Games Played in 2021 (Ranked)
These are the games I beat during 2021, ranked. Note that they didn't have to come out in 2021, I just had to play them that year.
29 Games
A spectacular game that feels like it was made exactly for me and my dumb little tastes. From the art, to the music, to the writing, to the very simple gameplay, it's an absolute treat to read through and experience!
1
Metroid Dread is absolutely close to being perfect. Probably the best movement and bosses in a Metroid game, with an ending that had me so hooked and blown away with excitement for the direction the series will now have to take.
2
A very fun, comfy little farming game that incorporates fun 2D hack and slash action with rice farming. The story is a really nice story about a God that learns to be humbled and kinder through her newfound human family, and it's nicely done. I was genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed this one. If I had a complaint, it'd be that the loop of farming and combating could be expanded upon, but I think it's more forgivable after learning that this game was legitimately only made by 2 people, and was merely published by X-Seed.
3
Jet Set Radio Future is a sequel that is WAY better than Jet Set Radio. It doesn't perfect the formula perfectly, the game has it's issues, but for what the game sets out to do, with it's more open approach to design, it iterates upon the original game and gets the concept a lot closer to what JSR felt like it was trying to be.
4
Probably the best Kirby game! Every game within this omnibus package is fun and an interesting spin on a Kirby game! I still have a special place for Kirby 64 and Dreamland 3 in terms of platformers, but on an objective level, I think this game surpasses them in pure game feel.
5
A very special little point and click game with a ton of charm! I think it's puzzles are a bit too obtuse but playing the game with a guide and experiencing the story was a genuine treat, and MacKenzie is now one of my favorite protagonists!
6
Deltarune Chapter 2 I think escalates the first chapter and really brings the game to something special. The gameplay to Deltarune I prefer over the more abstract gameplay of Undertale, where the gimmick is more incorporated into the gameplay in a way that isn't as heavily relied on not understanding the gimmick. The story I think I enjoy a lot more as well, simply because a lot of the intrigue is still being kept from the story itself rather than the gimmick doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
7
Great Ace Attorney Adventures is a wonderful little VN, and might be close to the top of the Ace Attorney games for me! The cases are really interesting and tie together in an interesting way, all the characters are really fun and likable Sherlock Holmes is wonderful and boosts this game to high heights, the mechanics to this game are excellent and help drive the story in fun ways. Just a really good VN!
8
A very special little game that I put off playing for years because the main gimmick was spoiled for me. Learning that your consequences for killing enemies ends up resulting in you having a different ending beforehand without experiencing it for myself kind of ruined the main drive of the game. I think that emotional connection you get with not knowing that gimmick is super strong, and would have greatly impacted my experience. But without it, Undertale is a special, interesting little game, but just not as emotionally resonating with me as it could had been.
The music, the story, the characters, the interesting mix of bullet hell and rpg, makes the game a fun, experimental game that really deserves at least most of the praise it gets.
The music, the story, the characters, the interesting mix of bullet hell and rpg, makes the game a fun, experimental game that really deserves at least most of the praise it gets.
9
A weird little game that I enjoyed for it's unique atmosphere and music. Somewhat nonsensical at times, but for an acid trip, it's pretty much spot on.
10
OFF is an interesting game, a game that I'm not sure I fully understand, but a game I can appreciate. Tone wise, the game feels like a trip to a different plane of existence, and that's helped with the art and the music. Things like the obtuse puzzles and the very standard feeling game maker rpg combat that's a bit underutilized kind of drag the game down for me, but the experience of playing this game is a must.
11
This game made me fall in LOVE with Treasure Games. This game is awesome, with some of the best bosses I've ever seen in a game! Super creative, super fun, super awesome game!
13
Dark Souls 3 is great! It's close to a"best of" album more than it feels like a sequel at times, however. A lot of the ideas, characters, and story feel like retreadings of old ideas instead of old ideas with an interesting twist to them. Mechanically, some of it feels unfinished, with some mechanics completely not being necessary or half-baked in their inclusion. But as a game itself, it's a really fun, challenging game. Overcoming some of these bosses could be a nightmare, but it felt rewarding to finally beat them, which Dark Souls is very good at giving that feeling to the player.
14
No More Heroes 3 is objectively a good game, but part of me feels a little disappointed with it. I think the alien direction really holds back some of the gameplay as well as the story. Because the aliens are all apart of the same group, a lot of their designs tend to run together, and it's harder to connect with the bosses because of this. Mechanically, they're also probably the weakest bosses, with the human bosses feeling way more interesting and fleshed out in comparison. The story in general is about Travis getting back into action, but the life he's living getting even worse for him. The threat becomes so big that it ends up destroying his friends, as well as parallels with him and Fu being deeply aligned. And while that's cool and all, a lot of it begins to feel like we're retreading TSA, but with Suda gushing about Miike for hours.
This isn't to say I didn't enjoy the game, I think the gameplay is a bit more polished, the music is cool, and I think some of the boss fights are great! I'm just disappointed for the things listed above, as well as the game not feeling like it's super complete with everything they wanted to do. Which is partially true, but it's most likely not something that will be fixed with DLC, sadly.
This isn't to say I didn't enjoy the game, I think the gameplay is a bit more polished, the music is cool, and I think some of the boss fights are great! I'm just disappointed for the things listed above, as well as the game not feeling like it's super complete with everything they wanted to do. Which is partially true, but it's most likely not something that will be fixed with DLC, sadly.
15
Part Time UFO is a cute little game! Simple gameplay premise of picking things up with a claw and putting it in a specific place, but it works well enough! A fun time waster and not much else, but a very fun time waster!
16
This game is great! The port is not! There's a lot of bugs to the game, and mechanically, the game tends to be a bit strange with things like hit detection or difficulty spikes. Sometimes it feels like I'm not doing something right and end up just getting my ass kicked. It also doesn't feel like the game really expands itself until your character unlocks specific moves, then the game gets a lot better and more interesting! But as a game, I'm very glad I played it! It's a very fun beat'em up with a fucking awesome ost and pixel art.
17
Super Monkey Ball is great! I think some of the physics for this title in particular aren't as great as the first game's or the second game's from what I've played, but this game is fun!
18
A simple little game about exploring and platforming and having a cozy little time. Not super long, a bit of a time waster, but a very cute time waster. Didn't get a ton out of the game, but it was a fun time!
19
I think in comparison to DKC 2, it's not as mechanically interesting, but it's a fun little platformer. DKC 1 might be my least favorite of the series just because of how awfully hard and unfair that game can get at times, with this being above it, with DKC 2 at the top. But they're all pretty solid games. They didn't really emotionally resonate with me.
20
A solid little platformer, a bit tough in places, and definitely not as solid as Gunstar Heroes, but a fun game nonetheless.
21
A very cute story with very cute designs, some tricky puzzles that had me tearing my hair out on, a horrible final boss that I hate because it's pure memorization and muscle memory, but overall a fun little experience.
22
I don't remember much about this game besides having fun with it if I'm honest!
23
This was my first time playing Pokemon in years. I think the last time I played Pokemon was 5 levels into PKMN Sun and quiting, and 3-4 badges in PKMN X. Before that, my last game was Emerald, I think, whichever one had Treeko in it. Anyways, I had heard that Platinum was one of the best Pokemon games, so I decided to try it out. And what I came away with was that, Pokemon hasn't changed in years. It felt like I was playing Ruby or Emerald again, which was more playable than X or Sun, but it didn't feel like anything really changed that much. It hit me why I stopped caring about the series and never played any of the DS games: I had my fill with that formula. And while Platinum is a fine enough game, it's legitimately just more or less the same games I played as a kid, just with a different artstyle and levels.
24
A fun story with very okay shooting. I think the most interesting thing about Uncharted though is that it exemplifies my distaste for Naughty Dog's way of making the world feel like it was specifically made for me the player. It's very little things like, putting in convenient cover for the player to suddenly have, that pulls me out of the game's world. In a realistic setting it becomes much more obvious to my brain that things like that shouldn't be happening, and it messes with my brain.
25
A fun little 3D platformer that's over in like an hour. There's not much to say about it, but it's fine.
26
Paper Mario: The Origami King comes close to being a good game. It's so close to being good, and it's really disappointing that I just can't say I enjoyed it more than what other people have taken away from it. A lot of the core issues from the previous games are still there, just lessened a bit. The coins are too plentiful, the combat system isn't very well put together and ends up becoming boring, it doesn't do enough with the ideas it has in terms of world and character, making it feel rather limited still. The world themes that come closest to being great are the Samurai theme park and the boat world, both really came close to greatness, but both ended up falling flat in areas and overstating their welcome. The story is more of the same with the previous two games, tripling down on the story being about paper instead of an actual world within a story book. I think Bobby becomes close to being a likable character, but his death feels really forced and laughable when his ghost comes back for some reason. I genuinely disliked how it was handled, especially given the fact that in previous games within the series, Bob-bombs used to just explode for fun all the time. The idea of a bomb making his final good bye because of a big rock is really, REALLY dumb, and I dislike it.
Overall, I didn't like the game all that much, but it had some stuff in it that I liked a little. Would probably be at the bottom if I could even recall anything about Psycho Dream or the monkey game that I can't even remember the name of. I think it might be Spanky's Quest but it's funnier to not look and just not remember the name of it.
Overall, I didn't like the game all that much, but it had some stuff in it that I liked a little. Would probably be at the bottom if I could even recall anything about Psycho Dream or the monkey game that I can't even remember the name of. I think it might be Spanky's Quest but it's funnier to not look and just not remember the name of it.
27
The most interesting part of this game was that it was made by some of the people who made Moon RPG, but as a platformer, it's fairly forgettable and short.
28
It has an interesting mechanic of a ball that you bounce and it makes a different ball type that behaves differently but a fairly unremarkable game otherwise
29