Best Console Game of 2021 (That We Played)
Best Console Game of the Year (2021)
2021 was an interesting year for gaming. In hindsight, there were no runaway choices for the best game of the year when compared to other years, but that’s a good thing because there was a high quality game for almost everyone that could have been considered the best of the year. From rogue-likes and Metroidvanias to first person shooters, and even games about unpacking boxes, there was no category of gaming that didn’t have an elite entry. Since we are making the rules we decided to bend them a little and choose two for the best of the year since there was too much quality across the board. Here are the top two games of the year that we played on console and some worthy mentions that just missed the cut.
Metroid Dread - Nintendo Switch
Our co choice for the best game of this year was a game that had very little time to build hype like the rest of the games on the list. If you look at the recent history of gaming, this method of a short time between announcement and actual release date usually leads to a more positive reception. Metroid Dread was announced at a Nintendo Direct in June and was released in October. This is only a few months which helps slow down the hype train that can sometimes disappointment if it gets going too fast.
With Metroid Prime 4 already in the works and likely too big to cancel at this time, Metroid Dread feels like the last chance that the series had to prove to Nintendo that gamers care about this often forgotten series. The last 2D Metroid was released in 2017, just months after the release of the Switch, for the Nintendo 3DS. Sadly, with that audience dwindling near the end of the handhelds life cycle, and the game not being released on the massively popular Nintendo Switch, Metroid: Samus Returns sales severely underwhelmed.
Despite Metroidvania’s having a renaissance over the past five years with great games like Ori and Hollow Knight just to name a few, there was no safe bet that an original Nintendo Switch 2D Metroid game would be a success despite seeing some moderate success with Samus Returns on the 3DS. What seemed like a safer decision and much closer to Nintendo history would have been to port the Samus Returns to the Nintendo Switch with a few small improvements. Instead they decided to double down on the foundation that Samus Returns laid and implement a brand new story, hence why Metroid Dread is also titled Metroid 5.
Metroid Dread follows the plot from Metroid Fusion from 2002 when it was released on the Game Boy Advance. This could have also been a problem because the Nintendo Switch has sold almost 100 million and the majority of those owners likely have never played a Metroid title. The good news here is that the story isn’t weighed down by the past so new players can jump right in no problem and be fine, plus the game does a pretty decent job at the start with a little recap cutscene.
Fans finally got what they want with a full 2D Metroid on a primary Nintendo console and the reception could not have been better. Metroid Dread sold 854 000 copies in its first month according to Nintendo and reviews were extremely favourable from critics and fans alike. Metroid Dread even managed to win Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards.
The development combined original creator Yoshio Sakamoto who knows Metroid inside out and MercurySteam. MercurySteam is reported to have pitched Sakamoto on doing a remake of Metroid Fusion for the modern age, which Nintendo declined but since they liked the pitch so much they brought the team on for development of Metroid Samus Returns and seeing what they were able to do with a remake on the 3DS, Nintendo gave the green light for the first original entry in the series in almost 20 years.
Metroid Dread did what you want from a good Metroidvania. Have a map that is diverse but memorable, have great power ups, great upgrades, great enemies and boss fights but most importantly don’t wear out your welcome. Most people would rather have a tight 10-15 hour experience instead of a long and drawn out 30 hour experience that just features a lot of busy work.
One of the biggest new aspects of Metroid Dread was the EMMI’s which are robots that hunt you in certain areas. However, true to the tight experience, these areas were relatively short, a fun change of pace and never overstayed their welcome.
Metroid Dread was nearly perfect at every aspect of design, including a lot of little touches that show just how passionate the developers were about making this game. From the way the light bounces in the area around Samus when she has the arm cannon charged or when she automatically clambers onto ledges that seem just out of reach or how she fluidly changes into a morph ball when the area dictates it.
Metroid Dread was one of the few games played this year that was impossible to put down and if you had to stop playing, you couldn’t wait until you could return to the game and find something new that would push your journey just a little bit further then before.
Returnal - PS5
The other co-winner is the PS5 exclusive, Returnal. HouseMarque had been one of the developers from the PlayStation 3 and 4 that always created unique, arcade style games that always had the signature of the studio. Dead Nation, Alienation, Resogun, and Super Stardust HD would be the titles that most people are familiar with.
Returnal was not only a massive departure from the size and scope that HouseMarque was known for, which was already a risky proposition but it was also a rogue-lite, which is off putting to many. Despite the odds being stacked against the success and quality, HouseMarque delivered in spades.
Having not released a game since the arcade shooter Nex Machina in 2017, HouseMarque went silent and came back with an excellent game that screamed of AAA polish from a smaller team of around 80 people in 2020 that had mostly released arcade titles. Considering the change of scenery from top down and from arcade title to full fledged premium release, Returnal still had the HouseMarque DNA.
But Returnal goes much farther than just a glamorous looking game with tight controls, the story slowly dives into the psyche of Selene, who is the astronaut you are controlling. You start trying to figure out what is real and what isn’t. Interspersed between the fast and frenetic gameplay is first person story elements that take place on an abandoned ranch house in the middle of the alien planet Atropos. The house section has a very strong PT vibe, with its creepy sounds and darkened halls. It’s getting farther in the game where you gain new story information and what has happened to Selene in the past.
PT isn’t the only game that has influenced Retrunal as you can also see titians of the sci fi genre including Metroid to Aliens.
Returnal is a PlayStation 5 exclusive and it shows. The 3D audio engine, known as tempest, is working in full effect here. There is constantly some creature or something from the environment making noise which heightens the atmosphere . The DualSense is also used to its fullest potential that we have seen so far. When there is rain falling, you feel the slight drops in your hands, when you want to fire your weapon you hold the left trigger half way down for primary fire mode and squeeze past the resistance point for the weapons alternate fire and those are just a few of the examples that HouseMarque took advantage of when programming exclusively for one console.
The mechanics of Returnal are also perfectly balanced with risk vs reward. You have parasites, which can help and hinder you at the same time. Malfunctions, which can get you closer to powerful items but can also get you closer to system errors. Then you have things like weapon proficiency, suit integrity and adrenaline boosts that all harmoniously work at the same time. The game also has a nice dash of Metroidvania sprinkled in as you unlock permanent powers that make the levels feel fresh dozens of hours in.
My downfall with Returnal was more a Sony PlayStation 5 problem as opposed to a HouseMarque problem. The nature of roguelites is that runs can take a long time but most allow you to save at some checkpoints and turn off your system. HouseMarque felt that allowing people to save would cause people to exploit the system, removing one of the core tenets of the game, which was the difficulty.
This would be another conversation for another time, but you should design the game for everyone but feature a suggested mode where you could remove the ability to save and a harder difficulty. Sales would likely be higher if the difficulty was able to be modified. The story was fantastic, so the reason to not get more people to experience it seems confusing.
Circling back or more accurately, Returnaling back to the main problem, no saves or checkpoints is fine because the PS5 has a rest mode and an SSD, similar to the Nintendo Switch, which allows you to suspend games, turn off the system and return at any time. The PS5 rest mode is broken, meaning that many times during very lengthy runs of 1-2 hours and sometimes even more, when returning to my PS5 to resume my Returnal run, to my surprise and dismay, the PS5 would have crashed and rebooted. This meant that all Returnal progress had been lost. This happened multiple times. If you get a hair in your food at your favourite restaurant, eventually it will be too many times and you won’t return.
In October, HouseMarque announced update 2.0, which added a suspend cycle, although it might have been too little, too late for most people. It wasn’t a traditional save, which is what HouseMarque didn’t want due to the exploitative nature of it, instead it was a one time suspend point that would allow you to exit the game and turn off your PS5. You would only be allowed to resume from this suspend point once and after you did, it would be deleted permanently. Had this feature been in place at launch, without a doubt sales and review scores would have been higher.
Having Returned to the game since the 2.0 update, its safe to say that any problems that were in the game before are now a relic of the past. Returnal not only shocked me by the level of quality that HouseMarque was able to put into a AAA level game but also shocked many other as was evident by the sales figures of the game. In July of 2021, Jim Ryan announced that the game had sold almost 600k, which considering the install base of the PS5 at the time of just over 10 million, is pretty great, especially when compared to something like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart had sold just over a million at the same time and that is a more beloved and classic series.
Honorable Mentions
FIST - PS5
If it wasn’t for Metroid Dread, then FIST would have been the choice for best Metroidvania of 2021. There is a lot to love about FIST, other than the name of it. Forged In Shadow Torch has a slight meaning to the story line but it seems like such a missed opportunity for a different name that might have attracted more gamers to it. Either way, FIST has been paying attention to the genre and has made a great entry, not only paying tribute to the greats but doing its own thing as well.
Hitman 3 - PlayStation 5
I don’t know if it was the release window for Hitman 3 or how the series had made positive changes since 2016 or if it was released a full game instead of episodes or if the level design just spoke greater this time around. Whatever the case may be, Hitman 3 was the first Hitman game that I have ever rolled credits on. In the previous two Hitman games, at most I made it to a few different locations and fell off hard.
From the time I parachuted down onto the Dubai skyscraper to the final train car in the Carpathian Mountains, Hitman 3 was a true joy to play where the levels made sense. It likely didn’t hurt due to the fact that I played it on the PlayStation 5, which at the time was lacking showpiece style games that took advantage of the increased processing power and SSD to make the visuals pop and the game load much quicker during missions. The anticipation for the James Bond series that IOI is now working on after the finale of the Hitman Trilogy is very high.
The Rest
Curse of Dead Gods - XSX
Fights In Tight Spaces - XSX
It Takes Two - PS5
Deaths Door - Switch
Griftlands - Switch
Forza Horizon 5 - XSX
Halo Infinite - XSX
Unpacking - XSX