My Top 10 BEST Games of 2017!

My Top 10 BEST Games of 2017!

          It’s amazing to think another year has come and gone. 2017 truly was an incredible year for games, giving us fantastic new installments to some tried and true franchise, stellar new IPs from favourite developers, and splendid indie titles we didn’t even know we wanted. I’ve picked out 10 of my absolute favourite games I played this year, and believe me, it wasn’t easy choosing just 10 this time around.

Remember that this is just my opinion, and if there’s a game that you feel should be on this list that isn’t, that’s either because I didn’t get to play it or I did play it and didn’t enjoy it as much as you did. Remakes, remasters and ports are also ineligible for the list, but I’d like to give honourable mention to both Crash Bandicoot: The N-Sane Trilogy and Okami HD. They’re both at their best on the current-gen consoles, and you should definitely check them out.

          With that being said…

10. RiME

          Many wrote this game off as yet another attempt by an indie game to make you feel emotions with minimal gameplay involvement. While the big twist at the end definitely felt to me like a bit of a far reach in trying to tug at the heartstrings, there’s no denying that RiME is one of the most consistently beautiful games that I played all year.

          A short but sweet puzzle adventure game, RiME sees you playing as a silent, nameless boy as he explores a mysterious island with a giant central tower that seems to transport him to different worlds. Along the way he runs into several characters who help or hinder him on his quest, including an adorable fox, a group of friendly golems, and a terrifying vulture.

          This game deserves a spot on this list if only for the gorgeous graphical style. While I definitely had to deal with plenty of framerate issues on PS4 (and I’ve heard plenty of grief about the Switch version), the beautiful Disney-esque art of the game was simply breathtaking, especially in the early beach stages. To put it in the developer’s language, RiME is muy bueno.

9. Destiny 2

          Okay, just hear me out on this one.

          Yes, I know Destiny 2 hasn’t had a great last few months. The first expansion was met with such a resounding “meh” that I didn’t even bother buying it, and Activision has busied itself by inserting more and more microtransaction and loot box bullcrap into Bungie’s golden goose. It was initially going to be much higher on this list, but I felt the need to bump it down several spots in consideration of what the game has become recently.

          But here’s the thing: Activision wouldn’t be capitalizing on adding more paid elements into the game months after it released if it wasn’t a great game to begin with. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Destiny 2 during launch enough that I decided not giving it at least some presence on this list would be unfair.

          Consider this as more of a nod to Bungie’s vision for the game we saw back in September instead of rewarding the monster Activision has turned it into over the past few weeks. The campaign storyline is still excellently written with several laugh-out-loud moments, the soundtrack remains one of the best in a year filled to the brim with amazing game music, and the gameplay built extraordinarily well off of the shallow experience of its predecessor. The public events where you teamed up with other players from around the world to defeat a boss in hopes of finding some rare loot were especially a ton of fun.

          While the game might be dying a slow death now, it’s worth remembering that at one point Destiny 2 felt truly alive.

8. ARMS

          This seems to be one of the year’s biggest “love it or hate it” games. Now that a lot of time has passed since release I’ve seen both people come out and say that this was an underrated gem that was unfairly brushed aside for Splatoon 2 a month later as well as people who say they weren’t fans of the game to begin with.

          As for me, while essentially all of my online multiplayer time on my Switch has been devoted to Splatoon 2 since that came out, I loved ARMS a lot.

          As Nintendo’s first true attempt to break into the fighting game genre outside of Smash Bros (and let’s be honest, Smash is only a traditional fighter in that it’s a game where people fight), ARMS is surprisingly engaging and fun. I loved that the punches themselves were more like projectiles than weapons used for close combat. Not unlike Nintendo’s own Punch-Out series, fights ended up being more about timing than memorization of button combos. You needed to wait and stalk your opponent, choosing the precise time to throw out a punch, grab or block. Make a mistake, and you’d pay the price. It was incredibly entertaining to chase your foes around the large stages, waiting for them to mess up and deliver a flaming fist to the chest in retaliation.

          But as much as I loved ARMS, it wasn’t my favourite fighting game released this year. That honour goes to…

7. Tekken 7

          Now that Capcom seems to be using their classic fighting franchises as little more than DLC mills used to get some easy money out of the pro players, I can’t tell you how refreshing it felt to finally be playing a classic-style fighting game that actually had enough content out of the box to make it worth the $60+ you paid for it again.

          Tekken 7 has everything you could possibly want from a fighting game and more. A full-length campaign in addition to a true arcade mode? Check. A lengthy roster of characters with unique playstyles? Check. Nearly endless customization for said characters? Hold onto your hat, because there are more costumes in this game than there are in your local Party City.

          That’s not to detract anything from the fantastic game mechanics. Tekken 7 is easy enough for new players to understand and learn some simple combos, while still boasting enough depth that fighting game professionals will have a lot to sink their teeth into. For someone like me who just doesn’t have the time or patience to master the game, this “easy to play, hard to master” style was right up my alley. While this was my first entry in the Tekken series, this game has made me a fan for life.

6. Cuphead

          I can’t have been the only one who was legitimately worried this would turn out to be a bad game, was I? While the art style was impressive from the start, there was always a nagging feeling in the back of my head that Cuphead would be another indie disaster trying to scrape by on looks alone with nothing to show gameplay-wise.

          I’ve never been happier to be proven wrong. Cuphead is easily my indie champ of the year, a tough-as-nails shooter with some of the best game art I’ve ever seen.

          First, let’s address the elephant in the room: the art itself. This game doesn’t just look like a classic 1930’s era cartoon. This game IS a classic 1930’s era cartoon. Just looking at footage of the game brings you back to the classic Mickey Mouse and Looney Toons cartoons of yesteryear, and playing it feels even better. I even think that it adds a certain amount of challenge to the game, as you have to not be distracted by how incredible the hand-drawn animation on every single detail is and actually focus on the gameplay.

          Speaking of the gameplay, while this game definitely delivers on the promise of a high difficulty level, it somehow never stops being fun. Even when you die, you feel like you’ve gotten a better understanding of how each boss works, and are ready to try again. It’s really hard for a game to pull that off, especially in a game where you die again…and again…and again…

          For my Worst Games list I have a silly bonus award I give out called the Sean Murray Award for Most Anti-Consumer Game of the Year, and I wanted the Best Games list to have something similar along those lines. So I’ve decided Cuphead earns the first-ever Moldenhauer Brothers Award for Best Indie Game of the Year, named for the Canadian duo that developed the game. Congrats, guys!

5. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

          This game feels like it’s sorta slipped through the cracks with all the other amazing stuff released this year, but I refuse to let such an awesome game go unmentioned here! The first full-fledged spin-off to Naughty Dog’s famous Uncharted series as well as the first ever franchise installment not to feature main protagonist Nathan Drake, Lost Legacy is a wild ride through the jungles of India that any fans of the series would hate to miss out on.

          Starring Chloe Frazer of Uncharted 2 and 3 fame, Lost Legacy is a treasure-hunting adventure that ranks up with the best of ‘em, taking some of the best parts of previous franchise games and improving on them. The chapter where you explore the open jungle with a near endless amount of hidden treasures and sidequests feels like the Madagascar level from Uncharted 4 on steroids, and that’s saying a lot.

          The storyline was also excellent, even with an incredibly hard act to follow with Uncharted 4. Chloe and her partner Nadine have an excellent rapport with each other throughout the game, and when their friendship inevitably hits rough patches you sincerely want to see them break through and join up with each other again. While it isn’t exactly on the level of Nate’s final adventure, it’s delightful for a one-off special starring the two.

          Although Naughty Dog’s attention is on The Last of Us Part II for the time being, I sincerely hope this isn’t the last time we’re visiting the world of Uncharted. Whether we rejoin Nathan Drake for a fifth trip into the jungle or follow one of his friends instead, there’s still a lot of long lost temples out there that remain unclimbed.

4. Splatoon 2

          Maybe I’m putting this one too high on the list considering how similar it is to its predecessor, but for me Splatoon 2 was a shining beacon of hope in a year that saw the online multiplayer shooter genre dragged through the mud over and over again with a near endless supply of disappointing releases and publisher backdoor scheming.

          The concept from the first game remains as strong as ever: use a wide array of weapons to paint as much of the floor as possible, and whichever team has their colour represented on the map the most when the match ends wins. Nintendo didn’t meddle at all in the core concept that made the first game shine so brightly, perhaps because the IP is still fresh and new, and considering the Wii U wasn’t met with resounding success this sequel would be the franchise entry point for many. Add in an upgraded campaign mode with a fun story giving the beloved Squid Sisters from the original game a spotlight role as well as a surprisingly tough but fun horde mode, and you’ve got an excellent sequel that is sure to get new fans hungry for more.

          But what really makes me love Splatoon 2 is how unabashedly old-fashioned it is. In a year full of online multiplayer shooters more than happy to mess with players by filling the games with microtransactions, loot boxes, or just plain scummy practices, Nintendo stands tall simply by doing things the way the genre has been done dating back to the days of Goldeneye on the N64. If you want a new weapon or outfit, you need to buy it through cash that you earn by just plain playing the game. No real world money involved whatsoever.

          We all laugh about how behind the times Nintendo can be, with how long it took for them to realize high-definition was the future, how it took them until 2015 to create a major competitor in the shooter market, and how to this day they’re still waging a pointless war with YouTube creators. But when you look at how Splatoon 2 is an incredibly stellar shooter without falling prey to many of the traps that most similar games got stuck in this year, you definitely have to respect the fact that gaming’s oldest developer still knows how to get things done.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

          This was easily the most anticipated game of the year at the dawn of 2017. We’d gone 6 years without a major 3D Zelda title, and 11 years without a good major 3D Zelda title (sorry, Skyward Sword fans! I couldn’t resist!). With the promise of an enormous open world filled with secrets to uncover and mountains to scale, hype was at maximum for Breath of the Wild. Despite the impossibly high expectations going in, this soft-reboot for the franchise quickly proved itself to be worthy of buying a Switch for, even though the game also released on the Wii U.

          Breath of the Wild is all about two things: exploration and discovery. There are a nearly endless amount of secrets in this game, from hidden mini-dungeons called Shrines to secret weapons scattered across the map. There are also awesome landmarks everywhere, such as a giant sword statue hidden in the Gerudo Highlands and a beautiful cherry tree garden where a mythical beast is said to appear. You can spend hours in this game just picking a direction and going that way. Trust me when I say you'll never get bored.

          This game definitely felt like a breath of fresh air for Zelda. Despite still keeping plenty of the traditions that made games like Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess so great, Breath of the Wild doesn’t bother itself with trying to create an experience typical to the franchise. This is a game where you can truly do whatever you want whenever you want, and it’s very exciting to hear the promise that this type of game will be the Zelda standard going forth.

2. Super Mario Odyssey

          And finishing off Nintendo’s hat trick, we have Super Mario Odyssey. This game was simply astonishing in all the best ways. A globe-trotting adventure starring Mr. Video Game himself, this was easily Mario’s best game ever in the over 30+ years he’s been the face of the medium.

          In an age where games advertise themselves on being “immersive”, “in-depth”, “deep”, and other meaningless adjectives, Odyssey is happy being just plain fun. This game is impossible to play without a huge smile on your face the whole time, as around the corner there’s always a new surprise waiting to be uncovered. Collectible moons are rewarded for doing nearly anything and everything you can imagine, and Mario’s new capture ability can be used to control dozens of characters, enemies and objects throughout the many creative worlds the game throws at you. The development team truly didn’t leave a single stone unturned while designing this game, clearly taking player thought process into consideration while building the worlds.

          Just like Breath of the Wild, the exploration factor is what makes the game. You can spend hours in one of the larger kingdoms just finding moons, and you’ll never get bored. While some may think that the hefty amount of moons made it a little too easy to blast through to the final boss quickly, the game was clearly designed with the Nintendo Switch’s portability in mind. You can boot the game up, find a few moons, and then turn it off, leaving feeling completely fulfilled. While you can definitely sink a lot of time into the game if you want to find everything, it’s equally great to play in short stretches of time.

          This is the absolute must-own game for every Switch owner right now. Everything about this game is done perfectly or just shy of perfectly, and you’ll be having the best time ever from beginning to end.

          In fact, I can only think of one game I enjoyed more this year…

1. Horizon Zero Dawn

          This year truly was an incredible year for great video games. Any of the other 9 games I just listed off could’ve been named Game of the Year on their own in a slower year. While the world might’ve been terrible overall, in the world of Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and PC things are looking great.

          But in a year full of amazing titles, for me Horizon Zero Dawn stands heads and tails above the rest.

          This game is simply breathtaking in all aspects. The story is awesome, with several great twists and turns along the way that took me by surprise. The world is fully realized, creating an incredibly believable blend of Stone Age architecture with a sci-fi robotic edge. The enemy design is brilliant, with giant robots inspired by real-life animals and dinosaurs walking the landscape and threatening your safety. The combat is one of the best I’ve ever seen, giving you tons of weapons and options to take down the mechanical beasts, creating very engaging and fun battles.

          But I think what impresses me the most about Horizon is how it has managed to break expectations left and right. Aloy, the game’s female protagonist, is incredibly likable and relatable regardless of what gender or race you are, and she manages to avoid many of the traps that gaming’s leading ladies often fall into. What could’ve so easily been yet another massive open world filled with a whole lot of nothing is instead brimming with life, with hundreds of things to do outside of the main story. And despite being released in the same week as Breath of the Wild, the game managed to stand out by being a more traditional take on the open-world genre, as well as one of the best examples of it ever released.

          Horizon is an adventure that every gamer should experience. It’s such a beautiful, engaging, and above all consistently fun game. I have no hesitation in naming it the best game released in 2017.

          This year truly was an amazing year for gaming, but I definitely played my fair share of garbage too. If you wanna see me revisit my least favourite parts of the year, check out my Top 8 Worst Games of 2017!

My Top 8 WORST Games of 2017!

My Top 8 WORST Games of 2017!

          2017 was a great year for video games…for the most part. While we saw plenty of success stories across the board, we also saw a lot of the uglier parts of the industry rearing their heads this year. Microtransactions, loot boxes and review policies were in full effect as the scummier developers took the low road often. We also saw several games that were badly designed, underwhelming, or just plain annoying. And today I’ll be revisiting 8 of my least favourites!

          As a reminder, I don’t go out of my way to play terrible games. They usually find me. But I skipped out on most of some of the more notorious games released this year (for example, you won’t be seeing Battlefront II on this list as I decided it wasn’t worth my time to play it), so if there’s a game missing it’s either that I fortunately missed out on it or I enjoyed it more than you did.

          With that being said, let’s once again pay homage to the bottom of the barrel!

8. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite

          Taken at face value Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite isn’t too bad. It’s pretty boring and shallow compared to the far superior Tekken 7, but I’ve played worse fighters. But when you start comparing the game to its direct predecessor Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, things start to get messy.

          The game features only 30 playable characters, a low number when compared to Ultimate 3’s 50. This is likely because in an effort to more closely resemble the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe movies characters from X-Men and Fantastic Four are nowhere to be found. But instead of removing those characters and call it a day, why didn’t Capcom just add in new heroes and villains from the movies? I would’ve loved to try out Ant-Man, Loki or Star-Lord, but they’re nowhere to be found.

          But hey, just a week after release they added new characters available for only $5.99!

          It doesn’t help that the game looks ugly as anything. Instead of the colourful comic-book inspired design of the previous games in the franchise, Infinite appears to be trying to resemble the Marvel Mannequin Universe. The more realistic human characters look like they were crafted out of the finest PlayDoh available, and the hair looks more like a furry texture pasted onto a brown polygon. Don’t even get me started on how bad Rocket Raccoon looks.

          As far as gameplay goes it’s not too bad, but there is no reason why you should buy this $60 game over Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for half the price. They’re both available on PS4, so if you wanna duke it out as your favourite superheroes, make sure you buy the right game.

7. Puyo Puyo Tetris

          And now it’s time for an annual tradition: the game I hated that everyone else seemed to love! Last year it was Dragon Quest Builders, and this year it’s Puyo Puyo Tetris.

          What initially looked like a crossover between the two properties quickly established itself instead as a Puyo Puyo game that uses Tetris as an extra gimmick. This wouldn’t be too bad, but you’d be forgiven if you forgot that Tetris was even a component of the game with how little they use it here. Most of the time is given up to playing Puyo Puyo levels, which are slow, tedious, and not at all fun. I’m sure they have an audience, but that audience isn’t me.

          But what really kills the game for me is the voice acting. Every single time you clear a line the character you’re playing as will pipe in with a “Yes!” “Solved it!” or something along those lines. The big problem is that each character only has 1 quote for each amount of lines you clear, so as you make your way through each level you’ll be hearing a non-stop barrage of “YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!” over and over again. The only way I could continue playing this game after the first hour was with the TV muted.

          There’s also no Marathon mode available here for Puyo Puyo or Tetris, limiting single-player replayability after you’ve finished the main story. Unless you can convince a friend to play with you, you’ll never touch the game again.

6. Yooka-Laylee

          Talk about a disappointment. This “retro Rare-vival” was Kickstarted as a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie games on the N64, helmed by the same development crew. To echo my review for the game, the developers clearly were trying to remind you of how great their games were in the late 90’s, and I feel they accomplished that with me. In my entire time playing Yooka-Laylee I found I’d rather be playing Banjo than this worse homage to it.

          I think someone forgot to tell the developers at Playtonic Games that video games progressed after the N64, because this game could’ve been made in 1998 and you’d never be able to tell the difference. The controls and camera are wonky as anything, the NPCs stand around lifelessly repeating the same single animation over and over again, and the graphics would look moderately passable on the GameCube.

          Just like the good ol’ days!

          But I can forgive lackluster presentation if the core gameplay is good, but sadly Yooka-Laylee plays more like a series of missteps. Collecting objects to further your quest feels more like a chore than an objective, the puzzles range from boring to confusing to full-on rage inducing, and the hub world is legitimately the worst I’ve ever seen. The winding maze of twisting hallways, rooms and pipes left me so lost I wound up consulting the internet for help finding Level 2.

          The game was ported to Switch a few weeks back to basically no fanfare whatsoever, so it looks like the only thing Yooka and Laylee will be collecting anytime soon is dust.

5. Knack 2

          This poor game never stood a chance. The sequel to the much maligned Knack, a PS4 launch title that found its way onto many Worst Games of 2013 lists, Knack 2 was laughed at and ridiculed right out of the gates. While this sequel fared better critically than its predecessor, it’s still not a good game by any means.

          Remember those really bad bargain bin platformer games with licensed characters that your grandma would get you for Christmas when you were a kid? Knack 2 feels like one of those. Visually the game looks like one of those direct-to-DVD Disney knockoffs that try to fool parents into getting them for their kids instead of the real thing (Ratatoing anyone?). The human characters all have thousand yard stares the entire game, giving the whole thing an unintentional creepy feel, like one of those cheap horror games on Steam where you’re being chased by statues or whatever.

          The gameplay isn’t much better either. The combat is incredibly brainless, as you walk up to enemies and mash the square button until you win. But even then the game is quick to offer invincibility power-ups to you the second you walk into a combat area fairly frequently. I was playing on Normal difficulty and I still found this game to be a complete breeze.

          This is one of those games clearly aimed at kids who still can’t tell a good game from a bad one, but speaking as someone who was a kid at one point in time I’d much rather play a platformer like Super Mario Odyssey or Crash Bandicoot: The N-Sane Trilogy than this cakewalk. I think Sony should just let this franchise go.

4. Prey

          I’m typically a patient person while gaming. I never lost my cool while playing Cuphead, despite being stuck on the Aviary Action level for days. Even the ultra-tough Darker Side of the Moon in Super Mario Odyssey wasn’t enough to make me lose it.

          But Prey? Prey broke me.

          While I’ve definitely heard others had a much more enjoyable experience with this game, my playthrough was complete misery from start to finish. The game was advertised by Bethesda as having a “play your way” mechanic, where you could build a character with whatever attributes you wanted and still be able to beat the game. I quickly discovered this was a blatant lie, however. Knowing this was a horror game going in I decided to put as many skill points as I could into stealth and lockpicking to try and avoid enemies. The only problem was that most if not all the enemies were placed in long, narrow hallways with no way around them except for strong-arming your way through like Rambo. My build was rendered worthless when I ultimately arrived at a boss fight and had no way to defeat him as my character was about as strong as a baby wielding a wet spaghetti noodle.

          I once got so angry at this game that I legitimately needed to leave the house and take a walk to cool down after a particularly merciless session. So, in consideration that this game was sold on a false promise as well as the fact that this was yet another game Bethesda used their bogus review policy on where the embargo wasn’t broken until after the game hit store shelves, Prey walks away with this year’s Sean Murray Award for Most Anti-Consumer Game of the Year. Maybe if I’d played Battlefront II I would’ve given it to them, but I didn’t, so here we are.

3. Lego Worlds

          This was a weird one. You’d think at this point Traveller’s Tales would know how to make a working Lego game, but with this and 2015’s Lego Jurassic World it’s clear to me that they’re still working out the bugs.

This game was obscenely glitchy to the point that adding in a second player legitimately broke the game. Our tools suddenly became inaccessible, the sound effects got insanely loud, and the camera began to swing wildly in all directions. It wasn’t very fun.

Hilariously, while this was clearly meant as an attempt to ape games like Minecraft and LittleBigPlanet, it wound up feeling more like a Lego-ized version of No Man’s Sky. The entire campaign that I played was nothing more than landing on a planet, doing some mundane tasks to gather resources, and then leaving said planet to do the whole thing again. How fun.

Also my playthrough ended early because a glitch caused an objective to not spawn in the world because this was a finished product that cost $30 at launch.

2. MicroMachines World Series

          If there was ever an example of a game being made just so the publisher could have a reason to keep a licensed name to itself, it would be MicroMachines World Series. This is a multiplayer racing game released in 2017 that doesn’t have a local multiplayer mode. Seriously. You can only play singleplayer or online, but I’m almost certain you’ll have a tough time finding anyone to play with you. I played this in launch month and even then the game had to add a bunch of computers to fill my online races.

          Despite the visual design telling me that this game takes place on a desk of some sort, the controls made it feel more like the surface of Antarctica. The cars slide around like their wheels have been soaked in butter, and making sharp turns is nearly impossible. At one point the game wanted me and some other players to jump a ramp, but none of us had the momentum to make the gap because of how hard it was to just drive in a straight line.

          It’s so laughably terrible that I almost want to recommend it…almost. But since there’s no local multiplayer mode, there’s absolutely no reason to pick this one up. Just watch some funny dog videos instead. You’ll enjoy it more.

1. Troll and I

          Honestly, there was no contest this year. I knew going in that Troll and I would run away with the grand title of Worst Game of 2017.

          It’s simply mindblowing how this game gets literally everything wrong. The story is wrong. The gameplay is wrong. The voice acting is wrong. The graphics are wrong. It’s just...kinda impressive, actually.

          The game is supposed to be set in Scandinavia in the 1950’s, but it looks more like Middle-earth. Your main character hunts boar with spears and sticks, and everyone dresses like they just got home from their job at the local pioneer village. The rest of the presentation is equally hilarious: I’ve seen better character models on the N64, and the voice acting is clearly just developer family members called in to help cut costs. Also, the forest is full of ghosts. It’s never explained why these mysterious ripple effects are hanging in the air, so I just assume they’re the ghosts of everyone who died playing this game.

          The gameplay is, unsurprisingly, atrocious. Early on you have to go through a lengthy string of quick time events to jump over some logs…even though a cutscene that played just before this part shows that the main character can’t jump over a log to save his mom. Okay then. Anyways, it’s complete luck if the quick time event will work or not. I would press the button in perfect time (if the button prompt decided to appear at all, which it often didn’t, resulting in failure), but main character guy would miss the jump and I’d have to start the whole thing over again.

          Everything about this game at launch was so hilariously awful, except for one thing: the price. While it’s dropped down now (although anything above $2 is asking too much for this game), it cost a full retail price of $60 at launch. That’s flat-out robbery, and the publishers should be ashamed of themselves for it. So, for being one of the most broken, buggy, and overpriced games I have ever experienced in my 21 years of gaming, Troll and I easily walks away as 2017’s worst game.

          Ah, that was fun. If you want something a bit more positive, be sure to check out my Top 10 Best Games of2017!

Editorial: Top 10 Snowy Music in Video Games!

Top 10 Snowy Music in Video Games!

          Well, it’s that magical day of the year again! I didn’t wanna go without doing a small Christmas special, so here’s my list of the Top 10 Wintery/Snowy Music in video games! As always I’m only allowing one game per franchise. So without further ado…

#10: Cool, Cool Mountain (Super Mario 64)

          Can’t go wrong with this old favourite. For many this was their first ever song from a snow level. The reason it’s at number 10 though is that it’s such an obvious choice. Everybody puts this one on their list because it’s both great and also nostalgic, so I’ll just leave it at number 10 and move on.

#9: Diamond Dust Zone (Sonic 3D)

          I only found this one while doing research for this list, but I’m glad I did. This song definitely has a lot of Christmas spirit, from the jingle bells to the overlayed instruments used later on. It really sounds like something you’d hear during a particularly exciting Christmas movie.

#8: Snowdin Town (Undertale)

          From a game where nearly every song on the soundtrack is amazing in its own right, this song really captures the feel of the hustle and bustle of a small town around the holiday season. It’s fast, it’s busy, but it still has enough time to have that holly jolly cheer that makes this time of year so appealing.

#7: Christmas (Nintendo eShop)

          It’s not a game but this is my list and I can cheat if I want to!

          This plays on Christmas Day in the Wii U eShop, and it perfectly captures the spirit of the season in a remix of the usual song. It feels like something you’d hear played in a mall during the holiday season, while still keeping that classic Nintendo sound.

          Here’s hoping it makes the jump to Nintendo Switch someday, because their store still seriously needs some music.

#6: White Falls (Horizon: Zero Dawn)

          This one’s pretty different from most of the others I have on my list. It’s much more atmospheric than Christmasy, capturing more the feel of ice and snow. Using Horizon’s unique mixture of sci-fi-style music and traditional Aborigines-like songs, this feels like it could play when you walk out on a cold night with the snow still coming down.

#5: Fluffy Snow, Here We Go! (Yoshi’s Woolly World)

          This is more or less a winter-themed remix of the game’s main theme, but you can’t tell me you can listen to this one without a smile. The snow levels were easily one of my favourite parts of this criminally underrated gem (if you missed it on Wii U check out the 3DS version!), putting the yarn aesthetic to great use, with this song being the icing on the cake.

#4: Phendrana Drifts (Metroid Prime)

          Another more atmospheric piece, Phendrana Drifts is just plain awesome. It captures both the feel of snow and the sci-fi atmosphere of the Metroid games perfectly, being both slow and eerie but at the same time a little light-hearted and mysterious. It’s incredibly hard to describe, but you’ll agree with me after you listen to it.

#3: Snowbelle City (Pokémon X and Y)

          Just like Snowdin Town, this is a song that plays when you visit an ice-themed city in an RPG. The Pokémon series has always had great music for their winter themed levels, but this one is definitely my favourite. It captures the feel of watching snow fall outside from the comfort of a cozy living room for me.

#2: Freezeezy Peak (Banjo-Kazooie)

          Another classic from the N64 days, this is still perhaps my favourite composition by Grant Kirkhope. While he’s done several incredible soundtracks for games since then, the song that plays for Freezeezy Peak is still his most memorable, at least for me. I’ll find myself humming this song often, even more so than the other songs from Banjo. It’s just great.

#1: Toy Day (Animal Crossing: New Leaf)

          Why does Animal Crossing always land at #1 on my holiday themed Top 10 lists?

          Anyways, maybe it’s just nostalgia talking, but for me this is the ultimate snowy video game song. This plays only on Christmas Eve at night in your town, as Jingle the holiday reindeer visits to deliver presents to your villager. How you interact with Jingle changes from game to game, but New Leaf is my favourite as you get to participate in a month-long run up to the event by talking to your villagers and learning what they want for Toy Day.

          And this song plays throughout the event. While Toy Day has gone through a few changes over the franchise, this song has been the one constant in every game it’s in. While I definitely prefer the version from New Leaf (as well as the nearly if not completely identical one from City Folk), the original take on the song from the GameCube Animal Crossing is well worth a listen to hear how it matches up with the more funky style of music used in that game.

          Are there any I missed? Let me know, and enjoy your Christmas!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Review: “Rewind”

The boys are back

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Fitz is one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s best characters. While he often has to share screentime with Simmons, the writers have gone out of their way in recent seasons to ensure that he stands out on his own as well. This episode feels like the culmination of Fitz’s entire story until now, as he truly is allowed to take center stage.

          Fitz awakens at the diner from the end of Season 4 only to discover his whole team is missing. Before he can figure out what’s happening the military bursts in and arrests him for the LMD situation, locking him away in a secret facility. Fitz spends the next six months working out a way to rescue the team, but comes up with nothing. Then, Hunter arrives to rescue him, and the two set off to figure out what was going on.

          Easily the big winner in this episode is Iain de Caestecker as Fitz. While it’s hard to say whether or not this is his best episode ever (he’s had so many good ones over the years!), it definitely ranks up there among the best. This feels like Fitz’s own personal 4,722 Hours, except instead of Simmons being stranded in space without the team, he’s stranded on Earth throughout the team.

          It was great to see him still dealing with what happened in the Framework. Just like how we saw Mack’s fallout after he discovered the guy hiding a baby, Fitz is still coming to terms with the things that happened in the Framework was great, especially as they seem to be setting up him using what he learned from his time as the Doctor to help save his friends.

          I also really enjoyed the fun return to the S.H.I.E.L.D norm this week. While I’m liking the adventures on the space station, there’s always something charming about the show’s classic style with no twists or turns. The Fitz/Hunter pairing is also a lot of fun. I loved how they managed to contact each other through arguing about soccer teams, and Hunter using a bunch of weird and silly gadgets to help Fitz along the way was awesome. Ferrets are now a legitimate weapon in the MCU.

          We also got some answers as to what’s going on. Fitz and Hunter managed to track down the weird alien man from the beginning of the first episode. His name is Enoch, and he’s an alien that’s been observing Earth for centuries. He sent the rest of the team into the future to fulfill a prophecy said by the daughter of that guy who could predict people dying in the future back in Season 3. It’s actually kinda nice to have the new character teased at the end of a season be a legitimately cool guy instead of turning out to be the main villain like it usually does. Enoch definitely has a sort of “Isaac from The Orville” vibe, being a weird but kinda charming guy who doesn’t really fit in with humans. I liked him a lot from what we saw here, and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

          This episode was pure classic S.H.I.E.L.D at its best. Fitz and Hunter’s wacky adventures were tons of fun to watch, especially with the crazy gadgets and techniques they used to get around. Ending with an Empire Strikes Back reference was amazing. It was also great how they tied in with both the current season as well as some past ones, using stuff from Season 3 to figure out what’s happening. All in all, this was one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s best, and proves that even when new and different is great, there’s nothing wrong with the good ol’ days.

FINAL SCORE

10/10

Legendary

Chill Chat: Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers Final Thoughts

Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers Final Thoughts

(This article contains spoilers for the final episode of Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers!)

          Well, another season of Survivor has come and gone, and with that it’s time for me to give my final thoughts on the whole thing. So, let’s get right into it.

          This was…a weird season, to say the least. It was nowhere near as snooze-inducing as Game Changers was with Sarah’s obvious winner’s edit, but nor was it as exciting and fun to watch as Millennials vs. Gen X was. There weren’t too many truly standout cast members I’d like to see again (aside from Devon, Joe, Dr. Mike and Lauren), and the game didn’t really kick into high gear until the last third, when the Alliance of 7 came crashing down upon itself. Plus, considering how divisive the finale and winner seem to be on social media right now, I think this season is gonna be similar to Star Wars: The Last Jedi as a sort of “love it or loathe it” thing.

          Let’s kick things off by talking about the winner: Ben. I gotta say, I’m completely happy with his win. He was easily the most deserving player out there, especially since he spent the entire run-up to Final Tribal as an alliance of one, kept alive purely by finding idols and playing them correctly. He’s also become the first person in Survivor history to use an idol to eliminate someone with only one vote, as he took down Lauren.

          Yes, it’s a little weird that the anti-Ben squad didn’t tail him constantly to make sure he couldn’t find another idol (like Andrea did to beat Malcolm in Caramoan), but it’s really impressive that not only was he able to find the thing three consecutive times, but he was able to play it correctly and stay in the game three consecutive times. How often have we seen idols be thrown away because of a misjudgement or a red herring? Because he knew he was Public Enemy #1, there was no doubt in his mind that he needed idols to make it to the end and win the game, and that’s exactly what he did. In my mind he is easily the most deserving player on the whole season to win the million.

          I feel Chrissy is getting a bit of undeserved love online purely because of her four challenge wins. Yes, it’s impressive she tied the record for most challenge wins by a woman in a single season (alongside 3 other ladies, but that’s beside the point). Despite this admittedly impressive feat, her social game was still sorely lacking. Maybe this was a result of the edit, but to me Chrissy always seemed cocky, overconfident and a bit of a braggart the whole time she was out there. Because she managed to give Katrina the boot at the first Tribal and then save her game by allying with Ben early on, she seemed to size herself up as a master player in the game, which, let’s be honest, she really wasn’t.

          As for Ryan, he’s become the latest victim of post-merge invisibility. He was clearly in control of his tribes early on, taking control and removing his biggest threats, like Ali and Roark. But once the merge happened, he kinda disappeared into the alliance of 7, and when that all went away he just sorta sat back and did what Chrissy told him to do. The jury laid into him for this at Final Tribal, saying that he was basically a non-entity in the late game, and that he was just a tool in furthering Devon and Chrissy’s games. Not a great look for my Day 1 pick to win.

          Dr. Mike and Devon proved to be the losers of the night, as they both wound up as victims of Hurricane Ben. Mike wound up on the losing end after an extremely clever play by Devon, as he anticipated Ben having a third idol and threw an extra vote his way to keep himself in the game. On the revote Mike went home, but Devon’s success didn’t last much longer.

          So I guess it’s time to address the elephant in the room: the final 4 “advantage”. Whoever won Final Immunity would choose one person they wanted with them on the Final 3. The other two would have to battle it out for the final spot on the bench. Chrissy won the challenge, choosing Ryan to take with her to the end and telling Devon he was gonna have to make fire.

          Now, there are pros and cons to this shake-up. The pro is that this gives some of the more entertaining players a chance to stay alive, as well as create some extra drama in the game. Ben had no hope after losing the final challenge, so this was his last chance to make it to the end. If you’re on the bottom and have no idols to save yourself and you don’t win immunity, this is a final chance to get yourself to the end and prove to the jury you deserve the million dollars.

          But there are a few cons as well. As we’ve seen many times in many fire-making challenges, getting a flame going isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world. Look at Devon here. Despite being the tribe’s chief fire-guy this season, he couldn’t get anything going. There’s a distinct possibility that an undeserving player could get to the end through this challenge, taking out someone that truly should’ve gotten the million on the way (and I’m sure Devon fans will agree). There’s also the concern that there’s one-too-many advantages in the game nowadays, and this is just an extra thing that undermines the social and strategic parts of Survivor. Who needs relationships and a strong stance on the social pyramid when you can just find idols and win hidden advantages to keep playing?

          At the end of the day, I stand sort of in the middle. While I like any chance to keep ourselves from having another dud winner (*cough*Kaoh Rong*cough*), there’s a definite problem that this is a little unfair to players who played an excellent strategic game. The jury definitely favours spectacle and show over a slow-building game with a strong core, and winning a surprise final advantage definitely gives you that.

          Overall, I enjoyed Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers. It was definitely one of the more bizarre seasons, as Ben’s win was enabled by a lot of poor gameplay by his tribemates. I’ll never know why they thought not following him around after he pulled off successful idol plays twice in a row was a good idea. But the contestants all had great character and personality (especially JP, am I right?), the challenges were great, and last third with constant idol plays was a ton of fun to watch. While not a banner season by any means, it was definitely one I thoroughly enjoyed.