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What was your personal all-platform GOTY 2012? [roundtable]
 
Feel free to list your top whatever. One... three... eighty...

I shall go with my top ONE. The one game that truly blew me away this year...

*drum roll*

Spelunky!

Yes, Spelunky is fucking awesome. It is the only thing stopping me from storming MS headquarters with a burning pitchfork. I've always been fascinated by the idea of the Roguelike, the endless promise of a procedurally-generated game, as well as the fascinating emergence that comes from overlapping many simple systems together to create a satisfying, challenging whole.

Well, Spelunky takes all of that and encases it in a scrumptious arcade action shell. I actually waited for this game to go on sale before grabbing it. Subsequently, the demo (which covers about a fourth of the game!) became one of my most-played games of 2012. Spelunky is hard as fuck, but it always keeps you coming back for more. You go back to zero every time you die, but, in classic Roguelike fashion, your personal skills and strategies 'level up', which allows you to get a bit farther each game. It's a great feeling. And when you die (over and over), instead of getting discouraged and (virtually) shelving the game, you just jump right back in for another go. Partially because death in Spelunky (as in Smash Brothers) is almost always hilarious, and partially because you're not REALLY playing to win or to unlock anything. You're playing for the sheer joy, the sheer nail-biting thrill of playing. Almost like a classic coin-op game. Except this one is RANDOMLY GENERATED, so the fun can theoretically go on forever!

I seriously can't say enough good things about Spelunky. 2012 was a year when narrative received an incredible amount of attention, but Spelunky excelled by being the gamiest game in Gametown. It's just so pure. Like fucking Everclear.

Spelunky is also available for free on PC, but I wouldn't really recommend that version, since it lacks the refinements that really put the XBLA version over the top. If you have the means, here's the motive: Go play Spelunky!!


Okay, now it's your turn!

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02/02/13, 04:13    Edited: 02/03/13, 15:44
 
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@TriforceBun

Yup. Just released a couple weeks ago on iOS and Android... console releases always come later because they have to wait for approval and such.

It turned out very well. I'd say it's one of the better tables. The physics seem to be getting better and better with each release, so it's almost best that it took this long for them to release it.

@kriswright

3DS probably isn't going to happen. They can't get the ROM emulation functioning properly on the weak 3DS hardware (scripting all of the tables is out of the question) and are also having trouble with the framerate... you want 60FPS for a good pinball experience, of course.
02/03/13, 01:02   
Edited: 02/03/13, 01:10
Guillaume said:
Wabbazabbazab izatt true?

Rhythm Heaven Fever, bitches.

Awesome! I thought I was the only one.

The Walking Dead is a close runner-up. 2012 was a great year for smaller games.
02/03/13, 02:36   
@Hinph

How was Zen Studios able to make such amazing pinball games on 3DS then? Sounds like these Pinball Arcade guys are crappy programmers.
02/03/13, 04:09   
The ROM emulation is taxing. Zen Studios makes original tables that aren't emulating anything in the background.


Perhaps you are right that they are just lacking people of the proper skill to get it done, though. They are a small team and you can tell that they have bitten off more than they can comfortably chew by taking on so many platforms.

Still, I prefer their product to Zen's. Pinball Arcade is to Gran Turismo as Zen Pinball is to Need for Speed. Both offer a fun but different experience... I'd rather have the simulations of the real machines, proven designs by legendary designers.
02/03/13, 04:27   
Edited: 02/03/13, 04:36
There are still a bunch of games from 2012 that I want to finish, so my mind isn't entirely made up yet. I played Nintendo Land for the first time yesterday, and it's much more fun than I was expecting it to be. Gravity Rush is another game that I really like, but I haven't made enough progress to really consider it my favorite game of 2012.

But out of the games I did play to the credits, my favorite is Kid Icarus Uprising. Each level felt like it tried something different and succeeded every time. The controls felt great after some practice, and the sheer amount of weapon variety and various degrees of challenge add a great amount of depth to the combat. I also want to mention that the game has outstanding voice acting and an incredible collaborative soundtrack.

Rhythm Heaven Fever and Spelunky are up there for me as well. High five, Anand!
02/03/13, 05:24   
Edited: 02/03/13, 05:24
In alphabetical order:

- Kid Icarus Uprising
- PKMN Black 2
- Resident Evil Revelations
- Rhythm Thief
- The Last Story
- Xenoblade


... I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
02/03/13, 09:17   
@Hinph

I'm behind you completely on that. Anyone who has sunk significant hours into actual pinball can see the superiority of The Pinball Arcade's emulation right away. Those Zen games are still a lot of fun, but it's absolutely not the same as what FarSight is trying to do.
02/03/13, 13:10   
Farsight doesn't have one engine that applies to all of their titles? So that when they improve the physics model, it applies retroactively to every table?

Octorockin said:
Rhythm Heaven Fever and Spelunky are up there for me as well. High five, Anand!
High five, dawg! I'm so happy that someone else 'dug' Spelunky! I'm a bit disheartened that it hasn't received more heat in Game of the Year discussions. It's SO GOOD. Of course, the Rhythm Heaven series is always brilliant, as well. I have to put more time into Fever. Speaking of which, judging by all of your replies, I seriously have to put more time into Kid Icarus Uprising. It's almost a sweep! I think the main reason that I haven't played very far yet is because I need to set up the stand for the ideal Icarus experience. And, as stated before, I am a lazy, lazy man...

@Mop it up
That IS surprising! It looks like the next entry will be a Wii Party, so I guess you'll have to wait a while to see how Mario Party continues to evolve after this.

@warerare
Also surprising! I do kind of want to get into board games again. Playing games communally is so much more fun than drinking or watching some stupid movie.
02/03/13, 15:46   
Edited: 02/03/13, 15:51
Resident Evil: Revelations for me, but only because I haven't opened up The Last Story or Xenoblade yet.
02/03/13, 15:57   
The Walking Dead

The rest of my Top 10
02/03/13, 18:34   
Edited: 02/03/13, 18:36
Anand said:
I think the main reason that I haven't played very far yet is because I need to set up the stand for the ideal Icarus experience. And, as stated before, I am a lazy, lazy man...

Lie down on your bed and turn auto-fire on! You'll be used to the controls in an hour.
02/03/13, 22:17   
I've said it before, but I'd say To the Moon.
02/03/13, 22:50   
@TheBigG753

So far I'm finding that The Walking Dead would have been up there too for me. I'm in the Second Chapter and... damn. Just got attacked on the Dairy Farm. Maybe it's the Rick Grimes in me, but I don't know if I trust those guys, and obviously not the bandits.
02/03/13, 23:18   
Admittedly, I have not played all of the contenders out there, but I would have still probably gone for Zero Escape, regardless.
02/03/13, 23:23   
Borderlands 2. I haven't beaten it yet, but it's just so much better than the first in every single way it hurts.

Xenoblade would be second place. A massive RPG that I've been waiting all generation for (Lost Odyssey and Tales of Versperia were about the only "good" ones prior to Xenoblade).
02/03/13, 23:52   
@Anand


Well, each table is individually tweaked to resemble the table in real life. They have gotten better and better at doing this each month. The engine itself feels pretty consistent, though there have been certain tweaks and glitch fixes that haven't yet been applied on all tables.


There is a reason for this and it isn't laziness. Whenever they make changes to a table, it has to be approved by multiple parties... the pinball manufacturers, any license holders for tables like Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Monster Bash, etc., and finally the device manufacturers. It's a real pain, so they release updates when they feel that they are significant enough to warrant doing so. This is the reason why the tables can be buggy for awhile as well. It's not that Farsight is totally incompetent, which a lot of vocal Facebook users assume.

I guess they have been working on improving the engine overall in certain areas, the most exciting of which is with the flipper physics... the game would immediately feel more realistic if you could pull off livecatches and other advanced techniques. I have no idea when to expect this.
02/04/13, 00:10   
@Anand

The stand is for noobs. What, did you not play ANY stylus-heavy games on DS? Same deal here.
02/04/13, 01:08   
Anand said:
High five, dawg! I'm so happy that someone else 'dug' Spelunky! I'm a bit disheartened that it hasn't received more heat in Game of the Year discussions. It's SO GOOD. Of course, the Rhythm Heaven series is always brilliant, as well. I have to put more time into Fever. Speaking of which, judging by all of your replies, I seriously have to put more time into Kid Icarus Uprising. It's almost a sweep! I think the main reason that I haven't played very far yet is because I need to set up the stand for the ideal Icarus experience. And, as stated before, I am a lazy, lazy man...

What amazes me about Spelunky is that it can be beaten in under 10 minutes, yet it's appealing enough to play for hours. Let me tell you, I felt like a Spelunky champion after beating Yama! I must have replayed the game dozens of times to get to that point, but each attempt was enjoyable in some way. Like you said, rather than being discouraging, failure is a big part of the experience. It's the desire and ability to succeed that kept me playing.

The Rhythm Heaven series was the start of my interest in music-focused gameplay, and Rhythm Heaven Fever might just be my favorite game of its kind. The fun visuals and songs synch up with the simple controls perfectly. I really enjoy getting into the grove and feeling the music.

With Kid Icarus: Uprising, I think the game is hard to put down once you find a comfortable way to play it. Jump back in, dude!
02/04/13, 03:08   
@Anand Yeah, I was pretty disappointed when they announced a new Wii Party and not Mario Party 10. I loathe Miis.
02/05/13, 01:31   
@GameDadGrant
Yeah, even during the DS days, I was not a big fan of stylus in one hand/system in the other play. And having to maintain the 3D sweet spot makes things even dicier. With those types of games, I usually just lay on my stomach and rest the system on a pillow so that I don't have to hold it. But the stand is a nice alternative.

@Secret_Tunnel
Autofire!! I don't think that I knew about that.

@Hinph
I am impressed by the quality of your Farsight intel. Didn't they run a Kickstarter to try to license some classic tables, or something?

@Mop it up
How can you loathe Miis? They love you!

@Octorockin
Heh, you have shamed me. I still haven't quite beaten Spelunky, since I only started playing the ACTUAL GAME (and not just the demo) recently. Maybe I'll try tonight...

I'm, like, addicted to killing the shopkeeper. Every time I see him, I concoct some sort of horrific trap and use up all of my bombs trying to kill him and steal his shotgun.
02/06/13, 04:37   
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