My Top 40 Games of 2013, 30 - 21 or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Jack King-Spooner

Written By: Tyler Selig

                Welcome back to my Top 40 Games of 2013! In this here article, I’ll be giving you 30 – 21.

30: Super House of Dead Ninjas*

                Technically I believe this game came out last year, but this one is a re-release with more stuff and it was the first time I played it anyway, so I’m counting it as a 2013 game. It’s an SNES inspired – peep that name for proof – game where you descend a huge tower while gaining power-ups and whatnot. It’s not innovative, it’s just a lot of fun.

29: The Wolf Among Us Episode 1 – Faith

                I never played The Walking Dead, so I wasn’t really sure what their games are like nowadays. I had an idea, but wow, this game has a great story. It helps that the source material is apparently awesome to begin with, but even if you are like me and aren’t familiar with Fables, you know a lot of these characters anyway.

28: The Great Work

                The Great Work is a puzzle-platformer with a gorgeous art-style and wonderful mechanics. That about sums it up.

27: Moirai

                This is a short game, and to be honest it’s not even that exciting as most of it is just walking with very little to do. I don’t even want to say what ends up making it awesome, because I don’t want anything to be ruined. Play it, it’s free and it’ll take you approximately five or ten minutes anyway. You’ll at the very least get a game with a neat idea, and that counts a lot in the books of someone like myself who has been playing games for over twenty years.

26: Inventor

                If you’re a fan of any art form, you probably will find an artist that you can identify with. These are the type of people you look at and think, “This is similar to something I’d do if I had that kind of talent.” I have a couple game developers like that, and Jack King-Spooner is one of them. I love Inventor, and it’s not because it’s that much different than his other games I’ve played – you mostly just walk and press space, but there are some mini-games to play. I think his surreal visuals are some of the best he’s done. The only reason it doesn’t get higher is because short indie games don’t tend to get placed as high as full game experiences, and because as a game, it might leave a little to be desired. Not as an experience, but as a pure game.

25: Anarchy Reigns

                Anarchy Reigns came out of nowhere for me. It is multiplayer focused, and it’s a beat ‘em up. It does some interesting things with the genre and I don’t think so many people should sleep on this. Get an online community for this beast.

24: Will You Ever Return: in da hood

                Another Jack King-Spooner jam, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his weird, funny, sincere and somehow tragic trilogy. I don’t know which one is the best, but I really liked this one, obviously.

23: Killer Is Dead

                Suda51 is another game designer that I really like. If you haven’t noticed, I tend to gravitate most towards oddballs, and Suda is definitely that. Killer Is Dead has a few problems, and it’s not as good as Lollipop Chainsaw, but it’s still a weird, action-packed game with some strange, yet memorable, characters. Killer is dead.

22: Crysis 3

                Unfortunately my PC couldn’t run this, but I played it for 360 and it was another solid entry in Crysis, a first-person shooter that allows the player a little more freedom when going about their business. Plus you can go invisible.

21: Sluggish Morrs: A Delicate Time In History

                And yet another King-Spooner game. The sad thing is, if I got time to play Blues For Mittavinda that’d probably be on here too. Sluggish Morrs: A Delicate Time in History is better than Sluggish Morrs because there’s just more to it… a little more gameplay, more interesting events, everything.

                When I made this list I wasn’t aware of the extent of my man crush on King-Spooner. It’s almost creepy at this point. Make sure to tune in again tomorrow for my next ten picks, and comment below if you got something you want to say.

My Top 40 Games Of 2013 -- 40 - 31

Written By: Tyler Selig

                Well everybody, here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for – my top 40 games of 2013. I will be posting up ten every day for the next four days, so let’s have some fun with this.

40: One Way Heroics

                The Roguelike is a pretty common genre within the indie community, and I can see why because it means there’s a lot of replay value. One Way Heroics does a kind of “forced progression” where every time you take a step, the screen moves to the right a little. What this means is that you have to make choices as you play, about where to go, because you may prevent yourself from getting somewhere if you’re not careful. It’s a neat concept and one that makes One Way Heroics stand out.

39: The Showdown Effect

                There’s this game named ZP2KX that I really like, but the online community is almost non-existent because it’s just an indie game. I love the side-scrolling death matches, though. The Showdown Effect is a lot like it… I don’t think it’s as good but it’s still pretty solid and a lot of fun.

38: Sluggish Morrs

                Sluggish Morrs is a surreal indie game (one of two with the title Sluggish Morrs). It’s short and free, and I just enjoy how weird and creative it is. It’s not for everybody though.

37: The Cave

                Ron Gilbert returns with another charming, funny puzzle-platformer/adventure title. It’s a lot of fun exploring the cave because there’s real personality involved in this game and the puzzles are logical.

36: Sense

                Sense is a short game made for Ludum Dare, where you basically have to use two senses in order to get through the game. It’s a quick, yet entertaining adventure, but what sets it above is the clear sense (ha) of atmosphere. It’s not that the game is graphically impressive because it’s rather simplistic… it’s that the one song that plays as you platform is, well, fucking incredible.

35: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

                I’m a big fan of the ARPG – action-RPG to those who aren’t as cool as me – and this was a surprise for me. It’s not the best of the best, by any means, but it was a completely solid experience and a worthy addition to the ARPG canon.

34: Monaco

                I think this isn’t higher because I played it by myself. It’s a wonderful game with a great art-style and lovely music. It also has a focus on playing with other people but for some reason I flew solo. It’s still an awesome game, though.

33: Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel

                Speaking of playing with other people, I have a bias towards games that are geared towards co-op. It’s why I’ve always been a fan of the Army of Two series and think that they’re a tad underrated. They don’t do anything that new, but they’re entertaining third-person shooters. Some of the criticisms I saw levelled on this game are ridiculous though. No air guitaring? The bromance shit was always stupid anyway. It doesn’t make sense for two men to take down an entire cartel? Guess what, it’s an action video game.

32: Shadowrun: Returns

                I believe I said this in my article yesterday, but I’ll repeat it. While this isn’t as good as the SNES classic, it’s still worth playing because Shadowrun is a rich and deep universe, and this game does it justice. The fact that they give you tools to make your own is also a plus.

31: Metro: Last Light

                I skipped out on the first Metro for whatever reason, but I played this one and it’s a tense, creepy and action-packed first-person shooter. It’s really well done.

                Well that’s it for today… make sure to tune in again tomorrow for my next ten picks!