MadCap's Game Reviews - "The Best Games of 2015"

Well, I was going to do this last week, but I'm afraid the first week of my current college semester had happened. Yay. Plus side, I might do something crazy like actual reviews coming shortly...and in a new format, if I can help it. For now, however, let's have a look back at 2015 and the Top 5 best games of that year.

Why Top 5? Because my worst list only warranted 5 and I don't want to clean out my entire writing area from all the bile that shoots out when I review something positive. So, without further adieu or confusion about my current worrying medical condition, here's the cream of the crop out of things I've reviewed this year.

5. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Review is here

An oldie, but a goodie, this one remains one of my favorites from childhood and it holds up just as well as it did back in the day. It's a classic on the SNES and with good reason. The Yoshis and their trials and tribulations to return a small Italian baby to his family is epic and grand and given the traditional charm that one expects from a Nintendo game. Platforming goodness mixed with eating your enemies and pooping them out as projectiles (which are launched with an admittedly dodgy firing mechanic). There's nothing not to love, and it stands for me personally as one of the first games I've ever played with any seriousness and determination in terms of  working to see the actual ending, so I admit I do look back on it with no small amount of fondness, but it really stands up well on its own as a classic.

Really.

4. Shadows of Mordor

Review is here

Yes, I critiqued this game heavily for giving us boring generic space marine ranger #4077 with his tragic backstory of the dead family and having his essence fused with an elven wraith. Yes, I raged about the ridiculous amount of loading times even if they weren't particularly long due to the fact they weren't showing things of enough quality or magnitude every time my character coughed. But what this game absolutely excelled at was the insanely visceral feel of the combat. Ranger McFrownypants had been taking lessons from the Batman: Arkham Asylum school of how to be a complete and utter badass and they showed their work in the best possible way.  Given my usual preference for story over the spectacle of game mechanics, Shadows of Mordor stands as a rare anomaly where the combat and mechanics are actually far more exciting to me than anything the story itself brought up.

3. Crazy Taxi

Review is here

I can hear you now. "Madcap, you complete and utter insane asylum MVP! A driving game made your top 5 list?!" That's right, readers and I can hear your minds being blown from here. Yes, I really did enjoy Crazy Taxi and I made it as such clear in my review. The game gives you the right amount of freedom, but also restricts you within reasonable means. Your taxi is indestructible, but you're still bound by at least some laws of physics (however flimsy) that allow you to perform insane trick stunts and allow you to go about however you decide to do so through Not-San Francisco chalking up points and that sweet, sweet cash. To say this game is a treasure is underselling it, it's pure...well, crazy fun.

2. Dragon Age: Inquisition

Review is here

Bringing back the feel of Dragon Age: Origins would have been a difficult task for any game developer, but Bioware was not one to quit after their second entry and the series that really would have been a spin-off if not for the ending, and brought us Dragon Age: Inquisition, which did even more by upping the stakes from the original and giving us an apocalyptic quest with heavy weight to it all. A gold star to Bioware and a shame to EA for their ridiculous business practices in not releasing the DLC to Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 players.

...of course, I say this having gotten the GOTY edition for new Playstation 4. Just when I think I'm out...

And the number one game of 2015 is...
Drum roll, please!

...
1. Far Cry 4

Review is here

...I am riding on an elephant...firing a machine gun.

There is nothing else you need to know about this game. Go and play it.

No, no. Not me play. U-Play. I mean, wait, no! Don't...don't do that.

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