6.
Shovel Knight
[Best Shovel] [Best Knight] [Best Shield] [Best Music] [Best Bonfires] [Most Diamons]
A completely charming love letter to NES era action platformers, with an absolutely wonderful look, superb soundtrack, great characters and bosses and an enjoyable simple story. Essential gaming.
8/10
5.
Freedom Planet
[Best Colours] [Best Furries] [Best Music] [Best Kickstarter]
A lovely, lovely action platformer that takes its inspiration from old (good) Sonic games and Treasure. Fun, charming characters, really lovely colourful spriteart and backgrounds, fantastic soundtrack, enjoyable plot, great boss fights. My favourite Kickstarter backed project I played last year.
8/10
4.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
[Best Dog] [Best Serious Subject Matter] [Best Music] [Most War] [Best Musical Interludes]
A bold, powerful, moving glimpse into WW1 and the men and women who did impossible deeds every day. I had my doubts about how sincere it would come across, but apart from a few odd design choices, it's a beautiful, respectful work that everyone should play through. A little light on pure gameplay terms perhaps, but the pacing, visuals, music and journey more than make up for it. An important piece that a lot of developers and publishers should learn from.
9/10
3.
The Blackwell Epiphany
[Best Writing] [Best Incidental Stories] [Best Atmosphere] [Best Ghost Story] [Best Music] [Most Ghosts] [Best Rosa] [Best oh god i feel so numb Ending]
The beautiful, mesmerizing, heartbreaking finale to a terrific adventure series I've been on and off following for the last five years or so.
Taken on its own, it's a decent adventure game with gorgeous visuals and spritework by the great Ben Chandler, great writing, memorable characters and setpieces, superb atmosphere and a wonderful jazzy soundtrack by Thomas Regin.
Taken as a part of a whole, however, it's extraordinary. It's an emotional gut punch and I had to see the ending twice after collecting my thoughts, but it closes the story and bids farewell to beloved characters and a beloved series in a fitting manner, leaving some questions, but providing enough answers and closure to make it ache just a little less.
8/10
Annoyingly, there's no music available on youtube, but
https://soundcloud.com/mozalbete/bla...ost-menu-theme
Here's a track from Deception though! Same composer! Same series!
2.
Mario Kart 8
[Best Karts] [Best Online] [Best Music] [Best Peach] [Best Daisy] [Best Bikes]
THIS GAME IS JUST.
Such a wonderful, rich, fun, colourful game. HD Nintendo is the best thing to happen to videogames in the last decade and Mario Kart 8 is achingly gorgeous. There's a joyful wisdom and imagination and playfulness to the track design, all the characters and vehicles are fun, the soundtrack is exceptional, the handling is superb, the drifting mechanic incredibly satisfying and the online is just fantastic. I CAN'T WAIT FOR DLC PACK 2.
9/10
1.
Bayonetta 2
[Game of the Year] [Best Action] [Best Bosses] [Best Unlockables] [Best Outfits] [Best Short Hair] [Best Jeanne] [Best Santa] [BEAUTIFUL]
The most deliriously fun, glorious, beautiful, funny, imaginative and just plain enjoyable videogame since.. well, the first one.
With an absolutely gorgeous new look, Bayo is back to kick more angel and demon ass alike and you will grin and gasp in awe at the flood of sights, sounds and challenge. Wonderful new weapons, fantastic boss fights, amazing soundtrack, vast, vast, vast amounts of things to do, things to discover, things to learn, things to unlock, things to enjoy and love. It's such a rich, generous, rewarding, fulfilling experience, crafted with the kind of understanding, the kind of skill, the kind of care you rarely see in videogames anymore, and a not a microtransaction or preorder bonus DLC voucher code in sight. Easily the finest game released last year and everyone should experience it.
9/10
Honourable mentions:
Dark Souls II
[Most Souls] [Best World Building] [Best Reveal] [Best Emerald Herald] [Best Rosabeth]
8/10
Transistor
[Best Humming] [Best Music] [The Logan Cunningham Award]
7/10
Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok
[Best Not Quest for Glory Sequel] [Best Hervor] [Most Snow]
7/10
The Last Door - Season 1
[Most Spooky] [Largest Pixels] [Best Crows]
7/10
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