[Question] The Gamingforce Game of the Year 2013: Heigh-ho it's off to Vote we go

Afraid I may have overlooked something that I genuinely enjoyed playing, I've narrowed it down to games that I feel did something right.



Ni No Kuni - 25 Points

Ni No Kuni was clearly the most anticipated game of the year for myself. The art style, music, and story really carried the game. Catching a variety of monsters and assembling teams of them as if playing Dragon Quest, I found myself being a completionist and rivaling my Pokemon team-building. When the story really got me hooked, the gameplay started to diminish. The "auto battle" concept drew from the combat experience and the AI's frequent use of magic found me needing to manage the heals on the team better. As the gameplay got repetitive and the AI dumb, I unfortunately lost my hard drive shortly before finishing the game. Despite not finishing, I found the experience very enjoyable despite the Collector's Edition getting canceled and Bandai refusing to let actual retail vendors handle the orders. I would still welcome a movie adaptation of the anime if Ghibli decided to return to this world. Must have.



Fire Emblem Awakening - 20 Points

Scored lower than NNK simply because of the hype, I found myself very interested in this title. As a big fan of turn-based RPGs, I for some reason never found myself drooling over this release. Getting it a few months after it came out, I instantly regretted waiting. Although the frustration of weapons breaking down got to me, the free DLC and challenge of traditional mode kept me playing for hours. The grinding wasn't as easy as in Final Fantasy Tactics and the class system didn't quite compare the same way, but the return of the franchise impressed me. Its a shame though that the game lacked more voicing and cutscenes. What they had was great quality. Must have.



Pokemon X - 15 Points

THERE IS NO ZUBAT CAVE. I don't care if that's a spoiler. Its a worthwhile one! While there is nothing truly groundbreaking about the gameplay or the visuals on the translation of the series to the 3DS, Nintendo made (or at least has planned to make) the right moves for the next generations of the games. Having to shuffle your Pokemon around to the Black/White cartridges is dumb, but the online services in the bank is what they needed. No more corrupt cartridges! The limited number of Pokemon avaiable was discouraging, but the Wonder Trade system is a nice addition (despite the number of garbage trades you get) and ultimately pays off better than putting things in the GTS for weeks at a time. Lets hope that they add more Mega Evolutions for asthetics. Maybe one day there will be several regions available in a single game and hundreds of Pokemon available to catch in one cartridge. Must have.



Dota 2 - 10 Points

Officially released, I can continue playing what I spent thousands of hours on with Warcraft 3. Translating almost all heroes and abilities, Dota 2 is proving that League of Legends isn't stealing the entirety of the MOBA market. Making the characters all free from the start is what sets them apart and leaving cosmetics as the only paid content is a real plus. Powered by Steam's platform, this should keep it relevant where WC3's battle.net presence is quite dead. Might as well have since free.



Legend of Zelda Link Between Worlds - 10 Points

Favorite game of all time getting re-released? Yeah I'll just Elder Scrolls this one as well (buying more than once). The visuals were refreshing and the sound was great and the mirror--err, where is the mirror? Okay, so not quite a re-release. The world is almost identical and the new cast and plot works. The game doesn't abuse the 3D too much and still retains enough from the gameplay and controls on the SNES. While seeming shorter than the original and a bit gimmickey with purchasing weapons, the dungeons provide enough flexibility and challenge in its puzzles to remain worthwhile. Although it doesn't feel like it quite lives up to the original, Link Between Worlds still holds great value. Must have.



StarCraft 2 Heart of the Swarm - 5 Points

Doesn't seem like it, but Heart of the Swarm came out this last year. While Starcraft is failing in the realm of professional gaming by the community's standards, HotS balanced the game slightly over WoL. Some units on Terran are still imbalanced (mines and medivac boost come to mind), but the Arcade community and unranked play still provide a lot of fun. Oh, and the single player was kinda dumb in this one. Adding in the "swarming" feature (free multiplayer upgrade to the version of the game your friend has as long as you play with them) makes it worth playing around with for anyone. Might as well have since free.



Antichamber - 5 Points

I was a fan of Portal, so another first-person puzzle game sounded like it would be fun to me. THIS GAME IS HELL. Using a unique visual style, I've tortured my brain simply trying to figure out where I am half the time. When getting from room to room, you feel rewarded as if you've defeated a boss on Dark Souls. Antichamber and I can agree that we have a love-hate relationship that is mostly hate. Worth having if you love challenging puzzles.



Neverwinter - 5 Points

Where most MMOs are crap, I figured that the free ones won't hurt to play. The user-created content and loyal fan base to the other Neverwinter Nights games were the selling point on this one. Surprisingly, the user-created quests had been very satisfying. Unfortunately the growth of your character and itemization is dreadfully slow, so I had a hard time keeping myself interested with bland magics. The game still has had a lot of promise and I do play again from time to time to see how things are evolving. Limited play-to-win and paid content in this is a plus, but the number of times they throw it at you is such a turn-off. Might as well have since free.



Super Amazing Wagon Adventure - 5 Points

Pardon me if I'm wrong on this, but I'm certain this came out last year. In what feels like Ridiculous Fishing meets The Oregon Trail, the comic value, random encounters, variety of absurd tasks and difficulty bring me back to play again. I've never finished the game and don't care, because its a great way to burn 5 minutes of time. Worth having to kill time.

Jam it back in, in the dark.