Closing Out a Dismal Year

2016. A year to forget for so many reasons. Reasons beyond my own lack of effort within the written entity that is Beat All Games; reasons I wish not to discuss as this is not that sort of forum. I will, however, discuss my perceptibly poor output when it comes to finishing a wide variety of video games just so I can whinge over all the details. 2016 and only, what? Ten games? Pitiful. My most pitiful year to date. But only pitiful in the face of games conquered. It was still a productive year in games played and games thoroughly enjoyed. It's just, so few reached the finishing line creating the illusion I'm no longer the prolific player I once was. Though, to be fair, I don't think I've ever considered myself a prolific player. Otherwise, I'd probably jump on the Twitch train and that just isn't for me.

Ten games isn't enough to allow for any sort of traditional year end list with any real substance so I'm unsure which direction to take this post. Suppose I can just top five it and be done with it. Eh, sounds good since I really don't have much else to say.

5. Evoland
-Not a great game by any means, but does exactly what it set out to do. Unfortunately, the game loses it's way in the second half where the "evolution" factor takes more and more of a back seat.

4. Comix Zone
-Long a favorite on the Genesis, but also, long a notoriously difficult beat 'em up. A unique classic, really.

3. Earthlock: Festival of Magic
-There's so much that angered me, but there's also so much that I loved. It was a tricky balance: was there enough of the good to outweigh the bad? Yes. Yes there was.

2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
-I almost feel like this one's getting the spot by default. Don't get me wrong, TTYD is a fantastic game, and far far superior to its predecessor. At the same time, it's not that different form the original and faces a lot of the same issues. The number two spot comes simply because of this year's low count in games beaten I fear.

1. 12 Labours of Herucles: The Cretan Bull
-It's great fun. It's wildly addictive. It's bright and colorful. It's easy to learn but can be tricky to master. It simply understands the fundamentals of what makes a great game and keeps all the unnecessary fluff out of the picture. More to the point: I want to play more of these games.

And with that, this mess of a year is done, or at least it will be in a few hours. Good riddance.