The irregular choice of time period is because I’m perennially two to four years behind on hardware and software. I’ve been patiently waiting for the Switch price to drop below $299, but I’m sorry to say that Nintendo’s current Super Mario 3D limited release/blatant cash grab has a decent chance of working on me.
Please also note that even within this time period, there were a few games I didn’t play:
I only experienced short periods of unemployment, so there are lots of long games I didn’t get around to (The Witcher 3), especially if people said you had to play the whole series even though one of them was bad (Mass Effect Trilogy) or they had reputations for being forbiddingly hard (the Soulsbornes)
Anything that required special equipment (Sportsfriends, probably the collection I most regret missing out on) or actually going to an arcade (Killer Queen)
All games that primarily consisted of going online to get repeatedly murdered by asshole fourteen-year-olds and people with the reaction times of asshole fourteen-year-olds (innumerable)
I’m old enough that at this point I’m mostly interested in innovation, or, failing that, something I can play on my phone. I’m sure Civilization VI is great but I wouldn’t be putting a non-trivial number of the remaining weekends of my life into it even without my newly discovered misgivings about civilization.
In the same vein, lots of Nintendo stuff because do I really want to buy a Switch to play yet another Zeldario (ans: see above)
First-person shooters (I mean I’m kind of squeamish)
Here are some games I did play and like!
1. Undertale (Toby Fox, 2015)
I finally played this in late May/early June this year, which was a hell of a time to experience a game about the power of nonviolence. It’s the rare game that uses meta elements both to enhance the storytelling and to make you think about what gaming is, instead of yelling THIS IS A META ELEMENT at you in a funny font. Well yes, obviously it does that too.
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Todd Howard/Bethesda, 2011)
Sometimes size matters. With so much Stuff to Do, a player can pick storylines and concatenate them into their own narrative, which dice nerds have told us all along is the point, or just randomly punch an old lady in the face and see if it leads to regicide. Yet the finiteness of the game has meaning too, as returns to old haunts act as madeleines. Admittedly I never encountered the specific memory trigger “hey I know that corpse, I killed him a couple of weeks ago” in Proust, but I still have three books to go.
3. Journey (Jenova Chen/Thatgamecompany, 2012)
Like D.W. Griffith or “Heartbreak Hotel,” it’s kitsch that opens up a universe of non-kitsch possibilities for its medium, and if that ever happens a bunch of sentimentalists will wonder out loud whether the kitsch uses weren’t the best after all. Fortunately, there is as yet no reason I know of to regret to inform you that the Traveler is racist.
4. Twitch Plays Pokémon Red (some Australian, me, and various others, 2014)
Good luck trying to explain this to our grandchildren. The triumph of All Terrain Venomoth! The tragedy of ABBBBBBK! Anarchy vs. democracy! Bird Jesus, the False Prophet, and other deities! The sheer sense of achievement we got from walking fifteen steps to the right after hours of failing! A special time, and perhaps the last pure moment on the Internet before, you, know, all that.
5. The World Ends with You (Tatsuya Kando/Square Enix, 2008)
At first this seems like style as substance, which would be fine, Shibuya style is eternal as the statue of Hachiko and it’s nice to have an excuse to go clothes shopping. But squint at the tiny text notes on your DS screen and you get Evangelionesque batshit upon batshit, with the potted philosophy ultimately overshadowed by the demonology.
6. Dragon Age: Origins (Dan Tudge/BioWare, 2009)
This ended up giving me a penetrating insight into the incel mentality. In between saving Ferelden from the Darkspawn I tried to have sex with anyone who showed the slightest interest and repeatedly struck out horribly, so just when I was preparing for a realm-saving act of self-sacrifice and the opportunity came to live and get laid at the expense of probably dooming the world, well, it’s not like I want to die a heroic virgin.
7. Monument Valley 1 & 2 (Neil McFarland/Ustwo, 2014-17)
Brief and beautiful, like a trip to the moon (or A Trip to the Moon.)
8. Portal 2 (Joshua Weier/Valve, 2011)
The original was tremendously innovative, and then this improves upon it in just about every way: better level design, better narrative, better jokes, the National for some reason. Now we just the final installment to see if it stands with great Valve trilogies like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead.
9. Duffton: A Shakespearean Tragedy (Clickhole Clickventures, 2015)
SALMAR: Impossible! I’ll fight you to the last!
I swear upon the moisture glistening
Upon my nice, wet body, I shall kill
Thee, Duffton. Get thee away from my sight.
Return now to your ugly castle fine,
The one that’s gorgeous and will soon be mine!
DUFFTON: C’mon! That sucks! Oh no! Fuck you! Oh shit!
I knew I forgot something when I made my poems of the decade list.
10. Ridiculous Fishing (Vlambeer, 2013)
See, you fish the fish out of the ocean, and then you shoot them. One of the most beautiful artworks of our time.
And I also liked: Super Hexagon, Frantic Frigates, Rocket League, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Duolingo, Overcooked 2, Dwarf Fortress, Threes, Dishonored, Videoball, The Last of Us, Rebuild, What Remains of Edith Finch, Jetpack Joyride, and the Kingdom Rush series.