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Another year, and another stack of games played. Last year I'd played more console games in 2014, but this year I played more on handhelds, in part because I was travelling more. I also continued to be busy outside of gaming, so I played a lot of shorter games. Some were disposable smartphone titles (the most notable of which was 7 Little Words), but I also played a lot of 3DS eShop and DSiWare games. I played a fair amount of retro games, although they were pretty spread out amongst the various consoles and handhelds. I've completed various series in previous years, but this past year I didn't really finish any new series. I didn't really make a concerted effort to get through my neverending list of "games I should play" either, although I did get to cross off some games from that list, including the enjoyable Shantae and some of the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games. I also did a pretty decent job of balancing out playing sequels with playing games from new series.
I was surprised that I ended up sinking a ton of time into Pokemon Y, which I ended up blogging about for the third year in a row. I spent way too much finishing the National Pokedex, hunting for shinies, and trying to get through the Battle Maison, and although the latter proved to be frustrating, the game's ability to bring out my obsessive tendencies was noteworthy (although I'm not sure it's such a good thing for me personally!). I finally replayed Ocarina of Time in the form of its 3DS remake, which I enjoyed more the second time around. I also continued to be impressed with the Art Style series, and despite initially having little interest in Splatoon, once I got to the ranked battles I found the strength of the game's "just one more" pull to be dangerously noteworthy. Splatoon ended up impressing me so much and is so elegantly designed and so much darn multiplayer fun that it made it to my "greatest games of all time" list, and like the Smash Bros. games is one I could've easily played for much longer than I did.
Here's the summary of what my 2015 looked like gaming-wise (games listed in approximate descending order) with links to each game’s corresponding blog review:
HIGH
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
- Splatoon (Wii U)
- Dance Dance Revolution Konamix (PS)
- Pokemon Y (3DS) (replay; previous: 2014, 2013)
- Space Invaders (Arcade) (and Space Invaders Part II (Arcade))
- Art Style: Boxlife (DSiWare)
MIDDLE
- Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U)
- Gunman Clive (3DSWare)
- Art Style: precipice (DSiWare)
- 7 Little Words (Android)
- 100 Classic Books (DS)
- Tetris: Axis (3DS)
- Pop Island (DSiWare)
- Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (GCN)
- Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
- The Denpa Men: They Came by Wave (3DSWare)
- Teslagrad (Wii U Ware)
- Tetris DX (GBC)
- Pushmo World (Wii U Ware)
- Weapon Shop de Omasse (3DSWare)
- Zen Pinball 2 (Wii U Ware)
- Streetpass Mii Plaza Games: Set 2 (3DSWare) (replay; previous: 2014)
- Just Dance (Wii)
- Quell Reflect (Android)
- Shantae (GBC)
- Wii Fit U (Wii U)
- Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U)
- Gunman Clive 2 (3DSWare)
- escapeVektor (3DSWare)
- Pokemon Shuffle (3DSWare)
- Dillon's Rolling Western (3DSWare)
- Yoshi's New Island (3DS)
- The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)
- 3D Classics Excitebike (3DSWare)
- We Ski (Wii)
- HarmoKnight (3DSWare)
- Art Academy: First Semester (DSiWare)
- World of Goo (PC)
- Swords and Soldiers HD (PC)
- Snapdots (DSiWare)
- Paper Airplane Chase (DSiWare)
- Flow Free: Bridges (Android)
- Red Herring (Android)
LOW
- Kung Fu (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (GB)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES)
- Pokémon Battle Trozei (3DSWare)
NOT RATED
- Wii U Panorama View: Rickshaw Around Kyoto, Birds in Flight (Wii U)
- Photos with Mario (3DSWare)
- Just Jumble (Android)
- Altered Beast (Arcade)
- 4 Words (Android)
Outside of games played, I also need to give a shout-out to Satoru Iwata, who sadly passed away this year. Iwata is, quite simply, one of my personal heroes, and he has been sorely missed. R.I.P. Iwata-san! On a lighter note, apparently my only non-game review this year was a post on some random Nintendo merch that I've bought over the years, haha.
This time last year I'd mentioned trying to get back to the Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton series (among others), but this year I think I'll be able to make more progress on those fronts. As with most gamers, I continue to struggle with abandoning games and leaving them half completed, but I anticipate that I'll be able to be a bit better about that this year, although all bets are off in February when the new Fire Emblem game (with three parts!) comes out. That's definitely the release I'm looking most forward to for this year so far, although the Wii U Zelda game and the reveal of Nintendo's new platform are also sure to keep things pretty interesting for 2016.
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! ;)