Top 5 Games Played in 2015
Later than I wanted, but still earlier than usual, it’s my Top 5 Games Played for 2015!
So, thanks to the site backloggery.com I’ve been keeping a running record of all of the games I played in 2015…and all of the ones I have not even touched yet…there’s a lot. Today, however, I will only be talking about my top 5 games played in 2015.
So, looking at The List:
The List: South Park The Stick of Truth One Finger Death Punch Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Super Smash Bros. 3DS To the Moon The Stanley Parable Ratchet and Clank Tools of Destruction Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty Ratchet and Clank A Crack in Time Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP Broken Age Gravity Rush Enchanted Arms Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Bastion Gone Home deBlob Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
I completed 19 games. That’s way more than I thought. I guess it helps when you try to complete the shorter ones. And some of those are on my list for the year so with that…
5. South Park the Stick of Truth
There is only reason I would not recommend South Park The Stick of Truth to someone is if they are not a fan of South Park and its humor. This sounds like an obvious reason, however, that really is the only reason. Mechanically, Stick of Truth is a solid game. It looks gorgeous, the soundtrack is fun to listen to, the combat flows well, and at no point did I feel like I needed to grind for levels.
What makes Stick of Truth stand out to me is that it has the heart and soul of South Park. Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s fingerprints are all over this game from the hidden references, to the item descriptions, to the abilities characters have in combat. I mean Cartman has a flame thrower ability where the animation is him lighting a fart on fire. As it stands, it feels like an interactive, extended episode of the show. So, if you’re a fan of South Park and you have not already, check out South Park the Stick of Truth.
4. Gravity Rush
I had heard good things about Gravity Rush from some of my friends and with it being one of the earlier games for the Vita I decided to give it a go. If there was ever an example of a launch game to highlight what a system can do, it’s Gravity Rush.
This game makes use of every control available on the Vita from the face buttons to the front and back touchscreens. Even better, while you don’t have to master all of the abilities to beat the game, there are multiple challenges where you can use some of the trickier abilities like the Gravity Slide for power ups. It’s too common for a game to have a gimmicky ability that is used one time and then never again. I applaud those at Project Siren for really integrating all of their mechanics.
One of my favorite parts of Gravity Rush is the main gravity mechanic. It’s so much fun just to zoom all over the city, looking for all the little hidden areas or even just falling up as high as possible and letting your character plummet towards the ground. You can see and hear the acceleration as the ground/buildings/sky/etc come closer and closer and then the crash as you hit the ground and the NPCs nearby just stare. I had a lot of fun with Gravity Rush and I can’t wait to go back to this world and see more…and fall more. That’s fun too .
3. The Stanley Parable
One of the most difficult things about recommending The Stanley Parable is trying to figure out how to say why it is such a great game without ruining the experience for people. After some thought, the best way I can describe the Stanley Parable is that it is an open world game where everything you do matters. In most open world games, you have a large map and while there is stuff to do, it can feel at times like filler and not really important to the game itself. In The Stanley Parable EVERYTHING you do matters. There is a reason this game is praised across the gaming sites so, if you’re even the tiniest bit curious as to what all the fuss is about, go play The Stanley Parable.
2. One Finger Death Punch
This game is so much fun! It’s a fighting game with multiple moves and combos, various game modes, customizable power ups, and all it takes to play are the left and right mouse buttons. One Finger Death Punch is a simple a fighting game as any, but rather than trying to memorize all of the different fighter combos the challenge comes from the different enemies that are always coming towards you, faster and in greater numbers. The fighting is so fluid it almost feels like playing a rhythm game with the fighting sound effects blending into the background music. This a a game where you can play for one round or sit for a whole hour and love every minute of it while feeling like a total badass.
1. Bastion
I first heard of Bastion at PAX East in 2011 and interviewing people there for a project (add link) I was doing. In one of my interviews, the interviewee mentioned a game called Bastion. I hadn’t heard of it before so after hearing about the way the developers were incorporating gameplay narration I looked up a couple of trailer videos and it had been on my radar ever since. Since I was trying to play shorter games than I normally play this year, I looked up Bastion on howlongtobeat.com and after seeing it listed as taking about 20 hours to do everything I made up my mind to finally sit down and play it. 50 hours later I nabbed my last achievement and still wanted more.
This game is absolutely beautiful and the soundtrack is one of the best I’ve ever heard. I’m still not tired of it. What really makes Bastion standout, however, is the narrator. Just picture an older southern gentleman narrating your character’s actions, but not verbatim and not ad nauseam. The narration is weaved into game so that it plays in short bursts and during quiet moments. It varies in content based on what you’ve done in certain areas and pokes fun at some of the habits of players. This narration just pulls you in and keeps you playing just to know what happens. I played through Bastion three times already and could easily go through again.
And there you have it, my top 5 played games of 2015. Looking back at the games I played, nearly all of them are worth checking out for one reason or another. Each game had something different to offer. Some made me laugh, some tugged at my heartstrings, and one was just bad (Enchanted Arms). I think I might try and focus on the smaller games again in 2016 and break up the Triple A titles…at least until I get one of the new consoles ;)










