This Old Neon Forum

I'll reiterate what I said at the beginning of the year, Celeste was a real standout. Even all this time later it's still one of 2018's highlights.

God of War was a great action/adventure game. The presentation was top notch, and it actually walked a fine line of not too linear and not too open.

Octopath Traveler was my standout RPG for the year. The basic premise does wear itself out - all the chapters have the same formula. But the classic meets modern mash up really worked well for this game, visuals and music getting an A+ from me.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was a great entry in the franchise, improving the core gameplay and adding a great meaty single player mode.

I could label either one of those games as my game of the year, but it's hard to place them in order. Unlike last year I don't feel I have a definitive game of the year, but several "great" titles.

Favorite game that didn't come out this year - DOOM (2016)
This one took me by surprise. Solid gameplay as expected, but I didn't expect to get hooked finding all the little secrets and completing all the challenges. Great stuff.

I was going to remove the ranking system and just mention games I really enjoyed but there's been one huge stand out.

GOTY 2018 (For now) - Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee

This game just blew me away after hating Sun/Moon I thought I had just grew out of the series but this game while far from perfect has been so good. Removing wild encounters removed a frustrating part of the game. Removing the constant handholding made me feel like I was actually going on an adventure instead of being told what to do. Also they made Shiny Hunting and getting Competitive Pokemon so much easier something that was extremely difficult and time consuming in past games. The catching mechanic doesn't suck as much as I'd thought but I hope it's gone in the 2019 game but pokemon 100% need to stay in the overworld. The post game content doesn't really exist but the fact they made Shiny/IV hunting so enjoyable has made post game better than it really should be. I haven't played much from 2018 so this maybe change but it's far a beyond better than GoW for me and any of the Indie gems I played.

Yet to play

• Celeste
• Unravel Two
• Spider-man
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Hollow Knight
• Mega Man 11
• Pode

Best non 2018 game I played this year.
Can't pick a clear winner so tiering system it is.
Tier 1
Fable Anniversary
Mad Max
Mirror's Edge Catalyst
Rayman Legends
Super Metroid
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Tier 2
Super Lucky's Tale
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
Littlebigplanet Vita
Knack
Crash Bandicoot (1) HD
Super Mario 3D World
Skate 3
Shovel Knight
Pokemon Platinum
Super Meat Boy
God of War

Biggest disappointment of 2018.
Nintendo Online

Oh boy was this a mess a hot messy mess. I have issues with connecting to pokemon (but this may be my net) but regardless Smash needs a Ethernet Adapter to work which is a $30 add on after paying $20 upfront. The NES lineup is a joke and nothings been improved. Cloud save for some games but not all is just stupid. Nintendo had an excuse for terrible online as it was free now it's just bleh. The whole marketing behind it was awful too. I think the whole free for 6 months idea just blew up in their face. They should have had the Online from the start and given away 6 months (or 12 months) for free with every purchase so people 100% knew it was free forever. This alone really has shown to me that Nintendo isn't back and are just riding off a good launch title and a good system idea. Everyone in 2017 was saying Nintendos back but this years really shown they still make the simplest of mistakes.

Really hoping the switches success doesn't show other companies that games are all the matter and that launching a half finished console with good games can work as I really want a good PS5/Xbox Gen 9