[Question] The Gamingforce Game of the Year 2016: Now with microtransations - voting edition

I'm actually going to list all the 2016 games I've played because it didn't seem like that great of a year for me for new games. One game I would've love to add was Super Mario Run. I've only played it once when my brother let me try it on his Apple Device and I could see how I could get hooked on it rather quickly. Now if Nintendo would just RELEASE IT ON ANDROID.

Anyway, games below and points start after the first two:



Street Fighter V

I can't quite put my finger on it but to me SFV seems kind of bland compared to SFIV. I don't know if it's the not so exciting announcer, the not so exciting music, the characters that haven't been released yet, but it just doesn't feel fun and I feel like I'm having to force myself to play through some of these characters stories and that's just unacceptable. I find myself going back to Street Fighter IV and playing a few rounds almost every day.


Huniecam

I went into this game knowing it was different than Huniepop, somewhat knowing that it was a clicker. I TRIED to like it, but there was no depth to this game whatsoever and I ended up being disappointed by it anyway. The rewards are almost non-existant in this game, hell the girls can even contract STD's and at that point they're pretty much non-playable. If I had to give a Worst Game of the Year 2016 Award, this one would receive it.





BUSTED! - 5 points

Okay, I'm not a fan of clickers but this one is rather amusing. You're at home on your computer like Windows with three menu options at the bottom...word document, paint, and BUSTED which is a censored picture of a girl covered in boxes requiring various clicks to destroy. Every time you click, you are throwing a pair of breasts (they all have tops on, don't worry) to try to break open the boxes covering the girl. Depending on the color of the box, it can take only 3 clicks to break it or maybe up to 6 or 7. An auto-clicker is handy though.

You have to be careful though, because your Dad randomly peeks inside of your room to make sure you're not looking at naughty images. If he does catch you, you lose all of your progress and have to start over from Day 1. At the beginning he only comes in via the door and attic door, but as you progress through the later levels he tries to catch you from your clothes wardrobe, the security camera rotating, even your TV screen! Before he can catch you, you have to quickly search to your word or paint document and wait until he leaves.

Brilliant, although difficult and I have yet to beat week 1. This game apparently has 3 weeks.




Dead or Alive Xtreme 3: Fortune - 5 points

Though it has less mini-games compared to it's predecessor, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is still pretty fun. This game wasn't even released in North America due to "cultural differences" but it was probably also due to pressure from groups and their views about how women are depicted in video games.

So how did they get around this? They released an Asian version which included an English language option and was region free. Play-Asia reported that they had their highest preorder record yet with this game with Westerners wanting to import it and eventually the game even broke sales records at Play-Asia. So to those groups who didn't want this game released in the West, fuck you and fuck off.

Alright, so you get a choice of 9 characters to play as. In order to play volleyball, you need to become partners with another character on the island. The other games can be played without one as they're usually 1v1. These games can be played in the Morning, Afternoon, or Evening. Also during these times, shops can be visited to purchase gifts for the ladies or for yourself such as collectibles, food, and swimsuits.

When it's nighttime, you're at your room and you have the option to either skip to the next day or go to the casino and try to raise your earnings.

You can also play something called Owner mode where you as the owner initiate activities with the girls and possibly even date them (I have yet to try this mode).

Overall, if you've played the second game it's pretty much more of the same but as with FF7: Advent Children it feels like this was made for the fans.




Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice - 5 points

This is a continuation of the story with Phoenix Wright along with the characters Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes. However even with the title, the game feels like it centers on Apollo Justice this time around (BOOOOOOOOOOO) at least at the final cases.

The new gameplay concept introduced is very interesting for the trials that take place overseas. Basically this priestess has the power to call the memories of the souls of the deceased in their last moments before death, showing what they saw as well as the sensations they had at the time.

The new prosecutor is uh...well, let's just say Simon Blackquill was more entertaining. Other characters make a return as well such as Maya Fey (about friggin time) and Ema Skye as the main detective (the hell happened to Gumshoe?). Overall the story is wacky as to be expected in an Ace Attorney game, and the DLC case was pretty interesting as well however not as crazy and over the top as it's predecessor where you were defending an orca.




Star Fox Zero - 10 points

FINALLY! I've been complaining about a new Star Fox for many years and with it being absent from the Wii even though the motion controls would've been great for it (it worked just fine in Warioware: Smooth Moves), I thought this was going to be the return of the franchise...and unfortunately, it didn't do so well.

The game is a retelling of Star Fox 64. You could argue it's also a retelling of the original Star Fox, but there's so many references to 64 (certain pilots appearing).

First off let's go with the different vehicles you can use. The Arwing and Landmaster make their return, and really that's all you should need since they cover air and land battles. Now one thing they've introduced with both of them are transformations. The Arwing can transform into a Walker, which basically is a walking chicken on land. To be fair, this one isn't so bad and it seems to travel faster than the Landmaster. However the Landmaster's transformation, the Gravmaster, is a clunky disgrace compared to the Arwing. It can only stay in the air for a limited amount of time and then it drops and transforms back to the Landmaster. Then we have the worst of them, the Gyrowing, which is basically a slow moving helicopter that can fire shots like an Arwing and pick up boxes and crates as well as use a little robot to descend and unlock areas like R2-D2.

Now even with all of this in place, Zero probably still would've been a pretty good game. Keyword here is WOULD'VE. There's one thing that kills any hope of this happening...the controls.

Oh you can move the Arwing around just fine, but you have to aim by looking down at the WiiU gamepad and moving the cursor to fire at what you want to shoot at. Immediately, your head, neck, and arms get tired real quickly and this is not a fun position to be in. If it wasn't for this fatal flaw, this game would've been much better. Still it was a fun playthrough and a good attempt by Platinum to breathe new life into the franchise.




Pokemon GO - 15 points

I need to quit this game. The first Nintendo franchise to become a mobile game, Pokemon Go is free to play. There are in-app purchases you use fake money to buy, which can either be gained by paying real money or by sticking one of your Pokemon in a gym and redeeming 10 coins for each day it's stayed in there. I've bought the Go Plus bracelet, but so far haven't made any in-app purchases.

The game makes you choose one of three teams once your trainer reaches Level 5: Valor (Red), Instinct (Yellow), and Mystic (Blue). Your trainer gains experience by catching Pokemon and collecting items at Pokestops. You can fight for your side to show dominance for your team by taking over gyms, but there's still the initial goal of catching all of the Pokemon...which you STILL CAN'T CATCH ALL ORIGINAL 150, and they're already putting out ones from the Silver/Gold generation.

It's very addicting and I would have given it more points to put it 2nd in my list but with Niantic killing third-party trackers, which by the way made the game more enjoyable, they've shown what kind of assholes they are.




Sonic Boom: Fire and Ice - 20 points

My God, it's a miracle! I played the demos for the original Boom games on both 3DS and WiiU. The 3DS one seemed to control fine but was very boring. The WiiU Boom is by far the worst Sonic game I've ever played. I ended up not buying either game.

So I was very shocked when they announced a sequel to this franchise on the 3DS. After seeing that it was achieving decent reviews (better than its predecessors), I decided to bite and buy this game to hopefully keep me tided over until Sonic Mania. Again I was surprised, this time in a good way...the game actually is good. It doesn't focus on exploration as much, that's only if you want to gather the items to unlock extras. This also allows for multiple paths you can take to clear the level, although most of the time these can just loop you back so you can take the other path.

You can switch seemlessly between 5 characters with the touch of a button as well as switch between Ice and Fire powers. Fire allows you to melt ice blocks in your way and light explosives. Ice allows you to freeze water so you can traverse over it and freeze enemies in place.

Each character has their own unique abilities, but they all pretty much travel at the same speed making Sonic not seem like the fastest thing alive.

I'm still in the process of playing this game since I didn't get it until late this year. While it's not saying much by saying this is the best game in the Sonic Boom series, this is probably the best game I've played on the 3DS this year. Hell, this is the best Nintendo game I've played this year (sorry, I had no desire to get Pokemon Sun/Moon).




Sakura Dungeon - 40 points

I've always praised the Sakura Visual Novels on Steam. Their first attempt at a game, Sakura Clicker, even though it was free-to-play was a bad idea considering Steam had just come from a sale where you made various clicks against enemies.

So next they tried a dungeon RPG where you traverse several floors in an underground labyrinth. This game...is awesome.

It starts off with a fox demon being freed from her imprisonment in the labyrinth by a female warrior who's overconfident for her own good. This leads the fox demon and the warrior to battle, with the fox demon prevailing and knocking the warrior out. Afterwards, the fox demon reveals that the labyrinth is hers but she had been trapped for a long time and someone else had taken control of her domain. She then cast a spell to make the warrior her subordinate to help go through the labyrinth and reclaim what is hers.

I should go ahead and point out that all of the characters in this game are females, some of the enemies wear animal costumes thus varying up the characters a bit. You can capture these enemies to add to your own team as you fight further into the labyrinth. Sometimes you can get unique characters to join your cause as long as you fulfill special conditions.

Now for the battle system. I'll go ahead and say the animation is exactly like the original Pokemon for Game Boy where the characters twitch and make an attack with sword slicing or other effects appearing on the character being attacked.

Each character and enemy has a certain amount of armor points. If the armor is broken, damage will increase and the character's armor/clothing will tear and reveal some skin. The enemies will stay this way until they're defeated. Items and resting at the inn will restore the armor to normal.

The story is pretty entertaining and the bickering can change depending on the characters in your party (you can have up to 6). The music is great as well, gets a little overdramatic in the final battles but not too overwhelming.

However, this game can be enjoyed even further...with the download of the 18+ patch. This now adds a second broken armor phase where all of the character's clothes/armor is gone completely and of course damage is increased. This patch also adds more lewd scenes.

All in all probably the most enjoyable game I've played this year. If you see this on sale on Steam definitely give it a try.

Jam it back in, in the dark.