I disappeared for a week! Shovel Knight taking the top spot is perfect, I haven't gotten to play it yet but I've watched enough to know it's deserving.
Little late but here is my list.
#1 Fantasy Life
#2 Child of Light
#3 Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc
#4 Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
HM: P.T.
HM: Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
HM: Hatoful Boyfriend
HM: Never Alone
Fun fact. I grew to HATE playing Danganronpa 2 until about 3/4ths of the way through the game. I don't know if it was because I played it back to back with THH or if it was something else but I got very very annoyed with 2. I connected with the characters way less and found the trials more frustrating (they took twice as long as the first game) BUT the ending made it all worth it. I loved the game by the time I was done. It's probably overall the superior game but I had a more enjoyable experience with the first one, which is why it placed higher on my list.
@tokyoslim I love Sakura so much. I think she's still my favorite character from the whole series.
Alien Isolation was a game that I really enjoyed watching other people play. I know my limits with scary games.
@Brannox Too many people don't understand boundaries when it comes to streamers. It's too bad that only Patrons can see this particular CoJ but hopefully a lot of people will take the time to watch this weeks editorial.
I still need to play Transistor. I've owned it for a while now.
I would probably really dig Divinity but just haven't checked it out.
Mario Kart 8 is great but just not in my personal top games for 2014. It was definitely an interesting experience trying to play online with friends and do a voice chat with them all at the same time.
I had a lot of fun with Child of Light. I enjoy the variety of characters and even though it limits you to only having two characters on the field at a time, switching between them is fairly easy and adds another layer to encounters. I found the combat engaging, despite its simplicity, and it's one of a handful of games where I really utilized characters with buffs to speed myself up and slow enemies down instead of just plowing through on strength alone. The mechanic of being able to manually hover over enemies with the cursor and impede them, or do the same to your team and heal them, kept me focused. I really like the way the main character evolves through the game and having to make little adjustments to how I played whenever she grew didn't feel irksome or like I was losing something from the change. Flying in that game is just so much fun too and I love the watercolor/storybook visual style. The story isn't anything super amazing, but I think fairy tales are fun, so I was fine with it. Searching out the lost letters and piecing together the extra lore of the world definitely helped me care more about the story overall. Also, there's a good betrayal moment.
@sunpraiser I really had to work at bringing my anxiety down while playing Banner Saga, reminding myself that I just had to make a choice and whatever I chose was fine. It really can be a stressful game and I always felt like every choice I made was the wrong one.
Sooooo, I just beat Banner Saga the other day. It would have made my list had I finished it up sooner but c'est la vie. It's an excellent game.
I think at the time I wasn't ready for a super heavy game and decided to wait on Valiant Hearts and then just forgot about it, I think it is a game I would really like though so I will have to make sure it stays on my radar.
@rarmstar Depends on your preferences. I have literally never docked my Switch, I've played exclusively handheld on it, but I really enjoy handheld gaming. My partner has a pro controller and usually uses it when gaming on his Switch. If you enjoy playing up on a big screen most of the time then a pro controller is really nice to have, and like Hanabi said Splatoon is much better with it, but most games are totally fine with joycons.
I guess I'm the weirdo who considers Gen 3 my least favorite. Getting through Ruby/Sapphire the first time, some time after it originally came out, was a struggle but I finished it. I tried to replay it, shortly before Alpha and Omega were announced, and just could not get through it again. I still picked up Alpha Sapphire and again found myself unable to stay engaged. I eventually stopped right after the battle to capture Kyogre and haven't picked it up since. Still glad it got an updated release though since a lot of fans do love it :)
If you can only focus on one game, pick Breath of the Wild. If you have the time for both, I would only say to play Odyssey first because you will, most likely, put way less time into it. I think I logged 35 hours in Mario and 165+ in Breath of the Wild. I have gone back and played more BotW after beating it but not so with Mario. If you're a completionist though then you might feel compelled to put another 15 hours into Mario to get everything.
There have already been a lot of great suggestions for what to play, so I will just say to check out the Octopath Traveler demo! Also, Aegis Defenders is a fun little game if you're into the Adventure genre. It is a 2D platformer with mostly environmental puzzle solving and a tower defense segment at the end of each level. It has a few dialogue options that are there to encourage you to figure out the characters, and reward you for doing well, but don't really effect the story. The artist took some inspiration from Studio Ghibli for character design/style and there is definitely an "anime" feel to the plot.
@minamik Oh yeah, I definitely remember trying to figure out the tones and such with ours, I think ours had a weird display on it too but it was so long ago now. It is definitely a neat hobby!
My mom got me and my sister a metal detector as kids and we went out with it a few times. We liked to take it camping and search for stuff on the banks of rivers. Never found anything really amazing or of any significant value, (coins, cheap jewelry, bolts, nails, ect;) but it is surprising the things that get buried with time! That spoon is already way cooler than most things I can remember finding. Good luck on the hunt!
@sentinel-beach Haha, when they had a minute left I said "Either they're going to fail or this will be super clutch." and I was not disappointed.
@DIPSET Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a great game to play with a group, really ingenious way to use VR. The Allies actually played it before, very briefly, when they did the Vive night!
Single Player. It is very rare that I play anything multiplayer and when I do it is usually a co-op situation. Playing games with people I don't know has never really had much appeal for me.
@chocobop Yeah, a "chat" is basically just private messaging but I haven't used it too much myself. You should be good :)