(2019) My Favorite Games of the Decade
NOTE: This review was originally posted to Tumblr on December 9, 2019, and has been reposted here for archival purposes. It may not reflect recent events or my current opinions.
Well, it looks like this decade is about to end. I am planning to do a decade in review (in place of my year in reviews) at the end of this year, but I wanted to talk about something else for now - what were my favorite games of this decade? This was kind of an interesting decade for me, I feel like I really started getting into games in general towards the end of the 2000’s and beginning of the 2010’s through what I had on my Game Boy Advance and games like ROBLOX on my computer, and I feel like 2011 particularly was really when I started paying attention to games in general. I basically went from a retro console loving hipster that hated pretty much anything to do with the FPS genre to someone with multiple consoles, a good gaming PC… and one that actually really likes first person shooter games. And with this, I wanted to go through each year of this decade and pick out my personal game of the year from each. I’m not going to settle on just one game from the decade that I liked over all the others, but I did want to discuss each of my favorite games from the past decade and talk about why I enjoyed these games. I’ll also mention a couple honorable mentions in each year after I am finished discussing each game of the year. So, with that aside, I’ll start with…
2010: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
As far as gaming goes, I really don’t feel like the year of 2010 stood out to me that much. Even when looking through the most critically acclaimed games from that year it feels like a lot of them weren’t really my cup of tea, including some that many may consider to be Game of the Year material like Red Dead Redemption or Mass Effect 2. I… just wasn’t really ever into those kinds of games. However, I think one game that really stuck out to me over the years was Mario’s second 3D platforming adventure on the Wii - Super Mario Galaxy 2. Oddly enough, I actually didn’t end up playing this game until 2016, but I’ll easily say that if it weren’t for Super Mario Odyssey, either this game or it’s predecessor would easily be my favorite out of the 3D Mario titles. While this game does feel a bit too similar to it’s predecessor, I still feel that it does more than enough to expand the formula, and considering it is more of a sequel to the first game, it really is about what I expected, that being a really great 3D platformer. It really just did about what it needed to do - it come with all new worlds to explore, new power-ups, and, well, Yoshi, which alone puts it over the top for me. And it’s kind of odd because I really didn’t see myself getting much enjoyment out of it at first. I actually wasn’t the biggest fan of the first game for a while and I felt Super Mario Galaxy 2 looked a lot more like a DLC pack than anything but… surprisingly, this game blew away my expectations while giving me a lot more respect for the first Super Mario Galaxy game. Both games, in my opinion, did quite a bit with a newer formula, and this game built on the first by just giving it more in general. The worlds were creative and fun and going through the game was just a good time overall, and using the newer powerups also added a lot to the game. I can’t really say anything else that hasn’t already been said, but it’s for these reasons as to why I chose Super Mario Galaxy 2 as my favorite game of 2010.
Honorable Mentions: Sonic Colors, StarCraft II, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Super Meat Boy
2011: Sonic Generations (PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360)
Honorable Mentions: Portal 2, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2012: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (PC)
I’ll be honest, looking back, 2012 was a fairly underwhelming year of gaming. I gotta say that a lot of the most critically acclaimed games from this year just weren’t really particularly interesting to me, and for a while I really wasn’t sure what to choose for this year. There was Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed which I played the crap out of, and while a really good racing game, isn’t really something I would personally consider GOTY material. I was really excited for New Super Mario Bros U to come out (along with the Wii U in general), and it was a solid Mario title… but that’s about all it really was. But, then I remembered Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released during this year, and out of any game from 2012 it was probably the game that I really enjoyed the most. Granted, I didn’t really play it until about 2016 and I’ve heard that early on the game wasn’t really anything to write home about, but considering what it has become, as an eSport and a popular game, and a game that I do enjoy well enough now that I have a PC of my own. I did put a bit of time into this game back between 2016 and 2017, especially with the game’s Team Deathmatch mode, and while these days I’ve kind of fallen out of it, I still do gotta say that it is a solid multiplayer FPS game that actually has done a good job of standing out as an eSport title and a FPS game in general. Even at the time, while this was still another military shooter, it at least provided a skill curve that differentiated it from other FPS games, and offered a really good skill-based FPS game that has evolved into it’s own eSports title and even with that aside can still be pretty fun on it’s own. And there’s the movement and gunplay which feels particularly good in this game. I don’t really have much to say about it, but I think for what it has become especially, I would definitely consider it my favorite game of 2012.
Honorable Mentions: Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed
2013: Grand Theft Auto V (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/PlayStation 4/Xbox One/PC)
2013 was a bit better than 2012 for me, especially with the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One coming up and the beginning of the next console generation, but I still can’t really say it was a year that really stood out to me too much. I do have a bit more choices for this year than I did in 2012, but I think the game I’d ultimately go with for my favorite game of the year was Grand Theft Auto V. I didn’t really get to play this game for a few reasons - for one thing, it didn’t get a PC release until 2015, and I didn’t have any of the aforementioned systems at that time. Two, even when it came out, I had a pretty crappy prebuilt that was… fine for what I played at that time but definitely wouldn’t be able to handle Grand Theft Auto V. Three, I was never really into the Grand Theft Auto franchise at the time, even now while I have gotten my own enjoyment out of the games I’d consider myself at most a casual fan. But Grand Theft Auto V was a game I did have fun with, and was probably what came to mind to me as my favorite game of 2013. The game’s campaign on it’s own was pretty big, coming in at 31.5 hours according to HowLongtoBeat, and that’s just with the main story alone, and the game in general just gives you a lot to do. I mostly spent my time with this game playing Grand Theft Auto Online with my brother and friends, and while not perfect was pretty fun. The whole city of Los Santos was just fun to drive around and explore, with all the different things you could do and interact with, as well as the different missions you could do to earn money, which you could use to buy a home and more cars. And while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game weren’t supported for as long as the others, I’m just amazed at the fact they got it running on those systems as it is - both of which were 8 and 7 year old systems (respectively) with not that much power, so it was definitely nice to see this game be ported, sort of as the last swan song to those systems while ushering in the next generation of consoles. I don’t really have much to say about this game personally, but I think when it comes to games from 2013, it was definitely a surprising favorite of mine for the year.
Honorable Mentions: Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, The Last of Us, Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures
2014: Freedom Planet (PC/PlayStation 4/Wii U/Switch)
I personally didn’t really feel that 2014 was a particularly interesting year for gaming. Most of the games that came out just weren’t that interesting to me, outside of a particularly strong showing and lineup on Nintendo’s end (…aside for Yoshi’s New Island at least). But when I played Freedom Planet for the first time (which, albeit, was a year later), I’d probably say that out of any game from the year of 2014 this definitely appealed to me the most, especially as someone who was already a fan of the classic Sonic games. Especially at the time when Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric came out and was a giant bomb. Although, I wouldn’t consider Freedom Planet to be a complete translation of the classic Sonic games by any stretch of the imagination, if anything it feels more like a combination of a few different classic game styles and design choices that overall works pretty damn well. Anyone who’s expecting a direct Sonic clone may be surprised at, say, the fighting mechanics, as well as the other play styles of the characters, although it does utilize a lot of Sonic’s core game design in addition to new mechanics. I first played this game in 2015, about a year after it came out, but didn’t really know about it until a little bit before I played it. I scrapped together some birthday money I had left over and decided to pick it up for $15 (one of the few times ever where I paid the OG price for a Steam game). And I can definitely say I’ve had a lot of fun with it and have gone back to it multiple times. The levels were all pretty fun to play through - all had their own themes and had a lot of variety. There was a lot to explore, and surprisingly the different abilities and fighting mechanics of all the characters were all pretty fun to use at some point or another. The story I actually did enjoy, even if it was occasionally a bit padded out, but as far as indie games go was definitely pretty enjoyable. And the characters were all great, both to play and in the story. I eventually bought it again on the Wii U, since I do like a more “console” experience for these types of games, and you can bet that I still had fun with it. I reviewed this game back on MLPForums, and to be honest I really haven’t changed that much from my original opinion. Granted, I wouldn’t necessarily call it one of my favorite games of all time, since I can’t really say the game “stuck” with me in the same way several others have (even in the same way my favorite Sonic games have), but my time with it, even on repeated playthroughs, has always been pretty great. And the team behind it is working on a sequel, Freedom Planet 2, which I’m definitely excited for and I hope that it comes out in 2020.
Honorable Mentions: Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Super Smash Bros for Wii U
2015: Undertale (PC/PlayStation 4/Switch)
This was another surprise favorite of mine, and probably the first game in this list that I actually played for the first time in the same year it came out. I didn’t really know about this game at first, even when it first got released, but it felt like overnight, a lot of people were suddenly talking about this game, some even calling it one of the best games of all time. I ended up getting it for free since someone on a now defunct forum I used to go on was giving away a copy, and it’s safe to say that the game ended up being one of my favorite games of all time. It was just a unique experience overall, one that I sort of just felt was unlike anything I had played prior. I can’t really say I’ve always been the biggest fan of RPG games, but… this wasn’t a traditional RPG in any sense. The whole “morality” system in the game felt like a neat addition for me, with how you unlocked certain endings and paths depending on how you played - whether you killed all the enemies you came across or befriended them. Or a little bit of both with all the different “neutral” endings to the game, which to me gave the game a lot of replay value since I wanted to see stuff that I didn’t end up seeing in previous playthroughs. And while these days I’ve basically seen all the major endings, I still enjoy going back to it from time to time just for the story alone. And then there’s the characters which were all enjoyable in their own way - my favorite still being Alphys. And I will say that out of any RPG game I played I still feel like this game has potentially my favorite “battle” system, basically being a bullet hell of sorts, and giving you a few options whether you wanted to kill the enemy or “ACT” with the enemy to lead to them being spared. The game combines basic RPG gameplay with a “puzzle” mechanic, and on a first playthrough I wasn’t entirely sure how I could spare each enemy I encountered, but repeated playthroughs did inspire me to figure it out so I could get the “Pacifist” ending and save everyone. I think what makes Undertale stand out to me even today is that even on repeated playthroughs it still feels like a unique experience, and I still feel that the story and characters are great even today. Even with all the hype backlash it got after it came out, I still stood by the game because, well, I liked it. A lot in fact. And it’s still among my favorite games of all time. I’m also excited for the rest of Deltarune to come out, but of course I still hope Toby Fox takes his time to make it great.
Honorable Mentions: Super Mario Maker, Splatoon, Ori and the Blind Forest
2016: Overwatch (PC/PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Switch)
2016 was… not a great year for me, and in terms of gaming it was also kind of a mixed bag. It had some really high highs, but also some really low lows (talking about No Man’s Sky here). But, at the same time, it was the year where potentially my favorite game of all time was released, that being Overwatch. I didn’t really know what to expect with the game when I first started hearing about it, I was still fairly new to FPS games and while I did like Team Fortress 2 well enough it wasn’t really something I particularly loved or anything. But Overwatch, surprisingly, ended up being a game that I’ve consistently gone back to since getting it for the first time and have logged hundreds of hours into the game at this point. While these days, despite the game still being relatively popular, it has fallen victim to it’s own case of hype backlash and the current state of the game is… somewhat divisive to say the least, but I’ve still gone back to it and stuck with it even after all these years and there is a good reason for that, and in some ways have only really gained respect for the game’s core design and gameplay. The team-based gameplay combined with an FPS is a lot of fun to me, and the game has a large cast of characters with their own set of abilities and personalities that make them each unique. While the game doesn’t revolve too much around mechanical skill and “tech” like other games do, it’s approach to strategy, team-building and cooperative gameplay all make it a game I really enjoy going back to, and it does things in a way that no other FPS game has really done for me. Yes, I’m aware that Team Fortress 2 and Paladins exist, both free to play, but there’s a reason why I spent $60 for Overwatch (well, not quite, considering it was a Christmas gift from my parents) and spent another $40 on the Switch version when it came out. I think Overwatch just blends the mechanics of a team-based FPS game in a way that no other FPS game really does. Team Fortress 2, despite it’s similar approach to being a “cartoony” FPS game, is still a vastly different game in terms of core gameplay - more or less building off the Quake style of gameplay while implementing it’s own bit of emphasis on team based gameplay, but is really more about individual play rather than team-based gameplay. Some people like that better, but to be honest, the greater focus on team gameplay on Overwatch makes it a lot more of a satisfying game to me, and with all the different characters, makes me want to try new styles and compositions. Paladins is more similar, but at the same time I don’t find the movement to be as good and don’t find the characters to be as fun to play compared to Overwatch’s offerings despite the whole “card” system. I still enjoy both Team Fortress 2 and Paladins from time to time (the latter of which sort of got me to play Overwatch), but I still feel Overwatch just blends all the elements in a way that I just find more fun compared to those games. This year for Overwatch I also felt was pretty great, with the addition of Workshop and Role Queue, and I’m definitely excited for Overwatch 2 to come out. While some people may have stopped playing this game, I still find myself going back to the game and enjoying it with all it’s fun characters and fast-paced, team-based gameplay. I’ve thought about doing another review of the game as more of an analysis or defense of the game in general, but I haven’t gotten around to it quite yet. I probably will eventually.
Honorable Mentions: Doom, OneShot, Paladins*
*Technically released in 2018 out of early access, but came out in early access during 2016 iirc
2017: Night in the Woods (PC/PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Switch)
2017 was, oddly enough, probably my favorite year in gaming of this decade. It felt like one where we were getting constant releases that I was really into, giving me a lot of new experiences to look into. Going into 2017 there was already a lot of games I was expecting to have a lot of fun with - Sonic Mania, Project Sonic 2017 which became Sonic Forces, Yooka-Laylee and especially Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which was the first new release in a series I really enjoyed since 2007. Not all of those games were major blowouts like I expected, but I did have fun with them for what they were. But it surprised me that my favorite game of 2017 wasn’t one of those, but an indie game that I had no idea about until about a month or two after it released. And not only that, it would end up being among my Top 5 favorite games of all time. And that is Night in the Woods.
I didn’t really know what to expect with Night in the Woods going into it, like I said I wasn’t really aware of the game until about a month or two after it released. But then I decided to get it on Steam after buying a $20 gift card and spent a weekend playing through it. Let’s just say, it pretty much immediately became one of my favorites. It isn’t anything too spectacular in terms of gameplay, but at the same time it’s also intended as a largely story-based game, and on that level, I do think it achieved what it intended and is probably one of if not the best story-based games I played. Even on repeat playthroughs I enjoy experiencing the story a lot and there’s often things that I run into that I didn’t catch on a first playthrough. The characters, I felt, were all great, in some cases relatable with my favorites being Mae and Bea, and there were parts of the story that just sort of stuck with me even after all this time of playing it, which is always a sign of a good story. The setting I also found to be very unique, not often do we get games or stories in general that are set in modern-day Rust Belt America, and it made the story all the more “real” to me, especially as someone who grew up around that area during my childhood. And even if the gameplay wasn’t too amazing, I still had a lot of fun controlling Mae and just exploring the whole town of Possum Springs - going into certain areas and talking to different characters was just fun on it’s own. And overall, while there were a lot of great games that came out in 2017, Night in the Woods was easily the one that stuck with me the most and is easily one of my favorite games of all time.
Honorable Mentions: Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, Sonic Mania, Super Mario Odyssey
2018: Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Nintendo Switch)
Admittedly, 2018 was another year of gaming that was just kind of a mixed bag for me. It felt like a lot of the best games of this year were largely console exclusives, mostly PS4 exclusives, and even then weren’t necessarily games I was particularly interested in due to the genre or whatever (including games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War). I did get introduced to a lot of games that I didn’t experience before, but that doesn’t really count here. Writing this review, I actually realized there were really only 2 games that I can think of that particularly interested me this year with one of them being a remake of older games. I did eventually get around to playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate this year though, and if I had to choose that would definitely be my game of the year. From the moment it was announced, there was definitely a lot of hype for the next Super Smash Bros game, and as time went on it just kept delivering new content that only contributed to the hype of the game’s release. And I think it’s safe to say that what it delivered was a successful, great title. Super Smash Bros Ultimate, in my opinion, is the best Smash game to date. The fighting mechanics feel modern and fun to use, and the game has the biggest roster of any Smash game thus far - having every fighter from every previous game plus a ton of new additions, and with the DLC characters will be getting even more over time. I will say that one issue I did have with Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS was the lack of real single player content, I felt that while the game felt more modern and polished compared to previous Smash games, it really didn’t have any single player content to keep me coming back to it outside of just random matches from time to time. Super Smash Bros Ultimate, on the other hand, adds a story mode, similar to in Brawl, and as a result it gives me more reason to keep going back, alongside the unlockables you get as you play through the game. I think what makes Super Smash Bros Ultimate so particularly great in my opinion is that I feel like it offers pretty much the most you really get for a Smash game - the story mode of Brawl, the portability of 3DS, the mechanics of Smash for Wii U, pretty much everything that goes into making a Smash game. And to be honest I am happy that it’s been nominated for the 2019 Game of the Year awards despite technically being a 2018 game - considering it was released after the awards or so I was kind of worried it wouldn’t get the recognition it deserved from the awards. It is a game I do see myself spending a lot of time with, and is probably what I would consider my favorite game of 2018.
Honorable Mentions: Spyro Reignited Trilogy
2019: Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (PlayStation 4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch)
Now, this one’s probably the most likely to change over time. Unfortunately, I haven’t really played many games from this year and while that may change by the time Christmas comes around, I figured I might as well discuss my favorite game out of the games I played, that being Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. Crash Team Racing on the PS1 has always been my favorite kart racer for a number of reasons, particularly the story mode, something that was fairly unique for kart racers at the time with the only other example I can think of being Diddy Kong Racing, but also the mechanics, controls and tracks all contributed towards my enjoyment as well. And after Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy in 2017, a lot of people including myself were hoping for a remake of Crash Team Racing and in 2019 that’s what we got. And while I still go back to the N Sane Trilogy more often due to my preference towards the platforming games, I would probably consider this the best remake of a game that I have ever played. Not only does the game remake the story mode and all of the tracks of the original, but it also adds more of everything. New game modes, new characters, new tracks… again, everything. The tracks from Crash Nitro Kart have been added, which for me was my first experience playing those tracks since I haven’t played Crash Nitro Kart, and in addition completely new tracks are also added from time to time. And that’s another thing, this game gets new content from time to time in the form of all the events that come around, both in the form of maps and characters, and the fact that they’re building off of a remake of a 20 year old game just gives this game more enjoyment and reason to go back to. Then there’s new game modes on top of online multiplayer, which is definitely a feature that I would have expected out of a remake of a game like Crash Team Racing. The game is just filled with content, and with the great mechanics of the original with modern polish, it makes a great remake that is enjoyable to go back to. I will say that I do not like how they added microtransactions along with the events, but other than that I still find the overall experience to be enjoyable. Maybe someday I’ll get to doing a full review of this game.
Honorable Mentions: ?
I guess one last thing I could do before I go is rank each of these games that I have listed here, deciding what my favorite game of the decade is overall. And it would probably go like:
1. Overwatch
2. Undertale
3. Night in the Woods
4. Sonic Generations
5. Freedom Planet
6. Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled
7. Super Smash Bros Ultimate
8. Super Mario Galaxy 2
9. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
10. Grand Theft Auto V
All of which, however, still being good games. Some of my favorite games were released this decade, and now that it’s coming to an end, it does feel like the end of an era, especially with the next generation of systems starting next year. I’ll probably end up finding more games from this decade that I greatly enjoy later on, but I’m also looking forward to what not only the 2020’s but the next generation of systems in general has in store.
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