Best Of 2014: Martin Hollis

Every year I post my top five games of the year onto Twitter or Facebook, with little in the way of explanation. This year, I need to change that. The year itself has been a strange one: the titles I expected to be writing about such as Arkham Knight, Evolve, and next year’s obvious game of the year, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, all faced delays. It was a pattern across the industry, with more time needed for polish, and the titles that did manage to sneak out in time for the Christmas season have suffered major issues with performance, online play, or glitches. In fact, only Nintendo have seemed to have avoided this fate, although CEO Satoru Iwata’s mantra of “more time needed: please understand,” was one even the house of Mario couldn’t avoid, and several titles promised at an exciting E3 linger in the ether of 2015.

I began the year playing Gone Home, an outstanding title from 2013. Given that my biggest disappointments of 2014 have been heavy-hitters like Destiny and Sunset Overdrive, I wish I had stayed with games like Gone Home, ones that presented something new, something different. When it came to writing this list, it’s clear that those games that pushed the boundaries were the ones that stayed with me, and there’s only space for one or two mainstream titles. That being said, I would like to put in honorable mentions to Mario Kart 8, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Bayonetta 2, and Kirby: Triple Deluxe.

Here are the gaming experiences that stayed with me most in 2014.

5. Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes

All of the hoo-hah with the delay of Metal Gear Solid 5 and the controversy around the concept of “paying for a demo” seems a little infantile now that Hideo Kojima’s prequel, Ground Zeroes, is in our hands. This is less a game than an open world showpiece, giving the player the opportunity to run amok in a massive playground, and tackle the title’s few objectives in whatever way they see fit. My first playthrough took a little over two hours; later ones have taken as few as 20 minutes. There’s plenty to see and do here, as long as the player is willing to put in the effort to explore and experiment. Want to fill up a jeep with four sleeping guards and whizz around like some sort of ninja Sandman? Go for it.

The game faced some controversy given a (admittedly ill-judged) plot line revolving around around sexual abuse and a horrifying last-minute plot twist. This has been blamed on everything from the lack of maturity of the games industry to cultural differences between East and West; however I think it just comes down to Hideo Kojima making a poor decision in creating a revenge narrative. Nonetheless, for something different, something exciting, something truly next-gen, Ground Zeroes deserves its place on this list.

4. NES Remix 1 & 2

Yep, I’m considering them as one title, and, if we’re getting pedantic, you can technically buy them on one 3DS cartridge. There’s something devilishly compelling about the NES Remix series. Ostensibly, it’s a bite-sized trip down memory lane, a quick-fire burst of retro gaming. In the era of iOS games, it seems like a particularly prescient product for Nintendo to release. Each level, or challenge, requires the player to complete a specific task related to a classic Nintendo title. The challenge may be to collect coins in Super Mario Bros, or to overtake ten riders in Excitebike, and each one plays on established knowledge of the game, whilst inviting new ways to play. The remix levels themselves do all sorts of silly systems, playing through the Mushroom Kingdom and Link, for instance, and are as inviting a reward as they come.

It should be said that Remix 2 does fare a little better, given that the titles chosen are more established Nintendo brands. However, both games feature an addictive star-scoring system (there’s that iOS gameplay again) and enough silly rewards and unlockables to keep returning to. I found I was constantly loading it up for a five-minute burst, then found that five minutes turning into two hours. In fact, on two separate occasions, I wore my WiiU gamepad’s battery down to zero, just playing this title. Yes, it trades heavily on nostalgia, but it does so in a way that makes everything feel fresh again.

3. 80 Days

80 Days is the most frustrating game on my list, yet also the one I’m likely to turn back on in a heartbeat. I’ve never yet managed to complete it properly, you see. The game posits the player in the shoes of Passepartout, Phileas Fogg’s travelling valet, and establishes the idea that the legwork, the travel connections, and the finances were all sorted out by the background character, while Fogg took the credit. Thus it is that playing the game is a fine balancing act between resource management, timeliness, risk, and reward, all with the ticking deadline of 80 days in the background. And yes, I have never managed to make it back to London on time. But I will not be deterred.

The most striking element of the game isn’t actually any of the mechanics, but the story-telling. The game has an interactive novel element to it, and for once, the writing of the game is something to behold. Set in a Victorian Steampunk era, the narrative establishes interesting politics between each type of mechanic, examines how different nations have built transport systems, and even delves into issues of class and race. It’s fascinating, and it says something that despite my inability to get Fogg home in time, I’ll jump back in to see if I discover something new by traveling in another direction. Similar to NES Remix, this is a title that has steadily eaten away at my iPhone’s battery, and is, as far as I can see, the most accomplished game available on a mobile phone.

2. Velvet Sundown

This title is probably the least well-known on the list, but is the one that I would recommend most highly to anyone reading. A free download for Steam, Velvet Sundown is a game that is less about winning, and more about participation. Each round is set in a singular environment, and sees players take on Second Life-like avatars. From there on, the game allows the characters to move around, and players to interact however they see fit. Yes, they are given some loose biography information at the start of the round—for example, “You are a covert spy, looking to investigate a whaling operation”—but really, it’s up to each person to decide to play it however they see fit. My own favorite experiences have arisen from incredibly self-aware players who like to take me on marathon trips ‘round the boat setting, taser every character in sight, and try to say the most outlandish things possible through the game’s text-to-speech mechanic.

It’s a game that once more demands that the player put something in, and the randomness of encounters, and high amount of drop-out players during rounds can somewhat spoil the fun. It’s also completely broken in the most wonderful ways. Velvet Sundown feels like a massive Twitch community coming together to play inside a huge in-joke, and I’ve not laughed as much at a game in a long time. It’s truly sublime and ridiculous. Best of all—it’s free.

1. Twitch Plays Pokemon

There are probably people who will dispute that this is not really a game, but if a game is just a series of inputs required to reach a success state, surely Twitch Plays Pokemon counts. Plus, I did input hundreds of directions to make sure JesusBird succeeded in catching ’em all.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Twitch Plays Pokémon emerged at the start of this year from the increasingly large concept of watching other people play games online,YouTube “Let’s Plays” being a prime example. Where Twitch Plays Pokémon differed was that the people in the chat lobby could influence the action by typing a direction into the chat. Cue much spinning around in circles in-game, barely able to make it out of rooms. An order/anarchy system was later integrated to make sense of this, but it still resulted in long stretches of walking in circles, and checking PCs in various Pokecenters. So why is it number one?

When I was younger, I remember titles like Majestic, and Bungie’s I Love Bees campaign, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) that had players engaging with the title in more real-life situations. Twitch Plays Pokémon seems the culmination of this, with ornate, ridiculous narratives created for Pokémon with ludicrous names like AAAAAAAABABJJAAAA. Reading the updates, the fan-created pages became as compelling as watching the action unfold. And the fact that we did it—thousands of people around the world managed to complete Pokémon through sheer force and chaotic action—is probably one of the most wonderful things of the year, especially when people have sought to drive and divide gaming up in the name of “ethics” (yes, GamerGaters, I’m looking directly at you.) So for those reasons, Twitch Plays Pokémon is my game of 2014.