2016 has been, for all intents and purposes, a garbage year. Many creatives I admire passed away. America elected a monster. And that’s only the start.
I’m going to do a series of posts about this year and things of note, starting with noteworthy games this year. Read on for my ‘best games’ of 2016 and some other notable games. I’ll be attempting to do a video about these games at a later date, as I have too much to say about the games of the past year to fit in a single blog post.
The Best Games of MMXVI
These are the best games I’ve played in any capacity this year. From the 10 years in the making spin-off turned full-on sequel in the Final Fantasy series, to a mobile game that lets you pretend you’re a Pokemon master in the real world, these are games that stuck with me.
- Final Fantasy XV
- Pokemon Sun & Moon
- THUMPER
- Fire Emblem Fates
- DOOM
- Overwatch
- Gears of War 4
- Street Fighter V
- Pokemon Go
- Titanfall 2
Great Games of MMXVI
These games aren’t “worse” than the best games — there’s just reasons I don’t feel comfortable putting them in that list — be it helping to fund the game (Amplitude, Chime#), being involved in the game’s release (Amplitude), or just feeling like I still don’t have the full picture of the game — these are games I’m enjoying a lot.
- Amplitude
- Chime#
- I Am Setsuna
- The Last Guardian
- Dark Souls III
- Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
- Super Mario Run
- Rhythm Heaven Megamix
- Deus Ex Mankind Divided
- No Man’s Sky
General MMXVI Game Thoughts
This was a very good year for games, in my opinion. Overwatch came out and made multiplayer FPS fun by focusing on what you did well, not making you feel bad if, like me, you’re not good at shooting things. Final Fantasy XV proved (and, to a lesser degree, so did The Last Guardian) that long, drawn-out development cycles aren’t always indicative of a crap final product (both games took around a decade to be released). Titanfall 2 made me feel like I was playing a next-gen game while waxing-nostalgic on when I actually enjoyed Call of Duty‘s multiplayer. Halo 5 just kept getting better on the multiplayer side, even though we’ll have to wait for the next chapter for any hope of a decent campaign. On the flip side, Gears of War 4 made that franchise relevant again — and actually had a story worth experiencing (despite an abrupt but interesting cliffhanger). And DOOM. That’s a game, and a damn fine one with that.
Non-MMXVI Games I ❤’ed This Year
These are games from years past. Most are ones I never properly experienced, but one (Metroid Prime) is a classic I revisited for the first time in a long time and still found myself in love with.
- Fallout 4
- Metroid Prime
- Undertale
- Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward
- Osu! Tatake! Ouendan!
MMXVII Games I’m Excited For
These games are coming out in 2017. I’m hyped. These are only games confirmed / intended to be released in 2017 — not games in development that I really just want next year (*cough* Kingdom Hearts III *cough*).
- Resident Evil 7 biohazard
- Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep 0.2 ~a fragmentary passage~
- Persona 5
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Cosmic Star Heroine
- Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Sonic Mania
