Best of 2021: Bryan's Picks
I should really start calling this “Bryan’s game of LAST year list” because inevitably I end up getting great recommendations from all of the industry’s various GOTY lists and then slowly work my way through the ones that look most interesting the following year. Not complaining! It's worked pretty well so far at pointing me towards games I missed the previous year that are worth my time. If you, the reader, have not done so yet I’d recommend finding a few critics you agree with in terms of taste and keep an eye on the games they give high praise. It's done a lot to help me find things outside my normal purview that I might enjoy while cutting down on the need to figure out what a ‘7.75’ means to Joe Blow over at GameStation.net. I did not do a straight up ‘top 10’ this year and opted for a few superlatives since the games I liked most tended to coalesce around a (sometimes vague) theme. As I said up top, these are chosen from the games I have played this year, not necessarily games released this year (platform I played in parentheses).
Best Vibes - Paradise Killer (PC)
I knew 2021 was going to be a good year for gaming when right out the gate in January I played Paradise Killer. This game blew me away with its style and overall vibe - beautiful, sun-drenched visuals layered over a sinister, dying paradise set to an awesome city pop soundtrack that perfectly matches, nay sets, the tone of the game. Folks might call Paradise Killer a narrative exploration game, but in my opinion it's more heavy on the latter than on the former. Every nook and cranny has an important or at least interesting thing to say about the world the Syndicate has built and continues perpetuating. I took great pleasure in learning more about the world of this game and talking about it with Josh, so I cannot wait to see what's next from this developer, whether it's set in this world or not.
Runner Up: Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS5)
Playing this game during the holiday season is by far the way to play it, so much wonderful ‘New York at Christmastime’ energy that it's impossible not to feel nostalgic and cozy, even as you’re swinging through the frozen cityscape.
Best Genre Mashup - Persona 5 Strikers (Switch)
Persona 5 Royal was my favorite game of 2020, and while its musou game follow-up did not reach the heights of the main line game, man was I excited to see these characters again! I really enjoyed how Strikers chose to continue the story with the Phantom Thieves, and that is with a summer reunion and a road trip! Given 2021 was still largely a year of COVID, it was just so nice to imagine young people having awesome memorable experiences even if that wasn’t quite able to happen in the real world for many. I felt genuine joy as the phantom thieves enjoyed their summer and it echoed how I also felt enjoying my first real vacation in a year plus that I took while I was playing it. While Persona 5 examines the character flaws that could lead someone to become a tin pot tyrant, Strikers looks to the underlying trauma that might cause such a rift within broader society. It reframes the power of the Phantom Thieves to change hearts from one of conversion to one of true acceptance and healing. Summer road trips are great, but summer road trips with old friends are the best.
Runner Up: Bowser's Fury (Switch)
The main-line Super Mario games have gone through many iterations over the years, and to my mind Bowsers Fury is taking an interesting next step in bringing some of the more recent ‘open-world’ trends to the Super Mario series. Mario has had big sprawling levels before (see Super Mario Odyssey), but you were still selecting them from a menu. Bowser’s Fury poses the question “why not place all of our levels in one gigantic playspace, and let the player travel freely between them?”. It doesn’t hurt that the game has the excellent concept of placing a giant kaiju-bowser at the center of the world, providing both mechanical challenges and the central impetus for the story. And it really doesn’t hurt that it accomplishes everything it wants to do in a short 5 hour playtime, a godsend for me as a new parent.
Best Teamwork - Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5)
Guardians of the Galaxy caught me by surprise. I knew I’d get some impressive visuals, and maybe even some fun, lighthearted action, but what I didn’t know is that I’d also get a heartfelt story about trust, growth, and found family. Combine that with a combat system that really pulls in elements of teamwork and you have a recipe for the exact type of gameplay and storytelling synergy that I really love to see. Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t succeed on all fronts, and honestly I think it was slightly longer than it needed to be, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t still interested in seeing every last moment of seeing this team come together to save the universe. Really glad Clint got me to play this one, and that comes through in our podcast as well.
Runner Up: Back 4 Blood
The teamwork was with real people on this one. I had a blast playing this game’s superb cross-platform multiplayer implementation with Clint, Josh, and the rest of the crew we pulled in to get through the campaign of this faithful iteration of the Left 4 Dead formula. Check out the podcast for even more discussion.
Biggest Emotional Gut Punch - Before your Eyes (PC)
Before Your Eyes’ is a game where you advance time in a story by blinking and it uses its blinking mechanic to show us that life will inevitably move forward on as we make decisions, affect others, and go about our daily business. As a result we inevitably won’t experience everything life has to offer. Before Your Eyes embraces brevity and the fleeting aspects of life’s moments big and small, to highlight how each decision can have an impact down the road. The protagonist Benny’s story specifically teaches us another important lesson: Every life is worth living. Sometimes you might feel like a failure, sometimes you may not reach your goals, but it's important to remember that even if it doesn’t feel like it, your actions have impacts and outcomes that you may not even realize. And every life, no matter how long or short, happy or sad, is a life worth living.
Runner Up: Under a Star Called Sun (PC)
Can a game under 5 minutes long make you cry? I invite you to play ‘Under a Star Called Sun’ to find out. It's simple, evocative, emotional and can be played in the time it takes to brew a pot of coffee.There is something strange and powerful about this game for me. I can't explain it, but it perfectly encapsulated the early pandemic time during which I first played it. Suddenly cut off from normalcy. From things you love and care about. You hope to one day get back, but you know that even when you do it won't be the same. Here’s a link, you can play it in-browser for free. Bring some tissues.
Best Metroidvania - Ori and the Will of the Wisps (PC)
The artistry and ability to pull at the heartstrings of the player that are on display with Ori and the Will of the wisps remind me most strongly of watching a great Pixar Movie. Despite the fact you’re getting a backstory told in a matter of minutes about characters you’ve only just met, you’re hard pressed to suppress the tears when they strike that emotional cord that teleports you into the protagonist's shoes through the magic of animation. Story cutscenes in this game could give any of Pixar's most affecting scenes a run for their money. The comparison continues in the technical mastery and beauty put into this game. It’s breathtakingly gorgeous but it also contains polished and well traversal mechanics, upgrades, worldfeel, and combat light years ahead of the studio’s first outing which was already a great game in my book. Will of the Wisps pivoted to a more mechanically dense and customizable progression system that resonated with me, while keeping the strongest parts of the first game, its artistry and emotional core. If Moon studios continues on this trajectory, I happily look forward to their future titles.
Runner Up: Metroid Dread (Switch)
What can I say? Metroid literally wrote the book on this category, and the latest entry into the venerable series can still hang with the best of them. I think this will go down as a gold standard for the metroidvania game. While it may have been done in different (some may say better) ways by the likes of Hollow Knight or others, Metroid Dread still stands tall in the genre even 35 years after the series pretty much invented it.
Most Uplifting - Chicory (PC)
Chicory has a lot to say about art, impostor syndrome, and the process of creation, and much of it resonated deeply with me. It called me back to when we were first starting to create our podcast. Like any new creative endeavor, at first it's really rough. You have to go through a lot of iteration to find your own voice and style. Sometimes you feel like you’ll never make something anyone would see as worth consuming. However, all of the self doubt in the world is no match for the support of close friends, family, or even total strangers with a kind word. Chicory tells you that if you feel a call to a creative project, throw yourself into it and do your best with the time you’re given. Also, it is incredibly cute, funny, and well written, so you can play it for a witty anthropomorphic dog as well.
Runner Up: Ratchet and Clank (PS5)
The mascot platformer still has life even in 2021! At least this one did! And honestly that's quite thematically appropriate for this game which finds you taking control of two seasoned heroes as they wonder if they still have what it takes to save the galaxy after all these years. What follows is a story of friendship, family, and empathy that is as sure to put a smile on your face as the incredibly imaginative weapons and characters.
Best Storytelling (Co-Winners) Inscryption (PC) and Wildermyth (PC)
A long time ago we played Daniel Mullens previous title, Pony Island, for a non-recorded video game book club. I recall my main takeaway was that while it was fun, and had a great deal of variety in its mechanics, they boiled down to little more than gimmicks. Our three word review was ‘Bag of gimmicks’ if I recall actually. Harsh words for someone who is clearly a talented developer. Inscryption takes the “gimmicks” of Pony Island (4th wall breaking, haunted games, and a wide variety of mechanical and aesthetic implementations within a single title) and creates a potent series of vignettes that are in service of a larger purpose both mechanically and narratively. The way that Inscryption uses its varied mechanical, aesthetic and tonal choices completely transcends the sum of the constituent parts to become something truly special. This is a story that could truly only be told in a video game and it's one of my favorite games of the year because of it.
While Inscryption’s story could only be told in a video game, I enjoy Wildermyth’s storytelling for an entirely different reason: its recreation of the tabletop, improvisational style of storytelling. The way the game interweaves characters' traits, histories, and relationships, with the world's ongoing events makes it feel like the possibility space is truly limitless all while constantly feeling exactly suited to the moment at hand. The writing is probably the most satisfying implementation of a game as a story generator I have played, and I am always looking forward to seeing what it will decide to dish out next.
I played a ton of great games this year so I wanted to expand my list by giving a quick shout out to some additional games I found to be cool and worthwhile:
Other Great Games:
Deathloop (PS5) - Needs no introduction. Check out our pod on this one to hear the thoughts!
Everhood (PC) - Undertale meets a rhythm game? It was short and cool.
If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers (PC) - Best pixel art in the game and a hell of a creepy story to boot. Check out the pod Josh and I did!
Stellaris (PC) - Best time I’ve ever had playing a grand strategy game multiplayer. Check out the Pod Josh and I did for full thoughts!
Monster Hunter: Rise (Switch) - The first Monster Hunter game that clicked for me!
Valheim (PC) - I had a great time playing and reconnecting with old friends playing this. Check out the pod for Josh and my full thoughts!
Cool Mobile Game Corner
Knights of San Francisco (iOS) - stylish and well implemented IF game set in a future post apocalypse
Dicey Elementalist (iOS) - If dicey dungeons and slay the spire had a baby, this might be what it looked like.
Botworld Adventure (iOS) - An open world auto-battler where you are a kind of pokemon trainer for robots.
Overboard! (iOS) - the latest from Inkle, creators of excellent narrative games such as 80 days and Heaven’s Vault
Best Old Games of 2021
Morrowind - I feel like I could do a playthrough of Morrowind every year and never tire of it. Listen to the cast on this one for our full thoughts.
Katamari - an oldie but still a goodie. If you haven’t yet, pick it up on Switch and play it like Josh and I did earlier this year.
Best DLC’s
Fire Emblem: Three Houses DLC - turns out it was a big year for cleaning up DLC on old favorites as well. I finally tackled this and I nicely added to the overall experience. Now when can I go back to new game plus…?
Final Fantasy 7R INTERmission - An excellent addition to the FF7R story, which got me even more excited for part 2.
Most Want to Play in 2022:
Hitman 3
Death’s Door
Tales of Arise
The Forgotten City
Take Care and Keep on Gaming in 2022!