Do you miss rhythm games, and don’t want to wait for Rock Band‘s inevitable return? Bullet Hills offers you a quick setlist, without having to drag the drums out of your garage. Your instrument here is one you practice with regularly: your keyboard.
Category: Free
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Game of the Year 2014: #1 – Hearthstone
Hearthstone is a game I can’t stop coming back to. I’ve put a disgusting number of hours into this silly card game in the last year. No week has gone by where I haven’t played or at least thought about Hearthstone, or more likely found myself awake at 4am begrudgingly taking down another Handlock deck. Hearthstone is a very special game to me, and it brings back a genre I never thought I’d find myself interested in again.
Most card games are hard to get into, with hours of preparation needed before you can want to play competitively. In Hearthstone, once you’ve completed the 30 minutes tutorial, you know the rules. Sure, there’s way more to learn, but you can understand the basics. It’s digital, so all of the math and keeping track of card abilities is always done for you.
Everything you need to know is easily visible and comprehensible. Where something like Yu-Gi-Oh manages health in terms of 1000s, a game of Hearthstone uses only one and two-digit numbers. Magic players build 40 and 60 card decks, while all Hearthstone players use only 30 cards. While Hearthstone may seem more limited at a glance, there are seemingly infinite possibilities that can still come from this smaller set of rules.
You can play Hearthstone with a room full of friends, online against strangers, or anything in between, and you’re almost guaranteed to have a good time. Cracking open new packs with friends had led to some of my favorite gaming moments of 2014, and seeing the golden glow of a legendary card is exciting even when it’s not your own. I’m always a fan of local multiplayer, and Hearthstone has been there many times when friends come to visit.
The community is great as well. As with Dark Souls, the game is so substantial that it supports multiple discussion forums and podcasts, and I’ve spent a fair share of time with them as well. The Angry Chicken and Happy Hearthstone shows have become regular listens during my daily drive, and I look forward to new episodes each week. There’s just so much to discuss, and I’m happy to engage in Hearthstone as much as I possibly can.
I’ve spent more time with Hearthstone than any game in 2014, the year before, and possibly any other game ever. I’m still constantly having great experiences with it, and I can’t stay away. There’s so much personality in every card, every menu. Every card’s voice acting is just as memorable as the outstanding soundtrack. Hearthstone colorful, full of joy, and every piece of design has a reason to exist. Blizzard has poured a lot of love into Hearthstone, and I haven’t seen a better crafted game in a long time.
Hearthstone is a thing I didn’t see coming. I haven’t been into collectible card games since middle school, and have never been a Blizzard loyal. But it’s just so damn good. Hearthstone is a master at never getting old, and even when it feels like you’ve fallen into a groove, they announce a new expansion. Just in the first year, the game has grown by over 150 cards, and there’s no way they’ll be stopping anytime soon.
Hearthstone is an astounding success, and I’m glad to have had been able to play it all year long. Here’s to another.
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Terry Cavanagh and Stephen Lavelle can tell Moving Stories
In Moving Stories, our heroine is tasked with fitting her life into a tiny suitcase, and leaving everything else behind. You’ll play the time-honored game of Inventory-Tetris to decide what goes in the trash, and what few possessions get to move along with her. Like all possessions, each of them tell a story. Especially that jar of urine.
Your first run through the game will tell you a lot about yourself. I, for example, snap picked the family photo and the old travel ticket because I’m a sucker for nostalgia. Someone else may have chosen to bring their cat, or an extra change of clothes. Through the item’s descriptions, I learned about the main character’s relationships, and how excited she was to finally move in with her boyfriend. I trashed the rest of the items, and found out why she had decided to leave certain things behind. Later, her mom showed up and complained about having to take care of the cat I chose to abandon. Then it was time to leave.
After being satisfied with the story that had been told, I was greeted with a message that a new item had appeared in the girl’s bedroom. Soon after, I had new options to pack a handgun and a jar of urine in my suitcase. There’s more to Moving Stories than you think.
Once you’ve “finished” the original story, new items appear with each subsequent playthrough. The original items change their place in the story, gaining different attributes. “Jack’s scarf” may become “Brad’s scarf”, which totally changes the character’s reaction to seeing it. The game is filled with little references and jokes depending on what combinations of items you take together, and what you decide to leave in the dumpster. New characters make appearances after your first cab ride, so poking at what changes the game is just as fun as the original, memorable story. Naturally, all I took on my second playthrough was a handgun and a passport, which led the main character to a shooting range to meet a new guy after exposing her bitter feelings towards an ex.
Moving Stories is all about the little tales each of our belongings possess, and how it feels to choose what means the most to you. The game relishes in our closest memories, and how a tiny object can tell a big story. Terry Cavanagh and Stephen Lavell’s collaboration brings both artists into new territory, and I’ve love to see similar team-ups in the future.
Check out Moving Stories for free here. See the rest of Terry’s work at distractionware.com, and Stephen’s work at increpare.com.
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Game of the Year 2014: #9 – 2
Hubol Gordon makes some weird games. If you browse this page, you’ll find some really interesting, but usually small, things that Hubol has made over the years. 2, however, is a huge game that took him two years to make. It’s wonderful, and largely expands upon what Hubol seems to enjoy from making games: how much creativity can exist in a medium without boundaries (more…)
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Game of the Year 2014: #10 – P.T.
Are you ready for a list of arbitrarily ranked games to mark the end of another year? I know I am!
As always, I’ll begin this with the disclaimer that I think ranking things numerically is a stupid, stupid thing to do. Lists always force people to make arbitrary decisions that they’ll regret when they change they’re mind a week later, and the people reading them put way too much stock into what the list “represents.”
I also think that lists are super fun to make, and one of the easiest ways to express intangible feelings and give readers a quick way to see your opinions. Lists, like review scores, may be problematic, but I still think they’re a lot of fun. They’re dumb, but I also spend a dumb amount of time thinking about and shaping them into something I’m happy with using to represent an entire year’s worth of entertainment.
Let’s get listy! (more…)
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Game of the Year 2014: Best Use of Music
It’s finally here! The end of the year is upon us, and so is award season. At the end of each year, I, as do many others, enjoy taking a look back at the previous months and giving the top-performers their due. Each year at HippoChippies, ten games are awarded in traditional “Game of the Year” fashion, but this year we have some surprises! Along with our top ten, we’re also dolling out awards in some new categories for the site, but ones you’ll hopefully enjoy reading as much as I have putting them together. The top ten will still be rolling out, but will be peppered in with the rest of the year’s recognition. We’re starting off today with 2014’s Best Use of Music.
“Best Use of Music” is a different award than “Best Song.” For the purposes of this award, I’m defining “Use of Music” as a song being used well for a specific purpose, rather than just being a well-made or catchy track. These songs are still good, but there’s a separate “Best Song” award for a reason. These tracks were used in a time and place to establish a mood or evoke a feeling in the player, and were dropped at just the right time to do so. Let’s get started.
hippochippies 