Happy new year! I don’t have my usual “year in review” ready yet, but I do have my gaming year in review written already. This is where I write my thoughts on each game I’ve played the past year.
Traditionally, I post this every year on NokoNoko, but since I’m trying to consolidate my sites, I’ve decided to start moving gaming entries here. First, let’s start with my favorites that I’ve played in 2013!
Favorite single player: Bioshock Infinite
I felt like Infinite lived up to the hype. It’s a beautiful game with a fun combat system that isn’t just a shooter. In addition to your guns, you can use vigors, open tears, and navigate around with your skyhook. The story and characters were also very likable. Though it seems like Elizabeth is an escort quest at first, you soon realize she can handle herself and helps out more than you expect.
Favorite multiplayer: Smashmuck Champions
We’re in the beta right now. It’s a free-to-play MOBA with different game modes and the matches are faster than your typical MOBA-type games (under 10min usually). The game has been very buggy at times, but it’s fast-paced fun, and we think it has a lot of potential.
Favorite indie/download: Mark of the Ninja
Mark of the Ninja is ninja, stealthy fun, and I think it’s Klei’s best game yet. You play as a ninja with tattoos that enhance his senses, as you sneak around to fulfil your missions. There’s different ways to conceal yourself, stealth kill, and use distractions. Though a side scroller, the game blurs and obscures places your character can’t see, which I thought was a nice addition.
And now for the rest!
Key: * = I beat the game | ~ = There is no ending, but I played a lot of it
3DS
* Mario Kart 7 – One of the better recent Mario Karts. I definitely preferred it more than the Wii one since they didn’t go super crazy with the items.
* Super Mario 3D Land – I haven’t had this much fun with a Mario game in a while. 3D Land gives the feel of Super Mario 3 and Mario 64 mixed together. Though it started kind of easy, the special worlds at the end are pretty challenging.
Zero Escape – is the sequel to 999, which I loved. And so… I really wanted to like this game, but I ended up losing interest. Compared to 999, there seemed to be too many possible paths and the game just didn’t feel as intense as 999.
PC
Assassin’s Creed 3 – I loved the Assassin’s Creed games with Ezio in them, but I’m having a hard time getting into AC3. I think the big problem is that several main quests aren’t well designed, and I’ve broken them multiple times now (such that I had to restart to get them to work).
* Bioshock Infinite – see above
* Borderlands 2 – This game didn’t feel too different from the first one, though it had a better ending. It still had the feeling of being repetitive and a little grindy. I played 2 characters (Maya and Axton), though I’ve only beaten it with Axton.
~ Don’t Starve – is another great game by Klei. It’s a survival game with a bit of a Minecraft feel. You start with nothing and gather items until you can start building better things. They’ve changed quite a bit since its beta, and I actually find it harder to keep all 3 of my meters up (fullness, health, sanity).
Fallout 3 – I don’t know what it was but… I just couldn’t get into this game. I got far enough to start exploring other areas on the surface, but I was never really motivated to play it much.
* FEZ – is the type of game that forces you to get out pen and paper to figure out some of the puzzles. I loved the pixel art and exploration parts of the game. Some of the puzzles were fun to figure out, but some seemed unreasonable. I was left with mixed feelings on this game.
Killing Floor – A fairly straight-forward zombie shooter. I only played a little before being reminded of L4D and going back to that series instead.
* Mark of the Ninja – see above
~ Minecraft – is ridiculously addicting. I didn’t think I’d be the type to like an open world sort of thing, with no “quests” to do, but it’s easy to set goals for yourself and really get into it.
* Recettear – is another addicting game that combines owning a store and dungeon crawling. I wish the game didn’t feel so rushed because after I made the last payment, I lost motivation to play it, even though I hadn’t unlocked everything yet. Fun while it lasted though.
~ Smashmuck Champions – see above
Super Meat Boy – is a super hard platformer that will make you die… a lot. Surprisingly, it doesn’t make me feel so frustrated that I give up. Thanks to the instant respawn, I don’t mind trying over and over again, and it’s satisfying to complete each level.
Snapshot – I liked the idea of this game, where you take photos of items and then can use them later. However, getting the secret items is too frustrating and annoying, so I stopped pretty early on.
PS3
I didn’t play anything on the PS3 this year! It’s been used as our blu-ray player and streaming device.
Xbox 360
LA Noire – I still need to play this more before I have a strong opinion of it. I like exploring and looking at clues, though I’m not a big fan of the interviewing people part.
Wii
* Mario Galaxy 2 – A good sequel to the first Mario Galaxy, and it felt less gimicky too. Some of the later levels were surprisingly hard. It’s been a good game to go to when I just want to complete a few quick levels.
Wii U
New Super Mario Bros. U – This feels the same as the Wii one actually, with the same problems of easily killing your teammates. Though the gamepad user can’t do as much, I think it’s still nifty that it’s an option.
~ Nintendo Land – is a collection of small games that fit all of the player modes (single, co-op, and versus). It’s surprisingly better than I thought it’d be. I haven’t spent much time in the single player modes, but the multiplayer games are super fun.
Super Mario 3D World – Unlike New Super Mario Bros U, this one is actually enjoyable with multiple people. The 3D space helps keep people from bumping into each other, so the levels are actually really fun. The new cat suit is weird but is a pretty cool addition.
And that’s it, 21 games total! Next entry will be my usual year in review with my new years resolutions 🙂
Whoo hoo for another great year of gaming. When I think about what I played . . . I think I played a total of 11ish games, and re-played many of my old games. LOL. I loved Zero’s Escape, but I didn’t get into the characters as much as I did with 999, and I did miss the Titanic thing.
I stuck with my PS Vita, NDS, 3DS, PSP, and PlayStation 3 for gaming this year.
an interesting game!
Yay! Most of the gaming I did in 2013 was on the PC thanks to awesome Steam sales. Don’t Starve is great, and I really want to play Mark of the Ninja.
I have Smashmuck Champions on Steam but haven’t played it yet. I’ve been playing League of Legends pretty regularly, but I have a hard time staying focused on MOBAs. After one or two matches, I get bored and feel done for a while. Being a huge Blizzard fan, I’m looking forward to Heroes of the Storm and really hoping it will be a MOBA I can get into.
I’m playing Bioshock Infinite right now, and I definitely agree that it lives up to the hype. So far it’s about as perfect as a game can get, in my opinion.
I got a 3DS for Christmas, so I think most of my gaming is going to be focused on it for a while. 😛 Right now I’m playing A Link Between Worlds, Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, Fire Emblem: Awakening, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I’m totally addicted to them all!
I played a lot of Super Mario Bros. on the WiiU this year. It did seem super similar to the last but it seriously the one game I get addicted to. It also makes me just a little bit crazy lol. Especially the lava boards.
I spent most of this year waiting for a Beta invite to ESO….which I never got. I couldn’t get into Assassins Creed at all (I wanted to love it, but I couldn’t!) but I’ve heard a lot of people saying they didn’t enjoy AC3
Smashmuck Champions looks great! I’ve been on Smite and DOTA2 but I never played LoL.
I wasn’t sure what NintendoLand would be like but I’ve loved it!
Happy New Year’s, Cat!!!
Even more respect to you for being a gamer XD. Some of my friends raved about Bioshock before! The graphic looks amazing from that screenshot :o. The “3D” effect looks crisp and clean. Is Smashmuck Champions like Hearthstone? This looks like a card game of some sort :o.
Is Mark of the Ninja game anything like the Naruto games? 😮
Wow, you played a lot of games throughout the year! I want time to play at least two :6. I got addicted to Real Racing 3 on the iPad a couple of months ago (especially since they have them American muscle cars on it XD).
I feel you about Assassin’s Creed 3’s main quest line. The story is kind of all over the place but I still like the gameplay overall. It was so cool climbing on top of those flag poles and jumping into those haystacks.
I heard of Don’t Starve before! My brother tried that game out for a bit. There’s a lot of gathering to do so it seems :o.
Minecraft is awesome because you can unleash your creativity. It’s really up to the person to create their own quest and goals. I mean the goal is not to gain as much money or anything, it’s to create stuff… Unless you’re on a private server.
Do you plan on getting the PS4/XBox One?
Take care 😀
Smashmuck Champions is like other MOBAs, so similar to League of Legends or DOTA 🙂 The screenshot I posted is showing the characters each person chose to play in a 5v5.
I haven’t played any of the Naruto games, but they’ve always looked like fighting games? I don’t think Mark of the Ninja is like them since it’s focused on stealth. (More similar to the Assassin’s Creed style.)
I plan on getting the PS4 and Xbox One eventually! I usually wait it out for price drops. That’s what I did with the PS3 and Xbox 360 too 🙂
Ah I love your taste in games~!!! After we moved we totally neglected our larger consoles ><;; Need to set them up again…
I stopped playing video games avidly awhile back because I just don’t have time for it anymore but I love your taste in games! If I was to get back into games, I’m definitely going to check into your blog for your reviews. I’m surprised to hear you liked Mario Galaxy 2, I wasn’t really fond of the first one and I didn’t even realize a second one had come out although I’m not surprised.
And in response to your comment on my last blog post, I thought that the nutella milkshake was going to be overbearing! It was an interesting experience. I think if I combined green tea and nutella, I’d rather have the nutella be overpowering. Maybe one day, I’ll try to recreate it myself.
Dude. That is a ton of games. And I thought I binged on games this year. (I bought Spirit Tracks, Ocarina of Time 3DS, Link’s Awakening VC, Oracle Series VC, The Adventure of Link VC, A Link to the Past VC, A Link Between Worlds, Luigi’s Mansion, Pokemon X, Super Mario 3 VC, and Okami.)
I’m going to keep in mind some of the games on this list because I don’t play enough games in comparison, aha.
I’m considering playing a Super Mario 3D because it seems easier than the regular Mario games and less strange with the story such as in Super Paper Mario. I actually owned Mario Galaxy 2 for a while but the story stuff was so strange that I sold it. =( I guess I’m just terrible at Mario in general. I thought I was the only one who had problems in New Super Mario Bros (Wii version) about killing teammates. I feel better now!
I’m playing Don’t Starve too! It’s really addicting T^T But so much fun xD
And Smashmunk Champions looks really cute! I will definitely check it out 😀