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.
Here it is! After 17 awards it’s time to share the big one – the overall game of the year! Selected from the list of winners from the other categories, this has been a difficult award to arrive at, because 2019 has thrown up an *awful* lot of great games. Still, the three here all represent something truly special – they’re the ones that we’ll remember for years into the future, and likely keep coming back to over time. All these games represent a different kind of creativity, and offer us something different. How many have you played yet?
BRONZE
Judgment (Read our review here)
Who knows if Judgment is going to become a “new Yakuza” over time and become a well-loved series that span over console generations. It may well be a simple one-off. But either way, it’s a brilliant new look at the beloved world from the Yakuza series, giving us a new protagonist and different approach to storytelling, while locating it in that same familiar location. That location is as much a character as any of the people in it, and so in giving us a different look and perspective, Judgment has done a really valuable thing for the overall property… and it was a damn fine game in its own right.
This one really blew us away. We already knew that Nippon Ichi had a way of finding creative and interesting 2D puzzle platformers, having released a brace of them on the PlayStation Vita previously, but The Liar Princess really elevated it to the next level. A brilliant little deconstruction on the fairy tale structure, the Liar Princess is deeply subversive and brilliantly written. Backed by gorgeous art and clever – though never too taxing – puzzles, this is the kind of game that’s anyone can pick up and play… and it will stay with them for quite some time thereafter.
GOLD
Spirit Hunter: NG (Read our review here)
Death Mark, a few years ago, was a good start for Experience Inc’s horror visual novel series, but Spirit Hunter: NG was so much more refined. Where Death Mark focused on the relatively primitive urban legends-style horror, Spirit Hunter also aims for a higher concept – Japanese Shinto spirit stories and mythology. It does much the same thing as Death Mark, but with better-defined characters and antagonists, a richer sense of horror and a deeper sense of mystery.
Thank you for tuning in to all of our awards this year! What were your favourites of 2019? Do let us know in the comments!
– DDNet Team
