Well, the year’s almost over. Most of us at OpRainfall are preparing for the holidays the only way we know how: by playing a bunch of video games we didn’t have time to get around to this past year. But as we’re looking back on 2012, we’re also looking forward to what 2013 has to offer us. Here are the top 5 games I’m looking forward to the most, in no particular order.
Boot Hill Heroes
The fact that Nintendo remains unwilling to bring Earthbound to the Virtual Console infuriates me to no end. Luckily, Experimental Gamer has taken it upon themselves to bring us an interesting alternative in the form of Boot Hill Heroes. They could’ve just copied the Earthbound formula, set it in the Wild West, and just stop there. But this game also includes 4-player local co-op. While this game doesn’t have any plans to come to the Wii U yet, the fact that something like this exists makes me incredibly happy. My only hope is that it gets the recognition it deserves.
The Cave
I love Double Fine. I love Monkey Island. I really enjoy Metroidvania style platform games. So you can probably imagine how excited I was when I saw the trailer for The Cave and learning that it was coming to the Wii U. Granted, I was going to buy the game no matter what platform it was released on. Even if the much touted platform-adventure gameplay doesn’t pan out, Ron Gilbert has repeatedly demonstrated that he knows how to make funny games. So it’s likely to at least be absolutely hilarious.
Fire Emblem: Awakening
From reading my two previous choices, you might think that I’ve become so snobbish that I’ve completely disowned the AAA market at this point. While I’m less interested in what it has to offer, that’s not to say I’m completely uninterested. For example, Fire Emblem is one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, so I’ve been pretty psyched for Fire Emblem: Awakening for a good while now. The ability to pair units in battle looks like a great addition to this strategy franchise. Plus, you can get Marth, Roy, and Ike as playable characters via DLC. What more can you ask for? Aside from some a DLC mission where some of the characters are in their swimsuits, I mean.
Barkley 2
I’ve been playing Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden recently and I’m absolutely loving it so far. It’s probably one of the funniest RPGs I’ve played in quite some time thanks to its off-the-wall insanity. It’s why I’m happy that the KickStarter for Barkley 2 has been resoundingly successful so far. The game itself is very different from the previous game in terms of gameplay, trading turn-based combat in for action-oriented 2D gunplay. I’m very interested to see how this new style of gameplay works. But more importantly, you can choose multiple genders for your main character. This is the first game I can think of that lets you be a hermaphroditic dwarf-eunich. Five out of freaking five, right there.
BioShock Infinite
Because BioShock, that’s why.
