2021 Gameological Awards
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That’s right, it’s the time of year where round-up articles across the internet use that opening. If you expected more of me, I’m sorry — I only have so much creative energy and free time available! Let’s go over the awards categories and some basic guidelines I’ll be following.
Like last year, whenever possible I’ll be giving awards to games that actually released this year. I’ll offer two picks when a game from a previous release year also wins. Sometimes the award might only go to a game from a previous release year, but that’s unavoidable when you spend your time chipping away at your backlog. The categories are as follows, with blurbs explaining the more esoteric ones:
- Best Ongoing / Replayable Game
- Most Forgettable
- Unexpected Joy
- Didn’t Click Award [this award goes to games you thought you enjoyed, until you looked back on them.]
- Favorite Game Encounter [broadly, this can go to any moment that happened in gaming this year! Could be a boss fight, dialogue, or cutscene, among other things.]
- Best Art
- Best Music
- Backburner Award (A game you keep putting off until later.)
- Best Writing
- Wildcard [writer’s choice! I mean, these are all writer’s choice. But this one especially so!]
- Girlfriend Reviews Award [Named after the youtube channel, this is the game you most enjoyed watching someone else play].
- Thought-provoking Award [for the game that inspired you to write a dubious intellectual essay]
- Best DLC
- Best Multi-Player
- Backlog GOTY
- GOTY (Singleplayer)
The games I played this year are as follows:
Played & Released this year: Pokemon Snap, Chicory, Mario Golf, Psychonauts 2, Knockout City, Halo Infinite, Deltarune Ch. 2, Diablo II Resurrected, Nickelodeon All Star Brawl, Metroid Dread, AC: Happy Home Paradise DLC, Mario Party Superstars, Outriders
Played this year: Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn, Astro’s Playroom, Hades, Persona 5, Homefront: The Revolution, Darkest Dungeon, Fallout: New Vegas, Carto, Bugsnax, Paper Mario: Origami King, Worms Rumble, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Cataclysm, Dicey Dungeons
Not played but released this year: Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Sable, Game Builder Garage, Hot Wheels Unleashed, Back 4 Blood, Darkest Dungeon 2, It Takes Two
Let’s not waste any more time!
Best Ongoing / Replayable Game
Hades is an isometric hack-n-slash rogue-like with an incredible story that feels right at home in Greek Mythology. It’s difficult, and you’ll often die, but the gameplay loop is such that you get stronger after each defeat. The game rewards victory and has new dialogue way further in than you’d expect. I have technically beaten it, but even after 150 some hours in it, I haven’t heard all the dialogue. But there’s more to it than good writing — the gameplay itself is so fun and so varied that you can win in a thousand different ways. And because the gameplay loop is short (around 15–35 minutes, depending on difficulty), you’re always raring to go one more time and try something new out. I’ll probably be playing Hades as an in-between game for a long time to come.
Most Forgettable
I played a lot of games this year, some good, and some bad. I picked up Homefront: The Revolution this year for 5 bucks, because you could use cheat codes to get a broken version of Timesplitters 2. But this isn’t about Homefront, because bad games are not always forgettable. At this point, you might be wondering what game I’m talking about. Well…I’m talking ‘bout Bugsnax. Bugsnax is supposed to be like Pokemon with food, but this time you’re not a barbarian forcing your captured animals to fight each other. No, instead you
uh
feed them to the local inhabitants
Anyway, conceptually it’s not a bad game. But the game consists of a.) interviewing unlikable people with weird dialogue and b.) trying to figure out what combination of gadgets will get you the bugsnax. It’s…fine. But it did not leave an impression on me, so here you go Bugsnax. At least your jingle isn’t as forgettable as you are.
Unexpected Joy
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Cataclysm is a game I was excited to try out. It seemed like a perfect “in-between” game while I tried to figure out what to play next, and it had the added bonus of rounding out some backstory to Breath of the Wild. (Though it’s canonicity is yet to be confirmed , due to the Pandora’s box that is time travel.) But I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. My experience was definitely enhanced by my wife playing with me. Any game that my wife asks to play with me gets that bump — I’m very extroverted when it comes to gaming. The soundtrack was very good! For anyone that wanted a more straightforward Zelda soundtrack to Breath of the Wild, take this OST for a spin. The combat was fun and evolved nicely as the game progressed. Sidequests had interesting twists on the main game. I wasn’t expecting all this, but I’m sure glad I got it. Also Impa is bae.
Didn’t Click Award
I have to tread very carefully here.
I’m not saying Persona 5 is a bad game, or that I disliked it! But I absolutely did not like it as much as I wanted to. There were a few things I didn’t enjoy about Persona 5. First, it always felt like I was doing something wrong. They give you so much to do in your spare time as a high schooler, but only so much time to do it. So no matter what you feel like there’s something you could have done better. However, if you wanted to do it better you’d either have to look it up from the get-go, or you’d have to start another save file for a 150+ hour game. So the free time activities just stressed me out. Content-wise, they felt more like filler than they actually felt like they were strengthening my party. Secondly, the tutorials didn’t stop until 50 hours in. Personally, I felt like there were too many mechanics in this game, and trying to retain them all was just not feasible for me. I was overwhelmed most of the time I was playing. I loved the dungeon design and the combat mechanics (once I figured them out), and the music was also pretty great! I could go 8 years without hearing that Persona 5 battle music though. Don’t put vocals in your fight music if I’m going to be hearing it for 40% of the game. The rest of the world, brothers included, all seem to love Persona 5. I wish I could say the same.
Favorite Game Encounter
Please be patient with me. This category is going to have a lot of honorable mentions before we get to the award. As well, it will contain spoilers for the following games: Hades, Chicory, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Metroid Dread. Each paragraph will have an image header, so just skip the games you don’t want spoiled.
Hades — The first time you defeat your father and continue on to that Greek sunrise, with this music playing to greet you? I don’t need to say any more.
Chicory — I’m a sucker for bosses syncing their attacks to the music. There’s a lot of that in Chicory, and with Lena Raine’s soundtrack to back it up it always hits. Just dopamine hit after dopamine hit baby!
https://youtu.be/K5qESd1Gpw8?t=41s
Horizon: Zero Dawn — The plot in Horizon gets very good at a specific moment, and the sci-fi worldbuilding that arises after that moment is fantastically well done. But one of my favorite moments is when you finally take down a Thunderjaw. These guys are big. Taking down these futuristic dinosaurs when you’re just a determined woman with a bow and some gadgets is so empowering. It takes planning, focus, and knowledge of the terrain. And it all pays off when you see this behemoth crash down to the ground.
Metroid Dread — Metroid Dread has plenty of great encounters thanks to its wonderful world and combat design. But the final boss is just so incredibly fun. Mechanically and aesthetically, it’s the best fight in the game. Raven Beak is tough, but the more you fight him the more you get into that flow-state where your skill perfectly matches the challenge of the fight. Nothing feels better in videogames than rising to the challenge. Plus this guy frickin’ rips his own wing off. What a badass.
That’s all the honorable mentions out of the way. Now for the winner…
Ghost of Tsushima — big spoiler incoming! In the very end of the game, the final boss you fight isn’t Khotun Khan…it’s your uncle who raised you as a samurai. The themes of the story all culminate in this one fight: samurai versus ninja, tradition versus new ideas, honor versus survival at any cost. Both these characters have their flaws, and that is what makes this so interesting — you could argue for both sides. I felt Jin’s conflicted emotions during this fight, and that’s why it deserves this award.
Best Art & Visual Design
Psychonauts 2 is the most visually imaginative game this year. Other games have more unique styles, sure — you can’t go one review of Psychonauts 2 without people mentioning Tim Burton. But Psychonauts’ setting allows it to go whereever it wants to, and that leads to some ridiculously creative worlds. Tim Schafer explores themes of mental health in a way that is simultaneously goofy and deadly serious, all of which is reflected in the minds you explore. You have a man with literal inner critics; his world is set to the theme of a food competition with his friends as the judges. Another man is on an island surrounded by alcohol, cut off from others by his addiction. Each environment is so different and so perfectly suited to the character.
Backburner Award
G.K. Chesterton once said ‘There are two ways to get enough; accumulate more, or desire less.’ I want to be the latter, but with videogames I am the former — There’s a lot of games in my backlog. Hell, most people with this hobby have an extensive backlog if they have a disposable income and a reach that exceeds their grasp. This award could validly go to probably dozens of games. But I’ll be giving it to It Takes Two.
My wife enjoys gaming, but only a few games, which is fine. However, I still enjoy finding games we can play together we’ll both enjoy — some of my favorite gaming moments this year came from just playing co-op Stardew Valley with her. I’m always looking for fresh new things I can share with her. Based on reviews online and from friends, this should be a fun game to play with her. Plus the ludonarrative harmony is perfect, it’s like making couples therapy a videogame! And we’re a couple! How about that.
Best Music
Look, this blog has become overly long with honorable mentions. And if you know me, you know I could talk music for a long, long time. So just know that I’m fighting every urge within me so I can make this short but sweet. Honorable mentions are as follows!
Fallout: New Vegas — Big Iron is a banger, sure. I’m not just mentioning this for its music though, which is obviously just real-world music, but for Mr. New Vegas, whose charm oozes through the radio and makes you want to stay on the station.
Halo Infinite — more gregorian chant in videogame music please. This soundtrack is the right mix of calming, inspiring, and epic without being too on the nose. It’s entered into my list of soundtracks I listen to while I work, as its easy to focus to.
Zeta Halo by Curtis Schweitzer
Deltarune Chapter II — this one almost nabbed the award! It was a tight race between this and the winner, but considering there will be 5 more chapters to Deltarune, I’m sure it will get its due at some point. Spamton’s themes are great. I always loved the puppet song from Undertale, so any song based on that will be a bop. But I think my favorite song from Chapter II goes to the overworld theme.
And the winner is… Chicory.
Lena Raine did a great job with the Celeste soundtrack — there’s only a few video game composers I know by name, and she made an immediate impression. So when I heard she was doing the music for Chicory I became so excited. The peaceful music has natural instrumentation, but you can really tell its Lena Raine when you hear the anxious music — digital instrumentation, arpeggiating up and down, it all sounds like an evolved Celeste soundtrack. But my song of the year, from the music of the year, has to be the Sips River music. The slow build, reoccuring motifs from earlier in the soundtrack, swelling strings…ugh, it’s just all so good. I’m glad i’m not a music critic, I always fail to describe what I feel when it comes to my favorite music. Give it a listen!
Girlfriend Reviews Award
This year I was searching for the perfect Halloween game to play on Game Pass. I found Darkest Dungeon. I started it on console, but after realizing the controls just did not work I transferred to PC. That’s where it all started to shine! Well, as much as a dark Lovecraftian-nightmare game can. It really captured the Halloween spirit! Soon after playing, Darkest Dungeon II’s early access dropped, and I watched streams of it for about two weeks. Artistically it’s a gorgeous game, and the gameplay is so easy to visually particpate in. The various builds, enemy encounters, and random events make each run different. It’s all very fun, whether you’re the one playing or not.
Best Writing
For a previous release year, Hades takes the Best Writing award. This game has tons of writing and all of it is good. Relationships build, plots develop, but the best part of the writing is how they iterate on mythological ideas. Sisyphus has had a lot of time to think and is a reformed man. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is picked up after Orpheus’ fateful glance backwards. Greg Kasavin and the other writers deeply steeped themselves in the mythology and just went to the logical next step in the story.
For this year, Chicory takes it. I’ll go into more detail on that in my next award….
Game That Made Me Think
It’s rare for a game’s story to really change how I think. Obviously lots of games introduce new ideas that I’m amenable to, but not many games are able to change some of my core preconceptions. Chicory did.
It’s not something I broadcast as much as I used to, but I like to make art. There was even a time where I was discerning studying art. But I didn’t want to turn something I loved into work. There’s a lot of dissatisfaction and strife in the process of making, and oftentimes it feels like my scribbles are trash. Chicory helped change my perspective on my creative process. I related to the process of discerning what I wanted to do in life, both in my work and in my leisure. I felt the same absence of deservability, the same stresses of making, of not being satisfied with what I’ve made. And it’s really helped me overcome those feelings.
Now it feels like a success just putting pencil to paper. No matter what, even if it doesn’t turn out like it did in my head, I made something, and that something added value to the world simply because it was something I made. It will always be something I struggle with, which is entirely natural. In learning how to make art, self-criticism is how you get better. But as you progress in your skill, your scrutiny only grows. It’s important to step back and really recognize the progress you’ve made now and then. Scrutiny will get you to where you wanted to be, but it won’t make you happy when you get there.
Best Anime Scream
Hell yeah Samus, let it all out
Best DLC
I had long abandoned my island of Brandywine, and wasn’t expecting to return for a long time. The gameplay loop just wasn’t very satisfying anymore. Then Nintendo announced some DLC was coming that fixed basically all of my complaints! It’s still not the daily play it used to be for me at the beginning of the pandemic, but I find myself gravitating to it more and more whenever I want to relax. I am glad the core gameplay loop is better, but my favorite new thing to do is design homes for Happy Homes clients. It’s so aesthetically pleasing.
Best Multiplayer
I am not good at shooters. Or at least, I don’t think I am generally. But I have been playing so much Halo Infinite that I’m actually getting good at it! I think it’s hard to articulate what makes a good shooter. You want something responsive, that controls nicely, and has good gun-feel. But there’s something in the design beyond that, and Halo Infinite has that. There’s so many small details that enhance the experience. The pickups add a lot of utility to the fight — being able to grapple weapons from far away, being able to throw a grenade and then boop enemies with a repulsor into the grenade, etc. It’s incredibly well thought out, and I can’t wait to learn more as I continue to dive into it.
The backlog winner for Best Multiplayer is Ghost of Tsushima: Legends.
Squad-based survival modes are fun in many games, but usually those games are shooters. Making one for a samurai game is a great idea. The combat mechanics from the main game are already fantastic, so they didn’t need to change anything. But they did, and they improved it. It’s a great experience with the bros, and I always want one more round. Speaking of…
Backlog GOTY
It was the year of Sony in the PBnJustice household. I had a lot of PS4 titles to catch up on, so there was a lot of contention for this award. Horizon: Zero Dawn almost got it, and it would deserve it still, but in my opinion Ghost of Tsushima just barely edges it out. This game is just consistently good all around. The visuals are beautiful, the combat (as mentioned) is fun and engaging, and the story is engrossing. It’s not perfect — while the main quests are good, the sidequests could use some variety. But overall every aspect of this game is good to great. Plus my wife liked the foxes, and that covers a multitude of sins in her book.
Game of the Year
Movement and boss design in Metroid Dread were so well done. In terms of fun that could easily be the winner. The worlds in Psychonauts 2 were beyond my imagination, and the platforming and combat were both more fun than in its previous entry. But when I think back to what game impacted me the most, and how deeply it did, I think I have to give my GOTY to Chicory.
What else is there to say? This game spoke to me, deeply. The boss fights were fun. The music enhanced every moment. It was entirely unique as a game. Chicory, just like Wandersong and Celeste before it, affected me and helped me understand more about myself, and so it more than deserves this award.
Thanks for sticking around through all 800 honorable mentions. See you all next year, unless I decide to write more about Tolkien and / or videogames in the meantime!
