The Arbitraries (Create Your Own Year-End Awards) 2019

Games
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Time to leverage the Collective Intelligence™ of the Distributed Interwebs® to make the awards that really matter: the ones that are totally made up and don’t matter at all.

It’s our annual opportunity to call out games that you think might have done one thing well, or were particularly bad, or that you just want to call out somehow. Since the awards themselves are made up, the criteria tend to be a little more complicated than just “best”, so help us out and give a line or two of explanation about each one.

As per tradition:
The only rule is: if you disagree with another poster, share that in the form of an award.

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To kick it off:

The Best Shantae Game of the Year: Wonder Boy In Monster Kingdom. I don’t know if Wayforward were making Monster Boy games this whole time, or if Wonder Boy is just a Shantae game. I’ve often thought that there’s a class of things that are kind of like Metroidvanias, but not really. After playing Wonder Boy, I think that games like Shantae and Wonder Boy are exploration-platformers where the combat is…kind of bad? But it still has the mobility progression of Metroidvanias. Plenty of charm to be had.

The “Oh no, Blizzard is evil now, guess I can’t play Heartstone anymore” Award: Steamworld Quest, a perfectly serviceable electronic strategy card-game.

The Probably Actually The Best Card game of the Year: Slay the Spire, which I only recently picked up after effusive praise from all around, and it actually is very good.

The Best Kinda Pinball Game Of The Year (out of 2): Yoku’s Island Express, which was pretty charming, although at times as frustrating as I find actual pinball. For the curious, the second best fake pinball game (read: worst) was Senran Kagura: Peach Ball, which is terrible, even for the franchise.

The “Games are not Fruit” Award: The Neo Geo. Between the Neo Geo mini, multiple ACA NeoGeo releases on the Switch, the discovery of the 1CC Marathon, Terry Bogard being featured in Smash, and a friend of mine purchasing a basement arcade cabinet, it’s never been a better time to play 20 year old games.

Best “Jumping on Falling Rocks Flying Through The Air” Implementation: Astral Chain. This is an aninme trope that I feel has never really been nailed in games. Usually, it’s just QTEs to tell you when to jump, maybe with some branching decision making to determine with path to take. But Astral Chain’s Legion system, where you put your legion where you want to go, then it pulls you over, is an elegant way to solve the “where am I going to land” problem with the same interface used in the rest of the game. Add a little bullet-time to ease the execution barrior, and it feels as awesome as it looks on the big screen.

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The Best Kinda Pinball Game of the Year that @CLWheeljack Obviously Didn’t Know About: Creature in the Well, which is this cool combination of dungeon exploration and pinball that has an element of Pong too. Use your sword to whack the “ball” into play and do it right or you won’t knock down all the targets in time. It’s probably as good as Yoku’s Island Express, but less well known.

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All righty, these are the awards I wait for because these are the only ones that mean anything to me. As my favorite poet e.e. cummings said, “Listen; there’s a hell of a good universe next door: let’s go!”

The “Am I Taking Crazy Pills?!” Award: this year everyone keeps saying that Crackdown 3 is terrible. And I’m here to tell you that’s total bullshit, this game is awesome. The unlockable powers as you level up are appropriately, you know, powerful, the weapons are fun to shoot, the enemies are fun to shoot, the cars suck but who bats 1.000? Plus all the free DLC give you so many configuration options you can almost make your own game. And you can play it for a buck by signing up for Game Pass Ultimate! Last year I gave away a bunch of copies of ME Andromeda because I felt it got a raw deal - this year if you aren’t already a member of Game Pass, I’ll gift you an initial sub so you can try this or whatever else might catch your fancy. PM me.

The “Lost in Time and Lost in Space … and Meaning” Award goes to The Return of the Obra Dinn. It released in 2018 but I didn’t play it until this year but it was absolutely the best thing I played this year. I never thought I’d enjoy playing an insurance adjuster so much but this game has mysteries and surprises galore. Totally worth checking out.

The “Where Are We Going? Planet Ten! When? Real soon!” Award goes to The Outer Wilds, which I haven’t played yet but am totally going to any day now. Hearing people just talk about the game is firing my imagination, like when a friend sees an awesome movie that you can’t wait to see. I am so keyed up to try this.

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Best Board Game of 2010-2019

Mage Knight

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Best 20-year-old Board Game that Blew My Mind When I Played It for the First Time in 2019
Bus

Best 22-year-old Board Game that Blew My Mind When I Played It for the First Time in 2019
Tigris & Euphrates

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The Best Kinda Pinball Game of the Year is Demon’s Tilt

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I haven’t played that yet, but I can easily see that you’d be right! That’s on my list.

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I found Demon’s Tilt difficult to play because I kept losing the ball in all the visual noise. I’m not a practiced pinball player though, so it’s probably easier to handle that sort of thing for those who are used to it.

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Best I don’t care about being current, and its still better than the modern revivals Rollercoaster Tycoon 2

Most perfectly fitting my mood and interests game I played in 2019
Surviving Mars

Still my favorite game and the one I played more than any other
X-wing miniatures 2.0

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My awards so far:

Purplest Game I Played All Year:

  • Agents of Mayhem
    (Xbox One) I put a ton of time into this game. I maxed out all non-DLC characters, and completed pretty much everything there is to do in the game. The game didn’t blow me away, certainly not to the degree it does for Tom, but it was solid enough to hold my interest. It felt like a big step back from Saints Row 3 in a lot of ways, and I was put off by a lot of the repetition, but I stuck with it long enough to get my fill.

The Forever Game of No End in Sight:

  • Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
    (Switch) This game just goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on. and on, and on, and on, and on. I sit down and put a couple dozen more hours into it every few months, but I never feel like I’m anywhere close to finishing it. And I doubt I ever will. I think I’ve had my fill of this game.

The Best New Game of 2019 I’m Too Terrible to Play:

  • Apex Legends
    (Xbox One) The game was great fun for about three days. Then the player base transformed into murderous pros and I never went back. Although the game is, by far, the best Battle Royale ever made, I find it hard to have fun with I’m stressing about letting my team down because everybody knows how to shoot, communicate, and all the proper etiquette except for me.

Best Re-Release of 2019:

  • Warlords 3: Darklords Rising
    (GOG) I’ve been waiting decades for this game to come back in a playable form, and after years and years of hoping GOG would see my name added to the humble request list of people hoping for the same, they finally did the world a solid and brought a compatible version of this game back for modern machines. Stacks of Doom unite.
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10 Best Games I Played in 2019 not from 2019

  • Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (2015/Xbox One)
  • 7th Dragon III Code: VFD (2016/3DS)
  • Telltale’s The Walking Dead (2014/Xbox One)
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (2018/3DS)
  • Dragon Quest VIII (2016/3DS)
  • Etrian Odyssey V (2016/3DS)
  • Ys: Memories of Celceta (2012/PS Vita)
  • Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate (2016/PS Vita)
  • Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology (2018/3DS)
  • Overcooked (2016/Xbox One)

Portable Gaming is NOT Dead awards

  • See above list

So Disappointed award

  • The Outer Worlds

Which One Are We Talking About Again? award

  • Tie (naturally): The Outer Worlds & Outer Wilds

It Finally Clicks With Me award

  • Sekiro - After years of trying some of the Dark Souls games and somewhat enjoying them for a little before giving up (played DS and DS 2, own the third but haven’t touched it), I was instantly hooked on Sekiro. Still a very hard game but I have played it for much longer than the other From Software titles and plan on continuing to play it. Not sure what it is. Maybe I prefer the setting, and so far not-so-cryptic story. Maybe it’s a touch easier or the controls are more intuitive. Whatever it is, I now want to go back and play the DS games (or at least give the 3rd a try).
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Game I launched the most times in 2019 award:
Antihero

Game I spent the most time fishing in 2019:
Red Dead Redemption 2

Game with the most floating bodies on purpose award:
CONTROL

Game I spent the most time watching a streamer play award:
7 Days to Die , thx @Jason_McMaster

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I can verify this.

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Dude, by chance I played both of these back to back. I wasn’t expecting Outer Wilds to come close to Obra Dinn but it surpassed it. Shortly before Obra Dinn I played Quadrilateral Cowboy. Seriously, three of the best damn games I’ve ever played all in close succession. That deserves an award, which I tip:

“The Best Streak of ‘Top 100 Games Ever’ Entrants (that also happen to be non-violent and first-person”. One of these days I will finish that list and submit it to your thread @divedivedive. It was your thread, right?

The “Best Graphics Options” award goes to the Frog Detective games:

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This saddens me because the latter is too good to be confused with anything else!

Me too.

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Wait do people actually leave that see what Steam Friends are Playing pop-up setting on?

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The Best Commodore 64 Ever goes to TheC64, which I crowdfunded in 2016 and finally received last month. A C64 with HDMI, ability to load games off USB drives, and VIC 20 emulation as well? I’m in my teens again!

The You Can Watch More Video About This Title Than Every Other Prerelease Game Trailer Combined award goes to the new Microsoft Flight Simulator. Inviting all those YouTubers out to fly the thing was a brilliant move.

The You Keep Saying You’re Going to Stop Playing This But You Never Stop Playing This award goes to Star Realms.

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A couple more…

Why Am I Still Playing This award

  • Diablo III

I’ve Only Just Gotten A Taste Recently, But I Like It! awards

  • Slay The Spire (Xbox)
  • Legend of Legacy (3DS)
  • Dragon Quest XI (Switch)
  • Dragon’s Crown (Vita)
  • Hollow Knight (Switch)

Someday I Will Finish This Trilogy award

  • Mass Effect - I’m on my 4th restart of ME3. Don’t know why this one doesn’t grab me like the others from the onset (I played ME2 non-stop until I finished it, years ago).
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Ok a few more…

Game I keep buying DLC for but never play anymore award:
Cities Skylines

Game I spent more time reading about and watching videos of before release than actually playing when I bought it award:
Age of Wonders : Planefall

Game with the best friendly public co-op award:
Deep Rock Galactic

Oldest Game I played again this Year award:
GTA 5 (2013) , I still haven’t finish the main story.

Developer from whom I have the most un-played but owned backlog:
Telltale un-played games:
(Tales from the Borderlands , Minecraft: Story Mode , The Walking Dead: Michonne , Batman: The Telltale Series , The Walking Dead: A New Frontier , Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series , Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Two , Batman: The Enemy Within , The Walking Dead: The Final Season)

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Best Not-Quite-A-Game-Thing-On-Steam award:
Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to). I spent quite a few evenings just writing positive, encouraging notes to absolute strangers. I’m glad I was tipped off to this one.