PixlBit

Hello Pixlpeeps and welcome to The Third Annual Chris Goes All Awards Show. Since the year is almost over I felt it was time to take a look back at all the games I have played this year, and review which games were my favorites, including the important Game Of The Year. Over the past year I have played a total of 81 new games (there might have been a hold over or two from the previous year) and finished 49 of them. 60% success rate isn’t bad right? Anyways from this pool I have I have picked my favorites from 2015 and I would like to share my picks for my Games of the Year.

 

 

Favorite DS Game

 

For this category it was an easy choice because as it turns out I only played one DS game this year so Asphalt 2 gets the nod. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed this game because it is part of one of my favorite mobile series. There was a good sense of speed from this racing game, and even if at times the graphics looked muddy because of the game’s limitations, it was still working playing.

 

 

Favorite 3DS Game

 

 

This was a tough call but in 2015 I finally played through my first Pokemon game and I enjoyed every minute of it. I never finished X and Y, and for a little bit it looked like I wasn’t going to finish this game as well, but I went into a mode where I wanted to finish the games I was playing. Because of this I played through this game and enjoyed a fun story. I built up what I thought was a good team, and with the help of a certain character card from GameStop I was able to load my team with a ton of talent, which made the final boss fights somewhat easy.

 

SMB 2 could have been my favorite of 2015, but the only reason why it wasn’t is because it was similar to my 2014 pick. I love the Mario games because there is a timeless rhythm to them that no matter which game you are playing a new game can feel like an old favorite within minutes.

 

 

Favorite PS Vita

 

There were a handful of Vita games I played this season but this one could be considered my favorite out of the bunch because of replay. I spent a lot of time playing with a handful of characters in this game trying to unlock various items and upgrade the fighters. Though I didn’t reach my goal of completing the game with every character this game won’t be put away for long because I have a feeling that I will eventually catch the bug and finish off the rest of the characters.

 

This was a tough call because Little Big Planet feels so natural playing on a handheld. This is a really good portable version of the console and it looked and felt like there wasn’t anything missing. The reason why I didn’t have this as my favorite Vita game is because it wasn’t too different from the console.

 

 

Favorite PS3 Game

 

This was an easy choice because Lego Batman 3 was such a good game. This is easily the best Lego game out of the series, because of the selection of characters, worlds, vehicles, and the tons of downloadable content with old and new favorite characters. This is one of the few Lego games that didn’t feel like a chore playing through to unlock everything, especially with some of the little comedic bits scattered throughout the game. Lego Batman 3 was by far the easiest choice for my favorite PS3 game.

 

In a distant second (but is still a really good game in its own right) is Tomb Raider. This was such a fun and interesting take on an old favorite, seeing how Lara became the bad ass we all like.

 

 

Favorite PS4 Game

 

Ok so last year inFamous Second Son was my favorite game, but this is easily better than that game. First Light has such an interesting character that I found myself rooting for no matter what life threw at her. It was tough watching/playing how her character’s story unfolded and towards the end I wanted her to kick some ass. Looking back I would have rather played a longer version of this game compared to Second Son.

 

It was really tough to not make this game my favorite PS4 game because it was so good, and by the way I figured out the story before playing towards the end. So why isn’t this game not my favorite PS4 game? It didn’t have the same emotional pull that I had with First Light. First Light felt like the story that Fetch was telling instead of going through Gotham and kicking ass.

 

 

Favorite XBox 360 Game

 

 

There are a couple of games I’ve been playing on 360 but this was easily the favorite of the year. Gat out of Hell could have been a stand alone game and still be considered a solid game, even if it doesn’t have as much content as Saints Row IV. What I liked about this game compared to SRIV was that the two characters that were available get to play the hero instead of the create your own character. Even though Saints Row is basically a GTA Clone, SR takes a comedic approach to these types of sandbox games with off the wall, content and tons of call backs to pop culture. Gat Out of Hell is easily one of the best $20 games period, and its DLC.

 

Battlefield 3 is a fun game and would be considered my second place game because of the way that the player jumps into various fighter within this game. My favorite section was being in the fighter jet and being the Goose to Maverick in the game. The cut scene on the carrier and taking off is such a cool experience, and the points in the game play where you call out the areas to bomb look really good and almost something you’d see on the news.

 

 

Favorite Wii Game

 

 

This game is my favorite game for one simple reason; it is a game that my younger cousins couldn’t get enough of because it was a simple yet fun shooter. At various times I found myself standing in front of my TV playing this game like I was at an arcade. This nostalgia feeling probably made this game much more enjoyable that it really is but I don’t care, because I found a lot of enjoyment in Ghost Squad.

 

 

Favorite Android Game

 

This is an oldie but I finally finished it in 2015. I finally played through the game and unlocked all the unlockable Batman Characters. Each character has different strengths that help in the game. What I liked about this game was that it was one of the first fighting games on a tablet that used the touch screen instead of having a virtual controller on the screen like Street Fighters. I remember starting this game on iOS, and then when I got my first Nexus 7 I started a new game save there. The one thing I had problems with was when the later boss battles would stack a ton of brutes before hitting a powerful boss. There were many times when I would barely make it to the boss and just get worked. This was especially painful because of the freemium cap. Other than that it was smooth sailing and a lot of fun.

 

 

This other Android game was another game I enjoyed playing through again but since I didn’t buy it from Google Play and instead from Amazon I didn’t get the achievements associated with it. Lego Star Wars Microfighters is a fun and simple Shoot’em Up involving the Lego Star Wars Microfighters line, which are small space ships from the Star Wars Universe with full size minifigures. This is another solid game with powerups and playing through two different storylines, but the reason why it didn’t win my Favorite Android game is because I already played through it once, and I wanted to give it another play through when I got my Memo Pad.

 

 

Favorite iOS Game

 

 

Their isn’t much difference from the free and paid versions of Flow other than a ton of puzzles and removal of ads. I decided to pay the $1.99 for the pay version and proceeded to take on 2-3 puzzles before I would go to sleep. I think it took me a couple of months to finally play through all the puzzles. The goal of each puzzle is simple: connect two color dots together, and leave no square on the board unused, while doing so in a set amount of moves. The game became really fun once you hit the 10 X 10 up through 14 X 14 boards. After a while you started figuring out the best path before even starting your lines. I know there is a version of this game that has bridges so that two different lines can intersect without touching but I wish the developers would create a true sequel because I would spend another $1.99.

 

 

Horizon Chase is my runner up for this category because it brings me back to playing Rad Racer on the NES. HC is a racer that is a throwback to many early racing games where you have a fast car, that starts in the back of the pack, and has to make their way to the front of the pack, in timed sections, to win the race. Of course the racecourse has a ton of curves, and powerups to help you through various stages set around the world. Graphically Horizon Chase looks like an updated Rad Racer, but instead of the two cars available in RR, Horizon Chase has at least a dozen of famous car silhouettes. The reason why this game didn’t win my favorite of the year is because there was no replay factor. Once I was finished playing through the game I already unlocked 90% of the items, and had no reason to go back, while Flow I would still play random puzzles and still enjoy my time.

 

 

New Console

 

 

I believe late into 2014 my Nexus 7 2013 version decided to call it a career and is currently sitting on my nightstand. Thanks to Slickdeals posting a GameStop sale on their tablets, I was able to get back into the Android Tablet game with an older 8inch Asus Memo Pad. Even though this tablet didn’t have as much internal storage as my N7, it was still a lot of fun to mess with, has an external card slot and simple to root. The one drawback was that it refuses to use my custom launcher and instead sticks with the Asus launcher. This really isn’t a problem other than having to take the extra 10 seconds to switch launchers after powering up.

The Memo Pad handles a lot of older games with ease, but seems to sputter a bit with newer games, and there is some slowdown when playing games like Mortal Kombat and WWE Immortals. There has been some improvement with the installation of root apps that let you overclock the system, and push all available resources towards gaming, but it shortens the battery life and I find myself doing a lot of charging because these settings eat battery.

Overall this is a solid tablet, especially for the $50 price tag. There are newer and better tablets on the market but at the price point I bought it for, I really can’t complain about the Memo Pad.

 

And now the final category in this year’s Chris Goes Award Show is of course the Game of the Year! This is the portion where we are going a bit over time and we are bumping the local news because we can!

 

Game of the Year!

 

 

This was a tough category for me because there were a number of games that I felt had a strong case for Game of the Year, including a couple that were runner-ups in the various favorite game categories. For 2015 I decided with Lego Batman 3 because of the simple reason that in my opinion this was the best Lego game that has been released, and I’m including the most recent Lego Dimensions, and Lego Jurassic World. Lego Batman 3 seem to fix all the little problems with previous games in the series, and provide a bunch of fun content, a cute original storyline, and didn’t feel lazy like other Lego games that just lifted audio from films. The dynamic between the always-bruiting Batman, and carefree Superman add to the comedy, along with the excitement of seeing classic characters, as well as newer characters. Since I started watching Arrow it was a lot of fun playing through the Green Arrow DLC with Oliver Queen battling it out with Deathstroke. Speaking of DLC, the season pass was inexpensive at $15 for additional levels, new characters like the cast from Arrow, Suicide Squad, the Man of Steel movie, as well as other DC properties. Also there were some free characters that were available to download periodically. I wish Lego would sell the physical minifigures of all their characters in their games. Suicide Squad would easily be a must buy for me.

 

 

Well there you have it Pixlbit, my 2015 picks for favorite games of the year. I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts about the games I played this year and this wouldn’t be an awards show without a musical act ending the show so here is a Christmas song

 

C’mon who doesn’t love a group of guys who couldn’t surf, sing about a snowman, while sitting in the 70degree weather of Southern California? Have a good week Pixlpeeps!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris