VGChartz's Evan Norris: "Compared to recent Wonder Boy offerings, Asha in Monster World is a bit of a letdown. Judged on its own merits, though, it's a decent entry in the franchise. It boasts some engaging platforming, puzzling, and combat situations, and it benefits from an expanded hub area, rearranged music, and several QoL features. Nishizawa and company could have updated a few old-school level designs and mechanics to improve the experience, but chose instead to preserve the identity of the original. The result is a remake that faithfully sticks to the established formula, warts and all."
Phil writes, "This year had many great video games, but these titles, while also great, were unfortunately some of the most overlooked games in 2021."
Replies(1)The demo for Neo was fun but i couldn't get myself to pay 60 for a handheld(switch) game that was ported to the PS4.
It's 40 now but i got a backlog. I will play it eventually though.
I feel like F.I.S.T didn’t get nearly as much love as it should’ve got this year.
I could say Doki Doki Literature Club Plus but it sold 500k in a week which is quite impressive. I was just upset that it didn't win any GOTY awards. Although I was told it's because the main game is the same as the original so despite the added side stories, it doesn't count as a new game and couldn't qualify for GOTY. It's still GOTY and true GOAT in my heart.
That's BS because there have been updated versions of games that have been eligible for awards in the past. The Game Awards are clearly slanted in favour of more mainstream games, and there has been more than one occasion when my personal GotY has been far more under the radar. For that reason, I haven't bothered with the Game Awards or any other high profile award show or publication in years.
I decide what my personal GotY is every year based on what I've played. I tend to play a wide variety of titles ranging from AAA to indie, Western to Japanese, so my GotY isn't always some hipster dojinshi title, but I'm definitely far more likely to be in agreement with various GotY awards if it's a AAA, Western title.
To be clear, I don't hate on these award shows and publications, and know why they exist. I just don't follow them because they don't do much for me anymore. If a Japanese-inspired indie title like Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is your personal GotY, all the power to you. I'm of the opinion that far too many people place far too much importance on the opinions of a select few, and quite frankly, a game doesn't need to be awarded a GotY in any official capacity to be a GotY for me.
TBH, I'll have to think about what my personal GotY is. There are a few games that stand out for me...
"The spirit of old-school gaming is alive and well so here are the very best retro experiences, classic game collections, and revivals of 2021." - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums
"Video Chums is 7 years old today and to celebrate, here are my 10 favourite underrated games from the past year out of the 206 titles that I wrote full reviews for. I hope you discover something that you'll enjoy as much as I did!" - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums
