Gaming year in review: 2018

2018 was a year where I spent less time on most of my hobbies, and gaming took a hit as well. Though I didn’t play that many games, I still wanted to put together my annual year in review! This is where I briefly review the games that I played throughout the year that are “new” to me (i.e. I haven’t played before, are remakes, or have new content – no replays).

First, let’s reveal the favorites! As usual, this is picked from games I played in 2018, which may or may not have released that year.

Favorite Single Player: Super Mario Odyssey
Mario Odyssey felt like a combination of two things I love: Mario 64 and open world games. I loved being able to explore each area and figure out where the moons were. It had the whimsical fun that you’d expect from Nintendo games, especially using Cappy to take control of your enemies. There’s been several Mario 64 clones, and this one exceeded my expectations.

Favorite Multiplayer and Favorite Indie/Download: Full Metal Furies
I normally pick a different game for each category, but since I didn’t play that many in 2018, I decided to award both favorite multiplayer and indie to Full Metal Furies. Done by the creators of Rogue Legacy, this is a co-op game featuring 4 women of different weapons and play types. Even with each character, the play style changes depending on the abilities you chose for each skill, and you could mix and match to fit what you need. The game has fun dialog and was an enjoyable challenge that really made you work together to get through hard battles.

Now for the rest of the games I played in 2018!
(* = I beat the game. | ~ = There’s no ending, but I played a lot of it.)

3DS (2)

Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
It’s been years since I last played a game in the Ace Attorney series, so it was nice to get back into it. I’m pretty meh about Athena’s new gameplay mechanic, but it does feel good to do court cases and investigations again.

Tri Force Heroes
My husband and I tried this game a few years ago, but it doesn’t work well if you have a player who isn’t as good. We started it up again with another friend, and things went so much smoother. This is a fun game if everyone is working together and on top of things but can be frustrating otherwise.

PC (5)

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
AC4 took the one fun thing from AC3 and turned it into a whole game, which were the pirate ship battles. Combined with the typical Assassin’s Creed gameplay, this was a really fun game to get me back into the series again.

Forced
This is an interesting co-op game that combined being an arena brawler with cooperative puzzles. You have to defeat enemies while also working together to solve the puzzles in the arena. Having to deal with both at once was pretty challenging at times, but I don’t think we got hooked on it.

* Full Metal Furies
See above.

Prototype
Prototype is the open world type of game I normally like, but this one felt a bit too rough at the edges, and the open world part wasn’t as interesting to me. I eventually lost interest.

* Pyre
I started this in 2017 and finished in 2018. I prefer the formats of Bastion and Transistor, but I thought this was still a well done game that is worth playing. It still has the signature artwork and music that you expect from Supergiant, but the gameplay is closer to a sports game.

PS4 (1)

Astrobot
I think Astrobot is my first time playing a VR game that isn’t first person. Instead it’s in third person, where you kind of act like the camera. This game is adorable, and though I haven’t played much of it yet, I think it’ll be up my alley.

Switch (2)

Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee
Let’s Go is like a remake of Pokemon Red/Blue, except it mixes in some elements of Pokemon Go. It might seem like the gameplay is dumbed down, but I actually see it as a Pokemon game that finally takes away some of the grindy gameplay. I love how cute it is and the nostalgia it brings back, while introducing new elements.

* Super Mario Odyssey
See above.

This leads to a total of 10 games played, 3 of which I beat. It’s far fewer than what I normally do, but with a baby now, I’m just happy to be able to play at all! Here’s to another year of gaming!