Josh Jackson’s Favorite Games Of 2016 (So Far)!

Can you believe that 2016 is coming to a close? In just a few days, we’ll abolish that dreaded six for ten more years, and a cool, clean, sexy seven will take its place.

2016 has been an incredible year for everything aside from presidential candidates and celebrity deaths, so as always, we wanted to share our favourite games, movies, moments and more of 2016.

We’ve seen Adam’s favorite things and MCDave’s favorite films, and now it’s Josh Jackson’s turn. No, his yearly list of Waifus isn’t ready quite yet (read last year’s list again to tide you over), but here are his top games of the past year.

5. Pokemon Go

No, Pokemon Go isn’t the best game out there. Hell, a better Pokemon game came within the same year with Pokemon Sun and Moon! But the reason why the popular mobile game ranks so high with me was because of its ability to encompass what a mobile game could be, offering players around the world the chance to bring Pokemon into the real world, complete with plenty of incentives to have us socialize, explore our environment and go outside for all those hatched eggs.

Not to mention that this game was a global phenomenon that thrust Pokemon into the mainstream for the first time in years, When the games that I ranked higher than this one come and go, expect to see Pokemon Go discussed for years to come. Would anybody be surprised to see Buzzfeed using it to fill their nostalgia lists in 10 years?

4. MegaDimension Neptunia VII (Review Here)

Despite what the many Neptunia releases on PS Vita may suggest, the fourth main entry in the RPG series saw its debut on the PS4 and Steam after a three year gap since its predecessor was released. The lighthearted parody of the game industry returned in full force, telling the story of the death of Sega as a hardware publisher using cute anime girls, all while forcing Neptune to share the spotlight with the rest of the CPU’s, Newcomers like Gold Third, the embodiment of the top four third party Japanese developers and ms. Dreamcast herself, Uzume, to round out the cast, there was plenty of humor and insider references to keep me playing for hours on end.

But while the humor still carries the narrative, I consider VII to be as close as you can get to a perfect sequel. The graphics and framerate received a noticeable upgrade. The game play stayed true to its roots while implementing multiple new features to make fights more dynamic. New types of battles like giant fights kept things interesting, while teamwork amongst your party played a much bigger role. It should be a no brainer, but sequels seem to have a harder time these days when it comes to differentiating themselves from the rest of the series while still feeling familiar. VII isn’t one of them.

3. Titanfall 2

What a difference a campaign makes! The original game was a fantastic display of what an online shooter can be when the developer thinks outside the box, but once the player base dried up, there was no reason to go back into your mech and do battle. Titanfall 2 fixes that with one of the best shooter campaigns I’ve ever played, complete with some of the most creative sequences I’ve played in a very long time.

Despite being as short as it is, (my first run on the hardest difficulty took about seven hours including deaths), it’s easily a story I could play through over and over again. By doing a great job of building up some interesting villains alongside the bond between you and your Titan, the story constantly keeps up with the incredible action.

Oh, and online is still fun! New abilities, a wider variety of Titans, weapons and abilities, free content updates and a variety of incentives to keep you online make it one of the better online games of 2016 as well, Inferior maps compared to the first game hold it back, but with the focus on fast movement, unique features like having the losing team evacuate while the winners hunt them down for extra EXP, and the wider array of options on the battlefield, there’s no reason why this gem should be passed up.

https://youtu.be/EXwdWuSuiYA

2. Overwatch

There was no game that I played in 2016 more than Overwatch. What started off as somewhat of an impulse buy became an obsession, racking up as many loot boxes I could grab as I took on heroes from around the world in Blizzard’s latest offering. The thought of an online only shooter may be intimidating at first, but with the wide variety of characters, each with unique abilities, (and personalities), that are sure to fit any play style, there’s sure to be a character or two for everyone.

But Overwatch’s true brilliance comes from when you explore the ins and outs of every character and start to think of playing for the benefit of your team rather than yourself. Using that clutch Ultimate that wins, (or saves), the match, hearing that rewarding sound as you accumulate a quadruple kill, or somehow holding off an entire team when you’re the only one on the objective are some of the incredible moments the game has offered throughout my many matches. As the lore opens up and the free content rolls in, it’s looking like Overwatch will be a popular choice well beyond 2016.

1. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Review Here)

There’s not much I can say that I didn’t already cover in my review, but I’ll just say this. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is the best game of 2016 and it’s not even close.

Let’s check off the list of what makes a great game for its genre:

A JRPG with endearing characters that flip their tropes on their heads, complete with excellent voice acting that had me laughing out loud constantly.
An addictive battle system that puts its own unique spin on the traditional turn based formula.
Stylized graphics and presentation that make it look incredibly unique.
The best soundtrack of the year, both because of its BGM and its full songs, most of which get the music video treatment.
Plenty of creativity, from using the Wii U game pad as your phone to send and receive text messages, to its unique spin on the Fire Emblem universe.

But in the end, its biggest strength is to balk at all the expectations that came from a crossover between a dark series like Shin Megami Tensei, and the feudal themed turn based strategy that Fire Emblem is known for. Whoever came up with the idea of taking these two universes, setting it in the modern day, and having it revolve around teenage Japanese idols was insane. They were also onto something. Because it would be easy to throw the two series’ together and make some generic mash up between the two, (much like Pokemon Conquest, a game that in some ways is this one’s predecessor). Instead, we got the best parts of both to create something brand new, all of which was executed at a level of excellence expected from Atlus and Intelligent Systems. It was a risky move, one that paid off in a big way for all those involved. Now, let’s hope it gets the spotlight it deserves with a Switch port!