{"id":19799,"date":"2020-01-17T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T00:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=19799"},"modified":"2020-01-10T17:42:14","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T17:42:14","slug":"carys-best-games-of-2019-awards-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/17\/carys-best-games-of-2019-awards-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Cary’s Best Games of 2019 Awards Show!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s that time of year again!\u00a0 It\u2019s the Cary\u2019s Best Games of 2019 Awards Show blog!\u00a0 Keep in mind that no outside opinions went into the making of this list.\u00a0 It\u2019s just my own picks.\u00a0 And if a game is missing from my list, it either didn\u2019t appeal to me as much, or I just simply haven\u2019t played it yet.\u00a0 Can\u2019t play all the games out there, you know!<\/p>\n

BEST RPG<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mario & Luigi: Bowser\u2019s Inside Story (3DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one really wins by default because it\u2019s the only RPG I played last year (well, almost, but we\u2019ll get to that in a bit).\u00a0 It\u2019s a remake of the DS game, and it is probably the best in the Mario & Luigi series.\u00a0 And it\u2019s the closest thing we\u2019ll come to Bowser having his own game.\u00a0 Overall it\u2019s not as good as I remember the DS game being, but it\u2019s still a lot of fun and I still enjoyed the main quest.\u00a0 The side game they added to it, Bowser Jr.\u2019s Journey, is unfortunately not as good as the Bowser\u2019s Minions mini quest from the last M&L remake, and it makes Bowser Jr. one of the most unlikeable characters in Mario history.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even finish it.\u00a0 I only wish I had enough time last year to play other RPGs like Dragon Quest XI on the Switch, and Pok\u00e9mon Sword and Shield.<\/p>\n

BEST 3-D ADVENTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luigi\u2019s Mansion 3 (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were a couple of 3-D adventures that I almost made my Game of the Year, and Luigi\u2019s Mansion 3 is one of those.\u00a0 It\u2019s very good and mixes the best parts of the last two games and gets rid of the things most people didn\u2019t like about Dark Moon.\u00a0 But not only is the game fun, it has TONS of personality.\u00a0 I know there are talks of making an animated Mario movie, but I think a Luigi\u2019s Mansion movie would be so much better!<\/p>\n

Runners Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kingdom Hearts 3 (PS4)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I also almost thought about naming this my Game of the Year.\u00a0 It won in my halfway through the year blog anyway.\u00a0 The storyline may be garbage and it may be more style than substance and has way too many cutscenes, but I just had fun tromping around through Disney Worlds.\u00a0 The graphics are great and I enjoyed the Disney worlds so much I wrote a blog about them!<\/p>\n

New Super Lucky\u2019s Tale (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I have a lot of game consoles, but two that I don\u2019t have are any sort of VR device, and an Xbox One.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have anything against Microsoft, in fact, the 360 was my favorite console of last generation.\u00a0 But game consoles are expensive and there just isn\u2019t enough games on the Xbox One or VR titles that would get me to buy one of those.\u00a0 But one year at PAX I saw a VR game that looked right up my alley.\u00a0 It was a colorful 3-D game called Lucky\u2019s Tale that starred a cartoon fox who looked suspiciously like my favorite SEGA character (minus one tail).\u00a0 And after that, there was an Xbox One title called Super Lucky\u2019s Tale.\u00a0 But now I don\u2019t have to worry about either of those because New Super Lucky\u2019s Tale is now on Switch, a game console I do have!\u00a0 Since I\u2019ve never played the others, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s new or super about it, but New Super Lucky\u2019s Tale is a colorful and cheerful romp that reminds me of the 3-D platformers you could play in the late 90\u2019s and early 2000\u2019s.\u00a0 It may not revolutionize the 3-D platforming genre, but it put a smile on my face and games just don\u2019t do that as much as they used to.<\/p>\n

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (PS4)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The thing that really surprised me about The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is that it\u2019s not like any other LEGO game.\u00a0 It\u2019s more open world and actually plays mostly like LEGO Worlds.\u00a0 So that was a pleasant surprise.\u00a0 I wish LEGO games would do that more often!<\/p>\n

BEST 2-D ADVENTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yoshi\u2019s Crafted World (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though I think I like Yoshi\u2019s Woolly World better, Crafted World is still a lot of fun.\u00a0 The craft based graphics are amazing, and they give room for more creative levels, like ninja worlds and outer space.\u00a0 It also kind of reminds me of Yoshi\u2019s Story, but in a good way.\u00a0 Very cute and cheerful game that\u2019ll put a smile on your face.<\/p>\n

Runners Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kirby\u2019s Extra Epic Yarn (3DS)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of Good Feel games with graphics made from crafting material.\u00a0 Normally I\u2019m not into ports, but this is a Kirby game and was one of the Wii\u2019s best, so I got the 3DS version. Unfortunately, the graphics take a bit of a cut and the stuff they added doesn\u2019t really improve the game at all.\u00a0 So yeah, it\u2019s kind of a bad port of a good game.\u00a0 If you can play it on the Wii, I\u2019d go that route.\u00a0 But if you have no other way to play it, the 3DS version is fine, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s also a shame that this is probably Nintendo\u2019s last first party game on the 3DS.<\/p>\n

Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PS4)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I asked for this game for Christmas and I\u2019m glad I got it as it turned out a lot better than I expected it to be.\u00a0 Yooka-Laylee may have been a bit disappointing as a 3-D platformer, but as a 2-D one, it\u2019s much better.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot like Donkey Kong Country, and even the music is pretty good.\u00a0 I like how what you do in the overworld may affect a level and make it into an entirely new one.\u00a0 Like diverting water into a factory level book will make the whole factory level be an underwater one.\u00a0 Very neat idea.<\/p>\n

BEST FIGHTER<\/strong><\/p>\n

SkullGirls: 2nd<\/sup> Encore (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been wanting to review this game since 2012, but for whatever reason, wasn\u2019t able to.\u00a0 Well I finally got to review it when it came on the Switch this year.\u00a0 Now I see what all the fuss was about.\u00a0 For an indie fighter, it\u2019s on par with big games like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear.\u00a0 I liked it so much I wrote a separate blog about the characters!<\/p>\n

WEIRDEST GAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

Labo VR Kit (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Last year I named Nintendo Labo my Game of the Year.\u00a0 But building things out of cardboard to play games on the Switch is still definitely weird!\u00a0 Even weirder is that this set lets you play VR games!\u00a0 Granted, it\u2019s not the best VR in the world, but for 70 to 80 bucks as opposed to hundreds if not thousands of dollars for other VR options, it\u2019s not too bad.<\/p>\n

Runners Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would\u2019ve put this game a bit higher, but I think I like the Wii U interface from the original game just a little more, and it also had a bit more of that Mario Paint weirdness.\u00a0 Plus I kind of played out the game on the Wii U anyway.\u00a0 But the Switch sequel is still no slouch and is super fun.\u00a0 They added a great single player story mode and more fun ways to build levels.\u00a0 I imagine this\u2019ll be a hit for years to come.<\/p>\n

Untitled Goose Game (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a game where you are a goose out to pester people.\u00a0 If that\u2019s not weird, I don\u2019t know what is.\u00a0 This game was pretty popular, too, selling over a million copies!\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty good for an indie game.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad I got to review it!<\/p>\n

Doraemon: Story of Seasons (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

A crossover game mixing the farming \u2018formerly Harvest Moon\u2019 gameplay with the popular Japanese anime Doraemon?\u00a0 Yeah that\u2019s pretty weird.\u00a0 Glad I got to review it, too.<\/p>\n

RingFit Adventure (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fitness game, that\u2019s weird enough.\u00a0 But you attach a JoyCon to a ring controller that you can bend and stretch, and play a pretty competent RPG with it!\u00a0 The RPG you can play is so good, with skill trees and enemy weaknesses, that I thought about naming it my Best RPG, but it was just too weird not to put here.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a much better fitness game than Wii Fit (which I thought was mediocre), or Fitness Boxing (which is one of Nintendo\u2019s worst games I think).\u00a0 It\u2019s not as good as going to the gym to get fit, but it is surprisingly well done.<\/p>\n

BEST PUZZLE GAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

BoxBoy + BoxGirl (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally the BoxBoy games were puzzle platformers on the 3DS.\u00a0 You are a box with legs and can make other boxes to use as stepping stones, shields, etc.\u00a0 They made three games on the 3DS and said the last would end the BoxBoy trilogy, but I guess they had a few more ideas because here\u2019s another one on the Switch.\u00a0 The game is made by HAL, the same folks behind stuff you might know such as Kirby and Smash Bros.\u00a0 The new game has a bunch of neat new ideas and there are hundreds of levels.\u00a0 It\u2019s a whole lotta game for only ten bucks!<\/p>\n

Runners Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crystal Crisis (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Two great things about this puzzler. One, it plays almost EXACTLY like Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, one of my all time favorite puzzle games.\u00a0 And two, one of the characters you can play as is FREAKING ASTRO BOY!<\/p>\n

Tetris 99 (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

When Nintendo first came out with their paid online service, I didn\u2019t get it right away.\u00a0 Playing Smash Bros. online was a big selling point, but while I love that game, I\u2019m not good enough to play online, so I didn\u2019t get the service then.\u00a0 But when Mario Maker 2 came out, you could get a version of it with the online subscription for half off, so I got it then since you pretty much HAVE\u00a0 to be online to play and download and upload levels.\u00a0 So after that, one of the first things I did was download Tetris 99, which is free but you must have the online service to play it.\u00a0 Tetris is one of my other all time favorite puzzle games still, so I was certainly curious about it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a Battle Royale style game with you vs. 99 other players, and will probably be the only Battle Royale style game I play.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty neat as a little time waster.\u00a0 I would\u2019ve given it the top puzzle game award, but Nintendo\u2019s sub par online service keeps kicking me out of a Tetris game half the time.\u00a0 And I know my Internet is good.\u00a0 That shouldn\u2019t happen with a Tetris game!<\/p>\n

Day and Night (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I was pleasantly surprised by this puzzle game.\u00a0 It\u2019s a falling block puzzle game like Tetris, but it has many original ideas and was better than I thought it would be.\u00a0 Only problem is that it lacks the simple charm that Tetris has, as this puzzler is a bit more complex and there\u2019s a lot going on!<\/p>\n

Dr. Mario World (iPad)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

While I did lose interest in this one fairly quickly, thanks to the free-to-play roadblocks, it still was a unique take on the Dr. Mario formula.<\/p>\n

BEST CLASSIC GAME COLLECTION\/REMAKE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Collection of Mana (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was super excited when this was announced for the US.\u00a0 It was so hard to wait for the physical copy and not just get the digital one.\u00a0 It has the first three Mana games on it, all of which were pretty good and I have a lot of great memories playing Secret of Mana on the SNES.\u00a0 But the big deal was this was the first time we would see a US release of Trials of Mana!\u00a0 I\u2019m disappointed that it\u2019s not as good as I thought it would be, but I\u2019m still glad to play it.\u00a0 Can\u2019t wait for the remake of that this year!<\/p>\n

Runners Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Penguin Wars (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This was a remake of an old arcade sports game that combined elements of Pong and dodge ball.\u00a0 You play as animals and try to roll balls to the other side of the table where your opponent does the same.\u00a0 I just loved the style of this game and I really got addicted to it!<\/p>\n

BurgerTime Party (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always loved BurgerTime.\u00a0 It was one of the few games in the arcade that could pull me away from Pac-Man.\u00a0 This one is kind of a modest remake, but I do like the retro cartoon graphic and four player multiplayer.<\/p>\n

Disney Classics: Aladdin and The Lion King (PS4)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The live action Aladdin and Lion King movies that came out this past year weren\u2019t very good, but one nice thing that came out of them was that they released a collection of the games based on the animated versions that came out on the Genesis and SNES.\u00a0 While these games had impressive graphics and sounds, they were lacking in the gameplay department and these kinds of platformers were the main reason why I mostly played RPGs in the 16-bit days.\u00a0 But there are a lot of nice extras and they do let you play both Genesis and SNES versions of Lion King (wish it had the Capcom SNES Aladdin game, though).<\/p>\n

Killer Queen Black (Switch)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Killer Queen has been kind of a modern arcade phenomenon in the past couple of years.\u00a0 I saw it once but couldn\u2019t figure out how to play it, so I\u2019m glad I got the Switch version.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a more complicated Joust.\u00a0 You have to be online to play it, though.<\/p>\n

River City Girls (PS4)<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had quite a few Kunio games this year.\u00a0 But the best was done by WayForward of course.\u00a0 But considering how well they did with Double Dragon Neon, it\u2019s no surprise.\u00a0 Plenty of humor and girl power in this one.\u00a0 I just wish it wasn\u2019t so darn hard!<\/p>\n

BEST RACING GAME<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled (PS4)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never was a big fan of Crash Bandicoot games, but one I did like was Crash Team Racing on the PSOne.\u00a0 It took them a while, but there were things done in that game that were better than in Mario Kart (at the time).\u00a0 This new version has everything from the first game and I think some of one of the sequels: Crash Nitro Kart.\u00a0 And it\u2019s amazing how far we\u2019ve come with graphics in games, as the visuals here are so good.<\/p>\n

Runners Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Team Sonic Racing (PS4)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though I prefer the Sonic and All-Stars Racing games that let you play as other characters besides Sonic ones (like Ulala), they had some good teamwork ideas added to this otherwise generic kart racer.\u00a0 Like giving items boxes to your teammates if you don\u2019t need them, and riding off of your team\u2019s slipstream to catch up!<\/p>\n

Mario Kart: World Tour (iPad)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Even though I bashed this game a bit in my review, as Nintendo did some pretty skeazy things with it, it\u2019s still a polished title and one of the better mobile games I played this year.<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s time for my Best Game of the Year 2019 award.\u00a0 Taiko drum roll please\u2026<\/p>\n

BEST GAME OF 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Legend of Zelda: Link\u2019s Awakening (Switch)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Not too much of a surprise, as it is my all time favorite Zelda game.\u00a0 I was so excited for this remake when it was announced, and I had a lot of fun playing it.\u00a0 I loved the toy style graphics and new added features, too.\u00a0 Also enjoyed it at PAX.\u00a0 But I almost didn\u2019t give this game the top award.\u00a0 I considered giving it to Luigi\u2019s Mansion 3 or Kingdom Hearts 3 instead.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Well, while Link\u2019s Awakening is a great game, I don\u2019t think it was worth full price.\u00a0 And if I went back and played the original game, I would\u2019ve had just as much fun as playing the remake.\u00a0 I liked it that much.\u00a0 But in the end, I still gave it the award because I wanted to.<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all for now!\u00a0 Let me know what you think of my picks and tell me your favorite games of the year so far.\u00a0 Either late this month or early next, I\u2019ll write a blog about the best games of the past decade, too!\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s that time of year again!\u00a0 It\u2019s the Cary\u2019s Best Games of 2019 Awards Show blog!\u00a0 Keep in mind that no outside opinions went into the making of this list.\u00a0 It\u2019s just my own picks.\u00a0 And if a game is missing from my list, it either didn\u2019t appeal to me as much, or I just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19799"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19822,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19799\/revisions\/19822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}