Well, here we go again! The last blog post of 2021! Just think, a year ago I was in the weeds of finishing Symphogear, and now look at me! I'm... well, I'm still thinking about that show. I've got some bangers planned for 2022, and you'll probably see them as soon as the year turns over and we get all the holiday stuff back up in the attic. For now, before the year ends, we're here to talk about COMPUTER VIDEO GAMES! Admittedly I didn't play too many of those this year, but I played enough to make a list out of 'em! So let us do that, as we so annually do, right now, and start with...
WORST GAME OF 2021
Mega Man X7 (Switch)
Well, it wasn't completely terrible. It's not an affront to friendly game design like Mega Man X6 was, but X7 is a bit of a rough one. The voice acting is lousy and the camera control can go fucky wucky. I can almost live with shit like that. The gameplay itself is... not really great either. You've probably heard the infamous BURN TO THE GROUND thing, but did you know the boss fight itself is some complete janky butt? That's not even getting into the boss fight against Red in the endgame, which is janky butt on par with some of the worst and most ludicrous tasks X6 asked of you. I don't know. I'd probably go back to this over X6, but it's still something done for the sake of completion and technically the winner of the Golden Stinker this year.
BEST FIGHTIN' VIDEO GAME EXPERIENCE OF 2021
Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2/Guilty Gear Strive (PC)
A two for one here, because they both belong on here for the same reasons and resonances. 2020 put me on a bit of a fighting game kick (pun unintended but taken anyway, HA HA HA) with me fiddling around with arcade fighters. I had never touched a Guilty Gear before this year, but I touched two in 2021 as you see above. They're both very cool and stylish with a lot of options and mechanics and things to learn. No, the major memorable thing for me with these games is that I became part of a little fighting game community. A server I'm in with some longtime friends had a group of said friends who were into Xrd at the start of 2021, and one of them got me the game so I could join in. We played, we had fun, I drifted a little... but then I drifted back when Strive came out this year and it went on sale after a few months. Outsmarting an AI who otherwise is an input-reading shithead designed to suck quarters has its own catharsis, but friendly competition among friends, trying to learn their strengths and weaknesses as well as my own, getting helpful advice for the next matches... It was just really nice, okay? I'd enjoy hopping back on that horse one day and fighting some pals with my cool punk rock witch, I-No.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF 2021
Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection (Switch)
I already wrote a big post about all my faults with this game, but I'll sum it up if you forgot or don't want to skim through it for the point. Put simply, it changed the type of difficulty just enough to shift it away to something that aggravated me instead of challenged me. GnG has been a series about learning to manage chaos with your own order, but Resurrection didn't have chaos. It had a dark order of its own, a masocore-esque design of "HA HA HA GOTCHA" bullshit you had to die to over and over to memorize. It's a very well-made one of those, but that just isn't my scene and to see one of my favorite hard-as-hell video game series devolve into that shit really soured me. What a goddamn shame.
BEST EXPLORATORY PLATFORMER OF 2021
Metroid Dread (Switch)
Now this was one hell of a computer video game. Metroid 5: Samus Returns 2 is a highlight of the year. Just some good classic exploratory platforming from the series that arguably defined it. It adds enough new shit to keep things fresh while keeping that familiar Samus Returns style these devs had down from 2017, and it's also really damn hard. That part feels like it's in keeping with Metroid Fusion, which also escalated the difficulty, but goddamn is this one tough. Fair, but tough. Recency bias may be at play but I think it's the hardest Metroid has ever been. Some parts of that hardness grate, though, and the forgiving nature of its checkpointing means dying to the goddamn fucking EMMI for the 10th time because your toe slipped and you failed a frame perfect counter does... make one grit their teeth a little. Some of those story beats and other little things also made me raise an eyebrow, but as a whole this game was pretty damn great. There's lots of depth and replay in it, too, if you want to perfect it or learn all those Shinespark puzzles. I was good with the base clear, but I bet that would add a lot of nuance like it did for Zero Mission. Another rad one for Metroid.
BEST GAME MADE BY FRIENDS OF 2021
Facets v.1.1/Wayward (PC)
John Thyer made the list again! Facets, a difficult and dark RPG where you are the baddies, hit my list back in 2018. I never actually finished it, tapping out at the final boss which attacks you with the utopic power of love and friendship (I still refer to me being utterly defeated as the Good Ending to Facets.) but I respected the game all the same, even if it was really hard. Come 2021, and Facets got a bit of a re-release with an easier mode that gives you the option of starting with more items and a wait mode for the battles. The real star, for me though, was Wayward. Wayward is a prequel novel set before Facets, and it's a moving little story which definitely recontextualized some things present in the game for me as well as just being a really rad and well-written story. If this sort of thing interests you, click those links above for Facets and Wayward. Good work, John! You made another GOTY list!! =)
BEST EXPERIENCE WITH FRIENDS OF 2021
Monster Hunter Rise (Switch)
Ah yes, back again with the Monster Hunting. 2021 gave us a brand new game on the Switch, and with it another go around of the Monster Hunter experience. I went in with the goal of learning a new weapon, choosing the Charge Blade; a weird and wild transforming weapon that's shield, sword, and axe all in one. It had a bit of a learning curve, but I got there in the end, beating the main game with it. Then for the post game I switched to the Hammer and just beat things over the head a lot. Hell, for the DLC out in 2022 I might even switch weapons again for kicks. Monster Hunter isn't about beating up monsters solo, though. No, I did it with friends, and that connective energy is what puts the game high on the list for me. It's fun to play with your friends, be it helping them grind out a part they need or them helping you beat up an intimidating creature you don't feel comfy going 1v1 with just yet. This game even managed to help me feel like I was contributing and not just being carried by a friend much better and stronger than me! I really like that, and I really liked this game. Let's hope the DLC in 2022 makes this return to the list for these same reasons.
BEST LAWYERGAME OF 2021
The Great Ace Attorney Adventures (Switch)
Oh hey, new lawyergame!! The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles collects two previously unreleased side games in the Ace Attorney series, set in the Victorian era. I only finished the first one, but the second's still there for me when I have a spare 20 hours to read and deduct out some lawyergame book stuff. I quite enjoyed this game, though its themes didn't hit me quite as strong as the last lawyergame I played. Even so, it does have some great stuff and character beats to it, hinting at other stuff for the second game if I ever get to it. It was just a good time solving murders and pressing people and turning the tides of justice to my favor. I don't have much more to say about it, other than it was great and I'm looking forward to getting at that second one sometime.
GAME OF THE YEAR 2021
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus (Switch)
(SPOILER WARNING: HERE THERE BE SPOILERS)
If you're new here, let me tell you about my one criteria for Game Of The Year. It can't just be a really mechanically well-made experience, or else something like Metroid Dread would be here. No, Game Of The Year for me has to hit that strong emotional connection and really make me feel something other than base entertainment value. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus knocks that out of the park. It's one of those dissonant games that come along every once in a while. Ha ha ha oh look, the cute visual novel about cute anime girls is actually a harrowing and horrific portrayal of depression, anxiety, and self-harm. I knew this about it for years, but going in I was not expecting how much it would floor me. There's also a meta aspect as well, as one of these cute anime girls is self-aware and oh so desires to speak to you, the you playing the computer video game. There's even more meta fuckery of going into the game files to try and stop this kawaii ex machina. The game's final judgment of you, the you playing the computer video game, viscerally upset me deeply. The final message is that this game world has no possibility of hope or redemption, no chance for healing, no space for its cute anime girls to thrive. How depressing.
Or, it would be, were it not for that Plus. The Plus is bonus content you can unlock, showing new scenes of different pairs of the girls interacting. They share their fears, their worries, their anxieties, and all their messy inner demons with one another... and the other is always kind and supportive, there to help them, there to try and understand and work through these issues with them because they're friends. The Plus... is love and hope and friendship, where there was none before. Maybe there's a chance for this self-aware cute anime girl in her digital sea. Maybe there's a chance for all of us suffering from depression or anxiety or thoughts of self-harm. Maybe there's hope out there. That hits me right in the feelings. In the end, how to sum up Doki Doki Literature Club Plus? Is there a way to summarize all that pain, all that anguish, all that metanarrative fuckery, and all that added hope and love for the future? I think there's a way to sum it up in just two words, sharing the living and loving heart and soul of the game with you all. It's quite simple, really, when you think about it.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is... Just Monika.
...AND THE REST
So, that's the Big Category List done and dusted. Now for other games that deserve a highlight but don't have their own Big Category for one reason or another. Sometimes games are just okay, or they don't light up a big writeup in me, or it's been literally 11 months and I remember jack shit about it. That's what And The Rest is for, so let's get to the rest!
Syrup And The Ultimate Sweet (Switch)
A cute little visual novel by Nomnomnami (try saying that five times fast) that I happened to see on the Switch store, thought it looked cute, and threw on and played a route. There's a scientist, and a cute girl made of candy, and some other fun stuff. I know friends of mine really like Nonnomnami's output, but this is my one flirtation with it. Dunno what else to say. It was cute.
Cyber Shadow (XB1)
This probably would have made best pixel game of 2021 or something if I could remember much about it. We're talking late January 2021 here, which is both a hell of a long time ago and was a turbulent time in my life. This is just a cool action game I played to unwind a little from the stress of that situation. It was good, it was hard, I finished it 100%... and I can't tell you a damn thing about it beyond that because I have the memory of a goldfish. I only write down what I finish, I don't write down how I felt about it after the fact unless it's big like GnG Resurrection or something. Cyber Shadow was a functionally fine One Of Those, Probably.
Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night Classic Mode (Switch)
Oh yeah, the exploratory platformer Bloodstained got an update that turned it into a classic Castlevania game. I played it. Much like Cyber Shadow, the haze of time has made it a blur. It was a functionally fine One Of Those, just like that game, and a decent little bonus mode for the fans of that game. Give me Curse Of The Moon any day for that classic Castlevania homage, but this is nice.
SNK vs. Capcom: Match Of The Millennium (Switch)
I had that fighting game kick (I INTENDED THE PUN THIS TIME, HA HA HA HA) still going and I ended up getting a shitload of those Neo Geo Pocket Color fighters that got ported to the Switch. Of them, SNK vs Capcom is absolutely lit. It's got a hell of a roster with beloved characters from each series, the fighting's great, the bosses are sufficiently terrifying, and it's a tough and challenging little fighter. I quite enjoyed it, and it's worth a play.
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir/The Girl Who Stands Behind (Switch)
A pair of lavish remakes of old Nintendo visual novels from the Famicom Disk System days. I had a good time with these, though they do show their age just a bit by having a handful of moments of "for FUCK'S SAKES what combination of shit do I click to make the game go to the next bit???". Even so, they're brisk and the Internet exists. You can break through those roadblocks and just vibe with the quick and breezy little stories being told here. Besides, I like that rough around the edges kind of thing. It's honest and faithful.
POLLY MADE A COMPUTER VIDEO GAME! AND became a 3D anime plushie this year! What a set of accomplishments! Luigi Floating On An Egg Over The Sea is exactly what it says on the tin. A cute little 10-minute affair where you are Luigi, floating on an egg over the sea, just like that bit in 4-3 of Super Mario 2. I like how this is a sort of pacifist shmup focused on dodging, and how the challenge escalates. Real nice game design shit, and I even made a video where I 1cc'd it a while back. Good computer video game, Polly!
Mega Man X8 (Switch)
It took me many months of recovering from X7, but I decided to bite the bullet and complete the X series. X8 is an odd beast. It is not worse than X7, but there were things that drove me absolutely batty with this damn game. It comes together a little more once you actually get powered up, but it's not one of the all-time greats of the series. Shame we never got an X9, but oh well. Maybe someday. X8 is okay, at the very least, but by god did parts of it piss me off.
Pokemon Shining Pearl (Switch)
Gotta catch 'em all! Oh god, catching them all. Before I get to that, the main game's nice! It's got a pretty chibi style, but not as pretty and lavish as something like the Link's Awakening remake. That style would have been fun for the game, but I see why they didn't do that. It was neat to revisit Gen 4 again after like 15 years. Now I am currently trapped in a hell of the Pokedex challenge, loading the game every morning to see what random swarm Pokemon is swarming to see if it is the one motherfucker I have yet to find. The Pokedex challenge in this game is rough, harrowing, and a pain in the ass for the sake of being a pain in the ass. Still, fun game. Maybe someday I'll find that Electrike and finish the Pokedex. (If you have an Electrike, please DM me on Twitter or something @FreezingInferno and trade me one to end this NIGHTMARE)
That's that. That's Game Of The Year 2021. Well, for me now writing this, that's half the work. Now I have to carve the post into a pretty-looking thing in Blogger and get all the pictures, so you won't be seeing this just yet. Still, that's it for the writing part. Thanks for making it this far, and I hope your 2021 was full of enjoyment. Be it from the gaming world, movies, shows, friends and love... Just have a good one, y'all, okay? We'll be seeing you in 2022 as I've got big plans for the next phases of Frezno's Increasingly Verbose Exegesis On Shows That Made Them Feel Things. Hope you're looking forward to that. Until then, though... Happy holiday, happy New Year, and fare thee well, 2021.
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