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Since 2019 is, for all intents and purposes, over, I am posting my top 10 games of the year for 2019. 

I know a lot of people said this was a slow year, but for me, it was an absolutely fantastic year in gaming, possibly the best year of the 8th generation for me. So much good stuff. September alone had more great games released in the span of two weeks than some entire years had.

So here are my top games of the year.

10. River City Girls (Switch, Arc System Worls/WayForward)

One of my all time favorite anime movies is Project A-Ko. River City Girls is probably the closest we'll ever come to a Project A-Ko video game. The graphics and humor in this game are spot on. The beat-em-up action is pretty intense if a little unwieldy at times.

9. Collection of Mana (Switch, Nintendo)

A collection of old games, yes, but one of those games has been one of my top three most-wanted English localizations - Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3 in Japan), which was originally made for the Super Famicom but not released since it was so late in the 16-bit era and probably in part because of Square's deteriorating relationship with Nintendo at the time. Trials of Mana is an improvement on Secret of Mana in every way, offering a choice of six playable characters and a greatly improved combat system. Secret of Mana is also here. Final Fantasy Adventure, the first game in the series and the first Zelda-like game ever made for the Game Boy, is surprisingly deep and emotional for an early 90s handheld game. 

8. Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch, Nintendo)

I enjoy DIY games like Super Mario Maker and RPG Maker, and this game adds a lot of improvements over the Wii U version, including a wider variety of obstacles and the ability to create slopes, which was missing fromt the previous version. Nintendo should really consider pre-loading every Nintendo console going forward with Super Mario Maker.

7. Kingdom Hearts III (PS4, Square Enix)

It took long enough, but was worth the wait. KH3 is the ultimate video game playground for Disney fans. I just wish there was more Final Fantasy stuff in it, but honestly, at this point, given how big Disney is, it doesn't need the crossover quite so much.

6. Mortal Kombat 11 (multiplatform, WB/NetherRealm Studios)

Mortal Kombat continues strong since the groundbreaking ninth entry on PS3 and 360. Still my favorite 2-D fighting series, and with Capcom's missteps with Street Fighter over the past 3 years, MK deserves its place as a preeminent fighting game. 

5. Pokemon Sword/Shield (Switch, Nintendo)

The first true console Pokemon, Sword and Shield are a bit unpolished, but still fun, and hopefully a groundwork for games to come. 

4. Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

A beautiful reimagining of one of the best Zelda games, and possibly the best handheld game, ever made. Redone with graphics reminiscent of the clay figurines of the Mother/Earthbound series and a remix soundtrack that incorporates elements of the original chiptune tracks, Link's Awakening is one of the saddest Zeldas ever due to the nature of the story and the game world. The Face Shrine music is still as much of a gut-punch as ever, signalling a distinct shift in tone for the story. Plus, with the Switch's more advanced controls, there were a lot of QOL improvements made over the often unwieldy interface of the Game Boy original, which required frequent switching to the inventory screen. 

3. Astral Chain (Switch, Nintendo/Platinum)

Platinum's latest masterpiece is this cyberpunk action-adventure game with all of Platinum's signature over-the-top combat. The dual-character aspect of the game actually originated with Scalebound, Platinum's cancelled Xbox One project. Regardless, this will hopefully mean the birth of a new IP for Nintendo.

2. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch, Nintendo/Intelligent Systems/Koei Tecmo)

Fire Emblem came so, so close to being my Game of the Year. For many years, my gold standard of SRPGs was Final Fantasy Tactics, then Valkyria Chronicles took the genre to a whole new level ten years later. But Fire Emblem blows that standard out of the water. From the well-drawn, highly animated characters and battle scenes to the huge amount of side content and the multiple story paths, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is truly a feast for SRPG fans.

1. Dragon Quest XI S (Switch, Nintendo/Square Enix)

Technically, this is a late port/re-release, but there's so much extra content stuffed into Dragon Quest XI S that I'm willing to consider it a new game. There's so much here that hits all the right notes from me, from beautiful, lush, animated graphics, a great orchestral soundtrack, a long story with lovable characters, and extras like 16-bit mode. This is almost perfect as an RPG for me. Dragon Quest is now a 33-year-old series, yet it keeps on reaching new heights. 

Honorable mentions:

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (Square Enix, Switch) - another re-release of my second favorite Final Fantasy of all time, the Switch (and Xbox One) version added even more improvements over the PS4 version, including the ability to change job boards and mix and match combinations. 

Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition (Namco, multiplat) - A re-release of a Tales game that was previously only available in the US on Xbox 360, the Definitive Edition includes the content cut from the original release that appeared in the Japan-exclusive PS3 version, including Patti Fleur and her storyline, which was integrated into the story much better than I thought it would be, keeping in mind that Patti had originally been intended for Vesperia to begin with but was cut due to time and budget constraints from the 360 version. My only quibble is that Namco didn't get Troy Baker to voice Yuri's additional dialogue, and Baker said he would have been willing to do so if Namco had asked him.

Castlevania and Contra Anniversary Collections (Konami, multiplat) - Done by Japanese studio M2, which is pretty much the gold standard for porting 8- and 16-bit games to modern hardware (they also did Collection of Mana and the Sega Genesis Mini that was released this year), these are a pretty comprehensive collection of the early days of both series, including the Genesis games Castlevania: Bloodlines and Contra: Hard Corps, which were otherwise very difficult to find, also including the Game Boy games and artwork exhibits for the series.

Untitled Goose Game (House House, Switch) - a sandbox chaos game in the spirit of Goat Simulator, but much more refined and polished.

Arcade Archives series: Hamster continues to make the Golden Age of Arcades accessible on modern hardware. This year, we've gotten such clasics as Pooyan (which I wrote about in an earlier blog), the hugely popular Frogger, and just yesterday, VS. Balloon Fight, which is pretty different from the NES version - the arcade version had dual-screen height stages, the home version has vertical scrolling. Here's to more arcade classics in 2019. Hopefully either Hamster will make Pengo available, or Sega will make Pengao a Sega Ages game.

So that's my top ten of 2019. 

We are about to witness the end of another decade in gaming. Yes, I know how decades, centuries, and millennia are technically supposed to be counted, but let's not be pedantic here. It's hard to believe the 2010s are almost over. I can remember when the 2000s ended, when the 1990s ended, and when the 1980s ended (my family was stuck at Dover AFB in Delaware trying to get a flight home.) The 2010s have been quite a decade for gaming, but they didn't start out that way. We lost 1UP.com early on in the decade, for one thing. A lot has changed in my life in general since 2010, but I'm not going to bore you with all those details. So I think my next blog will be a Game of the Decade blog. Hopefully some of you will be inspired to think about your favorite games of the past 10 years.