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Good gravy, another year already??? In 2017 I played a decent range of different genres pretty well split between old vs. new games and console vs. handheld games. In a surprise upset I wound up playing more smartphone games than on any console (I played slightly less 3DS games than smartphone games, although more on 3DS if you include 3DS eShop games), and equally surprising was that two of my four favorite games I played this year were for smartphones. I suspect this is an anomaly rather than a trend, but we'll have to see how that develops.
By far the game I played the most this year was Fire Emblem Heroes, released on smartphones. My initial reaction was fairly mixed, but as time passed and more and more features were added I got to really like the game, so much so that it ended up being one of my favorite games of the year. Switch came out this year and I had a lot of fun playing games on it, although I found the new entries in the Mario and Zelda series to be more disappointing than not. Although Arms didn't make my favorite games of all time list, it was one of my favorite games of the year, and the more I play it the more I enjoy it. I finally got around to playing Portal and was happy to see it was worth all the acclaim that it's been given, although most of the other classics I played this year for the first time, such as Final Fight and Mortal Kombat (both on SNES) felt fairly dated.
Here's the summary of what my 2017 looked like gaming-wise (games listed in approximate descending order) with links to each game’s corresponding blog review:
HIGH
- Portal (PC)
- Fire Emblem Heroes (Android) (1, 2)
- DoReMi Fantasy: Milon's DokiDoki Adventure (SNES)
- Neko Atsume (Android)
MEDIUM
- Arms (Switch)
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS)
- Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS) (replay; previously 2013)
- Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
- Super Mario Run (Android)
- Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch)
- Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 (PS2)
- Wolf Sheep Cabbage (Android)
- The Count Lucanor (Switch eShop)
- Yono And The Celestial Elephants (Switch eShop)
- World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (Gen)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U)
- Rive (Switch eShop)
- Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party (Wii)
- Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Android)
- My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (3DSWare)
- Runbow (Wii U Ware)
- Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 (Wii)
- Practise English! (DS)
- Tekken (PS)
- Samurai Warriors 3 (Wii)
- Pokemon Go (Android)
- Rhythm Paradise Megamix (3DS)
- Pocket Card Jockey (3DSWare)
- Pac-Man Championship Edition (XBLA)
- Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS)
- Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS)
- Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix (PS)
- Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS)
- Tomodachi Life (3DS)
- Muscle March (WiiWare)
- NES Remix (Wii U Ware)
- Ridiculous Fishing (Android)
- Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move (3DSWare)
- LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii)
- Miitopia (3DS)
- Personal Trainer: Math (DS)
- Eco Shooter: Plant 530 (WiiWare)
LOW
- Ice Climber (NES)
- Dynasty Warriors 2 (PS2)
- Pokemon: Magikarp Jump (Android)
- Golden Axe (Arcade)
- Inversus Deluxe (Switch eShop)
- Pokemon Rumble World (3DSWare)
- Yoshi's Cookie (NES)
- Tennis (GB)
- Final Fight (SNES)
- Mortal Kombat (SNES)
NOT RATED
- Amiibo Tap (Wii U Ware)
- English Training (DS)
Outside of games played, this year I also started writing for the blog A Most Agreeable Pastime, which you can read about here and here. I also reviewed the short-lived Fire Emblem anime and recounted my experience working at PAX East.
I played a fair amount of random stuff this year, although the last couple of months were dominated by playing games on Switch. Nintendo's releases for 2018 are a pretty big mystery (which I'm hoping the next Nintendo Direct will shed some much-needed light on), but I'm half hoping there aren't too many heavy hitters since I have plenty of games in my backlog to try to catch up on and finish, including more than a couple of Switch games from this past year.
That's it for another year in review. As always, thanks as always to anyone who’s stumbled across my little patch of cyberspace and found it even mildly diverting, and welcome to another full year of video games at the Intergalactic Video Game Academy! ;)