, something about it makes it so much more frightening. As I said in the beginning, Ethan is a civilian, so he's not combat experienced. The game does a great job at playing at that fact the entire time. You never feel powerful, always helpless and the smallest thing could kill you. That's how survival horror should be. You shouldn't be able to go guns ablazing because there is no horror in that. Now, the last act, I did have over 90 bullets for my handgun alone but you need it for the final fight.
Resident Evil 7 is a fantastic return to form for the series. While getting away from the game's classic third person look, it takes survival horror on a new spin and it does it successfully. I've never been more scared playing a game this year than I was with RE7. I can't imagine how the experience is in VR and is definitely something I will try in the coming months. If you're a fan of Resident Evil, you owe it to yourself to play this game. It's not like the others in terms of sight, but all the elements of survival horror are there and Capcom has made this the title to model the next couple of games after. Good to have you back Resident Evil. Capcom, work on Onimusha next please.
6. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
This world needs more visceral single player first person shooters like Wolfenstein II. Bethesda has done a great job at keeping the genre alive, despite the onslaught of multiplayer shooters coming to the market. Wolfenstein: The New Order was a big shocker for me. It was a great FPS game, with over the top gore, a great alternate history story and a lengthy campaign. The prequel, The Old Blood was more of the same. Bethesda also did an even better job with Doom the following year, reigniting the classic series in a 2016 gaming environment. It was superb. They've worked their magic again with the sequel to Wolfenstein, giving us a game that's more gritty, visceral and better that the first.
Wolfenstein II takes place in 1961 in the alternate history that the Nazis won World War II. BJ Blazowicz, after the events of the first game, falls under a five month coma. Upon waking, he learns that his love interest Anya is pregnant with twins. Unfortunately for Blazowicz, it's a rude awakening as Frau Engel, the game's main antagonist, is attacking the U-boat he's on. The attack and coma has left Blazowicz handicap and he has to escape in a wheelchair. That's the game's first level and it's pretty awesome. During the attack, Caroline and Fergus or Wyatt, depending on the decision early in the game, are captured. Blazowicz gets captured as a way to save his friends but Caroline is killed during the rescue attempt. Blazowicz equips the power armor Caroline had on and fights back, causing Frau Engel to flee. The rest of the game is trying to build your team up to take the fight to the Nazis. I don't want to spoil this one but it has a satisfying conclusion. A bloody, satisfying conclusion.
Gameplay is the same as in Doom and W: TNO. It's a fast paced FPS with a health and armor system, not one where you can recover all your health thanks to just staying cover. One of my favorite things about W2: TNC, is that you're rewarded for how you play. If you're a headshot hunter, you'll increase your accuracy. If you do a lot of stealth kills, the sound you make while moving will decrease. You get better as you play. It also goes up even if you die, so let's say you killed 3 guys with stealth and then happened to get killed, the game records those 3 stealth kills. It's very helpful during the tough spots in the game. And boy is this game tough. I played on Bring Em On, which is the default difficulty and I was getting killed on a regular basis. It's not unfair at all and I always felt at fault for dying. I just had to rethink the way I approached the level. You can dual wield in the game as in the first one and it's needed for the harder enemies. Late in the game, (MAJOR SPOILER) Blazowicz is decapitated and the group saves his head and puts in on a super solider's body. You have a choice of three upgrades for the body. You could squeeze into tight gaps, leap higher or be able to run through metal or enemies. This is pretty late in the game as well but it adds another dimension of killing Nazis.
Wolfenstein II is the best first person shooter this year. The realistic story, the great characters, heroes and villains, the visceral and gory gunplay make for one of the best action adventure games this generation. It sets the bar for single player first person shooters and I hope more companies take a chance like Bethesda did. Games like this don't come around too often but I'm glad it did. Definitely a must play if you like the series, FPS or action games in general. And who doesn't like killing Nazis?
5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole
South Park: The Stick of Truth was a great South Park game and a good RPG. Fractured But Whole is an even better South Park game and an even better RPG, thanks to a brand new battle system, more characters to control and more of the same South Park humor we've come to know.
FBW takes place right after SOT, with the first battle with the kids still in their fantasy attire. The kids go to see Cartman, who is no longer in his wizard costume but has now turned into The Coon, his superhero alias. Cartman's plan is to launch a successful superhero media franchise and he plans to make that happen by finding a lost cat and getting the $100 reward. The game spirals out of control like only a South Park story could which involves, cats, urine and a drug ring. Yeah, it's crazy but if you watch South Park, you should come to expect it.
They've done a great job at making the battle system even better and more addictive than The Stick of Truth. Instead of a traditional RPG turn based battle system, like SOT, FBW focuses on a grid based battle system, like one you might find in a strategy RPG. It's more akin to Enchanted Arms. Remember that game? You control the main character, The New Kid and three kids from South Park in their super hero forms, like Stan, Cartman, Kyle, Kenny and Wendy just to name a few. You have three different attacks for each character and each attack affects a different area. For example, some attacks just hit the grid directly in front of the character, usually like a punch or physical attack. Others can affect the grids diagonal from the player character or a straight line, etc. You get the idea. It adds alot of strategy for gameplay. Your characters don't gain regular levels but instead a party level, which allows you to be able to equip certain artifacts, which in turn give you certain perks like increased throwback attack or increased healing from items. When you're not battling, you'll be exploring South Park, completing sidequests, collecting Yaoi artwork featuring Craig and Tweak, using your farts to affect the environment, you know, normal JRPG things. Unfortunately, you don't go to Canada this time so no classic RPG gameplay part.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole is an improved sequel from The Stick of Truth. All the meta jokes, the classic crazy South Park story and the terrific gameplay make this a game to play. Any fan of South Park will be pleased with this adventure and any fans of RPGs will find a surprising deep game. Yes, the fart jokes are pretty standard but any game that allows me to face Morgan Freeman and Jared from Subway deserves a spot on this list.
4. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Bit of a surprise huh? Breath of the Wild was a critical success, getting perfect scores from just about every publication and was a perfect Switch launch title and yes, it's a fantastic game. When I first played it, I was dumbfounded. It was such a groundbreaking title, something so different from previous Zelda titles but it didn't stay with me like other games on this list. Maybe it's because this doesn't really feel like a Zelda game at all or maybe because I felt like much of the game's enjoyment comes from sidequests and extra content. Maybe because the game is so freaking short? Whatever the reason, BOTW is a great Zelda game but it's not my favorite Zelda game.
Taken straight from Wikipedia, An amnesiac Link awakens from within the Shrine of Resurrection. A mysterious female voice guides him to the now ruined kingdom of Hyrule where he meets an old man who, after helping Link adjust to the ruined world, reveals himself to be the restless spirit of King Rhoam, the last King of Hyrule. The king explains to Link that Ganon has been sealed in Hyrule Castle for one hundred years, but Ganon has continued to grow in power, and the king pleads for Link to defeat him before he breaks free and destroys the world.
It's typical Zelda lore. You have to get four of something, obtain the Master Sword then defeat Ganon. Well, The Master Sword is optional in this game. While the lore may be familiar, I promise you, most of the game isn't. Within the opening minutes, you're presented with a cliff. In previous Zelda games, you could only traverse it by using a hookshot or getting an item that allowed you to jump. Link just climbed the cliff like it was nothing. You can also jump at will in the game. That's freaking mind blowing. The entire world of BOTW is open to you and you can explore it all. I think that's what people really enjoy. There's literally an endless amount of things to do once you start. You don't even have to touch the main quest for awhile. BOTW also introduces inventory management, cooking and a weather system. Depending on where you are, you can take damage. If it's too cold and you're not warm enough, you can freeze. If it's too hot and you don't have the right gear, you will burn. Not only you, but your equipment, if wooded, will burn with you. Zelda has a lot of smart moments like that. I was climbing a tower during a lightening storm. While climbing, I noticed the lightening kept striking me, making progress up the tower impossible. Why was this happening? Well, because I had metal based items on and in my inventory. It made me susceptible to be struck! There have been a lot of great gaming moments this year but that's gotta be at the top of the list.
One of the best things about BOTW are the Shrines, which are little challenges spread out across the entire map of Hyrule. These range from puzzles or battles. The puzzles though are AMAZING. They really make you think and some even use the Switch (or Wii U Gamepad I guess) as a tool. There is one where you have to guide a ball to a certain destination and you can't let it off the edge or you obviously have to start over. It's good fun and a nice little distraction from the main quest. I found myself always hunting down Shrines because not only did they give you Spirit Orbs to increase your health or stamina, but they were the true standout for the game. BOTW doesn't have a traditional Zelda dungeon in it. The four areas you go into (The Divine Beasts) are small little dungeons, but they're over way too quickly for my liking. Gone are the long dungeons like the Water Temple, Ancient Cistern or the Forsaken Fortress. In its place are the Shrines and while fun, I still long for a long Zelda dungeons like those.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will top many gamers and critics Game of the Year lists in 2017. It's not hard to see why. It has a deep, open world, brimming with secrets. The Shrines, 120 in total, give players a reason to explore the massive world of Hyrule. The combat is fun, the world looks beautiful and though moving away from typical Zelda traditions, it's still a Zelda game in its core. BOTW is a fantastic experience, one that was made for gamers of this generation. It has a little bit for everyone in it. It's not my favorite Zelda game but it's a hell of a game and something like this doesn't come around too often.
3. Cuphead
When Cuphead was announced in 2014, I knew I had to play it. The graphics, the old school run n gun gameplay displayed, I knew it was worth buying a Xbox One for. It took SO long to finally release but I never forgot about it. When it finally dropped this past September, I immediately became hooked and it was clear; Cuphead was the best Xbox One exclusive game I've played all year. Well, really the ONLY exclusive but even if there were other big titles released this year just for Microsoft's gaming box, Cuphead would be able to stand on its own two feet as a fantastic title.
Cuphead has a simple story; Cuphead and his brother Mugman who love a good time. After not following the warnings of their elder, Elder Kettle, they travel to the Devil's Casino, play some games and hit a hot streak. This streak makes King Dice, the manager, summon the Devil for an all or nothing game. If they win the next roll of the die, they'll own the casino. If they lose, the Devil will own their souls. They, of course, lose the roll and then beg for mercy. The Devil tells them if they can go and get contracts showing ownership of souls from his runaway debtors, he'll think about letting them go. They go to Elder Kettle who gives them an ability to shoot magic blasts from their fingers and they're off!
Cuphead plays like great 2D platformer shooters of the past, like Contra and Gunstar Heroes. Cuphead and Mugman both have 3 HP and at first, only have a basic pea shooter but upon playing more and collecting coins, you can buy additional shots, like three way, chaser, charge shot and others. You move around on the main map for Inkwell Isle and once you get to a stage, you select it and play it. There are two different stages, Run N Gun and the boss battles. There are only 6 RnG stages, three on each Isle and there are a total of 19 bosses, the first two Isles have five apiece, Isle 3 has 7 and the Finale host two battles. The run n gun stages are straightforward; you start at the beginning and you have to work your way to the end by, you guessed it, running and gunning! These stages get pretty tough with the onslaught of enemies coming at you and minibosses that await you at the end of most of them. The main meat of the game are the boss battles.
The plentiful boss battles steal the show here. They are just waiting to kill you. Besides the first two, the Root Pack and Goopy Le Grande, the rest of the bunch are trying hard to frustrate the hell out of you. Rounding out Isle One are Hilda Berg, a giant blimp, Cagney Carnation, an angre flower and Ribby and Croaks, frogs who've I learned are a shout out to Street Fighter 2. Besides normal boss stages, sometimes Cuphead an Mugman will have to get into planes to fight, which are reminiscent to other great side scrolling shooters, like Radius. Isle 2 has Djimmi the Great, a genie, Wally Warbles, a giant cuckoo bird, Grim Matchstick, a fiery dragon, Beppi the Clown, a.....clown and Baroness Von Bon Bon, a woman inside a candy house. Isle Three has the hardest roster featuring Rumor Honeybottoms, a giant queen bee, Captain Brineybeard, a sea pirate, Sally Stageplay, an actress, Werner Werman, a mouse controlling robots, Dr. Kahl's Robot, a giant robot controlled by the Dr. Wily esque Dr. Kahl, Cala Maria, a medusa like creature and finally, before going to Inkwell Hell, the Phantom Express, represented by Blind Specter, T-Bone, the Blaze Brothers and the Head of the Train. It's a tough road. Inkwell Hell has King Dice, who is a freaking Gunstar Heroes boss rush and The Devil.
Cuphead looks amazing. It's looks like it's straight out the 1930s. All the expressions of the characters, the weird antics of turning into different objects with no explanation is all here. It's truly the best looking game I've played all year. Just as beautiful as the game is, it's one tough game. It's not Souls level hard but it's definitely a test of your gaming skills. I think the toughest for me were Rumor Honeybottoms, Dr. Kahl's Robot and Grim Matchstick. Rumor is the hardest boss in the game, simply because her last phase is completely unfair. The stage is constantly going up so you have to jump on platforms to keep yourself from dying. Her last phase has her turning into an effing airplane and she now takes the complete bottom of the screen, making you shoot down at her, which is difficult to do while trying to jump and avoid damage. It's one of those fights where upon completion, you just stand and applaud yourself for the hell you've endured for the last 30 minutes. No boss every felt cheap and every time I died, I knew it was because of something I didn't pay attention to. I got so into the patterns of all the bosses, I beat the game and then played it again to try and get A rankings on all the bosses, which I did. King Dice's fight was my favorite, simply because it's a homage to Gunstar Heroes and the dice game you have to play near the end of the game. It's a frustrating time at first but once you learn the dice's pattern, find the easy path and get some extra life for the King Dice battle, you can make it through. The Devil isn't too hard but his first phase has a lot of things going on that overwhelmed me at first. Beating The Devil was one of my proudest gaming moments in my life.
Cuphead is an amazing game. It's such a broad and generic term I know but man, it's so good. It looks like you're playing a cartoon, it plays and controls like a dream, the boss battles are tough and when finally overcoming them, you get such an amazing feeling that can't be duplicated. Xbox One had a hard year, with Sony blowing them out the water with major exclusives after major exclusive. Cuphead may count as an indie game, but it puts most AAA games to shame. A must play for Xbox owners, 2D platforming aficionados or anyone who loves Gunstar Heroes.
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn
Horizon came out three days before Zelda. For me, I thought it would be eclipsed by Zelda, seeing how I had been waiting for Zelda for 3 years. What actually happened was I found a game that was a better Zelda title than the actual Zelda title released. I realize how crazy that might make me sound but Horizon is a fantastic single player only title that is not only a major accomplishment for Guerrilla Games, which has only been known for their work on Killzone, it's also one of the best Playstation 4 exclusives titles ever. EVER. It's that good.
You play as Aloy who is played by Hey Ash Whatcha Playing's Ashly Burch. Before I get into the basic plot, I just want to say how happy I am for Ashly. I've been a fan since those internet videos dropped all those years ago and it's great to see her apart of some of the new games I've been playing, like Life is Strange, Star Ocean V and Legend of Heroes. Copied straight from Wikipedia, Aloy was cast out from the Nora tribe at birth, raised by an outcast named Rost. As a child, she obtained a Focus, a small augmented reality device that gives her special perceptive abilities. After coming of age, Aloy enters a competition called the Proving to win the right to become a Nora Brave, and by extension, a member of the Nora tribe. Aloy wins the competition, but the Nora are suddenly attacked by cultists. Aloy is almost killed by their leader Helis, but is saved by Rost, who sacrifices himself to save Aloy from a bomb. When Aloy awakes, a Matriarch explains that the cultists had gained control of corrupted machines. Aloy also learns that as an infant, she was found at the foot of a sealed door. An Oseram foreigner called Olin informs Aloy that the cultists are part of a group calling themselves the Eclipse. Olin indicates that the reason Aloy was targeted by the Eclipse was due to her resemblance to an Old World scientist named Dr. Elisabet Sobeck (also voiced by Burch). You spend the rest of the game trying to track down the cultists who killed Rost and find out why you have such a resemblance to Dr. Sobeck.
H: ZD is an action RPG, and has gameplay roots in games like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and the recent Tomb Raider games. Aloy has a spear for close range combat and a bow for long range. She also get various traps and other items as you progress in the story. Aloy can level up based on doing main quests, side quests or by killing humans or robots in the world. Aloy's focus allows her to see weaknesses on the robots and pinpointing those weaknesses is key to survival and how you will be able to take down a giant robot T-Rex by yourself. As I said, she can level up and put them into various categories like Prowler, which helps with stealth, Brave, which helps with combat and Forager, which helps with crafting. Aloy can also hack certain robots and can ride on them to get around the map. To get a better lay of the land, Aloy can find various robots she calls Longnecks, climb them and scan the area, revealing more and more activities in the area and there's a lot to do in the game.
Some of my favorite moments in the game include taking down massive robots stylishly. Hitting the robots weak point with different arrows and then finishing them off with the spear is so satisfying. There's also a lot of fun just roaming around, hunting, gathering plants for health and other boosts and finding secrets. There are these secret bases in the game, which are chock full of robots. Going through, clearing them out and fighting one big bad at the end was more Zelda than BOTW. Good stuff.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is the best new IP I've played in 2017. This is a game where gameplay shines the brightest and there are so much things to do while you play. I spent 20 hours in the game and there was still so much stuff to be done. Guerrilla Games proved that they can handle a new genre very easily and I can't wait to see what the future holds for them. A sequel? A crack at a new genre? Whatever it is, sign me up. Horizon should be experienced by every Playstation owner. In a year where PlayStation had so many games to play, this should be at the near top for everyone.
1. Persona 5
Did you expect anything less? Persona 5 can be defined as the game I've been waiting my entire adulthood for and that's not an unrealistic claim. Persona 4 was released in December of 2008 during my senior year in high school. Persona 5 was just released in April of this year, 2017. That's a 9 year gap and in that time, I've gotten married and become a deacon. My whole life has changed from the time I first played Persona 4 to Persona 5. Again, the game I've been waiting my adulthood for and it was well worth the wait as Persona 5 is not only my Game of the Year but it may go down as one of the best games of this generation and of my entire lifetime.
You play as the nameless protagonist, as always. Copied from Wikipedia, After the protagonist defends a woman from being abused by a drunken man, the protagonist is falsely charged with assault and put on probation, resulting in expulsion from his school. The protagonist is sent to Tokyo to stay with family friend Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academ during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor warns him that he must "rehabilitate" to avoid forthcoming ruin, and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app that leads the protagonist into the Metaverse and the Palace of the school's abusive volleyball coach Kamoshida. The protagonist meets Morgana, who informs him of the ability to change wicked people's hearts by stealing their "Treasure", the emotional root of their behavior, from the Palaces ruled by their Shadow selves. After successfully reforming Kamoshida, the protagonist and Morgana form the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, stealing corruption from the hearts of adults in an attempt to reform the city. The group targets teachers, crime lords and even a politician.
The gameplay that worked in Persona 3 is here again and it works even better. When you're not fighting Shadows in Palaces or Mementos, you're spending your days as a teenager, going to school, spending time with friends, working, etc. There's so many side activities to do outside battling it's baffling. P5 replaces the Social Link system with the similar but differently titled Confidant system. It's the same as the SL, just a different name fitting the story, as most of the game is spent by the main character telling it to a prosecutor. Battles in the game are turn based and again, if you know Persona, you know what's going on. Your battle party consists of four, the protagonist and three others and you can switch out to others mid battle when you get more of them. It's simple JRPG stuff but if you're able to hit a weakness of an enemy, it will go down and you get another turn. Do it for all enemies in the battle and you Hold Up the enemy. You can do an All Out attack, which is the entire party rushing in for an massive damage reducing attack, you can get money out of the enemy or convince them to join your team through negotiations.
Persona 5 isn't as hard as the others. It has its challenging parts but I never felt like I was going to lose, like in P3. Is it because I'm more experienced with games or because it's an easier game? I'm not sure. While it's not that hard of a game, it's certainly the LONGEST game I've played this year. When I finally got the ending, my playtime got to 92 hours. 92 HOURS. No game comes CLOSE to that much of my time this year. Zelda and Horizon, 20. Mario and Wolfenstein, 12. Evil Within 2 and South Park, 15. This is a FULL 92 hours here. There is A LOT of dialogue but that's to be expected in a game like this. I feel like they could have shaved off some hours but I don't regret any second with this game.
The characters in the game all share a common bond and that's that they all have been wronged by society in some way, shape or fashion. They're basically chained or prisoners to certain beliefs, ideals or stereotypes. The protagonist, because of his court record, is looked down upon by most people in the game. Ryuji, the Yousuke/Junpei best friend archetype of the game, is seen as a delinquent for his past run in with a teacher. Ann is outcast from other girls in her school, despite her good looks and popularity, due to rumors of a relationship with a teacher. Makoto feels like a burden to her sister following their father's death so strives to be better to alleviate said stress. Futaba is a hermit, chained to her house and shut off from the outside world. You come to root for this group of heroes because they've really been screwed over by life so far. You push forward more and more to see if these heroes can reach a happy ending, and thankfully, they do.
This is one of the only games where I will discuss the ending because it's the most fulfilling ending this year. The protagonist, after being judged and chained up by society's ideals for the entire game, get incarcerated so Shido can pay for his crimes. The Phantom Thieves come to his rescue and get enough evidence to overturn the decision and get him free. The gang then gets together to drive him back to his hometown and on the highway, he stands up in the van, sticks his head out the sunroof and smiles, knowing he's finally free. It's so amazing! I never felt as much joy in a game as seeing that. Nice, symbolic ending for the long adventure.
Persona 5 is perfection, hands down. Well, it's certainly not perfect but it's the best game for me this year. The story is fulfilling, the gameplay strikes a great balance between normal life and the RPG battles, the characters all have their own problems of being in chains and it's great seeming them all help each get over it, the music, OH MY GOD the music, is fantastic, catchy and some of the best in the Persona series, the ending is happy and joyful, sending the player off happy that they've experienced the last 100 hours of their life with these characters, etc. It's just such a fantastic accomplishment from Atlus and it shows why it took so long for this game to finally release. I said this with 4, but it's going to be near impossible to top this one.
There you have it! My top 10 games of the year. What do you think? How many have you played? Which is your favorite? Comment below!
A Spoiler Alert is NOW in effect for all games on the list.
10. Sundered
DISCLAIMER: Some of this is pulled right from my post on Sundered back in October so I can spend time on the other games.
Metroidvania is one of my favorite subgenres of games out there. Collecting new powers, exploring a massive map and finding secrets are some of the highlights I love. I mean, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is my favorite game of all time and that was it done to perfection. Sundered has the same elements as that game but done in its own way with a great art style and a choose your own upgrades system.
Sundered was created by ThunderLotus games, who created the great Jotun, which I've played but didn't complete. It features that same hand drawn art style but instead of inspiration from the Vikings era, it takes cues from H.P. Lovecraft and his works so it's a very dark fantasy like world filled with horrifying creatures.
As a Metroidvania game, there is a lot of running, platforming and going to areas you don't have abilities for yet. Eshe, the main character, starts off with nothing, as she's pulled into these ruins by an unknown force. Over the course of the game, Eshe will gain a protective shield, the ability to double jump, gain a massive cannon for crowd control, be able to charge her attacks, gain a midair dodge, run up walls and use grappling hooks. Eshe has the ability to corrupt her abilities by gaining these things called the Elder Shards. Depending on your actions, you can either corrupt your abilities or destroy the Shards. I went full on embrace for my first playthrough and the powers you get are pretty amazing. If you corrupt your abilities, your shield will damage your enemies when you get attacked, you can glide after your second jump, the cannon turn into a laser beam, the charged attacks become much stronger, the midair dodge becomes a midair teleportation ability, you can climb on all walls instead of just running up from the base and the grappling hooks will now allow for an extra boost after locking onto it. The corrupted abilities are game changers, especially crawling on all walls and the glide ability, especially in the last area, which is mostly floating islands.
The boss battles are intense, screen filling affairs and are one of the major highlights. The game's camera pans out, so you can see the huge monsters and Eshe looks like an ant in comparison. While they are amazing, there is only a few of them in the game, so relish them while they last. They aren't entirely too difficult either, with the exception of the two bosses in one fight one. Focusing on attacking one and trying to evade two different attack patterns can be pretty challenging. The last boss is a challenge as well, at least on my route. There are three different end bosses depending on if you embraced the Elder Shards, destroyed them or did a combination of the two. Humanity, the last boss for the Embrace path is intense and I was only able to defeat it thanks to a glitch.
Sundered is an amazing title for the hardcore Metroidvania/rouge-like gaming crowd. The difficultly spikes in certain regions, especially while exploring, but overcoming all the obstacles makes for a satisfying experience. If you enjoy Castlevania but love the challenge of games like Binding of Isaac and Enter The Gungeon, play this one.
9. Hellblade
Hellblade, in gameplay, is a very straightforward game. If you played any hack n slash game in the last ten years, you'll know what to expect. What Hellblade does so well is how it tackles the main issue of its protagonist Senua. She is suffering from psychosis and is experiencing the symptoms of it, hallucinations, voices in her head, etc. It's a truly riveting cinematic experience and one that must be experienced first hand.
Hellblade is all about Senua trying to save the soul of her dead lover Dillion. On her journey, she is constantly tormented by what she thinks is a curse, which are the voices in her head. During the game, you learn of Senua's dark backstory, how she met and fell in love with Dillion and just how messed up her father really was. It's a deep story that's pretty difficult to explain without experiencing it but it's all about the five stages of grief and accepting who you are no matter what.
Again, Hellblade is a basic game in terms of how it handles fighting and exploration. The game is played from third person, behind the shoulder, more akin to Resident Evil 4 or the Gears of War series. Senua has a sword she uses in combat and has a few basic combos with it. It's nothing deep like Ninja Theory's DMC or Heavenly Sword but it gets the job done and you can take the enemies out stylishly. When you're not fighting, you're exploring, solving puzzles. A lot of the puzzles involve you looking around at your surroundings, trying to line up certain symbols to open doors.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice won't win any awards for its gameplay, as it's just there to get the story across. The way the game handles a psychological disorder and learning of Seuna's journey into darkness is amazing. I also LOVE how playing with headphones deepens the experience and you truly feeling like you're not alone while playing it. If you want a different experience in gaming, this game is worth a buy. It's $30 and only 6-8 hours and well worth the investment.
8. The Evil Within II
The Evil Within 1 is one of my favorite survival horror games from the last two generations. With Resident Evil taking a backseat on the genre, (until this year) EW1 stepped up and made a truly unique and frightening experience. This continues in Evil Within 2 and it becomes a game that surpasses the original in all aspects. It's dark, it's gory and it will scare you at least once.
EW2 takes place 3 years after the events of 1. You play as Sebastian Castellanos, the protagonist from the original, who has quit his job as from the police department to investigate the mysterious group who causes the events of the first game. Sebastian is tormented by the disappearance of his wife Myra and the death of his daughter Lily, who died in a mysterious house fire. During one of his bar sessions, he is approached by his former partner Juli Kidman, another protagonist from the original. She reveals the Lily is still alive and the same group that caused the events of the first game, MOBIUS, has her and they need Sebastian to go inside the STEM program to rescue her as they've lost contact with her. The game sprawls out of control from there into the same nightmare as in EW1, with nasty mutations and evil people who want to control the system for themselves.
Evil Within 2 played the same as the original and follows Resident Evil 4's gameplay model from 2005. If you've played the original, you know what to expect. What is different in 2 is that it's more open world than the linear Evil Within 1. You were always on a straight path, there wasn't a lot of room to explore but that is gone in 2. Within an hour or so, you're given the option to roam around Union, the town you're sent to. There are sidequests to do, houses to go through to find materials and plenty of evil creatures lurking around, prepared to kill you. EW2 is more generous with supplies than the first one, at least on the default difficultly setting and with the ability to craft ammunition, I never felt really overwhelmed like the original. The game still has memorable boss encounters, including a kind of boss rush near the end that calls back to creatures in Evil Within 1. It's a great shout out to fans who've experienced both titles.
Evil Within 2 expands upon what made Evil Within 1 such a delight in 2014. With a happy ending that has an ambiguous post credits scene that will hopefully lead to a sequel, Evil Within 2 gets the job done. It took 15 hours to complete and was a thrill ride from start to finish. A must play for fans of the original.
7. Resident Evil 7
Resident Evil, for me, will always be the king of survival horror. Yes, I know 4-6 weren't up to the same standards of horror as the first three or Code Veronica but they were still great games. Well, 6 is a mixed bag for most. There is no denying 7 though. It is a scary game as it goes back to its roots of survival horror while adding a whole new level of fright being first person. It's a great return to form for the 21 year series.
Resident Evil 7 stars Ethan Winters, a basic man. He's not a solider, a cop, or a special obs agent. He's a normal man who travels to Dudley, Louisiana thanks to a message from his wife Mia, who he thought was dead for the past three years. Ethan arrives and explores an abandoned house, only to find Mia in the basement. They escape together but Mia becomes very violent and attacks Ethan. This forces him to kill Mia. Ethan receives a call from a woman named Zoe who offers to help but during that, Mia comes back to life and cuts off Ethan's hand. It's all very surreal. Jack Baker, who is the head of the Baker Family, who apparently lives in this house, kidnaps Ethan. Zoe is able to staple Ethan's hand back on. At a dinner table, we are introduced to Marguerite, Jack's wife, Lucas, Jack's son and a elderly woman. Ethan is able to get out of the restraints holding him and then he tries to escape the Baker house.
RE7 is experienced ENTIRELY in first person view. There is no option for a fixed camera or even the behind the shoulder camera. If you have it on Playstation 4, you can play in all in PSVR as well. I didn't have a PSVR when I first played this but no that I do, I'm definitely thinking about revisiting this nightmare again with the helmet. First person view makes this game 100 times scarier. Not knowing what's behind you, seeing everything from Ethan's eyes, something about it makes it so much more frightening. As I said in the beginning, Ethan is a civilian, so he's not combat experienced. The game does a great job at playing at that fact the entire time. You never feel powerful, always helpless and the smallest thing could kill you. That's how survival horror should be. You shouldn't be able to go guns ablazing because there is no horror in that. Now, the last act, I did have over 90 bullets for my handgun alone but you need it for the final fight.
Resident Evil 7 is a fantastic return to form for the series. While getting away from the game's classic third person look, it takes survival horror on a new spin and it does it successfully. I've never been more scared playing a game this year than I was with RE7. I can't imagine how the experience is in VR and is definitely something I will try in the coming months. If you're a fan of Resident Evil, you owe it to yourself to play this game. It's not like the others in terms of sight, but all the elements of survival horror are there and Capcom has made this the title to model the next couple of games after. Good to have you back Resident Evil. Capcom, work on Onimusha next please.
6. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
This world needs more visceral single player first person shooters like Wolfenstein II. Bethesda has done a great job at keeping the genre alive, despite the onslaught of multiplayer shooters coming to the market. Wolfenstein: The New Order was a big shocker for me. It was a great FPS game, with over the top gore, a great alternate history story and a lengthy campaign. The prequel, The Old Blood was more of the same. Bethesda also did an even better job with Doom the following year, reigniting the classic series in a 2016 gaming environment. It was superb. They've worked their magic again with the sequel to Wolfenstein, giving us a game that's more gritty, visceral and better that the first.
Wolfenstein II takes place in 1961 in the alternate history that the Nazis won World War II. BJ Blazowicz, after the events of the first game, falls under a five month coma. Upon waking, he learns that his love interest Anya is pregnant with twins. Unfortunately for Blazowicz, it's a rude awakening as Frau Engel, the game's main antagonist, is attacking the U-boat he's on. The attack and coma has left Blazowicz handicap and he has to escape in a wheelchair. That's the game's first level and it's pretty awesome. During the attack, Caroline and Fergus or Wyatt, depending on the decision early in the game, are captured. Blazowicz gets captured as a way to save his friends but Caroline is killed during the rescue attempt. Blazowicz equips the power armor Caroline had on and fights back, causing Frau Engel to flee. The rest of the game is trying to build your team up to take the fight to the Nazis. I don't want to spoil this one but it has a satisfying conclusion. A bloody, satisfying conclusion.
Gameplay is the same as in Doom and W: TNO. It's a fast paced FPS with a health and armor system, not one where you can recover all your health thanks to just staying cover. One of my favorite things about W2: TNC, is that you're rewarded for how you play. If you're a headshot hunter, you'll increase your accuracy. If you do a lot of stealth kills, the sound you make while moving will decrease. You get better as you play. It also goes up even if you die, so let's say you killed 3 guys with stealth and then happened to get killed, the game records those 3 stealth kills. It's very helpful during the tough spots in the game. And boy is this game tough. I played on Bring Em On, which is the default difficulty and I was getting killed on a regular basis. It's not unfair at all and I always felt at fault for dying. I just had to rethink the way I approached the level. You can dual wield in the game as in the first one and it's needed for the harder enemies. Late in the game, (MAJOR SPOILER) Blazowicz is decapitated and the group saves his head and puts in on a super solider's body. You have a choice of three upgrades for the body. You could squeeze into tight gaps, leap higher or be able to run through metal or enemies. This is pretty late in the game as well but it adds another dimension of killing Nazis.
Wolfenstein II is the best first person shooter this year. The realistic story, the great characters, heroes and villains, the visceral and gory gunplay make for one of the best action adventure games this generation. It sets the bar for single player first person shooters and I hope more companies take a chance like Bethesda did. Games like this don't come around too often but I'm glad it did. Definitely a must play if you like the series, FPS or action games in general. And who doesn't like killing Nazis?
5. South Park: The Fractured But Whole
South Park: The Stick of Truth was a great South Park game and a good RPG. Fractured But Whole is an even better South Park game and an even better RPG, thanks to a brand new battle system, more characters to control and more of the same South Park humor we've come to know.
FBW takes place right after SOT, with the first battle with the kids still in their fantasy attire. The kids go to see Cartman, who is no longer in his wizard costume but has now turned into The Coon, his superhero alias. Cartman's plan is to launch a successful superhero media franchise and he plans to make that happen by finding a lost cat and getting the $100 reward. The game spirals out of control like only a South Park story could which involves, cats, urine and a drug ring. Yeah, it's crazy but if you watch South Park, you should come to expect it.
They've done a great job at making the battle system even better and more addictive than The Stick of Truth. Instead of a traditional RPG turn based battle system, like SOT, FBW focuses on a grid based battle system, like one you might find in a strategy RPG. It's more akin to Enchanted Arms. Remember that game? You control the main character, The New Kid and three kids from South Park in their super hero forms, like Stan, Cartman, Kyle, Kenny and Wendy just to name a few. You have three different attacks for each character and each attack affects a different area. For example, some attacks just hit the grid directly in front of the character, usually like a punch or physical attack. Others can affect the grids diagonal from the player character or a straight line, etc. You get the idea. It adds alot of strategy for gameplay. Your characters don't gain regular levels but instead a party level, which allows you to be able to equip certain artifacts, which in turn give you certain perks like increased throwback attack or increased healing from items. When you're not battling, you'll be exploring South Park, completing sidequests, collecting Yaoi artwork featuring Craig and Tweak, using your farts to affect the environment, you know, normal JRPG things. Unfortunately, you don't go to Canada this time so no classic RPG gameplay part.
South Park: The Fractured But Whole is an improved sequel from The Stick of Truth. All the meta jokes, the classic crazy South Park story and the terrific gameplay make this a game to play. Any fan of South Park will be pleased with this adventure and any fans of RPGs will find a surprising deep game. Yes, the fart jokes are pretty standard but any game that allows me to face Morgan Freeman and Jared from Subway deserves a spot on this list.
4. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Bit of a surprise huh? Breath of the Wild was a critical success, getting perfect scores from just about every publication and was a perfect Switch launch title and yes, it's a fantastic game. When I first played it, I was dumbfounded. It was such a groundbreaking title, something so different from previous Zelda titles but it didn't stay with me like other games on this list. Maybe it's because this doesn't really feel like a Zelda game at all or maybe because I felt like much of the game's enjoyment comes from sidequests and extra content. Maybe because the game is so freaking short? Whatever the reason, BOTW is a great Zelda game but it's not my favorite Zelda game.
Taken straight from Wikipedia, An amnesiac Link awakens from within the Shrine of Resurrection. A mysterious female voice guides him to the now ruined kingdom of Hyrule where he meets an old man who, after helping Link adjust to the ruined world, reveals himself to be the restless spirit of King Rhoam, the last King of Hyrule. The king explains to Link that Ganon has been sealed in Hyrule Castle for one hundred years, but Ganon has continued to grow in power, and the king pleads for Link to defeat him before he breaks free and destroys the world.
It's typical Zelda lore. You have to get four of something, obtain the Master Sword then defeat Ganon. Well, The Master Sword is optional in this game. While the lore may be familiar, I promise you, most of the game isn't. Within the opening minutes, you're presented with a cliff. In previous Zelda games, you could only traverse it by using a hookshot or getting an item that allowed you to jump. Link just climbed the cliff like it was nothing. You can also jump at will in the game. That's freaking mind blowing. The entire world of BOTW is open to you and you can explore it all. I think that's what people really enjoy. There's literally an endless amount of things to do once you start. You don't even have to touch the main quest for awhile. BOTW also introduces inventory management, cooking and a weather system. Depending on where you are, you can take damage. If it's too cold and you're not warm enough, you can freeze. If it's too hot and you don't have the right gear, you will burn. Not only you, but your equipment, if wooded, will burn with you. Zelda has a lot of smart moments like that. I was climbing a tower during a lightening storm. While climbing, I noticed the lightening kept striking me, making progress up the tower impossible. Why was this happening? Well, because I had metal based items on and in my inventory. It made me susceptible to be struck! There have been a lot of great gaming moments this year but that's gotta be at the top of the list.
One of the best things about BOTW are the Shrines, which are little challenges spread out across the entire map of Hyrule. These range from puzzles or battles. The puzzles though are AMAZING. They really make you think and some even use the Switch (or Wii U Gamepad I guess) as a tool. There is one where you have to guide a ball to a certain destination and you can't let it off the edge or you obviously have to start over. It's good fun and a nice little distraction from the main quest. I found myself always hunting down Shrines because not only did they give you Spirit Orbs to increase your health or stamina, but they were the true standout for the game. BOTW doesn't have a traditional Zelda dungeon in it. The four areas you go into (The Divine Beasts) are small little dungeons, but they're over way too quickly for my liking. Gone are the long dungeons like the Water Temple, Ancient Cistern or the Forsaken Fortress. In its place are the Shrines and while fun, I still long for a long Zelda dungeons like those.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will top many gamers and critics Game of the Year lists in 2017. It's not hard to see why. It has a deep, open world, brimming with secrets. The Shrines, 120 in total, give players a reason to explore the massive world of Hyrule. The combat is fun, the world looks beautiful and though moving away from typical Zelda traditions, it's still a Zelda game in its core. BOTW is a fantastic experience, one that was made for gamers of this generation. It has a little bit for everyone in it. It's not my favorite Zelda game but it's a hell of a game and something like this doesn't come around too often.
3. Cuphead
When Cuphead was announced in 2014, I knew I had to play it. The graphics, the old school run n gun gameplay displayed, I knew it was worth buying a Xbox One for. It took SO long to finally release but I never forgot about it. When it finally dropped this past September, I immediately became hooked and it was clear; Cuphead was the best Xbox One exclusive game I've played all year. Well, really the ONLY exclusive but even if there were other big titles released this year just for Microsoft's gaming box, Cuphead would be able to stand on its own two feet as a fantastic title.
Cuphead has a simple story; Cuphead and his brother Mugman who love a good time. After not following the warnings of their elder, Elder Kettle, they travel to the Devil's Casino, play some games and hit a hot streak. This streak makes King Dice, the manager, summon the Devil for an all or nothing game. If they win the next roll of the die, they'll own the casino. If they lose, the Devil will own their souls. They, of course, lose the roll and then beg for mercy. The Devil tells them if they can go and get contracts showing ownership of souls from his runaway debtors, he'll think about letting them go. They go to Elder Kettle who gives them an ability to shoot magic blasts from their fingers and they're off!
Cuphead plays like great 2D platformer shooters of the past, like Contra and Gunstar Heroes. Cuphead and Mugman both have 3 HP and at first, only have a basic pea shooter but upon playing more and collecting coins, you can buy additional shots, like three way, chaser, charge shot and others. You move around on the main map for Inkwell Isle and once you get to a stage, you select it and play it. There are two different stages, Run N Gun and the boss battles. There are only 6 RnG stages, three on each Isle and there are a total of 19 bosses, the first two Isles have five apiece, Isle 3 has 7 and the Finale host two battles. The run n gun stages are straightforward; you start at the beginning and you have to work your way to the end by, you guessed it, running and gunning! These stages get pretty tough with the onslaught of enemies coming at you and minibosses that await you at the end of most of them. The main meat of the game are the boss battles.
The plentiful boss battles steal the show here. They are just waiting to kill you. Besides the first two, the Root Pack and Goopy Le Grande, the rest of the bunch are trying hard to frustrate the hell out of you. Rounding out Isle One are Hilda Berg, a giant blimp, Cagney Carnation, an angre flower and Ribby and Croaks, frogs who've I learned are a shout out to Street Fighter 2. Besides normal boss stages, sometimes Cuphead an Mugman will have to get into planes to fight, which are reminiscent to other great side scrolling shooters, like Radius. Isle 2 has Djimmi the Great, a genie, Wally Warbles, a giant cuckoo bird, Grim Matchstick, a fiery dragon, Beppi the Clown, a.....clown and Baroness Von Bon Bon, a woman inside a candy house. Isle Three has the hardest roster featuring Rumor Honeybottoms, a giant queen bee, Captain Brineybeard, a sea pirate, Sally Stageplay, an actress, Werner Werman, a mouse controlling robots, Dr. Kahl's Robot, a giant robot controlled by the Dr. Wily esque Dr. Kahl, Cala Maria, a medusa like creature and finally, before going to Inkwell Hell, the Phantom Express, represented by Blind Specter, T-Bone, the Blaze Brothers and the Head of the Train. It's a tough road. Inkwell Hell has King Dice, who is a freaking Gunstar Heroes boss rush and The Devil.
Cuphead looks amazing. It's looks like it's straight out the 1930s. All the expressions of the characters, the weird antics of turning into different objects with no explanation is all here. It's truly the best looking game I've played all year. Just as beautiful as the game is, it's one tough game. It's not Souls level hard but it's definitely a test of your gaming skills. I think the toughest for me were Rumor Honeybottoms, Dr. Kahl's Robot and Grim Matchstick. Rumor is the hardest boss in the game, simply because her last phase is completely unfair. The stage is constantly going up so you have to jump on platforms to keep yourself from dying. Her last phase has her turning into an effing airplane and she now takes the complete bottom of the screen, making you shoot down at her, which is difficult to do while trying to jump and avoid damage. It's one of those fights where upon completion, you just stand and applaud yourself for the hell you've endured for the last 30 minutes. No boss every felt cheap and every time I died, I knew it was because of something I didn't pay attention to. I got so into the patterns of all the bosses, I beat the game and then played it again to try and get A rankings on all the bosses, which I did. King Dice's fight was my favorite, simply because it's a homage to Gunstar Heroes and the dice game you have to play near the end of the game. It's a frustrating time at first but once you learn the dice's pattern, find the easy path and get some extra life for the King Dice battle, you can make it through. The Devil isn't too hard but his first phase has a lot of things going on that overwhelmed me at first. Beating The Devil was one of my proudest gaming moments in my life.
Cuphead is an amazing game. It's such a broad and generic term I know but man, it's so good. It looks like you're playing a cartoon, it plays and controls like a dream, the boss battles are tough and when finally overcoming them, you get such an amazing feeling that can't be duplicated. Xbox One had a hard year, with Sony blowing them out the water with major exclusives after major exclusive. Cuphead may count as an indie game, but it puts most AAA games to shame. A must play for Xbox owners, 2D platforming aficionados or anyone who loves Gunstar Heroes.
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn
Horizon came out three days before Zelda. For me, I thought it would be eclipsed by Zelda, seeing how I had been waiting for Zelda for 3 years. What actually happened was I found a game that was a better Zelda title than the actual Zelda title released. I realize how crazy that might make me sound but Horizon is a fantastic single player only title that is not only a major accomplishment for Guerrilla Games, which has only been known for their work on Killzone, it's also one of the best Playstation 4 exclusives titles ever. EVER. It's that good.
You play as Aloy who is played by Hey Ash Whatcha Playing's Ashly Burch. Before I get into the basic plot, I just want to say how happy I am for Ashly. I've been a fan since those internet videos dropped all those years ago and it's great to see her apart of some of the new games I've been playing, like Life is Strange, Star Ocean V and Legend of Heroes. Copied straight from Wikipedia, Aloy was cast out from the Nora tribe at birth, raised by an outcast named Rost. As a child, she obtained a Focus, a small augmented reality device that gives her special perceptive abilities. After coming of age, Aloy enters a competition called the Proving to win the right to become a Nora Brave, and by extension, a member of the Nora tribe. Aloy wins the competition, but the Nora are suddenly attacked by cultists. Aloy is almost killed by their leader Helis, but is saved by Rost, who sacrifices himself to save Aloy from a bomb. When Aloy awakes, a Matriarch explains that the cultists had gained control of corrupted machines. Aloy also learns that as an infant, she was found at the foot of a sealed door. An Oseram foreigner called Olin informs Aloy that the cultists are part of a group calling themselves the Eclipse. Olin indicates that the reason Aloy was targeted by the Eclipse was due to her resemblance to an Old World scientist named Dr. Elisabet Sobeck (also voiced by Burch). You spend the rest of the game trying to track down the cultists who killed Rost and find out why you have such a resemblance to Dr. Sobeck.
H: ZD is an action RPG, and has gameplay roots in games like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and the recent Tomb Raider games. Aloy has a spear for close range combat and a bow for long range. She also get various traps and other items as you progress in the story. Aloy can level up based on doing main quests, side quests or by killing humans or robots in the world. Aloy's focus allows her to see weaknesses on the robots and pinpointing those weaknesses is key to survival and how you will be able to take down a giant robot T-Rex by yourself. As I said, she can level up and put them into various categories like Prowler, which helps with stealth, Brave, which helps with combat and Forager, which helps with crafting. Aloy can also hack certain robots and can ride on them to get around the map. To get a better lay of the land, Aloy can find various robots she calls Longnecks, climb them and scan the area, revealing more and more activities in the area and there's a lot to do in the game.
Some of my favorite moments in the game include taking down massive robots stylishly. Hitting the robots weak point with different arrows and then finishing them off with the spear is so satisfying. There's also a lot of fun just roaming around, hunting, gathering plants for health and other boosts and finding secrets. There are these secret bases in the game, which are chock full of robots. Going through, clearing them out and fighting one big bad at the end was more Zelda than BOTW. Good stuff.
Horizon: Zero Dawn is the best new IP I've played in 2017. This is a game where gameplay shines the brightest and there are so much things to do while you play. I spent 20 hours in the game and there was still so much stuff to be done. Guerrilla Games proved that they can handle a new genre very easily and I can't wait to see what the future holds for them. A sequel? A crack at a new genre? Whatever it is, sign me up. Horizon should be experienced by every Playstation owner. In a year where PlayStation had so many games to play, this should be at the near top for everyone.
1. Persona 5
Did you expect anything less? Persona 5 can be defined as the game I've been waiting my entire adulthood for and that's not an unrealistic claim. Persona 4 was released in December of 2008 during my senior year in high school. Persona 5 was just released in April of this year, 2017. That's a 9 year gap and in that time, I've gotten married and become a deacon. My whole life has changed from the time I first played Persona 4 to Persona 5. Again, the game I've been waiting my adulthood for and it was well worth the wait as Persona 5 is not only my Game of the Year but it may go down as one of the best games of this generation and of my entire lifetime.
You play as the nameless protagonist, as always. Copied from Wikipedia, After the protagonist defends a woman from being abused by a drunken man, the protagonist is falsely charged with assault and put on probation, resulting in expulsion from his school. The protagonist is sent to Tokyo to stay with family friend Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academ during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor warns him that he must "rehabilitate" to avoid forthcoming ruin, and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app that leads the protagonist into the Metaverse and the Palace of the school's abusive volleyball coach Kamoshida. The protagonist meets Morgana, who informs him of the ability to change wicked people's hearts by stealing their "Treasure", the emotional root of their behavior, from the Palaces ruled by their Shadow selves. After successfully reforming Kamoshida, the protagonist and Morgana form the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, stealing corruption from the hearts of adults in an attempt to reform the city. The group targets teachers, crime lords and even a politician.
The gameplay that worked in Persona 3 is here again and it works even better. When you're not fighting Shadows in Palaces or Mementos, you're spending your days as a teenager, going to school, spending time with friends, working, etc. There's so many side activities to do outside battling it's baffling. P5 replaces the Social Link system with the similar but differently titled Confidant system. It's the same as the SL, just a different name fitting the story, as most of the game is spent by the main character telling it to a prosecutor. Battles in the game are turn based and again, if you know Persona, you know what's going on. Your battle party consists of four, the protagonist and three others and you can switch out to others mid battle when you get more of them. It's simple JRPG stuff but if you're able to hit a weakness of an enemy, it will go down and you get another turn. Do it for all enemies in the battle and you Hold Up the enemy. You can do an All Out attack, which is the entire party rushing in for an massive damage reducing attack, you can get money out of the enemy or convince them to join your team through negotiations.
Persona 5 isn't as hard as the others. It has its challenging parts but I never felt like I was going to lose, like in P3. Is it because I'm more experienced with games or because it's an easier game? I'm not sure. While it's not that hard of a game, it's certainly the LONGEST game I've played this year. When I finally got the ending, my playtime got to 92 hours. 92 HOURS. No game comes CLOSE to that much of my time this year. Zelda and Horizon, 20. Mario and Wolfenstein, 12. Evil Within 2 and South Park, 15. This is a FULL 92 hours here. There is A LOT of dialogue but that's to be expected in a game like this. I feel like they could have shaved off some hours but I don't regret any second with this game.
The characters in the game all share a common bond and that's that they all have been wronged by society in some way, shape or fashion. They're basically chained or prisoners to certain beliefs, ideals or stereotypes. The protagonist, because of his court record, is looked down upon by most people in the game. Ryuji, the Yousuke/Junpei best friend archetype of the game, is seen as a delinquent for his past run in with a teacher. Ann is outcast from other girls in her school, despite her good looks and popularity, due to rumors of a relationship with a teacher. Makoto feels like a burden to her sister following their father's death so strives to be better to alleviate said stress. Futaba is a hermit, chained to her house and shut off from the outside world. You come to root for this group of heroes because they've really been screwed over by life so far. You push forward more and more to see if these heroes can reach a happy ending, and thankfully, they do.
This is one of the only games where I will discuss the ending because it's the most fulfilling ending this year. The protagonist, after being judged and chained up by society's ideals for the entire game, get incarcerated so Shido can pay for his crimes. The Phantom Thieves come to his rescue and get enough evidence to overturn the decision and get him free. The gang then gets together to drive him back to his hometown and on the highway, he stands up in the van, sticks his head out the sunroof and smiles, knowing he's finally free. It's so amazing! I never felt as much joy in a game as seeing that. Nice, symbolic ending for the long adventure.
Persona 5 is perfection, hands down. Well, it's certainly not perfect but it's the best game for me this year. The story is fulfilling, the gameplay strikes a great balance between normal life and the RPG battles, the characters all have their own problems of being in chains and it's great seeming them all help each get over it, the music, OH MY GOD the music, is fantastic, catchy and some of the best in the Persona series, the ending is happy and joyful, sending the player off happy that they've experienced the last 100 hours of their life with these characters, etc. It's just such a fantastic accomplishment from Atlus and it shows why it took so long for this game to finally release. I said this with 4, but it's going to be near impossible to top this one.
There you have it! My top 10 games of the year. What do you think? How many have you played? Which is your favorite? Comment below!
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