Czaros' Game of the Year 2014 Part 3

Welcome back to another part of Czaros' Game of the Year 2014. Today I'm gonna list the Best Story and Best Indie Game categories.

Best Story
#5 Dust: An Elysian Tail
The story in Dust isn't the most complicated or even the best written, but it's good enough and since I'm also counting the characters in the category, I couldn't not put this here as the characters are trully lovable. On top of it all, there's a lot of humor that works well. This game does so many things right.

#4 Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention
Disgaea 3 has a lot of cutscene so obviously it has quite a lot of story. The English dubbing is actually superior to the Japanese one and the dialogues are very well written and will give you many laughs. Aside from the humor, the characters are very likable and the twisted way of thinking in the Netherworld is fun to watch. The story itself is really good too and the characters go through a lot of development during it.

#3 Bioshock Infinite

Sadly, this game has been "collecting dust" in my Steam library last year, but when I finally played it, I was positively surprised. This FPS has a great focus on the story and it's presented very well. The floating city of Columbia is not only a great looking place with all those awesome visuals, it is also full of life and details and the player can learn more about the game's world through audio messages and video clips hidden throughout the city. A great game with a great story.

 #2 Valiant Hearts: The Great War

War games + good story are a very rare combination. Valiant Hearts does many things right. First of all, it is not an FPS, it doesn't use realistic graphics and it is tells a great story about the First World War, which is also a rather unused territory in gaming. The story centers around multiple characters in the time of World War I. Most of the story is told by characters' gestures/actions, picture bubbles and sometimes a narrator. Aside from the well-made story, you can also read some historical facts about every chapter of this game. I haven't gotten far yet, but it already left a good impression


#1 Bastion

The story of Bastion is made great by the amazing narrator. The story is told as you play, without any unnecessary cutscenes. He talks about what the backstory as well as talking about what is happening to your own character as the narrator tells the story to another person in the Bastion. I won't say much more as this game has a story that wouldn't be as good if spoiled.

Best Indie Games
#10 Starbound
A game similar to Terraria, but has a space theme and has enough differences to not feel like the same game.

#9 Goat Simulator
A game that is supposed to be bad and glitchy, but the thing is... That's what makes it fun to play.


#8 BattleBlock Theater
This game has some nice comedy, cool gameplay, it's a blast to play with friends and even has a nice level editor with Steam Workshop support. Tons of fun for anyone!


#7 Thomas Was Alone
This was actually last year's #1 indie game in my opinion. Thomas was Alone makes it to this year's list because of the release on WiiU. This game shows that you can make great characters who are just a bunch of rectangles. Together with a great storyteller, beautiful music and some nice puzzles to solve, this game is a true gem

#6 Rogue Legacy
A Metroidvania style game where you explore a big castle and need to defeat four bosses in four areas to open the final door. But here's the catch: once you die, the character is dead and you have to pick that character's child as your new character. The money the previous character collected can be used to upgrade your character. Each time you enter the castle, it will be randomally generated, so you'll start in a different layout every time. Oh, and every character has some sort of trait like ADHD, Near-sighted etc. On top of that, nice gameplay, challenge and awesome music


#5 SteamWorld Dig
I bought this game for every possible platform, do I even need to say more? This game developed by a Swedish company called Image & Form is set in a western themed world populated by Steam Bots and mixes Metroidvania with mining. A great game with great gameplay, visuals and music. Check it out!

#4 Bastion
I already wrote a lot about it. Sooo... Great story, awesome music, nice graphics, nice gameplay. Buy now!


#3 The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Just look up my review of it ;)


#2 Dust: An Elysian Tail

I already said that I love everything about it, right? The gameplay, the story, the wonderful soundtrack, the beautiful visuals, lovable character. Also, it's a very good PC port. Go buy it now!

#1 Shovel Knight

To tell you the truth, I feel bad for putting Dust on #2 instead of here, but in the end I chose Shovel Knight because it came out this year and Dust originally came out in 2012. The game is a love letter to all retro gamers as well as a great introduction to the retro gaming for newcomers. The game mixes elements from many great games from the 8-bit era and what you get is a great new-retro adventure that you just need to check out.  

Day 19 - Czaros' Game of the Year 2014 Part 2

Today's categories are Best Looking Game and Best Soundtrack. Without further ado, here are the lists:

Best Looking Game
#5 Shovel Knight (WiiU/3DS)

 

The highly anticipated indie-game Shovel Knight is finally here and it lives up to the hype. It captures every aspect of retro gaming perfectly and the looks are one of them. It looks really nice.

 

#4 Mario Kart 8

With the power of the Wii U, it was obvious that Mario Kart 8 will be the best looking Mario Kart 8, but what we got might actually exceed the expectations. The graphics are beautiful, but on top of that, the courses are amazingly designed and very detailed. Each tracks feels like its own living world.

#3 Valiant Hearts: The Great War (PC)

It's rather unsual to see a game about war that isn't a first person shooter and games about World War I are even more rare. This game utilizes the amazing UbiArt engine to create that artistic cartoon/book/drawing style. The visuals are only one of the things that are good about this game though.

#2 Child of Light (WiiU)

While UbiSoft failed multiple times this year, they also managed to release two very beautiful looking game. Child of Light uses UbiArt as well and it looks even more beautiful than Valiant Hearts. It's a true work of art. The game itself is really good too. Good job, UbiSoft!

#1 Dust: An Elysian Tail (PC)

There are many reasons why I love this game. I love everything about to be honest. The most impressive thing about it? Aside from the music, voice acting and some writing, the game is made entirely by Dean Dodrill. A single person made both all the programming and the beautiful visuals. It's one of the most beautifully looking 2D games out there. The PC port does those visuals justice as you can now enjoy it in native 1080p.

Best Soundtrack
#5 Shovel Knight

As I said before, the game captures the retro feeling perfectly and the soundtrack is a wide collection of amazing, authentic sounding 8-bit music. Wonderful!

#4 Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire

I gotta admit, I wasn't that big of a fan of Ruby/Sapphire's music. It was still good, but my least favorite and mostly due to its overuse of trumpets and the rather poor quality of GBA music. The Hoenn remakes on the other hand have amazing remixes that are just nice to listen to. It may not be AS good as Pokemon X/Y's soundtrack, but it's great.

#3 Bastion

 

 

Yes, this game has been out for a few years now, but I didn't really play it until now and I kinda regret that, as the game is amazing. Aside from amazing story told by an awesome storyteller, there's also some awesome music and three nice songs.  

#2 Dust: An Elysian Tail

Told you that I love everything about this game, right? Well, there's no doubt that the soundtrack is amazing. HyperDuck Soundworks did a very, very, VERY impressive job with the music. I can go as far as saying that The Glade is one of the best gaming tracks of ALL TIME. 

#1 Super Smash Bros for Wii U

I actually had a hard time choosing between this and Dust but in the end I decided to go with this as it most likely one of the biggest soundtrack ever and the vast majority of tracks are well done. That's impressive considering there's over 400 of them. From originals to remixes there's something for everyone and the music only makes the already awesome game even better.

That's it for today. Tomorrow's categories will be Best Story and Best Indie Game. See you then!

Day 17 - Czaros' Game of the Year Awards Part 1

It's the second half of December and it's time to conclude this gaming year with my personal Game of the Year list. 2014 was full of both amazing titles and major disappointments. It was also quite eventful for me, as I was at the Retro game fair and got into the world of Playstation with PS3 and PS Vita. Without further ado, let's start with the rules for these countdowns:

While most of the games have been released this year, I always do this list based on the games I've played this, so some of the entries are indeed released before 2014. Also, keep in mind what I just said... These are the games I've played. So except for a few categories, there won't be any titles I haven't played and let's face it... I'm a single person and couldn't possibly play all the games to come out this. Not to mention... I don't even have a PS4 or Xbone and seeing as there are still no games I want on them, this won't change for a while.

So... Let us begin with the first two categories...

Best Gaming Events
I gotta admit... I haven't really followed any non-Nintendo events. News on websites were good enough for me, and this list would probably stay the same regardless, as neither Sony or Microsoft impressed me with their news.

#5 The various Nintendo Directs
Another reason this category is almost Nintendo-exclusive is because Nintendo went into some sort of hyperdrive this year, bringing us some awesome Nintendo Directs. The first Super Smash Bros Direct hosted by Sakurai, The humoristic Mario Kart 8 Direct, the comedic Tomodachi Life Direct and more. In fact, the Nintendo Directs are in my opinion the best way to basically give us multiple E3s every year. Good job, big N.

#4 Super Smash Bros. Wii U 50 things Direct
So, I bought Super Smash Bros for 3DS, as expected, it was awesome and I loved it... Then the 50 things not in the 3DS version Direct came out and made the 3DS version look almost bad in comparison. And considering how good SSB3DS is, that's saying a lot!

#3 Majora's Mask 3D reveal

While the whole Direct was amazing, it is the way it started that pretty much shook the entire gaming world. The anticipated remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has finally been revealed after a lot of teasing. The reveal trailer was perfect and the many reaction videos show that. "What's that? Wait, this looks familiar! No way, could it be? IT IS! IT'S MAJORA'S MASK 3D!"

#2 Nintendo at E3

This year, Nintendo shown us that no press conference at E3 can actually be something positive. With no unnecessary talk, better planning and those cool Robot Chicken animations, Nintendo really made the Digital Event the best thing to happen at this year's E3. And they also had events for the visitors, so they were actually present at E3. Heck, even the E3 announcment trailer by Mega 64 was freaking awesome. Reggie Fils-a-mech for Smash? Oh, yeah.. Let's not forget that awesome Reggie vs Iwata trailer.

#1 Retrospelsmässan Göteborg 2014

Yes, this is just a Swedish event, but heck, this is without any doubts the best event I've expererienced this year. Tons of awesome people, tons of games and console to test, Nintendo with all eight Mario Kart games, tons of merch, 100+ StreetPass hits and most of all, meeting Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario and Paarthurnax. Oh yeah, and Gothenburg is my favorite Swedish city as well. It was tons of fun and I'm already looking forward to RSMGBG 2015. Forget Comic Con Gamex, THIS is the best big gaming event in the country.


Biggest Disppointments
Hey... Not all GOTY categories have to be positive. This category gives Czaros' Seal of Disapproval instead. It is also this category that will mention games that I actually haven't played.

#6 Steam Machines
I really like Steam and initially I kinda liked the idea behind Steam Machines. But they done f*cked it up by planning countless varations of them with different prices, specs and even companies. You know what it reminds me of? Oh, yeah... regular PCs. If this was meant to bring new audiences to the PC gaming world... Valve failed.

#5 Pokken Fighters
This reveal was supposed to be some "shocking news" and shocking it trully was. A cool looking Pokemon x Tekken crossover in HD. Neat, right? Oh wait... It's arcade and Japan only. Okay then, thanks for getting me hyped for no reason.

#4 Destiny
I liked Halo (liked because in my opinion Halo 3 was a perfect ending) and this new game by Bungie actually kinda got my interest. Well, now I am glad that I didn't pre-order it. This $500 million dollar game is basically just a big build-up for the expansion pack. It maybe isn't as bad as the case of MGSV Ground Zeroes where they literally gave you a demo from 30 dollars, but with that game it was to be expected. With a budget like this, I expected a FULL game on release and more than just a questionable MMO-esque experience.

#3 Final Fantasy VII for PS4

Ok, so I personally didn't trully play FF7 until this year, and I actually find the game not as great as people say, but I really wanted to see a proper remake. What did we get? An HD version of the original... Yes, because I really wanted to look at those very low-poly models and pixelated pre-rendered environments again in Full HD. And since it's a port of the PC rerelease, it will probably keep the crappy 30 fps in field, 15 fps in battles too. Sqaure Enix... Start listening to your fans!!

#2 Sonic Boom

All the way until the game's release I've been actually looking forward to this game a lot. The fact ex-Naughty Dog people were working on it seemed like a good idea and it was shaping up to be something big. What we got was... Sonic 06 all over again. A good example of rushed to market: mediocre gameplay, bad graphics, big frame-rate issues, tons of glitches and overall not interesting game. Even the music is forgetable, which never happens in a Sonic game, no matter how bad...

#1 Conker in Project Spark

The JonTron video above sums up everyone's reaction very well. While we all know that Rare became crap after Microsoft bought them, we still wanted to see a new REAL Banjo-Kazooie and a new Conker game. And here we have this Project Spark trailer when suddenly, Conker appears and everyone is like: "OMG! Finally, he's back!". And then they just slap the fans not only by making him only a character in another game, they also made that "Guess we will have to make our own" line... This is a true example of a very bad atempt at fanservice. It's been almost 10 years since we last saw Conker and the fact he will only have a minor role in a non-Conker game itself is bad, but they also basically say "we won't do another Conker, do it yourself". Well, let's face it folks... Rare is dead. 

See you tomorrow with three new categories.

Day 16 - Too much Mario? I don't think so.

One thing I've noticed when people talk about Nintendo is how they constantly talk about how Nintendo is making Mario games all the time. And here's my problem with it... many people take all the games with Mario in it and put it in the same bag. Mario isn't a single game series. I can understand that you have something against the many games in the main platforming series, even though I myself don't mind since the games are always top-notch, but if also throw in Mario Kart and other titles with Mario... it's just dumb.

Mario is starring in many kind of games in completely different genres. The main series is a platformer, Mario Kart is a racing game, Mario Party is a party game etc. Sure, if you put it in a single bag, it would seem as if Nintendo milks the Mario horribly, but let's face it... Despite sharing the same characters, locations and artstyle, the different games like Kart, Party, Tennis and Strikers are actually their own series.

Taking the different games apart will suddenly make it look like less of a "franchise milking", though honestly... I don't care anyway... The games, with some minor exceptions, always feel fresh enough and are extremally fun to play. Even the main platform series has something unique for almost every game, especially the 3D Mario games. Mario Kart is released once per console, so you have a lot of time between them. Honestly, most Mario games have that special kind of gaming joy that no one does better than Nintendo.

During the winter break, me and my family are most likely going to have some awesome gaming moments with Mario Kart 8, Nintendo Land and Super Mario 3D World. So, I don't really understand why it's so popular to complain about the amount of Mario games... Especially considering how TONS of people buy CoD and Fifa every year, which actually have less new stuff than Mario games. And why complain when the games hold such high quality after all these years? Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 are in my opinion the best games ever aside from Mother 3 and many others are close to being as good.

 

Day 15 - Review: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (PC/PSVita)

After a day off because of my birthday and problems with adware yesterday, here's another post.

Before I do my Game of the Year list this week (maybe even tomorrow), I would like to review one of the games that will be on that least. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a new version of the popular The Binding of Isaac, created mostly by Edmund McMillen, who is also responsible for the indie hit Super Meat Boy, is an action RPG shooter with rogue-like elements. The game has the player controlling Isaac (or later other similar characters) on his journey through dark underground locations on an escape from his mom who wants to kill him.

The game takes some inspirations from the original Zelda with its dungeon layouts (especially the original Isaac game) so the dungeons are divided into rectangular rooms in which you have to defeat all enemies in order to proceed to the next room. The goal is to find a boss room and kill the boss to advance to the next "floor". But here's a catch! Unlike Zelda, these dungeons are randomly generated so the layout of the dungeons is never the same and there's a lot of different room layouts too. On your way you'll collect many different items that are also random. Many will somehow give you an upgrade in one way or another, while some will make your life even harder (especially the pills which have different effects for different colors every time). And trust me, there's A LOT of different items and all of them affect the look of the character too. The player must fight through 6-9 floors to complete the game and every time you die, you're dead for good, so you have to start over in a brand new dungeon with all your upgrades gone.

The story is a darker alternate version of the story of Abraham and Isaac from the Bible. Isaac's escape his mom who wants to make him into a sacrifise and he finds himself in a basement full of monsters. I guess some religious people would find this game offensive since it's full of different religious symbols, but I personally am a Christian and don't find it offensive at all. It's just my interpretation, but the game shows how evil things can corrupt a person, which can be seen by how some nastier items change your character into something ugly.

The graphics have been switched from a flash-game style (well, the original was made in Flash) to a pixelated 16-bit-ish artstyle and it made the game look so much better. The environments looks nice and have some cool details like reflections on walls in rooms filled with water etc. Some of the really ugly, creepy monsters look even better in this style and it also fits to the old-school difficullty of the game. This is definietly not a game meant for kids as there's quite a lot of blood and stuff.

The audio quality is greatly improved. The soundtrack is completely different and while it is great I did like the original better, maybe because Danny Baranovsky's work is just so good.

The gameplay at its core remains almost unchanged. The player controls Isaac's movements with WASD and Isaac's head (direction in which you shoot) with arrows. This mechanic is very useful since if you could only shoot in the direction in which you're moving would make the game harder but in an unfair way. You can move freely, however shooting is limited to four directions. Q is used to use pills and card items, E is used to plant bombs and space uses items. The previously mentioned upgrades can drastically change the gameplay. While some are just simple boosts that will make you move faster, improve the speed, range, fire rate and damage of your tears (shots), give you an extra heart container etc., others can for example change the way your tears behave. Everything from an ability to shoot through walls to the one I hate the most: orbiting tears. The item play a huge role in the game and there's hundreds of them. Besides all these items there are also coins, bombs and keys and their uses are rather self-explanatory.

However, items aren't the only things that come in big numbers. Just like with everything else, the big amount of different enemies have been increaed for this game. There's tons of different monsters, with different behaviors and strenghts. There's also a ton of bosses which aside from the final bosses are also chosen randomally.

The game works pretty well with a stable framerate, few glitches and bugs, none of which are major and it controls very well. It is challenging and yes, some runs can feel unfair depending on what items you'll find. Some will make you very powerful quickly, some will barely have any effect. However, this game has an ability to make you wanna play over and over again even if you keep on losing. There's a lot to to unlock and tons of achievements to get. Completing this game to 100% may actually take a few hundred hours and that actually also means finding new items etc. The fact it's all randomly generated makes every run unique so it doesn't get too boring or repetive.

Day 12 - Ports, remasters and hypocrisy

There's this one thing that have been bothering me lately in the gaming community. I myself, while having Nintendo as favorite, also own and am a big fan of PS3 and PSVita and have a big library of PC games. There's this one thing that constantly bothers me as fan of both Ninty and Sony: the hypocrisy.

When Wii U had a big day one patch, people were saying how "Nintendo released an unfinished product". Meanwhile when the other two also had big day one updates, people were saying that "It's normal as the console was produced long before the release date".

And now, both Xbox One and Playstation 4 is flooded with ports, HD remasters (aka slightly better textures and rendered in 1080p) or games that can be played on last-gen consoles. I'm personally not okay with that, this doesn't make me wanna buy PS4 at all. But that's not the point here. The point is... We're over one year after the release and trully new games are few and barely any of them seem next-gen. When Wii U released, people were saying that: "It's same graphics as last-gen, no new games, only ports and that Wii U has no games". These kind of comments were common then and are still quite common now. Meanwhile, Playstation 4 and Xbox do the same thing: The Last of Us: Remastered (a remaster of a ONE YEAR OLD GAME),  Halo Master Chief Collection, FFX Remaster till PS4, FF7 port from PC, all the games that can also be played on last-gen without any major differences and so on. And guess what? Close to everyone is perfectly okay with that, contantly throwing dirt against Nintendo and Wii U while praising Sony and Microsoft.

And it's the same every time: Wind Waker HD? "Nintendo fanboys getting hyped over a remake are pathetic"
The Last of Us Remastered: "OMG Thank you Sony, can't wait to buy again"

I can understand being a fan of something, but stop pointing out flaws in others if the thing you like does the same. To be honest, all those arguments about which console is better are dumb. Why making those dumb console wars? The creators of them aren't fighting with each other, they actually respect each others work.

It annoys me because I'm gettin tired of people constantly telling Nintendo fans that they are blind fanboys who only play "same things over and over again" while the others do the exact same thing. All biggest names in the industry are long running series.

Day 11 - Winter Video Game Music

Well, since true winter weather doesn't seem to be here anytime soon, let's listen to some Winter-related music in video games.

Winters Theme from EarthBound/Mother 2

 

This theme plays in Winters, a snowy region in EarthBound. It has this upbeat winter/christmas feeling to it.

Snowman from Mother 1-3

 Snowman was originally a town in Mother 1, but the music could be heard in both Mother 2 and 3. In Mother 3, it played when Lucas visited a snowy mountain in Chapter 7.

Christmas/Toy Day Theme from Animal Crossing

This song plays during Toy Day, which occurs on Christmas Eve from 6PM. A charming track that captures both the feeling of Christmas and the feeling of Animal Crossing.

Snow Theme from Super Mario 3D World

 SM3DW has got some nice sounding orchestrated music and this beautiful piece is no exception.

Freezeezy Peak from Banjo-Kazooie

Banjo-Kazooie, one of the finest examples of Rareware's former greatness which was destroyed when Microsoft bought them. But let's forget that and take a listen to this amazing piece by Grant Kirkhope.

Snowpeak and Snowpeak Ruins from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Unlike most of the entries, this one is more about the harshness of winter. It plays while you're visiting the snowy Snowpeak province in Zelda: TP and during Snowpeak Ruins, where while in the kitchen, a nicer melody is added to it.

The Silvery Snowland - Keterburg from Tales of the Abyss

 TotA is one of my favorite JRPGs and it has a nice winter themed town with a nice songs. In fact, the whole soundtrack is nice. Might replay this game sometime.

Shop - Town from Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

Say what you want about the game... I actually like this one (and only this one). It had awesome music and my favorite was this one that played when you were in the Olympic town. The place itself was pretty nice too.

Route 216-217 from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum

Platinum was my first true Pokemon game and man does this bring back memories. I love the Sinnoh region! Gotta replay that game as well.

Snowbelle Town from Pokemon X/Y

A rather sad sounding music that is the theme of Snowbelle Town in Kalos Region. It's a snow-covered town where the last gym is.

Route 15 from Pokemon X/Y

My favorite route theme in the game. It's simply wonderful.