My Favorite Games of 2014
2014 was…hmm. It was a year filled with some terrific releases and long-awaited promises of future games, but taking a moment now to look back on the last 12 months, I notice “transition” written in big, bold letters across every calendar page. This was that awkward year when the old systems were packing their bags and preparing to head off into the sunset, but their replacements weren’t quite ready to take over the reins just yet. Really, so much of 2014 was spent asking why it couldn’t just be 2015 already, because—at least given how things are looking now—that’s when the real next-gen party begins. (So help me, I refuse to call it “new-gen,” at least this once.) Still, some games and announcements and happenings did put a smile on my face, and here’s a handful of them.
| 05 | Deception IV: Blood Ties |
When taking part in the voting for our Top 25 games of the year, there were plenty of titles I put before or voted higher than Deception IV: Blood Ties. In coming up with my own personal fave five, however, Tecmo Koei’s return to their cult classic trap-based strategy series kept calling out to me. In an era when it feels as if we’ve lost so much of the past and have seen so many smaller, more unusual projects and franchises disappear one by one, Deception IV is a rebellious voice crying out that those mid-tier games can still exist in 2014. While it tried to bring in some new ideas and more modern-era polish, it never felt the need to betray what it had been or morph into something else that might be better suited to capturing the attention of the masses. Sure, part of my love for Deception IV comes from unadulterated nostalgia—but there’s some comfort to be taken from knowing that not every game I once loved has to die or reinvent itself in order to survive.
| 04 | Guilty Gear Xrd Sign |
I knew Guilty Gear Xrd Sign had to be on my list somewhere, and there’s one specific reason for that: its visuals. Some of you may not think that’s enough reason to include it in a “favorite games of 2014” rundown, but you have to understand—this is a day I’ve longed to see for more than 15 years now. I loved (and still do love) the hand-drawn sprites of 2D fighting games more than I can express, and as time has passed, I’ve become more and more afraid that they’d go away forever, replaced by nowhere-near-as-charming 3D character models. What Arc has done in Guilty Gear Xrd Sign is show me that 3D truly can look like 2D, and that we can live in a world where the benefits of both visual mediums can come together to make each other stronger. So, for me, this may be one of the most graphically important games to ever come along, and it gives me something for the future of fighting games that I was really starting to lose: hope.
| 03 | Sunset Overdrive |
Sunset Overdrive made me happy. That may seems like a simplistic statement to make, and—to be fair—plenty of games make me happy in one way or another. Sunset Overdrive, though, kept me happy its entire way through. OK, well, it started out a bit rough, but the pieces soon fell into place, and once they did, I never wanted to leave Sunset City. Insomniac stuffed plenty of good into the game—the characters, the levity, the weapons, the liberal use of colors and brightness, the fantastic character creator—but, most of all, it was the traversal system that truly won my heart. I’m not sure we’ll ever get another Jet Set Radio at this point, and while Sunset Overdrive may not be the perfect series to take its place, it’s darn well good enough for me. Oh, and, the game gave me my absolutely favorite new characters of 2014: Las Catrinas.
| 02 | Bayonetta 2 |
“Out of sight, out of mind” is an easy state to fall into, especially when it comes to videogames. I know that I loved the original Bayonetta—but I’d forgotten just how much joy it brought me until I dived into its sequel. In my mind, there’s simply no fast-action game out there that can do it better than this, and Bayonetta 2 shows that Platinum Games can always make even the best of games even better. I simply can’t get over how enjoyable, perfected, and technically sound the gameplay is here, producing an experience that’s a fantastic mix of feeling like a total badass while being challenged enough to want to do better the next time around. Though I know some aren’t so keen on her, I adore Platinum’s sassy Umbran Witch just as much as the game she stars in—Bayonetta, and the rest of her female friends and foes, carry the story with strength and style without ever needing a man to help them in that task.
| 01 | Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc |
I’ve talked about and tracked plenty of games that I thought looked interesting and hoped would make it outside of Japan, but back when I was curious about Spike Chunsoft’s strange little PSP graphical adventure, I never could have anticipated what I’d be in store for. In 2011, I fell madly in love with a strange little Japanese export known as Corpse Party, and that sense of discovering something wonderful and unique and unlike anything else came rushing back with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Rarely will I claim that one particular game is good enough that it’s worth buying an entire system for—but Danganronpa alone would totally justify the purchase of a PlayStation Vita for me.
| EX | My Biggest Shame of 2014 Fantasy Life |
Even when you work for a videogame media outlet, you can never play every game that comes out. There’s simply not enough time in your life to do so, and personal preferences negate certain genres or types of games from logically being on your radar anyhow. Even so, sometimes a game that you should have played totally falls through the cracks, and for me, that game was Fantasy Life. Level-5’s ridiculously overstuffed 3DS RPG has become a monster hit among many of my friends and some of my colleagues, but while they were ranting and raving about how much they were loving the game, I was doing everything but playing it. I really meant to—especially in time to see if I’d consider it for one of my personal games of the year—but I was simply never able to get further than an hour into it. I do plan on putting time into Fantasy Life the next chance I get, but for now, I must live with the shame that I’ve let what is supposedly a game near and dear to the types of things I love in our world of digital entertainment go unloved.
| EX | The “I Love You, I Hate You” Award Console Firmware |
“Firmware” really isn’t the proper term in the case, but I figured it’d be the easiest way to convey the overall experience with game consoles, their features, operating systems, user interfaces, and whatnot. How new consoles are launched without features that long ago became standard on the previous generation of hardware I’ll never know, and 2014 was proof positive of just how undercooked the new machines still are. The PlayStation 4 received only two major updates through the entire year, a terrible thing given how in need of some TLC its interface was. Sony’s done a good job of adding features that give us unique experiences—built-in livestreaming, Share Play, PlayStation Now, and so on—but, man, are so many little elements of the PS4’s interface still hella busted (as the kids say). Even after doing a major revision to the main content bar, it remains annoying and frustrating; Sony, please, just let me make folders and organize things the way I want. Microsoft, meanwhile, got into the habit of releasing monthly firmware updates. They can be a nuisance when you don’t turn on your system as often as you should, but the progress the Xbox One’s interface made over the course of the year was absolutely impressive. And then, oh boy, don’t get me started on the Wii U. Fifteen seconds of careless thinking, and my Nintendo ID is now permanently stuck on our office console…
| EX | The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Transgender Representation in Gaming in 2014 |
The Good: Dragon Age: Inquisition featured Krem, a higher-up in Iron Bull’s mercenary group, Bull’s Chargers, who just happened to be transgender. While not the first trans character in Dragon Age’s lore, Krem is one of the few female-to-male characters in gaming—not to mention one of the best handlings of a trans character, period.
The Bad: Poison was finally added to Street Fighter IV in 2014—where she belonged—thanks to the Ultra update, but Capcom continues to commit to their backslide of non-commital to her 20-plus years of being one of gaming’s small handful of trans characters.
The Ugly: The lightgun-style shooter Blue Estate, which offered up a joke directed at a transgender stripper whose punchline was nothing more than making fun of the woman for being trans. Similar punchlines that the game’s creators would no doubt find funny? “Haha, this person is fat” or “Haha, this person is [enter ethnicity here].”