We made it! The next generation of consoles is finally here, and we’re all still alive. None of them have started catching fire yet, and everything seems to be going relatively smoothly. Nintendo launched Mario and Zelda games during the madness, making this one of the most fully loaded months of gaming I can remember having. This is the first month this year that I’ve had more console games to sift through than indie games, but it’s a nice change of pace. Many of the big budget games releasing this month are actually worth your time, and there were still some good indie releases hiding throughout the month as well. November has really shaken up my Game of the Year list, but not for the reasons I expected. Even with the launch of two massive consoles, Nintendo and their old standbys manage to take home the gold. Between new consoles and two of Nintendo’s best, I’ve had more fun with games this November than I have any other time this year. Bring on Game of the Year talk next month, bring it on. (more…)
Category: Nintendo
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Super Mario 3D World Review – Still Super
Here’s a common sentiment, I’m sure, but Nintendo games have always held a special place in my gaming library. At their best, they’re charming worlds lush with stellar design, full of secrets and places to explore. They’re filled to their limits with boundless creativity, and are designed so artfully it boggles the mind how it’s even possible to craft a game that good. For me, Super Mario World and Super Mario Galaxy 2 have reigned over the plucky plumber’s side of Nintendo, providing platforming perfection. Today, I have another to put on the pedestal. (more…) -
Best Games of October 2013
One game has dominated this month for me. It took most of my time, and permeated my conversations with friends. It’s a game that was my biggest time sink since Animal Crossing, and is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I’ve had all year. But we’ll get to that later. This October was excellent at providing a variety of games for almost every kind of player. We had puzzle platformers, robust online worlds to race through, experimental narratives, updates to modern classics, portable masterpieces, the return of a couple of the best developers in the business, and the invention of what I hope becomes a brand new genre. Sometimes with dozens of rehashes around us games can feel a bit stale, but after a month like this it’s hard to ignore how many fresh and exciting ideas are still being brought to us all year long. (more…)
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Best Games of August 2013
Wow. It’s hard to even figure out where to begin. This August was one of the busiest game months all year, and very few of the games that made the biggest impact had previously been on my radar. After Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons made its splash, the month just kept going from there with an incredible, consistent quality. (more…)
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2013 Midyear Guest Post!
What’re you playing? Today, HippoChippies is your soapbox to tell the world what games you’ve been loving during the first half of 2013. Haven’t been playing anything new, or just want to use this chance to get some of your favorite older games out there? Not a problem. Guest Posts are some of my personal favorite posts every year, and I love seeing what all of you have been up to. Let’s kick it off with…
“2013 has had a great start so far with titles such as The Last of Us and Bioshock: Infinite. There are tons more where that came from as well. Most would argue that The Last of Us would be the number 1 choice. Not today. My favorite title of the year so far is Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Why? Animal Crossing is known for being a casual game where you live a normal life (with animals) trying to be someone and paying off a huge debt that is thrown onto you from the get go. New Leaf changed everything and put you in charge of a town that you move to and I must say it couldn’t have been done any better. Fans of the game will understand what I mean when I say that it may be my favorite Animal Crossing yet, because of the newfound leadership which comes with tons of new opportunities for you to pursue during gameplay.
I could talk about it all day but really the best way to understand my point of view is to just get out the ol’ Nintendo 3DS and play it yourself.
P.S. I have nothing against The Last of Us. I just have not been able to play even a single minute yet. Looking forward to it when I do. – Trevor Baldwin
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“I really liked Soul Sacrifice because it has this unique system of giving you super amazing power while stripping you of something vital. Like one of those abilities will use your brain to create this electric storm that does a ton of damage to enemies, but afterwards you don’t know what abilities you have in your slots. It’s a really neat system. Then there’s the upgradeable powers: you can fuse them to give you more uses, or combine them to create totally different powers. The whole game is awesome and if it wasn’t so repetitive and hard I’d probably play a lot more than I do.” – Michael Mays
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“My favorite game of the year so far has to be The Last of Us. Naughty Dog did a phenomenal job on the game with its storytelling and mechanics. The first 20 minutes of the game will have you so sad that you would probably wouldn’t want to play the game, but it’s the perfect setup for so much more. Naughty Dog took a risk in going the way they did with The Last of Us, but it has to be one of the greatest games they have made. During the game I noticed that there were some mechanics that had similarities to the Uncharted series, but with a fresh twist on it. Most people probably wouldn’t even notice that the combat and cover systems are pretty similar to each other, but that is to be expected from a game by the same company. Not to mention the game made you feel human, ever shot mattered, no health regen, and you had to be smart for most of the encounters you had. I could go into this game more but I don’t want to spoil anything for you, who should go get this game or at least rent it. I would play this game over and over again.” – Zack Dickerson
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“Before I begin, I would like to thank our gracious host both for inviting me to contribute and for allowing me to talk about a game that was not released in 2013. Yes, gamefans, I’m actually going to bring up one of last year’s gems and, very appropriately, it’s a little game called Yesterday.
Now this game had been sitting on my Steam wishlist since before it came out but I hadn’t thought I had the time to invest in it. As you can imagine, I was rather elated when I found that it was available for free download from the Google Play store right before the night I was going to get to spend in an airport terminal waiting to fly home from a business trip. I downloaded the game, started playing, and then felt it – that remorse for having waited so long to do this. It was a good, solid game. Great style, classic adventure gameplay, a good helping of wit, and an engrossing story. I’ll try not to ruin it if you haven’t played but I would like to leave you with an image that I hope inspires you to correct that soon: the image of a man with a shaggy beard sitting in a sparsely populated airport terminal at 3AM gleefully smiling at the plot unfolding before him while blissfully unaware that his headphone cable has just pulled out of his tablet and that those nearby are listening to discussions of homeless people being set on fire and are getting nervous at said bearded man’s recent chuckles.” – Shannon Nichols.
“To put it simply, BioShock Infinite is the best game in the series in terms of story. My brain is still recovering from the ending.” – Jonathan Vaughan.
“Dragon’s Dogma is a pretty interesting game. It’s your token dark medieval setting and the story is pretty milk toast at best, but that’s not important. This game is stuffed to the gills with interesting locales, cool gear and badass monsters. The combat is a combination of Dark Souls, Skyrim and Shadow of the Colossus. If you wanna climb on top of a cyclops and stab him right in the eye, you can totes do it. Also its got a day/night system that makes staying out after dark feel really dangerous, even if you’re way stronger than any monster you’ll come across. And the graphics, oh Lord the graphics!” – Colton King
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Once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE. It really means to a lot to me, thank you to everybody that participated. This is one of my favorite things to do on the site. We’ll have another one coming up at the end of the year, so everybody get those Game of the Year picks ready!
– Zach -
Midyear wrap-up! 2013’s Best…so far.
This year, I don’t have a clear game to champion as my game of the year yet. That isn’t to say I haven’t enjoyed anything- it’s quite the opposite- I’ve enjoyed a certain few games so much that I have yet to choose one above the others. I’ve got a pretty specific top three games that I keep flip-flopping between, but I enjoyed all of them so much it’s tough to choose a favorite. When you get down to my favorite three, you can basically put them in any order, they’re all that good. Last year I was able to hold Journey high and above everything (until The Walking Dead) with little competition to speak of. 2013 has been pretty great so far, with some surprises, disappointments, and a whole lot of incredible games. Here’s a rough estimate of my favorites of this year, and all of these can and will probably be changed before the end of 2013, who knows what could happen?. Let’s get started with… (more…)
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