Whoop! We made it around the sun again without burning up in an asteroid collision or being vaporised to death in a thermo nuclear war! Since the power outlets are still working and the government have not yet banned them, it must still be OK to talk about videogames. So this is the time of the year when we say what our favourite ones are.
Despite the recent run of barely functioning releases, 2014 surprisingly remains a good year for games with the new consoles finally starting to produce things that don’t just look like souped-up 360 releases; Kickstarter providing a space for retro or ignored genres to be explored; the indie scene continuing to produce highly creative works on console, PC and mobile platforms alike and Nintendo still doing its own thing, on its own over there, away from everyone else.
Testament to the eclectic, and slightly deranged, nature of the team here at Ready Up, a startling range of games were put forth for our Game of the Year round up, covering the whole gamut of the ever broadening gamespace. It’s telling that our only overlap was Bioware’s sensational Dragon Age: Inquisition (though I suspect this was a close second on most lists), which feels like the first truly next-gen RPG (always the sign for me that the new generation has reached critical mass). Also surprising is the small amount of AAA games nominated, which suggests that we’re starting to look for more from our games than just a sandbox open world with towers to climb and dudes to shoot.
There’s been a lot of indecision this year, and a lot of people mentioning other games that they would dearly have liked to nominate as well, and we’re still not sure whether James is allowed to nominate an entire platform for his game of the year, but the dude just plays by his own rules. So here it is in all its schizoid charm: our best games of the 2014 planetary rotation of the sun.
Scott Cameron: Shovel Knight
I confess that I’ve been a little lax in keeping up with 2014’s potential “Game of the Year” titles. Super Smash Bros. and Bayonetta 2 await the opening of my Wii U on Christmas, while the murky plains of Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor will have to remain unexplored until a Steam sale. And having only just finished Dragon Age: Origins and its sequel in time for Inquisition (yikes!), I haven’t returned to the fields of Ferelden quite yet.
Yet even if I had played those candidates, I don’t doubt that Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games’ homage to everything NES, would find some way into my top five games of this year. A rare Kickstarter success story, Shovel Knight was announced in March 2013 and released just over a year later, and was basically exactly what it promised it would be.
A 2D side-scroller in the vein of Capcom, Konami and Namco’s old classics, Shovel Knight mixes elements of their games while making heavy use of the pogo-stick jump mechanic from DuckTales for our titular hero’s main weapon: a shovel. The use of Relics – magical items such as the Flare Wand or the Phase Locket – allow the player to tailor their gameplay experience to be (for example) less Castlevania and more, say, MegaMan. Extremely tight controls, fiendish level design, unique bosses with character, and a Souls-esque check-pointing system – which forces players to gamble gold versus a safety net against failure – rounds out a stellar gameplay package.
And while it’s easy to feel fatigue from the pixel-art aesthetic these days, Yacht Club’s dedication to capturing the presentation of Nintendo’s 80s home titles lends it genuine appeal. Aurally, it’s also outstanding: fresh from his sterling remix work on Double Dragon Neon and DuckTales: Remastered, Jake Kaufman brings us 48 endearing NES-style retro tunes that are sure to burrow their way into your skull, including one or two very special contributions from legendary MegaMan composer Manami Matsumi.
All of this combines into a short-but-sweet package that offers a great deal of re-playability through optional item upgrades, hidden loot hordes, and an achievement system laden with rock-hard challenges sure to sate the old-school and speed-runners alike. Steel Thy Shovel!
Fran Shergold: Dragon Age: Inquisition
So the Broken Frandroid’s game of the year for 2014 is Angry Birds: Stella, finally an Angry Birds game for girls, which alludes to A Streetcar Named Desire. No, I’m sorry, I can’t do it. I know that everyone else has probably chosen it too, but my game of the year is Dragon Age: Inquisition. The characters, the scale, the horrible textures on the Xbox 360 version that I am playing, and most importantly, the fact that the game nearly destroyed me.
After playing for three hours before my last save, the game forced me into the toughest decision that I have ever made in a video game. I won’t spoil it, but you have to choose between two characters to save. Two important characters that I came to really love while playing the previous games. I made the choice that I knew would make sense for me, and I still wasn’t happy.
I literally couldn’t sleep the night after I made the decision, and woke up early so I could chip away at the level again before I went to work so I could reverse it. In the end, even though the decision killed me, the alternative seemed just as bad. So I trusted my gut, and I am praying for a DLC that lets me rescue the character that I left for dead.
Any game that makes me care that much has to be the game of the year. Female birds throwing themselves against pigs doesn’t even come anywhere close.
Philip Gallagher: Five Nights at Freddy’s
How strange to recommend a game for ‘Game of the Year’ when you cannot stand to play it.
I’ve always been a defender of games that value gameplay and fun above flash and sparkles. I couldn’t stand Watchdogs, and Call of Duty holds very little appeal for me, yet certain indie games often catch my eye.
Five Nights at Freddy’s erupted into popularity online as one of the scariest games of all time. Having a bit of a phobia of jump scares, I couldn’t get past the third night. Yet even seasoned horror gamers struggle to stomach this game!
Despite my pants-wetting fear of it, Five Nights at Freddy’s shows how an indie game can get everything right. The graphics and gameplay lend themselves perfectly to atmosphere. The game itself is simple to grasp, and the player isn’t weighed down by a convoluted plot. Who really needs a back story to enjoy a horror game? This is just a pure, heart-stopping thrill-fest!
It’s become an extremely popular game for ‘Let’s Play’ channels, simply because it’s the equivalent of daring your friend to go into a haunted house. There are thrills to be found here, whether you yourself are playing or you’re watching someone else. I may well be a bit of a sissy when it comes to horror games, but I can certainly appreciate what Five Nights at Freddy’s is and what it stands for. Definitely my game of the year.
James Hamblin: iPad
Like many people, I had a great time working my way through some of 2014’s big releases. But rather than add another voice to the chorus of praise for the likes of Dragon Age, Far Cry and Forza,
I’d instead like to mention the most pleasantly surprising addition to my gaming this year: the iPad.
Previously, I’d dismissed the iPad as being too compromised to be a serious gaming platform. The more I rummaged through its vast library of apps, the more it seemed comprised of little more than time-wasting free-to-play titles and cack-handed conversions. Following an initial wave of excitement, I had been left sorely disappointed. My candy had been crushed and I’d given the system the angry bird.
Then, along came Threes!
After the demise of the Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road arcade machine, the Trio chocolate bar and 1980’s new wave pop combo Fun Boy Three, I had feared that the number three’s best days were behind it. Sirvo’s tile-sliding test of mathematical manipulation, however, changed all that. Aside from Simogo’s Year Walk, Threes! was the first iPad game I found myself actually booting up through excitement rather than boredom.
After Threes! came Ustwo’s beautiful Monument Valley, a tranquil meditation on puzzle solving from a variety of different perspectives, and 80 Days, inkle’s triumphant combination of Jules Verne novel and chose your own adventure. And, of course, let’s not forget the cherry on top of the Apple cake, the best worst game of the year, WWE SuperCard. I never thought I’d ever be waking up at 3 a.m. to feed energy bolts to Macho Man Randy Savage, but, like I said, 2014 on the iPad was full of surprises.
Tony Chandler: The Last Of Us Remastered
It feels quite sad to nominate an old game that has been done over for Game of the Year, but The Last Of Us really is good enough to deserve it. I’ve played it through from start to finish about four times now, across two generations of consoles, and the emotional impact still isn’t lost.
Like a good film, it’s still as affecting now as when you first experienced it, and the hugely improved visuals only help to immerse you even more deeply into its terrifying yet beautiful game world. Turn down the lights, turn up the sound and you’re lost in Joel and Ellie’s world, fighting for your very life. The combination of stealth and sudden bursts of horrific, brutal violence come together to always keep you right on the edge of you seat.
Sure, there are still a few jarring things, like when members of your party wander in front of oblivious searching enemies, and let’s not forget, it’s a remake of a game that is only one year old.
But for me, The Last Of Us is such an amazing game, that it’s not only 2013’s game of the year or 2014’s game of the year, but probably game of the year in just about any other year it gets released.
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