Top 5 Games of 2015

#5) Shadows of the Damned: Labeled as “a Suda51 trip”, Shadows of the Damned continues Goichi Suda’s legacy of grindhouse style, wacky humor, and exhilarating action. Demon Hunter Garcia Hotspur pursues his girlfriend’s soul after it is taken to the depths of hell, and squares off against a host of sadistic and twisted foes, armed with three different firearms that all handle quite differently but pack an oh-so-satisfying punch. Much of the game’s best banter results from Garcia’s edgy coolness and his transforming weapon/guide/friend Johnson. Shadows of the Damned isn’t afraid to experiment, throwing in bowling and pachinko minigames, a turret sniping section, and a couple of horizontal shoot-‘em-up sequences. Shadows of the Damned also delivers one of the freshest visions of hell seen in a video game in quite some time, with impossible spaces and outlandish visions of locations that could easily appear in the real world, were it not for the fire lake below a rock bridge or the hazy blue and black sky above.

#4) Fast Racing Neo: That hole left by the many years without a new F-Zero-style game has finally been filled, thanks to Fast Racing Neo, one of the most buttery-smooth futuristic arcade racing titles I’ve ever had the pleasure of engaging at blazing speeds. Fast Racing Neo lives up to its name, and doesn’t shy away from throwing a ‘trial by fire’ at players – even the most frustrating series of crashes play into the learning curve. Fast Racing Neo is hardly unfair, shying away from ‘rubber band’ catch up effects with opponent racer A.I., but it does add a welcome spin on the established genre by requiring players to shift between two colors in order to maximize boost strips. This is a game all about course memorization and careful timing of turns and boosts. And what a sight to behold those courses are, as your hovercraft zips by vibrant colors and chrome structures at an almost-always-perfect 60 frames per second. Aside from controlling as wonderfully as anyone could hope of a spiritual successor to F-Zero, the game is easily one of the best looking titles on any console this generation.

#3) Splatoon: The freshest IP on the block this year, Splatoon is a stylish and colorful team-based shooter that opts for cooperation in covering the map in neon shades of orange, green, blue, and pink over racking up kills against opponents. The weapons are wonderfully inventive, and while each player will find their preferred Roller, Charge Rifle, or – yes – even Bucket, each loadout is surprisingly well-balanced. The lack of a voice chat is actually to the game’s benefit, as objectives are straightforward, and maps are never too large to lose track of your relative location. Every inch of this game oozes style, from its downtown Tokyo-inspired hubworld, to its Jet Set Radio-influenced soundtrack. Splatoon is a great game for players new and old to jump into, and it’s easy to sink a few hours at a time, whether it’s the objective-based ranked game types, or standard Turf Wars.

#2) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: The final Metal Gear title to be led by Hideo Kojima, The Phantom Pain is set in the 1980s, and fills in some of the last remaining pieces of the series’ lore. Plenty of familiar faces show up, including Ocelot and Kazuhira Miller, while the villainous Skull Face and his powerful Metal Gear stand at the center of all the conflicts Snake and the Mother Base soldiers will take on. The Phantom Pain boasts what is easily the most slick and enjoyable gameplay in the entire series, as well as among the majority of the games released within the past year. The two major maps Snake is left to explore are expansive, and there is plenty of room to experiment with some of the game’s wackier offerings, like Fulton balloon recovery, the prosthetic Rocket Arm, and the less-than-stealthy robotic D-Walker. The story, however sparse it may be, is impactful and tense when it comes into play, and paints a terrifyingly convincing case for how and why Snake and his brothers-in-arms would come to be recognized as villains many years after they were hailed as heroes. Unfortunately, the greatest weakness facing The Phantom Pain is that it is simply an incomplete game – there is one major plot point left hanging that throws a bit of a wrench in the entire series, and while footage has since revealed what was meant to be delivered in this final mission, its absence having been replaced by retreads of previous missions certainly stings.

#1) Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: One of the best spin-off titles of any well-established series I have encountered to date, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth is a love letter to fans of the series. It may lack the depth of Persona 3 and 4’s Social Links, and the dungeon-crawling may bear a striking resemblance to the Etrian Odyssey series. Still, Persona Q offers a complex system of fusing new Personas as you level up, as well as a well-rounded cast of characters to build your party. Each dungeon is masterfully crafted, offering greatly varied puzzles, enemies, and aesthetics as the story progresses. The final hours of the game are both challenging and incredibly rewarding, while the 60+ hours you will spend getting there is an absolute joy, and makes Persona Q one of the strongest entries into the 3DS library to date.

2015 Year in Review: Video Games

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

My rating: 8.5

Bayonetta

My rating: 7.5

NES Remix

My rating: 5

Pokemon Shuffle

My rating: 7

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

My rating: 9

Forza Horizon 2: Fast and Furious

My rating: 6

(Mario Kart 8)

DLC review – Animal Crossing x Mario Kart 8

My rating: 7.5

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

My rating: 8.5

Splatoon

My rating: 8.75

Shadows of the Damned

My rating: 7.25

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

My rating: 7.75

Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater

My rating: 8.75

Fast Racing Neo

My rating: 9

Top five video games and anime of 2015 - Spring and Summer contenders

We are now more than halfway through 2015, and I feel that my contenders for this year’s best anime and video game picks are currently fewer and further between than in years past. I have only come across a couple of games that really blew me away, and one in particular was a title that I did not expect to impress me as nearly much as it managed to. There are, however, a few major titles releasing this Fall and Winter that may very well find their way on to the final, year-end list, including Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Star Fox Zero. On the anime side of things, there’s certainly been a clear front-runner since the year began, while other series have managed to offer me pleasant surprises with shorter episode counts.

- Video Games -

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth - Persona Q combines the dungeon-mapping and exploration elements of the Etrian Odyssey series with the familiar faces and Persona abilities from the third and fourth numbered entries in the Persona series. Persona Q is, in many ways, a game that is directly aimed at established fans of the series, offering callbacks to events that transpired in Persona 3 and Persona 4 Yet, it does well to establish an engaging narrative all its own. The lack of Social Link depth is unfortunate, but all the same, Persona Q is one of the most jam-packed and wonderfully enjoyable spinoff games of its caliber.

Splatoon - The fictional hosts of this game, Callie and Marie, tell players to stay fresh, and that’s exactly what Splatoon is – a fresh culmination of third-person shooting, action-adventure, platforming, and slight puzzle design, all wrapped up in a wildly inventive, punky aquatic vision of Tokyo, where online multiplayer is the primary focus. The soundtrack is kickin’, the neon ink colors bright and a blast to splatter over every inch of the map, and the community focus incredibly strong.

Shadows of the Damned - Delivering a simpler, more singularly-focused tale than other Suda51 creations, Shadows of the Damned sees the grindhouse-inspired demon hunter Garcia Hotspur racing headfirst into the depths of hell to save his true love. Weaving a curiously cohesive string of environments together to create a fresh vision of hell, and offering tight gameplay the focuses on three core weapons and their occasional uses for solving puzzles, Shadows of the Damned is a surprisingly solid entry in the legacy of Grasshopper Manufacture, even if its crude sense of humor falls flat from time to time.

- Anime -

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders (Egyptian Arc) - What is currently poised to take the cake as this year’s best-of-the-best anime, the second half of Stardust Crusaders has managed to ORAORAORA the competition and climb the ranks as one of my all-time favorite anime series. It’s a masterful follow-up to the first half of Stardust Crusaders, an adaptation which was already an incredible improvement over the wonderfully-realized animated telling of the first two arcs of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The series keeps on improving as it progresses, and I couldn’t be more pleased with this love letter to the Jojo’s fanbase.

Ninja Slayer - Despite a rocky start, this goofy, sometimes off-the-wall homage to action anime of the late 1980s and early 1990s has proved consistently entertaining since. Drastic changes in animation style and quality poke fun at limited budgets from the era that Ninja Slayer draws so much of its inspiration from, and the exchanges of greetings that foes share prior to each violent encounter puts a smile on my face as character designs proves increasingly more silly. Ninja Slayer knows when to play its cards properly, balancing wacky humor with kickass action sequences.

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam - Victory Gundam has aged surprisingly well given its early 1990s debut. Sure, there are a handful of gaps in logic and corny sequences, but by and large, Victory Gundam plays the part of a spiritual successor to Zeta Gundam, pitting a rebellious group of ragtag teens and young adults against the cruel and violent expansion of the Zanscare Empire. The hand-drawn animation also impresses with its lack of reliance on stock footage, and the soundtrack haunts with its soft, yet still imposing melodies.

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine - A throwback to the classic action and espionage of one of anime’s oldest and most iconic series, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine combines flash and flair of a bygone era with contemporary writing techniques for a smart, sexy, and thoroughly enjoyable telling of the earliest encounters between Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, Inspector Zenigata, and the titular Fujiko. The art style is gorgeous, retaining the traditional character designs with gorgeous lighting effects, harsh shadows, and an overall presentation factor that continues to impress with subtle impacts on the larger product.

Wii U review: Splatoon

Each time you boot up Splatoon, the celebrity Squid Sisters of the game’s fictional realm will list off the maps currently in rotation for both ranked and unranked playlists, capping their announcement with warm wishes that every inkling girl and boy “stay fresh!” And that is exactly what Splatoon brings to the table – a fresh hybrid of third-person shooter combat, sandwiching platform and action elements between its other major design point of painting the stage in neon ink colors. At its core, Splatoon is a team-oriented shooter where the objective is not so much offing enemy team members, rather attempting to cover as much of the map as possible in your team’s respective color. With perhaps a slight hint of Super Mario Sunshine playing into Splatoon’s inspiration, and certainly more than a small dose of Jet Set Radio, this spunky, upbeat I.P. is a welcome addition to the Wii U, as well as to the online gaming community for the way it manages to shake up so many staples of the shooter genre with simple tweaks.

The novelty of all this, of course, would wear thin rather quickly if the game suffered from lag or connection issues. While this was certainly a fully merited concern prior to the game’s release given Nintendo’s often less-than-stellar performance of online components of Wii titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Splatoon has – against all expectations – the best connection record of any multiplayer online game I’ve ever managed to get my hands on. The two or three times I encountered any form of lag were during the first weeks following Splatoon’s launch, and they were marginal, at worst, lasting only a brief few seconds. Occasionally, the game will be unable to connect to matches during server maintenance periods, but these roadblocks are short-lived and only to be expected. And the frequency with which new, free content such as additional maps, weapons, and game modes are trickled into the mix is more than sufficient compensation for these segments of downtime.

Painting the town orange or purple or lime green or whatever your team’s assigned color is remains a constant across the entire experience, though ranked matches do introduce both ‘king of the hill’ and ‘capture the flag’ variants in the forms of Splatzones and Tower Control, with more game modes on the way. Single player has players navigate short but increasingly creative and visually appealing stages as they battle enemy Octolings in order to rescue captured cute and yellow Zapfish. This story mode does not boast the most complex narrative, nor does it last more than a few hours, but the sheer variety of environment designs, thoughtful strategies regarding boss battles, and overall fun factor make it worth diving into. A one-on-one local multiplayer mode is also included, wherein players compete to pop balloons for the most points, but is significantly less meaty and also less enjoyable than the other main modes.

Splatoon does have a couple of significant drawbacks, however. The single player mode, while short and sweet, offers up blueprints for new weapons for those who do a little bit of exploration. The Amiibo functionality for this game works the same way, offering remixed versions of select single player stages with different weapons loadouts, and rewarding players with some of the game’s coolest costumes as well as a couple of extra armament options. However, if you did not purchase these Splatoon Amiibo, you are fresh out of luck, unless Nintendo decides to release these as paid DLC items in the future.

The other big hit against this original I.P. is the fact that, within any given multiplayer playlist, there are only two maps in rotation at any given time. Matches are fast, lasting only three minutes each, and you’ll see a lot of the same environments in rapid succession. Throwing a couple more maps in rotation at a time would have circumvented this issue entirely, though the game does switch up the maps that are in rotation quite frequently, which slightly eases the blandness of being dropped into Blackbelly Skatepark six times in a row.

While Splatoon may not boast an abundance of multiplayer maps, the selection it does offer includes design variations that are greatly appreciated, and work well with the different game modes. The rises and dips of Blackbelly Skatepark provide a reasonably sized outer ring for players to quickly propel through in squid form before taking to two legs and entering the firefight-focused center. The Kelp Dome is one of the game’s larger maps, and allows for players to shoot down from a catwalk on opponents below, albeit at the risk of being more greatly exposed to return fire. Port Mackerel and Arowana Mall provide more traditional symmetrical settings, while the winding ramps and square arena of Saltspray Rig host matches that can drastically shift at a moment’s notice.

Unranked matches will net you experience points regardless of whether you win or lose, while ranked matches only reward experience points to winners and subsequently move your letter ranking up or down based on performance. Leveling up grants you access to new weapons or variants of previous ones with alternate stats and loadouts. Much like the game’s clothing items, these weapons cost experience points to claim as your own.

However wildly different two weapons might be, they will always offer pros and cons, so as to keep the entire experience balanced. As a result, the weapons players choose are bound to be the ones they enjoy and are most confident with. While the roller covers a large area, it has minimal range, and is generally ill-suited for fighting other players. The brush splatters paint rapidly from side to side, but handles in an unusual manner, and drains ink rather quickly. Likewise, building up your charge meter to unleash brief but very powerful and broad range of the Killer Wail plays to a much different audience than the timed free-roam invincibility of the Kraken.

Clothing items grant you bonuses such as the ability to conserve ink, a slightly improved buffer when under enemy fire, faster respawn times, and so forth. These are attributed at random upon earning a set amount of experience points while donning a particular shirt, hat, or pair of shoes in battle. These skills do not carry over from one article of clothing to another, however, the sea snails that are earned as rewards for participating in Splatfests – Splatoon’s poll-based tournaments in which Team Cat is pitted against Team Dog, Team Marshmallow against Team Hot Dog, and so forth – can be exchanged for extra skill slots, or to re-roll slots on pieces of clothing which already have these slots filled up.

Gibberish inkling vocals add a further level of depth to the wonderfully-crafted soundtrack. The game’s musical offerings draw inspiration from electropop, J-pop, punk, and even rock sounds that border on the thrash range. Combine this with the spunky and colorful character models, and a nautical reimagining of Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing as the hubworld menu, and you have a recipe for a truly unique and endearing property. Splatoon is a sensory bombardment at every turn, but never to an overwhelming degree. Above all else, Splatoon is exceptionally weird, fun for players of all skill levels, and a welcome break from the familiar.

My rating: 8.75 (out of 10)

Gaming Update: Of Squid Kids and Space Hauntings

Hot off the heels of the latest Nintendo Direct, I figure it an appropriate time to provide a rundown of some of the games on my radar this year. The games here are listed in what is more-or-less the chronological order of their release, with some variation, as we do not yet have accurate release dates for all of the games I will be talking about. The first two I am almost certain to purchase sooner rather than later are Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. and Resident Evil: Revelations 2. The demo released a month or so ago for Code Name S.T.E.A.M. left me really impressed, and I’d love to give the full retail release a playthrough. Meanwhile, while I was skeptical of the sequel to Resident Evil: Revelations maybe not living up to its 3DS predecessor, the early gameplay segments I have seen of it have largely put my worries to rest. While I’m still disappointed that Capcom decided not to release Revelations 2 on the 3DS, I’ll still pick up a copy for my Xbox 360.

While I am pleased to see Nintendo has released the other N64 Zelda title on the 3DS in an updated form, it hasn’t been all that long since I last played Majora’s Mask, so I’ll likely wait a while before I make the journey back to Termina – in all likelihood, I’d be looking at getting Majora’s Mask 3D sometime later this Summer or Fall. The late Spring months into early Summer will likely be spent with Splatoon, which continues to impress me more and more with each chunk of gameplay footage that Nintendo reveals. I’m really digging the art style, as it falls somewhere in the territory of Jet Set Radio and No More Heroes, while the team-based gameplay looks like some sort of fever dream hybrid of DeBlob and Team Fortress 2. It’s a weird melting pot of ideas, to be sure, but one that looks like it could be a thoroughly satisfying online multiplayer frenzy.

While there is no definitive release date yet marked for Ghost Song: A Journey of Hope, it is a Metroidvania title that I’ve already put my money down for, and am very much looking forward to playing by year’s end. I’m pleased to see someone working to fill that niche genre, as their hasn’t been word on a new Metroid title since the Wii release of Other M. I’ll also probably pick up The Next Penelope: Race to Odysseyus, another indie game which, coincidentally, seeks to fill yet another niche genre that I am a big fan of, falling into the territory of F-Zero’s high-speed and intense racing design. While this latest Nintendo Direct only revealed so much about the long-awaited Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem project, I will admit that it looks absolutely gorgeous, and my feelings toward it are more positive than I initially expected due to the gameplay aligning more closely with the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games. The character designs are a bit of a mixed bag – I love Fire Emblem armor and beasts, but the real-world SMT characters bear overly-anime stylized designs that I’m not so keen on.

On the topic of games I have already started playing but have yet to complete, I’ve powered through the first fifteen hours or so of Persona 3 FES, which is currently on loan to me from a friend. I intend to pick up my own copy of it sometime later this year, but wanted to get an early start, as my feelings toward both Persona 4 and Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth were overwhelmingly positive. I’m also more than halfway through the Wii port of the Gamecube remake of the original Resident Evil, which I’ve been tackling in short bursts. I’d also like to see if I can’t complete my virtual console copy of Paper Mario, the Zone of the Enders HD Collection, and the 3DS eShop release of Moon Chronicles by year’s end. While I did sink about ten or eleven hours into Watch Dogs, it may be a while before I pick that back up, as the load times are downright atrocious, and some of the core gameplay elements less polished than I had hoped.