LET’S DO IT!
Black Game of the Year- Need for Speed (2015), Manu is played by Howard Charles in the cut scenes. He is awesome. I think he’s black?!? Regardless, he is what I want in a minority character in a game. His race does not define him, he’s a street racer who happens to be black. On top of that, he’s respected as the leader of the group and is very intelligent and spiritual. I think he shines in what he not. He is NOT a criminal. He is NOT the hot head who is trying to make a name for himself in spite of his bad attitude. He is NOT a jock or athletic hyper talented freak who just needs guidance. He’s a dude who races. It’s dope. Nicely done, NFS!
Sports Game of the Year- NBA Live 16. This series keeps improving and nobody seems to notice or care. The shooting, the A.I., the presentation are all top notch once again. The only place lacking is the single player MyPlayer mode but the Ultimate Team Mode more than makes up for it. Pro-Am is one of the best ways to play multiplayer basketball on consoles or PC. This game is underrated and I will shout out it’s merits from the rooftop every chance I get.
Action Game of the Year- Transformers Devastation. Platinum Games rarely fails and they hit the mark again with this gem. Transformers: Devastation is the game fans have deserved for years but never got. The art style is amazing. It looks like you are playing the cartoon. The characters are great and this was a budget title. It was never a $60 affair but the replayability and combat are second to none. I loved this game. Every time I think the stakes have peaked another massive boss shows up. You also play a version of Galaga in this…perfect.
RPG of the Year- LBX: Little Battlers eXperience (3DS). This is the only RPG I played…so it won! It’s a really fun game. I like the anime anyways and this game plays directly from the show. Scenes are taken from the tv to your DS in a pretty impressive way. It plays like custom robo. Open environments with fully 3D robots fighting. There is tons of customization. The other elements feel like Pokemon. This game is the RPG Nintendo should have propped up instead of Yo-Kai Watch.
Hidden Gem of the Year- Mad Max. Honestly, fans of the game have been loud. The game took a lot of unfair criticism because it came after the amazing Mad Max: Fury Road. This game is not Mad Max: Fury Road the game, it’s Mad Max the open world game. it’s a paint by numbers Assassin Creed-like open world game but the Mad max skin makes it compelling.
Game that came out last year or further back that I played this year- Divinity Dragon Commander (also dabbled in Sunset Overdrive). This game is nuts. You fly a dragon in the RTS mode, you get to sleep with a skeleton all while making decisions about health care and gay marriage. I’m serious. Play it. It’s on steam. Sunset Overdrive is funny, colorful, and plays amazingly smooth.
Best Game I Didn’t Pay for- Divinity: Original Sin. Wife gave it to me, and it’s such a cool game. I love this game, I love her. This game has depth I never expected in it. Every nook leads to a new story path. Everything can be interacted with. It’s so highly polished. Very fun game.
Best Racing Game- Forza Horizon 2. Huge vistas to drive through, beautiful cars, great car selection. This game is a masterpiece, and the addition of rain just added to that. ForzaHorizon 2 is the game where Forza lets it’s hair down. Fun, laid-back Forza is a game I like.
Best Always On-line game- The Crew Wild Run. Love the update. This update made an unplayable mess into a great racing game. The update added some cool stuff that I detail in a previous post.
Honorable Mentions- Madden 16, Broforce, Life is Strange, Marvel Puzzle Quest- Madden is great but didn’t sink it’s teeth into me like last year. Broforce is a hilarious masterpiece that people dismiss as not having any strategy but it has a lot of depth in it’s life system and how they delegate the characters to you. Life is Strange is the only adventure game I would ever play. Marvel Puzzle Quest is crack.
Least Favorite Game of 2015- The Escapist. Game was straight butt. This game was boring. It had no tutorials, the mini games sucked, and I hated it. Honestly, this might have come out last year but I hate it so much I am keeping it right here.
Best Toys to life game- Skylander’s Superchargers. You like Mario Kart? This did that. You like platformers? This did that too. You like colors, fun, and magic? All here in spades.
Retro game of the year- Shock Troopers. This is the game I always wanted to Metal Slug to be. It’s a bullet hell game with the freedom of a 2D shooter.
Overall Game of the Year- Saint Seiya: Soldier’s Soul. This is a 3D fighting game in the vein of the Naruto games. I won’t detail too much about this game because I am going to cover it more but man this game is fun. It’s relentless quest to be accurate to the source material is amazing. The game looks like the anime, all of the attacks from the anime are there, and there is so much content in this game. This one caught me off guard in a big way. You have story mode which has 4 separate story arcs to play through and then you have the gold saint mode where you buy torches and fight high level battles….THEN you have the Galaxy Wars where you fight through tournaments with increasing difficulty. It’s amazing. Play it.
A sample of what I played this year- LBX, The Crew Wild Run, NBA/Madden, Saint Seiya, Mad Max, Need For Speed, Broforce, Divinity Original Sin (XBONE), Life is Strange, Borderland Handsome collection, Tranformers Devastation, Skylanders Superchargers, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, Puzzle Dragons/Mario, The Escapist, Xeodrifter, Titan Souls, Freedom Wars, Marvel Puzzle Quest, various Pokemon, Samurai Warriors 1-5, Super Meat Boy, Sunset Overdrive
Happy New Year! Peace