Still a work in progress as of January 03. Getting a good feel for my choices, though, and remaining satisfied thus far.
1.
Sleeping Dogs ; It is the all-encompassing package of Sleeping Dogs that led to me having an absolute blast with it and loving just about every minute from beginning to end. Its combat mechanics have traces of the recent Batman games, virtual Hong Kong feels as if you're driving 15 minutes outside of Steelport of Saints Row the Third, and I am completely okay with it. It strikes a great balance of plot, game design, and environment. If you've seen even one Hong Kong police drama, you can probably guess how the events of Sleeping Dogs unfold. This did not take away from the experience. The game features some good scripting and some great characters, particularly in the protagonist Wei Shen. Even when the game gets purposely silly in its comedy and outrageous in its action, there is a strange empathy to be felt as he balances, struggles, and fights his double identity. It's satisfying watching him kick ass and take names as you learn new moves, and I can't get over how gorgeous this version of Hong Kong is at night with both vibrancy and drabness in all the right places. On a side note, it features perhaps the best series of radio stations in an open-world real-world based game.
2.
The Walking Dead ; The true challenge of The Walking Dead lies in accepting that anything defined as victory here comes at a great cost. The goal, contextual with its characters, relationships, and narrative, is to survive, and you're in the driver's seat. One of the challenges I imagine Telltale facing in development was how to get the player to want to care for Clementine, a child in media where they tend to be written as "the load." They nailed her role as Lee's (and thus, the player's) emotional crutch, while the rest of the narrative asks, "How would you respond to this?" The game also does a great job integrating narrative and gameplay consistently, a huge pet peeve of mine in modern games. I also enjoyed its social feedback feature, comparing your decisions to other players. While its direct conflict in episode five feels somewhat forced, the true, inner conflict remains, and so much of The Walking Dead is gut-wrenching. Its rare moments of serenity or blissfulness are the true rewards. You can't stop wondering where your relationships with the people in it will take you, and how that will pay off in the end, or perhaps later how hard it will bite you in the ass.
3.
Kid Icarus: Uprising ; The truth is I have no relationship or attachment with Kid Icarus as a franchise. I'm not particularly good at the NES game, and I have never played its Game Boy sequel. With that said, Kid Icarus: Uprising is an excellent title that does so many marvelous things. The split of aerial rail shooter and third-person action keeps the pacing strong and is enhanced by a rather rich weapon mod system and customized abilities to take into battle. It encourages experimentation. Even its difficulty selection is expansive and implements risk versus reward. It boasts stellar environment design, great voice-acting and soundtrack, and a script that is hilariously self-aware. The multiplayer is basic, but fun. Lots of little rewards to be found.
4.
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy ; A game that celebrates the majesty that is the music of Final Fantasy, 25 years of it. It's a well-designed rhythm game a la Elite Beat Agents featuring some adorable versions of your favorite FF characters. The entire package is essentially the Final Fantasy museum. Unlock more tracks, play at higher difficulties and show off your chain and combo skills, and collect all sorts of goodies and delve into this series' history. Tons and tons of music to reminisce to, and plenty of challenge.
5.
Persona 4: Golden ; First, P4G is another game that wonderfully shows off the Vita OLED with its ridiculously rich palette. I love the bright menus and animation. The game itself stresses the concept of socializing and bonding enough that even its side quests make you feel sort of good about helping someone out. Its vox populi mechanic is incredibly useful for helping you keep track of your activities and social life. There are fairly entertaining characters in the story, a few that are incredibly irritating, but they're people you learn to care for as you try and raise a more powerful Persona. The story itself is surprisingly well-written, with one gigantic hiccup in the plot. Dungeon crawling can feel tedious as the days stretch, but the boss battles and payoffs make it all worth it. I love the Persona fusion mechanic as I did in P3P, although I didn't use it as often this time. All of this is to a rather fun pop-jazz style soundtrack with a decent vocal track or two. There is a lot to be found and to be explored, in more ways than one. Even its television menu is impressive, allowing you to view live concert footage, the animated scenes of the story, and read through a rather intense discussion of the conscience of man... Overall, this is a superb package.
6.
Journey ; I believe it's the simplicity of Journey's mechanics that allow room for the player to contemplate what it is they're experiencing. I think a lot of its emotional resonance stems from its soundtrack, fantastic and passionate enough to be nominated for a Grammy Award, and the limited communication we have with our co-operative partners. The environments are set up almost perfectly, so diverse that each new area feels unique and mysterious. The mystery of Journey's world and the mystery of the people we journey with are just so fascinating, like you're both just figuring it out together. Its payoff is almost spiritual.
7.
Crimson Shroud ; Yasumi Matsuno storytelling combined with a tabletop RPG aesthetic and some pretty great writing/translation. The tabletop aesthetic, complete with a near-literal dice-rolling mechanic and its characters with game piece bases at their feet, would have found a place on this list alone. Truthfully, there is a lot of patience and strategizing involved, its menus can feel tedious, and while it'd be nice that so many people experience it, there's a clear niche here. Being on 3DS, a device designed for on-the-go gaming, is a great fit for it and a bonus. I'd love this concept to be expanded.
8.
New Super Mario Bros U ; NSMBU earns a spot in my Game of the Year 2012 list because of its challenge mode. I cannot get enough of them. They are small objectives to accomplish in X amount of time for bronze, silver, and gold medals. They can range from simple and easy, to potentially infuriating, and quite frankly I'm a sucker for them and do a better job evoking nostalgia than the main game. It's part of why I loved last year's Rayman Origins so much. The game itself deserves mention for being a Mario game in high definition, and I honestly paid more attention to my TV than the Wii U game pad. I loved how rich the tones of the worlds were, as familiar as many of them were. A handful of levels were fantastic in design, particularly Boo-centric ones. The core fun for me lies in obtaining the Star Coins, and how often they're put in places where you need to pull off your best moves to get some of them. I went into it knowing it would sport a pretty sizable map evoking memories of Super Mario World. I only wish there were more hidden secret levels to explore. Another feature worth mentioning by way of the Wii U OS is the Miiverse integration, which I can't get enough of. It's a simple kind of socialization I can get behind: leaving notes for others to see. I haven't gotten to try multiplayer, but after this and NSMB2 on 3DS, another game I enjoyed, I think the NSMB series does its job well as a sort of appetizer for larger-scale Mario titles.
X.
Sound Shapes ; Games like Sound Shapes are why I wanted the Vita, as opposed to the "portable console experience" Sony touts the device as being. Sound Shapes features charming visuals and a wonderful soundtrack brought to life by a number of well-known artists as the player rhythmically attempts to get through worlds unscathed. Ranking in the time attacks is part of the fun, but perhaps its greatest feature lies in the level editor tool. Anyone can create a level and create a rhythm and a beat to go with it and Sound Shapes has sported quite the community. I have to access its downloadable content soon.
X.
Binary Domain ; Since my introduction to the Yakuza franchise, it seems I'm privy to support Toshihiro Nagoshi on just about any capacity. On the surface, Binary Domain surprised me in how solid it is as a third-person shooter. It employs an interesting relationship mechanic that can help determine the direction of the final battle and finale. It helps that its cast of characters, though stereotyped to high heaven and features Pepe Le Pew as a robot, have a weird charm that makes me glad to have them on my team. The plot itself tends to get on the goofy side and takes influence from Blade Runner and I, Robot. It's fun to watch it unfold though, and BD features one of my favorite boss battles this generation in the Tsar Runner. In design it's fairly generic "aim for its weak spots" shooting, but it has the intensity of a high-speed chase in a good action that put a smile on my face. It's just ridiculous, over-the-top fun and reasonably paced.
X.
Tokyo Jungle ; I had appreciated Tokyo Jungle on a memetic level before it made its way into the North American PlayStation Store. Tokyo Jungle has relatively simple design, but conceptually I don't think I have ever seen a game like it. No real story to speak of, just a collection of animals, both predators and grazers, surviving by killing each other and feeding off whatever vegetation is left. The challenge lies in seeing how long you can survive before a pack of wolves or something even bigger tears you a new one, with a toxicity mechanic that can be brutal and sometimes downright unfair. Not a great soundtrack, or even amazing visuals, and it does get a bit repetitive, but the $15 price tag was worth the experience. There is definitely something bigger hiding beneath this concept. I'm glad we get to see something so wacky in this current generation.
X.
Retro/Grade ; Retro/Grade takes rhythm and Gradius-style shooting along with a great soundtrack and produces a solid product in the end. Wonderful visuals, as well. It's rather unfortunate that in the wake of so many great games this year, I kind of forgot about this title. It's absolutely worth playing and spins a new, fun concept from two tried-and-true genres.
2011.
Yakuza 4 ; The fourth (or technically fifth?) game of a series I have found to be consistently stellar. A soundtrack designed to kick ass, underrated character modeling, an incredibly fun combat system, tons of side quests that often lead to hilarity, and a story that feels more like a soap opera than any yakuza film. I don't know any other game that lets you run a dojo training mini-game. I got lost in that for hours...
.
