1. Under Night In-birth Exe:Late[st] ; Frenchbread Arcade An anime fighting game, on your top 10? Skipping to the next list! No, I know. There's so many of these nowadays aren't there? What makes one more compelling than the other?
Under Night In-birth is the first major fighting game release from the French Bread studio, and one that for all intents and purposes, I ignored when it was debuted back in 2012 in the arcade. It seemed like yet another generic anime fighter, complete with a kid in a high school uniform using a sword, a black winged demon...thing, and a loli space fairy. Basically it didn't do much for me at first.
Three years later and Im playing it three times a week and I consider it probably the best fighter out there at the moment. UNI as regular players call it, has been steadily updated over the past three years to achieve a pretty solid balance among its characters. Really, the best version of this game is probably the PS3 version (soon to be on Steam) called Exe:Late. It has some balance issues (read: pirate-esque character Gordeau beats everyone), but it is all around a fantastic fighter. Simple enough to play with any of your friends, once you get any deeper in, the gameplay systems are impressively complex. You have the ability to not only hit "supers" but also use your super meter to boost the damage of your combos, and unleash a desperation move with the "Veil Off" system. There's also a "GRD" meter in the middle of the screen that essentially rewards you for either hitting your opponent, or blocking well. These two systems create a fine tension that can lead to incredible comebacks.
The strength of UNI is also in its characters (though not visually IMO). The "puddle" and "floor spike" placements of Carmine for instance make him, for me, one of the more compelling fighting game characters of this gen. Most characters are really fun to try out, although there are a couple I wish didn't exist (like Vatista and Eltnum). That said, there's probably about 4 characters in the game that I would like to play if I had the time, which is more than I can say for most fighters.
So all that info out of the way, Exe:Late[st] is the (latest) arcade version and it was released this year in the arcades. It adds in new whip-based character Phonon, web-based fighter Byakuya, as well as the ability to cancel into the "Veil-Off" state mid-combo for huge damage (CCVO=Cross-Cast Veil-Offs). The result is that you have a game with more merciless combos, and slightly better overall balance than the previous installment. Characters like Chaos, who uses a pet dragon to do his attacking, have been boosted, and previously top tier Gordeau has largely been downgraded.
As a whole, I still prefer the PS3 version, especially since this is an arcade exclusive at the moment and it tends to eat my wallet since Im not the greatest player. That said, not only in terms of play time but also in terms of watching tournaments, its definitely the game I spent the most time on this year, and I really love it.
If you read this far, you owe it to yourself to get this when it hits Steam in Summer 2016. It wont let you down.
2. Metal Gear Solid V ; KONAMI PS4 An evil company made an absolutely incredible game experience this year. I hate Konami, so I cant endorse buying it (I got mine for free from a friend) but theres no denying the sheer artistic mastery in the cinematic ambition here, as well as the completely free-form yet controlled approach to stealth and outpost raids. Clearly one of the games of gen already, Metal Gear Solid V rocked my world with every play. Ill stop here since there will be people that cover this in much greater detail.
3. World Ends Eclipse ; SEGA iOS This is the mobile game by the ex-Valkyria team lead by Shinji Motoyama (producer of Valkyria Chronicles 3). And its definitely the game I played the most outside of UNI this year. Build a team from Shield Knights, Lance Knights, Berzerkers, Archers and Mages. Lead them in two separate lines on-screen to destroy your opponents crystal. Your characters move forward automatically and all you need to do is hit the skill button when necessary to heal, buff or attack harder. Its sort of like League of Legends on Rails. The game also comes with the (by now) requisite suite of Sim City-esque city to build up, ruins and wastelands to develop, and a steady stream of troops to recruit to your side and power up.
On launch the game was plagued with harsh load times, fatal network drop errors and more, but by now most of those issues are gone and were left with a really fun, easy-to-play anywhere mobile game. Easily dumped 100+ hours into this so far.
4. Mahou wa Gothic Otome ; CAVE iOS CAVEs mobile shooter that mixes the Deathsmiles world with the traditional gacha mechanics of mainline Japanese mobile games: leveling up, merging cards, getting better abilities, stamina, paid gacha cards, free gacha cards, etc. Which all at once sounds like a bit of a headache and kind of is, however its all held together by what is at base eastily the best iOS shooter CAVE has put out. The mechanics are simple: zoom in close to enemies to pop them and grab energy orbs. These make you stronger, let help you destroy enemies quicker and keep your combo going. You do eventually reach a limit where enemies get really strong and you need to decide to either invest more time in the non-paid loop of raising your level, or go for paid gacha and get much stronger shots/better abilities.
The latest version of the game also includes a mode where you can take the new Deathsmiles girls: Prumeria, Catyleria, Rosary, Runan and Sufle all out on dates. You set the location and the time in the morning, then come pick them up in the evening, earning Event Points which let you unlock items and crystals.
Maybe I played this one a little too intensively at the end of the year, because Im feeling a little burned out on it, but I still boot it up every once in awhile to go on a date with my harem and destroy some flying trolls. Really its just a great thing that CAVE is still alive and theyve found a new platform that gives them exposure to audiences beyond the traditional shooter core. That theyve followed up with Ichimenbancho just last month shows that CAVE isnt dead, theyre still churning out new releases, including games on Steam. Theyre right where they need to be and thats a good thing.
5. Batman: Arkham Knight ; Warner Studios PS4 Ive never played any of the Batman console games and never really cared to, despite knowing that they were very high quality stuff. A friend lent this to me, swearing that it was awesome, and as soon as I was jumping from high-rises and soaring across Gotham City as Batman, I was hooked. And it was the open-world aspect of the game that kept me going until the end, that feeling of always having something new to explore and investigate and then, while youre on your way to do that, you find something totally new and wind up in a new adventure you didnt plan on. Also loved roaring through the streets of Gotham in the Batmobile and enjoyed the tank gameplay elements that it brought to the game.
Theres two things that really dampened this game for me and that is: 1. The Riddler Trophies, just too goddamn many of them. Theyre dropped literally everywhere around Gothams islands, and some of them (at least in the Japanese version I was playing), did not make a whole lot of sense and didnt seem solvable. Then, there was what seemed to be a pretty epic late-game bug that never went addressed by the developers. This is described here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/3bgtjp/psa_batman_arkham_knight_game_breaking_bug_leave/, but it basically prevented me from seeing the normal ending, and forced me to go back and do all the riddler quests (which I declined to do). I left the game as-is, and didnt touch any of the DLCs. So Warner missed out on more money from me, and I was left with a sour taste in my mouth for the series in general because frankly, no developer should leave players high and dry like this.
That said, I really enjoyed the bulk of time I spent with Arkham Knight, so theres no way it wouldnt make my top 10. Luckily I played it on PS4 and didnt encounter any of the issues the PC version players faced.
6. Evil Within DLC ; Tango Gameworks PS4 Opinions really vary for some reason about the Evil Withins DLC offerings but I found all of them to be a lot of fun. The Assignment with its strictly stealth-based gameplay was a great counterpart to the full campaign. The Consequence gave you more tools to work with, including your guns, and finally lets you put a bullet in
s head. Finally, the Executioner while being much weaker on story than the two DLC above, featured excellent arcade-style gameplay that lets you throw the haunted into spinning blade machines, smash them in place or blow them up with rocket launchers. A fitting bonanza end to the Evil Within experience.
7. Blue Revolver ; woof PC A Doujin shooter by a small crew from the US, but definitely approaching the fun factor of a mainline shooter release. Intelligent level design that encourages you to dodge and weave through bullet patterns across the screen, with enemies that are set to be just a little harder to kill than your average bullet hell shooter leads to a fairly white-knuckle experience considering its cartoony looks. While the level design definitely has throwbacks and homages to other shooter (most notably Dodonpachi), Blue Revolver succeeds in providing that feeling of walking into the arcade, turning on a new shooter, not knowing what to expect and going up against the unknown. In a sense, the greatest thing about is just that its a new Japanese-style danmaku shooter, but that feeling of getting to the next stage, and trying to get another million points really never gets old.
Just a beautiful little shooter with great music, cool visuals and a fun and simple multiplier system. Wish it were in the arcades, really!
8. Border Break 4.5 ; SEGA Arcade The latest version of SEGAs mech multiplayer Border Break added in Squad Battles (4 on 4 in smaller maps), new multiplayer maps and more mechs. They also dropped the price in the arcade by half, and really thats all it needed to do to make my top 10 list again. This is one of my favorite arcade games and Im glad its still going strong.
9. IA/VT ; Marvelous Vita A refreshing take on the vocaloid rhythm game format that while falling significantly short in terms of gameplay (the game system rewards sloppy play instead of encouraging precision), has beautiful visuals, great music and snappy UI thats fun to zip around in. No language barrier to speak of, and definitely worth picking up for your Vita if only for the music and cute 2D anime videos.
2014:
X. Ketsui ; 5pb PS3 Possibly the best shooter ever made, and one of those games you can come back to again and again, and get just a little bit further. CAVE at its best.
