The best Fatal Fury game. One of the best SNK games. As well as one of my favorite fighting games. I love RB Fatal Fury Special and 2, but they don't compare to this one. Everything's done right here. The music is amazing, the combat is smooth, I love the new cast (even though I miss the old Fatal Fury cast), and the game looks beautiful. I know I've probably said the same thing about many Fatal Fury games, but I don't know what else I can say, they're all just amazing (save for a few that weren't all good.) Well done SNK, thanks for making an amazing series. I can't wait to see what you guys do with City of the Wolves.

Alright, I'll be real with you. I'm only using Space Wars as an excuse to talk about Space War(!). My personal Game of the Year winners list starts with 1970, because I want to start it with a nice round decade-starter and because the 60's do not have enough games. I consider there to be exactly one victim of this decision, and that's Space War. Not only is it arguably the most important video game in history by default, it is, in all seriousness, a damned good first showing.

Space War was so good, right out of the gate, that it pretty much inspired an entire form of media, or at the very least, the action game mega-genre and the whole concept of a multiplayer video game. I don't just want to talk about Space War because it's historically important, I want to talk about Space War because it's ACTUALLY GOOD, and it deserves to be represented on this big, stupid list of mine, somewhere, somehow.

So, I'm hitching a ride on Space WarS, the fourth version of a game that was complete over a decade earlier. 1977 sucked. The leading competition for this spot by most standards is Zork, a game that I consider to be worse than Colossal Cave Adventure, its direct predecessor. The previous game I had in this spot was Heli-Shooter, one of Sega's crazy electro-mechanical contraptions which one could argue is "not a video game", is not something I have actually played, and isn't ACTUALLY that fun, just one example of a general genre of thing that was kind of impressive and already represented on the list elsewhere. The original version of Space War(!) is out of bounds, as explained. The next two are a prototype from 1971 that never "came out", and Nolan Bushnell's Computer Space. I already refused to give Bushnell any credit for stealing Pong, so I'm certainly not going to do that here, and I'm not about to let that other prototype beat out the original version of Oregon Trail for '71. After that comes OrbitWar, the networked PLATO computer replacement for the original which I can't imagine possibly ran well, in a year whose spot I'm also happy with.

So here we are, letting a very late, faithful remake of Space War(!) win 1977, a year where the competition sucks. Good job I guess, Space Wars!

EDIT: Oops! Turns out Oubliette (PLATO, 1977) is really, really cool, so now I have to actually talk about Space Wars as a separate entity from Space War! Space Wars takes Space War and cranks the speed up. This is both a blessing and somewhat of a curse. On the Vectrex version, with a much smaller play area and a completely ruthless AI opponent, the game is simply way, way too fast. All game modes tone down the central star so that it doesn't dominate every second of every battle in such a suffocating way, but on Game 9, The Only Correct Choice, it is still a threat and it has influence over the fight, making it an accommodator of trick shots and fancy flying. Space Wars also allows for each ship to take a few hits before the battle is lost, a change that allows for comebacks. Space Wars is, honestly, so frustratingly close to being incredible. If the arcade version had a single player option with decent AI and the star were just a little stronger and the ammo was unlimited and the shots were just a little bigger, we'd have a happy medium that I would boot up on a whim even today. Alas, we do not, and so Space War!'s potential continues unfulfilled.

And OOPS! Turns out Zork is a lot cooler than I was giving it credit for too.

Well, it was a tough road. Ok I'm lying calling this tough would be an insult, this may quite possibly be the most merciless, relentless, soul-crushing and dare I say lobotomizing experience I have ever undergone in gaming and I despise it with every fiber of my being. No game has ever brought out such unfathomable rage in me as this game has, this game is genuinely out to kill you and drag you down to your lowest possible state.

But even then, despite it all, despite everything I've said above and will say in the future, I still love this game. The writing, characters, thematic messages and implications, all of it, everything and fuck it even the gameplay. If you the reader can persevere from everything this game throws at you as part of its masterfully crafted ludonarrative, one day you'll see the light. Quite possibly the greatest ludonarrative ever conceived

This game won't just tell you that life is worth is living, it'll go beyond and ask you to kill yourself just to test how hard you WANT to live. Unironic 10/10 masterpiece, I would wish this game upon my worst enemy.

I'll be real here, if this wasn't a spoiler free review this would be five times the length but I'm not here to subject you that, in fact we can both do that once you the reader are done with this game one day! I'm here to try my level best to condense my thoughts into something coherent without ANY spoilers, without sounding like a crazy lunatic, on selling to you what is arguably my favorite story in fiction so here goes. There will be ABSOLUTELY ZERO SPOILERS in this review, I'll be making sure of that. Spoiling this game for someone or for yourself has to be a cardinal sin or something SO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT LOOKING UP ANYTHING ABOUT THIS GAME UNTIL YOU BEAT IT, NOTHING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF THE TERMS YOU HEAR AND DON'T EVEN MAKE A SIMPLE SEARCH ABOUT THE CHARACTERS I'M SO SERIOUS. LOOK UP ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

First off, what is 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim? Well in a nutshell it’s a VN-esque game pumped full of steroids and cranked up to the max. This game features a non-linear narrative revolving around, you guessed it, 13 distinct characters. There are 2 types of gameplay options: Remembrance and Destruction. Remembrance is the real meat of this game and features the non-linear story with you controlling characters in a side-scrolling scenario whereas Destruction is the RTS (Real Time Strategy) section where you control the Sentinels as per the games namesake. Usually, you're mostly here for Remembrance which is understandable, I was too, but I personally find Destruction quite fun despite some considering it the weaker part of the game which I disagree with, it is genuinely really fun once you get the hang of it. It doesn't take too long once you get the hang of it either and the gameplay itself is quite minimalist, simple and most importantly it ends rather quickly as to not distract you from the story, in fact it adds even more to the story but that's a discussion for another day. That's it for the basic rundown of this game but allow me to go in depth and the reason why I hold this game in such high regard without spoiling anything for you.

This will be talking exclusively about Remembrance for the record but let me to get the simpler stuff out of the way first: the visuals are absolutely fucking gorgeous, so is the artwork and animations, characters have such subtle animations during events in order express their personality with some even happening in the background unbeknownst to the player and all accompanied by stellar voice acting in both languages but I personally find the dub much more enjoyable and would recommend it. The game is a visual treat for the eyes, this is Vanillaware at its peak, the music and even the sound effects are absolutely phenomenal as well but that's enough of the little stuff let’s move onto why you're really here. This game has the most unique way of telling a story that I've ever seen in a game, you can quite literally play the story in any order you like hence the obvious reason it’s called a non-linear narrative along with swapping between Remembrance and Destruction at your leisure albeit you will need to fulfil certain criteria to progress the overall narrative but worry not, the game spells out exactly which pre-requisite you need to do for unlocking the next segments. Every single character has their own distinct stories which branch into multiple other stories, oh and a neat fact, every single one of their stories is a unique spin on an existing piece of media or a movie, the characters themselves are also exceptionally well written for the most part. This may seem daunting but its presented in a way to hook the reader in, the stories overlap and intersect, there are countless clashes between the characters and their own goals and beliefs, some work together, some are at odds with each other and what really drives this home is the fact that eventually you will be seeing these certain events from another characters perspective sooner or later when you pursue the aforementioned characters story which on its own sheds even more light to the overarching narrative along with adding even more context on the event you just experienced. Again, this may seem daunting but it truly isn't, I say it has a unique way of presenting its story but it’s not merely just presented, the real reason is that piecing together the story IS the gameplay and I don't just mean the overall mystery, the game trusts and respects the players intelligence unconditionally. If a certain word is said again in another route? There is no flashback or "I remember them saying this" for the most part, the game reminds the player nothing because it trusts the player to remember the finer details and it does not let up in the slightest along with giving you an extensive archive to help you keep track. The plot is this constantly changing schematic inside your head which changes drastically as you take in and learn new information and plot threads, sometimes even flipping it over its head entirely, challenging everything you may have pieced together thus far. You the player are tasked with piecing this gigantic puzzle together, that in itself IS the gameplay, the puzzle may not make sense at first but you soon suddenly have some manner of "OH NOW I GET IT" moment which feels immensely satisfying BECAUSE you did this all yourself, the game did not feed you this revelation in a traditional manner, you the player pieced it together before the answer was even presented to you. It’s such a unique concept and I wish more games went to the lengths 13 Sentinels does in respecting the players intelligence to do. No matter how farfetched a plot detail may seem the game WILL expand on it in a well-executed manner at a certain point, the game trusts the player and it expects the player to trust the game in return, a symbiotic relationship if you will. Every bit of info, every bit of context from a different perspective and every single plot thread is tailor made to fit into the overarching narrative in such a disturbingly cohesive manner that you gotta wonder how long it took for the writers to make everything not seem nonsensical in fear of it seeming like multiple asspulls. Then again, this game WAS delayed multiple times so mayhap that was the reason, contrary to popular belief I haven't exactly deep dived into this game’s development cycle... yet.

This game is an experience like no other and, full disclosure, this is just me quoting 2 certain well known and respected game developers but I truly believe there will never be another game like 13 Sentinels but I would LOVE to be proven wrong, in a perfect world maybe everything was this game but this is just me being delusional for the sake of it but its heartening to know this games sales went from poor to exceeding expectations due to strong word of mouth by its small albeit extremely dedicated fanbase, giving Vanillaware the push they needed and deserved. This game is a phenomenal work of art, an extensive labor of love and passion by the developers and if you still managed to listen to my ramblings this far, I recommend this game to you with everything I have. Now go get in that Sentinel and strap in for the ride, also here's a cool line from the game to end this review cause why not :P

"It's really happening... Just as you said it would. So we'll do what we have to do. Get in the robots and fight. Our fate was sealed a long time ago."