Tag: Game of the Year

Game of the Year 2013: #04 – Kentucky Route Zero

It’s unfinished, and not even halfway done, but Kentucky Route Zero has had such a strong start it would be a travesty to push it off because of a technicality. Yes, it still has a few episodes to come out in 2014, and I’ll have to figure out how it’ll end up on that end of year list when the time comes. But when I think of the games I played in 2013, I think of Kentucky Route Zero.

More than the art-school project it might look like at first glance, Kentucky Route Zero is essentially a five act play in which you play the role of Conway, a truck driver who ended up driving down the back roads of Kentucky. The whole game has a very prevalent Twink Peaks-ish air of mystery and strangeness to it, and has left more of an impact on me than almost anything else I’ve played all year long. The dialogue choices, while they don’t change the way things play out, allow you to build the characters and the world more than almost any other game I’ve ever played.

There are so many instances that had me staring at my screen in awe, sometimes just because of a few lines of text I had read. While a game like Save the Date had a pretty big impact on me with its philosophy on game design, Kentucky Route Zero aims for a much broader scope and nails almost every tiny detail. If I compiled a list of my favorite moments in 2013, several of them would come from the events of KRZ, and just thinking about them now makes me want to boot it up yet again.

If the remainder of Kentucky Route Zero even comes close to the first two episodes and interludes, we’ll be seeing something really special. In a world where all five episodes had come out, all of this quality, this would have been my Game of the Year. As for now, Kentucky Route Zero is an episodic masterpiece, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

December 31, 2013
Game of the Year 2013: #07 – Pokemon X and Y

Say what you will about nostalgia for the first few iterations, but Pokemon X and Y are among the best games Game Freak has ever produced.

With over 700(!!!!) Pokemon now, there’s never a shortage of things to do in Pokemon X and Y. Although, disappointingly, there are several that can’t be found here, the number that are available keeps the game fresh for dozens of hours. I’m still finding Pokemon than I’ve never seen before and changing up my team, and I’m over 65 hours into the game.

The Pokemon have never felt more alive than they do here. In one of the most astounding graphical upgrades to a series I’ve ever seen, every Pokemon is fully rendered beautifully in 3D. They don’t feel like pictures anymore, they feel alive. It’s the most visually impressive Pokemon game ever produced, as long as you leave the special 3D effect switched off to save framerate.

It’s easier than ever to play with friends and strangers, as the online functionality has been rebuilt. A constant list of online players is kept on the bottom screen, and trading or battling is only a tap away. This one may play the same as ever, but it’s never looked or felt so good to do it.

December 27, 2013
Game of the Year 2013: #09 – Super Stickman Golf 2

Super Stickman Golf 2 does not have a great single player mode. The art covers the very basics of what was needed to make a video game. There are a few levels in the game that are terrible, and I never want to play through again. The saving grace, the one thing SSG2 has going for it, is that I would stop writing this post right now if someone asked me to play the multiplayer.

Playing Super Stickman Golf 2 in local multiplayer is revelatory. If you load this game up on a couple of iPads or iPhones, someone is going to have a good time. It’s hard to put into words how much fun I had with this stupid game throughout the course of 2013, but I’ll try.

The first night I played the multiplayer, a friend and I were staying in the same house, on opposite sides of the building. We loaded into Race Mode, where you try to be the first player to golf your ball into the hole. The laughter of defeat and victory rang throughout the night, and into the early hours of the morning. After each match, one of us would stomp to the other side of the house, shout obscenities at the other, and go back to play some more. There’s so much chaos that goes on in the game, and the fury of desperation to win makes me want to play over and over. Protip: Use the sand-into-water powerup just before someone lands a good shot, and sink their ball into a lake. I laughed until I cried, and I probably didn’t have that much fun with a game until an even larger group of friends played it again later that month.

Above: Someone who is about to lose at Super Stickman Golf 2.

Having your ball be juussssst a fraction of a second ahead of the other guy’s, and making into first place right when they knew they were about to win is one of the most fun things I’ve done all year, and it happens over and over again. It’s such a simple conceit with very few skills to learn, but every player you add into the mix makes for a more hectic, insane and incredible experience.

The powerups, abilities and unlockables are the icing on the cake. Yes, getting the most out of the game leads to playing the relatively dull single player component, but once you bring laser guided golf balls into a match, the slog is almost justified.

Super Stickman Golf 2 has lived a long life on my phone and tablet throughout 2013, and I see it staying there for a long time. At least, until we get the sequel.

December 26, 2013
Game of the Year 2013: #10 – EGGNOGG/NIDHOGG

EGGNOGG

NIDHOGG is a two-player competitive platforming/fighting game that’s been privately taken around to trade shows for years. Only a few have gotten to see it live, and even fewer have been able to play it. This March, Paul Pridham of Madgarden made a “NIDHOGG-like” for the Toronto Game Jam, and gave the public its first taste of what this kind of game is all about. (more…)

December 23, 2013
2013’s Honorable Mentions – Papers, Please

Papers, Please doesn’t fit into any established genre. The closest thing I can think of might be L.A. Noire, but this is still radically different. At its most basic, Papers, Please a game about close inspection of miniscule details, and exploiting that information to your benefit. It’s also about the constant, unavoidable stress of consequences.

Your role as an immigration inspector has you deciding who can enter the country and who cannot. There are penalties for breaking the ever-changing rules, and rewards for following your instructions. But when a known slaver tries to enter the country to kidnap a young woman, do you let him through even if his papers are in proper order? Breaking the rules means you’ll lose money for the day, which could cause your family to starve, but is it worth it?

The actual gameplay of Papers, Please remains interesting because the rules change for each level, and the choices evolve in some surprising ways. Papers, Please is one of the most inventive, genre defying games I’ve seen, and is one of the most interesting games I played in 2013.

In Honorable Mentions, the best games of the year that didn’t make the top ten are given their moment in the spotlight. While they might not be among HippoChippies’ ten best games this year, they were very, very close to making it there. This year, it came down to a list of 19 games that was trimmed into the Game of the Year list. This is one of the nine that almost made it.

December 21, 2013
2013’s Honorable Mentions – SpyParty

SpyParty has been floating around for several years now, but 2013 marks the release of its first open beta. This was the first time I’ve been able to play it, and I’m glad to say that it somehow lives up to all of my expectations.

After hearing about SpyParty for so long, finally being able to act out the part of the Sniper or Spy was just as thrilling as I had hoped. Playing the role of a mindless A.I. partygoer as another player picks you out from the crowd is as nerve-wracking as it is exciting. Playing the role of the sniper is a similarly unique experience as well, as you second guess yourself until the moment your bullet leaves it chamber.

The next year holds a lot of changes for the game, as it’s currently undergoing an entire graphical overhaul. As it stands, SpyParty is one of the most clever, original ideas for a game I’ve seen in ages, and is a defining experience of 2013.

In Honorable Mentions, the best games of the year that didn’t make the top ten are given their moment in the spotlight. While they might not be among HippoChippies’ ten best games this year, they were very, very close to making it there. This year, it came down to a list of 19 games that was trimmed into the Game of the Year list. This is one of the nine that almost made it.

December 21, 2013