Although my love for games isn’t quite up there with my love for TV or film, it’s still very deeply ingrained in me. This year proved to be maybe the best year for games of this whole decade so far, with indie and AAA developers both releasing a wealth of great titles for all systems. Below are my personal picks for the best of the year, ranging from puzzlers to shooters to the top 2 that anyone who knows me has already figured out. Let’s get started!
Most images taken from AV Club.
10. Snipperclips
One of the most innovative and adorable puzzlers ever devised, Snipperclips’ mechanic of having two players cut sections out of each other to achieve various goals was a riotous amount of fun, providing one of the more unique co-op experiences of recent years. Plus it’s just so easy and amusing to annoy the other player by cutting them down to nothing.
09. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Although Nathan Drake’s story is over, Naughty Dog were kind enough to release this short spin-off giving some of the series’ more popular side characters their own spotlight. The action and exploration was as good as anything in the main series proper, while the use of a large open-world section for one chapter was a satisfying deviation from the series’ usual linearity.
08. Cuphead
Very possibly the most gorgeous game of the year, StudioMDHR’s side-scrolling run-and-gun took its visual inspiration from 1930s ‘rubber hose’ style animation, and the incredible designs and movement stand alongside anything from that era. The game itself is fiendishly difficult and basically terrifies me, yet it’s never unfairly so, instead rewarding carefulness and thoughtfulness in play.
07. Splatoon 2
Nintendo could honestly probably have just ported a deluxe edition of the first game to the Switch with very few complaints, but instead we got a whole new game, with massively improved visuals and a great new set of maps and weapons, while sticking to the same incredible gameplay that honestly is my personal favourite team-based shooting ever. The addition of the Salmon Run co-op mode felt like icing on the cake, but honestly ended up being maybe the best thing the game had to offer.
06. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
The online sensation of 2017 isn’t even finished, yet it’s captured the hearts and minds of thousands upon thousands of players due to one of the best multiplayer experiences ever — 99 people parachute into a GIGANTIC map where the available safe area decreases over time, requiring players to scavenge for weapons and equipment before forcing them towards each other. It’s the only game where you can see nobody for half an hour and fire maybe two bullets and still have it be one of the most intense gaming experiences of your whole entire life.
05. Night in the Woods
I love me some indie exploration games, and Infinite Fall’s story of a young woman returning to her hometown after dropping out of college is one of the best I’ve played. The cast of characters are super likeable and wonderfully well-drawn, while the development of protagonist Mae is superlative, and a great portrayal of mental health issues. The dark and mysterious storyline provides a great atmospheric background to the characters, while exploring your town and jumping around on power lines is just a blast.
04. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
2014’s The New Order was one of the best single-player shooters this decade, but MachineGames have outdone themselves with this sequel, continuing the WWII alternate history story in a 1960s America controlled by the Nazis. The mix of genuine thoughtfulness and dramatic stakes with the absurd, goofy, pulpy gameplay is one of the trickiest tonal tightropes I can imagine, yet the game never falters for a second. Some of the most chilling moments you’ve ever seen in a game go hand-in-hand with blasting the hell out of Nazis surprisingly perfectly.
03. What Remains of Edith Finch
I friggin LOVE me some indie exploration games, and this might be the best one ever. On the surface not too dissimilar to Gone Home — a young woman returns to her childhood home and looks around — the game soon reveals itself to be so much more, with the story of the Finch family being told in several tragic vignettes, each with its own unique gameplay style fitting the character being spotlighted. This game’s recent win for Best Narrative at The Game Awards 2017 couldn’t have been more deserved, telling a magical realism-style story in an absolutely heartbreaking way. PLAY THIS GAME BASICALLY THE ENTIRE REASON I EVEN WROTE THIS ARTICLE IS TO GET THIS GAME MORE ATTENTION DO IT NOW
02. Super Mario Odyssey
It’s absolutely insane that Nintendo have been making games for so long and yet are still capable of topping themselves with aplomb. The first proper single-player-focused home console Mario in eight years proved to be the best in the series since 64, and in all honesty probably even topping that. Between the amazing movement, barely changed in 21 years, to the great new capture mechanic, to the dense, wonderful level design, to the amusing variety of costumes, to the sheer, SHEER JOY that permeates every single second of the game….it’s a new benchmark for 3D platforming, and continued 2017’s trend of proving that Nintendo still make the best games in the world.
Speaking of….
01. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Because of course it is.
Breath of the Wild is the only game that has managed to smash through my 19-year-old Ocarina of Time nostalgia and become my new favourite game. Hell, it’s the only one that’s ever come CLOSE. It’s an incredible revamp of gaming’s most acclaimed franchise while also being an absolute game-changer for the open-world genre, with one of the all-time best physics engines and an epic world-shattering storyline. The sense of exploration and discovery beats even Bethesda’s greatest achievements, while there are a plethora of excellent characters to interact with and learn from and a truly awesome variety of weapons and armour. That’s not even getting to the 136 (at time of writing, including DLC) shrines, which somehow manage to never get boring, testing your brain in some truly fantastic ways.
Playing Breath of the Wild, simply put, just feels like magic to me. I can try and be analytical all I want, but that’s what it boils down to. It’s the pinnacle of video games as a medium so far, and will stand as a towering achievement for decades to come. The fact that you can actually play this game in a handheld mode — you can play it on the train! — is just a bonus.
Thanks very much for reading this list! There will be a top TV list coming in the first few days of January, so don’t forget to come back and check that out :)
