Since I had made a looking ahead at 2022 article for games, this looking back at the year serves as a way to see what I’ve played from those I had highlighted at the beginning of it, as well as seeing if anything I had hoped for was confirmed. As ever, I’ll start with my cores then move onto everything else. Which means…
Yes, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. How could I not talk about this one? The evolution of the LEGO formula and a great Star Wars game that took players on an abridged journey across the saga. It was clear there were problems with development, especially as new stories have come out about such, which does mean there had been some impact on how things turned out. It’s still an absolutely enjoyable adventure, though. One of the best LEGO games we’ve had. One that rivals City Undercover for the top spot.
It seemed likely that Pokémon Legends: Arceus would be a fantastic experience, what with the freedom it promised, and that turned out to be true. I was lost in the world that brought the wild side out of the wild. Exploration was no longer safe as Pokémon would now attack you, with your team the only defence against them. Or it would be had you not also got items that could distract any wild Pokémon that were chasing you. It seemed like the perfect evolution. All that was missing was a full open world full of towns and secrets that could be seamlessly traversed. Well…
Come February, a Pokémon Presents arrived to outline various events happening in mobile games and announcing a free update for Legends: Arceus. Then came the surprising announcement of generation nine. Scarlet and Violet would also be arriving this year, and while these games did provide the seamless open world I’d hoped for, it had rolled back on plenty other things. No longer was the wild a danger, there seemed to be little in the way of secrets to be found. And the performance… A shocker. Oh, I still loved it, perhaps even more so than Legends, but the lack of danger in the wild was felt.
For Sonic Frontiers, I felt the environments were great for exploration. I felt the movement of Sonic was fast yet fluid. I felt it was a great start to build on. The freedom of progression was there, even if it felt like a repetitive loop with what it asked you to do. The typical Sonic platforming levels paled in comparison to those open zones. They felt optional, even, which speaks to how much of a focus they were to the overall gameplay. I enjoyed the story of it, which felt a lot more character focused rather than going for high stakes. There’s a lot to build on with future games, but that won’t be for a while with a year of extra content coming to this one, which I’ll speak of in the look ahead at 2023 article.
That Power Rangers game I keep hoping for never happened this year. I suppose there’s always next. And while I never expected a new LEGO game to release in the same year as The Skywalker Saga, I had hoped there might have been some announcement. Same as Power Rangers, there’s always next year. Test Drive Unlimited got delayed into next year, as did Park Beyond, but at least for the former there was something that could tak its place.
Need For Speed Unbound was a surprising one in that it got announced and released within three months. Three months! Every other game had been announced almost a year before release. People were expecting it to be announced around June or July, but no. The surprise announcement and close release were fine, though. The game had a fusion of realism and street art, which took a bit of getting used to. The driving is drift heavy, but fun when getting into the groove of it.
The Saints Row reboot released and proved to be a good experience. Nothing ground-breaking, but it was everything fans of the series loved. Except for the posers who had named themselves the Saints. Oh, it’s a story that has some enjoyable stuff within it, though it does speak volumes that the LARP section was the best thing about it. The game does have some problems, and while a patch has fixed some things about it, there’s no denying that this wasn’t the strong start Volition would have liked for their new Saints.
While there was no new Mario Kart game, we got the next best thing. A Booster Course Pass bringing 48 reimagined courses to the game, doubling the number of tracks in the game once it’s fully released by the end of 2023. Along with that, there’s been a few extra additions such as custom items, which is one of the things I had wanted from a new game. There’s been some favourites of mine added across these first three waves, with the city tracks of Tour being a varied bunch. But it’s still great to have them in a game that controls as great as 8 Deluxe does.
A surprise of the year for me was Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I’ve tried to get into games that use its style of combat before, such as the first game in the series, but never got far with any of them. There’s something about that style of combat – the pseudo-turn-based auto-attack combat – that has never gelled well with me. But, I decided to give it another go with Xenoblade 3. And what I found was a very enjoyable game. I still had a bit of issue with the combat, but the story was the driving force that saw me through to the end. And such a beautiful one it was.
Now, it was wishful thinking to hope that Rockstar would acknowledge the 25th anniversary of GTA with the announcement of the next in the series, but that kind of happened anyway. After they were forced to acknowledge its existence owing to the largest video game leak in history. A leak that showcased testing footage from the game that revealed location, characters, features and other details. Such a leak has spoiled the surprise when the official announcement comes, but it will still be a fantastic moment when it comes. Even if the release date isn’t until two years later.
It has been a great year for gaming. While I might have only talked of the big games and my cores, it’s also been a great year for smaller games, too. Slime Rancher 2 has provided a lovely sequel to the first, and while it an early access game, there’s plenty new things to be added with it. The same goes for Disney Dreamlight Valley, which is set to go free-to-play sometime next year. It’s been getting content updates since the early access release, with new character quests to partake in.
Then there’s the start of the Nacon Life games with Train Life. An excellent train driving simulator that Simteract have produced that has seen updates to improve the experience even after its full release from early access. While I wouldn’t say the Miraculous game is a great one, it’s still nice to see the series branching out into video games with original stories. All it needs is a sequel that brings a lot of polish and utilises the wealth of powers the series has to be a great one.
This year has been a great one. There’s been plenty to enjoy across it. Even with the few delays that has seen things I was interested in pushed into next year. But that makes 2023 all the better, as those plus games that have already been announced to be coming – such as Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – are sure to make it the best of the last five years. All of that will be talked about in the gaming look ahead to 2023 article.
Images Taken From:
Pokémon Scarlet | Original Screenshot
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Original Screenshot
