My 2012 Top Ten Games of the Year

In a year full of disappointing games, there were bound to be a few good ones here and there. When I started the year, my Top Ten list was a lot different than what it turned out to be. So, for your viewing entertainment, I present my Top Ten Games of the year, but since this year was full of disappointment, I'd like to start off with my Disappointment of the Year...


2012 Disappointment of The Year: Assassin's Creed 3
There really hasn't been a game more recent in my mind that is more disappointing than Assassin's Creed 3. The sheer hype and build-up for it was off the charts. The setting was bold and fresh. It caught the eyes of many, but it ultimately turned out to be not only a mess at a technical level, but emotionally as well. Even though it's the end of Desmond Miles' story, a character I cared nothing for, Assassin's Creed 3 barely tries to make you blink at eye at his plight. Instead of caring about heroes, I walked away caring more about a villain, which isn't something I can say was truly intentional. Assassin's Creed 3 has now tipped the series towards the mediocre scale after two straight down titles. Assassin's Creed needs a break, or will be assassinated itself.


And now, for my Top Ten Games of the Year...

#10 - Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS, Vita, PC)
A sequel to the great original finally arrived and delivered on most of what it promised. Even though the Single Player campaign was nothing more than a shell of what was promised, Sonic Racing Transformed still delivers to be an excellent kart racer, despite being murderously difficult in the most unexpected and head-scratching of ways.

#9 - Crashmo (3DS)
While an unexpected sequel, Crashmo doesn't disappoint at any level other than itself being more of a concept that captured the hearts and minds of many early 3DS adopters. Crashmo expands and evolves the concept that Pushmo originally laid forth, but doesn't stop being clever until long after you've given up.

#8 - Forza Horizon (360)
While I have no love for the Forza franchise, picking this one up cheap was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It is one of the best racing games made this generation, offering a variety of challenge and allows the game to be set to your level and not vice versa. It's what Need for Speed Hot Pursuit should've been two years ago, and smokes what Most Wanted provided this year. If you're looking for a great racing game, pick this one up if you have a 360.

#7 - New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U)
A series that has two similar releases in the same year is either good news or bad news. While I can say they were both good, New Super Mario Bros. 2 falls well short of what New Super Mario Bros. U offers, both in terms of level design, but from a challenging standpoint as well. While New Super Mario Bros. 2 provided a coin gimmick that neutered the game's challenge, New Super Mario Bros. U not only provides excellent in-game challenge, but separate, out of the box challenges to keep you playing for hours on end. While there's no real reward at the end, getting there is more exciting than maxing out a couple of score counters.

#6 - Kid Icarus: Uprising (3DS)
A revival of Kid Icarus is something people have wanted for a long time. Given Sakurai's track record of jam-packing games with content, along with several other marketing ploys like AR cards and stands, Kid Icarus Uprising is a gem for the 3DS. It's got great design, good controls, great music. But the thing that is the cherry on top is the game's story, which Sakurai also wrote. It's got a lot of charm that you won't find anywhere else, and for that reason above all, it's worth playing. Not to mention the multiplayer, the loot system, etc.

#5 - Nintendo Land (Wii U)
What do you get when put 12 Nintendo franchises into a mini-game collection? The best mini-game collection ever, that's what. Nintendo Land is more of a psychological profile than straight-up mini-game collection. It's an attack on the senses of non-gamers to buy Nintendo franchises outside of Mario, Zelda and Pokemon. While some obviously won't capitalize on this (Balloon Trip, Octopus Dance), it's a wonder if other franchises (Metroid, Pikmin) will or not. As itself, Nintendo Land is a reason to pick-up the Wii U. While not as universally easy to understand as Wii Sports, it gets you to learn the controller, which is what Wii Sports did.

#4 - Halo 4 (360)
Considering the last couple of Halo releases have been adept disappointments, Halo 4 is a nice rebound for the series that prides itself on multiplayer and having stories that are told horribly. Halo 4's multiplayer is a step above anything Bungie has done since Halo 3. While it's not quite as good, the story serves its' purpose well. While it's still not a fan favorite of mine, the multiplayer is enough to have me playing it, which is enough for it to be on this list.

#3 - Resident Evil: revelations (3DS)
Revelations is the best Resident Evil game to be released since Resident Evil 4. It's a shame since at the time of its' release, Capcom decided to devote time and marketing dollars towards the newly unveiled Resident Evil 6 and upcoming Operation Raccoon City instead of Revelations, which is heads and shoulders and knees above them both. A polished, survival-horror Resident Evil game with optional cooperative play is something that every RE fan has wanted for a long time, and finally got. It's a shame Capcom decided to shun this one.

#2 - Journey (PS3)
Journey is an interesting game. While a linear experience that takes around 90 minutes to complete, it's really something that needs to be played to be understood. The cooperative aspect is the major highlight of the game. If you don't have it, you're missing a significant portion of what makes Journey what it is. While you can replay multiple times, I feel once is more than enough to understand it's special. But it does and will lose some of its' luster over time.

#1 - Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
This is what you get when you evolve Final Fantasy XII, streamline the combat mechanics and dumb down the story a bit. It's an evolution to that formula in every regard and is better because of it. While the game is very involved, if it were more involved, it'd undoubtedly be better. Xenoblade Chronicles is the best JRPG released this generation by a country. It will make you want to play JRPG's again. That's why it's my game of the year. It's the game that made JRPG's relevant again, and it's not from Square Enix, who has seemingly lost their way.


That's it for my 2012 game of the year list. I hope you enjoyed it and have a Happy New Year!

NFL 2012 Week 17 Predictions

Here are my Week 17 Predictions for the 2012 NFL Regular Season.

Winners are indicated in BOLD letters


Sunday Early Games
Tampa Bay @ Atlanta
NY Jets @ Buffalo
Baltimore @ Cincinnati
Chicago @ Detroit
Jacksonville @ Tennessee
Houston @ Indianapolis
Carolina @ New Orleans
Philadelphia @ NY Giants
Cleveland @ Pittsburgh


Sunday Afternoon Games
Kansas City @ Denver
Green Bay @ Minnesota
Miami @ New England
Oakland @ San Diego
Arizona @ San Francisco
St. Louis @ Seattle


Sunday Night Game
Dallas @ Washington


Last Week's Record: 11-5

Overall Record: 153-86

NFL 2012 Week 16 Predictions

Here are my week 16 NFL predictions for the 2012 season. Sorry about not posting them last week. I was busy with work and I've recently fallen ill.

Winners are indicated in BOLD text


Sunday Early Games
Atlanta @ Detroit
New Orleans @ Dallas
Tennessee @ Green Bay
Indianapolis @ Kansas City
Buffalo @ Miami
San Diego @ NY Jets
Washington @ Philadelphia
Cincinnati @ Pittsburgh
Oakland @ Carolina
New England @ Jackonsville
Minnesota @ Houston


Sunday Afternoon Games
Cleveland @ Denver
Chicago @ Arizona
NY Giants @ Baltimore


Sunday Night Game
San Francisco @ Seattle


My Record: 142-81

Last Week: 11-5

2012 NFL Week 14 Predictions

Here are my Week 14 NFL Predictions for the 2012 Season.

Winners are indicated in BOLD


Thursday Game
Denver @ Oakland


Sunday Games
St. Louis @ Buffalo
Dallas @ Cincinnati
Kansas City @ Cleveland
Tennessee @ Indianapolis
Chicago @ Minnesota
San Diego @ Pittsburgh
Philadelphia @ Tampa Bay
Baltimore @ Washington
Atlanta @ Carolina
NY Jets @ Jacksonville

Miami @ San Francisco
New Orleans @ NY Giants
Arizona @ Seattle

Detroit @ Green Bay


Monday Game
Houston @ New England


Overall Record: 122-69

Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge Review

Team Ninja has come a long way from Itagaki’s departure after Ninja Gaiden 2. After helping destroy the Metroid franchise, Team Ninja did a wonderful job duplicating those results with Ninja Gaiden 3. After some kind of revelation after saying they’d ignore fans and after its’ reception went on to blame them, Team Ninja seems like they’re trying to play make-up with Razor’s Edge, the “Sigma” version of Ninja Gaiden 3. Considering how bad Ninja Gaiden 3 was, Razor’s Edge is a significant improvement, but what does that really say about its’ quality? Not much.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Razor’s Edge if you’ve played the original is the distinct lack of henchmen begging for Ryu to spare their inane lives. It’s a welcome change because it removes what had no business being in the game to begin with. Now Ryu’s story is simple: Your arm has been cursed, and you lost your Dragon Sword. Whatever semblance of emotion that’s supposed to be tied to it from the original is gone. While the story tries to maintain Ninja Gaiden’s long-standing history of ridiculousness, it ultimately tries dressing it up, which results in gamers wondering why anyone would want a video game story ever again.

Weapon Upgrading assumes you have to do everything. By the end, you’ll have nowhere near enough Karma to upgrade everything in your arsenal. It shows a complete lack of balance for the overall combat system, which is in itself mashy and tiresome. While the combat matches that seen in the original Ninja Gaiden 2 for Xbox 360, it doesn’t fix the inherent balancing problems that exists with that speed. For example, because the game’s speed is so frantic, the game’s framerate is less than optimal, causing not only a drop in frames, but inputs as well, which will lead to some untimely and frustrating deaths. While this is mostly on Ryu’s side, Ayane’s side really makes it clear that the game is balanced, which will put you in a few situations where you’ll have to get lucky to in order to pass or spend a great deal of time on in order to figure out a fight’s gimmick.

While Razor’s Edge can be seen as improvement, it’s simply window dressing. There’s blood, decapitations, faster combat, tests of valor, collectibles, weapon upgrades, etc. But it doesn’t fix the problems that existed with the last two original Ninja Gaiden games, offering the worst of both worlds. It’s a frustrating experience that you can’t hope to master, but will instead be left whimpering like a Ninja Dog.


Score: 6 out of 10
+ Improved Combat from the original
+ Decapitation is nice
+ Tests of Valor are rewarding to find
- When you die, you usually don’t understand why you die
- Some graphical head-scratchers
- Story is complete garbage

2012 NFL Week 13 Predictions

Sorry for the tardiness of this post, but I've been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. This won't be a full prediction update, but just a quick one to suffice my readership for now. So breathe a sigh of relief as I am very much alive.

Winners are indicated in BOLD


Thursday Game
New Orleans @ Atlanta

Sunday Games
Jacksonville @ Buffalo
Seattle @ Chicago
Indianapolis @ Detroit
Minnesota @ Green Bay
Houston @ Tennessee
Carolina @ Kansas City
San Francisco @ St. Louis
New England @ Miami
Arizona @ NY Jets

Tampa Bay @ Denver
Cleveland @ Oakland
Cincinnati @ San Diego
Pittsburgh @ Baltimore

Philadelphia @ Dallas

Monday Game
NY Giants @ Washington


Last Week's Record: 11-5
Overall Record: 112-64 (.636)