by Danreb Victorio
Find out what game is our 2014 Game of the Year and the nine runner-ups that came close.
Another year has gone by, so it’s time for another Top 10 list. It’s worth noting that nobody on our staff is very fond of articles that are purely just lists, but ever since we decided to switch up our Year in Review segment format, we collectively decided that our system works.
How does it work? Well, over the past few days, you’ve probably read the individual Top Games of 2014 lists from eight of our staffers. From there, each game nominated is given a score depending on where they’re ranked, and that’s how this overall list is compiled.
This way, we don’t have to deal with stupid arguments. It’s about as fair as we can make it, and despite all the lobbying one can make over a game (yeah, I’m looking at you, Patrick), the fact of the matter is we’re the reason why each game is where it is at the end.
The eight guys on staff collectively nominated 43 games, which is two more than last year — then again, we only had seven participate last year — and the results were extremely close.
In fact, our Game of the Year is a game that didn’t even top anybody’s list, and if you know any of us, we’re hardly mainstream people. So, yes, you can bet that we had some arguments internally about giving this game our coveted Game of the Year award. But, in the interest of fairness, it’s the right thing to do.
2013 was a fantastic year, and we’d be lying if we said 2014 topped it. That being said, 2014 did feature some gems, as our staff was able to name 43 titles to put on their lists. Of the 43, including multiplatform games, 16 of them were Xbox One games, showing that it’s been quite a year for Microsoft despite its slow sales. Even more striking is that while only six Wii U games made the list, five of them are exclusive to the Wii U. This ties the 3DS, which also has five exclusives on that overall list of 43. So, Nintendo has definitely gotten a lot of love from our staff.
Also worth noting is the fact that we didn’t nominate any games we don’t have a published review for. This regulation was one that the staff met with a lot of anxiety, but in the end — who are we to say a game is great if we didn’t have further proof of it? We figure if we want to nominate a game that we didn’t review, we might as well review it, right?
Anyway, like last year, our Top 10 is going to be unveiled in the form of videos. So without further ado, here’s our Top 10 Games of 2014.