Gaming year in review: 2014

Happy new year everyone! I hope 2015 will be a great year for everyone 😀 I’m still working on my personal year in review entry, but first, here’s my gaming year in review!

I started this a few years ago to look back and give a brief review of every game I played in the past year. I only count games that I hadn’t played before, are remakes, or have new content. (In other words, I don’t count any replays that didn’t have anything new to them.)

Here are my favorites for 2014! (These are out of the games I played in 2014. It doesn’t mean that they were released in 2014.)

Favorite single player: Just Cause 2
This is a game that should not be taken seriously. Its main objective is to cause “chaos” which basically means: blow up as much stuff as you can. Just Cause 2 is just plain fun and one of the better open world games I’ve played. It’s kind of repetitive, the map is ridiculously huge, and there is a loose story in there somewhere, but it’s sooooo fun to mess around and do stupid things.

Favorite multiplayer: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
I played D3 back when it first released, and I thought it was just alright. I got back into it for the expansion, and wow, that large patch that released around the same time really improved the game. It was easier to get relevant loot and to raise the difficulty levels. The new content from the expansion also made it more interesting. The game became much more enjoyable, and I had fun starting a new character with my husband.

Favorite indie/download: Guacamelee
Guacamelee is like a fighting game and platformer combined. You learn fighting moves to defeat enemies, but then you have to use them to go through platforming levels. I thought it was a creative spin on platformers, especially with the dimension switching, and the humor and art style are nice touches too. I also loved all of the meme and video game references in it.

Here are the rest of the games I played in 2014!
(* = I beat the game. | ~ = There’s no ending, but I played a lot of it.)

3DS (6)

* Kirby Triple Deluxe – Triple Deluxe follows the “classic” Kirby style of side scrolling and stealing powers, but it added the Hypernova power which pretty much let’s you swallow anything. It started off really strong, but the ending felt weak due to showing repeat levels and bosses.

* Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds – This felt like a mix of Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past, and I wasn’t a big fan of it at first. However, it got addicting after the other world was introduced. It kept the traditional Zelda feel while introducing new concepts and clever dungeon puzzles.

* Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask – Miracle Mask (#5) is part of the prequel series, where it’s before #1 but after #4. To be honest, each Layton game doesn’t differ much from each other. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because they’re all good puzzle games, this one included.

* Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy – Azran Legacy is #6, right after Miracle Mask. Though the gameplay doesn’t differ much, it actually pulls together the story of #4 and #5 and ties up the prequel series. It also leads you to more places instead of staying in one city. This is one of my favorites in the series.

* Star Fox 64 – This was one of my favorite games back in the N64 days, though I’m not sure how well it aged. I had fun with it, but it only took me a few hours to do every path, and I had forgotten how annoying my teammates are.

* Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward – This is the sequel to 999, one of my favorite DS games. The beginning of VLR felt slow, but it gradually built up and became more interesting. There’s still room puzzles like 999, and then VLR adds a mind game element and way more endings. The numerous paths kind of dragged out, but it was worth getting to the end.

DS (0)

Nothing new this year! (I replayed The World Ends With You since I was cosplaying from it.)

PC (15)

* Assassin’s Creed 3 – Like most AC games, I enjoy running around and doing side quests, so I liked that part of AC3 and the naval missions as well. However, the rest felt lacking and disappointing. I didn’t like the main quests, the game is terribly buggy, and Conner is a boring and poorly voiced character.

* Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons – Brothers is a beautiful game that makes you act as your own co-op partner. You go on a journey with two brothers, controlling both at the same time to solve puzzles. It’s an emotional ride through various fantasy worlds, and though it’s short (a few hours), it leaves a huge impact.

* Darksiders – Darksiders is God of War combat and violence + Zelda dungeons, and for some reason, a bit of Portal too. It’s a great combination, and I enjoyed this game a lot. My only gripe is that because it’s a mix of two worlds, it’s not exactly the best in each one, but it’s still a great game overall.

* Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – see above

* Gone Home – I like the idea of the game. You come home expecting your family, but the house is empty. You have to explore the house to figure out what’s going on. While I appreciate that it tackles very real and tough topics, it just felt very anticlimactic.

* Guacamelee – see above

Hearthstone – I have a love/hate relationship with Hearthstone. I like it because it’s a fun card game with less complexity than others. I dislike it because it’s… well, a card game, meaning it still depends on luck of the draw a lot of the time, and this comic is surprisingly accurate.

Hotline Miami – I can see why people like this retro-arcade-like game, but it’s not for me. The gameplay didn’t really draw me in, and it felt kind of repetitive.

* Just Cause 2 – see above

~ Minecraft – This is another game we played last year but decided to get back into after a major patch. Minecraft still remains one of my favorite games, especially to play with my husband, but we got bored a little earlier than usual this time around.

Monaco – Monaco is known to be a good co-op game, but it didn’t quite pull us in. We haven’t given up on it yet though. I’ve been playing it with just my husband, and we’re going to give it another try with friends.

Orcs Must Die! – I went backwards on this series since I played the 2nd one last year. I don’t normally play tower defense, but I do like this series, and this one is addicting. I like how you control a single character in this game, who runs around setting traps, and he’s able to attack as well.

* Torchlight 2 – If you like Diablo-type games, the Torchlight series is one of the better clones. I loved first Torchlight and was happy to see multiplayer added to Torchlight II. I had a lot of fun with this one and liked that it used an open map this time.

* Transistor – Bastion is one of my favorite games, and Transistor was great too. I love the art style, and the combat felt unique, giving you the ability to have a planning stage and to mix and match the functions. The second play through was actually much more enjoyable due to having everything unlocked.

Super Meat Boy – Meat Boy is a really challenging platformer, one of the hardest games I’ve played. It sounds frustrating, but it’s not because it’s a very well designed game, both in level design and controls. It’s one of the best games I’ve played. Having instant respawn is awesome, and completing each level gives a really nice feeling of accomplishment.

PS3 (2)

* Catherine – This is one of the more interesting games I’ve played, in a good way. Though the game centered around love and relationships, it was refreshing that it was the darker side of it. I played on normal for my first play-through, and the puzzles were already pretty challenging.

* God of War 3 – I really like the God of War series, even if they all kind of feel the same. GoW3 still had the same feel as the previous 2 games with its combat and puzzles, but I kind of felt like it tried too hard to be even more violent and sexual. I enjoyed it for the most part, but not as much as the first two.

Xbox 360 (0)

Nothing new this year! (I replayed Bayonetta to hype myself up for Bayonetta 2.)

Wii (1)

The Last Story – I thought this was an ok game but not great, which is why I eventually gave up on it. I just wasn’t having enough fun with it. I liked that the combat was mostly real time, but it often felt like a mess. The story and characters didn’t really pull me in either.

Wii U (7)

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – This game takes the Toad mini games from Super Mario 3D World and expands them into their own game. It’s actually really good! It’s adorable, very clever, and makes great use of the Wii U gamepad.

* Child of Light – This is a beautiful game, both in visuals and music. It has a classic RPG feel with turn-based combat that I felt was really well done. I also thought all of the characters and dialogue were charming, and it was fun to explore the world of Lumeria.

* Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – This feels very similar to the DK game on Wii, and I love that they added Dixie and Cranky this time around. It’s a challenging platformer, especially to collect everything. Most of the levels were enjoyable, but the frustration level was a bit high on some parts.

* Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD – Wind Waker is one of my favorite games, and the remake for Wii U is beautiful. I also felt like the changes here and there actually improved the game. I was happy to play this one again!

* Mario Kart 8 – I thought MK8 was really fun at first, but several things eventually made it annoying to play, and I just had to stop. I think it’s better than MK Wii at least, but I feel like MK7 did a better job, and Double Dash is still my favorite in the series.

* Super Mario 3D World – 3D World was much more fun than any of the “New Super Marios Bro” games thanks to the 3D space. It was easier to move around, thus causing less frustration when playing with other people.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U – I think this is a good improvement over Brawl. For competitive play, I still think the fan-made Project M feels better, but as a party game, this is really fun. Also, I want to collect all the amiibos as figurines 😉

Result

That’s 31 games total, 22 of which I beat! This means I hit my goal for the year 🙂 I had set a few gaming goals throughout the year. They are…

1. Play 30 games. Like I mentioned earlier, this only counts games new to me or ones with new content, so I achieved this!

2. Bring my backlog down to 40. If you look at my game collection site, you’ll see that this is a failure. It barely moved and stayed around 50 the entire time, mainly because of games I bought.

3. Buy less than 30 games. This was suggested by a friend. He said since I’m striving to play 30 games, I should also buy less than 30 games. This is a success! Not counting gifts (because I can’t control that), I bought 20 games this year, 13 of which I’ve already played. So… not bad 🙂

As for my goals for next year… I’m aiming for the same 3 goals! Maybe I’ll finally get my backlog down next year 😉 I will have my personal year in review up next!