While chaos and despair gripped politics and pop culture in 2017, videogames actually had a pretty great year. Led by the emergence of the Nintendo Switch, which turned Big N’s fortunes around after a couple of down years, gamers were treated to plenty of highlights. Rare was the month where there wasn’t something exciting or even new to sink our controller clutching claws into — and that even included (gasp!) sequels in franchises that seemed to have run out of creative steam.
Of course, not everything was sunshine and light: Gamer revolts against loot crates and similar microtransaction schemes hobbled the release of games like EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II, dinging what should have been a game-of-the-year contender and casting doubt on the viability of the nickel-and-dime model going forward. But why focus on the negative when there’s so much cool stuff to play?
These are the games that spent the most time in my play queue.
Pyre (PlayStation 4, PC, rated T)
The development team that gave us Bastion and Transistor quietly dropped this little gem into the heat of summer, where new releases typically go on to be completely forgotten. Letting Pyre suffer that fate would be a big mistake: Part gorgeously rendered fantasy role-playing game, part magically infused three-on-three basketball game — how’s that for an unexpected gameplay combo? — Pyre draws you in slowly, adding clever brushstrokes to its story and gameplay strategy at a pace that rewards patience. It also features some of the most memorable and gorgeously rendered characters you’ll meet this year.
Cuphead (Xbox One, Rated T)
You’ll believe that bashing your head into a wall can actually be an entertaining pastime once you’ve spent a few hours with this utterly charming and brutally difficult platform-shooter. The Tex Avery/classic cartoon art style is the eye candy that yanks you into one of the toughest games you’ll ever love to play. Almost everything in this game seems rigged against you: You can’t outrun enemies, “parrying “ isn’t nearly as easy as it sounds, and the endless parade of truly bizarre-ass bosses just love switching up their patterns to thwart you. And yet Cuphead keeps drawing you back, secure in the belief that this time, you’re going to win. You’re wrong, but that’s okay; persistence really will pay off, eventually.
Persona 5 (PlayStation 4, rated M)
Okay, so the concept of dumping 150 hours into a videogame seems about as likely as expecting anything resembling bipartisan legislation to come out of Congress in 2018. But time seems irrelevant when it’s spent with the Phantom Thieves, the misfit collection of Japanese teens/Persona users who star in this seminal series’ latest (and best) entry. Everything seems deeper and more meaningful, from the ridiculous amount of stat-boosting confidants to the fact that you can now negotiate with defeated shadows to gain items and other bonuses. In a year like this one, putting creepy/corrupt adults in their place seems especially satisfying.
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch, Rated E)
It felt really odd to have Link hefting the Nintendo Switch onto his green-clad shoulders over the past year — he’s gotta keep one hand free for the sword, you know — when the guy you’d expect to be doing the job was camped in the bullpen waiting for his shot. With apologies to Breath of the Wild, which easily deserves a spot on this list, we’re giving the nod to the plumber. Like Super Mario Galaxy to the original Wii, Super Mario Odyssey is a signature platform-defining title, a game that takes the standard Mario gameplay cliches and finds ways to expand and push them in new directions — in this case, across hundreds of moons, where the name of the game is trying on new abilities, er, hats and exploring the seemingly endless environments. Given that it feels like gamers have experienced as many Mario games as there are citizens in Los Angeles, making the formula seem new again is a remarkable feat. And hey, maybe someday one of them won’t revolve around rescuing a kidnapped princess.
Resident Evil 7 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, rated M)
I didn’t mind the action-happy vibe rocked by 2012’s Resident Evil 6, but several zombie hordes’ worth of series fans sure did. Entry number 7 is a rotting, blood-drenched olive branch thrust into the faces of the haters. Creeping around the confines of a Gothic Southern mansion waiting for something dead — or worse, one of the members of the creepiest Southern clan since the Texas Chainsaw Massacre — to jump out at you. Incorporating the whole found-footage trope into this hoary mix felt clever, not derivative, and really amped the sense of dread. Although, as I prep to tee up the just-released DLC, I’m still puzzling out the nagging question: Why the hell, after not seeing your missing and presumed-dead fiancée for a full three years, would you ever drive alone to a deserted New Orleans swamp without telling a single soul? Ah, well — that’s horror for you.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, rated M)
In a year in which the “Single-player games are DEAD!” narrative resurfaced for what felt like the gazillionth time, Wolfenstein II was there to offer a Cam Newton-esque “That’s cool. Watch This” rebuttal. Absolutely unrepentant in its portrayal of humanity’s absolutely darkest aspects — the game’s set in an occupied U.S in which some of the cruelest and most sadistic Nazis ever to grace a video game are running rampant — the game doesn’t revel as much as ask you to consider and react.
From the game’s gut-wrenching opening flashback scene to the expertly crafted cutscenes featuring characters that remind you that humanity’s very much still worth fighting for, Wolfenstein II rises above its viciously violent shooter elements to offer us, unexpectedly, a glimpse of something more noble. In our real-world of rising nationalism and polarization, that’s worth a lot.
Horizon Zero Dawn (PlayStation 4, rated M)
It’s impossible not to feel like Laura Dern when she first sees the dinos in Jurassic Park as you dive into the world of this post-apocalyptic masterpiece — and not just because your determined heroine, Aloy, spends so much of her time hunting robotic versions of them with her massive bow and arrow. The intrigue of unravelling the mystery of what happened and Aloy’s relationship to it is topped only by the sylvan magic of the game’s massive world. The fact that it features a strong, complex female heroine is really just an added bonus.
