2021 Awards

Avant-garde Award:

There are quite a few games about the Cthulhu Mythos, but The Shore stands out for having the pretty much all the big hitters of the pantheon on resplendent display. Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth, Dagon, Shub-Niggurath, Nyarlathotep and Great Cthulhu himself all make noteworthy appearances.  Other than deities, there are Deep Ones, Elder Things, Shoggoths, Dark Young, Insects of Shaggai, Xothians, and probably some more that I missed or failed to recognize.  Every single one of these horrors is modeled in exquisite detail.  A lot of the environments they are found in are also pretty surreal.  

Backlash Award:

Where to begin...?  With over 11,000 reviews and only a nine percent approval rate, eFootball is the lowest rated game in Steam history.  Despite Konami's boasts that this soccer game surpasses FIFA in quality, it's a bare bones sports sim that has bugs, glitches, and weird character models (especially when it comes to people in the stands) with plenty of videos and screen caps around the internet that might elicit some good chuckles.  Free and worth every penny.

Brutality Award:

Playing like a polished up greatest hits compilation of the first three games in the series, Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection is old-school hard.  The designers, for whatever reason, chose to preserve the feel of the classic game right down to Arthur's awkward movement and unforgiving jumping mechanics.  It is possible to finish the game in under two hours if you're a pro, but chances are it will take a lot longer than that assuming have the patience and determination to finish the game at all.   

Canvas Award:

The genius of Narita Boy lies in its utilization of old CRT displays.  The game even goes so far as to copy the slight blur and lensing effect these old monitors had.  The "trichroma" (red, blue and yellow) color scheme perfectly suit the Digital Kingdom both in terms of visuals and lore.  There have been many attempts over the years to copy the style of the 1982 film "TRON," but (in my opinion) this game marks the first attempt that has actually improved on the aesthetic.  In truth, I feel like the look of Narita Boy is so strong, the non-visual elements of the storytelling actually detract from the overall experience to such as degree that I would have preferred if this game had no text at all and instead relied entirely on images to tell its tale.  In other words, this game is too good for its own good.

Ecology Award:

It stands to reason that when exploring the same alien sea for a second time, one would use the same equipment and encounter the same (or similar) sea life.  That said, this stand-alone expansion of sorts feels like a small step backwards for the franchise.  This is mostly because the best parts of Subnautica: Below Zero were already in the original game.  What little new there is, doesn't add much and, worse still, some of the best bits of the original are missing in the new game. 

"Engrish" Award:

The product of a lot of creativity and hard work, Highfleet is a Russian-developed strategy/air-combat sim.  It also hails MicroProse return to game publishing after a more-than-decade-long absence.  Sadly, they seemed to have stumbled a bit out the gate.  An untranslated lever marked "ДЕСА́НТ" isn't a problem, but somewhat oddly worded tips like "if a serious repair is applying, docking will speed up" are the reason this game wins this award.  Overall though, the localization work is free of weird grammar issues.

Esoteric Award:

Part H.P. Lovecraft inspired horror game, part third-person bullet-hell shooter, Returnal has a mind screw storyline that has yet to be unraveled by even its most dedicated fans.  Some much ambiguity exists with regards to major plot points, it is practically impossible to separate hallucinations from reality.  Tantalizing clues abound, right down to the labels on bottles of prescription medications, but no matter how deep people dig they are left with more questions than answers.  Is Helios the protagonist's son or her brother?...or is it just the name of a spaceship?   What's the "White Shadow?"  Is it a allusion to the moon?  A ghostly astronaut that appears periodically throughout the game?...or is it just the name of a rock song?  Nobody knows...and maybe nobody ever will...

Lemon Award:

An ambitious design with a high asking price, this sequel to a twenty-two year old proto-RTS has about as many issues as the real life "Gerald R. Ford" aircraft carrier had launch.  A.I. pathfinding problems remains the biggest one, while some smaller bugs have since been patched: aircraft that crash on takeoff, helicopters that explode on landing, and phantom sea currents.  However, unintuitive controls and an inadequate tutorial typify why this carrier wasn't ready enter service just yet.    

   

Testosterone Award:

While the main character doesn't exactly exude masculinity, the "lycan" enemy type certainly does.  Not only are they extremely muscular, highly aggressive and covered in copious amounts of body hair, these wolfmen are in a perpetual state of roid rage and shrug off gunshot wounds the way an ordinary person would react to having a small rock thrown at them.  The leader of the werewolf pack brings new meaning to the term "mass monster" and he's got an epic beard to boot.  Oh...and there are absolutely no female lycans to be found anywhere.

Underdog Award:

This blog's 2020 awards came out a bit early and as such Suzerain (being a December release) just missed the cut.  Even so, it's raised the bar so much in terms of both political simulators and visual novels I feel like I have to give credit to what I'm sure passed under many people's radar...including mine.  Therefore, I'm bending the rules a bit for this one in order to give it this award.  As a fictional slogan of the game goes "A Morgna her Coren!" or in English, "The Morning has Come!"