Boros here to ring in the new year. Yeah, I know it's a little late, but I had s#!t to do. Sadly, due to financial limitations, I didn't play enough games from 2013 to do a top and bottom 5 list like I wanted, but I will discuss here. Keep in mind of the rule though, this is of the games that I have PLAYED but not necessarily reviewed. I will review all of the games brought up here at some point, but this list should've been made around the first, so I'm very far behind, and with that said. Let's start.
Most Surprising
Filling this spot was piss easy, because only two games pleasantly surprised me this year,and this one resides in a genre I hate, and that was Spec Ops: The Line. I truly awesome experience through the human psyche of madness hidden away in the skin of a really poorly made modern military shooter. If the gameplay was any good, then this may have been in another spot on this tribute to 2013 as well. Just an all around good story.
Most Disappointing
I had two games that could go here as possible most disappointing and that was Paper Mario: Sticker Star and this game, but when I really thought about it, Paper Mario: Sticker Star being a 30 hour s#!t slide was no surprise to me, so the award for biggest disappointment goes to Grand Theft Auto 5. Do not get me wrong, it's still an ok game, but it was a major disappointment. Without most of the sandbox fun from San Andreas, without the good narrative of GTA 4, and without the length of the same, also while being split between 3 different characters making the game feel even shorter, this game feels like someone just wanted a big old money pile and doesn't really have much major appeal. Plus, the one big feature of the game, the heists, is restricted to about 4 main missions throughout the game, never to be done again. I would've really enjoyed to have this in the post story sandbox, but that turned out just to be a pipe dream.
Best of 2013
This game was the other pleasant surprise of the year, being only surprising because of how good it was. To understand, I go into every game thinking it's going to be crap. This is why populating disappointments was difficult, but that makes good games really stand out. This game is Rayman: Legends. Origins just left me luke warm, but this game is a miracle. It's still got the awesome platforming of Origins, but with a bunch of the flaws ironed over. Plus, it also got rid of the vehicle sections from the first one and replaced them with Murphy missions, which used the touch screen on the Wii U, and I don't know what they play like on any of the other systems. They can be annoying, but it's still not as bad as the vehicle sections. Plus, Rayman: Legends has all of the levels of Rayman: Origins playable through the new physics. Just overall a fun, fun, great game.
Worst of 2013
I do not know what they were thinking when this was released. With a plot consisting of nonsensical bulls#!t that wasn't even cannon to the rest of the series. An obnoxious assistant to hold your hand throughout the entire game. An annoying structure that took out any feeling of challenge from the previous games,and minigames copy pasted from the previous game. It's pretty obvious that I'm referring to Mario Party 9 now, isn't it? This game only left two thoughts in my head. "Where the hell was Rosalina on that one?" and "I'll have another shot." This game should have the great big Boros S#!t Award for worst game of the year. I hoped I'd forget it along with the other brain cells I'll killed drinking because of it, but sadly, I didn't.
Well, that pretty much sums up the year in the nutshell for me. It's been a rocky year, but a new year is here and I hope everyone has a happy one. Salutations from all of us at 8 Ball and Lucky 7 reviews, and have a good new year.