![]() So, we invite you to share your year-end lists in the comments each of our writers will be doing the same. Now, without further kvetching about our good fortune, we present The Verge’s 11 best games of 2016. The unseasonably early arrival of the pumpkin spice latte, the wrong film winning the Oscar for Best Picture, the Kansas City Chiefs collapsing in their first game in the playoffs: I can think of few other things in life as reliable as the monthly drip of video game remasters, remakes, and reboots. At times, the industry seems hobbled by nostalgia, overwhelmed with creators so doggedly focused on re-creating objects we loved, they lose track of why we loved them. Take for example one of my favorite games of 1997, the farm life role-playing game Harvest Moon. Over two decades, its publisher has spread the series like a thin, tasteless paste across more than 25 entries. ![]() Stardew Valley, released in February, wasn’t created by the makers of Harvest Moon, but more so than the two dozen official sequels, it recaptures the original’s essence. ![]() Its single developer, Eric Barone, approached the Harvest Moon formula with the eye of a talented editor: trimming, adding, and revising where necessary, and constantly supporting, celebrating, and elevating the original’s voice. ![]() But more than its reverence to Harvest Moon, I will remember Stardew Valley for its original touches: the quirky small-town characters, the flirtations with magical realism, and the sincere appreciation of a simple life well lived. I played Harvest Moon as a kid to imagine life as an adult. When I play Stardew Valley, I’m nostalgic not for Harvest Moon, but that precious and carefree idea of adulthood. Months later, I still take occasional trips to the virtual farm as a short break from grown-up life that’s rewarding in its own ways, but is never so simple. –Chris PlanteĬan we nominate a game twice? In February, I praised Superhot as the rarest of things: a truly original first-person shooter. Its time-bending hook, in which time only progress when you move, calls to mind The Matrix, but the result is so much more than “a chance to play as Neo.” The design is minimalistic: an ivory-white world infested with ruby-red henchman. ![]()
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