2018 was a tough year, huh? That’s a bit of an
understatement, for some. Once again, it’s time to reflect on the past 12
months. On the social end of things, life hasn’t been super simple, but on a
personal standpoint, 2018 has actually been pretty good for me. I actually
worked all year, and my modest job as a nighttime cashier is still the job I’ve
kept for the longest (I’ve had it since late March 2017 – that’s 21 months!).
In return, it has allowed me to go to conventions, travel around the province
for fun (I went to Montreal and Quebec on two separate occasions, trip I would
have never done by myself before this year). I met one of my idols (who you can
see on my “12 inspirations” list).
It hasn’t been an easy year in gaming, either. Can you
believe Metal Gear Survive was released in 2018? I haven’t played it, thank
God, but I remember Konami being so greedy as to charge 10$ for new save files
in that game. If 2017 was the year of loot boxes, 2018 was the year of greed
for a lot of companies, and it was also the year in which governments set their
foot down and condemned loot boxes… yet at least one company refused to listen.
Electronic Arts decided they would go to court for their right to profit off
their customers’ gambling addictions. And I don’t think Bethesda will ever
forget the accumulation of failures surrounding Fallout 76. That’s still very
fresh in our memories… because every week they screw something up again.
As far as Planned All Along is concerned, I am
actually quite proud of the number of games I reviewed this year. A lot of them
were smaller Steam titles, because I can condense them into Steam Packs. It’s a
change from the longer reviews that are bound to happen when I look at bigger
games, whether on Nintendo platforms, or on Steam.
Without further ado, let’s get into the lists for this
year. To start, a few stats.
Total views: 627 233
Number of review posts: 384, so only 49 since last
year.
Actual number of things reviewed this year, including
games, shows and movies: 58. Not half-bad.
Month with the most views: May 2018, with 8006 views.
Now: My 10 favorite reviews of the year!
10. The Yu-Gi-Oh! Month: I thought it was a
particularly smart idea to start with a relatively well-made How To guide to
play the card game, before jumping into the reviews of both a game that I had
wanted to review for a long time, and another I played more than possibly any
other on Steam.
9. Antagonist: You can feel in this review just how
much I enjoyed this game made on RPG Maker, how much I loved all the parody characters
and the zany plot.
8. Evoland: Yet another review in which I loved to
report on all the changes the game goes through, and the many instances of
self-deprecation about gaming.
7. Cubicle Quest: Yet another RPG Maker game that I
loved, it was definitely worth recommending, and it was worth dedicating an
entire part to.
6. Ready Player One: This long review of a divisive
movie was fun to do. I love to compare between the film and the book, and even
though the movie has a lot of the inherent flaws of the story present in the
book, it at least tries to improve on a lot of elements, which is good.
Admittedly, later articles I’ve read about it do highlight points I had
forgotten to talk about, so perhaps it’s not my best review, but you can still
enjoy it.
5. Surgeon Simulator: I felt this one had a lot of
smart jokes, in no small part thanks to the already quite silly game itself.
4. Chosen 2: As much as I love to talk about good
games, sometimes talking about bad ones can be quite enjoyable, and I really
wanted to close the book on the two “Chosen” RPG Maker games fairly quickly.
This one didn’t disappoint, being so bad. It led to a solid review, in my
opinion.
3. Super Mario Galaxy: I really didn’t review a lot of
Nintendo games this year, did I? This was my April 1st review,
pretending to take place sometimes in 2050. It was nice to go off-the-wall
crazy and imagine the weirdest possible bullcrap about the future. I should
have gone crazier, like the Simpsons do every time.
2. Grand Theft Auto V: With six parts, this is one of
my longest reviews ever, on a year where I was hoping not to do so many.
However, I don’t regret the length of that review, as it was worth doing for
the complex story. Loved writing that one.
1. Undertale: The second longest review in the history
of this blog, with seven parts – and each one of them was worth it. Especially
Parts 5 and 6. I loved paying homage to this game.
Worst 10 games reviewed on the blog in 2018:
10. Dyna Bomb. It feels like a mobile game and plays
like a mobile game. I never figured out how or why sometimes the game no longer
wants to be played, as if there were lives but we’re never shown them. Sure, it
plays well, but the long levels and the money-based power-up system are a
turnoff.
9. Dev Guy. At least it’s short, but a lot of jokes
are very poor, and the short games that can be played on the colleagues’
computers are just… poor. All in all, a poor experience, but at least it’s easy
to 100% its achievements.
8. gravilon. When you can’t make it out of World 1… As
a puzzle platformer, it’s okay, but multiple design choices annoyed me enough
to stop playing early on. The power-up that switches gravity is small and
difficult to get, and the maps get too large, making it difficult to plan
ahead, in this game where planning ahead feels necessary.
7. Rabbids Rumble. A shame that this was one of my
first 3DS games, purchased at a convention no less. I love the Rabbids, but the
ball was dropped this one time. Too few mini-games, and a focus on collectible
battlers (which rarely have nothing of interest aside from being new skins),
with also too narrow of a selection in the silly attacks that can be used. All
in all, a very lackluster title, the most lackluster Rabbids game out there in
my opinion.
6. ROCKETSROCKETSROCKETS. I knew I would struggle with
a title that focuses on multiplayer, but this could have been just fine… had it
not been such a mess. It’s pretty and fast-paced, sure, but I just had no
interest in it and I feel like the fun of this game would wane pretty quickly.
5. Chosen 2. At least it plays well, and can be
finished… even if it’s difficult. I did, however, notice the heightened
difficulty, topped by all the biggest issues of the original Chosen RPG –
namely, the pointless fanservice. Applied to the main character’s mother and
servant, no less. But hey, they barely look like they’re 18, so it’s okay. It
also lacked any bonus material that the original had.
4. Who’s Your Daddy. Unlike the previous point, this
one does not play well. It’s a broken mess, with very few interesting options
for single-player, and the multiplayer is too barren to really be worth it. A
game that I wanted to try out, and it left me rather disappointed.
3. Gun Rocket. When you can’t even finish the first
world… Seriously, this one is so poorly-made. I would have probably given it a
fairer chance, had it not been for the problem that the ship will explode by
itself far too often when a level begins. That’s kind of a problem.
2. Disillusions Manga Horror. I thought I had
forgotten this one, but no, something this terrible is hard to forget. A
poorly-built “adventure” which, for some reason, has time scores, even though
it’s basically just a quest for events around small maps. It’s… terrible.
1. LocoSoccer. I could barely play any of this one, it
was so damn bad. You’re not told how to play it well, the 2D plane makes for a
very poor soccer experience, and of course, the physics are nothing but
godawful. Blergh.
Best 10 games reviewed on the blog in 2018:
10. Trick & Treat. This year, I wanted to review
more RPG Maker games in order to find diamonds in the rough, and boy did I
find. Trick & Treat, while short, is a very fun experience that plays
around with a few horror tropes. It’s never really scary, but it’s a pleasure
to play through.
9. Cubicle Quest. Speaking of good RPG Maker games,
there’s one more. In spite of a few glitches here and there, such as some
battles crashing when the fight menu doesn’t appear, this is a complete game
that can keep you busy for 15 or more hours. The metaphor substituting problems
of the real world by monsters in an RPG setting works surprisingly well, and
there’s always more stuff to find. It does require a lot of grinding, though.
8. 3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures Deluxe. Sometimes, you
just have to be entertaining. While not a perfect title, this little mini-golf
experience had many creative levels, and it’s one of the few games that I went
back to beat more than once. A strong recommendation.
7. Surgeon Simulator. Yeah, we can say whatever we
want about the controls. It’s meant to be difficult. It’s meant to be a clumsy
guy operating the same poor sap with nothing but his left hand. But it’s
equally bloody and hilarious when failures happen, and the added challenges are
all pretty great. Love this one.
6. Evoland. Or how to represent the history of video
games in a quick, sweet little RPG. The evolution, you could say.
5. Antagonist. Possibly one of the best RPG Maker
games played this year, or it wouldn’t be so high on the list. An engaging
story with great twists and turns, a unique idea of making an RPG like a visual
novel that includes battles (although the battles are always the same, that’s a
bit unfortunate). I love everything about it.
4. Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist. I love this game
because it features all the eras of Yu-Gi-Oh!, all the characters I enjoy from
the series. Over four hundred possible duels, and more options than that… I am
still trying to collect all the cards, by the way. And complete every single
deck in the game. It’s long, I have more than 250 hours on this one.
3. Super Mario Galaxy. Just a great Mario title, extremely
creative and quite challenging at times. It does have a few flaws, such as the
mere existence of the Spring Mushroom, but other than that it’s an awesome Wii
title.
2. Undertale. I adore this one, because I love the
moral and how it permeates the entirety of the story. There are hundreds of
moments of brilliance in this story, and though I love the review I made for
it, I don’t think I could have made this one justice. Play it. Now.
1. Grand Theft Auto V. With so much content and
missions to do, as well as this gigantic map to visit, this had to be my Number
1. I spent a lot of time visiting the map of this game, and though I haven’t
actually seen everything that can be seen, I can safely say I would gladly go
back anytime.
The 10 wishes I had for this blog on 2018, and whether
I accomplished them in the past 12 months.
10. The fifth anniversary review: Undertale. I did
that one!
9. I realize that point was about the various video
game movies coming out in 2018, though I didn’t quite phrase it that way. I did
review Ready Player One this year, a
few months only after its release. A review of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is ready and coming, and I reviewed Ralph Breaks the Internet as a
side-review, so there’s that. However, this year was severely lacking in movie
reviews, probably due to the two big game reviews of 2018, and the various
hiatuses caused by my job and lack of free time.
8. More streaming? I am not quite sure I actually
achieved that one. I do know I played a lot of Jackbox games with friends
(namely, Drawful 2 and Quiplash), but I don’t know if I could say that I
streamed more this year than in 2017.
7. A Sonic Month? I unfortunately couldn’t. Would’ve
ben great though.
6. A Rabbids month? I did that one! I’m happy.
5. Constant updates on my Steam collection. I didn’t
quite do that one, mostly because I realized rather quickly that such a thing
would not be very useful. I don’t review quite enough games to make that worth
it. However, I will be using this Retrospective for a quick update on my
collection.
4. A redesign of the blog? I didn’t do that,
unfortunately.
3. A review of Grand Theft Auto V : I did that one!
2. Making the Planned All Along community stronger.
With the shutdown of Google+ this year, I will be moving my community to
Discord, where I should be able to keep up with the news and the fans. It
should help the community quite a bit.
1. A proper video review. I didn’t do that,
unfortunately.
My projects for 2019:
10. A great anniversary review. For the sixth anniversary,
I am still weighing my options. I have no shortage of long games on Steam, but
I also have more than a few titles that I have on the Wii’s Virtual Console, or
among my Nintendo 3DS games, that I could use as my anniversary review. I might
try to go for a game that isn’t a first-party Nintendo title.
9. A Sonic Month. I’ll try this again! Mind you, I
don’t have a choice but to make this happen eventually, as I still have two
Sonic games on the Wii… and a LOT of Sonic games on Steam, in part thanks to a
bundle purchased recently.
8. More Steam Packs? It’s in the plans. I have a new
methodology in which I play through the shorter games of my collection, which
means I can get through many games quickly. It helps quite a bit. I don’t want
my blog to be nothing but Steam Packs and Steam game reviews, but considering
the size of my Steam collection…
7. A redesign of the site during the summer? I’ll see
what I can do.
6. Update everything on the blog. By that, I mean all
the additional pages. I want to keep the Archives updated, and add more to the
About Me, Title Cards, Links, Thanks and Extras of the site
5. A proper Halloween special: I didn’t have one this
year, and it’s a missed opportunity in my opinion as there are many games I
could have reviewed for that occasion. I have quite a few “horror” Steam games,
as well as at least one Wii game that could have fit the bill.
4. More streaming. I promise this every time, and I
always fail. Maybe I will actually do it in 2019.
3. Create title cards for a lot of old reviews that
don’t have any. It’s a challenge I set for myself, and it’s something I have
been trying to do since 2015. If I wasn’t lacking the time to do these, I
would. Perhaps I’ll find some time this year.
2. An odd choice, but… Less long reviews. If there’s
one thing I realized in 2018, it’s that longer reviews take much more time to
be made. These reviews can cause me to go on hiatus until they’re ready, and I
don’t like to do that. However, I know I still have some big games to review, I
just hope I won’t end up making long reviews too often.
1. Create a stronger community through a Planned All
Along Discord server. You can access it here. It’s still just starting, but if
I could have a few members it would be sweet.
And now, I have actually gathered enough titles reviewed on Steam to go back and change things around a bit. One thing I may have forgotten to mention is that I delete from my collection whichever titles I felt were bad, or the ones I plain didn't like. In spite of that, I still have 47 games currently in the Reviewed folder of my Steam library. Even then, I feel a start-of-year cleanup is required. I will remove 4 titles among those, and then I will edit my Favorites list to be approximately 1/4th of the list of remaining games. Somes choices will be tough.
Games removed:
Airscape: The Fall of Gravity
Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox
Jigoku Kisetsukan: Sense of the Seasons
Worm.Is The Game
New list of favorites:
3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures Deluxe
Bastion
Castle of Illusion
Cuphead
DuckTales Remastered
GTA V
Quiplash
Rayman Origins
Surgeon Simulator
Undertale
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist
And now, I have actually gathered enough titles reviewed on Steam to go back and change things around a bit. One thing I may have forgotten to mention is that I delete from my collection whichever titles I felt were bad, or the ones I plain didn't like. In spite of that, I still have 47 games currently in the Reviewed folder of my Steam library. Even then, I feel a start-of-year cleanup is required. I will remove 4 titles among those, and then I will edit my Favorites list to be approximately 1/4th of the list of remaining games. Somes choices will be tough.
Games removed:
Airscape: The Fall of Gravity
Intelligent Design: An Evolutionary Sandbox
Jigoku Kisetsukan: Sense of the Seasons
Worm.Is The Game
New list of favorites:
3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures Deluxe
Bastion
Castle of Illusion
Cuphead
DuckTales Remastered
GTA V
Quiplash
Rayman Origins
Surgeon Simulator
Undertale
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist
Alright then, see you throughout 2019 for more
reviews.
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