Sunset Overdrive

Despite launching in 2014 as an Xbox One exclusive (eventually arriving for PC), Insomniac Games’ Sunset Overdrive is still a classic that deserves more recognition. Its humor may not be for everyone, but the bombastic style and presentation, over-the-top combat and fluid movement, which would go on to inspire Marvel’s Spider-Man, all combine seamlessly. Coupled with an open-world playground littered with stuff to do and a compelling story, it’s a shame that more people didn’t play it.

Prey

Arkane Austin is dragged for Redfall, rightfully given its quality, but also because of its previous effort, Prey. As a reboot of the Human Head Studios’ FPS, it’s an immersive sim with a unique sci-fi setting and moral consequences from the perspective of one Morgan Yu, stuck on the Talos 1 station. Unfortunately, despite its well-designed environments, nuanced gameplay and frighteningly intelligent Typhon enemies, it failed to really make an impact sales-wise. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the genre’s best.

The Evil Within 2

You have to give credit to Tango Gameworks. Following the reception to The Evil Within, it returned to the drawing board and crafted a sequel superior in almost every way. Better graphics, more memorable sequences and terrifying scares, vastly improved gameplay and a story continuation that made us care more about protagonist Sebastian Castellanos and his family. Of course, as the story goes, it saw underwhelming sales and faded into the background. On the bright side, at least the developer bounced back and saw massive success with Hi-Fi Rush.

Days Gone

Bend Studio’s Days Gone is an interesting case – it sold millions, but many never tried it out until it came to PC and was offered free on PlayStation Plus. Its critical reception also left much to be desired, especially considering the high bar of PlayStation exclusives. Those who gave it a chance found a compelling open-world zombie shooter with interesting activities and an intriguing protagonist (despite some horrendous writing in sections). Fans still lament what could have been following reports of a proposed sequel being canned.

Nex Machina

Nex Machina is the final hurrah to Housemarque’s arcade shoot ’em ups and bullet hell titles (or so we thought at the time). A twin-stick shooter that combined elements from Robotron and Smash TV, even bringing on original designer Eugene Jarvis as a creative consultant, it offered gorgeous voxel graphics and fast-paced, intense action. Critics may have embraced it, but the sales said otherwise, leading to Housemarque famously stating that “Arcade is dead.” Fortunately, it didn’t stray far from its roots when it delivered the acclaimed Returnal for PS5.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

With all the high-profile exclusives on the GameCube, from Metroid Prime to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, it’s a miracle that various third-party titles stood out. Silicon Knights’ Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem sadly wasn’t quite there, despite combining a long-running horror saga with multiple protagonists with an innovative Sanity system that messed with player perception in a fourth-wall-breaking fashion. Even with rave reviews for its story, mechanics and scares, it never received as much attention as the genre’s greats. Hopes for a sequel were buried long ago, but when it comes to compelling horror stories in video games, Eternal Darkness is still one of the greats.

Oxenfree

All these years later, and even with a sequel, the original Oxenfree remains as compelling and unique as ever. The story of Alex, who ventures to Edwards Island with her friends, alternates between teen drama and compelling supernatural mystery with incredibly well-written dialogue. Even better is the dynamic dialogue, allowing one to respond however they wish, leading to different results (and endings). Memorable stories come and go in the games industry, but Oxenfree’s deserves to be highlighted more.

Jusant

In this era of climbing games, where many emphasize the difficulty and frustration that comes from falling down on all that you’ve ever known, DON’T NOD’s Jusant hits differently. Despite its post-environmental disaster world, it offers a relaxing and meditative vibe as you scale a mysterious rock and attempt to piece together the history of its residents. With responsive controls and interesting platforming challenges that never get frustrating, Jusant is a remarkably chilled-out time.

Stories Untold

You probably heard of No Code for their work on the upcoming Silent Hill: Townfall, but horror adventure Stories Untold remains their most memorable work. It’s a surreal experience, seemingly starting as a series of standalone episodes before connecting incredibly. With unorthodox mechanics, including the player playing someone playing an old-school PC adventure game, Stories Untold is unlike anything else out there.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

Falcom’s Kiseki series has always been considered an RPG series with a lower budget, but it made for it with strong characters and writing. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky exemplified this best, introducing us to a fantasy world with airships and magic (but in a more grounded fashion). As Estelle Bright, players embark on a journey to become a full-fledged bracer, joined by Joshua and encountering all kinds of characters and occurrences along the way. Despite a slow start, the first game offers an amazingly realized world, a solid battle system with challenging fights, and an incredible soundtrack that’s still memorable

Mad Max

Another post-apocalyptic open-world title that didn’t quite land with several critics, Mad Max was still a strong adaptation of the source material. Players scoured the wasteland, engaging in vehicular battles while scavenging for parts, but ventured on foot to interact with various survivors and infiltrate strongholds for some solid beat ’em up action. Despite how monotonous the environments could get, it was still worth checking out for fans.

CrossCode

With its 16-bit style visuals and addictive hack-and-slash combat, CrossCode is already one of the best action RPGs few have ever played. However, it also offers a massive world with dozens of hours of gameplay, a great story that plays with established MMO tropes, and one of the more well-written protagonists out there. Coupled with a fantastic soundtrack, it’s a wonder that CrossCode doesn’t have more players.

Tacoma

Gone Home from Fullbright understandably isn’t for everyone, but Tacoma, a sci-fi title focused on rewinding and reviewing conversations in an abandoned space station, is definitely worth checking out. The conversations in question occur via Augmented Reality, leading to the exploration of different spaces at different times of the recording to piece together what happened. It’s an engrossing mystery and a solid adventure title that deserves more attention.

Vanquish

While everyone talks about Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising and NieR: Automata, PlatinumGames’ Vanquish is nearly forgotten. It’s a shame because despite the corny story and voice acting, it offered a new take on cover-based shooting, with rocket-powered sliding encouraging one to reposition quickly. Slow-mo allowed for more precise shooting while memorable boss fights and scenarios added some style to the proceedings.

As Dusk Falls

Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger, and some parts could have been better, but as a narrative title about two families inspired by the likes of Fargo, As Dusk Falls is an intriguing adventure from INTERIOR/NIGHT. Players make decisions at different moments, causing the plot to branch extensively, and every little choice and QTE has an impact. With solid acting and writing, its story is begging for a continuation and an expansion of the unique presentation.

Nex Machina

Housemarque, better known for the arcade shooter Resogun, released an arguably superior follow-up in Nex Machina. The latter is more of a top-down shooter akin to Robotron and Smash TV, and had Eugene Jarvis – who designed both – as a consultant. The result was an intense, action-packed arcade title with heaps of particle effects, great bosses and excellent areas. Unfortunately, Nex Machina and Housemarque’s other arcade title Matterfall reaped so little success that the developer proclaimed the arcade genre dead and focused on more mainstream genres.

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero was the first word in rhythm-based games when it first rolled around. Though mass appeal helped it to achieve great success, actually trying to get good at the game was a task. Mastering the basic controls? No problem. Trying to advance up the ladder and surpass some of the tougher songs, especially Through the Fire and The Flames? It’s definitely not for everyone. Regardless, Guitar Hero was a fun era in gaming.

Housemarque is a team known for their dedication to the arcade genre with games such as Matterfall and Nex Machina. However, the company had stated in a blog post last year that they would work on new genres since their games weren’t selling well despite receiving critical acclaim. Now, they’ve announced their new project called Stormdivers and it will be a multiplayer-centric experience. An announcement trailer has also been released for the game.

The game has been in development for 2 years now and is made using the Unreal Engine along with the studio’s own VFX engine, and powered by Amazon’s Game Tech Server. In the announcement trailer, we don’t get to see what the game itself will be like and the developer has stated that the game will “remain in a slight shroud of mystery.” Still, the visuals are interesting and it should be exciting to see what Housemarque is capable of outside of the arcade genre.

You can check out the announcement trailer below. If this looks interested to you, you can read more about the game on the official blog.

Persona 5

The Acid Jazz infused soundtrack and moving manga art style that so flawlessly defines the world of Persona 5 is only really half of the charm of the game. Broken down into a day by day system where you balance the high school life of the protagonist with his secret double life as a demon slaying Phantom Thief takes on a compulsive quality thanks to the charming characters and great story. Once you’ve said you’ll just play for another day to make sure you pass school midterms and suddenly it’s 2AM, you’ve gone another in game month and cleared a dungeon? You’ve never seen it coming.

Nominees:

Hollow Knight

Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight doesn’t break much new ground. However, with its gorgeous art-style, stellar combat, massive and mysterious storyline and excellent environment design, it’s one of the finest Metroidvania titles ever. The aesthetic will immediately grab you before pulling you under into a dark fantasy world full of adorable (and deadly) insects. No matter which platform you’re on, Hollow Knight must be experienced.

Paradigm

Something is up in Krusz, an Eastern European country with mutants and genetically modified sloths. The game centres around Paradigm, a cast-away mutant who develops a love for electronic music before having to save the world. It’s bizarre, sure, but Paradigm is also memorable, embodying a retro future aesthetic and world design that’s best described as “Pixar meets Fallout”.

Cuphead

Fleischer-style animation meets swing music across a range of devilishly tough bosses and stages. Studio MDHR’s Cuphead is simply a triumph in visual design, embodying the 1940s seamlessly into its gameplay while presenting a unique platforming shooter for old and new school fans alike. It’s difficulty might push some people to the edge but if you stick with it, Cuphead is immensely satisfying.

SteamWorld Dig 2

Instead of the randomly generated areas of the first game, SteamWorld Dig 2 takes a decidedly more Metroidvania approach. As Dorothy, players are tasked with finding Rusty, the protagonist of the first game. That means digging through rocks, harvesting minerals, purchasing upgrades and solving the mystery of all these darn earthquakes. SteamWorld Dig 2 packs charm, enough freedom to make your own path and tons of challenges for the Metroidvania fans among us.

Statik

What happens when you’re tasked with solving puzzles in virtual reality? It sounds innocuous enough but Statik places a box around your hands, challenging you to figure out which button corresponds to which mechanic. There’s an intriguing story in the background, which also serves to provide hints to the puzzles, but Statik otherwise uses its VR premise to immerse you in a strange, hostile world with plenty of intrigue.

Night in the Woods

A talking cat traversing a nightmarish landscape while asleep and trying to make sense of her life while awake – that’s only the beginning of the rabbit hole that is Night in the Woods. This side-scrolling adventure game set in the town of Possum Springs sees protagonist Mei returning from college and trying to make sense of, well, life in general. Despite its relatively slow pacing, Night in the Woods scores with its aesthetic, quality of dialogue and strong character interactions. Greg rules, okay?

Nex Machina

Housemarque’s Nex Machina: Death Machine could be described as part Smash TV, part Robotron, three-fourths of a frantic action game and all arcade. It imbibes the spirit of old-school shoot ’em ups with a variety of weapons, screens full of enemies and a dash mechanic that adds some much needed mobility to the action. With its neon aesthetic and addictive gameplay bent, Nex Machina will eat up many, many hours of your life.

Thimbleweed Park

A dead body has turned up in Thimbleweed Park and two agents are on the case. But there’s a clown running about, a game developer torn between ambition and family, ghosts and much more swimming in the background. What is going on? A grand adventure from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, the legendary developers behind Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, that’s what. Come for the old-school visuals and stay for the laughs in this bizarre yet compelling puzzle adventure.

What Remains of Edith Finch

A great narrative in today’s world, especially in the realm of gaming, is tough. What Remains of Edith Finch makes it look easy, floating seamlessly from one perspective to the next, exploring lives across time and space. The narrative style is simply breath-taking; the aesthetic is one of the year’s best; and the story will affect you in more ways than one. Needless to say, go in blind and be ready for an incredible experience.

Far From Noise

Games that focus purely on dialogue aren’t uncommon in the indie space and few are as effective with it as Far From Noise. Set on a cliff with two characters trapped in a car, a discussion begins about the nature of life, the likelihood of death and making peace with one’s self until the end. It’s involving, interesting and worth a look, especially if you’re up for a casual playthrough about life, the universe and everything.

Winner: Cuphead

When recommending Cuphead, we often fall back on the fact that despite not being for everyone, this is a game that everyone should play. Cuphead isn’t just a beautifully animated, imaginative title filled with heaps of awesome boss fights. It’s not just tribute to the 1940s style of cartoon making or the swing music that influenced countless legends. The game itself is a glowing return to the days of run and gun platformers that tested your wit, reflexes, muscle memory and most importantly, your attention to detail. Forget about being the Dark Souls of platformers – Cuphead is a love letter to fans of Mega Man and Mega Man Zero, proving that run and gun gameplay with a fairly high skill ceiling is still an experience unlike any other in today’s industry.

Cuphead is delightful in that its very aesthetic invites players in while the compelling gameplay keeps pushing them forward. It’s a heady, addictive mix and even with a difficulty that prevents most people from immediately picking it up, Cuphead is subliminally impactful and wonderfully charming. It may not be reinvent the wheel as far as action platformers go but in terms of visual design, production, presentation and setting, Cuphead can’t be missed.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

NOMINEES

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy: 

Naughty Dog’s follow up to Uncharted 4 was better than it had any right to be. Freed from the shackles of following Drake’s increasing emotional baggage, the new game instead follows Nadine and Chloe on their adventures through the Western Ghats in India, delivering a short, snappy, and well paced and fun adventure that took on the best qualities of Uncharted 4’s gameplay to deliver one of the standout games of the year.

Cuphead: 

Truly the Dark Souls of shooters—and we don’t mean that as a joke. This side scrolling run and gun game is exacting and brutally difficult, relying on pattern recognition, and all too eager to punish sloppy players. Cuphead is a marvel- the gorgeous art is probably what will catch your eye at first, but it will be the incredible gunplay and the thrill of conquering a hard boss that will keep you playing for days to come.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands: 

GTA with friends- that’s the pitch of Wildlands, which puts you in an open world reimagining of Bolivia, and lets you buddy up with friends for all sorts of co-op mayhem. Mechanically, Wildlands is sound, if unremarkable—but it is the life it takes on when played with friends that makes it stand out. Throw in exceptional post launch support, such as the newly added PvP mode, and this is doubtless one game we will be talking about for a while to come.

Call of Duty WW2: 

After a few off years, Call of duty roared back into form this year, returning to its World War 2 roots and reminding us all why we fell in love with this franchise to begin with. Featuring a cinematic, thrilling campaign, combined with an excellent multiplayer offering with some truly forward thinking ideas, Call of Duty: WW2 is without a doubt one of the best shooters of 2017.

Destiny 2:

Bungie’s follow up to their troubled shared world shooter is flawed, but its flaws only grate more because of how sound the core offering is. Destiny 2 retains the fun gunplay and addictive systemization of the original game, while also removing a lot of the fluff that plagued the original game, and layering on an actual meaningful campaign. It still has a way to go, and Bungie has recently announced updates to the game to fix it and make it more compelling for series veterans—but that only cements our love for the game even more.

Wolfensien II – The New Colossus:

Bethesda and MachineGames followed up on the 2014’s Wolfenstein with The New Colossus, and the new title lives up to the legacy of the original game. Creating a terrifyingly realized rendition of an alternate history in which the Nazis won, and pairing it with some high octane action, Wolfenstein 2 is a gloriously fun shooter which has something meaningful to say—something that is increasingly rare in today’s day and age.

Splatoon 2: 

Nintendo’s follow up to their hit Wii U multiplayer shooter takes everything that was great about the original, and delivers it as is on the Nintendo Switch—but it adds some twists of its own. Whether via way of minor quality of life improvements, or the excellent Salmon Run co-op horde mode, or a great new campaign, or the amazing post launch support which has continued to add hundreds of new weapons, gear pieces, and many new maps—all for free, Splatoon 2 is a compelling, addictive shooter that remains one of the definitive experiences on the Switch.

Metroid: Samus Returns: 

Metroid Prime 4 may be a way away, but Nintendo brought back Samus Aran in a big way with the fittingly titled Samus Returns, a remake of Metroid 2: Return of Samus for the Nintendo 3DS. More a reimagining in the framework of the older game than a remake, Samus Returns reminds us of why the Metroid franchise was so great and beloved to begin with, by sidestepping the loss of focus and vision that had plagued the last few entires in the series, and delivering a pure, compelling Metroid adventure—and one of the best shooters of the year.

Sniper Elite 4: 

The long running fan favorite Sniper Elite 4 returned for its fourth outing this year, and delivered the best entry in the series yet. Adding in the scope for emergent dynamism from something like The Phantom Pain with the excellent gunplay and stealth the Sniper Elite series has always been known for, this is one game that deserves all the love and recognition that it can get- because warts and all, it is truly unique and compelling.

Nex Machina:

Nex Machina will be HouseMarque’s last arcade twin stick shooter, but what a way it is to sign off. Taking the same formula that made Resogun, Alienation, and Dead Nation so bloody compelling and thrilling, HouseMarque has delivered a frenetic, frantic shooter that demands a kind of mastery of the game’s rhythm that you can only get by relentless practice—truly in the tradition of old arcade games. It is not a stretch to say that New Machina is one of the best games of the year on the PS4—and that really is saying something.

Prey: 

Arkane Studios’ incredible reboot of the Prey IP delivers a haunting immersive-sim of the kin that we have not seen in over a decade. Prey is a game with an amazing atmosphere, incredible combat, and oodles of depth and emergence, so that no two players will ever have the same experience. It is Arkane’s masterpiece. 

Resident Evil 7: 

Capcom revived the Resident Evil franchise in a big way with Resident Evil 7, which, eschewing the third person viewpoint that the series has held, and indeed helped popularize, for years for a first person one, returned to the kind of thrills and horror that made the series os beloved to begin with. Resident Evil 7 delivered psychological horror and gory action in equal measure, and became one of the best games ever in a series that is known for having some of the greatest titles of all time.

Day of Infamy:

Before Call of Duty: WW2 brought World War 2 shooters back into the mainstream, New World Interacitve’s Day of Infamy had already delivered Day of Infamy, a fantastic multiplayer World War 2 shooter that challenges players by taking away their HUD, crosshairs, maps, and in many cases, even respawns—how you do and survive in Day of Infamy will come down to how well you play, and how well your team is coordinated. It’s really different, in a sea of increasingly homogenized shooters.

Get Even: 

Get Even is a hugely flawed game- there is no setting around it. And yet, for all of that, there is also no getting around how good it manages to be regardless. Whether it is because of its tense horror or incredible atmosphere, or the highly frantic combat situations that it puts players in, Get Even is an unpolished gem that we really hope gets a follow up so it cane tap into its full potential.

DOOM (Switch): 

DOOM gets nominated for this category for the second year straight, thanks to the Nintendo Switch port- which is a technical marvel. To get DOOM running on a 6.2 inch tablet is in and of itself a feat- but to have that compelling, fast paced action with labyrinthine level design that made us all fall in love with DOOM last year to begin with, and pair it with the instant pick up and play nature of the Switch, elevates the experience beyond whatever knocks the degraded graphics have.

And as for the WINNER:

Prey: 

Think of Prey as the Breath of the Wild of shooters—it is emergent, dynamic, and reactive to the player and their actions. If you think it, chances are you can do it. This potent gameplay formula, mixed with a haunting atmosphere that is almost second to none, a stunning art style, and a minimalist story that will actively make you uncomfortable, makes Prey the standout shooter of 2017.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

Housemarque is renowned for its arcade shooters, garnering tons of critical acclaim for Resogun at the PS4’s launch and once again with the recent Nex Machina. However, poor sales for its games overall has caused the company to work on something “totally different”. To that end, it will no longer be making arcade games.

In an official blog post titled “Arcade is dead”, Housemarque CEO Ilari Kuittinen talks about how the studio’s games have not been selling well despite strong critical acclaim and various awards. “Our games have received great critical reception over the years, perhaps the best example being Nex Machina. However despite critical success and numerous awards, our games just haven’t sold in significant numbers.

“While some of them have reached a massive audience due to free game offerings across various digital sales channels, this unfortunately doesn’t help pay for development, which gets costly for high production quality.

“Lackluster sales of Nex Machina have led us to the thinking that it is time to bring our longstanding commitment to the arcade genre to an end. While this genre will always hold a special place in our hearts, the industry is moving more toward multiplayer experiences with strong, robust communities, and it’s time for Housemarque to move forward with the industry.” Nex Machina and Matterfall will be the last arcade titles to come from the studio.

This doesn’t mean that the developer is in a crisis or anything (that we know of). It’s simply going to focus on creating other “enjoyable and memorable gaming experiences” while also developing a good work environment for its employees. Though its next project will be completely different, Housemarque thinks that it will help create “even more engaging gaming experiences.”

What could Housemarque’s next game be and when can we expect it? What are your thoughts on no more arcade titles from the storied developer? Let us know in the comments below.

With both games being available, we spoke to Mikael Haveri, Head of Publishing at Housemarque about their thoughts on the development process.

"We settled on Robotron as a fundamental influence quite early, but it wasn’t where we started off."

Nex Machina has garnered a huge amount of critical acclaim since release. What are your thoughts on the game’s success thus far?

Great reviews are always letting you know that you did do things right and all is not for naught. It does warm the heart. We are seeing a lot of good players enjoy the game everyday, maybe next we need to think if we can reach wider audiences also.

What was it like having Eugene Jarvis as creative consultant? How did he help shape the overall game?

He is an insane genius of a man, just a pleasure to be around. He has had a huge impact on our titles over the years, so now that we got to just work with him felt like the circle was closing. It was more about us showing him the things we’ve learned and how we took things forward, rather than us as a tag team trying to take on the world.

Was there any concern that Nex Machina would be too much like Robotron 2084 and not have its own identity?

Never. We settled on Robotron as a fundamental influence quite early, but it wasn’t where we started off. There was a lot of deliberation about different genres even, but this just felt the most natural.

How has progress been from players when it comes to discovering the secrets? Are there any particular secrets they’ve yet to discover?

There are so many secrets in the game that it’s hard to say if all have been discovered. Likely yes, by a group of gamer, but maybe not by a single player. The reason being that our secrets are actually very essential to getting better in the game, so they are meant to be found. No use in making it almost impossible to unlock a path to a level as then who would use it on their highscore runs, right?

"We are glad to have the luxury of working on a title until it is done, but rarely do we extend that luxury to wait until the market is ready for it."

What can you tell us about the boss design, especially with how each boss operates differently?

All the bosses have clear inspirations from either the classics or some of our of catalogue. In the end, variety in design is what makes a boss fight, it gives them personality and makes the player want to conquer them with new tactics. We tried to put our best effort forward and there will be some pretty awesome moments for those who will have the patience to learn all of them.

How does Matterfall differ in comparison to some of your other titles?

It’s somewhat closest to Outland due to the camera perspective and in other ways closest to Nex Machina. It’s a lot of fun. If you liked Gunstar Heroes, Turrican and even Mega Man, then you’ll appreciate what we did with Matterfall.

Is there a reason you released two of your biggest games so close to each other? Nex Machina came out recently and was a critical success. Why not wait a bit for Matterfall?

There really isn’t a magic formula for releasing titles for a company that’s our size. We are glad to have the luxury of working on a title until it is done, but rarely do we extend that luxury to wait until the market is ready for it.

What post-launch updates can we expect for the game? Will you consider paid DLC in the future?

We have nothing to announce at this point.

"We’ve done two pretty big Snowboarding games and many others, so I’m sure we’ve thought of all kinds of things."

Will there be online co-op at some point in the future?

We have nothing to announce at this point.

Housemarque has been renowned for its shooters for years now. Have you ever thought about branching off into other genres?

We’ve done two pretty big Snowboarding games and many others, so I’m sure we’ve thought of all kinds of things.

Is Matterfall running at native 4K and 60fps at all times on the PS4 Pro?

It’s running at 1080p and ~60fps.

What is the resolution and fps on the base PS4?

It’s running at 900p and ~60fps.