Top 10 Video Games (2022)
by Steven Gussman
It's been a very nice homecoming, getting back into video games over this past year.1 As a part of that homecoming, I've also began reading about video games again (reading science books is largely what replaced playing video games for me). I think it's the reading of sci-fi reviews by the great Hideo Kojima in The Creative Gene, with its emphasis on curating and passing down one's favorite memes, which inspired me to write about my favorite and most anticipated games.2 I am hoping to end my short hiatus on game development as well, but one step at a time.
My Favorite Video Games
1. Super Mario 3D World by Nintendo (Wii U)
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| Cat Mario explores World 1 of Super Mario 3D World3 |
Easily, my favorite video game series (and genre) are the Super Mario 3D platformers. But how did an obscure entry from a failed console end up representing the bunch on this list? I was surprised by Super Mario 3D World (SM3DW), and surprise is a major key to one's lasting love of a work of art. There are no bad 3D Mario platformers, but Super Mario 3D Land had not been my favorite of the bunch, and it appeared the Wii U title would follow in the 3DS game's footsteps, where as a matter of game design, I prefer the less linear sandboxes of a Super Mario 64 (SM64). Or at least I thought. The fact is that while there is undeniably something special about sandboxes, SM3DW perfectly married the flawless mobility of a 3D Mario platformer with the tight design constrains of a 2D Mario platformer, making a masterpiece. I am ecstatic that Super Mario Odyssey (SMO) represents a return to SM64-like sandboxes, but even so, I could not honestly place it as my favorite of the series on this list (it is perhaps telling that the somewhat more linear Super Mario Galaxy would likely be in second place). SM3DW is a romp through colorful, fun, and smartly designed platforming bliss: it is the only work of art I'm aware of that has managed to make me cry literal tears of joy--it was just so fun and beautiful that tears once dripped from my eyes as a rainbow appeared on-screen.
2. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence by Kojima Productions (PS2)
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| The player chooses Naked Snake's camouflage in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater4 |
I would place Hideo Kojima among the great Japanese visionaries of gaming, along with the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Star Fox) and Masahiro Sakurai (Kirby, Smash Bros.). These auteurs are intimately involved in the often meticulous development of the greatest video games I have ever played, such as Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (MGS3), SM64, and Super Smash Bros. (SSB), respectively, and I look up to them as a game developer. I was immersed in the first MGS game when I played Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on the GameCube, but it wasn't until I played MGS3 that my mind was fully blown. The jungle setting, the dramatic origin story, the more in-the-round camera (which came along with the updated "Subsistence" version)--even the ability to change one's camouflage, hunt, and perform first aid on one's body came together to make this game a really special experience. Even all of these years later, I remember vividly the scene in which the player (as Naked Snake) has to walk down a river wherein the ghosts of all of the random henchman and soldiers you've killed without a second thought throughout the game haunt you, speaking of their families, begging and pleading. There are gimmicks, and then there are Kojima's visionary dramatic multi-media experiences, which really make you think (famously, one needs to get an in-game number off of the back of the box in the first game, and to beat the Psychomantis boss battle, one needs to plug their controller into the second-player slot to avoid their mind being read and their actions anticipated).
3. Paper Mario by Intelligent Systems5 (N64 / Wii)
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| The player chooses their next move in a turn-based battle in Paper Mario6 |
As a picky young child, I did not like the Paper Mario aesthetic, and would have preferred to have gotten a Super Mario 64 2. As a teenager, and now an adult, I am thankful that Paper Mario was made: by the time I was ready to finally try the game on Wii's Virtual Console, my memories of seeing it plastered on old cathode-ray tube TVs at the local Wal-Mart had transformed to an intoxicating nostalgia (as had almost anything N64 related long before). I don't know what I expected, but the game did not disappoint: again, I was deeply surprised by the masterpiece I was met with. The game's undeniably cute, positive aesthetic runs so much deeper than meets the eye: I was enamored with the 3D diorama-like screens that your sprite walked through, and obsessed with the hilarious dialogue among all of the characters (in particular, I remember one old Koopa sending the player on an errand to give a VHS tape to another old man, in which the dialogue hinted that it contained adult material--and he always paid a useless wage of a single coin for your troubles, admonishing you not to spend it all in one place). I was in middle school when I played this game, and I can remember learning about probabilities and statistics for the first time in math class--in particular, combinations and permutations. I realized that what I had learned could be applied to my game: there had been the equivalent of a padlock in the game, and I was actually able to avoid the portion of the game involved with finding this code by listing out the possibilities and trying them until it was cracked. This was perhaps the first time I experienced what Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman called "the pleasure of finding things out" and what the great entomologist E. O. Wilson called "the Ionian enchantment": the successful application of philosophy of science to a problem. In all of this commotion, PM got someone who was not interested in JRPGs (or RPGs at all, for that matter) to play one and fall in love with that gameplay genre, if only for the duration of the game. One of my only complaints is that the final boss battle is poorly designed, cheap, and capricious: it took me forever to finally knock that out and finish the game (to my dismay, a later underrated installment, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, has the same problem).
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl by Sora Ltd.7 (Wii)
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| Link attempts to recover from a fall in Super Smash Bros. Brawl8 |
Ironically, I felt nostalgia hardest earlier in life. When I was in middle school, my memories of playing SSB on my cousin Scott's N64 were romantic. A shy kid (not to mention, far younger than the rest of the youth in our family) with fewer and different games back home, I would hunker down with a bunch of Crispy M&Ms in Scott's bedroom and sample all of his games. The game I always came back to was SSB. As I remember it, that was the first game I ever had my parents get for me, rather than being something of my older brother's that I played. Another magical memory is receiving the GameCube incarnation, Super Smash Bros. Melee (SSBM), for one of my birthdays. But the nostalgia was always for the original: the N64 has never lost this mystique as one of the first consoles I ever played (along with the Sega Genesis), with such unique and beautiful polygonal graphics (unlike the ugly jagged PlayStation One, or PS1, graphics).
A bit older by this time, I had spent months, if not years, on internet forums and stalking the Smash Bros. Dojo website for Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB) announcements. I remember in seventh or eighth grade, choosing an interview with series creator Sakurai-San in Nintendo Power (they used to have a phenomenal "profiles" series) for a school project (perhaps to do with proper highlighting of key points). Needless to say, I was fully hyped for SSBB--and typically, that is a recipe for being let down (it is for many reasons difficult for me to feel hyped for anything by my current age). Not so with this great work! I tried to pick up my pre-order from the GameStop nearby to where my mother picked up breakfast, and I can remember writing in my journal about how we had to keep coming back because they were not open or on break.
My friend and I would talk about the game during recess everyday, and my friends and I would play against each other online by night (finally, Nintendo!). A favorite character of mine, Solid Snake from the MGS series, was one of the first third-party characters to enter the game (along with Sonic The Hedgehog), replacing my childhood main of Yoshi. The nature of this series is generally that it gets better with each installation (I even stand by SSBB's slower tempo and randomized "tripping" events where characters will slip), so I would not at all be surprised if Super Smash Bros. For Wii U is a better game than SSBB, and if Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (SSBU) is better yet: I simply have not spent enough quality time with these great games. But I will say that SSBB is where the series really came into its own, and is the closer template for the future games of the series than SSBM, let alone SSB.
With Smash Bros., Sakurai invented an entirely new genre of video game. People fight over whether it is a fighting game (it is, it's just the rest are much like Street Fighter), and sometimes malign it as a party game (it is, though I tended to play alone!). The truth is, nothing else looked and played like SSB: Sakurai discovered an incredibly fun and modular core gameplay loop, perfect for celebrating the crossing-over of different characters (a la kart racers). The screen is pulled out much further away because of the larger, more vertical stages (which also means the characters are well smaller and less detailed); the move-sets are large, varied, and full of easily executed specials; and traditional health bars have been replaced with damage meters which decide how easily a character is flung off-stage for a loss. It is unfortunate that there are not more games like it, but we are slowly seeing the industry catch up and produce other games in this genre, which seem to be getting better over time.
5. Pac-Man by Namco9 (Arcade Coin-Op)
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| The player attempts to eat pac-pellets while avoiding ghosts in Pac-Man10 |
As a game developer and a historian of video games, I would be remiss if I did not include a classic game on this list, one which captures the essence of video games in a tight, minimalist experience. Pac-Man is such an elegant game: one screen, no scrolling; one-button directional controls, prescient of the endless-runner genre; a direct goal: collect all of the pac-pellets in the maze; a simple challenge: do not collide with ghosts if they're not vulnerable; and an instantly recognizable visual and aural aesthetic. Pac-Man was so huge at the time, it famously caused a coin-shortage, made it to the Super Bowl halftime show, and "Pac-Man Fever" made it as a number-one song. Within the industry, it spawned the maze genre--I think it is unfortunate that this hasn't continued to this day (I was working on a maze game in college, and may still do so again, one day). More than any other, Pac-Man brings me joy to see on the rare occasion one comes across arcade machines, today, and it is one I'm more likely to actually go and play.
6. Braid by Number None Inc.11 (PS3)
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| Braid's title screen12 |
Braid had been slightly on my radar for years, similar to Limbo: as an indie game that was supposed to be good, but I didn't have much intention of playing it until it was assigned that I play it by professor Jim Brown in a "Videogames And Literature" course I took early on in college. I was taken in by the strange aesthetic, the music and visuals somehow both unnerving and calming. The tight platforming gameplay, with its brilliant time-based controls (including an impressive rewind feature built into the game design) were legitimately unique, and far from gimmicks. However, what cemented Braid as an all-time favorite was its shocking and satisfying ending in which the player realizes the story's twist as artfully revealed through game mechanics. In the first half of the final level, the player chases after the villain who is kidnapping the damsel in distress, only to find that he strangely places her to bed. At this dead end, there is nothing left for the player to do but hold the rewind button, and watch the sequence they just played in reverse: from this perspective, it suddenly makes sense that the "villain" is dressed as a knight: you appear to be trying to kidnap the woman in the night, the knight rescues her, and you give chase, constantly trying to keep her from escaping! The realization unfolding before your helpless eyes, as all you can do is watch in silence is an unforgettable experience.
In this way, the game serves as a reminder that one can sometimes be the bad guy without knowing it, and that tragic causes can lead one to pave a path to hell with good intentions. Taking this "playing with the form" together with its high-brow literary nature, as well as other details, such as a textual segment that seemed to characterize humanity and its scientific progress as morally un-ready for their advancements in knowledge (citing the creation of the atomic bomb), and there is a somewhat postmodern flavor lurking beneath this game. I am the strongest proponent of philosophy of science and The Enlightenment; the greatest opponent of postmodernism (in fact, I'm writing a book on each topic), so why does this game, assigned by a postmodern professor with whom I have a highly contentious relationship, end up as one of my favorites of all time? Unlike most postmodern drivel, with its cheap virtue signaling, and paint-by-numbers "deconstructionism" and "problematization", Braid is a legitimate work of art that learns the rules of game development before it breaks them, and does so at the utmost level of quality and care (whereas most postmodern work eschews the very idea of quality and competence, as well as everything else, as hopelessly subjective).
7. inFAMOUS 2 by Sucker Punch Productions (PS3)
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| The player leaps down to fire lightning bolts in inFAMOUS 213 |
I loved my Wii, but for the first few years that I had it, two things were true: 1. I wanted a PlayStation 3 (PS3) because I wanted to play Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4), and 2. my parents would never be able to afford me a PS3 at its $600.00 price tag. In those days, I would enjoy tastes of the wider world of video games by daily excursions: to my friend, Pool Boy's to play games like Halo on his Xbox 360; to my friend, J Mo's to play games like inFAMOUS and LittleBig Planet on his PS3; and to the local Wal-Mart to play the demos of inFAMOUS, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift on their PS3 kiosk, our necks hurting the rest of the day as we rode our bikes about.
In those years, I remember Greg Miller and Colin Moriarty, then of Podcast Beyond, discussing the ephemeral nature of the inFAMOUS series' quality, and how the point in their lives where such games hit had made them all the more important as experiences. This was certainly true for me! When I played the first inFAMOUS, I was in the throes of my first girlfriend-like experience, being set up with a girl who had a crush on me by a mutual friend I had only recently made. By the time I was playing inFAMOUS 2 new, I was dealing with my first break-up, with that girl. Both games were there for me as a comforting world during emotionally trying times in adolescence.
Sucker Punch's open world series never lived up to the promise of the morality meter: it was essentially a single, one-dimensional choice players made throughout two playthroughs to see the different endings. Yet there is a lot of greatness inherent to these games: keeping the truest promise of gaming, first, they are fun! The core gameplay is tremendously mobile and smooth--the player leaps, climbs, and flies through the city with ease, truly feeling super-powered as one shoots lightning projectiles from one's finger tips as one flies! So full of fun and ease were these games, that I actually got the platinum trophy / one-hundred-percented each of them: inFAMOUS (my first platinum), inFAMOUS 2, inFAMOUS: Festival Of Blood, and inFAMOUS: Second Son. It is difficult to choose between the first and second, here, because I played them so close together and because there are features of each which I like better, but I suspect the second was a smoother experience with more features.
8. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition13.5 by Infinity Ward and Treyarch (Wii)
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| The version of the box art for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex found on retailer web sites14 |
I am not a fan of the Call Of Duty series, writ-large. I remember when the originals were coming out, they looked interesting, but I thought they were police games due to their title, and did not play them because they were PC games. The early Wii game, Call Of Duty 3 was an awful port of what was probably just an okay game. I think that, for all its hype-fulfilling high-octane fun, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's (CODMW2) broken lack of balancing and glossy plastic look signaled the downfall of the series into poorly-designed annualized clones (to be fair, I should say that I found Sledgehammer's first game, Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare to have slick and well-designed multiplayer). But the inflection point around the transformation of a comparatively quaint world-war first-person shooter (FPS) into a big-business juggernaut is one of the finest FPS's of all time: Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The campaign was still a bit grounded, and although it had that somewhat one-hit-kill staple-gun quality the series suffers from, it included some memorable sequences, such as the ghillie suit stealth-sniper level, and a playable cinematic sequence in which one's helicopter is taken down in a nuclear explosion, the player left to crawl and die afterwards.
Yet this game would be nowhere near a best-of list if not for the competitive online multiplayer. From the tight map-designs to the well-balanced weaponry (grenade launcher and P90 aside) that one could choose from to create "classes" of gear to spawn with, this game design serves, for better and worse, as the template for almost all competitive online multiplayer, today. It is no wonder this game spawned some of the highest grossing video games of all time, the core loop is incredibly addicting: I believe this is by far the most time I've ever spent in a single video game at around 250 hours, as I remember it (I must have been multiple-prestige, meaning I worked through the experience-points, or XP, unlocks multiple times). People will be surprised by (and scoff at) the fact that I played on Wii, but I stand by that version, despite its obvious degradations in graphics and performance. These ports were excellent achievements for the skeleton teams at Treyarch who worked on them with little time and support to do so, and for me, the pointer controls were a large part of that experience. Everyone talks about how much better mouse controls are than dual analog, but I still believe that to actually point and shoot the gun with a Wii remote was special, and that it is a shame that this modality isn't more common on Nintendo Switch. Thank god waggle is dead, but infrared (IR) pointer controls got a bad reputation only by proxy (though we do see them making a comeback in virtual reality, or VR, games).
9. Portal 2 by Valve (PS3)
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| A tractor-beam travels between two player-placed portals in Portal 215 |
Portal 2 represents that rarified work of art that transcends conventions inside and outside of the content itself. The original Portal was like an urban legend, on consoles anyway. To play it, one had to procure a highly-rated, but not terribly available collection of Valve games called The Orange Box. Portal was a small, experimental Half-Life spinoff in which players used a portal gun to create portals that actually led between each other in the environment, to solve puzzles, all to the tune of an interesting story to do with an evil artificial intelligence (AI) running the scientific lab. If I didn't beat this game in one single sitting, I did so in very few, and I finished on New Year's eve (most likely 2011) just before going to a party (itself special because I wasn't invited to many things). Like many other series (BioShock, Uncharted, and inFAMOUS among them), Portal was an example of a game which was waiting for me when I got my PS3 console halfway through its life-cycle, which I was able to play before a sequel came out relatively soon thereafter. Portal 2 was a sensation: everyone in the industry was talking about it both before and after it came out. I got it at midnight launch and played through its much fuller, longer story. Superb writing and voice-acting, as well as absolutely brilliant puzzle designs complemented the still-unique portal mechanics to make something very special. Especially of note is J. K. Simmons' performance as Cave Johnson,16 the founder and CEO of Aperture Science, during a long section in which the player completes puzzles while hearing intercom voice-overs (VO) from Cave about his life and company, ultimately learning of his demise, and that these VO's are recordings. Also special was that this game (like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Splinter Cell: Blacklist) actually had a separate two-player adventure with puzzles designed from the ground up for cooperative (co-op) play!
10. Mario Kart DS by Nintendo (DS)
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| A player races in Mario Kart DS17 |
In another early bout of nostalgia, the Mario Kart series always reminded me of playing Mario Kart 64, again, at my cousin's house (though this usually with my sister, Katie). I would eventually own and play all Mario Kart games, but the one that sticks out most is Mario Kart DS (MKDS). I got the game for Christmas in 2005, among the first crop of online-compatible DS games. Like many games due to the DS' hardware, the game was more reminiscent of MK64 than Mario Kart: Double Dash had been. I found this intoxicatingly nostalgic, and the added bonus of being able to play the game on the go was extremely exciting. I remember feeling proud when I finally beat every cup in the game, and unlocked the characters, watching the end-credits. We had races with the neighborhood kids, some of whom would get the game, and others who would join in as Shy Guys via download-play. MKDS kept things simple without a bunch of kart decisions or other vehicles, and simply had good gameplay and courses (with the exception of "snaking"--the exploitation of continuous drift-boosts to speed across the tracks, which essentially broke online play). The game is also the only in the series to have included the fan-favorite mission mode in which the core gameplay was used, instead of in races or balloon battles, towards the solution of different missions and puzzles (including boss battles). I can for some reason still remember playing some missions while my mother and sister dragged me through a craft store.
My Top Back-Log Games To Play
1. New Super Lucky's Tale by Playful Studios18 (Xbox One)
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| A player dashes downward towards burrowing in New Super Lucky's Tale19 |
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door by Intelligent Systems20 (GameCube)
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| The box art for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door21 |
Given that Paper Mario is one of my favorite games of all time, it may seem strange that I have never played Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (PMTTYD). When I played the original, I did so on Wii's Virtual Console; given Wii was backwards compatible with GameCube games, as long as I could make sure I had a functioning memory card, I could have played it soon after, on the same console. I think I needed a break and that I was somewhat reluctant to start a long game. Now, there is no great way to play it, and I may simply need to dig out my Wii, a memory card, and find a used copy of the game. But I know it will be worth it, because fans of the series generally cite it as the best of them all, and because it is the last game in quite the style of the original game (Super Paper Mario was a side-scroller, and those since have been somehow different despite being JRPGs). While I think Paper Mario: Sticker Star is underrated, it is clearly nowhere near the quality of the original game. If PMTTYD is a contender to be even better, I am definitely starved to return.
3. Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair by Playtonic Games22 (Xbox One)
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| The 2.5D perspective of levels in Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair23 |
Yooka-Laylee did not disappoint as a spiritual revival of the Banjo-Kazooie series of 3D platformers. Given that fact, and the fact that I loved Donkey Kong Country Returns (which almost made it into my top ten favorite games), I suspect Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair will be a great 2D platformer revival in the spirit of the Donkey Kong Country series.
4. Ikaruga by Treasure24 (Xbox 360)
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| The top-down bullet-hell that is Ikaruga25 |
I remember this game being bandied about as something of a legend on the G4 TV channel when I was a kid. While I was not all that interested at the time, since college, I have really wanted to make a top-down space shooter, and I even did a little work on one at the time. Further, I had not been aware that this classic was made by Treasure; I enjoyed playing their Japanese game, Sin And Punishment on Wii's Virtual Console (it was originally an N64 game). On top of all of that, I need to go outside of my comfort zone and try more varied genre, and so I think it is about time that I tried Ikaruga.
5. Mass Effect by BioWare26 (Legendary Edition) (Xbox One)
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| The player aims their weapon in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition27 |
Mass Effect (ME) is one of those big triple-A games that got past me in large part because it was just so overwhelming to catch up. I had always been one to play prequels to catch up on a series (though I try not to be so strict these days, particularly after being largely burned by the first Assassin's Creed back in the day). By the time I had a PS3 and ME was available, I largely remember Mass Effect 3 being the talk of the town, and these were games with decisions that mattered and which propagated between games if you had the save files on-board. Having just realized that the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a remaster of the whole trilogy, and given that Mass Effect: Andromeda was universally panned, I think it's about time I got this trilogy started.
6. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey by Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Quebec, and Ubisoft Singapore28 (Xbox One)
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| The player rides a horse past a statue of Prometheus in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey29 |
As I said, Assassin's Creed (and annualized action games, generally) is related to my being less strict about playing every game in a series, let alone in order. In fact, the creators of the Assassin's Creed games threw continuity out of the window, ages ago! Now, I view this series as one to check out whenever the setting seems interesting, and as a philosopher of science, ancient Greece is incredibly important to me. Seeing as I've only played the first two games from the PS3 / Xbox 360 era, it will be interesting to see how they improved over the next generation of consoles!
7. Sleeping Dogs (Definitive Edition) by United Front Games and Square Enix London30 (Xbox One)
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| The player gives chase in a motorcycle in Sleeping Dogs31 |
Sleeping Dogs (SD)was a surprise hit when it came out: a new intellectual property (IP) open-world game a la Grand Theft Auto doesn't just happen out of nowhere, in a normal year. I remember someone at IGN claiming that in addition to being an open world driving game, SD had fighting mechanics similar to the Batman: Arkham series of games (the first of which almost made it to my list of favorite games, due in large part to it's incredibly innovative fighting mechanics, that I'm surprised haven't proliferated further). This seems like a low-stakes, low learning-curve game to jump into, and I've probably bought it on sale twice at this point...
8. Final Fantasy VII (Remake) by Square Enix32 (PS4)
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| Cloud in the PlayStation 5 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade33 |
I have never played a Final Fantasy game, and as a gamer and game developer, that is one of those things that simply must be rectified, if not only once. Many claim Final Fantasy VII (FF7) is the best in series, and for many, it is likely their favorite game. Cloud has a great character design, and shows up in SSBU along with his own amiibo! Further, there is a new re-make that will make it more accessible to play, so once I have access to a PS4 again, I really should see it through.
9. Halo: Combat Evolved (The Master Chief Collection) by Bungie and 343 Industries (Xbox One)
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| The player looks at a vista while holding an assault rifle in Halo: The Master Chief Collection34 |
The fact that this typical Nintendo and PlayStation gamer has primarily been playing an Xbox in recent years and hasn't played much in the way of their exclusives while he's had the chance is criminal. Bungie develops great FPS mechanics, and I would like to see what the Halo story and multiplayer is all about.
10. Dishonored 2 by Arkane Studios35 (Xbox One)
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| The player wields special powers in their left hand, and a sword in their right hand in Dishonored 236 |
Dishonored surprised me with how great its open-ended gameplay was at the beginning of college, and I would like to see more sandbox FPS game design like it. I have had a couple of false starts with its sequel, more because of myself than the game, but I would like to keep trying to plug away at it.
My Most Anticipated Unreleased Games
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge by Tribute Games37 (Switch)
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| The four-player co-op gameplay of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge38 |
I was excited for Streets Of Rage 4 (SOR4) but I didn't have the highest expectations, given the iffy track record of later revival sequels to classic games. The game has blown me away, however, both by staying true to the original series, and by bringing the neglected genre into the current generation with innovations like juggling and enemies bouncing off of the boundaries of the screen. While I originally thought I would have preferred 16-bit sprites, now that I've spent time with the HD hand-drawn characters and environments, I wouldn't have it any other way! Dotemu published that game and is also publishing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (TMNTSR), though they have different developers working on the project. The artwork in TMNTSR opts for pixel-art sprites, though different from those in its prequels Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time (which appeared in arcades and on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Hyperstone Heist (the one I played with my sister on Sega Genesis). The beat-em-up, or brawler, is another favorite genre of mine that I'm happy to see waking from hiatus.
2. Kirby And The Forgotten Land by HAL Laboratory39 (Switch)
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| The player runs around the 3D world of Kirby And The Forgotten Land40 |
I only just learned about this game, but again, as a 3D platforming fan, I am highly anticipating it, now. Every time a Yoshi game is announced, for example, I hope that it's finally a 3D (rather than 2D) platformer and it never is. But I'll take Kirby, it looks beautiful!
3. Nintendo Switch Sports by Nintendo41 (Switch)
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| The player uses motion controls to spike a volleyball in Nintendo Switch Sports42 |
Sometimes, Wii Sports was easy to take for granted given the Wii's library was slim, and the grass seemed greener and more "hardcore" over on the HD consoles. But the game was innovative, special, and fun to play with friends and family. When Wii Sports Resort later introduced the Wii Motion Plus sensor (a gyroscope in addition to the accelerometer in the Wii remote, both components common in smart phones and present in Switch joy con, today), I played it often, as a single-player experience. While I am sad to see that boxing will not be present, I am sure the experience will be fun and nostalgic. One note: why do the player characters look more like Xbox's copycat avatars than miis?
4. Gotham Knights by WB Games Montreal43 (Xbox One)
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| Robin in Gotham Knights44 |
I am a big believer in great studios, so much so that while I played all three of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham games, I have yet to get around to WB Games Montreal's Batman: Arkham Origins (similarly, while I have played Irrational's two BioShock games, I have yet to play 2K Marin's BioShock 2).45 But I must admit, when I look at trailers, I am more excited for WB Games Montreal's Gotham Knights (GK) than I am for Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (SSKTJL). GK looks like a worthy successor of the Batman: Arkham games, whereas SSKTJL seems to have one foot in and one foot out on whether Rocksteady wants to move onto a new IP or not (the Suicide Squad takes place in the same DC universe that Batman does). Further, I am personally sick of this irreverent cadence that's in vogue, and that is visible everywhere from the great Deadpool movies, to the awful Suicide Squad and Harley Quinn movies. Given Rocksteady made some serious, deep, dark games in their Batman: Arkham trilogy, this feels like a bit of a let-down in terms of direction. But we also haven't seen nearly as much of SSKTJL, including actual gameplay (though this is also reason for concern over a game's development, in addition to the fact that Rocksteady hasn't put out a game in seven years). With a pedigree like Rocksteady's, you can trust that I'm keeping an eye on what they're making, but the idea of returning to the Batman: Arkham series with GK is exciting.
5. Project 007 (Working Title) by IO Interactive46 (Xbox One)
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| The working title card for IO Interactive's Project 00747 |
Very little is known of this game, but given that I am a fan of James Bond; given the interesting history of the 007 license when it comes to video games, particularly because of Rareware's Goldeneye: 007 movie tie-in game; and given IO Interactive is the first-rate developer responsible for the Hitman series (and a favorite one-off of mine, Freedom Fighters), it is sure to be among the best Bond games! It will probably be third-person and somewhat Hitman-like, which is not something I had considered before, but which actually makes a lot of sense for the international spy.
Footnotes:
1. I recently wrote a Twitter thread about it on 2/12/22, entitled "A GAMER RETURNING HOME" (https://twitter.com/schwinn3/status/1492717477683470336?s=20&t=dQyKwfVPZB9AugGqaNmZbw).
2. See The Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima (Viz Media) (2013 / 2021).
3. This screen shot is not my own, and comes from Nintendo's official web site (https://supermario3dworld.nintendo.com/explore/ / https://supermario3dworld.nintendo.com/assets/img/explore/worlds/world-1/switch-sm3dwbf-world1-l-2x.jpg). As I understand it, my use here constitutes legal fair use, see "Legals 101: The Legality of Video Game Screenshots" (Reaper Interactive) (2019) (https://reaperinteractive.wordpress.com/2019/02/20/legals-101-the-legality-of-video-game-screenshots/) (though I have not read this entire blog post).
4. This screen shot is the property of Konami and was retrieved from an archive of their website (https://web.archive.org/web/20120104164818/http://www.konami.com/games/mgshd / https://web.archive.org/web/20111212144547im_/http://www.konami.com/products/mgshd/screenshots/MGS_3_HD_10.jpg).
5. See Google's information entry for Paper Mario (https://www.google.com/search?q=paper+mario&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=paper+mario&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i433i512j46i512l2j46i433i512j0i512j46i512j0i512l2j0i271.1186j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
6. This screen shot is not my own, and comes from Nintendo's official web site (https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/paper-mario-wii-u/ / https://assets.nintendo.com/image/upload/c_limit,f_auto,q_auto,w_1920/ncom/en_US/games/wii-u/p/paper-mario-wii-u/screenshot-gallery/screenshot03?v=2021120401).
7. See the "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" entry in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Smash_Bros._Brawl).
8. This screen shot is the property of Nintendo, and can be found on Nintendo's and Sakurai's official web site (https://www.smashbros.com/wii/en_us/characters/link.html / https://www.smashbros.com/wii/en_us/characters/images/link/link_070820f-l.jpg).
9. See the "Pac-Man" entry in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man).
10. This screen shot is the property of Bandai Namco and was taken from a video on their official YouTube channel (https://www.pacman.com/en/history/ / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbqC-sP3eUQ).
11. See the "Braid (Video Game)" entry in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_(video_game)).
12. This screen shot was taken from the "Braid, Anniversary Edition, Features Trailer" uploaded by the official Thekla Inc. YouTube channel (2020) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLxoIGG1-qM).
13. This screen shot was taken from "inFAMOUS™ 2 Launch Trailer" uploaded by the official PlayStation YouTube channel (2011) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y107-sWIK9U&t=2s).
13.5. See the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Reflex Edition" entry on Nintendo Fandom (https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Modern_Warfare_-_Reflex_Edition).
14. This art was taken from the GameStop listing for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex for Wii (https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/wii/products/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-reflex-edition---nintendo-wii/10075738.html / https://media.gamestop.com/i/gamestop/10075738/Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-Reflex-Edition---Nintendo-Wii?$pdp2x$).
15. This screen shot is the property of Valve and can be found on their official Portal 2 web site (https://www.thinkwithportals.com/media_09.php / https://www.thinkwithportals.com/screenshots/excursion_funnel.jpg).
16. See the "Cave Johnson (Portal)" entry in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_Johnson_(Portal)).
17. This screen shot was taken from a trailer on the official UK Nintendo web site (https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-DS/Mario-Kart-DS-271518.html).
18. See the "New Super Lucky's Tale" entry in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Super_Lucky's_Tale).
19. This screen shot is the property of Playful Studios and can be found on their game's official web site (https://playfulstudios.com/new-super-luckys-tale/media/ / https://at94p3zjdpl1o4r6y22fjhk7-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/NSLT_Screenshot_03.jpg).
20. See the "Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Mario:_The_Thousand-Year_Door).
21. This box art can be found on Nintendo's Amazon store (https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mario-Thousand-Year-Door-Gamecube/dp/B0002ILS1K / https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Q05FCGB9L.jpg).
22. See the "Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yooka-Laylee_and_the_Impossible_Lair).
23. This screen shot is the property of Playtonic Games and can be found on their game's official web site (https://www.playtonicgames.com/game/yooka-laylee-impossible-lair/ / https://media.playtonicgames.com/uploads/2021/03/signs.jpg?w=1000&h=0&scale.option=fill&cw=100.0000%25&ch=100.0000%25&cx=center&cy=center&q=80).
24. See Google's information entry for Ikaruga (https://www.google.com/search?q=ikaruga&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=ikaruga&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j46i67i433j69i59j0i512l2j69i60l3.1069j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
25. This screen shot is the property of publisher Nicalis and can be found on their web site (https://www.nicalis.com/games/ikaruga / https://www.nicalis.com/games/ikaruga/screenshots/Ikaruga_screen_02.jpg).
26. See the "Mass Effect" entry in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect) and Google's information entry for Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (https://www.google.com/search?q=mass+effect+legendary+edition&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=mass+effect+legend&aqs=chrome.0.0i67i355j46i67j69i57j0i20i263i512j0i512l2j0i20i263i512j46i512j0i512l2.2749j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
27. This screen shot is the property of publisher EA and can be found on their game's official site (https://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/mass-effect-legendary-edition/media / https://media.contentapi.ea.com/content/dam/eacom/mass-effect-legendary-edition/images/2021/01/mele-screenshot-reveal-3840x2160-clean-04.jpg.adapt.crop16x9.818p.jpg).
28. See Google's information entry for Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TDOrNC40q8gwYPSSSCwuBqLMPPViheSi1NQUhfyUyuLi1EoADv0N8w&q=assassin%27s+creed+odyssey&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=assassin%27s+creed+odys&aqs=chrome.1.0i67i355i433j46i67i433j69i57j0i67l4j0i512j0i67l2.5536j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
29. This is a screen shot taken from the "Assassin's Creed Odyssey: E3 2018 Official World Premiere Trailer | Ubisoft [NA]" video uploaded by Ubisoft North America's YouTube account (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_SJZSAtLBA). See also the "Prometheus" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus).
30. See Google's information entry for Sleeping Dogs (https://www.google.com/search?q=sleeping+dogs&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=sleeping+dogs&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i67i433j35i39j46i67i433j46i20i263i512j0i67j0i20i263i512j0i67l2j0i512.3068j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) and Square Enix's official site (https://square-enix-games.com/en_US/news/sleeping-dogs).
31. This screen shot is the property of Square Enix and was taken from the game's official site (https://square-enix-games.com/en_US/news/sleeping-dogs / https://gh.cdn.sewest.net/assets/ident/sites/default/files/image_gallery/247/83db08a640fb6a6cba15b930931aa656.jpg?quality=65&width=100%25&height=100%25).
32. See Google's information entry for Final Fantasy VII (https://www.google.com/search?q=final+fantasy+7&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=final+fantasy+7&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i433i512l2j0i67j0i433i512j0i512j46i512j0i67j0i512j0i433i512.2339j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
33. This screen shot is the property of Square Enix and can be found on the game's official web site (https://ffvii-remake-intergrade.square-enix-games.com/en-us/ / https://fyre.cdn.sewest.net/end-plus/60756d2f8af02d0013b3c56c/re_3-1_cloud-Ik7XJHi8D.jpg?width=1900&quality=80).
34. This screen shot was taken from the game's official Steam listing (https://store.steampowered.com/app/976730/Halo_The_Master_Chief_Collection/ / https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/976730/ss_030f1a6464b746bee4ef97893e04d4360bbd4f21.1920x1080.jpg?t=1634144453).
35. See the "Dishonored (series)" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishonored_(series)).
36. This screen shot is the property of publisher Bethesda and can be found on the game's official web site (https://bethesda.net/en/game/dishonored2 / https://images.ctfassets.net/rporu91m20dc/2H96FkLIsEcIs24SgMyEui/e3b5b26cabf9fdd3416798b60d3750c8/90475_2_1.png?q=70).
37. See the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles:_Shredder's_Revenge).
38. This screen shot is the property of publisher Dotemu and can be found in the game's official press kit (https://www.dotemu.com/PressKit/project/Games/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesShreddersRevenge#pid=10).
39. See the "Kirby and the Forgotten Land" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_and_the_Forgotten_Land).
40. This screen shot is the property of Nintendo and can be found on their official site (https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/kirby-and-the-forgotten-land-switch/ / https://assets.nintendo.com/image/upload/ar_16:9,b_auto,c_pad,dpr_2.0,f_auto,q_auto,w_800/b_rgb:ffffff/v1/ncom/en_US/games/switch/k/kirby-and-the-forgotten-land-switch/screenshot-gallery/screenshot01).
41. See the "Nintendo Switch Sports" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch_Sports).
42. This screen shot is the property of Nintendo and was taken from the official trailer of the game (https://nintendoswitchsports.nintendo.com/#!/trailer/).
43. See the "Batman: Arkham Origins" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Arkham_Origins) and the "Gotham Knights (video game)" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_Knights_(video_game)).
44. This screen shot is the property of WB and can be found on the game's official site (https://www.gothamknightsgame.com/en-us/media#&gid=1&pid=7 / https://cdn.gothamknightsgame.com/media/en-us/screenshot-02.jpg).
45. See the "BioShock 2" entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_2).
46. See Google's information entry for "Project 007" (https://www.google.com/search?q=project+007&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS775US775&oq=project+007&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i433i512j0i512l4j0i457i512j0i512l3.3053j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8).
47. This screen shot was taken from the game's teaser trailer uploaded by the official IO Interactive YouTube channel (https://007.ioi.dk/ / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slAhuh21ii8).
Change Log:
ReplyDeleteVersion 0.01 2/20/22 6:43 PM
- Added footnote 13.5 (which was easier than shifting the numbers around...)