by Jordan Elek
I’m Jordan Elek, and here are my top 5 games of 2015.
Top 5? Why not Top 10? The few games I did play this year were so good that I never felt a pressing desire to move on to different games, opting instead to wait for price drops on most of them. I put over 200 hours into Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, over 150 hours into Super Mario Maker, and already over 60 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles X in the three weeks since release. Those numbers are basically unheard of for me, but that’s how much I love each of those games.
Some of the other potentially great games of 2015 are already sitting on my hard drive — The Witcher 3, Axiom Verge, and Galak-Z to name a few. Others, like Fallout 4 and Just Cause 3, will be mine after price drops. Video games were far too big for me this year, which is never a bad thing.
Here are five of the games I did play and loved enough to rank:
5. Titan Souls – PC, PS4, Vita
Although short and simple, Titan Souls nails what it’s trying to be — a series of 2D-Zelda-style boss fights that focus on puzzle solving and precision. There’s nothing else quite like it out there.
4. Ori and the Blind Forest – PC, Xbox One
Ori and the Blind Forest is a beautiful game both visually and thematically, and it also manages to be an excellently crafted Metroid-style adventure with superb platforming mechanics. The Metroid-style genre has been growing rapidly, and Ori stands with the best of them.
3. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – 3DS
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is the perfect type of game for me. It rewards patience and perseverance like no other game, and the improvements to the formula in this iteration are fantastic.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles X – Wii U
If someone studied what I love about video games and made a game based on what they found, it would be Xenoblade Chronicles X. It squarely hits every node in the reward center of my brain, and it’s the most visually beautiful game I’ve ever played.
1. Super Mario Maker – Wii U
Super Mario Maker is my favorite game of all time. Creating levels is more fun than I ever imagined it could be, and other creators are more inventive than anyone expected. I could play this game forever.
2015 will be remembered as a year when at least three of my favorite games of all time were released. I don’t care if next year has zero new games for me. My backlog from 2015 alone will last me another year.