Memento 2016

Let’s go to the tips with what’s perhaps the most special product of the list, namely SHENZHEN I / O , exclusive PC game and produced by Zachtronics. Defining it is a gamble, because the underlying idea is a virtual engineering course where the user learns to create circuits for ever more complex projects, with a handy PDF manual to print . In case you want to take a break, in SHENZHEN I / O is also included a solitary, favorite pastime of frustrated engineers.

We always stay in the PC and with GoNNER we give a small pearl to play with all roguelike enthusiasts, who have spent hours and hours of dying with the various Downwell or The Bindig of Isaac and who want to immerse themselves in one of the most inspired graphics games 2016, even in its simplicity, with a hand-drawn world that takes shape around the protagonist. The soundtrack, produced and recorded by Joar “Regular Graphics” Renolen, would then be a valid justification for investing your ten euros on GoNNER .

There is a cabinet with inside a stylized arcade, featuring a pony. Then there you are, playing with that cruiser. And finally there is Satan in person, who plays with you playing with the cruise ship, a cursed cruiser. All clear no? The very strange experimental suspense puzzler, as Daniel Mullins himself describes it, is a unique gaming experience where you, for real, have to fight the devil with code snippets, lines to decipher, and a disturbing pony stylized by Go ahead in the levels of obstacles and glitches. Yes,  Pony Island is a fairly bizarre game.

Let’s go back at least with one foot in the mainstream, because the well-deserved sales of Darkest Dungeon brought the complicated RPG produced and developed by Red Hook Games also on PlayStation 4 and PS Vita. The game is highly recommended for all those who are looking for a dark adventure that combines the typical roguelike mechanics with the gameplay of RPGs in turn and that they do not feel guilty of staining the holy festivals with sounds of improper and swearing, because in the world of Darkest Dungeo No heroes are dying one after another.

2016 will go to history as the year when they saw the light of titles with more or less decades of development. Along with the best-known The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy XV , we believe that Owlboy also deserves a bit of attention because long development, unlike many other cases, did not compromise the quality of the title, which is at the same time one of the most successful pixel art creators and a design level poster. The D-Pad Studio guys have been sweating it for a long time, but the wait has certainly been rewarded with 2D platform and jigsaw puzzles perfectly integrated with each other.

A little for homeland love, a little for the right support that should be given to our little developers and a bit because the game is really evocative, perfect for co-op sessions and a level of difficulty with such puzzles to really put the gear of the brain in motion. The concept created by Yonder’s kids is as simple as functional: in Red Rope: Do not Fall Behind turns around a man and a woman tied by a red thread, the only key to ending the various labyrinths that they paranoise on their path, a tie that breaks when it comes to the game over.

Maybe the game should not be on this list, after all, Double Fine’s graphic adventure is one of the pillars of video game history, but we just put it right as a reminder for younger players who could not live the d ‘Gold of this genre and that with this new, remastered edition can fill a serious gap.

Whether it’s in its version for PlayStation VR or in its simplest PC style, Thumper is still one of the must-see for the end of the year, a game capable of transmitting a tremendous physicality, reinventing the genre of rhythm games thanks to one space shooter launched at crazy speeds on endless tracks, while all around, in a psychedelic and terrifying game, the shapes are in continuous motion, in a liquid that becomes hard geometry, while a demonic fiery head lurks on the horizon. Visually, Thumper is a cover of a CD that comes alive.

Mother Russia Bleed s

The Most Holy Christmas is a good marriage with the family and the dinners, but also with the necropolis, the heavy drug that floods like a river the violent streets of Mother Russia Bleeds , a concentrate of blood, barrel and degradation in pixel art. Scrolling is a clear tribute to Le Cartel Studio as it was and our passageways in salagiochi, even though under the effect of steroids and loaded like never before with a rage and a modern dystopia violence.

The praises of the time that went on with Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX) , a game that would be taken and carried on horseback between the ’80s and’ 90s would not be out of place. The Battle of Independent Spanish Developer Locomalito is to preserve the atmospheres and feelings of the old arcades, and in fact, Cursed Castillais a modern Ghosts’n Goblins, set in a hybrid Iberian land in a fantasy medieval, invaded by monsters of all kinds.

Hyper Light Drifter is a game that is as challenging as fulfilling, aesthetically fascinating and with a hermetic and engaging history at the same time. If you are not afraid to die for countless times and want to test your skills with one of the most refined video system combat systems, the action developed by Heart Machine is one of the prominent titles among those to be recovered in the last year. As if that were not enough, the soundtrack was made by Disasterpeace: what do you want the most?

We remain in action, with what in all respects is a concealed imitation of Souls in 2D. The squeaky atmospheres of the Ska Studios work closely recall those already seen in the titles of Miyazaki, as many of the mechanics already know, with the salt taking the place of souls. But in the end, if the From Software creations work and please the public, why should not they just do its successful 2D clone?

They had frozen you in 1997 and pulled out just now, the vision of a game like I Am Setsuna would make you think you did just a short nap. The Tokyo RPG Factory JRPG, despite being released only a few months ago, can be considered a classic of its kind, not so much for its good quality, but rather for the strong appeal to all those Squaresoft titles of the times that were, with a combat system based on the Chrono Trigger mechanics and a story that revolves around the young Setsuna sacrifice.

Let’s leave behind the dreamy Japanese atmosphere and give way to the frantic action of Enter the Gungeon , a title based on rogue-like mechanics, on which the typical gameplay of the twin stick shooters is incorporated. The formula is as simple as it is functional: you choose one of the four characters and make out all the randomly generated enemies in the levels, until they put their hands on a weapon that can destroy the past.

If you have already set it in the cellar, it’s time to put your Kinect back in place, because it’s fine that we are in 2016, but that’s the year when it is worth scratching the poor peripheral thanks to Fru , maybe one of the few titles to ingeniously exploit the potential of Kinect. You may play when your relatives or girl do not see you, because to overcome the riddles you submit your body to very little dignity.

SUPERHOT – SUPERHOT – SUPERHOT … SUPERHOT! Ever since we put our hands on the shooter (we can define that way?) Developed by Superhot Team, these words rumble in the head. SUPERHOT really scored 2016, far more than the mega-stratospheric budget, and did it with a simple and ingenious gameplay, difficult to frame in classics, where firing is first of all puzzles to be solved. Alongside this, there is room for a trivial narrative and a minimalistic artistic style, based on a narrow color palette that strikes me in the mark.