Luchadors, wrestling moves and Metroidvania-style platforming. Guacamelee is made for me. Sadly, its early Sony exclusivity kept this writer from picking Guacamelee up until its eventual release on Steam. Playing as an average Mexican farmer turned super powered luchador, the player is tasked with saving El Presidente's daughter from an evil skeleton. Crazy story aside, Gucamelee looks to be a great extension of the classic Metroidvania formula. Switching the classic weapon upgrades out for wrestling moves, adding a dimension-changing mechanic and focusing on melee combat are the ways that Guacamelee differentiates itself from other action-platformers in the Metroidvania vein. I love this style of platformers and have put countless hours into many games in this sub-genre from Super Metroid to Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Once I get the chance to install Gucamelee on my computer, I predict much of the same with this game.
This joint venture from the minds of legendary animation house Studio Ghibli and esteemed video game developer Level-5 originally released for the Nintendo DS in Japan. A decent number of gamers heard about this unique collaboration through the media, but nobody thought Ni No Kuni would make it to our shores. Thanks to Namco Bandai, the PS3 remake, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, came to North America last January. Just as unique as the collaboration between Studio Ghibli and Level-5 is Ni No Kuni's gameplay. A mix between the combat of Namco's Tales series and the monster collection of Nintendo's Pokemon franchise, Ni No Kuni has the player switching between human characters such as Oliver and his party members and monster-like creatures known as Familiars during enemy encounters. This unique battle system along with the excellent 2D and 3D animation and art provided by Studio Ghibli make Ni No Kuni stand out as a quality JRPG in a generation that has seen more lackluster entries in this genre than standouts.
My love for the Ace Attorney series has been well documented in the annals of Silver Bit. Apart from Capcom's controversial decision to keep Dual Destinies as a digital-only release, the latest entry in the Ace Attorney series was easily among my most anticipated games of 2013. Following the events of Apollo Justice, Phoenix Wright has returned to the courtroom to help the wrongly accused from awkward teenagers to killer whales from facing prosecution. Even though Dual Destinies Mature rating, the game still looks to have all the comedic hijinks that fans have come to know and love. Dual Destinies adds the Mood Matrix to Phoenix's arsenal, which replaces the psych locks and perceive system from previous installments. The Mood Matrix allows Phoenix to gauge the emotions of a witness during cross-examinations in order to pick out contradictions. While this writer is still holding out for a physical release of Dual Destinies, I will definitely pick up the newest Ace Attorney within the next year.
Sony may have been hitting it out of the park on the hardware side of things in 2013, but their software has not gotten this writer as excited. Sony's major releases consisted of unnecessary sequels such as God of War: Ascension and Gran Turismo 6 and over hyped new IPs such as The Last of Us. The one game from Sony that got this writer excited was the one that got the least hype from the electronics giant--Puppeteer. Puppeteer is an interesting platformer from Sony's Japan studio with a striking presentation as the entire game plays out as an actual puppet show. Apart from the unique aesthetic, Puppeteer features a couple cool mechanics such as the ability for Kutaro, the player character, to switch heads for different abilities and Kutaro's pair of magical scissors which can be used to interact with the environment, fight enemies and traverse trails of string and paper. From what I have seen and read about Puppeteer, I am excited to eventually spend some time with the PS3's most interesting exclusive of 2013.
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