10) Bastion (Xbox 360)
Generation 7 had a unique market of games that had rarely been
seen before. In the past, almost every single game had to go on a
console, cartridge, floppy disc, or a CD. There were almost no
alternatives. That's the main way people could play the games developers
made. Such a limitation required publishers, public approval, and
created these “expectations” or “rules” that every single game had to
follow. If games were too strange, or didn't fit the mold, those games
wouldn't be make it to the public, plain and simple. This is what makes
downloadable/independent games so unique, and often enjoyable. It's
fantastic how those games really came into their own in gen 7. They're
these small, quirky, fresh entries in a large and stagnant market. I can
really appreciate the flavor they brought to the melting pot of gaming.
Something like that deserves to be celebrated!
That goes double for Bastion. Despite my lack of knowledge
about the game, prior to my purchase, word of mouth and a Deal of the
Week sale encouraged me to buy it. Something I'm very glad I did.
Bastion's gameplay was pretty good, involving some melee, some shooting,
and some isometric exploration of a world that literally formed
underneath your feet. The soundtrack is a joy to the ears, going on this
smooth, blues-y, atmospheric trip. The thing that put this game into
instant-classic status was the narration. A mysterious man with a voice
as cool as a mountain stream provided all of the instruction and story
in the game. His words described your every move, and reacted to them.
Something like that could have gotten very annoying. But it was done so
well here, that it never wore out its welcome. The narration made way
for a subdued, yet excellent story; something that is several grades
above most other game stories. Bastion is a delightful example of
quality being more important to a game, rather then quantity.
9) Dishonored (Xbox 360)
One of the things I value most in video games is the amount of
gameplay choices available to the player. The more choices available,
and the amount of equally successful benefits to each choice possible,
the better the game will be, as a whole. There are several games on this
list that fall within that realm. And for good reason. I think the only
time a linear game can be enjoyable, is if the one single experience it
provides is very, very good. If that experience is only good, or worse,
if that experience is bad, then that entire game could become a
failure. There may be no saving grace. If, for example, you don't like
how Uncharted plays, boom. That's it. It'll be a bad game in your mind,
and there's nothing Uncharted can do about it. Because it only plays one
way. I think good games avoid that by making every gameplay choice good
(not just one choice, or the other). And the best games create new
gameplay options you didn't even think were possible.
Dishonored exemplifies this in a multitude of different ways.
Gameplay choices don't just offer a lot of practical freedom; they
provide new ways of accomplishing goals. Let's take a blank scenario, to
illustrate my point: Imagine there's a bad guy guarding a gate with
something good behind it. In a typical game, you would shoot the guard,
and open the gate with his key. Meanwhile, in the anything-but-typical
Dishonored, you can: A) Shoot the guard, and open the gate with his key,
B) Open the gate with the switch in the other room, and slit the
guard's throat, C) Possess the guard, and make him open the gate by
himself, D) Pause time, take the key, get that good thing, leave, and
unpause time before anyone knows what happened, or you can do any other
choice you can think of between A – Z. Then you can move on to choice
AA, choice AB, and so on and so on. You wanna sneak? Go ahead and sneak,
the game is made for that. You wanna be John Rambo in steampunk
England? Go ahead, the game is made for that. You wanna dance with a
dead guard then swim like a fish? Go ahead, the game is made for that. I
love it, I love it, I love it! The
only reason this isn't my favorite game of this gen is because of a
couple things. For one, the story is average. For second, the music is
forgettable. Besides some minor things...that's about it. Dishonored is
an extraordinary game that had unprecedented levels of potential. Let's
hope the upcoming sequel fully realizes it.
8) Dead Rising 2 (Xbox 360)
Killing zombies. We certainly did a lot of that this gen,
didn't we? Some games weren't designed for it, but did it anyways. Other
games were made for it, but couldn't get it right. A paltry collection
of games got it right in both ways. When I played the first Dead
Rising's demo on Xbox 360 back in 2006, I was floored. The
amount of zombies on one screen was never seen before. The graphics
were twice as good as anything I had seen last gen, and the amount of
ways you could kill zombies was instantly addictive. This was one of the
things I first played that convinced me that generation 7 truly was a
technological step up from generation 6, instead of being some
superficial and disappointing small increase meant to price gouge
gamers. Unfortunately, when the full game was released, I heard of too
many problems. The game had a strict time limit, the survivors had
terrible AI, the bosses used cheap tactics and were a chore to fight,
and etc. I figured I had enough fun with the demo, and I could move on
from the franchise to find better zombie games like Left 4 Dead. That
was definitely NOT the case!
Dead Rising 2 stepped up to the plate, and knocked a zombie
head out of the park. It took the bad parts of the first game, and
improved them. And then it took the good parts from the first game, and
made them even better. That is something all good sequels should do! My
favorite thing about this game is the combo weapons. You can take a
huge amount of weapons and items, then stick them together with other
weapons and items to create tons of different combo weapons! It was
great, because you weren't sure what item you'd end up with. Take a bat,
and nails, and then you get a spike bat. Sure, makes sense. But if you
take a flashlight, and stick gems inside it, you get...a lightsaber?
What?! That doesn't make sense! But who cares? IT'S AWESOME! Finding all
the combo weapons added another part of the game to enjoy, in addition
to the regular things, like zombie-killing, boss-stomping, and
money-collecting. Oh, and Zombrex. Gotta find that Zombrex formula for
the main character's daughter. You can't allow her to turn into a
zombie, without sending yourself to gamer hell. At least the survivors
had good AI this time around. Some of the combos were duds, but that's
to be expected. The game also suffered from some cheap moments (coming
from bosses of course), and a little too much repetition (despite the
nature of the game). That doesn't stop this game from being a violent
and enjoyable entry on my list.
7) Castle Crashers (Xbox 360)
Going back to what I said earlier about Bastion, Castle
Crashers was unique, enjoyable, and only exists because the downloadable
market is more flexible and open-minded then the physical market.
Coming from those strange flash movie makers at Newgrounds, this game
was a beat-em-up that gave characters magical abilities. This made the
game fun in several different lengths of time. As soon as you play it,
the game is gratifying thanks to the quick and snappy combat. As you
continue further, the characters begin to level up and earn stronger
magical abilities. Finally, beating the game more then once remains
entertaining because of the different characters you can try, or the new
ones you can unlock. Since each one has their own magical flavor, or
other unique trait, the game has a lot of variety. Combine this with
dozens of weapons, and cute/helpful animal buddies, and you are given a
lot of options to have a good time with the game any way you see fit.
The music was surprisingly catchy. The humor was amusing too. Play this
with 4 friends, and you've got a great way to have fun together.
6) Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360)
Some games are more divisive then others. Maybe they stir up
controversy, like the original Mass Effect. Maybe they have an ending
people didn't like, as Fallout 3 did. Another problem that can put
gamers on opposite sides of the fence is when game developers take a
franchise that has a well-known and well-liked gameplay convention, and
they change it into something else (either partially or completely).
With the first two games in the Banjo Kazooie franchise, Rare made 3D
collectathons. Something like Super Mario 64, but on steroids. They made
fun characters travel in big worlds, and use many different skills and
magical transformations to collect all sorts of doo-dads and trinkets.
Rare gained many fans for this franchise because of its large world,
playful characters, good music, and all of the ways the games allowed
you to collect things. Flying, running, swimming, bouncing, exploring,
detecting, traveling, racing, dodging, beating up bosses, and more. But
then came the big switch. Rare was no long associated with Nintendo, but
was now a part of Microsoft. And somehow, Banjo went along with the
ride. After this, Rare had new ideas for Banjo. Once they implemented
them into the game we now know as Nuts & Bolts, some fans got really
angry. Probably half of the things they liked from the Banjo franchise
was gone, and replaced with gameplay they didn't like as much. I can
understand where they're coming from, but I am not one of those fans.
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was the first game that I
played in the franchise. And I really enjoyed myself. We're talking,
like, well over a hundred hours. Was most of that time spent collecting
Jiggies, saving friends, and stopping Grunty the Witch? No, believe it
or not. Granted, I did all of that stuff as well, but most of my time
was spent building. Then building, along with some building, a little
fine-tuning, and building some more. I made dozens and dozens of crazy
contraptions. Cars, planes, boats, hover crafts, helicopters, and a
bajillion other kinds of vehicles. Plenty of fan-recreations as well.
For instance, I worked on a Batmobile, The Black Pearl, The Blue Falcon,
a working Pod-Racer from Star Wars, a Warthog from Halo, and even the
house from Up. Once you collect all of the building parts in the main
game, the creation possibilities are almost endless. I'll admit, I like
Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie. There's nothing wrong with that kind of
gameplay. But I prefer Nuts & Bolts. The time I spent playing it was
more then the time it took me to get 100% completion in BK and
BT...combined. I guess, in a way, this was my Minecraft. When I was a
kid, I loved playing with Knex and Legos. I suppose this was the game
version of that type of fun. And it really, really clicked with me.
Something that allowed me to unleash that much creativity deserves a
spot on my list.
So...are you ready? Look for the next list to see my 5 most-favorite games of generations 7!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment