You didn't think I wouldn't finish the fight in 2022, did ya?
Best & Worst Retro Nintendo Console Game of 2022:
Just like I did in 2021, let's start with retro Nintendo consoles, but this time around, I'm bundling Console and Handheld games together. Didn't play as many games on these consoles as I did last year, but there were some interesting games on these consoles.
I'm so glad I finally go to play Billy Hatcher! The game is quirky and colorful, just like you'd expect out of Sega during this era, and it felt like such an interesting take on the genre. It was definitely one of the most memorable games this year.
I finally gave the Monkey Ball Series a try, starting with the very first game that released on consoles: Super Monkey Ball. I get it, I understand why it was such a cult hit. The game is very simple, but incredibly hard to master, as the game can get brutal. But it's such a fun concept, and they did so much with such a simple premise.
I wouldn't say that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz is necessarily better than the original, but it's different, and a different I liked more. Now it adds the ability to jump, and with it, a whole new set of stages that make use of the new ability. And Jumping doesn't overcomplicate the game or ruin its essence, which is why I feel the game is more fun this way.
Another neat little anime fighting game on the DS that never saw the light outside Japan. It's easy to pick up and play, there are a ton of characters to play with and it look gorgeous. I think the game plays so well that even if you know nothing about One Piece but enjoy simple handheld fighters that it's worth a look.
If performing surgery was this much fun, I would've become a Doctor. Trauma Center is a game that could have only worked so well on the Wii or the Nintendo DS, and that alone shows that Atlus made the motions/stylus controls more than just a gimmick. And leaving aside how much fun and well made the gameplay is, you also get a sappy soap opera style story to follow! And that's a positive, by the by.
Best & Worst Nintendo Switch Game of 2022:
I say it every year, and every year it's true, but I love the Switch. It's such a fun console to play while in the bed, or just to take out on trips and what not. Having such easy access to multiplayer was a brilliant move, and, y'know, I don't mind it getting PS3/X360 ports when they are done right, those consoles had great games.
Oh boy, oh boy, I get to write about this shovelware again! The most interesting thing about this game is that even if it had a better framerate and better graphics, meaning if I had played it on any other console, it would've still been a horrible time. The mechanics are beyond archaic, beyond poorly thought out, I can't believe that the man that helmed this game created Sonic and was involved in Billy Hatcher.
Believe it or not, one of the scant few racing games I used to play when I was younger was Burnout 2 on the PS2. And I liked it. It's a shame the series died off, for whatever reason, because Burnout Paradise Remastered was lit, the game was very addictive and I kept coming back for more. This Switch port also runs really well, which, it should, but publishers and developers always manage to botch Switch ports.
Metroid Fusion was the first Metroid game I ever owned, and the only one I played for real, and I can't say I liked it too much. The I played Other M, and that game wasn't very good either. Slowly but surely, Mercury Steam has made me fall in love with Metroid. Metroid Dread takes everything they did in Samus Returns but makes it better, turning it into one of the finest Metroidvanias around.
One of the more unique takes on the RPG genre, that's for sure. Style to look after a cartoon, Dodgeball Academia is as whacky as it is fun, with a level of depth you wouldn't expect out of a game like this. Otto's adventures were certainly a highlight this year.
Disco Elysium is the closest thing to a 'Choose your own Adventure' novel out there, and it's such a brilliant, brilliant game. There are many different ways to do different objectives, heck, you can even manage to finish the game without doing an autopsy on the body of the victim of the crime you were sent to investigate. And the game struck a perfect balance when juggling the more humorous things you can do and the more emotional and serious scenes, so that nothing feels out of place. What Disco Elysium brought to the table was a large cast of very interesting characters, a very original take on the adventure genre and some unique ideas that would be hard to translate to other mediums.
While there are a few things I don't like about Bayonetta 2, namely how stupidly sexualized Bayonetta herself is, the gameplay is just sublime. I feel like Bayonetta 2 is, currently, the pinnacle of the series, being able to mix different weapons, and weapon being its own beast, is one of the best things about it, but it also runs super smoothly and it featured a simple, but entertaining, alternate mode in which you can play mini-stages as other characters.
Best & Worst Playstation 2 Game of 2022:
Will I ever run out of PS2 games to play? It seems not, the console had a massive library, and trust you me, I've a massive backlog of PS2 games to burn through yet!
It was tough picking between one of the worst Fighting games I've ever played, Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament, or one of the, if not THE, worst JRPGs I ever played... but I went with Ephemeral Fantasia. Everything people make fun of in JRPGs? This one is guilty of it. Absurdly high encounter rates, labyrinthic dungeons, fanservicey female character designs and how it's impossible to know what to do without a guide? It's all here.
Ape Escape 3 was the final, proper Ape Escape game, and it wasn't a bad way to go. It took a sort of back to basics approach, cutting down on tools in favor of a new costume-mechanic that served mostly as a way to battle monkeys, and there were less silly, parody monkeys too. It was a good time, all things considered.
I know my Wrestling game repertoire isn't what you'd call large, but I've played a few of them, and lemme tell you, WWE SmackDown! HCtP is the best. It's very easy to play and the Story Mode is dumb and amazing at the same time.
So, you are Sucker Punch, you've only got a single game under your belt, a fairly obscure platformer for the Nintendo 64, and for your next game you decide to mix platforming with stealth of all things. And it worked. The stealth elements feel like an added spice, never being too intrusive to the real core of the game: The jumping. Despite my dislike of anthropomorphic animals I happened to love the cast of the game. And next year, for the first time ever, I'll be delving outside this first game!
This game is almost 20 years old, and to this day, licensed game don't get much better than this. EA struck gold with this game, which is why it's so baffling that they stopped expanding on the formula. Ah well, EA is gonna EA.
Best & Worst Retro Playstation Game of 2022:
Will I ever run out of PS2 games to play? It seems not, the console had a massive library, and trust you me, I've a massive backlog of PS2 games to burn through yet!
I've this nagging feeling that it was Smarties who financed this game, because to make a game this bad you actually have to try. It's broken in every way, and it's just a miserable time all around.
A Dodgeball-themed RPG is certainly the weirdest idea, but when was the last time a Spy-themed RPG came out? Exactly. Alpha Protocol had an interesting idea and it did well with it. It followed as many spy flick tropes as it could, which in this case is a massive point in its favor, and even let you change how certain things would play out depending on the order you did some things and on how you responded to certain characters. It was a short game, but oh so sweet.
Considering how Disney is pretty much destroying everything it touches this days, a game like this would never be made today, and that's a shame. It takes after the more violent of Wolvie's comics, while tying it very lightly to the horrible flick of the same name. Thankfully, unlike the movie, the game is a blast. Wolverine can perform all sorts of brutal combos to shred his enemies to pieces, and his enemies can do the same to him.... although he can heal back. And the whole Wolverine getting ripped to pieces and regenerating his flesh is such a unique gimmick that fits the license so well. This game has gone up in price these days, but it's very much worth it.
Dead or Alive 5+ is yet another brilliant port of a fighting game on the Vita. It retains most of its features, only losing on tag battles, and it looks almost as good, but plays JUST as well. Having such a fun fighter on the go is amazing, so, Tecmo, when will the Switch get its own port of DoA 5: Last Round? I'll even take a paired down port of DoA6, but just get DoA on the Switch!
Wet was a bit of a surprise for me, because to me, it was just another PS3 game I had to check off my PS3 library. And during the tutorial, I wasn't completely sold off on its gameplay, like how every jump triggered bullet-time. But I grew to love it. The grindhouse aesthetics only added to making the game more engaging. I'm sure not everyone would agree with how high I scored the game, but what can I say, it appealed to my sensibilities.
Best & Worst Playstation 4 Game of 2022:
Will I ever run out of PS2 games to play? It seems not, the console had a massive library, and trust you me, I've a massive backlog of PS2 games to burn through yet!
ArkSys has always been super scummy when it comes to DLC. From even having you fight DLC characters during Story Modes, to having them on the game's cover, heck, how Anji and I-No required downloading a patch, even though they count those characters in the game's back... but at least their 'Complete' versions were what they claimed the were. Until this garbage, a whole new SKU, but a worthless DLC voucher. Shameful.
VII is the first Resident Evil since the very first one to actually feel like horror and not an action romp with survival elements. And it's SO good. The stalker/bosses were very memorable and spooky, the environments, in particular the Baker's House, were so well made and entertaining to explore... VII is definitely among my favorite games in the franchise, behind 4 and 2 Remake only.
Xuan Yuan Sword 7 was one of the first games I played this year, and it was also one of the best. It was an all-around solid adventure game built on a story about magic and medieval technology. It was one of the most captivating worlds I experienced in 2022.
Worst Games of 2022:
I played OH so many terrible games that I refuse to let them walk away scott-free, hence, an extended list!
I have played bad games before, trust me, but Amazing Spider-Man on the 3DS ranks amongst the worst of them. I mean, they took a game that wasn't horrible and completely ruined, to the point that it makes me wonder if it wasn't easier to just make a new game that could play to the 3DS's specs instead of turning the original console game into this hack-job.
I love Fullmetal Alchemist and I love Gundam VS, but this weird mishmash of both just doesn't work. Playing this game through Single Player, which is how you'll realistically be able to play the game nowadays, is a total repetitive slog, since all fights end up being exactly the same as you fight against unfair odds with idiotic AI allies.
YuYu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is a fighting game made by people who have never played a fighting game, and that's all you need to know about it. It has some of the most bewildering design choices I've ever seen in a fighting game, like having the shoulder buttons work only to use special moves, but when coupled with directional inputs. But not every character uses every shoulder button, which is incredibly alien. And that's only the tip of the iceberg, the game is a complete clunkster.
In Ephemeral Fantasia's case, Konami definitely knew how to make RPGs, as Suikoden was already a thing by the time. And I'll give it this, the time-loop idea is actually quite original, for the genre. It's just everything else that falls apart, the game is impossibly obtuse, and the dungeons are so poorly designed that the game is a total bore.
This list has had a Fighting game made by aliens and one of the worst examples of a JRPG, the only thing missing was Johnny Bazookatone, a perfect example of how NOT to make a platforming game. The graphics are pretty, I'll give it that, but it fails everywhere else. Enemies that pop out of nowhere, having to perform leaps of faith all the time, stages with annoying obstacles that set you back big time and, even worse, sometimes it's hard to realize what can hurt you and what can't. Proper garbage.
Game of the Year 2022:
Another year down the line. It feels like I played less games this year than on any other since starting this blog, which is curious, as I don't know where else I spent my time! But alas, here are my favorite games I played this from each console, ranked!
There's a very easy lo-brow joke I could write right now, but I won't because I'm better than that. Wet is a grindhouse-themed action romp that very rarely lets up. There were plenty of memorable silly characters that made you want to face them, and the gameplay is all about making you feel like a badass. I'm happy I finally found this game.
There's only one character action game that comes close to Devil May Cry, and how close it comes, and that's Bayonetta. Among all the games in the series, I feel like Bayonetta 2 is the best. The combat, at least to me, feels smoother than in Bayonetta 1, but it also keeps the best thing about it, mixing and matching different weapons, a thing lost in Bayonetta 3.... as well as a lot of framerate. The bonus stage-challenge mode also makes it a very appealing game to revisit, a mode that isn't found on the other two games.
