I've played several great games this year, last year 2 of my top 10 I didn't enjoy that much, however every game on my top 10 list this year I found enjoyable, and challenging.

Top 10 games of 2019

10. Grim Grimoire (PS2)

9. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3)

8. Gitaroo Man (PS2)

7. Punchout!!! (Wii)

6. Witcher 3 (PS4)

5. Dark Souls (PS3)

4. Skies of Arcadia (Gamecube)

3. Cuphead (Switch)

2. Kingdom Hearts 3 (PS4)

and the winner is...

1. Hollow Knight (Switch)

This has quickly become one of my favourite games of all time, it's challenging but not cruel, it's got a deep lore and has some brilliant boss fights. I really hope the sequel is great too.

Worst Game Completed in 2019: FEAR (PS3)

While the AI is pretty good, the repetitive goofy looking jump scares, the uninteresting characters and the large amount of insta-kill moments ruined it for me. I'm not saying it's a terrible game, but it was certainly the one I played this year that I'm least likely to go back to.

Games Completed: 47

Pilot Brothers (2014) (Linux/Wine)

The last one finished in the last day of 2019. I've got a lot of work to do, so it was completed partially by me, partially by my two littlle daughters, who were taking the control when I needed to wash the bathroom, take out the trash or clean out the fireplace. Working together we've managed to find the elephant. It took us a few hours, but I suppose the game could be completed in no more than 2 hours of normal gameplay. I liked the game enough to buy both sequels available here.

The game works fine under Linux/Wine (I installed with 3rd version of release candidate of Wine 5.00).

List of all games completed in 2019.

Ok a year in review post. I played a lot of great games this year and very few I hated. Even the ones that I found middling usually had some qualities that if they were incorporated into a different game might have been really enjoyable. Looking forward to many more in 2020.

Best Music- Brutal Legend. I'm not a fan of metal but the music in Brutal Legend is really good. That and the excellent voice acting by Jack Black turn a game with some half-baked mechanics into a fun experience.

Most Looking Forward to the Sequel (exists)- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. I didn't play a lot of epic, sprawling wRPGs this year but this was a lot of fun. Can't wait to play the sequel in 2020.

Most Looking Forward to the Sequel (does not exist)- Battle Chasers Nightwar. My personal GOTY. I would be very excited for additional stories with this group in the future.

Best Game No One's Ever Heard of- Fortune 499. This is a charming little game I got from HB. Its less an RPG than a puzzle game but I was stunned by how much I enjoyed it. It was actually my favorite game of the year until Battle Chasers supplanted it a few months later.

Beloved Classic I Hated- Full Throttle Remastered. I just didn't enjoy this game at all.

Biggest Surprise (In a Good Way)- Higurashi When They Cry Ch1. I've been underwhelmed so far when it comes to VNs but the story in Higurashi was really interesting to me. I'm hoping the following chapters are just as good.

Biggest Surprise (In a Bad Way)- Transistor. I came into this with a lot of hype but I ended up disappointed. I did not get the game at all and I fully admit I was terrible at it.

Finished this year (in order):
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Star Trek: Elite Force II
- Batman: Arkham City
- Torment: Tides of Numenera
- Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
- Alan Wake
- Divine Divinity
- SOMA
- Mass Effect
- Probably tomorrow or the day after: Mass Effect 2

Torment & EF2 were a bit disappointing... but not bad.

Plan for 2020: find a vampire to turn me. Maybe then I'll be able to finish at least 50% of my backlog in the next 50 year.

Mini-reviews here: https://minirevver.weebly.com/

1. Super Adventure Island II (SNES) - 7
2. Dragon View (SNES) - 7.5
3. Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (MCD) - 7
4. Dr. Franken (GB) - 6
5. G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor (NES) - 7
6. TMNT III: Radical Rescue (GB) - 7.5
7. Adventure Island IV (NES) - 7.5
8. Holy Umbrella: Dondera's Wild!! (SNES) - 7
9. Tails Adventure (GG) - 7.5
10. Exhumed/Powerslave (SAT) 7.5

11. Strife: Veteran Edition (PC) - 7.5
12. Kishin Douji Zenki (GG) - 7.5
13. Mega Man Legends (PS1) - 7
14. The Divide: Enemies Within (PS1) - 7
15. MediEvil (PS1, 1998) - 7
16. SOS/Septentrion (SNES, 1993) - 6.5
17. Tomba!/Tombi! (PS1, 1997) - 7
18. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64, 1997) - 7.5
19. Tank Force (ARC, 1991) - 7.5 (1-player, Normal)
20. Dr. Franken II (GB, 1997) - 6.5

21. Banjo-Kazooie (N64, 1998) - 6.5
22. Goemon's Great Adventure (N64, 1998) - 7.5
23. Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES, 1995)(w/ Bug Fix patch) - 7 (Duran (first pick), Hawk and Kevin (Swordmaster, Warrior Monk, Ninja Master))
24. Granada (MD, 1990) - 7 (default/easy)
25. Wolf Fang: Kuhga 2001 (ARC, 1991) - 7.5 (1p, default difficulty, hard levels path)
26. Genji Tsuushin Agedama (PCE, 1991) - 7 (normal/default)
27. Crazy Taxi (DC, 1999) - 7.5 (normal/default w/ +5 seconds (Arcade mode w/ arcade rules), all challenges except S-S on default)
28. FixEight/Fix Eight (ARC, 1992) - 7.5 (Normal and Hard, robot/blonde girl)
29. Truxton II (ARC, 1992) - 6.5? (Normal, 1-player)
30. Nitro Ball (ARC, 1992) - 7.5? (Normal, 1-player)

31. Night Striker (MCD) - 6.5 (Normal, leftmost path+Q stage)
32. Night Striker S (SAT) - 7.5 (Normal, rightmost path+T stage and Extra Game)
33. Sega Rally Championship Plus (SAT) - 7.5 (Easy & Normal, small car)
34. Dungeon Keeper 2 (PC) - 7.5 (Campaign)
35. Wipeout 2097 (PS1, 1996) - 7 (Normal/Arcade and Hard/Challenge 1)
36. Choplifter (SMS, 1986) - 6.5
37. Turbo Outrun (ARC, 1989) - 7
38. Fire Emblem: Monsho no Nazo/Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (SNES, 1994) - 7 (Book 1 (FE1 remake) - lost some chars during the final battle, gave up on Book 2 at ch7, ridiculous despite some grinding before it)
39. Castlevania Chronicles (PS1, 2001) - 7.5
40. Hollow Knight (PC) - 7.5 ("good" ending, 97% completion (no abyss shriek, no shadow nail, 36 charms))

41. Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru (SAT) - 7.5 (Easy w/ 5 lives per credit, 1-player, Ninja)
42. Aquaria (PC, 2007) - 7 (got the hidden ending)
43. 1943 Kai (PCE) - 7.5 (normal)
44. Exile II (PCE CD, 1992) - 6
45. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC) - 7.5
46. System Shock Enhanced Edition (PC) - 7.5 (normal/normal/normal/normal, both endings)
47. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (PS1) - 7.5
48. Tail Concerto (PS1)(default) - 6.5
49. Ape Escape (PS1) - 7.5
50. Hyper Iria (SNES)(default, unlimited continues) - 6.5

51. Spyro 2 (PS1) - 7.5
52. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PS1) - 7
53. Bubble Symphony/Bubble Bobble II (SAT) - 7.5
54. Guardian Heroes (SAT) - 6.5? (normal, 1-player as Han, ending 3/middle path with "golden silver 2" as final boss)
55. Crash Bandicoot 2 (PS1, 1997) - 7 (normal/bad ending, found 2-3 hidden levels)
56. Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (PC, 2019) - 8 (100%)
57. Tyrian/Tyrian 2000 (PC, 1995/1999) - 7 (T2000, Story mode, Normal, 1P)
58. Ganpuru: Gunman's Proof/Gunple (SNES, 1997) - 7 (100% HP)
59. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64) - 7 (Normal, ended up using the "all keys" cheat at level 6 and "all weapons" cheat at level 8)
60. Grim Fandango Remastered (PC, 2015) - 7

Replayed: Robo Aleste, Android Assault/Bari-Arm, Keio Flying Squadron 1, Elemental Master

Last games in 2019:

Serment - Contract with a Devil
It was a nice game, but it could use some more content. There weren't enough stories and interactions with the world for the VN part. Dungeon Crawler part was better, but there's also just one dungeon and once you've seen and mapped all levels, there isn't much to do except for grinding to get good enough for the last boss fight.

About the difficulty: It's nearly impossible to not get enough money to pay the devil each week. You normally get it from just a single dungeon run. Fights in the dungeon can be tough, but it doesn't really matter, because you don't die when you lose (you just lose some money). So overall the game is quite easy and relaxing.

Graphics and music are nice and characters are likable for the most part. All in all I had fun and would buy the next game of the developers.

Sherlock Holmes - Crimes and Punishments
I really liked this one. It's quite linear, but it's still not boring, because in each case you'll find several clues and have to make your own conclusions from them (which might lead to different culprits). Doing that felt a lot like being a real detective and it was nice that the game gave you the opportunity. Storywise the cases felt a lot like traditional Sherlock Holmes stories and in my eyes the characterisation of Holmes, Watson, Lestrade and Mycroft Holmes were spot-on.

It was the first Sherlock Holmes game that I've played and I hope some of the other ones are as good.

Highrise Heroes (Android)
I'm not a native speaker of the English language and so games like that are always quite difficult. Especially the levels with a time-limit were very challenging. But it was fun and in the end I even got three stars on most of the levels and also got most of the bananas.

The story was a little weird though and the twist in the end wasn't really surprising.

Into the Breach
I didn't unlock everything yet, but I've successfully completed the game twice (with two and three islands and the base squad). In my eyes this one is even better than FTL. There's also a lot of randomization, but normally every level is a puzzle and you can solve it with the abilities of your squad. Normally when you fail or die, you did something wrong and so it was your own fault and not just bad luck.

I'll keep on playing and looking forward to try different squads and different tactics.

Complete list of finished games in 2019

I think my problem with this game is that it seems to rely too much on the player's skill progressing rather than improvements in the characters. Yes there are character improvements and upgrades but they are minimal and don't scale with the enemies. And you can't really grind to make up for it because the risk is far too great for what you get out of it.

You shouldn't even try to destroy all Veks. In most cases that won't be possible. Instead your top priority should be to keep your grid intact (and to improve it). Move the Veks, let them attack themselves, use the environment to your advantage. You can do that without powerful attacks. And take yourself time to think about your move. It's much more a puzzle game than a strategy game in in most cases there is a good solution to every situation.

I know its a puzzle game, that's kinda my point. There aren't reliable methods to improve in-game you have to improve out of game (ie player skill or intelligence) which is quite difficult and time consuming to do. I may know how all the pieces move but that doesn't mean I can put everything together and solve difficult chess puzzles. I think this game is very similar.

Star Wars The Fallen Order, Sekiro Shadow Die Twice, Control, Thronebreaker

edit : nvm, apparently I think it's still 2019...