As voted by you!
Through the month of November, we asked for you to vote for your favourite games of the year. You did (and in incredible numbers – thank you for that), and now it’s time to announce the finalists and the winners. Each day we’ll be revealing a new category.
How it works
The five games you’ll see below are the top five games for each category based on the reader’s votes. They are listed in no particular order. The final game is the winner.
If there are six games listed, then there was a tie for the 5th finalist in that category.
We’d love to hear what you think about each category, so please do let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Best Soundtrack
The Finalists:
Disgaea 3 (Vita) – Sure it was weird, but it was also wonderful. The theme song alone earned this one a place in the finals, we suspect.
Kid Icarus: Uprising – Perhaps this game defied everyone’s expectations. I mean, everyone knew it was going to be good, but THAT good? And with such an awesome soundtrack? The real black sheep of this category, but a well-deserving finalist.
VVVVVV – We love indie games, and VVVVVV is a game made for people that love indie games. The funky soundtrack complements the gameplay so well, it’s unbelievable.
They Bleed Pixels – How do you make a creepy platformer even more creepy? By making the soundtrack drip with atmosphere, that’s how.
Lollipop Chainsaw – Goichi Suda loves his music, and his games are always brilliant at melding various themes together into a barely cohesive, but entertainingly crazy mash-up. And yes, Lollipop Chainsaw uses the cheerleader classic “Hey Mickey” to hilarious effect.
The Winner:
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Surely everyone knew this was coming. Final Fantasy is a series that has been around for 25 years, and is so incredibly popular in no small part because time and again the series features music that is deeply emotive and endlessly memorable.
So bringing those games together to be the focus of a game is an inspired decision indeed. Just about every classic song is available either off the cartridge or as downloadable DLC (or on the iPad version), and the game strikes the perfect balance between challenge and accessibility, leaving something for everyone.
Hard to argue this one – but I will say Kid Icarus was pretty solid, and another title I liked was Double Dragon: Neon this year. Always a good sign when there's this many games with deserving sound tracks. 🙂
Theatrhythm? Really? There's what, one original track?
Where's mah Gravity Rush? Xenoblade? FFXIII-2 or Mass Effect 3, even? I call hax!
Oh c'mon – Theatrhythm didn't need original music. For 25 years that series has, time and time again, produced some of the best game music ever. Throwing all that together into the one game is a master stroke.
But yeah, all the games you listed there have pretty good music too. 😀
Agreed. I really liked the ME 3 soundtrack and while FFXIII-2 was hit or miss for me, some of the 'hits' were absolute favorites of mine.