It’s a new year and a new generation of consoles have been sucking away all the attention for the past month or so in the world of gaming. As much as every gamer on the planet would like to have made the next-gen jump there are a lot of them yet to do so. Perhaps they’re waiting on Granny’s Christmas money to come in or they just can’t find what they want on the shelf but the idea of next-gen may still have to wait until next month. All is not lost! All you PS3 and 360 gamers still have a lot of great games to play if you care to take a look. Here we’ve compiled a list of 10 games from the past year that you might have overlooked but are well worth playing. Heck, most of them would be in the cheap bin by now so it won’t even cost you much! Keep in mind that this isn’t a definitive list by any means as there were a lot of underappreciated gems over this past year. We’ll consider this a sampling! Let us know in the comments section what games you’d recommend.
BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONS
Chatting amongst fellow gamers I realized that out of everyone I know there were only a couple of us that took on this creative downloadable title from Starbreeze. Obviously it’s a game but when I played it I felt it much more akin to an interactive story. In it you take on the role of two brothers who are trying to navigate their way to the Tree of Life. Both brothers are controlled simultaneously with opposite thumbsticks. While it might take a little bit of time to get used to any gamer will find themselves navigating the two brothers with ease after an hour or so. Inventive puzzles, beautiful looking backdrops, and a heartstring tugging story are just a few of the things that make this one worth your time. You’ll never get stumped for too long on a puzzle but the ingenious gameplay will keep you going until the end.
FAR CRY 3: BLOOD DRAGON
If you played games in the 90s, watched horribly cheesy action flicks in the 80s and think that a music montage is the perfect way to sum up a year in a 4 minute blurb of quick scenes and awful synth music then Blood Dragon is for you. A standalone title that has pretty much nothing to do with Far Cry 3 apart from its name, Blood Dragon is a love letter to all things awesomely cheesy filled with bad jokes, cussing and general badassery (it’s a word, don’t worry). Taking on the role of Rex ‘Power’ Colt you’ll embark on a mission to save the world from your ex-commander Sloan and have a wonderful time while doing it. If you played Far Cry 3 you’ll find the mechanics to be similar albeit with a neon coat of paint and you’ll get to fight dragons that have lasers coming out of their eyes… what else do you want you greedy bastards?
NI NO KUNI – WRATH OF THE WHITE WITCH
I grew up a diehard fan of the JRPG and I know I’m not alone in that. Over time my love dwindled as I saw cookie cutter renditions of games that never ventured out of the tried and true success methods of JRPGs before them. Then along came Ni No Kuni and that wonder I felt playing FF3 for the first time bubbled back up to the surface and I was hooked. While not entirely original in its mechanics it takes the best of other successful games (Pokemon for sure) and turns it sideways a little bit to make a fully engrossing game that is difficult to put down. All the elements are there from an amazing soundtrack, heart wrenching story and hands down one of the most gorgeously rendered games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Studio Ghibli did wonders for the cut scenes and the in-game animation follows suit. If you’re a PS3 owner and you gave this one a pass you’re really doing yourself a disservice by not hitting up a cheap bin for this one.
DEADPOOL
Here we have another title that flew under the radar for a lot of gamers that really deserves to be played. Despite some early pre-release hype Deadpool went largely unnoticed which is a damn shame if you ask me because it’s a crap-ton of fun. Sure, it’s not winning any awards for ingenuity or anything but it sure as hell should win some awards for hitting your funny bone. Fans of the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ got exactly what they were hoping for in what could only be described as a foul mouthed piece of fan service that delivered exactly what it said it would. To be fair you don’t need to be a huge fan of the source material, or even a fan at all for that matter, to get some gut busting laughs and enjoy popping caps in asses with Deadpool. Sure to be in the $5 bin by now it’s a solid pick up for gamers.
SPLINTER CELL: BLACKLIST
What the hell is a Splinter Cell game doing on a ‘Games You May Have Missed’ list? Despite being one of the most highly regarded stealth action franchises in the business the latest Sam Fisher offering failed to do huge numbers. Whether it’s gamer fatigue (although there was a pretty good gap in between releases this time around) or gamer apathy I have to admit that I don’t quite understand it myself. Some might argue that Blacklist is actually the best in the series so it’s a real disservice to the Ubisoft team that put it together for you jerks to just give it a pass. In all seriousness though, if you’ve ever been a fan of the Splinter Cell franchise please don’t let the new, not Michael Ironside, Sam Fisher fade away into obscurity without giving him a shot. Great single player and multiplayer offerings and some great new mechanics make this one worth picking up for sure.
TOMB RAIDER
When I was looking at games to throw up on this list I really wrestled with this one. On the surface it would seem that it was a huge success story with a new and improved next-gen ‘Definitive Edition’ on the horizon but when I talked to other gamers I was beyond surprised to hear that the large majority of them skipped over Lara Croft’s latest adventure. What’s wrong with you people!? Without a doubt this survival action adventure masterpiece is one of the best games of 2013. In fact it was my personal game of the year beating out other heavyweight contenders like Bioshock: Infinite and Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. The team at Square Enix that worked on this game deserve a lot of credit for breathing new life into a franchise that had faltered if not altogether died out. The Lara Croft origin story is tense, beautiful to look at and an absolute joy to play. GO GET IT.
BATTLEBLOCK THEATER
Quirky, ridiculous, absurd, and hilariously entertaining. These are some of the easiest ways to describe what The Behemoth delivered to Xbox 360 gamers with BattleBlock Theater. Combining elements of platforming, puzzling and a little bit of beat ‘em up for good measure BattleBlock is easily one of the best releases to the Xbox Live Arcade over 2013. A wholly charming art style and some of the best narration and cut scenes I saw all year round out why this one should be played. Considering the cult following Castle Crashers has I’m surprised that more gamers didn’t grasp on to this one but sadly it seems like this was another under the radar title of 2013. I can promise you that you’ve spent 15 bucks on worse so go support great independent game developers and buy it.
GUACAMELEE!
DrinkBox Studios delivered an absolute gem of a game when they released this Mexican folklore inspired platformer in 2013. Taking on the role of Juan, a simple agave farmer turned Luchador wrestler/hero, you embark on a Metroid-Vania style journey to rescue the daughter of El Presidente. The game is challenging, witty and stunningly unique in its presentation. Bright colours abound in this indie darling that will grab you right from the start and likely not let go until the end credits roll. Another chance to support fantastic indie developers is right here in front of you so do it ok. Remember, a lot of these indie developers are the triple-A title deliverers of the future. WON’T SOMEBODY…ANYBODY… THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?
METRO: LAST LIGHT
The genre of the masses is the trusty first person shooter. There’s so much competition out there that it isn’t hard for a great game to get lost in the shuffle. Considering that Metro 2033, the first in this franchise, went largely unnoticed but critically well received I had hopes that its sequel wouldn’t suffer the same fate. Unfortunately the gaming masses are a fickle bunch and much like its predecessor we saw Last Light get solid reviews and little sales. An easy find in the cheap bins now it should be on every FPS lovers list. A great story based in a post-nuclear Russia your skills are put to the test with limited ammo and frantic rushes as your breather runs out of air in radioactive wastelands. It’s beautifully rendered, well-acted and as with other games on this list… underappreciated!
DMC: DEVIL MAY CRY
This is the third game on this list that has a storied lineage and still didn’t do quite what the developers were hoping in terms of sales. To be fair this reimagining of DMC did alright sales wise clocking in somewhere around the 1.1 million units mark according to the Google digging I did. Here’s the thing, there are a lot of gamers out there that passed on this who would most likely LOVE IT. This is not your old Dante. He looks different, plays different and he’s finally in the enviable position of being acted really well. All the acting is great in fact. This total overhaul of the series is completely welcome and I’m sure the team at Capcom who worked on it were hoping to see it reinvigorated much like the Square Enix team for Tomb Raider. If you have a PS3 and PS Plus you can even get this for the glorious price of FREE right now.
