82. Lonely Mountains Downhill - Xbox One

A late surge for game of the year, in at #2.  In many ways it shares similarities with Supermarket Shriek, which it narrowly failed to dethrone from the top of my list.  It can be played as high concentration burst gaming, and it requires/expects the player to improve constantly.  For such a simple game - guide your bicycle to the bottom of a long descent without falling off it - there's a lot going on.  It's part part checkpoint progress/route learn frustrate 'em up, but it can also be a wonderfully serene and laid back affair. The way it incorporates non game breaking elements of DIY route finding push it over the line into extra special territory.  It's a fine game if you stick to the beaten track, but it becomes brilliant once you dare to venture off it.  Shortcuts are essential if you're chasing anyone's time, and they're of a far more free-form nature than in something as ultra designed as Trials.  In that you'd plot your precise route and look for ways to shave tenths of seconds off here and there (or 'cheat', by watching and mimicking top ghosts), but there's far more scope for improvisation in this.  Chuck your bike off a ledge in the right place and you might hit terra firma at an angle and speed that doesn't bounce you off, shaving 12 seconds off a run (see gif).  And if you miss it by inches, the likelihood is you'll want to try it again.  It's not as clinical as the 'this is the shortcut' feel of, say, Mario Kart 8.  I haven't checked to see if this has leaderboard ghosts yet, but I'd hope it doesn't; local seems enough to keep things interesting.     

The pastel visuals and throwback flat shaded character models are great, and although it chugs in places on the busier mountains it's a mostly smooth experience.  It's tricky, but the requirements to unlock all areas aren't particularly tough.  I did like the way it absolutely required an off-piste approach to the speed runs towards the end though.  Super stuff. [9]

Haha, glorious isn't it?

Is that Gamepass Moot?

Had a crack of it today. Tis lovely.

As a rule of thumb a big drop will wipe you out unless you land on an incline.  You'll work out what constitutes a big drop with practice.  Certainly for beginners such as myself too much air time is best avoided.  Check out the gif above - if the landing was on flat ground that'd be a bail all day long.  The risk/reward game is strong with this one.

83. Shovel Knight: King of Cards - Switch

The journey is over.  It's no secret that I love the original game (it's a straight [10] for me), and the first two DLC campaigns were a mixed bag well worth delving into.  The final freebie is easily the best of the additional quests; King's barge into twist move works far better than the core mechanics of either Plague or Spectre, and the levels built around these moves are superb.  It felt intuitive from the get go and it packs a ton of variety into its stages, plus almost all of the magic items are worth either using regularly or messing around with.  There's an emphasis on secret exits to the stages this time, most of which only contain a single restart point.  It's one of the easier campaigns, mainly thanks to the liberal dishing out of hearts and manual health boost perk, which allows bosses to be bruted a bit more than previous entries, but also because the bubble move is a bit of a get-out-of-jail card.  In addition to the platforming there's a pretty enjoyable card game chucked in the mix too.  Not my sort of thing as a rule, but it won me over as the campaign progressed and I ended up really enjoying the single move puzzles in particular.  

The ending to this one is super stronk and as usual the post game challenge mode is great fun.  The quest is probably the longest too, roughly on par with Shovel Knight and weighing in close to 10hrs if you're not actively avoiding secrets.  A fitting swansong for my favourite platformer of all time.  I loved it.  [9]

10. Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch)

Double figures, yay! Should be able to add s couple more games by year end.

This started off as a bit meh on first playthrough. I just went through all stages and didn’t see the fuss. But then trying to get all gold and all cards on second run through was good. Some dud levels and tunes but there are also some great ones. The mix of perspectives and styles is great. Going for high scores could be fun but I think I’m done for now. A couple of missing cards and fuck trying to get gold on last level though.

[8]

What do you mean by last boss?
Cause I didn't have a problem with that, but I think B ran into the same problems as you. Agree with your review though. 

Did you manage to find any of the special ghosts or boo's? I had a look at my collection and I've only found the regular ghosts and bosses, quite disappointed with that.

Yeah, same problem B had, guess I got lucky there.

41. Blazing Chrome [7]
22-30 Dec
A very effective homage to 16-bit Contra games that gets everything right except perhaps the most important thing. It looks and sounds the part, controls pretty fluidly and sets a solid but fair challenge. Levels are reasonably varied and the bosses are big and require some learning. I enjoyed playing through it and may return to give other characters a try. But it just lacks the spark of imagination of its source material, and even when it gets a little experimental there are no real wow moments. It's one thing invoking the classics, but the real standout quality of the older games was how they pushed the boundaries of the genre. And that's not something you can recreate through mimicry, no matter how respectfully it's done.

Glad you enjoyed it but the actual platforming in Rayman is the weakest part of its game for me.  I played both of the modern releases but it all felt a touch floaty and long winded for my tastes.  Still played pretty well though, definitely better than some, just not quite precise enough to be mentioned alongside the greats imo.

Agree.  It's jostling with Yooka Laylee & the Impossible Lair for the last Europa League spot.

Haha, good comeback.

Glad you enjoyed Rayman though.

I hardly get much time to play nowadays.

I really wanna get to 52 but always end up with a few big time sinks and fall behind then totally give up in irritation!!!