As a fan of video games, it is pretty much impossible to get through E3 without feeling some sense of excitement. This was the first time in many years where I didn’t actually attend the conference due to my day job. Even so, I had fun watching streams from home!
2017 was a year full of high-profile sequels and brand new franchises. And, as has been increasingly the case, I primarily strayed from the path of triple A titles. Of course, there were still a few huge games that snuck onto my list. There were tons of excellent games out this year and I’m going to highlight ten of my favorites!
Between horror series classics Friday the 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, I’ve always found Friday the 13th less engaging than the rest. Yet it was this official game based on the property which hooked me early on. Sure, there were a ton of server issues and glitches, but I couldn’t stop firing up matches.
Higurashi When They Cry Hou – Ch. 5 Meakashi
Higurashi continues to be an intense visual novel experience chapter after chapter. After four chapters explaining the murderous tragedy taking place in Hinamizawa, Ch. 5 finally treats players to the Answer Arc. Anyone looking for a creepy, complex mystery tale should check out Higurashi.
Apparently The Lion’s Song is an episodic series I totally missed out on when it was originally coming out. Fortunately, I caught up with it once a “complete” edition launched. This lovely adventure game provides an anthology of tales focused on different creative types (painters, mathematicians, etc).
Resident Evil 7 biohazard
Once upon a time Resident Evil was one of my favorite horror franchises. This peaked with Resident Evil 4 and then came crashing down as the series proceeded beyond that point. Resident Evil 7 briefly hooked me again with its tense atmosphere and gameplay.
I love a good platformer and Snake Pass is exactly that. It also managed to totally change the formula by making the protagonist snake control in snake-like fashion. Gripping and twisting are key mechanics of sidling up platforms/bars/etc. and easily become second nature.
Super Mario Odyssey
My love of the Mario realm began with Super Mario World and ended with Super Mario 64. None of the subsequent console releases elicited any joy from me – until Super Mario Odyssey. The bright colors, cutesy world and great gameplay make this the pinnacle of platformers.
Ebi-hime is one of my favorite EVN authors to follow these days, and Sweetest Monster is my favorite of their games so far. It shares the story of a husband in a strained marriage and moves from meeting stereotypical expectations of such a story to something absolutely insidious.
Umineko When They Cry – Answer Arcs
Umineko When They Cry didn’t 100% blow me away in the Question Arcs. However, the Answer Arcs provide an incredible ride from start to finish. Even with more explanations come more tantalizing questions and scenarios. Now that the series is complete, it’s a must play for visual novel fans.
I had no idea what to expect with Wonderful Everyday. After applying the patch to the Steam version (which unlocks about 80% of the game) it goes from an offbeat yuri tale to something astonishing, disgusting, and ultimately excellent. I savored everything, even the horror it inflicted on me because no game has ever caused me to feel such a range of emotions so intensely before.
Yakuza is a series I can’t help but love. Of course, Yakuza 0 was one of my first favorite releases of 2017. It’s great to finally see the game on PS4, even if the core mechanics and storytelling style remain mostly unchanged since its origins. The formula just works!
Developer: EnsenaSoft
Publisher: EnsenaSoft
Platform: PC – Steam
After successful rounds of weird golfing in Golf With Your Friends, I decided to load up another mini golfing game from my Steam library. Unfortunately, this decision came before remembering the game was originally received as part of Bundle Star’s Dollar Mega Bundle. This bundle offered 28 games for $1…
Suffice it to say Mini Golf Mundo doesn’t hold up to Golf With Your Friends, or any other decent golfing game out there. There are only four stages to play with – each connected to a level of difficulty. Each features nearly the same grassy, idyllic locale with cabins and lakes surrounding the mini golf course.
The game ramps from super easy to super challenging over the course of these four courses with no real warning. You’re just suddenly faced with parts of the course disappearing and reappearing. Because you cannot “lock in” the strength of a hit, you’re forced to waste multiple swings hoping to match up the timing.
One neat bit is the final course which offers warp points. These almost add a bit of strategy to the gameplay, but quickly wear out their welcome. There’s absolutely no music in Mini Golf Mundo, either, which further reveals its failed cash grab status. Just don’t play this game.
1 out of 5 alpacas
Developer: Zaratustra Productions
Publisher: Zaratustra Productions
Platform: PC – Steam
Eversion is one of those games that it seemed everyone had played back a few years ago. Time and time again, it saw mentions in articles and forum posts about creepy games. I bought it sometime around then, but never ended up playing the darn thing until now.
Mechanically, Eversion is a simplistic 2D platformer with a switching mechanic. It is possible to change the landscape/features of blocks at predetermined Evert portals. Aside from opening up paths through the stage, these also make the game gradually darker and disturbing. Well, as disturbing as a cartoony 2D platformer can be.
There’s no doubt that this bait and switch worked extremely well around the time of its initial launch. At this point, however, so many retro-styled “secret” horror games are out there that it’s much less shocking. I did get a feeling of tepid surprise, but not much else. Autoscrolling stages in particular proved far more frustrating than frightening.
I likely did myself a huge disservice by waiting so long to play Eversion. This is a game that worked in a specific time and place. Sure, it only takes about half an hour to beat (if you’re not seeking completion), but the greatest asset of the game now feels stale.
2 out of 5 alpacas
Developer: Blacklight Interactive
Publisher: Blacklight Interactive
Platform: PC – Steam
Mini golf is pretty fun in real life, but not something I typically get to play very often. Golf With Your Friends brings this simple formula to the gaming world with the right amount of seriousness (that is to say, very little at all). The point is to have fun with a decent simulation of golf alongside a heavy dose of silliness.
The game includes five courses, ranging from the initial slightly realistic one to Egypt, a haunted house, and more. Each course goes from a decent difficulty to wildly challenging with outrageous jumps and obstacles. Golf With Your Friends isn’t exactly going for realism. There’s no option to change golf clubs – all you can do is charge swings (or make the ball jump to cheat some swings).
Golf With Your Friends, as the name implies, is a multiplayer-exclusive experience. This aspect really shines once you start customizing match options. For example, consider setting the ball to random shapes. If you thought the levels were hard, try doing them with an acorn-shaped ball.
At the time of this writing, Golf With Your Friends is on the verge of leaving Early Access at version 1.99.0. My suggestion is to buy the game now before its price increases with the full launch. It’s already entirely playable and a great time with friends.
4 out of 5 alpacas
It’s time for the third of my monthly Steam summary articles. As usual, expect to find some information about the total number of games released in March as well as how many of them were Early Access and/or virtual reality releases.
Developer: EnsenaSoft
Publisher: EnsenaSoft
Platform: PC – Steam
Casual games are great. For me in particular, they grant an escape from playing other games which require more attention, strategy, and skill. Because of this habit, I’m increasingly aware of which games have serious effort into their releases versus those that are simply re-skinned releases.
Kitty Cat: Jigsaw Puzzles falls into the latter category. This developer has a handful of puzzle games and they all appear to vary purely by theme. That might not be so bad if not for the fact that the underlying mechanics and interface are totally lacking. There’s also no music! I’ll admit, it’s not quite as awful as the Pixel Puzzle series.
At the very start, it seems like Kitty Cat: Jigsaw Puzzles is painfully easy. You actually get to see outlines of all the puzzle pieces on the game board! These disappear after a few levels, though, leaving players to deal with the digital puzzle much like a real one. Unfortunately, it can sometimes be confusing to tell if a puzzle piece sticks to the board (meaning it is in the right position) or not.
There is also no easy means of organizing your puzzle pieces prior to solving the puzzle. Instead you must click and drag them to areas outside the board to organize them as you see fit. The margin is not large enough to make this particularly enjoyable, though. The cat photos per puzzle are cute – and they don’t appear to be stolen wholesale from various sources. But that’s basically the only good thing about Kitty Cat: Jigsaw Puzzles.
1 out of 5 alpacas
Developer: EnsenaSoft
Publisher: EnsenaSoft
Platform: PC – Steam
“Mahjong” is a term which is typically used incorrectly in English-language games. Many use it to refer to the familiar tile-matching concept, which is not the same as traditional mahjong. Real mahjong is a much more strategic, multiplayer experience. In any case, Barnyard Mahjong 3 is of the matching variety.
As the name implies, everything is doused in a barn theme. This includes the backgrounds and the tiles themselves, which feature depictions of fruits, farmers, and farm animals. There are in fact so many different visuals that it often proves tough to quickly survey the screen for potential matches.
Each level in Barnyard Mahjong 3 features a timer. The amount of time left on the clock determines what you’re graded once finished with a puzzle. These stars are meaningless, though, as even ending with no time left still unlocks the next stage. I appreciate the game’s supremely casual attitude.
What doesn’t work is that the experience is barely enjoyable. The widescreen presentation makes it tiring to click back and forth between different ends of the screen. It’s also quite easy to fail puzzles (the remaining tiles just reset) even on easy. The music is so droll that you barely even notice it exists, and effects are incredibly anemic. Presentation is a huge part of making a mahjong game stand out and Barnyard Mahjong 3 simply doesn’t.
1 out of 5 alpacas
I found myself fascinated with Rule of Rose before it even released on PS2. It was certainly no secret that games often launched in Japan prior to North America, but never before had I felt the need to play a title as soon as it hit Japan in early 2016. Yet, here I was, with a Japanese copy of Rule of Rose about a month after its Japanese launch. Fortunately for me, the game was not heavy on written text and cutscenes were actually in English to begin with.
What was it that initially drew me to pick up Rule of Rose? It most likely had to do with the Japanese trailers that made their way out prior to launch. It’s pretty similar to the footage shown in Atlus USA’s trailer, as shown below. The key things that hooked me were that it was a horror game with style, it featured an almost exclusively female cast, and seemed to be pushing the envelope.
Last month, I decided to try my hand at keeping track of Steam releases in 2017. It just seemed like the right time, as 2016 was a landmark year of releases for the service. This year is also poised to be quite different once Valve shutters Steam Greenlight.
Defined as a failure practically out of the gate by Valve, Greenlight stuck around for years regardless. At the beginning, getting Greenlit meant something. At this point almost anything gets Greenlit given enough time. Once its gone, we should see an eventual decline in the number releases. I don’t know if we’ll notice that this year, though, as thousands of Greenlit games still haven’t launched on Steam. In any case, let’s get on with the data.
June 19th, 2018 
