Original Flashback

 

The Awards for 2023 Go to...

Avant-garde Award:

While it doesn't have the level of customization found in most block games, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom still provides players with a great deal of freedom.  In particular, they can choose how and in what order to tackle the challenges the game has to offer.  For better or worse though some more meanspirited people have turned the game into a Korok torture simulator.  I suppose this sort of thing was inevitable, but unexpected nonetheless. 

Backlash Award:

Usually games maintain an air of anticipation until their release day even if the previews don't seem promising.  In the case of Lord of the Rings: Gollum though, it got trashed two days before launch due to gameplay footage being leaked online.  This game literally never had a chance.  The design is awful, the gameplay is awful, the graphics are awful...even the voice acting is not good.  Also, who came up with that design for the elves?  They all look like chemical substance abuse is on their daily itinerary.   

Brutality Award:

While there are five different difficulty levels to choose from, World of Horror is not an easy game even on the lowest setting.  The themes and atmosphere certainly support the notion of being doomed from the start.  When it comes to random elements, the proverbial deck is stacked against the player.  Couple that with the roguelike design philosophy behind the game, and it becomes abundantly clear that the player is in for a world of hurt each time they begin a new run. 

Canvas Award:

While not the most exciting or innovative game in terms of gameplay, Phantom Brigade is certainly a pretty game to look at.  The variety of colors is of course welcome, but the subtle use of varying shades of reds and blues mixed with the pastoral landscapes of green and brown create an interesting contrast between the two opposing sides of the conflict.  Normally in these types of games grey tends to be the dominate color, so it's nice to see a visual design that takes a step back from that.  

Ecology Award:

Koopas, Goombas, pipes and plumbers...coins, mushrooms, stars and question blocks...we've seen it all many times before, and that's not a bad thing.  Mario is probably the most iconic character in video game history.  That said, the folks over at Nintendo seem to really like re-using old assets.  I guess they ascribe to the old adage "don't fix what isn't broken."  Oh well...at least we get a cool new elephant costume this time around.

"Engrish" Award:

Despite rapid improvements to AI translation software, there are still a fare amount of indie games that suffer from localization issues.  In the case of Midnight Shift we have a number of misspellings resulting in great lines like "Good evnening" and "My axe is thirty" Don't worry though because despite being the lone employee on duty at an isolated gas station, it's still possible to call the "Pilice" for help when a masked assailant shows up looking to cause trouble. 

Esoteric Award:

While technically still in early access, I decided to go with Nebulous: Fleet Command for this category because it serves as such an excellent example of obtuse design.  Not only does this game feature Newtonian physics and realistic electronic warfare, it also has highly customizable spacecraft.  Players can even create their own kind of missiles; down to the guidance system, warhead and propulsion.  While it's not quite as detailed as Children of a Dead Earth in terms of the simulation, the complexity is still staggering to behold.   

Lemon Award:

The PC version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was rated the worst PC port of 2023 by Digital Foundry.  Five months, and many patches later, it still doesn't run well.  It's unclear if it ever will.  While other games released in 2024 such as Redfall are also quite buggy they had low potential to begin with.  Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, on the other hand, is alright on other platforms.  It's simply the PC version that is terrible...which is a shame considering how much effort went into making the game to begin with.   

Testosterone Award:

Are you manly enough to rescue the influencer princess from rogue cyborgs?  Playing like a first-person version of Hotline Miami through an anime lens, Mullet Mad Jack tasks players with maintaining a continuous killstreak in order to prevent their health bar from slowly depleting.  The result, unsurprisingly, is a frantic cornucopia of violence all the way to the finish line.  Seriously, you slide down a ramp while shooting bad guys at the end of each stage. 

Underdog Award:

I was actually very critical of this game in a post made just recently on this blog, but since then have been shocked to hear how few people seem to know it even exists.  A forum post highlighting a link to the game's lackluster sales thus far was filled with response comments that were almost entirely variations on "Never heard of this game" or "didn't even know it was out".  Then again, The Invincible did come out in what is one of the busiest times of this year when it comes to big new releases.  Chalk it up to bad timing, I guess...  

Too Close for Comfort

"The Invincible" was originally a novella by science fiction author Stanisław Lem, but has since been adapted into a comic and video game.  It is also the name of the titular starship which plays a notable part in the story.  Unlike the comic, which is more-or-less a direct retelling events in the original story, the video game acts as a prequel of sorts.  In theory, this sounds like a great idea.  It gives the developers, Starward Industries, an opportunity to expand on the setting and characters.  Sadly, the game sticks a bit too close to the source material.

Stanisław Lem's writings have a deliberately incomplete quality to them that is a significant part of his appeal.  His stories tend to emphasis the unknowable in that encounters with extraterrestrial life end up in either a complete inability to communicate or (perhaps worse still) miscommunications that lead to disaster.  It's a theme that pops up in some of his other most famous works, such as "Fiasco" and "Solaris".  "The Invincible" is no exception, and exhibits this almost trademark aspect to his style.  The problem I have with it is there isn't a strong narrative arch.  Practically by necessity, the story must end in a dissatisfactory way.  However, this doesn't mean that there can't be some kind of payoff at the end.  The ending of "The Invincible" novella feature one of the POV characters volunteering to recover the bodies of dead crewmates who fell in the field.  It's somewhat of a harrowing final chapter that could have had a uplifting twist.  Perhaps one of the crew thought to be dead is actually still alive and in need of rescue?  I'm not an editor for a science fiction magazine, so I can't say for certain how the story could have been improved, but I definitely feels like it's missing a certain special something that would make it stick with the reader...and for better or worse (probably the latter) the game sticks with Stanisław Lem's signature way of drawing to a close.

There are actually three possible endings to the game.  None of them are particularly compelling.  They don't really expand on the lore, nor do they give us much more in the way of insight into characters featured in the novel itself.  Mostly, the story of The Invincible is a retelling of what people who have read the original story already know.  This lack of ambition also extends to the gameplay, which is very much of the walking simulator variety.  That's not to say I dislike the genre, it just feels like a missed opportunity in terms of all the different ways players could have experienced exploring the exoplanet Regis III.  It's all a bit baffling considering how much time was spent on development.  What were they spending all their time working on?  Was there a lot of cut content?  Maybe the team at Starward Industries held the author in too high esteem?...so much so they were unwilling to stray too far or build too high up from the foundation?  It's hard to say...regardless, The Invincible is kind of bland outside of its retro-future visual aesthetic.  Also, why the heck is there no way to play this game with characters speaking in Polish?  

Halloween is Over But...