Awards by the DDNet Team
It’s that time of year again, where we look back at the year that was, and pick our top three games across a host of categories! As with years past we’ll reveal one award winner per day, and this year we’ve got a massive 17 different awards to share out. It was a difficult process to choose the winners this year! While 2019 might not have had quite as many spectacularly big blockbuster releases as years past, the quality of games that were released with far less fanfare than they deserves is truly incredible.
The Nintendo Switch has proven itself over and over again to be a truly great console, providing us with an endless supply of brilliant games to play – from Nintendo itself, but also from the general game development space. From titles we would never have dreamed about playing on the go, through to brilliant an unique exclusives, 2019 has been no different, and the Switch is firmly establishing itself as one of the greatest consoles ever.
BRONZE
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince (Read our review here)
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is the kind of game that does work better on a portable console. Easy to pick up and play in short bursts, and featuring 2D gameplay that really looks gorgeous on the small screen, the Switch plays up the Liar Princess’ best features, without leaving players with the expectation that the game would offer the “full console experience,” whatever that means. With the Switch version of the game, you can enjoy this on its own merits… and this is a smart, genuine, emotional and introspective little experience.
The original Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, which Every Buddy here is a “HD Remaster” of, was originally a Nintendo Wii title. The Switch edition does everything right; it makes the brilliantly charming Chocobo and Final Fantasy enemies vibrant in high definition, introduces just enough new features to improve the experience (such as the ability to take buddies into the dungeon), and, as a roguelike, is a great fit for the Nintendo Switch hardware, being both a game that you can plow through a few floors of the dungeon on the morning commute, and then, back at home, you can play for hours on end, in one of the most endlessly charming games Square Enix has ever produced.
GOLD
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Read our review here)
It had been quite a while since the last “new” Fire Emblem title when Three Houses came along, but it was well and truly worth the wait. One of the most substantial efforts yet to balance out the battlefield action with character-driven interaction, Three Houses is a goldmine of superb characters, and you’ll get plenty of time to interact with each of them and develop your favourites. Then you’ll head out on the battlefield, where Three Houses functions as one of the cleanest turn-based tactical experiences yet… while offering plenty of challenge on the high difficulty settings. This game shows just why Fire Emblem has become such an important property to Nintendo.
Stay tuned for the next award tomorrow!
– DDNet Team
