My Top 10 for 2014

I truly believe that videogames are on the brink of realising their full potential as the most diverse, expressive and creative medium on the planet. The key word in that sentence is ‘brink’; we’re not quite there yet.

Thanks to the rise of indie development on consoles, the unfortunate but (in my opinion) necessary eradication of mid-tier publishers churning out uninspired copycats and the arrival of new technology, both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are already poised to surpass their predecessors on the content side. The Wii U will continue to churn out essential Nintendo classics and PC gaming will remain as great as it’s always been. We’re getting there, but we’re not out of the woods yet and 2014 proved it.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been plenty of fun experiences this year, but when coming up with my Top 10 I really only did have strictly 10 games I wanted to recognise. There was no competition or struggling; this is the most straightforward list I’ve ever had to write to round a year up. Granted I didn’t get to play everything I wanted to; Bravely Default is still sitting on my shelf and I’m waiting on new versions of Shovel Knight, The Banner Saga and, amazingly, Dark Souls II and more before I can say I really played everything the year had to offer.

I was also strict enough to rule out ports and updates from yesteryear. The PS4/One version of Grand Theft Auto V is the first GTA title I’ve ever loved and, if I hadn’t made this rule, the sublime Rogue Legacy would top the list with ease. Perhaps one day I’ll revisit their respective release years to adjust, as I suspect I’ll have to do when finally getting round to some of the aforementioned titles.

As it stands, I’m pretty happy with this list, although I certainly feel that only a handful of the entries are locked in.

10. Murasaki Baby – Never Alone has been lavished with praise towards the back end of the year for its thoughtful take on a 2D platformer that shows gamers something they’ve never seen before. I see your Never Alone and I raise you Murasaki Baby, a title that is the polar opposite to those whimsical adventures without any of the game-ruining bugs and frustration, despite the more daunting touch controls. Like the best platformers Murasaki Baby constantly delivers entertaining new mechanics and twists as it leads you through its disturbing world in which players are trusted with protecting a child as they guide her along a path. It’s a responsibility you won’t take lightly and an experience you won’t soon forget.

9. Hohokum – Carrying on in the spirit of the brilliantly bizarre likes of Noby Noby Boy, Hohokum is a triumph of colour, joy, and exploration that isn’t simply walking around a detail environment in first-person. This is a strangely liberating labyrinth - if such a thing can exist - in which players are free to wiggle and spin a brightly-coloured worm around as he searches a huge network of spritely worlds for his friends. It can often be confusing working out just what you’re meant to be doing, but the sheer glee of simply controlling the character in the vibrant worlds makes discovering the answers a smile-inducing process.

8. Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty! – I’ve always been immensely grateful to Just Add Water for surviving what is one of the most surreal and meaningful universes in videogaming; Oddworld. And while their ports of Stranger’s Wrath and Munch’s Odyssey were welcome updates, the full remake of the original Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey sees the team outdo itself. Truthfully it wasn’t until the patch adding classic controls arrived that I was really taken with this new version. As it now stands, it’s the best way to experience a PlayStation classic that bravely touches upon enslavement while providing an often taxing and always hilarious 2D side-scroller in which players have a unique set of mechanics to toy with.

7. Nidhogg – I was in love with Nidhogg the moment I laid eyes on it. A local-focused, one-on-one, fast-paced multiplayer fencing game in which players compete to be eaten by a giant worm? That’s what we want. Here’s a game that resurrects the joys of tournaments in which you pass the controller round, giggling every few seconds at the ridiculous, hectic battles as players narrowly dodge flying swords, only to fall down a pit or meet the end of their opponent’s fist. There look to be plenty of brilliant local multiplayer titles coming in 2015 and many will have Nidhogg to thank for the genre’s revival.

6. Super Smash Bros. For Wii U – Even if its release date means I’ve spent plenty more time with Nidhogg, when it comes to local multiplayer brawlers nothing matches Super Smash Bros. thanks to its essentially accessibility. Over the years I’ve been able to transform people that have never played games into giggling, excitable, ultra-competitive contestants with this franchise and the latest iteration is already continuing that tradition. It’s as frantic and fun as ever and while the barrel has been well and truly scrapped in terms of characters and stages the fundamentals remain so tight it’s hard to complain.

5. The Last of Us: Left Behind - Left Behind is the first DLC expansion for a console videogame that I’ve ever even considered for a Top 10 spot let alone put in the list. I have no doubt many others share the same story. The Last of Us was more than fine with being left as a standalone tale but with this expansion Naughty Dog provide touching new insights into Ellie as their skill for story-telling and, more importantly, in-depth combat grows. Many rightly rave about the first-class character development that sheds light on a relationship untouched in videogames, but don’t forget that this DLC also provided some of the most inventive and tense battles in entire The Last of Us experience, while also looking at unique ways to integrate its celebrated mechanics into a story that doesn’t pit you against Runners and Clickers.

4. P.T. – In my mind there’s no discussion to be had about if P.T. deserves to be included in 2014 wrap-ups. For my money (which, helpfully, wasn’t spent), this is the most refreshing experience of the year and easily the best horror videogame since Amnesia: The Dark Descent. In an interview that took place the day after its release, Hideo Kojima alarmingly pointed out that developers can’t make horror titles too scary or simply not enough people will play them. As P.T. is a free experiment, it doesn’t fall under these rules and provides an experience that I doubt even the title it advertises will match. But it’s not just the scares; P.T. took trial and error-based puzzles to the extreme with solutions that would rightly drive players insane on their own but evolved into a brilliant community-driven triumph as fans banded together online to solve the obscure tricks. It took me three attempts to summon the courage to get through P.T. and Konami deserves a pat on the back for that alone. Even looking through images for this article instils a sense of fear.

3. Hyrule Warriors – Hyrule Warriors is a trashy videogame. It’s repetitive and tacky, baring all the hallmarks of the Dynasty Warriors series for both better and worse. But I’m one of those people that finds the better far, far outweighs the worse. Yes, it’s possible to make it through the campaign without much thought and mashing one button, but take the time to learn the combos and rhythms of each character and you’ll be treated to a spectacle that long-time Zelda fans have always dreamed of. There’s an ocean of content here, all of which is designed with the perfectly brilliant intentions of letting players rip into vast armies and pull off the kind of eye-widening moves and attacks seen in the best anime. Plus, the real challenges extend from the title’s Adventure Mode, in which turning off your brain simply isn’t an option. Hyrule Warriors is one of the few games I’ve gone back to multiple times since finishing, often spending entire days hacking and slashing through enemies. And you know what? I’ve had a smile on my face the entire time. That’s a roundabout way of saying ‘haters gonna hate’.

2. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – You have to give it to Konami for releasing the two experiences this year that, on a purely perception-based level, you might immediately strike off as possible GOTY contenders, only for them to both be so good they both claim Top 4 spots. Ground Zeroes is another taster title, meant to advertise the upcoming Phantom Pain. While its pricing might make it a harder sell than P.T., it immediately overcomes these issues by simply being a pure joy to play. This is a sandbox that puts Metal Gear back on track to being the definitive stealth franchise. The main mission is an atmospheric, pacey piece that fully immerses players on the small island environment, providing plenty of opportunities for them to employ the many, many tricks up Snake’s sleeves. Going beyond that, there’s the expectedly generous helping of bonus missions and easter eggs to discover that mean that, really, Ground Zeroes offers just as much content as some of the ‘full games’ that will be winning awards over it.

Metal Gear Solid 4 ended in worrying place for the franchise as a ‘game’ that seemed far more concerned with explaining its farcical story than providing an entertaining stealth adventure. Who would have thought that from there Kojima would produce Peace Walker, arguably the best game in the series? Follow that up with this enticing playground that serves as joyous proof that Metal Gear Solid is ready to continue on as a series in which gameplay comes first and the franchise is back on top form. The Phantom Pain can’t get here soon enough.

1. Transistor – Now that I am an ‘adult’ with ‘responsibilities’ my time for playing videogames has been cut down into a mere fraction of what it once was. In an effort to pick up as wide a vocabulary of videogames as possible, I don’t replay games and I’ve stopped collecting trophies. With these rules in place, I still beat Transistor twice and stuck around for the Platinum. Granted that the journey is short, but a lot of other entries in this year’s list prove that that isn’t necessarily a negative.

Transistor is a mesmerising adventure that stars one of my personal favourite duos in videogames. Players are immediately tasked with piecing together both its story and protagonists by themselves as they are suddenly thrust into the company of the strong, silent Red and her companion and weapon, the titular Transistor, a talking sword. It’s as strange an introduction as its sounds but developer Supergiant Games takes the concept and runs with it, cluing players in on Red and the Transistor’s past as the latter wonders aloud about their predicament, on the run from a shady Illuminati-esque group as the city of Cloudbank falls victim to an attack from a robotic force known as the Process. The connection you grow with these two is rivalled only by the one seen in The Last of Us: Left Behind this year as the Transistor guides the player’s emotions and a precious few computer terminals give Red a voice as she types messages to her partner. It really is a unique, remarkable experience spending time with these two.

Of course, the Transistor is a sword and he must be wielded. Combat is the second star of Transistor, uniquely spun into a part real-time, part turn-based system in which players can plan moves using a limited metre and then watch the attack unfold as they (hopefully) had planned. The birds-eye perspective makes it something like Fallout by way of Knights of the Old Republic and it’s bolstered by a diverse set of moves, each of which is legitimately useful. Better yet, players can combine certain attacks to create unique knock-on effects. This isn’t a simple case of finding the most powerful move and spamming it but constantly evolving your arsenal and covering your bases for all enemy types. Difficulty perhaps doesn’t always necessitate the in-depth planning that this system allows for, but it’s a joy to tinker with all the same.

Transistor is a bright, bold and thoroughly enjoyable videogame, then, and my favourite journey of the year. I’d implore you to find some time to see it through before 2015 gets underway.