"The dreams I've abandoned couldn't have come true. I have other dreams I haven't given up on. They still shine bright. They still light my way."

One of my new favourite games, and hard to beat as my game of the year. Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/450026/

Not From Software's best modern work (I still prefer Bloodborne and Dark Souls III, respectively) but still an incredible game. The most beautiful looking game I've ever seen, with masterful use of color, architecture and scope in it's world that made me literally say "Wow" out loud more than once. Took what Breath of the Wild established and excellently molded it into the Souls design philosophy, but not without a few hitches. Areas like the caverns and keeps littered throughout the world deliver a fun challenge for a while, but increasingly become bland and samey. Bosses feel almost restrictive, with their overaggressiveness and speed making some builds feel hard to the point that it's unfair. That doesn't stop my FromSoft bias from still giving this 5 stars, naming it my second favourite game of the year and calling it a genre-defining work.

I have a lot I want to say about this game, hot off the heels of finishing it for the first time. I want to do a longer review, but that probably won't be anytime soon. In short, Live A Live was a mixed, flawed game by nature of what it set out to do, but one that nonetheless thoroughly impressed me with it's ideas and how it uses what's at it's core to tell a tale that feels uplifting, exciting, saddening and upsetting all at once. The endings and everything that had led to them is something that'll stick in my mind for a long time.

Impeccable style. Bumping music. Tight controls and an ocean's worth of mechanics to play with and master, all topped off with the most amazing spritework and animation I've ever seen in any game. If you know anything about fighting games, you know Third Strike. I'm shocked it took me so long to finally dive into this, but all the hype surrounding it for decades still doesn't do this game justice playing it today.

Wonderful game!! It surprisingly had a story that although short, went in many ways I didn't expect and really pleasantly surprised me. The level design is top-notch; every level flows smoothly as you blast through them and find that perfect difficulty sweet spot to give a hearty challenge but not be frustrating. Having 5 characters all with different ways to shoot and different ways the powerups affect them gives a lot of replay value, as it's fun to always try new things in old levels and see yourself improve and die less. The visuals are gorgeous, and the music is great. All around a fantastic little gem of a game.

Pixel doesn't miss

This game made me so happy. It's a fun, joyous, endlessly charming romp seeing this Prince get into misadventures and trip over his hubris, and definitely the best Game Boy game by far. Some of the platforming aspects and necessity to have limited items to change forms got frustrating a few times, but that's my only real gripe with it.

The fighting gamers were right this game kicks ass

This game fucking rips. This game was made for me. This game is like if someone extracted everything out of my brain and put it in a video game.

It's a bit of a stretch to say I "played" Commonplace, a game I worked on for the better part of the past 2 years as art director on. It did come out this year, however, and I'm proud of what coalesced from the efforts of myself and some of my best friends in the world. I don't want to definitively rate Commonplace or speak on what it's merits are, as whatever comes out of my mouth would feel vain or self-deprecating, and would not just reflect on me but everyone else who put so much into this game. I will simply put it here and you can take away what you wish.

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/508298/

Also an addendum for the true fans who read these list notes; I didn't really talk about the game itself much. It's really good! Coming off of Splatoon 2, this game feels so much more lively, with much better balance for weapons and kits that can feel fun but never broken. The lobby system is greatly improved which is one of it's best strengths, me and my friends can just drop in on matches with each other so much more seamlessly and it feels damn good. The new system for ranked matches feels a lot better too, using the medals to allow the player's individual contributions mean something alongside the wins and losses you accumulate. Betting your rank points to enter a series in the hope that you come out with more than you put in at the end feels so much nicer than hitting hit with a quick gain or loss of points every match. Excited to see how this game evolves and shapes both casually and competitively.

By far the best game I couldn't bring myself to finish. Oozing with style, ingenuity and pure originality, nothing short but the epitome of cool, but just too obtuse and frustrating to finish playing on my own. I feel like a poser. I feel like I'm the kind of person who drove Suda51 to start making games like No More Heroes instead of games like Killer7. The guy I watched a longplay of for the rest of it was damn good though

What a fun little game! I was worried a Kirby game in full 3D would be difficult to pull off, but this game really nails the landing. Really fun ideas, fun controls, and a short runtime with lots to find and do after the fact make this game a delightful treat.

This game rules. Simple but incredibly fun on-rails shooter with presentation worthy of the Natsume name.

THIS is what I'm talking about. Incredibly fun PVE-focused fighting game with a drop-dead gorgeous presentation and boss fights that all feel fun to tackle. The way it incorporates more RPG elements I found to be a bit weak, but the game itself is just so damn fun.

Super nice, super relaxing puzzle game. Doesn't ever do anything too crazy but it's a perfect fix for a long day where all you wanna do is build up and look at these nice little landscapes.

I was in a long relationship which got really bitter and sore and ended on a bad note. I've since thought it was some dumb first relationship woes and moved on, but this game made me feel these things that I haven't felt in a long time. I didn't really like it.

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/471470/

I get so thrilled at the thought of dressing up my virtual videogame characters, so this game was like a dream for me.

The best bad game I've ever played. I can look at it objectively and say it sucks, but I would be a liar and a criminal if I said I wasn't having a lot of fun the whole time. (Well, except for the Tails/Eggman levels. Those blow.)

I suck at this game! But I can appreciate that classic 90's Capcom sheen all their games around this period had. Beautiful game, and a great note for the Darkstalkers series to end on.

Saki Amamiya should go down in history as one of gaming's coolest guys

Really cute little game! I didn't get as many laughs from it, but it still made me smile a lot more than I thought it would. It's clear this was made with a lot of love and reverence for the genre.

Read my review here:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/486188/

Really cute and really fun competitive puzzle game. Does it really have to be any more than that?

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/552294/

Pipe or die. You either pipe or you die.

This game rules so hard. It plays into all my since repressed feelings of being a 2010's emo. This game feels like an Evanescence album in the best and most over-the-top, overly dark way. This game also blows to play.

A delighful little demo showcasing more of Temmie's beautiful artwork. The atomsphere surrounding it was something I'm not a stranger to in RPG maker titles, but I still enjoyed nonetheless. I hope some of that is still there when or if the larger project Temmie plans on making comes to fruition.

Brutally quick fighting game I sadly couldn't really get the hang of. There's just, way too much going on! Maybe I'll give it another honest shot because the presentation behind it is great, but it may be almost too much for me.

Shockingly enough, what grabbed me was not the updates to this game. The base building was fine, I didn't really have anyone to play with, and the whole alien communication and trading system never really "clicked" with me. But the sheer volume of this game, how intimately it shows the scale and scope of space really surprised me. It's a lot different to watch than to really play and watch your humble home on this little island vanish under the scale of an entire world.

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/519352/

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/441185/

Cute little game! Nothing that really stands out, but nothing to really complain about either, beyond some bad camera angles making it difficult to gauge where to land. It would've gotten really repetitive if it ran any longer, but for what it is it's a fun time.

It's off-the-wall presentation, fun visuals and banging music make it a good time for a while, but the minigames very rapidly decline from cute little ideas to contextualize the situation to horribly annoying finicky button mashing marathons.

Not a "new" game I've played by any means, but I haven't touched this game since I was like, 10 years old. Nostalgia aside, it still holds up impressively well! It's a much slower pace for a tower defence game, and I would spend a lot of time just sitting around waiting to have enough resources to do something. I feel like some option to speed up the gameplay would be to it's benefit, as it takes too long to wind up for each round before getting the satisfaction of watching a setup go. This gets boring a lot, but it also gives a scant few moments where zombies have outpaced my defences at the point I was in, and I had to change my strategy on the fly in a really suddenly engaging way. It's still a really charming little game, but I didn't get nearly as much from it than as I did as a kid.

I wish I could like this game more so badly. It's so fun! It's so cute! I love these characters so much!! But, sadly, when you have to get down the brass tax it doesn't even try to do much beyond it's presentation to separate itself from it's contemporaries.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker had it's moments, but I really don't get the excitement. Like Stormblood, it felt like two stories haphazardly mashed together, one in the first half that did engage me and one in the latter that totally lost me. Falls into the usual FFXIV pitfall of scoring a pretty underwhelming finale with a really exciting heartpounding moment, and that's what this whole expansion and FFXIV as a whole feels like to me. It's a series of waiting in long, uninteresting, boring lines to get to fun albeit short rollercoaster rides.

I only played this game because Toriyama did the art. I know, how shallow of me. But I was pleasantly surprised! It's not a "good" game by any means but the time I had with it I did end up enjoying.

Read my review here (spoilers for the whole game): https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/482351/

Incredible artwork and fun music ESPECIALLY for one developer, but way too unfocused and dragged out to ever feel fun. If the average game takes a page from media that the devs like, Spark the Electric Jester takes the whole library.

You heard it a million times by now, so say it with me. This game laid a good groundwork for what the series would become but isn't very interesting or fun to play today. This one gets bonus points because the Darkstalkers style is so damn good.

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/494996/

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/456034/

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/418177/

I feel like I'm too mean to this one. It's a cute game!! It was made more to be a love letter to Capcom's lineage up to that point that be a good fighting game, but that won't stop me from seeing it with disdain for not being a good fighting game.

I literally forgot I played this game this year and didn't think to put it on this list until now. I put Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body on this list before this game. That should say everything I'd have wanted to.

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/570391/

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/438097/

Has a fun retro future identity, but underneath that nice gift wrapping is just another horribly boring, unengaging, drool out of your mouth while playing beat-em-up.

Ended up shelving this one. Maybe it ramps up eventually but it gave me a nice hook just to run through my interest in the first couple hours and actively try my patience the rest of the time I played. The video game equivalent of taking a long boring car ride and constantly thinking "are we there yet?"

Also Tartarus blows. Single worst dungeon I've crawled through in a JRPG and I'm astounded that the core of the combat is contained there. Fuck this imma go play Persona 2: Innocent Sin instead

I played through like two levels of this in one night with my friends then put it down. It's no fun to play, but it's cute, at least!

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/456700/

Don't have much to say about this one. Just the second game with less charm and less fun. No reason to play it over it's sequel

I really don't have much to say about this game. It's alright! It's mechanics were good for the time, I guess. I just didn't feel much playing it.

I love this shit. I love when fighting games had absolutely no shame in completely ripping Street Fighter 2 and making it worse

https://youtu.be/nVhrIrRVGBw

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/415090/

Pretty bland hack and slash RPG. Doesn't have much of a personality behind it, and it starts to drag it's feet very early on and make it's combat loop quickly tiring. There's not much to say beyond that.

Looks and sounds gross, plays awfully, but just something thats cool to see that they fit on the GBA at all. No Robo-Ky though CRINGE

Read my review here: https://www.backloggd.com/u/Ricecreammm/review/538940/

I've been playing a lot of fighting games this year, and this has been the worst one so far. It certainly lays some of the groundwork for fighting games to come as a genre, but at the cost of feeling downright gross to play today.

I really don't know what I'm supposed to say about this one. Everyone knows this game blows and boy it sure does!

The worst feeling fighter I've ever played and it's not close.

when you throw the women enemy she shows off her tits