My Top 10 Games of 2019

I made a conscious effort in 2019 to prioritize completing more games over dabbling, and on experiencing a bevy of older, influential games I’d never before played over attempting to keep up with the persistent onslaught of new releases. During my first year of marriage and as my work became more demanding in 2019, I also made efforts to strike a better balance between my game time and personal well-being, exercise, family time (including family game time), and screen-free rest.

While I played enough 2019 releases (including a couple modernized remakes of those older renowned titles I’d never played before) to construct a true “…of 2019” list here, there were a number of titles I simply didn’t spend enough time with for consideration, and multiple others I never even touched, that may have otherwise beaten out a few of those included here.

Here are my top 10 favorite games released in 2019:

10. Untitled Goose Game
- I was pleasantly surprised by this game and admittedly found it’s grand ending and raucous premise wholly amusing. It helped that my family was engaged in watching and kind of playing along with me. A week or so after completing it, we encountered a stubborn goose holding up traffic as it waddled around in between the two lanes of a back road here in PA, and it was utterly hilarious. Any time I see this game, I’ll recall the way we laughed uncontrollably at the situation as a man got out of his truck and attempted to gently-but-unsuccessfully encourage this horrible goose to wander out of the middle of the road, and the way it behaved exactly as the goose in the game had in its waddling, wingspread, and honking.
09. Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Much like Untitled Goose Game, this was an indie title I’d heard so much about but went into with pretty tempered expectations and it actually wound up being so much more than a pleasant surprise. This game’s soundtrack, visuals, and manner of storytelling were phenomenal. While the gameplay itself was reminiscent of Rez— enjoyable but not particularly engaging for my tastes— overall the sum of its parts elevated it into new territory. The absolute best part about this game for me personally was that I started it up on my Switch as a low-stakes, visually inoffensive game to play as my family began to trickle in following a day of School and work and it so enamored my wife (who doesn’t particularly play or enjoy games) and kids that we all played it together, passing the controller around, over the next 2-3 nights.
08. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- From Software’s Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and many other inspired-by titles in that vain (from Hollow Knight to Nioh) rank among my favorite games of all time, yet I’ve actually beaten precisely zero of them. The ebb and flow of risk and reward, along with outstanding exploration and compelling characters, settings, and lore, make these games something to behold. I played Bloodborne (probably truly my favorite modern game) all the way through and then simply could not overcome its final boss, even upon re-visiting in earnest several times over the past couple years. I just simply do not have what it takes to “get good” at these games enough to not hit an impenetrable wall at some point, which doesn’t necessarily take away from my enjoyment. In 2019, I simply wasn’t up for decidedly diving into Sekiro‘s level of challenge, knowing this was a somewhat known quantity, yet I knew I had to try. I spent about a week following its launch familiarizing myself with it and hit a wall pretty early on despite loving its world and the verticality in its environments and movement, then bounced off of it. Near the end of the year, I re-visited it and its mechanics finally “clicked.” Despite its sometimes overwhelming challenge, I’ve found the game can be forgiving when approached with thoughtful consideration, strategy, patience, and perseverance. It’s one that requires a kind of “active listening” to overcome and so I aim to continue to attempt to see it through into 2020.
07. Resident Evil 2
- I’d played some of the first Resident Evil back on the original Playstation as a teenager and recall enjoying the exploration but was surprised to learn a decade or so later that the series had continued on. In recent years I’d tried Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 7 but couldn’t quite get behind them, what with zombies and all the sort of gross rot and decay. Yet I knew I needed to play the RE2 remake following my time with its “One Shot” Demo; exploring and unlocking sections of the infamous R.P.D. station were just to good to pass up. Despite not being the biggest fan of zombies and having only begun to find an affinity for some types of horror in 2019, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Resident Evil 2. It struck the perfect balance between exploration and tension, availability of resources coupled with the seemingly perfect placement and level of challenge of its enemies and checkpoints, with a modernized take on a classic I could digest. And I think, in part because of it being a remake of an old game, it didn’t outstay its welcome— so much so that I immediately dove into and completed Claire’s alternate story line upon completing Leon’s.
06. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is probably my favorite game of all-time. Due to the overwhelming level of nostalgia I have for that particular game, it was such a joy to learn that the lauded Link’s Awakening was to be released on the Switch in 2019. I’d never played the original Link’s Awakening, so another classic on this level being modernized for the handheld system gave me the perfect opportunity to jump in. When I saw the first trailer revealing its cutesy art style and highlighting its soundtrack, I was enamored but some part of me treated it as a lesser curiosity. Upon playing it I wasn’t initially drawn in, but eventually its hooks sunk in and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I could understand the arguments about some of its outdated design aspects, but nonetheless found the loop of exploring, uncovering new items and areas, and revealing secrets nearly as enjoyable as I have in its predecessor over the years. Being able to play it in handheld mode on the Switch was such a joy. I will say that it probably would have been higher on this list if not for uncharacteristic frame rate issues. Typically this kind of thing doesn’t bother me much (see Control on this very list, which I played on a base model PS4 slim!) but being that it was a. a full-priced, b. core Nintendo IP, and c. given Nintendo’s typically impenetrable seal of quality, I was pretty surprised and disappointed the game released in the state it did.
05. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- While Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was in many ways quite clearly an amalgamation of many of the most well-known AAA properties in gaming (Dark Souls, Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Metroid Prime, God of War, and so on), it was surprisingly well done and a joy to play. And furthermore, what it did in terms of story and its set pieces not only made my minute-by-minute experience with the game the most enjoyable it could be but opened my eyes regarding the Star Wars franchise as a whole. The way it handled its narrative around the force and Order 66, and exploration of what this could mean for those left behind, wrangling with survivor’s guilt, terror, and in some cases even abandoning the force in solemn regret, was the most powerful impetus for me to finally, finally after so many years, really get into Star Wars in a big way. And even better, the game and its arguably too-early release closely coinciding with the launch of Disney+ and The Mandalorian did the same for my wife (also not a big fan of Star Wars historically) and family who’ve since thoroughly enjoyed pretty regular Star Wars movie nights.
04. A Short Hike
- 2019 was a tough year in a lot of ways, despite also being a great year in others. By the end of the year I was completely worn down and degraded by my job and having experienced the worst in people over the course of several months on a failing project. I was growing especially cynical and depressed despite my best efforts to stay afloat. Fortunately, 2019 was also the first time I really allowed myself to fully embrace “cute” games in a way that didn’t somehow negate them as less than big AAA Action Adventure games and others with more realistic graphics and “adult” themes. A Short Hike was the perfect end cap for me in 2019, so wonderfully crafted with its beautiful art style and echoes of the best parts of A Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild‘s design philosophy, while also tackling some worthy and also much-needed “adult” subject matter. I so adored it’s short length, exploring its quirky little world and engaging with its eccentric characters, its delightful soundtrack, its fun minigame challenges, and its overall message and tone. In so many ways it was the perfect game at the perfect time and it helped to lift my spirits and also reflect on the ways time away from screens and games and cell phone reception can also be much needed and rewarding. I’ll surely play it again.
03. Outer Wilds
- For a while I was 100% convinced Outer Wilds was my favorite game ever, let alone my game of the year, game of the decade, what have you. It’s a game that is just so awe inspiring in its upheaval of traditional mechanics in video games (as I’ve come to know them, at least). The loop of exploring this little solar system in a rickety ship, exploring solely for exploring’s sake, with only knowledge to gain about a mysterious past civilization and its triumphs and failures within the confines of a 22-minute time loop, with the game’s realistically and scientifically-correct physics was just such a mind-blowing experience to behold. However, I eventually hit somewhat of a wall where I could have kept exploring and saw through to its widely regarded ending (I really, really should have) but didn’t. I simply became frustrated after pouring some 25-30 hours into it and went through an entire ark of feeling like a genius every time I discovered something new and each time something clicked and led me down a path of understanding and clarity to feeling dumb, inexperienced, and incapable of tying all its mysteries together to receive the secret of its grand bigger-than-us mystery. I attempted to revisit it later in the year but had lost so much momentum and upon restarting it a couple times, eventually decided to table the possibility of its completion in 2019. I do think I want to eventually tackle it without spoilers, if possible— I’d even attempted to restart it just yesterday— but I’m just not up to it yet. Despite this, I have such an appreciation and admiration for what this game is, what it represents, the story it tells, for how novel its design is, and such fond memories of my time with it earlier in 2019, that it must remain firmly placed in this list, albeit not in the #1 slot.
02. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses is something wholly unique, at least in my experience. I’d never before been particularly fond of Anime nor games with Anime-style art. I’d also previously not enjoyed many attempted forays into tactics-based games and turn-based strategy games. As Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ release date came and went, I was pretty satisfied I’d escaped a tempting-but-ultimately-not-for-me full-priced Nintendo bullet. Well fuck all if I didn’t eventually cave after a couple weeks of hearing about it, slowly circling around it, adding it to my cart then removing it. The case for it’s Hogwarts-like monastery setting and teacher:pupil relationship building, the appeal of dutifully educating your students and decisively building up their stats and strengthening bonds over the course of the game all came to be too compelling to ignore. And for this, I am so glad. I spent over 75 hours with Fire Emblem: Three Houses on my Switch, primarily in handheld mode, and it was such a rewarding experience, both in terms of its minute-to-minute gameplay loop, broken up wonderfully between easy-enough tactics gameplay for a beginner like me and time spent at the monastery nurturing the growth and potential of your students. The characters were outstanding and I found the overall story to be very well done and full of depth, with some pleasantly unexpected major plot twists to keep me hooked. It did admittedly start to outstay its welcome as I did nearly every battle possible throughout the majority of the story; by the last stretch I finally began skipping Auxiliary battles and high-tailing it toward the story’s increasingly intriguing end. I played through one house and plan to one day (not now) return to play through at least one other, if not both of the alternative house’s stories.
01. Control
- I’ve been a huge fan of Remedy since playing Quantum Break and then Alan Wake a few years back. Alan Wake itself is probably among my all time favorite games and managed to turn me on to Twin Peaks and Stephen King’s On Writing, and even began to enable me to appreciate horror as a genre, among other things. And while Quantum Break wasn’t too well-received, I personally really enjoyed its story and gameplay, even its live-action television show component. To say I was excited for Control is an understatement, especially having seen its mind-bending environment reminiscent of Inception and Doctor Strange, and the unique abilities of its protagonist in the trailer. I pre-ordered it well in advance, and did so as I mentioned earlier on the Playstation 4, which is a base model slim version. That said, this game is some next level shit graphically and my PS4 struggled hard at times while playing it, but holy shit, its world, and its writing, and its lore, and its psychological horror, and its acting, and its FMV segments, and its title cards, and, and, and… just holy shit. Control was fucking bat shit crazy weird in the best ways possible, and so fucking good. Just bravo, Remedy. Bravo!

Some noteworthy exclusions:

Lonely Mountains Downhill
- I spent a decent amount of time winding down with this delightful little downhill mountain biking game. It’s overall tone is well-tuned to provide a sense of calm following a stressful day or week, or at a time when one is feeling mentally exhausted but still in the mood to play something pretty low-stakes.
Baba is You
- I was really enamored by this game’s puzzles and unique new style early on, but eventually found its puzzles to be quite difficult and irksome, in that, to me at least, it seemed they began to defy their own logic. As though certain consequences and actions seemed not to be backed up by the rules as defined for the level. Still, a unique and worthwhile game and one I plan to re-visit.
The Outer Worlds
- This game came out on Xbox Game Pass, which was wonderful, because I wouldn’t have picked it up on my own and actually came to really enjoy it for a time. It’s slimmed down Fallout-but-better and essentials-only scope, narrative and play style options, and quirky “corporations are terrible” style of humor was initially promising, but eventually it became kind of grating. For me, even with it’s “time and budget” scope, it still managed to outstay its welcome and I moved on.
Death Stranding
- Truly a one-of-a-kind experience in many ways, I found a lot to love about it in my time with the game; it’s another batshit crazy game in the best possible way, but I just didn’t feel compelled to finish it by year’s end. I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to jump back in given its unsubtle storytelling and cringe-worthy in-game ads. However, I do know I’ll re-visit it and attempt to avoid spoilers.
Devil May Cry 5
- I never played through any of the prior Devil May Cry‘s and was somewhat turned off by their aesthetics, but after playing the demo went ahead and decided DMC5 was something I could get behind. And I did in a big way, for a time. I eventually moved on to other things, but plan to maybe get back to it one day.

And a few games that I feel maybe could have had a chance of being on this list had I been able to spend more (or in some cases, any) time with them in 2019:

Astral Chain
Luigi’s Mansion 3
Disco Elysium
Eliza
Observation
Telling Lies
Cadence of Hyrule
Ancestors
Greedfall
The Sinking City
Sea of Solitude
Close to the Sun
Audica

Every Game I Completed in 2019

It’s the start of a new year AND a new decade, which means it’s time to compile online retrospectives and listicles-a-plenty regarding the year AND decade prior. And this year I’m excited to chronicle my own year in games, armed with a wealth of data I meticulously captured throughout 2019. Being that it’s now January 4th, 2020, I’m already behind the curve as most of the rapturous enthusiasm for year’s end “CONtent” (ooof) fizzles and fades before the prior year has even officially ended. Nonetheless, here’s the list of my completed games for 2019.

Date	Game	Platform
1/14	Gris	Switch
1/17	Florence	Mobile – Android
1/23	Shadow of the Tomb Raider	Playstation 4
2/1	Shadow of the Colossus (Remastered)	Playstation 4
2/24	Bioshock	Playstation 4
3/21	Bioshock 2	Playstation 4
4/18	God of War (2nd Playthrough)	Playstation 4
5/26	Return of the Obra Dinn	PC
6/4	The Vanishing of Ethan Carter	Xbox One
7/17	What Remains of Edith Finch (2nd Playthrough)	Playstation 4
7/17	What Remains of Edith Finch (3rd Playthrough)	Xbox One
7/22	Journey	Playstation 4
7/28	Resident Evil 2 Remake – Leon	Playstation 4
8/7	Resident Evil 2 Remake – Claire	Playstation 4
9/7	Control (Platinum 9/11)	Playstation 4
10/13	The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Remake)	Switch
10/18	Untitled Goose Game	Switch
10/28	Blair Witch	Xbox One Game Pass
11/3	Sayonara Wild Hearts	Switch
11/30	Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order	Xbox One
12/4	Fire Emblem: Three Houses	Switch
12/27	A Short Hike	PC

Gris, Edith Finch, Journey, Sayonara Wild Hearts, A Short Hike – all astoundingly beautiful, delightful, life-affirming gems

By “completed” I am strictly referring only to games for which I saw credits roll in 2019. Effectively, this list excludes numerous games I spent considerable time with but did not finish, and many of my favorite games of this year (Outer Wilds, Sekiro). I’ll round those up in another post. It also inherently excludes online service games or games that (at least seem to) never end in this sense (No Man’s Sky, Hitman 2). Some of my and my family’s mainstays are missing (Beat Saber, Super Smash Brothers, Tetris Effect) but I’ll round those up separately as well.

I wanted to not only capture the games’ titles, but also the date and platform, as to me, these additional details tell a compelling story in their own right: at the beginning of the year, I was committed to catching up on “older” noteworthy games I’d never before completed; thereafter, I played through perhaps my favorite game of 2018 a second time, as I contemplated and re-evaluated my manner and effectiveness as a father; during the summer I played through What Remains of Edith Finch twice in the same day, on two different platforms, first as my oldest daughter slept in and again as we played through it together so I could share its phenomenal storytelling; also in the summer, I clearly had a kick for mystery and walking sim games, sharing part of the fun with my family, solving puzzles with their occasional input; in the fall, all I wanted to do was curl up with my Switch; the PS4 was knocked down as my console of choice later in the year as friendships faded; Xbox Game Pass was transformed in 2019 to include a roster of games I not only wanted to check out, but even play countless hours of.

I was pleasantly surprised to look upon this list and find that for the most part I did manage to maintain my goal of gaming self-edification in 2019 — or, catching up on renowned modern classics I’d missed in the prior decade when I wasn’t playing games, and others I’d missed out on or hadn’t finished in more recent years. It’s also telling that for as much as I kept up with “current” games in 2019 and participated to some extent in the zeitgeist surrounding their releases, few of them were games I actually completed in 2019. But hey, some of them will surely grace my personal lists and compilations at the end of 2020.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Outfit Highs and Lows

During a relatively lengthy hiatus from Horizon Zero Dawn, an article in my Google feed caught my attention, promising to explain how to get the best armor and weapons in the game. I’d been wanting to get back into Horizon for some time and figured a little guidance on how to become better equipped to handle the game’s considerable difficulty might help. I jumped back into Horizon Zero Dawn literally on a mission: I wanted to track down this armor and to do so, I would need to progress further in the story. This was the enticement I needed to finally work through the process of familiarizing myself with the game’s systems and combat that had befuddled me before, and to finally knock this title off my ever-growing backlog.

Headlong, I dove into tracking down the Ancient Armory to kick off the quest to unearth its pre-apocalyptic technological secrets. It was now time to go spelunking into bunkers throughout the world to collect the power cells I’d need to unlock the best gear in the game. I had a lot of ground to cover before I could even unlock several of the locations I’d need to raid. I also needed to do a bit of backtracking to locate one of the power cells I’d apparently overlooked during my first pass through one of the locations early in the game.

I pushed forward through the main story missions, veering slightly off-path in major locations to pick up additional power cells. As soon as I’d collected all of them, I headed back to the Ancient Armory to unlock the Shield-Weaver outfit, and oh man, was it worth it. The game became admittedly easier with this armor equipped, but more so it became less annoying and more manageable with this outfit’s generous-but-not-overpowered damage and elemental resistance perks. Kirk Hamilton at Kotaku did a write-up on how the outfit makes the game more fun, here, and I couldn’t agree more. As I continued through the game’s final story missions, I was so glad I had tracked it down. And well beyond the final boss encounter, the outfit has proved invaluable in my continued enjoyment of the game, as I’ve gone back to complete the bulk of side quests and optional open world content with the Shield-Weaver outfit equipped. I still die from time to time, but overall, spend much less time annoyingly reloading saves and scouring the map for healing herbs.

As I noted in an earlier post, sometimes a bit of guided help uncovering a game’s secrets can enhance the experience beyond imagining, which was definitely the case here. But also, sometimes the best gear doesn’t account for all design elements within a game and I encountered a couple minor oddities in Horizon Zero Dawn when trekking back through a series of side quests and errands, one specifically related to obtainment of the Shield-Weaver armor. My initial online searching yielded no results of others requesting help with the issue, so I thought I’d lay it out here.

After completing the game, one of the abandoned side quests I activated to re-visit was the Healer’s Oath Quest. On my way toward the Shadow Carja Capital, Sunfall, during my initial play-through, a green exclamation point signifying a quest-giver caught my attention. Abas needed a healer to tend to his ailing little sister but he was a poor refuge and could not afford the aid of the local healer; could Aloy help? “No,” I thought. The main story was becoming evermore interesting and I really had to save this type of meddling for a later time. I had activated the quest, so it was there whenever I got around to it, if ever. Surely, Abas’ little sister would be fine.

Later, I happened upon the settlement, Blazon Arch, when roaming the Lake Powell region of the map, and there I met the healer, Ghaliv. Aloy attempted to enlist his help to come to the aid of Abas’ little sister outside Sunfall, but you see, this was his day of rest and he simply had no desire to help if not personally profitable. “You’re kind of an ass,” Aloy let him know. He decided he could reconsider, that his “charity” could be bought with nothing more than the heart of a Thunderjaw. As it happened, with the Shield-Weaver armor equipped, it wasn’t an impossible feat to tackle this T-Rex-like machine— one of the hardest of the game— and I already had one on hand. A deal was struck.

I reactivated the Healer’s Oath quest, fast-traveled to a point-of-interest along the way to collect a nearby metal flower and Anuk Animal Figurine, and continued due North toward the tent settlement outside Sunfall to talk to Abas. Several times as I drew nearer, Aloy spoke aloud to herself, mentioning that she would need to don “that disguise” as she was entering Shadow Carja territory; she soon mentioned it by name— Shadow Stalwart Outfit. I thought of The Witcher III, in which masks and other special quest items needed to be manually equipped from your inventory, but I checked my Outfits section and didn’t see it there. I ignored her persistent warnings and eventually came to an impassable, invisible wall. An on-screen message notified me of the necessity of equipping the Shadow Stalwart outfit to progress into this area. I was within one hundred yards or so of my target, Abas’ sister who desperately needed the healer’s help, afterall, but could not get to her. What to do?

Then it hit me, “SHIT.” After obtaining the Shield-Weaver outfit and in need of metal shards (the game’s currency), I’d sold off ALL unnecessary outfits in my inventory. With the perks I’d receive from the game’s best outfit, why in the world would I expect I’d need to hold onto a random, mildly-beneficial outfit? Further, why would the game have allowed me to sell an outfit or item that was necessary to access a location or region within its open world!? Player Choice, I suppose.

I quickly searched online hoping I could still have a chance to re-obtain the outfit and complete the quest at Sunfall. I read that it was given to Aloy initially by Sylens, during the main story mission preceding travel to the Shadow Carja Capital. For a moment I felt a sense of dread. “Please don’t tell me I’m locked out of this area altogether now,” I thought. I typed in various keyword combinations, hoping someone before me had encountered the same issue and posted to a message board somewhere, or Reddit, for help, but found only mention of how to obtain it in the first place, for the purpose of progressing the main story. I panicked; I guessed a Merchant, or Merchants, within the game might have the outfit for sale, but there were so many, and their inventory varied all over. Finally, I found mention of the Shadow Stalwart outfit and where to obtain Medium and Heavy versions of it in Meridian. It could be purchased from the Hunting Goods Merchant there. Whew! I fast-traveled to Meridian and ran to my now-favorite Merchant of all. He had the goods, and I needed to track down some additional machine parts in order to trade for them. Ugh.

After hunting down the required parts and returning to Meridian to purchase the outfit I’d long ago owned, I could finally get back to Sunfall and get Abas’ sister the help she needed for a cool 5,500 XP.

Overall, my experience with Horizon Zero Dawn has been awesome. Aside from the aforementioned outfit debacle, though, one other thing continues to irk me. This is a bit pet peevish, and admittedly not hugely consequential, but worth noting.

Throughout the game, some Merchants offer Special Items’ location maps for sale. Without having realized it, I’d grabbed three copies of each map from different vendors throughout the world. Once I’d realized it, I found I couldn’t sell these extra, unnecessary copies to Merchants, and was struck that the game would allow me to uselessly re-purchase something I didn’t need and had no means of getting rid of. But hey, in the grand scheme of everything, a minor issue.

Horizon Zero Dawn: A Linear Path to Open World Enjoyment

In Horizon Zero Dawn, I’ve recently done something I rarely do: continued playing long after seeing the end credits roll. This, after having returned to the game over a year after its release, and not just for a dive into its Frozen Wilds expansion— I actually returned to complete the main story line.

Horizon’s open world full of beckoning icons and side quests galore had previously kept me distracted to the point that I’d made little progress. This time, I was committed to giving the game the chance it deserved… by decidedly sticking to the critical path so that I could blow through it as efficiently as possible and check it off my unfinished/backlog list. I marveled at the excellence of its writing as the story crescendoed, and at the complexity of its combat options, easing into a comfortable rhythm by the time I’d reached and overcome the final encounter. A cinematic post-credits scene teased a sequel. I was awestruck, felt a euphoric sense of accomplishment and completion, and left it behind. Until only a few days later, when it occurred to me I wanted more Horizon Zero Dawn.

Since returning for an encore, I’ve played countless hours more— both core game content and some of the Frozen Wilds DLC (which, so far, is great). Mostly, though, I’ve been diving into the abundant open world “distractions” and side quests I’d written off during my initial play-through in the main game, leaving my journey into the Frozen Wilds for after I’ve done everything else I want to do.

Lately, I’ve been really enjoying completing additional challenges like Hunting Grounds Trials, seriously testing my combat tactics and execution against the game’s robotic, dinosaur-like machines, and delving the depths of Cauldrons to enhance my spear’s machine override capabilities. I’ve also ascended all the Tall Necks to finally reveal the entire map, leading to further exploration and the collection of special items. And I’ve begun clearing Bandit Camps and Corrupted Zones, both significant challenges that continue to test my resourcefulness. Initially, these various options felt overwhelming, if not like unnecessary bloat. Now, having finally immersed myself in understanding the game and appreciating what it has to offer more fully, I’m happy to have even more Horizon Zero Dawn to play.

Update: On September 11, 2018, I proceeded to earn all PSN trophies for Horizon Zero Dawn’s main game, nabbing my first and only Platinum trophy to date.

A Link to the Past: Secrets, Hidden Dimensions, and Other Worlds

I remember, some time around the age of 5 or so, my dad buying the family a Super Nintendo for Christmas. In the first month- perhaps months- “for the family” really meant something more like “for himself.”

It came bundled with Super Mario World and while my sister, Madilaine, and I were sometimes allowed to play (likely on a separate save), I recall my dad playing it obsessively all the way through to Bowser’s castle, where he ultimately got stumped. My aunt, uncle, and a half-dozen of my cousins were over to witness his descent into madness as he struggled to figure out how to take this heinous monster down. How the hell were you supposed to beat this expletive, expletive expletive anyway?

And so, he did what any rational, self-respecting person would do: he called the 1-800 number for Nintendo support which he found in the game’s physical, multi-page manual (’twas was a different time then). Ashamedly, my cousins, Maddie, and I attempted to interject the number wasn’t intended for support in terms of instruction on how to beat the game or its bosses but he was in a rage and was not about to quit. So some of my cousins jumped in to try to figure out the mechanic, one after another, while my dad waited on hold for probably a half hour, growing angrier by the minute. My cousins had no prior knowledge of how to obtain victory as they were the proud owners of a Sega Genesis and innumerable awesome games for it (Lucky!). If they’d succeeded, he’d surely have been even more pissed.

The customer service reps for Nintendo tried to explain he’d reached the wrong department — they were product support, you see, able to answer technical questions related to use of the hardware and were unable to answer gameplay-related questions — and he was transferred around a few times before reaching a savior willing to explain to him the method to beat Bowser, if albeit reluctantly since this was well outside the scope of his job.

The trick was, you needed to jump on top of the enemies Bowser would throw out of his ship, grab a hold of them and toss them up high enough to hit Bowser over the head to do damage. This was the revelation my dad needed to get past this blocker and to feel the overwhelming sense of relief and accomplishment at having finally beaten the final boss and completed the game. This was the culmination of all his frustration and countless hours spent speedily platforming, collecting coins and items, figuring out puzzles, dodging (and so often failing to dodge) enemies, restarting levels and reverting to checkpoints. Well, was he ever pissed to realize this journey hadn’t ended once he beat Bowser, though for him, as much as I can recall, he’d achieved all he set out to do in Super Mario World and never ventured further on. The End credits signified the end.

It was game on for Maddie and I; the Super Nintendo was pretty much ours from then on. My mom limited our game time but we got to play a significant amount of Super Mario World on our own, and it was great. We especially loved donning the cape and most of all, the ghost house levels. Sometime later a friend of our family, babysitting us one night at her house, showed us the depth of the Star Road levels and all that extended beyond the Bowser fight. There was nothing quite like the rush of endorphins when finding out that the game held an entire secret world and the notion that so much could lie beyond what a game projected on its surface. What is now considered downloadable, add-on content (“DLC”) then was included by the developers as part of the package, to surprise and delight players well beyond the final boss fight. Realizing this hidden world existed and that it contained such a wide variety of new and interesting levels and gameplay mechanics, I was mesmerized and could barely contain my giddiness at the thought of what may yet remain to uncover.

Sometime later we’d moved and I’d made a new friend in 1st or 2nd grade, named Jeff Potts. And Jeff Potts owned a Super Nintendo and a heap of games for it, including a bunch of titles I’d never been allowed to pick up when visiting our local used games shop- either because of violent content or price- like: Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Mario RPG, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I dabbled when at his house, but it wasn’t until later that I received the full benefit of his friendship.

My dad had purchased a Sony Playstation for Christmas, which meant I could take over temporary ownership of the Super Nintendo upstairs, in my own room. Years of family nights playing Mario Paint and timed sessions swatting flies in that game had evolved to bowling in 3D in our living room. Jeff and his brother had upgraded by then to the Nintendo 64 and were mesmerized by Star Fox and Goldeneye, which meant I could freely borrow picks from their SNES collection for fairly open-ended periods of time.

I was overwhelmed with options. I tried them all, then jumped back and forth between them, rapidly switching out cartridges and blowing dust out of them whenever necessary. There were hidden characters and levels to obtain in Mortal Kombat, countless special moves and fatalities to learn. There were mechanics I’d never before encountered in Super Mario RPG (“turn-based combat, what is this?”). Super Mario World remained challenging in its later levels and I’d still not completed it 100%. These were exciting times.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was… interesting… but slow to start. This top-down view was pretty strange. Why was there so much text to read, at first? Where was I supposed to go once I’d been spat out into the world following the intro? Sure there were markers, but there were so many interesting things along the way that distracted me and pulled me away from my mission. What was my mission, really, anyway? Back to fighting games for a while, and Crash Bandicoot and Demo discs whenever possible, as my time on the Playstation in the living room was limited.

Around this time, I frequented the local grocery store. By frequented, I do mean I was there almost every day of the week, either with my mom gathering food for our home, or for my mom grabbing various items needed at our family’s restaurant. I began to notice Gaming Magazines and Guides in the Periodicals section of the store. Tips & Tricks offered codes, cheats, and maps for games and revealed secrets. GamePro offered previews and reviews. I was fascinated most of all by the codes, special items and their locations, special moves, and secret worlds hidden within games and revealed inside the pages of these magazines and guides.

One day, I noticed an entire issue devoted to A Link to the Past. On the front, there were promises of full maps and locations, guidance for enemy encounters, and so much more. I flipped through the pages in awe. The maps and the item descriptions, and the sheer volume of tactical information contained therein caused my neurons to fire wildly. I’d seen the magazines before and I’d tried a few codes here and there, but this was a literal game changer for me. I begged my mom to buy it but her answer was “no.” I was crushed. On some subsequent visit, I’d won out and the guide ended up in our cart.

Something about the fact that a guide existed for this game suggested a level of depth unimaginable beforehand, that there was so much to uncover. It was time to get home and delve into every nook and cranny, to absorb the lore and the art and the wondrous design. I consumed every word, picture, and description and transcribed it onto my DNA. There were secrets to uncover, items and chests I could see but not yet obtain, dungeons to explore. I could encounter a puzzle in the game world and test solutions on my own, and was assured I’d never be stumped with the answers at my fingertips. I was empowered to learn about hidden secrets I never would have uncovered within the game without an inkling of prior knowledge; I was absolutely hooked.

The use of the guide helped to significantly enhance the experience of playing through the game, its very existence highlighting the fact that this game held numerous and powerful secrets. It didn’t feel like cheating to have the extra assistance, the way that the use of literal “cheat codes” sometimes did. Using the guide simply helped me to have a point of reference when and if I was stumped, and kept me engaged at times when I’d reached a point of boredom or uncertainty about continuing. This enhancement and elevated level of engagement with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, in addition to its story and design, ensured that it would become and remain my favorite game into adulthood.

Today, most of my favorite games are sprawling RPGs and “Metroidvanias” with “hub and spoke” design mechanics and hidden areas unlocked with special items, the kinds of games that almost require the use of a guide to learn all its secrets, at once overwhelming and rewarding, much like A Link to the Past was to me then.

Several years ago I’d purchased a Super Nintendo at a flea market but found myself priced out of most of my all-time favorite games. A Link to the Past was going for something like $75-95 at the time, which was simply not feasible then. In recent years I’ve replayed A Link to the Past in various forms- emulated on Android, on the Wii U, and again on the SNES classic (when I was able to finally obtain one, after the first shipment had sold out entirely and my first several attempts to track one down had been futile). Friends seemed surprised when I shared I was currently replaying it and even more so when I told them it was probably my favorite game, full stop. This, in the age of Call of Duty, Destiny, MOBAs, and persistent, online worlds-type games-as-a-service. But I’m not alone in my high regard for it. Game Informer ranked A Link to the Past #1 on their top 300 Greatest Games of All Time in 2018.