Hello all! It is a fine year for game playing. As long as we have backlogs full of great games, each year will assuredly be better than the last! (Anyone making games should unionise, however. Stick it to the bigwigs!)

Another year of playing a ton of games – mostly older but with a few new releases thrown in for good measure. It has been an incredibly tough end of the year and I am still not 100% so forgive if any of these placements are whack. As always, I rank purely on the subjective good times over all else. No honourable mentions, these are the games I completed:

29. Mouthwashing.

Goodness this was heavy.

28. Perfect Dark.

I struggled with the controls and FOV, but had the most fun helping the president in the snow region.

27. Donkey Kong Country 3.

It was fun, but 1 and 2 spoiled me more as games.

26. Pikmin.

I got so stressed out at losing my Pikmin, if they had not have given them faces I would not have been lamenting the demise of each one. It made getting through the levels tough because I would panic. Luckily, never left any behind at the end of the night.

25. The Talos Principle: Reawakened.

Some really great mindbending puzzles in this game. Felt a bit like Witness and Portal smashed together. I had an awful lot of fun figuring out the puzzles and some of the hidden things. Some stuff felt a tad beyond me even though I would figure it out. Looking forward to the second.

24. Katamari Damacy: reroll.

One of the greatest music tracks ever is in this game. I had such difficulty controlling my ball and messing up due to the control scheme being as unique as it is. When it would click, though, I had a really grand time.

23. Twenty Small Mazes.

Awesome little puzzle game that we played while I waited for Armoured Core VI to decrypt so I could play it. Puzzle games, 2D Platformers and JRPGs are my holy trifecta of gaming fun.

22. Little Nightmares.

Wonderfully scary in all the right places with an almost purely environmental story telling way of letting you know what was going on. Got heavy Brazil vibes from this.

21. Little Nightmares II.

I think this was a little stronger in gameplay and narrative than the first. Definitely great to play back to back to see the evolution and refinement of the gameplay.

20. Little Misfortune.

Goodness this was a heavy but good darkly humourous little adventure game. Yikes forever.

19. MegaMan X

Great platforming fun and my first megaman game! I had heard they were tough, and they are, but really you just need a bit of patience. The dropping of lives and health and special ammo is plentiful allowing you to stock up during a level and really make a go. Thankfully the legacy collection saves the passwords or I would have been writing down so many weird combos.

18. Super Monkey Ball.

An incredible stress of laughing and despairing. The people who are good at this have my respect. This was so tough – I ‘died’ 1403 times going through the game. Good lord. GOOD LORD.

17. I Will Strangle a Horse

A TWINE game made by one of my very good friends. Think CYOA with an incredibly simple goal, but a lot of devious obstacles getting in the way. Exceptionally funny!

16. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

I had only experienced MGS1,2,3 so I spent a good portion confused as to what was going on, but was assured that this was normal. I did not display great gaming prowess throughout this game, but it did not matter, the game still opened up.

This was full of weird and wonderful oddballs, including a stupidly prescient villain yet again. The Metal Gear games I have played all somehow feel like they were created by time travellers.

I would love a follow up, and this year I intend to play more Metal Gear. nods in wise mentor

15. Donkey Kong Country

Ah, the first Donkey Kong! This was a fantastic start to the trilogy. Aquatic Ambience is an all timer. That is what I think of first, follow by Simian Segue and then DK Island Swing. As a platformer it was so solid and controlled so well. I jammed as I picked up bananas and bounced on kremlins often to my doom but I was enjoying myself every step of the way.

14. Final Fantasy IV

A really superb follow up to III. I know II had a storyline and characters, but this was much more in depth and realised. War Criminal Cecil goes through a wonderfully bonkers story and I was absolutely pulled along by the breakneck pace.

It never felt like a grind or a slog, just pure speedy active time battling. The soundtrack slaps, as I have discovered every single Final Fantasy does, and playing the pixel remaster I switched back and forth a number of times to hear the differences.

Wonderful first entry to the SNES games.

13. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

This was a beautiful, haunting, invigorating time of a video game. The end of the prologue annihilated me emotionally. While nothing later on quite got to that level of affect, the whole package is the real deal. I am glad I rearranged my game list so I could play it.

I do wish the Gestral random object climb course had been longer, or there had been more of it. I found that the most fun minigame of all and could have taken a whole game of doing just that.

12. Animal Well

Give me puzzle games! Yes! This kind of multilayered, multiple points of approach game wrapped up in a 2D platformer is literally two of my three genres as one. I found as much as I could and still know that there is a ton left behind.

(What was that LED puzzle all about?)

I even managed to get to places I should not have before I did which meant a part of the progression confused me, but I relish this kind of thing.

11. Secret of Mana

This was my very first whatever kind of game you would call this.

Action RPG makes me think of Diablo. This game involved a time bar like an ATB bar, but you were running all over the shop. It was incredibly weird, baffling mechanically, but oh what a delight in the totality.

I had a really, really great time with this.

Once you get the hang of charging and attacking, it becomes a ton of fun to use terrain to your advantage. The magical abilities are super over powered (though this goes both ways) and levelling them up to 7 can make some battles inconsequential. Some of the weird stuff is only being able to hold five of the healing items or the mana restore items.

One character can MP absorb and they are the damage dealer, so that helps.

The healer, though, does not. The economy can also be a bit whack, with the MP restore item being the most expensive.

I would say, though, that these oddities just add to the overall fun experience. I really, really enjoyed playing this and the storyline. Also, again, incredible music!

OK! Now for the Top 10!

10. Brain Lord

I played this due to a challenge with Liquidypoo.

He would play an hour a day of Secret of Mana while I began my stream of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and if he finished first, I would then stream Brain Lord (one of his favourite games from childhood) I only stream three times a week, but for a total of twelve hours compared to the seven he would have with Secret of Mana.

I nearly won.

As such, I got to play this incredibly charming and yet again odd little game that was a top down action puzzler with a jump!

The dialogue is kind of wildly weird, as is the way the story jumps about. However the gameplay part and the controlling of it matched my style so it was a good old time.

I really dug the different dungeons themes, and within the basic but still charming puzzles. I am still not sure why it was called Brain Lord, but more games should have weird titles that do not really explain a thing.

09. Final Fantasy VI

My second favourite of the pre VII Final Fantasies. (I do feel like VII is the break into era 2).

This was full to the brim of brilliant characters who were masterfully portrayed in their pixel glory with limited animation and dialogue. It had so many great set pieces (I actually was allowed to suplex a train!) including a full on sung opera, that I would have easily believed this to be a game on a console later than the SNES.

They went for the stars with this one. Kefka is great as the villain who just wants to be evil and have ultimate power. Sometimes I dig a bad guy without the tragic backstory and explanation as to why he is bad with the potential for you acting as a saviour. He is just evil and has the most fun being so, and I have the most fun watching him succeed.

And boy, does he.

The game spans the ages with such a cast that I totally get why it would be someone’s favourite Final Fantasy. VII sure had a lot to follow.

08. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

All through my childhood and teens, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was my favourite film of all time.

Harrison Ford will always be Indy to me. I wanted to go on adventures through tombs and ruins as a whip cracking archaeologist as a kid and somehow adult me got to experience it.

This is more than a love letter to Indiana Jones, this is another chapter in the ongoing storyline and one that bursts through to be sat alongside Last Crusade as one of his very best.

I was utterly engrossed by the story, which is so well acted by Troy Baker that I would often forget that it was him voicing the character.

The amount of fun punching Nazis, pushing them off high places, investigating puzzles and decrepit ruins, and basically being a hero is staggering. I want another of them. There is even a pretty decent hook from a side adventure involving a character who could make a good villain.

07. Donkey Kong Country 2

They took everything great about DKC1 and added more and improved.

This is the ultimate of the 2D platformers, with incredibly tough but inventive levels, and an even more incredible soundtrack. Imagine making magnificence with Aquatic Ambience and then finding a way to perfect it even more in Stickerbush Symphony. I do not know how to make music but I am in awe. This is probably my second favourite game soundtrack of the year.

This is easily the peak of the trilogy in terms of overall good times.

The challenge rises steadily alongside you, never holds your hand and is not afraid to push, but there is always a cushion waiting. Disco Train (Target Terror) was probably my favourite level due to the difficulty and the tune playing. This is everything you want a sequel to be.

Bigger and better in every way.

06. Final Fantasy V

The greatest of the pixel Final Fantasies?

I say yes.

I say yes for one reason, the job system. I thought FFX-2 had the best job system (well maybe I still do) but FFV is so close to be almost parallel. There is so much variety that can be had, it makes the combat continuously interesting. I completely understand the appeal of the Four Job Fiesta when there is this level of depth.

That is only part of it. Buttz and the gang are just the best group and just like in FFVI are so stunningly brought to life with very limited animations and dialogue. Their personalities shine throughout the story.

The music, the visuals, the storyline, the world to explore, the plot progression, the job system, the whole deal is glorious. This whole thing slaps so hard. I think I would even rank it over some of the post VII games as well.

What a magnificent video game.

It is always amazing to me that the SNES was capable of such greatness. I wonder how my gaming life would have turned out if I owned one growing up.

Also the antagonist is a tree.

05. Still Wakes the Deep

This was something I had been trying to play for a few years as a Halloween spooktacular game. All I knew was that it was a scary game set on an Oil Rig. That was it. Went in blind, came out terrified.

Holy moly, this game absolutely whips. I played both it and the DLC as a single experience and the whole thing had me transfixed.

You play a Scotsman on a rig up in the North Sea in the 1970s who is about to be fired for bad behaviour. You are a roguish sort, with a family you are providing for by taking such a tough and gruelling job.

What follows is a series of events that basically create ‘The Thing part 2’.

I LOVE ‘The Thing’.

My favourite horror movie and fourth favourite film of all time overall. This captures the atmosphere of that film, the claustrophobia and dread beautifully. I screamed in terror so many times.

I panicked. I messed up in fear. I froze to the spot. I had the best scary time I could have had.

This experience is SO worth it, I cannot stress enough.

04. Blue Prince

What a puzzler. What a completely brilliant experience of being utterly lost in weeds and not knowing where the land is. There are puzzle games and then there is this.

The object is to get to Room 46 in a mansion of only 45 rooms. You enter the hallway with three doors (one in front, one on each side) and with a limited number of footsteps allowed (one footstep per walking through a doorway) you begin to draught one of three random rooms at a time in order to reach the fabled 46th room.

It sounds simple and the concept is. In fact, you could play with the goal to reach room 46 and then call it a day. The game allows for that. When the RNG is in your favour, as those three rooms are random and some can be dead ends.

There is, however, so much more lurking under the surface and some truly inspired and brain breaking puzzles. This mansion has secrets galore and you are free to engage with it as much or as little as you wish.

The complete lack of assistance from the game (the community are great) means you have to decide when to stop. There may be puzzle layers I have not even spotted because I did not realise I was even looking at one! I get the frustrations when you want a specific outcome and the RNG does not allow for it, but I never got far enough in to be fazed by it.

I did spend a good amount time exploring and saw enough to make me look so fondly of my time in Mt. Holly.

03. Hollow Knight: Silksong

The hype was seven years strong.

Hollow Knight is great (I put it on my 2019 list at #7) and naturally I was excited for a sequel. Seven years, though. Long time to have a game build that kind of following and attention with almost no updates about when it would release. Then suddenly, 21st of August, they announced it would be out two weeks later from that grand fanfare.

September the 4th came and every digital store (even Steam!) went down due to the flurry of people trying to buy Silksong. (They sold roughly 7 million copies not counting game pass).

So is it that good?

Goodness yes.

This is an FFVIIRebirth level of blowing past the hype.

This game is probably going to be in the conversation for best metroidvanias ever. It controls so sublimely that movement is second nature. You have such depth of control with Hornet that simply traversing is a joy. She does a sort of ledge grab and flip into the air, allowing to almost bounce between ever higher ledges that I never tired of performing.

Gone are the charms, here are the crests. Each one allows you a certain different configuration of the abilities and tools. Each one also completely changes Hornet’s fighting style and there is bound to be one that gels with you (Shaman crest for me, because I forget to use tools and it does not allow you to slot any in).

The map is so large, so full of secrets, so deliberate, that I enjoyed visiting every single section. There is so much to see and visit that it makes Hollow Knight look tiny, and that is not a small game!

The music easily wins my Soundtrack of the Year. Choral Chambers does something to me that few other songs have (Besaid Island from FFX is another). When I first heard it, I felt like one of the Pilgrim bugs who had finally made their way to the promised land. Christopher Larkin outdid himself.

Also they are going to be releasing free DLC for it next year. Team Cherry, what on earth?!

Absolute masterpiece of a game.

02. Donkey Kong 64

OK.

Right.

So this was supposed to be a punishment. I failed a challenge set by my friends and the punishment was to play Donkey Kong 64 and reach 101%. To get 101% on Donkey Kong 64 you need to get all:

Golden Bananas (201),
Battle Crowns (10),
Banana Fairies (20),
Banana Medals (40),
Boss Keys (8).
The Nintendo Coin
The Rareware Coin.

Additionally, each level has a golden banana that requires getting at least 75 regular bananas as each Kong. There are five kongs. However, as part of the challenge I had to get 100 bananas per Kong. So that is an additional 500 regular bananas per level.

All in all, quite a feat to make up for failure. I do not back down from any challenge (as I currently attempt to finish episode 3 of Sonic 2006 with absolute disbelief at some of the events that have transpired) so this would be something I would do, or die trying.

Not only did I manage, but I had a whale of a time. My five Kongs (Jonathan, Michael, Kevin, Janice and Bort) and I tackled the mystery and mastery of Rares largest collectathon with great fury!

This game is overstuffed, overloaded, overwhelming and yet.

And yet.

I loved it.

Oh there were moments where I was taken fully aback into another plane of understanding!

Is Michael’s jetpack the least useful jetpack in existence?
Why does Kevin inflate in such a manner as to be completely uncontrollable?
Why do the beavers?
Why not have the ability to switch between Kongs through a menu?
WHY do the beavers?
Why are we racing against an enemy that the merest touch makes me lose bananas and yet I have to somehow get in front of?
Why are some jumps near impossible for someone like me?
WHY DO THE BEAVERS?!

All these questions were left unanswered as I made my way through every level, collecting every last thing, beating every single boss, and dying countless times to my own inability to control a Kong. All the way through I was laughing, cry laughing, crying, but experiencing the kind of joy that video games with friends grant you.

It is a messy, bloated, strange game, but it was an experience I treasure and think fondly of.

I completed a challenge with the same level of difficulty to me as collecting all 120 stars in Super Mario 64.

I feel accomplished.

01. Armoured Core VI

“I won’t miss.”

I am often wrong.

I am actually wrong about a lot of things.

I second guess myself near constantly and the days of being certain about stuff are long gone. I am not even certain about the order of this list.

I was certain, before it was released, that Armoured Core VI was not something I was interested in. I am not someone who watched Transformers or Gundam. I never really got involved with big robots as a kid.

As a request I watched the trailer for Armoured Core VI and it did nothing for me. I do not watch trailers for games as the medium is so different from films.

However, I did promise to play it as I was still jonesing for more FromSoft and after a very long decrypting session, where I actually played through most of 20 Small Mazes to pass the time with twitch chat, I finally got my hands on the game.

I am often wrong, as I said.

It is not always a pleasant feeling to be wrong. In the case of Armoured Core VI, oh my word, did it feel THAT good to be THAT wrong.

This game breaks through all my inadequacies and carries me into gaming heaven. I mean it. This is a fast paced, 3D action game in all elevations. I struggled to make Mario jump onto a platform in SM64. I struggle to move in all directions in underwater sections or flying sections of video games. I lose track of things in busy environmental games like the new Dooms. I should have fell flat on my face at the first moments,

But I did not.

A) Because FromSoft are exceptionally good at their craft, but
B) because this game would not let you.

It wants you to become Raven, to be so innately joined to the mech you pilot that it is an extension of your own movements. Goodness me when I was behind the controls of my mech it responded exactly how I wanted it to. And as such, I discovered that I had a favourite FromSoft game.

I had always waffled between Sekiro, Bloodborne, Demon Souls and Elden Ring. Some I might like more on certain days. It is no contest. This is the best game I have ever played from them. I want more of this. Much more.

My journey through the main story had, at certain points, me blitzing through without really knowing I was doing well. I did not get stumped by anyone for a long time, and even those bosses that took longer than a one-shot were overcome with perseverance. During the second playthrough I started to solicit builds from chat that I would then test and see how it fit my playstyle.

One was to be a terrible build comprised of 2 x Laser Turrets, 1 stun gun, 1 moonlight blade.
For bot parts, I picked all things at random based on what seemed to look weird together.
Then I painted it. Right arm was brown, like a sausage. Head and core were white and yellow, like an egg. Left arm red, like tomatos. Legs pinkish like bacons. The stun gun and moonlight blade were stainless steel. The laser turrets were white and blue, like cups, holding juice and tea.

I called it the Bad Breakfast and it looks like this:

This thing ended up being absolutely perfect for the kind of player I am. Seriously destructive in my hands. For the very, very final boss I went into it on my second attempt, ran out of ammo for my stun gun at about halfway, and punched/sliced it to death. The final thirty seconds with 1 health and no heals. It was one of the luckiest wins I have ever had in a game. It rivals my Genichiro win from Sekiro.

The whole game was full of these moments of triumph, all the while I sped and zipped and felt at home in the pilot seat of my mech. The campaign is short, but has three differing playthroughs with enough changes to keep you interested.

The moment to moment gameplay is fast, calibrated and unlike any other game I have played. The whole thing was truly special from start to finish. I think of it a LOT throughout the year and I kept going back to all these little set pieces that I did not realise FromSoft were capable of. David and Goliath style fights to the death that were always frantic and frenetic but always winnable once you understood the ins and out of your creation.

I am often wrong.

I am not wrong when I say Armoured Core VI is an all timer GOATED game.