Here we go!
Reserving this. Managed
79 last year, can I match / exceed that number this year?
1. Her Story (Mobile) - 16/01/19 - ~4 hours (Credits)
Massively late to the party on this one, but fuck me, what a game. Easily the best use of the FMV format I've played.
The game does so many interesting things with developing narrative, totally eschewing the codes and conventions of linear storytelling. At its core, the game has you search a video database using key words. Using the clips you find, you're asked to attempt to piece together what happened in what is ostensibly a crime story, using half of a two way conversation. The interviewer is never heard or seen, so all narrative comes from the responses of the interviewee.
Despite the game offering the player total agency over how they approach the story, revelations and twists are able to provide genuine shocks and thrills.
It's super cheap on mobile and PC - please go and play it if you haven't already.
2. Guitar Hero [Clone Hero] (PC) - 19/01/19 - ~20 hours (all songs 7-starred)
Clone Hero has changed my life. Seriously.
I have played thousands of hours of Guitar Hero and Rock Band over the years, but really lost the impetus in the last couple owing to the lack of releases / proper support. Harmonix have been fantastic at piping new content into RB4, but after selling my Xbone a few years back when it became clear I only really played my PS4 I've had no real way to scratch the rhythm game itch.
As an early Christmas present, my brother bought me a USB X360 guitar, and after a bit of setup, I've basically played Clone Hero for at least an hour or so daily for the last 2 months. The reverse engineered, community authored game is able to play note charts from any legacy title, and has a huge community authoring new charts on a daily basis. I have more songs installed than I can possibly play.
To make the game seem more manageable and purposeful, I decided to try and beat each legacy game in turn, attempting to 7-star (the new highest score rating available) each track from their original setlist. First up, 2005's Guitar Hero with its 47 track setlist comprised of covers of popular songs, as well as independent music from a variety of Harmonix-associated bands.
Most songs fell pretty easily on first or second try (remember, I have been playing this franchise for over a decade now), but the final track, the truly dire 'Decontrol' by Drist, honestly took nearly 200 tries. The scoring meta game, maximising your star power multiplier by deploying it across particularly lucrative runs of notes becomes a real tactical endeavour when you're 100 runs deep, and I'd guess at least half my play time could be attributed to this one track.
Still, all done. Onto GH2!
3. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Netflix) - 22/01/19 - ~3 hours (All Endings)
Of course it's a game, there's a little control pad icon at the top of the Netflix listing.
I joke, but Bandersnatch was at least as interactive as Late Shift which I beat last year on the PS4. Bandersnatch is a unique proposition: a choose your own adventure episode of Black Mirror. Where it suffers is in its writing rather than execution. The game / episode itself moves along as you'd expect an FMV game to, with choices quickly shifting the direction of the scene with relatively few hiccups or obvious seams. However, the writing itself just isn't up to the high standard set by Black Mirror's regular episodes.
Asim Chaudhry seems cast more for his in vogue status in British television right now, and his background in comedy acting lets down scenes where he needs to offer that bit more than straight comic relief. Equally, the usually reliable Will Poulter just doesn't put in a particularly convincing shift.
I played through with two different friends, and managed to secure all endings through regular play rather than resorting to a flow chart of decisions that starting doing the rounds on Reddit et al minutes after the shows release.
4. Car Quest (Switch) - 28/01/19 - ~10 hours (Credits)
Not great. Not bad, but not great.
An exploration based adventure that feels very N64 in its design. You control a car with incredibly floaty physics (think PSP classic Gripshift), solving traversal puzzles and collecting items to gradually unlock more of the world map.
Whilst most of its shortcomings can be forgiven seeing as it was designed and developed entirely by two brothers, I did encounter an almost game breaking bug where a vital platform despawned never to return. Luckily, an enterprising community of fans of Twitter were able to help me solve the issue, otherwise it's very unlikely I would have persevered to finish the game!
5. Full Throttle Remastered (PS4) - 31/01/19 - ~4 hours (Credits)
I fucking love Full Throttle. It's my favourite point and click, and one of my favourite games of all time because of its atmosphere - Full Throttle is positively dripping in atmosphere.
The Remaster manages to tart up the graphics without robbing the pixel art of its charm like the Monkey Island remakes, makes the two 'action' sections of the game less frustrating, and adds a heap of concept art plus a director's commentary which I'm keen to listen through at some point.
Get it bought if you've not played it. The puzzles fell pretty easily for me given how many times I've played the original over the years, but it's just such a joy to be in Full Throttle's world I didn't mind at all.
6. Bury Me, My Love (Switch) - 13/02/19 - ~2 hours (Credits)
This is a hard game to quantify. A narrative game that uses the codes and conventions of WhatsApp to give insight into the Syrian refugee crisis of the last few years.
A playthrough is short, around 2 hours, but there are almost 20 endings, with each playthrough offering around 15% of the available content at best.
I achieved what could be considered a good ending, I think, and am in two minds whether I have the nerve to try again, knowing how many things could have gone wrong for my partner on her trip.
What I found most fascinating was how similar to a text conversation the game felt at times - there were scenes that felt gripping, where I couldn't take my eyes of the screen for fear of what message would come through next, and there were times where I played only half concentrating.
7. Tetris 99 (Switch) - 14/03/19 - 75 hours [and counting] (23 wins [and counting])
Ok. Serious time. I am not going to make any progress in this challenge unless I acknowledge Tetris 99, a game I have dedicated almost all my gaming time to since its release. When I got my first win I thought 'right, that's that game beat', loaded Resetera, started typing, and then stopped. '5 wins would feel more like the game was done'. A week later: '10's a good number'. And so on.
Tetris is such a vital game. It's such a simple game. I find it absolutely mental that in the last year or so we've had Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tetris Effect and Tetris 99. Every one a different take on a now 30-odd year old format. Every one a 10/10, near faultless experience.
I am good at Tetris, but I could be better. This drive is what pushes me to hit 'restart' when I win, lose or come close with a podium finish. It's the best multiplayer game on the Switch, and the best multiplayer version of Tetris yet to exist. It's unlikely I'll stop playing any time soon, but I thought it absolutely deserved its place on this list, if only to quantify why it's been a month since I last beat anything.
8. Portal: Still Alive (X360) - 17/03/19 - ~3 hours (Credits)
I was a bit nervous playing through Portal again, as it's been the best part of a decade since I last ran through it. Its inclusion in the Orange Box for consoles was a masterstroke, pushing people who were desperate to play a decent console port of Half Life 2 and Team Fortress to play a first person spatial narrative puzzler was genius. At the time it was arguably the best title in that collection.
Playing in 2019 it was remarkable how little has been lost since its release. The mechanics are still largely unrivalled (except, I gather, for its sequel that I've yet to play), the writing is still sharp and blackly comic, and the runtime is perfect. Every story beat hits, every joke works, the premise is built up brilliantly before offering a genuinely brilliant twist. It also has one of the best comedy songs of all time play over its credits. Even the visuals hold up, as the game's stark lab aesthetic works to cloud its age.
A near perfect game. If you've never given it a go, get it played.
9. Photographs (Mobile) - 10/04/19 - ~4 hours (Credits)
Wow. Luca Redwood had already proven himself as a great mobile game designer and great puzzle game designer in my eyes with the one-two punch of 10000000 and You Must Build a Boat, but I really wasn't prepared for such a unique title to follow though.
I'd heard a bit of hype surrounding Photographs upon its release, so it seemed a good title to try on my new tablet. Across two days I've been blown away. Five short stories presented through a combination of gorgeous pixel art, considered voice work, and puzzle frameworks that further the narrative via careful circumvention of form and function. There are next to no tutorials, yet the game flows well, very rarely allowing the player to become lost.
The stories are heavy - make sure you're in the right frame of mind when starting this game. We're talking super dark, surprised-Apple-didn't-require-changes-be-made in places.
As far as I can tell it's only available for iOS at present, with an Android port to follow. If you have the means, get it bought. Much unlike almost anything else available at present.
10. Brothers (PS4) - 11/04/19 - ~4 hours (Credits)
Played and thoroughly enjoyed A Way Out last year, so it seemed fitting to finally play Brothers this year.
This is a much better, more artful game than AWO. Although it's billed as a one player co-op game, the way the controller is split in two means you can play just as easily with a second player, sharing the dualshock equally.
The ending, for me at least, was made more poignant because of this choice. The proximity you're forced to play in means that when things are changes and subverted both players really feel it.
A great game which still looks absolutely gorgeous today despite getting on for being 7 years old now and having its roots in previous gen tech and hardware.
11. 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (Switch) - 15/04/19 - ~3 hours (Credits)
How do you write about a game like this? Its a narrative adventure game in the vein of Telltale's predominant output post-Walking Dead success, or Life is Strange yet based on real events of the Iranian civil revolution of the late seventies, following real figures from the movement.
Its made on a comparative shoestring budget when compared to the other games mentioned, though carries with it more emotional weight because of its real world context. The bodies depicted in the background of some street scene are ostensibly real people, killed in protest. The characters you interact with are based on real people. The photos you find and the archive footage you unlock is real. This isn't a story, but rather a retelling of history.
Like Bury Me My Love, this is also another game that comes from a team comprised of individuals outside traditional development circles. The game does not shy away from the faith of the characters and no doubt many of the dev team, and it is absolutely fascinating to see Islam presented as a driving part of the individuals' motivations.
The game allows you to photograph elements in almost every scene, as well as collect artifacts from many chapters. These are then added to a log book that gives the game an almost edutainment wrapping.
Recommended to anyone who wants their narrative titles to have a bit more realism, and are interested in learning more about a chapter of history utterly ignored in the west.
12. Gun Mute (IF via Frotz) - 18/04/19 - ~1 hour (Credits)
I go through phases with the idea of interactive fiction. I explored the coding of it using Inform back when I was at uni, though never made much of value. I was always fascinated at how enterprising writers had used it to make more than infinite Zork copies though. I read about Gun Mute years ago on Destructoid I think through an Anthony Burch column, but it was only now when looking for thing I could do with my new iPad that I installed Frotz and and came across GM again when browsing the game database.
It's a very unconventional take on the genre - you progress down a linear path, solving puzzles that take the form of western style duels. The game takes place in a weird steampunk version of the old frontier with each adversary a robotic gunslinger that must be taken down through careful observation of movement patterns sand surroundings.
Absolutely worth a play for those who are patient and enjoy language.
13. Data Wing (Mobile) - 21/04/19 - ~3 hours (Credits)
Another stunning mobile game, and one that is inexplicably free: no strings attached. It's a narrative lead game, but it's also a racing game. Oh, and a physics puzzler. It's also seriously aesthetically confident, combining a soundtrack that presents itself as a love letter to the vaporwave genre, wrapped in a simple vector based visual style that uses heavy bloom. Its simplicity put me in mind of Thomas was Alone.
The rough conceit follows AI inside a 'machine, coveting the idea of being human. Giving any more away would harm the experience though. Each stage asks you to navigate through a maze, or through several laps of a course using a control scheme adapted from Asteroids. In execution, the grinding / boost mechanics make it feel far closer to F-Zero though. Just go and play it. Don't be surprised if you can't put it down. Gripping and addictive.
14. Cibele (PC) - 22/04/19 - ~1 hour (Credits)
Pfffft, what a hard game to write about.
It seems salient to consider Florence, a game I played last year, as being something that probably wouldn't have been made had it not been for Cibele's release a few years prior. Whilst Florence was a breezy, polished look at young post-millennial romance, Cibele feels more scrappy.
It's a narrative game, which almost conforms to some of the framework of a visual novel, though with more interaction. It explores a young, online romance between players of an MMORPG. Its tone was confusing throughout though.
There are moments of dialogue and events that ring really true - I remember being a young teen in the early 2000s, forging my way in a new online world, building what felt like important connections with people that in most cases I would never meet. However, there are parts of Cibele that feel too stilted where the pacing, or performance just let down the story that Nina Freeman is trying to tell.
Props have to go to Freeman herself though for producing a deeply personal game, even if it is only loosely autobiographical. The PC interface through which you spend most of the game interacting doesn't really hold up for me, but the nested folders of low resolution selfies, chat transcripts, etc really do and work to help you suspend your disbelief.
15. Deus Ex Machina (ZX Spectrum) - 23/04/19 - ~1 hour (Credits)
Is this a game? Or is it a concept album that happens to include video elements that can be interacted with? How on earth did this review back in NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR?!
What is impossible to ignore however is the game's importance in pioneering games as being more than just throwaway experiences or toys.
You play through the life of a 'defect', a being spawned in a dystopian future. Your actions, however slight they may feel, contribute to a life meter that drops steadily throughout the games 45 minute play time giving the title its 'game' status. As the supplementary audio cassette tape plays, the Spectrum renders scenes that follow the narrative. As the player you do little more than keep small icons and sprites moving as if balancing a line of spinning plates, but the weird sci-fi story, sold wholesale by the inclusion of John Pertwee and Ian Drury amongst others, keeps you interested for its run time.
A hassle to play in 2019 for sure, but absolutely worth digging out, if only to see that the modern indie obsession to experiential games had been done already some 30-odd years before it was 'cool'.
16. Deus Ex Machina 2 (PC) - 24/04/19 - ~1 hour (Credits)
A sequel / remake / successor to 1984's odyssey.
It's not great.
The game follows the original's storyline beat for beat, with many of Croucher's lyrics and writing repurposed by the new cast. The game itself plays poorly - each scene has you either avoiding or collecting certain objects (sometimes both!) while the audio washes over you.
Odd this time round is how new lyrics are out over existing music by artists as diverse as The Brand New Heavies - honestly not sure why, but there we go.
An experience for sure, but not a particularly good one.
17. Super Weekend Mode (Vita) - 28/04/19 - ~30mins (100% Trophies [PSN])
Another cynical release from Ratalaika games.
While I have to give the team credit for supporting the Vita right to its death, with fresh ports from either PC or mobile to Vita (and PS4 / Switch) dropping almost weekly at this point, their reliance on easy platinum trophies to reel in punters feels a bit grubby.
For what it's worth, Super Weekend Mode is an arcadey, high score chasing action game. You must control two paddles, each manipulated independently with their own should button. Each stage requires you to collect falling hearts, avoiding falling obstacles and enemies, whilst positioning your paddles to shoot a boss that hovers in the centre of the play field. Admittedly this doesn't make much sense to describe, but in execution, the game feels almost like a rhythm action title. A decent game, and one with such a small digital footprint it will probably sit on my Vita for quite a while even though it's been 'vanquished'.
18. Doki Doki Literature Club (Vita) - 05/05/19 - ~4 hours (Credits)
Well then.
Late to the party, of course, but even with a base understanding of what DDLC does, it's impossible to really know what it
does.
This is a visual novel that totally fucks with the conventions of a visual novel. That is, the dialogue branches, the multiple playthroughs, even the way in which you save your story and use the built in UI to navigate the game.
I'm not going to spoil anything, but will say it's worth adhering to the content warnings on storefronts like Steam. It's tagged 'psychological horror' for a reason.
Props to the team who produced this unofficial port for PSP, Vita and Switch. The game received a lot of plaudits on release for how it used the workings of your PC itself to subvert expectations, yet remarkably the majority of this is retained for the handheld ports.
19. JackQuest (PS4) - 11/05/19 - ~4 hours (100% Trophies [PSN])
A short, decent enough, Indie Metroidvania.
Made by what I can only assume is a skeleton staff of one or two, JackQuest does little wrong, but little to innovate either. I gave it a blast knowing it was on the short side - there are many better games in the genre I've not played, but I felt I almost needed a brisk adventure to dip my toe in the water rather than diving head first into a lengthy genre great.
My biggest complaint with the game is the map. You don't have access to it at all until the midway point of the game, and when it becomes accessible, it's zoomed in to the point of being largely unusable for plotting routes. Additionally, discovered or traversed rooms are not marked, and despite the games limited size, the latter game was still a pain to navigate for this reason.
20. Old Man's Journey (Switch) - 15/05/19 - ~2 hours (Credits)
A gorgeous looking, but devastatingly sad wordless narrative puzzle game.
Originally a mobile title, each 'stage' has you manipulating the environment by poking or dragging elements of the landscape to give the old man of the title a clear path to the goal.
Despite lending itself to a touch interface I played on the TV using a controller and still absolutely loved it - the art is so good that it felt a waste to play through in handheld mode.
The game isn't a challenge once you get the hang of how it wishes to be played, but that doesn't stop it being a playful play through. Animated stills punctuate the story with top tier animation work helping drive the narrative forward.
The ending is semi-predictable, but no less heavy for it.
#21-40
CURRENTLY PLAYING
Tetris 99 (Switch)
Ni No Kuni (DS)
Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)
Travis Strikes Back (Switch)
Clone Hero - hahahahaha (PC)
