Your Top Games of the Decade 2010-2019

[Gunstar Green]

2010 was an incredible decade. I feel like the gaming landscape in 2010 has changed so much, especially the growth of indie games. Trying to list my favorites would be a herculean task of arguing with myself so I'll go by year as well.

2010: Vanquish

This one was hard for me because I wasn't really playing a lot of newer games at the time. I was knee deep in retro gaming and also a big fan of the Nintendo DS. Vanquish isn't really deserving of any "game of the year" style praise, it's a short third-person cover shooter with a formulaic plot, but it does when it sets out to do extremely well. Platinum's frantic, over the top action was an electric shot in the arm for a crowded genre that was starting to be known for slow, plodding games. Still one of my favorite games for the 360, it was mostly overlooked when it came out but managed to garner some attention in retrospect and is now available in a variety of places.

2011: Dark Souls

This year is harder for a different reason. 2011 was packed with fantastic titles including all time classics like Skyrim and Portal 2. I don't think anyone would be surprised with my personal pick though. Dark Souls was the first game in years to really floor me. Like the majority of today's Souls fans I had missed out on its precursor, Demon's Souls, due it it being both a PS3 exclusive and basically set aside to die by Sony for western markets. Regardless of Dark Souls owing much of its DNA to that earlier game, this game and its mechanics would be genre defining, seemingly coming out of nowhere and sending ripples through both indie and AAA game design customs.

All of that aside Dark Souls had a profound effect on me as a gamer. I was never really a huge fan of difficulty, especially not in 3D action games which I tend to suck at. Dark Souls (and its predecessor) managed to blend failing in the game seamlessly into both its gameplay and themes. Difficulty was not the point, perseverance was. The first half of the game was one of the most exciting adventures I have ever had playing a video game, pushing forward to see what would come next while not knowing when I might be able to find safety again was equal parts stressful and exciting. The game does have a less exciting back half, but even the weaker parts of the game still had me excited to see what was around the next corner on my first playthrough.

From Software is in my opinion one of the most impressive breakout stories of any developer of the decade. It's just a shame they had to drop their giant robots to do it.

2012: FTL

Before the term "rogue lite" became an everyday phrase this innocuous looking little game blazed a trail for bite-sized permadeth fun. Its simple looks are deceiving, hiding a lot of depth and strategy behind them along with exceptional game balance, all in one of the most streamlined and minimalist packages imaginable. I could play a single run of this game every day of my life and probably never get tired of it due to its nature. Sometimes the randomness really screws you over though difficulty options help you to mitigate the challenge. FTL is a low key masterpiece in game design and everyone should give it a try.

2013: Super Mario 3D World

2013 gave me no shortage of games to choose from but I'll go with one of my favorite games on the 3DS. I'm not a big fan of 3D platformers, like at all, but this game used the 3DS hardware so cleverly and was so fun that it won me over entirely. I don't have a whole lot to say about it other than it's one of the few games I will actually play in 3D on the handheld and I suggest anyone else who wants to play it give it a shot with the intended gimmick as well. This is the kind of game the 3DS was made for.

2014: Shovel Knight

Many indie games try to pull on nostalgia strings with bit tune music and 8-bit sprites but for most it's just an unnecessary, skin-deep illusion. Shovel Knight was a game I expected to fully follow that formula, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I can best describe Shovel Knight as an idealized 8-bit game. It's the game that we see our old favorites as when we look back at them through rose tinted nostalgia goggles. It's all of the good things with none of the poorly aged bad. It's everything we love about the comforting look and style of the 8-bit era with subtle improvements that manages to create a paradox that is neither a retro game or a modern one, but a modern retro game. Shovel Knight is a thing of magic and its expansions have continued to uphold that same level of quality.

2015: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

The fanboy in me wants to say Bloodborne, as there are things I like about that game over Dark Souls, but I'll go with MGS:V for the simple reason that I'm not at all a fan of this series or stealth games in general but it still won me over (through ample use of "loud stealth" i.e. if nobody survives, it still counts as stealth). An open world game that survives on its mechanics alone. Even though you're often visiting the same places multiple times to do roughly the same things or repeating missions to grind out money it never really feels repetitive. There's so many solutions to the same problem and the game never really punishes you for experimenting. I couldn't care less about the story, though it has its moments and did make me care about the larger world of Metal Gear, which was no mean feat.

2016: Doom

Of course it's Doom. This game caught me completely by surprise. Like many I watched the trailers and game previews and thought there was no way this title could do its name justice. Maybe it would be okay, but only just. What I got was a frantic, fast paced shooter-brawl that felt like a true modern update of one of gaming's great foundations. Doom is probably partially responsible for the retro FPS renaissance we've experienced in recent years and for that I couldn't be happier, but the game itself is also a great experience that bucked the trends and conventions of the day to show that arcade-action FPS games were still viable and like the new Wolfenstein of the previous year, single player campaigns were still loved.

2017: Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods is not going to be a game for everyone. It's not going to be a game for most people really. It's barely even a game by some metrics. But the subject matter really resonated with me. Portraying the struggles of life in the rust belt paired with mental illness as you explore your floundering town day by day might seem boring to a lot of people, but the fantastic and honestly written characters, the realistic and often depressing message of learning to let go, or learning to accept what you have and all the other hard hitting aspects of the narrative all add up. It's wrapped up in a very simplistic but attractive art style with great music. The bizarre supernatural mystery at the core of the story is one of the least interesting parts about this game, which says a lot about the rest of it.

Runner up is Cuphead. Cuphead ruled.

2018: Spider-Man

I'm tempted to say God of War for all the reasons Partridge already stated, but they stated it so well I don't feel the need to repeat (some other runner ups for me include Dead Cells and Battletech). Spider-Man is the Sony exclusive I was looking forward to the most with cautious optimism. It turned out better than I had ever expected. Insomniac's take on the characters and universe is one of the best I've seen in years... well it was until Enter the Spider-Verse anyway but enough about that.

The web-slinging, the city, the gameplay, all of it felt absolutely wonderful and it was wrapped in a story that I very much enjoyed. I even liked the MJ parts, screw the haters. For some reason this clicked with me better than the Arkham games, though the similarities are certainly there. This is one of the few games I went out of my way to complete everything because I just didn't want to stop playing (all of the different Spider-suits are great) and I hope future super hero games follow this formula.

2019: Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

I haven't played many games in 2019 so far (this, Bloodstained and Untitled Goose Game) but Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is thus far my favorite and I've been excited to get my hands on it since the first trailer. Not only did I really enjoy the original Rebel Galaxy, but Wing Commander has always been one of my top favorite game franchises. Like most older franchises under the thumb of EA, its return is questionable at best. Luckily we have games like this serve as spiritual successors.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is specifically riffing quite heavily on Wing Commander Privateer, the Elite-styled spin-off from the main series that has you not fighting for the Confederation against the Kilrathi menace, but flying a privately owned ship as a trader, smuggler, pirate or mercenary depending on your personal inclinations. The goal is to make money, upgrade your stuff and work your way through the story. The characters are great and the story is good but ends on a bit of a "to be continued" unfortunately. It's at times almost too close to Privateer, having both the highs and lows of that game and copying many elements from it directly, though the modernizations make it easier to stomach. I had a blast playing it, it put me right back into the cockpit I sat in the 90's in both its gameplay and visual style and the soundtrack is A+++. This game is a bit of a sleeper and I highly recommend it.

[noiseredux]

So with you on Phantom Pain. That game totally won me over and I'm terrible at it.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Awesome write ups, Gunstar~
That's totally how I feel about Spider-Man too. That would've easily been my game of 2018 had Dad of War not come out. That game is SO fun, even the MJ parts. I really hope they eventually do more of it on the PS5

[dsheinem]

Here's my collated list, along with my blurbs from each year (written at the time):

2019: TBD (will update by month's end)

2018: Astro Bot Rescue Mission- This game strikes me as a significant accomplishment for both for the genre (platformer) and the technology (VR) in that it merges both together with a lot of accessible, fresh, and FUN ideas. This game has all the charm and inventiveness of something like a Media Molecule game with the polish and accessibility of most of Nintendo's best platformers. I believe, in time, it will come to be as highly regarded as something like Mario 64 or the original Sonic the Hedgehog - a truly great platformer that advances the medium. I fear it may have come along too late to be a "system seller" for the PSVR, but if you have the tech or if you are looking for another excuse to buy it, this is a must own game.
Runners up: God of War, Tetris Effect, Destiny 2: Forsaken, Forza Horizon 4, Far Cry 5

2017: Horizon: Zero Dawn - Horizon: Zero Dawn is arguably the best game I've played on the PS4. It takes many of the best ideas from so many other games - Dragon Age Inquisition, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Tomb Raider, Uncharted, Skyrim, etc. - and blends them all together in a chunky stew of intense and speedy combat, epic exploration, satisfying leveling, and gorgeous graphics. The game is pretty much flawless, and would be a great experience even if its story sucked. The story, fortunately, is one of the most complex and interesting post-apocalyptic tales I've seen told in a medium that often tends towards those stories. To say too much about it would ruin a lot of great moments in the game - there are a wealth of fascinating revelations, compelling plot twists, and well-fleshed out characters - but suffice to say that it blends a lot of genre tropes together in a new way, one that has some merit in its ability to criticize humanity as a whole and that earns its attempts to provoke introspection in the player. I can't rave enough about this one. I have even been generally uninterested in the also-excellent Breath of the Wild because I wanted to keep moving through this game more than pick up my Switch. The game took me about 35 hours to finish the story and many sidequests (I'm at 52% completion). If you have a PS4, you really owe it to yourself to pick this game up. It is a state-of-the-medium tour de force.
Runners up: Destiny 2, Everything, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, Polybius, Resident Evil 7, Sonic Mania, Super Mario Odyssey, What Remains of Edith Finch

2016: Bound I realize that this is a fairly unconventional pick for game of the year, but I found it to be unmatched in its marriage of surreal visual ideas and an unconventional topic for video games. I wrote a fairly lengthy thing ("Bound is a Beautiful Game About Ugliness") on it earlier this year shortly after beating it, and have a lot more to say about the game there. I would just add that the game also offers a VR mode, and everything that was visually impressive about the game on a screen is doubly as mesmerizing in VR. This is not an experience to be missed.
Runners up: Doom, Thumper, Uncharted 4, Abzu, Far Cry Primal, Titanfall 2, Forza Horizon 3, That Dragon, Cancer, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

2015: Rocket League - I think that this game's success took pretty much everyone by surprise, as the basic premise of "cars playing soccer" sounds like little more than a fun novelty experiment: something you'd play for an hour or so and then hang up. That the game has had such staying power for me this year is a testament to its brilliant design, its pick-up-and-play nature, and its accessibility to a wide variety of people. I played this game on a couch with no less than ten different people over the course of this year, including folks like my mom and dad who rarely if ever play any games. Over the summer I played it for almost an hour or two a day on many days with my son, who also played the game with me online several times and who also played the game with his cousins online from time to time. So while Rocket League is my GOTY for many of the "traditional" reasons that I give a game that annual designation (great looking graphics, spot-on mechanics, depth of play, lasting impression, etc.), this one also scores a lot of points for its ability to replicate a lot of what I liked about the public enthusiasm for the best arcade games from bygone eras.
Runners up: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Destiny: The Taken King, Undertale, Gunman Clive 2

2014: Destiny - This game wasn't for everyone, but I certainly felt that it was for me. I have never spent more time with any game than I have with this one, and I just adore the gameplay mechanics and art direction. The game has some design flaws and structure issues, but I think those flaws give it a certain character. This may be my GOTY, but it is still too close to call between this one and...
Runners up: Dragon Age Inquisition, Forza Horizon 2, Shovel Knight, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Titanfall

2013: The Last of Us - Though there are things I liked better in some of the other games below, this game brought together a lot of interesting ideas into a gorgeous, compelling story that managed to stand out from the pack (no small feat considering it is a zombie game, a genre that to my mind has worn out its welcome). I can't wait to see what the Naughty Dog folks pull off on the PS4.
Runners up: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Bioshock: Infinite, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Gone Home

2012: Borderlands 2 - I have never sunk so many hours into a game so fast. This game, moreso than other recent FPS/RPG hybrids, managed to find just the right action/looting/character management ratio for me, was set in a gorgeously realized and sprawling world full of compelling characters, tells an interesting story that drives you to keep going, and generally strikes me as the most refined game to see release this year. It was also the first game of its type in a long time that I felt was equally as strong in single player or multiplayer, and one that should keep me coming back to it for the next few years.
Runners up: Journey, The Pinball Arcade, Sound Shapes, Diablo III, Dear Esther, BlazBlu: Continuum Shift Extend

2011: Resistance 3 - This has become one of my all time favorite single-player FPS series, and R3 is the best single-player experience in the series. In a generation that has built its reputation on FPSs, this is the cream of the crop.
Runners up: Portal 2, Crimzon Clover, Uncharted 3, Killzone 3, Dragon Age II, NBA Jam On Fire Edition, Jamestown
note: my favorite game from this year, now, is DoDonPachi Resurrection - which I didn't play the year it came out.

2010: Mass Effect 2 - Wow. I thoroughly enjoyed the first game when I played it for the first time earlier this year, but the sequel blows it away in almost every imaginable way. The missions, the scope, the length (about twice as long), the interface, the graphics, the dialogue, etc. - everything is improved. I did like the ending to ME1 better, but the end of ME2 nicely sets up ME3. I can't wait to play the last DLC that comes out next week and to gear up for for the sequel (hopefully) later this year. This series certainly deserves its high praise as one of the best experiences of this or any generation.
Runners up: Battlefield Bad Company 2, Bayonetta, Bioshock 2, Halo: Reach, Metro 2033, Super Mario Bros Galaxy 2, Kirby's Epic Yarn, God of War III, Split/Second

[bmoc]

2010: Vanquish

This one was hard for me because I wasn't really playing a lot of newer games at the time. I was knee deep in retro gaming and also a big fan of the Nintendo DS. Vanquish isn't really deserving of any "game of the year" style praise, it's a short third-person cover shooter with a formulaic plot, but it does when it sets out to do extremely well. Platinum's frantic, over the top action was an electric shot in the arm for a crowded genre that was starting to be known for slow, plodding games. Still one of my favorite games for the 360, it was mostly overlooked when it came out but managed to garner some attention in retrospect and is now available in a variety of places.

A good buddy of mine played Vanquish when it came out and said he loved it. I am pretty sure I have it in my Xbox Live Gold library. I really need to get around to playing it.

[dsheinem]

2010: Vanquish

This one was hard for me because I wasn't really playing a lot of newer games at the time. I was knee deep in retro gaming and also a big fan of the Nintendo DS. Vanquish isn't really deserving of any "game of the year" style praise, it's a short third-person cover shooter with a formulaic plot, but it does when it sets out to do extremely well. Platinum's frantic, over the top action was an electric shot in the arm for a crowded genre that was starting to be known for slow, plodding games. Still one of my favorite games for the 360, it was mostly overlooked when it came out but managed to garner some attention in retrospect and is now available in a variety of places.

A good buddy of mine played Vanquish when it came out and said he loved it. I am pretty sure I have it in my Xbox Live Gold library. I really need to get around to playing it.

It is a fantastic game...a remaster was just announced, too: https://kotaku.com/oh-hell-yeah-vanquis ... 1840325401

[bmoc]

That slipped under my radar. Thanks for mentioning that! Maybe I will wait for the remaster since it isn't too far away. I haven't played Bayonetta either.

[pook99]

Great idea for a thread, it has inspired me to look over the last 10 years of gaming, I am not ready to post yet but I am really enjoying reading people's response. This has been a phenomenal decade of gaming, both in games pushing the envelope and in a complete resurgence of the retro game scene thanks to indie developers. I don't think there has ever been a better time to be a gamer

@prfsnl_gamer: not a weird list at all, I am very willing to bet that when I do make my list the vast majority will be indie and obscure games

@bmoc: shattered dimensions was a great game, very under rated, and probably was my favorite spidey game until the recent ps4 one, and yeah, vanquish is a ton of fun, nothing revolutionary, but just a really well made, fast paced, cover shooter, definitely worth a playthrough and frequently goes on sale for 5 bucks on steam.

@senpai: I hated la mulana for the same reasons you loved it, the obtuse nature of it just frustrated the hell out of me, also don't feel bad about not solving the puzzles on your own, from my understanding that game is literally impossible to beat without a walkthrough

@Flake: tatsuno vs capcom is a game that I always wanted to play but never got around to, it came out just late enough that all my gaming friends were married and were no longer allowed to play video games

@Gunstar: I love your list, gaming taste is so funny, half your list are among my favorite games of the decade (stuff like spiderman, doom shovel knight) and the other half are among my least favorite of the decade (dark souls, MGS 5)

[TEKTORO]

The past decade of gaming has really changed me as a gamer. Many of them have became my favorite games of all time as I looked for similar replacements to my past retro favorites. With that being said let me share what has been some great titles I can’t get enough of! I tend to play my games on harder difficulty so maybe the challenges make the games better for me, instead of hand holding bore fest I opt for tense encounters!

Top of my list.

Far Cry 5- I’ve always held the series in high regards due to its complex map editor and diverse worlds. Since Far Cry 2 is a little old to make the list, I can’t deny I love FC5! With over 650hrs of playtime and being somewhat an ambassador for its community, I will forever support a Far Cry game. There’s always messed up stuff that happens in these games, the stories are always immersive putting you in the shoes of its protagonist and it’s pretty robust with its features!

Yakuza 0- Another game just full of personality, dark, gritty, sexy, humorous, bad ass combat, the whole package is perfect. Never have I experienced a game with equal balance of story Vs action in such a way.

Agents of Mayhem- I absolutely love the depth of the characters and the strategy of building a team. The Saints Row nods it throws at you are a pleasure for any fan of the series. Although there are many missed opportunities with this game, building a team of agents that fit your play style is this games redeeming factor as well as its humor and charm. I would love to see a sequel and boy would I have some excellent feedback if the developers were to make one!

Mafia III- Louisiana looks so awesome in this game even though it can feel empty, the story is phenomenal one of revenge that feels so rewarding, collecting vintage playboy magazines and actually reading some of the articles were all highlights for me!

Fallout 4- One of the best action RPGs I’ve ever played. It was dark, desolate and left me with a pure sense of wonder exploring the world of Fallout 4. I loved how my character looked and the freedom to play how I wanted to.

Culdcept Revolt- When Magic The Gathering meets Monopoly you get Culdcept! Revolt is a perfect game for any Trading Card Game fan. You can make very intricate decks, even some that resemble some of MTG style decks! This version is on the 3DS perfect for watching some TV and wasting the day away while grinding for more cards to build your dream deck. This game can be frustrating but there’s nothing else like it on game consoles and nothing coming close to dethroning it either. Roll some dice land on space on the board, summon a creature to protect the land, opponent lands on your space they can pay the toll or battle your creature to take your land. Your deck is stocked with spells that can alter the outcome of battles or manipulate the overall battlefield (gameboard). But it’s so much deeper than that.

Assassins Creed Origins/ Unity- Both Of these are equally my favorite but for 2 totally different reasons. Origins just replaced Prince of Persia for me and on Nightmare Difficulty I can savor and take years for me to beat! Lol. Unity was a sleeper for me as it was cheap and Origins had me wanting to check out more of AC series. It focuses on propaganda and how much has not changed in history as greed seems to equal power for humanity. Both games were actually pretty educational.

Nitroplus Blasterz- This game has cool female characters with ridiculous moves. Favorite 2D fight
Nowadays!

Catherine- An Adult themed Intelligent Qube, but IMO 1000x better. Best puzzle game of all time for me and the story matches its excellent puzzle gameplay!

Dead Rising 2&4- Ya know cause like Zombies Ate My Neighbors was one of my favorite childhood games growing up!

I could go on on.. Nioh, God Wars Future Past, Let it Die, Lumo, Detroit Become Human, Sine Mora EX, Bloodstained, Sekiro, Sonic & All Stars Racing, Victor Vran, Tomb Raider Reboot, Wolfenstein NWO & Colossus, World Of Final Fantasy, Ys Memories Of Celceta... That about sums it up for me. Lol

[Reprise]

2010

Heavy Rain (PS3): In retrospect, some of the acting and gameplay is a bit hokey and janky, but at the time this game blew me away. It was one of the most captivating, engrossing and cinematic games I had ever played. It truly felt like you were in control of each character's path and destiny, seemingly having complete choice of how you persevered through the plot. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of young boys and the whole investigation into the Origami Killer was done really well. I enjoyed all the character arcs and twist was phenomenal at the time. I was a huge fan of the previous game in the series, Fahrenheit, so I picked up Heavy Rain as soon as I bought a PS3.

Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, PS3): The Mass Effect trilogy is definitely one of my highlights of the last generation. The whole project was really ambitious and seemed to be the spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic. I enjoyed developing my Shepard across the three games. 



2011:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PS3,Xbox 360,Wii U,PC): I had only played a little bit of the original Deus Ex and I wasn't too familiar with the RPG FPS type of genre, so I wasn't sure what to expect. This one really left a strong impression on me on PS3, but it was the Director's Cut on Wii U that ultimately really sold it to me in the end. I loved how you could choose how to play, opting to do the majority of the game in a stealthy manner. It really combined the RPG genre and FPS genre in an amazing way.

Sonic Generations (PS3,Xbox 360,PC): This one probably won't make many people's lists, but there's nothing else out there like 3D Sonic and when it's done well, the games are just so much fun. So much love and care went into creating this celebration of Sonic's past, present and future. Playing 3D recreations and reinterpretations of some of my favourite Sonic levels of all time was an unbelievable experience.



2012:

Catherine (PS3,Xbox 360): This is a bit of quirky one, but I loved every moment of it. Mixing a fast paced puzzle game about moving blocks and climbing up the tower of blocks to reach the top, with Persona style character interaction sequences and a compelling story about love, lust, betrayal and loyalty etc. was a genius idea,

Gunlord (Dreamcast,Neo Geo): Having put hours into this one over the last 7 years, I feel there's nothing gimmicky about putting an indie game released on the Dreamcast and Neo Geo in a list of my favourite games. This 2D Turrican clone is simply amazing. The levels are huge, the design is incredible and the boss battles are fantastic. I will say that Gunlord X, the remaster/definitive edition released recently on Switch on PS4 improves on the original though, so pick up that version instead.

The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game (PS3,Xbox 360,PC etc.): This is another game from the last generation that really blew me away. I really enjoy these 'choose your own adventure' style of games (even if it's just the illusion of choice) and for a while Telltale were the masters at it. Both this and The Wolf Among Us were the pinnacle of Telltale's series of games.

ZombiU (Wii U): Despite the mixed critical response, I personally agreed with the few really positive reviews this game received. There aren't many other games out there (other than maybe Dying Light) that really make me feel like I'm actually living in a real post-apocalyptic zombie populated world, in the way ZombiU did. This was a true survival horror game in every sense of the word, with some fantastic features, such as the use of the gamepad for inventory management in real time as the game continues around you (you could see your character on the TV screen rummaging in their backpack, as zombies approach you). Another great feature was losing all your gear if you die and being regenerated as a new character. You'll have to go on the long hunt for your old character (now a zombie) to retrieve all your old gear.



2013:

The Last of Us (PS3): I never got into the Uncharted games, but this one clicked with me immediately. I don't think any game up until this point and so convincingly created such an emotional link between two characters (Joel and Ellie) engaged audiences in the same manner as films and books can. The journey and story gripped me from start to finish.

Grand Theft Auto 5 (PS3,XBox 360,PC): This was the entry that finally achieved everything GTA should be. A huge open world, carefully crafted to act as the perfect playground for the player (as well as friends in the amazing online experience). This is the greatest GTA to date, by successfully building upon everything great the series had previously done.



2014:

Alien Isolation (PS3,PS4,Xbox 360,Xbox One,PC): Like ZombiU, this is another fantastic survival horror game that received initially a bit of a mixed response from some critics. I loved it. The atmosphere was amazing and the insane unpredictable AI of the Alien is some of the best I have ever seen in a game.

Bayonetta 2 (Wii U): I loved the first Bayonetta, but this one seemed to improve on the original in most ways, if I remember rightly.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (PS Vita): This probably seems like a bit of weird one to some, but the mix of Battle Royale style narrative, larger than life characters and Phoenix Wright style investigation gameplay just really struck a chord with me. I hadn't played many visual novels before and so i was really flawed by how gripping this one was. What I liked about this game is it's not just a visual novel, there is gameplay to it as well.

South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS3,Xbox 360,PC): It took like 17 or 18 years, but someone finally created not just a fantastic South Park game, but an experience that really feels like you are playing in an actual South Park episode. The writing was top notch and there were many genuinely hilarious moments throughout the game, an incredible feat given how lacklustre the actual show has been over most of the last decade. This isn't just fan service either, as the RPG mechanics and gameplay are actually really good, as you'd expect from a game developed by Obsidian.



2015:

Bloodborne (PS4): I enjoyed Dark Souls, but I found this one ultimately more enjoyable and fluid to play.

Hotline Miami (PS4,PS Vita,Xbox One,PC etc): This one is a fairly original concept for a game and one of my favourite indie games released in recent years. There's a really addictive quality to it. trying to pull of the best strategy to kill enemies in quick succession, pulling off incredible combos.

Splatoon (Wii U): The Switch sequel is probably objectively the better game, purely because it's an incremental upgrade of the original game, adding minor quality of life improvements and adding plenty of new stages, modes and weapons. That said, I have to give props to the original game since it invented the whole unique concept of a competitive online shooter, that doesn't neccessarily hinder on just the ability to hit other players. The idea of a paint based shooter, that requires to paint floors and walls was an amazing idea.

Super Mario Maker (Wii U): I'm surprised it took Nintendo this long to come up with Mario Maker to be honest. It just makes perfect sense. So many players were able to create such amazing and creative stages. It was so much fun creating and sharing stages with other players.

Star wars: Battlefront (PS4,Xbox One,PC): I know others didn't like it, because it was more accessible and casual compared to the original series, as well as being a bit bare bones at launch, but I loved it. The online component was fantastic and all the DLC was worth it in my opinion. This is another Star Wars game (like Rogue Leader, like the original Battlefronts) that really made me feel like I was in the Star Wars universe. The gameplay was super addictive.



2016: 

Doom (PS4,Xbox One,PC): This one was a bit of a surprise. A lot of people expected it to suck and the fact the review embargo was something stupid like the day after release, people were really skeptical. In the end though, the worry was for nothing, because the game turned out to be an incredible reboot of the Doom franchise. 



2017:

NieR Automata (PS4): 2017 was an amazing year wasn't it? I didn't know the original Nier that well (I've since gone back to it and it's great), but I tried Automata due to Platinum's involvement and the rave reviews and it did not disappoint. The mix of Nier's bizarre worlds, characters, beautiful music, Platinum's fast paced action, Taro's bizarre storytelling style and the RPG mechanics were all a match made in heaven.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U,Switch): The best Zelda ever. Finally they made a huge evolutionary leap and went in a fantastic new direction, with an amazing large open world to explore.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PS4,Xbox One,PC): What a return to form! This is a true Resident Evil experience and the first person view, despite my initial concern, was absolutely perfect.

Sonic Mania (PS4,Switch,Xbox One,PC): It's like a proper true Sonic 4 came out on the Saturn or something. This game is amazing and never gets old. Honestly, it's probably the best Sonic game of all time. I still can't decide if it's too soon or too blasphemous to make such a claim, but I stick by it.

Hitman (PS4,Xbox One,PC): This was an amazing revival for the stealth assassin series. Although it wa initially disappointing that there was only 5 levels or so, excluding tutorial levels, the sheer amount of strategies and different paths you could go down in order to complete your mission meant there was hours and hours of replayability in order to see everything the game offers. There are so many different ways to complete your mission that you'll find you'll keep coming back to discover everything you can.



2018:

Dead Cells (PS4,Xbox One, Switch): This one is a really addictive and fun rogue like, Metroidvania sort of game. It's brutally hard, but not unfair.

Shadow of the Colossus (PS4):  Although this is a remake, I'm going to include it. The original was one of my favourite games of all time and the remake was perfect. It managed to make me feel the same sense of adventure and intrigue as the original did.



2019:

Shenmue III (PS4,PC): I haven't actually played much this year. At least, not to completion. Shenmue III is a bit of an honourable mention. Yes, it's flawed, yes it's janky and yes there are pacing issues, but as a huge fan, there's something truly amazing about the fact this game finally came out and actually exists. Not just that, but for the most part, Yu Suzuki perfectly crafted an accurate and amazing continuation and follow up to the original two games. The fact Yu Suzuki managed to, against all odds, deliver a worthy successor to the original classics and maintained all that made those games great, is astonishing. I have some criticisms of some aspects of the story and particularly the pacing, but overall Shenmue 3 is one of the best gaming experiences I have had in the last decade.