It is that time of year ladies and gents. The time to choose which game is gamier than all others. We staff here at Twinfinite have come together to figure out what game of 2013 reigned supreme.
Unfortunately, none of us had a real consensus. So we asked all the troops to gather their favorite games so we can tally up who our champion was. Below you’ll find the Monday crew with what looks to be a handful of Nintendo games climbing the list.
5: Grand Theft Auto V
4: Fire Emblem: Awakening
3: Animal Crossing: New Leaf
2: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
1 : Super Mario 3D World
When I wasn’t using my 3DS, I was probably playing Grand Theft Auto V, even though I haven’t actually beaten it, mostly because I just spent so much time doing everything else but the main story missions half the time. It was a violent and great time, but the rest of my year really belonged to Nintendo. Fire Emblem: Awakening ushered in my love of the 3DS as being one of my first titles for the handheld, and still one of the best 70+ hours I’ve spent with a game. Animal Crossing: New Leaf was on another plane of existence for a long while. I’m still not entirely sure how I spent over 160 hours with that game, but I did, and it was incredible. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, however, grabbed hold of me and held me like a dear lover as one of the greatest Zelda games to date, if not the best.
At last, I received a Wii U and Super Mario 3D World, and I can now never look back. One of my best friends and I have spent three all-nighters just playing the hell out of it, one of which we had to stop only when we saw that the sun was rising; it’s that incredible. I know there’s a lot of Nintendo games in my Top 5, but that’s only because they were so on top of their game this year. Now that the Wii U is only just getting started, they’ll likely steal my heart for 2014 just as well.
5: Injustice: Gods Among Us
4: Batman: Arkham Origins
3: Pokemon X/Y
2: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
1 : Tales of Xillia
This year was great. I love pirates, Pokemon, superheroes, and JRPGs so it honestly wasn’t too hard for my favorite games to stand out. All the same, this was the year where I explored more genres that I hadn’t really familiarized myself with. Because of it, I was able to enjoy such games as Assassin’s Creed and Batman: Arkham Origins which are more on the stealthy side. Pokemon has been a mainstay in my gaming arsenal for ages so you can only imagine my excitement with the transition to 3D.
I have to give it to Tales of Xillia because if there’s anything I love in gaming, it’s characters and character development. I know I teared up playing through that. A mix between fully developed characters and the fun, addictive combat that the Tales franchise is known for put it at the top of my list. Here’s to hoping 2014 has bigger and better things in store!
5: The Wolf Among Us
4: Gone Home
3: Grand Theft Auto V
2: Animal Crossing: New Leaf
1 : Pokemon X/Y
I’m really bad at picking favorites. Like really bad. I did my best to look back at 2013 and pick the top 5 games that made an impression on me. Pokemon X/Y and Animal Crossing: New Leaf, both for the 3DS, are right up top for this year. I’m a fool for anything nostalgic. These two titles took my nostalgia and appeased every desire it had ever had by expanding the things I loved as a child into their ultimate forms. Both games were stellar improvements on a series that had already stood the test of time. Grand Theft Auto V is up at number 3, mainly because of Grand Theft Auto Online. Despite its bumps, the online was fun as hell. Any game that lets me enjoy some open world insanity with my friends across the country deserves a GOTY award.
Finally, Gone Home and The Wolf Among Us satisfied my itch for quality narrative experiences in video games. Both of these games pulled me into a new world and had me experiencing the thrills of the story right along with the main characters. All together, 2013 did a great job at giving me a taste of everything I love about games.
5: State of Decay
4: Anodyne
3: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
2: The Last of Us
1 : BioShock Infinite
Some years it is really difficult to choose a personal Game of the Year. This is one of them. My first and second place competitors are without a doubt the winners of this year in my opinion. Both take on very similar concepts and both execute them with amazing precision. BioShock Infinite edged The Last of Us on overall execution, but man was it a hard choice. I want to applaud both games and their developers for crafting something amazing.
The rest of the list all supplied a surprising bit of fun for me, and for that reason alone they sit on my list. Anodyne was able to capture my sense of nostalgia for the first time in years and Ni No Kuni was just a great JRPG on a console. Something rarely seen these days. While State of Decay is no Grand Theft Auto, sometimes you just want to mow through a mass of the undead in a hot hatchback without worrying about police sirens.
About the author
