2016 Arbitrary Choice Game Awards

Putting together lists like these is always hard because I definitely didn’t play every game that came out, and a few of my picks slid onto the list just in the last few weeks of the year. But, as it stands, here are some of my favorite games I played in 2016:

stardew valley — best calming time sink

Stardew Valley draws from my endless well of nostalgia for the Harvest Moon series. Harvest Moon 64 was my first console game and I played incredible amounts of Friends of Mineral Town on my Game Boy Advance when I was 9. Perhaps inevitably, that interest dropped off as I’ve played more recent entries into the series, dropping me right into the demographic that the developer, ConcernedApe, was aiming for when he created Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is the best farming life sim I’ve played, with the perfect blend of modern and retro graphics that draws from the nostalgia so many people have for older games in the genre. I actually forgot it came out this year because it already has this very nostalgic spot in my memory already. I picked it back up about a week ago and it’s just as charming as it was last spring. As a bit of a sidenote, I really love how romance is implemented in Stardew Valley — accommodating gay players without having to change much at all.

kentucky route zero act iv— best cryptic atmosphere

Due to its drawn-out development cycle, Kentucky Route Zero has consistently topped my favorite games list every time a new act is released.

If you haven’t yet, you should check out Kentucky Route Zero’s perfect blend of surrealism and heavy americana. You can read more on my thoughts about the game’s fourth act here.

With one more installment still to come, I’m excited (and a little sad) to see how Cardboard Computer finishes off what has become one of my favorite games.

yo-kai watch 2 — best worldbuilding

I had never gotten into the Yo-kai Watch series before the release of Yo-kai Watch 2 (only grabbing a copy of Fleshy Souls to stave off my anticipation for the new Pokémon games) but I found myself absolutely loving the series’ urban world and colorful spirits that inhabit it. Though Pokémon Sun and Moon are impossible to beat in the monster-raising and battling game, Yo-kai Watch better defines its world and brings it alive by showing how spirits and humans interact. More than anything else, Yo-kai Watch makes it more worth it to visit the same areas over and over, something that Pokémon games have never really nailed.

The unique personalities of Yokai Watch’s spirits and their playful missions/side stories made this game extremely memorable for me. The ability for spirits to communicate makes it easier for the game to make smaller but still rewarding storylines and reframe traditional RPG arcs in diverse, light-hearted, and colorful ways.

fire emblem: fates — game that siphoned the most money out of my bank account

First things first: Fire Emblem: Fates is split between three versions: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations for a combined price tag of $80 without optional DLC, but I don’t regret a dollar I spent between the three versions and the first round of DLC. The thing that, to me, cements Fire Emblem: Fates’ place on this list is the massive cast, introducing colorful Eastern-inspired classes and character designs for the first time ever in Birthright and bringing back classic European medieval classes from older entries in the series in Conquest.

Though Fire Emblem is certainly guilty of relying heavily on archetypes and sometimes one-dimensional character concepts, the sheer volume of writing that exists for each character color in even the most unoriginal archetypes if you’re willing to put a little effort into grinding relationships through battle. And, of course, playing wartime matchmaking simulator is just as fun as it was in Awakening whether you pair units off based on tactical efficiency, personality, or spite.

Fates also has some improvements over Awakening (limited same-sex relationship options for the first time, more varied and flashy classes, skills, and weapons), and though it stumbles in a few places (absolutely wild quasi-incestuous romance options, not much of a compelling plot for the majority of three storylines) it serves as a solid continuation for the modern Fire Emblem games that were kickstarted by Awakening in 2012.

The gameplay is better than ever, especially in Conquest where careful strategy feels as rewarding and difficult as the first Fire Emblem game I played on GBA when I was 8. If you’re willing to put up with a bit of fan-service, over-the-top characters, and sometimes grueling difficulty, Fire Emblem: Fates is more than worth your time.

odin sphere leifthrasir — best hypersexual art style

I’m a complete sucker for anything Vanillaware does — even though I don’t normally gravitate to side-scrolling brawlers or beat ’em ups. Their stories are always a really interesting blend of high fantasy and classic mythology, but their games really coast entirely on their consistently stunning art styles.

Odin’s Sphere: Leifthrasir isn’t quite as guilty of the completely over-the-top hypersexual character design that Dragon’s Crown drew criticism for, and though its gameplay wasn’t incredibly memorable, the archetypal characters and gorgeous environments slotted this game on my list. Plus it was one of the very few games this year that I could play on my more-or-less abandoned Vita.

oxenfree — best until dawn sequel

I discovered Oxenfree in the last few weeks of the year, but it’s spectacular. It has all the classic selling points that I love to see in games: a strong sense of atmosphere through sound design and visual manipulation, a gorgeous art style, and seemingly endless amounts of well-written dialogue. I’d try to describe this game as a mix between Until Dawn and Life is Strange, drawing some of the best and most engaging aspects of each.

The surface similarities to Until Dawn are pretty huge — you’re part of a group of high schoolers stuck in a remote area contending with shifting relationships between group members and supernatural forces that gradually reveal themselves as you learn more about the area’s history. This is all given a Life is Strange spin where you control conversations and can steer them different ways and have some pseudo-magical powers, this time in the form of a radio you always have on hand. Oxenfree probably has the largest number of dialogue choices I’ve ever seen in a game, and so many of those interactions are well-written and genuinely funny. The characters are memorable and fun to interact with, and the games fills in much of its required backtracking with new conversations between characters to make those segments less of a slog to navigate through.

I can’t wrap this one up without mentioning how spooky and unsettling the game is — it’s not afraid to throw characters around like ragdolls or be a little less straightforward in many scenes than you might expect a ‘scary’ game to be. It’s sometimes over-the-top, sometimes creepy, sometimes funny, sometimes touching, but it succeeds in balancing (and sometimes combining) all of these different elements through its relatively short length.

overwatch — best post-release content

To be honest, Overwatch wasn’t going to make my list until it released Arcade mode in the last few months of the year. Arcade mode is a lobby with separate queues for mystery heroes, no hero limits mode, and other less popular (and less balanced) brawl modes. Also included in arcade mode are the 3v3 and 1v1 modes that people more competitive than me seem to love. These arcade modes take away the pressures and expectations (and the angry players) of other game modes and have an increased focus on just having fun and playing the game without caring as much about winning or losing — the exact sweet spot that I think Overwatch does best in.

My biggest testimonial for Overwatch is that my computer can barely run the game at 15 fps and I still love playing it. The progression system is pretty unrewarding and I can’t even pretend the matchmaking system makes any sense to me, but the gameplay is so fun that these flaws don’t win out. Playing and improving your personal skills as the 23 completely different heroes is super fun, as is discovering powerful (or absolutely terrible) hero combinations with your friends, and that’s something that I’ve missed since I stopped playing Team Fortress 2.

As a final note, I’ve heard that Blizzard is working on accommodating custom player-made game modes and servers — the feature that I had hoped for the most from Overwatch due to having such fond memories of them from Team Fortress 2, and I’m really excited to see how they’re implemented when that happens. I genuinely can’t wait to see how Overwatch continues to grow after all the improvements they’ve made and content they’ve added to the game within the first 2/3rds of a year, and I’m sure I’ll continue playing it off and on for a long time.

pokémon sun & moon — best reiteration of a game i have played and will continue to play dozens of times

To round off this list with my most inevitable choice, Pokémon swept in in November with the best entries in the series in at least 6 years. Sun and Moon strike an excellent balance between the lighthearted, tropical atmosphere and an increasingly complex, darker themes that reach the heights of Black & White’s characters and plot. And all the new Pokémon and locations are fantastic.

The thing I really love about Pokemon is that it has more cultural intelligibility than any other game I’ve played. I’ve been able to talk about it and bond with so many friends, and it feels like a kind of communal experience playing it alongside people in my life and social media challenges every time a game comes out.

I’m trying to carve out some time to work on writing more specific thoughts about the games as I dive in for the second time, but for now I can say that the second half of November’s Pokémon fever was the most communal and exciting experience I’ve had playing a game all year.

That’s it y’all. Hope next year’s games are as good as this year’s batch!