2012 Games Review

2012 Games Review

 

2 Star Games

PixelJunk Eden. No idea what was going on in this game, it was also difficult and frustrating

 

Iron Brigade. The only one of Double Fine's game I haven't enjoyed, I found this tower defence game to be frustrating and unengaging

 

Pixeljunk Racer. Like slot car racing, but after a few attempts it gets very dull

 

Pixeljunk Sidescroller. Not really too bad a game but I never really enjoy side scrolling shooter games.

 

Ilomilo. Starts out really good but after a while the puzzle solutions get too specific, which makes the game frustrating

 

The Tiny Bang Story. Playing this game, I discovered I do not enjoy hidden object games.

 

Resident Evil Revelations. I don't think the Resident Evil franchise is suitable for handheld games, a lot of the action and suspense is lost.

 

3 Star Games

 

Xenoblade Chronicles. I found the maps to be a little too big with too many side quests and areas with monsters that are too high to battle.

 

Bookworm Adventure. After a while I just relied on an online anagram scrambler to make progress.

 

Carcassonne. Not a patch on the actual board game, not being able to see all the board at all times makes it too easy to forget about meeples.

 

Ratchet and Clank: Quest For Booty. The usual fantastic Ratchet and Clank fun but the really short game length doesn't allow decent weapon development.

 

Skylanders 3DS. Very simplistic Skylanders game, and very similar to the Playstation Crash Bandicoot games.

 

Sonic Generations 3DS. Some great Sonic levels let down by the annoying last boss.

 

Mario Party 9. The addition of the car mechanic doesn’t really add anything to the formula

 

4 Star Games

Red Dead Redemption. Grand Theft Auto set in the end of the Wild West but the story didn't hold together very well. I originally scored this a 3 but after playing Red Dead Redemption 2, I feel it deserves a higher score

 

Sonic Colors DS. A great Sonic game.

 

Sonic Unleashed. The first truly good 3D Sonic game which allows for fast and cool looking speed runs. Just ignore the werewolf and overworld sections

 

Clash of Heroes: Might and Magic. My first playthrough on the DS glitched and I got stuck but my second attempt on XBLA was much better and I really enjoyed this match 3 battling game

 

Metal Gear Solid 4. A good ending to the main story but as always, some cutscenes go on way too long.

 

Super Mario 3D Land. Some bad camera angles make for some difficult jumping in what is otherwise another excellent Mario platformer.

 

Pokémon Conquest. Six on six turn based battles Pokémon battles are really good fun. Why I stopped playing this game is the fact that you have to begin building a team again at the start of each campaign.

 

Nelson Tethers II A puzzle game with a survival horror atmosphere.

 

James Noir Hollywood Crimes Professor Layton style puzzle game which gets a little repetitive towards the end but makes great use of the 3DS camera.

 

Fez. A 2D platformer where puzzles are solved in 3D. Some of the puzzles are incredibly difficult and obscure.

 

Pullblox. Clever block pulling game but by the end I was using step by step guides to get through the game.

 

Puzzle Quest. An RPG where battle is done by a match three puzzle game. Great fun but each individual battle takes an age.

 

Sega And Sonic All Star Racing. My first Wii U game is a decent kart racing game. Good powerup, excellent time trial, and brilliant course design. Absolute mastery is required for the harder modes.

 

Sonic 4 Episodes 1 and 2. Despite some difficult controls and Tails adding nothing, both games come together to make a good Sonic game.

 

Resident Evil 6. Unmemorable, actionized horror game.

 

5 Star Games

Disgaea 3.Still a little bit too much level grinding involved for my taste, but a fun game.

 

Alphabounce. Space exploration done through breakout gameplay. A huge map allows for huge amounts of exploration.

 

Airport Mania & Airport Mania 2. Time and click management with chibi planes that sing. Adorable.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Occasionally poor motion controls prevent this from being another classic Zelda title.

 

Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction & Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time

The last great Ratchet and Clank games.

 

Sonic Generations. Sonic true return to form and a treat for long term fans. Let down slightly by the horrible last boss.

 

Uncharted 2. The second Uncharted game is still as much fun to play as the original.

 

Pixeljunk Shooter. Using an spacecraft to rescue underground miners and manipulating fire and ice. The simple graphics give the game an incredible sense of scale.

 

LittleBigPlanet 2. Some excellent levels both from the game creators and from myself using the level designer.

 

Mario Kart 7. One of the best early 3DS games and another great Mario Kart game.

 

Final Fantasy XIII-2. Improving on the original game in almost every way. Just a shame that the ending is so obviously setting up a sequel

 

Skylanders. Despite the toy gimmick and occasional glitch. Skylanders is a quality co-op action platformer.

 

Brutal Legend. An action adventure rock and roll game hides a decent strategy combat game.

 

Dear Esther. Not so much a game as an interesting digital experience.

 

Journey. A short game but when played with a companion is a brilliant experience.

 

Ghost Recon Shadow Wars. A surprisingly good turn based game similar to Advance Wars

 

Hydroventure. Controlling water, steam and ice through colourful platforming levels.

 

Ben There Dan That. A very funny point and click adventure

 

Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7. More hilarious Lego gaming with a much-improved hub world.

 

Puzzles and Dragons

 

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed. Even if this wasn’t a great racing game, the fact that beloved Sonic character, Danica Patrick is finally playable is enough to give this top marks.

 

 

Top 10 Games of 2012

 

Tropico 4. Tropico 4 is a little different from other simulation games I've played such as Sim City in that there are clear goals in each level. Each island has a specific theme to it. One island needs tourism facilities, another employment, another has several resources that need mining. To accomplish this each island gives out major goals and minor goals. The major goals are those that must be completed to complete the level such as Get 10,000 tourists to visit the island. The minor goals either help gain money or help towards the major goals such as build three hotels. It becomes engrossing as you work slowly towards improving each of your islands, trying to balance each of the game elements. Make people too happy and they want higher wages. Too unhappy and they become rebels and destroy your palace.

 

Theathrhythm Final Fantasy. Theathrhythm Final Fantasy is the first rhythm action game I've ever really been any good. It helps that the songs in this game are from some of my favourite songs from some of my favourite games. Of the three modes, the battle mode is the best, followed closely by the Chocobo mode. The movie mode is least interesting as it changes the least between each retry. Some of my favourite songs are missing but I found some great new songs such as Ronfaure from Final Fantasy XI. I played this game so much I got to the maximum of 99999 Rhythmia and unlocked all the extra characters. I also brought the game to Distant Worlds, The Final Fantasy concert in Edinburgh and got several Streetpass from other players.

 

Professor Layton and The Spectres Call. Spectres Call is the first in a prequel of trilogies to the original series. It's set three years before the original games It introduces a new villain Jean Descole and a new assistant to Professor Layton called Emmy. Which leads to the question, what happens to Emmy that Layton never mentions her once in the first games? The gameplay is classic Layton, but this time the puzzles are a bit more closely related to the main story. There are over 170 puzzles and more to download. Most of the puzzles are really clever although there are still too many sliding tile puzzles. There are the usual minigames as well. The London Life RPG was removed from the European version, but I don't think the game suffers from it.

 

Uncharted 3 Uncharted 3 is a seriously cinematic game. Many of the set pieces are epic with one set on a capsized ship and another on a cargo plane being particular standouts. The battles too are cinematic, both gun battles and fistfights are context sensitive, and Drake will use anything at his disposal in a battle whether it's a vase, a half open over or a grenade on an enemy’s belt. This game also goes into Drake’s origins. What makes his story remarkable is how unremarkable it is. What I also enjoyed about the story is the lack of a supernatural element, which was something felt took from the first two games.

 

Quantum Conundrum. A young boy arrives at his uncles house to discover his uncle has been trapped in a pocket dimension and needs help to get out. He finds a glove that allows him to alter dimensions to four different states, the fluffy dimension where everything is lighter, the heavy dimension, the anti-gravity dimension and the slow dimension. This is the set up for some incredible first-person puzzling. The levels are very well designed and make great use of the different dimensions. Solving a puzzle makes you feel so clever. Comparisons to Portal are inevitable and acceptable but Quantum Conundrum is not as good as it relies too much on precision jumping, often when holding items, something that is very difficult to do in first person.

 

Pokémon Black 2 To be completely honest Pokémon Black 2 is not hugely different to the first game. There's a new plot, some new Pokémon forms and new move sets. And none of that matters as any new Pokémon is a source of major excitement for me. The PWT is a highlight of the new features. Allowing some exciting battles against Gym Leaders from all the previous games, it's also a better and shorter way to earn BP. Medals add more longevity to the game. Like achievements, some you get naturally, some are stupid and difficult and then there are some that are great fun aiming for, such as completing the Elite Four with each type of Pokémon.

 

Batman Arkham City Arkham City is one of the best examples of a superhero game. Batman has a wide variety of moves and gadgets available to him and most can be executed intuitively. Batman can go up against over a dozen mooks at a time and come out on top as combat flows smoothly. Arkham City itself is a detailed and scary place where the villains rule the streets. It is simple to track down the many secrets in Arkham City due to a excellent map and a detailed records system

 

SSX I've been waiting for a new SSX game for so long, so I was thrilled when SSX finally arrived. This game is more grounded in reality. There are 9 slopes in the game, each one located in a real-world location such as The Alps. Despite this however the gameplay is as crazy as ever involving gravity defying tricks, swinging and jumping out of helicopters and trip through perilous terrains. Three main game modes are racing, tricks and survival. Survival mode requires lasting as long as possible on a course without taking damage. World Tour also has Deadly Descents where each course has a feature such as darkness, trees, or poor visibility that must be survived.

 

Mass Effect 3 Mass Effect 3 is the culmination of three games worth of decisions and it's unbelievable to see decisions made several years ago in the original game having consequences now. The story is the invasion of the galaxy by the Reapers. Earth is one of the first planets to fall and Shepard must travel the galaxy uniting the races and finding help in fighting the invasion. I didn't like is how participation in the online multiplayer is required to get the best possible ending. There has been a lot of criticism of the ending of the game and it's not entirely invalid but it's way overhyped. I prefer to think of the game as an ending of the series and a rewarding one.

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The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Skyrim has beaten Fallout 3 for the title of most immersive game I've played. You start out as a prisoner who is freed during a dragon attack. Your fellow escapee suggests you go and talk to an earl in a nearby town. And then you set out into the world. The huge, detailed, world full of towns and people and caves and quests. You can do whatever you like. I played as a combination mage/rogue who favoured fire and electric magic, bows and daggers. My character becomes head of the major guilds of Skyrim, bought property in most of the cities in the world, got married and became a widower, became an expert at mixing potions and amassed a large collection of jewellery and demon weapons. And cabbage. Because you can do what you like and I collected cabbage. Best of all the adventure isn't over as several large DLC adventures are

still ahead of me such as Dawnguard and Dragonborn