What is/are YOUR Game(s) of the Year? 2013 Edition

2013 has brought us a lot of cool games.

It's December, and while there are a handful of games that have yet to come out, we can already recognize a lot of amazing games that came out in the past year. Post your picks for GOTY, for several categories if you wish, and let's discuss the best of 2013!

Best Console Game That Isn't The Last Of Us Because I Didn't Play It Because I Don't Own a PS3: Grand Theft Auto V

I was not a GTA fan at all. I picked this game up because I was curious to see how it had changed from my experience of playing GTA2 as a child (who shouldn't have been playing it). This game was a hell of a lot of fun. If you can look past the horribleness of what you're doing - which you should, because that is what GTA is in a nutshell - it's just pure, unadulterated fun.

Honorable Mention: Tomb Raider

Best Handheld Game: Pokémon X and Y

Pokémon X and Y made for the best advances in a franchise in a while (A Link Between Worlds notwithstanding). The game is beautiful, the music is beautiful and the multiplayer is infinitely more accessible than before. Competitive Pokémon battling has never been easier to get into, thanks to new breeding mechanics and easier availability of Hidden Abilities. This is the best Pokémon game to date.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I love A Link Between Worlds. What pushes X and Y further is that I can 100% the Zelda game and not have any reason to go back to it. It'll be different for other people, but for me, competitive Pokémon brings it a huge advantage.

Honorable Mention: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

Best Roguelike: Spelunky

The Xbox Arcade version of Spelunky was ported to PC, PS3 and Vita this year, which is how it slips in. Spelunky is a fantastic game because it finds a way to make you get better at the game without actually improving your starting conditions. Having the Daily Challenge provides a competitive side to the game without affecting the core gameplay at all. With the sheer amount of content and unique puzzles Spelunky can throw at you, it's an experience that keeps you playing for hours on end.

Honorable Mention: Rogue Legacy

Best Casual Experience: Animal Crossing: New Leaf

AC:NL was my (not-so) guilty pleasure this summer. Playing it was the equivalent of taking a nice, hot bath and playing with a rubber ducky. That world is amazing and positive and just so overflowing with joy that playing it gave me that pure joy.

Honorable Mention: Plants vs Zombies 2

Best Mobile Game: DEVICE 6

You may not have heard of this game. It's part-mystery novel, part-puzzle game where you interact with the environment presented to you by the written word to advance the story. It's short, but that experience felt so groundbreaking and so full of potential. I recommend that anyone with an iOS device get this game and play it immediately.

Honorable Mention: Plants vs Zombies 2

Best Puzzle Game: Antichamber

Antichamber's main conceit is that you are lost. "You are not here," the tagline reads. You have a limited time to finish the game before it all resets again. And man, is this game enjoyable. Discovering new mechanics to solve puzzles you thought unsolvable before is an amazing thing, and Antichamber brings that to full effect.

Honorable Mention: Fez

I say;
The Last Of Us or The Walking Dead.
The Last Of Us gave me such a weird feeling at the end of the game and it stuck with me for such a long time, but Walking Dead almost had me crying at end. Both were fantastic games.

So how bout that Hometown Story.

 Spoiler

why am I such a sucker for games that are "***** Story"?

Persona 4 Golden is my handheld vote. Literally think it might be my most favorite game ever.

I'd say for console its a mix between Atelier Ayesha and Tales of Xillia for me. I really liked them both. Escha & Logy and Xillia2 in 2014 hype

Animal Crossing: New Leaf & Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds both met or exceeded my expectations.

Grand Theft Auto V lived up to its expectations. Pokemon X and Y mostly lived up to their expectations.

Honourable mention: Fez, despite it being released ages ago; it only became available to me this year.

After the train wreck that was the VGX 2013 Awards, I'm glad we're doing our own sort of thing.

Game of the Year: The Last of Us

Don't get me wrong, all the other games nominated for GOTY this year--Bioshock Infinite, GTA V, Tomb Raider, AC4, etc--are all amazing games and have made this year in gaming so damn good, but, to me, they all pale in comparison to The Last of Us. The Last of Us was just everything I hoped it would be and more. I was completely sucked in and enthralled with the game from the amazingly cinematic opening to the much debated ending of the game, and it just left me wanting more. The mark of a great game is that its aesthetics make the player feel and experience the same feelings and emotions the characters are depicting in-game, and this game did that to me the whole way through. I've played through the game multiple times and am currently working on a playthrough of the hardest difficulty.

Doesn't hurt that the game's multiplayer, while I still felt was unnecessary, was actually pretty pineappleing fun and addicting. It wasn't bad at all.

Overall, I feel like The Last of Us earns the GOTY title for me, hands down.

Runner Up: Rayman Legends

Best Handheld Game: Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

I'm going to be honest here... this was going to go to Pokemon X/Y (with New Leaf not too far behind), but A Link Between Worlds came in last minute and absolutely pineappleing blew me away. I thought the notion of a "sequel" to a previous Zelda installment that was made YEARS ago was ridiculous, but they not only nailed it, they perfected it. I haven't enjoyed or been as excited with a Zelda game this much since... pft, bloody Majora's Mask. It did EVERYTHING right.

As has been noted in this thread already, the game does lack the replayability of New Leaf or X/Y, only having a secondary play mode--Hero Mode--but despite that... I've already played through almost 3 times now. It's just so good and I just want to keep playing. My only, and I mean, ONLY, complaint for the game is one that most people also agree on: it was just a tad bit too short, but besides that fact, it was essentially perfect.

Runner Up: Pokemon X/Y

Best Indie Game: Terraria

I know, I know! Technically Terraria came out wayyyy back in 2011, but it was basically revived from the dead this year and, pineapple man, boy it didn't just come back to life, it came back to life rocking our socks off. The update brought so much new content that it was basically a game in and of itself, combining that with Terraria's already expansive amount of content, it was amazing. It's actually sort of embarrassing how many hours I've put into this game... it's. just. so. good. And on top of all this, they're continuing to update the game--already with an expansive Halloween patch--and soon a Christmas-themed patch that looks just as great. I'm excited for Terraria's future... will it be usurped by its upcoming rival, Starbound? It's possible, but not for a long time and not without a tough fight. As far as I see it, Terraria is king of its particular genre/game-type.

Runner Up: BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm

Best Rogue-Like(-Like): Spelunky

Spelunky IS what makes a good rogue-like(-like). Sadly, there's not a lot of competition to fight for this title, but that's quite alright, considering how addicting Spelunky is... and how frustrating it can be. I've put nearly 90 hours into this game and I'm still trying to get everything (I'm a completionist). Hell, just last night I was SOOOO close to getting the 500,000 achievement, but--like most cases in this game--a simple mistake led to another, which led to another, which culminated into my death; I was only 30k away, and I was so angry when I ended up dying, but instead of being just pissed off and never playing again, I instantly started up another game and continued to play. THAT is a sign of a well-designed and addicting game.

Who knew anger could be so fun?

Runner Up: Risk of Rain

Best Co-operational Game: PAYDAY 2

Now, I have to put this out there before continuing on: I do have a number of problems with the PAYDAY series and especially PAYDAY 2. Despite this, though, I don't really think any game has done it better this year. There is such a rush of energy, excitement and badassery when you and your friends successfully pull off a big, difficult heist perfectly without a hitch... having each guy handle a specific job--hacking, crowd control, bagging and trafficking, lookout, etc. it's just great. It nails those aspects of a co-op game so well.

Runner Up: Super Mario 3D World

Best Simulation Game: Cook, Serve, Delicious!

...Why. can't. I. stop. playing. this. game?! I don't understand why it's so addicting! I picked this up on a whim after seeing it being played on the Northernlion Super Show on Twitch, and whenever I find I have some free time to waste (not enough for serious gaming), I instantly start this game up. I spend time fixing up my menu for that day, planning accordingly to the weather, who is going to show up, whatever, and then I start cooking and serving up delicious foods to fund my 5-star restaurant! The game gets so hectic as you have to cook for more and more patrons, with recipes that grow more and more complex, but it's so fun. I feel so awesome, gliding my fingers across my keyboard perfecting every action and recipe, cooking the foods to perfection, and ending the day with a perfect run.

Runner Up: Game Dev Tycoon

Biggest Game Surprise: Hearthstone

Wow. I would've never thought I'd be playing a virtual card game, let alone a card game that is built around the lore of World of Warcraft. Aside from the Diablo series, I have never played anything else from Blizzard; I tried WoW once and absolutely despised it, but here I am, playing so much of Hearthstone that it is absorbing my very life essence. I'm a card game addict (I played a pomegranate ton of Yu-Gi-Oh! back in the day, and I still keep myself informed with the game, even though I don't play as much now), so this game drew me in with its smooth gameplay, beautiful aesthetics and design, and addicting card game play and collecting element. I'm loving every bit of Hearthstone and hope that it continues to grow in popularity and sticks around for a good long while to give me a card game to be active in for the foreseeable future.

Runner Up: Saints Row IV

Best DLC for a Game: XCOM Enemy Within

This year has had some pretty decent additional content for games, but none of them, NONE, can compare to how good and expansive Enemy Within was. It added so many new mechanics, weapons, content, maps, story content... there's really nothing more I can say about this, this DLC just absolutely triumphed this category. It was a bit spendy, a 30 dollar DLC, but it added so much that it was essentially just a full game expansion.

Runner Up: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Best Game Studio: Naughty Dog

I love these guys, man. I've loved them since the early years of playing Crash Bandicoot when I was 6-years old. They have remained my favourite studio since then and have also fueled my aspiration to become a game developer myself (which I am currently going to school for, actually). I love their outlook on video games, I love their games, I love how much love they put into their titles... I hope one day I get the privilege of joining their team and making great games alongside them.

Runner Up: Rockstar Games

I was considering doing a category for every day of December or up to Christmas or something, but I haven't decided yet. If I do, I'll end up editing my post or something I guess.

Obviously Cookie Clicker

Best Console game: The Wonderful 101
Because pretty much every console game that I played (That also released this year) was on wii u, and wow, what a bad year this was.

The Wonderful 101 is the only game on wii u that wasn't worse than I was expecting. Great fun, though difficult, and I've never played anything quite like it (And probably never will again either, given the sales bomb).

The cutesy art style hides a goddam beast of a game.

Best Handheld gamehoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies.

Oh man, what a year for handheld games this was. Luigis Mansion 2, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Fire Emblem : Awakening, could all have been GOTY contenders in a normal year. (And I haven't even played Bravely Default or Link between worlds yet). Guacamelee is up there too.

But ace attorney definitely wins out, despite Evolites best attempts at being an arsehole by posting a huge spoiler to the ending, it was the game I enjoyed the most by far.

The orchestrated music, 3d models and everything were a perfect transition from the equally good spritework of the old games to the year 2013. And the breakdowns and several of the witnesses are easily the best in the series. Tempted to even say the entire game is the best Ace attorney game in existence.

I can't believe there was a 5 year gap between apollo justice and this game. Far, far too long capcom, don't do that again.

And no, I didn't miss pokemon off my best handheld list by accident.

I won't be making any genre specific games because either most genres only had one really worthwhile game that I played this year.
Or it's platformers where they're all to similar for me to care anymore anyway (But probably Guacamelee or failing that, Rayman Legends).
I don't wanna make a call on the best RPG yet either without having played Zelda or Bravely default., because it's probably going to be bravely default

Best game - Bioshock Infinite
Best Indi - Paper's Please
Favorite Character - Lutece Twins
Best Console game - GTA V

Haven't played a home console game released in the US since early December, but I think I can make due with what I have played before that point.

Best Console Game: The Last of Us
There are a lot of games I probably could have placed here, but I just feel that The Last of Us came out the strongest for me. It hooked me from start to finish, and even after the ending I wanted to jump back in and replay it over again. While I did enjoy the gameplay, I think that the characters and atmosphere of the game were crafted extremely well, and that's largely the reason why I felt absorbed in the game the entirety of both of my playthroughs. As a whole package, The Last of Us really delivered a great world with great characters, along with gameplay that while probably not the most original, kept me engaged enough to not get bored of it. The multiplayer is pretty solid too, so that's also a nice bonus.

Honorable Mentions: Tales of Xillia, Bioshock Infinite

Best Handheld Game: Fire Emblem Awakening
Out of all the categories, I think this was easily the most difficult to decide. Most of the games I played this year were handheld ones, and all of them were really solid. But, in the end I think Fire Emblem takes it home for me. It brought a lot of my favorite series mechanics all into one game, and from start to finish was a blast to play, not to mention the localization was great as well. I normally don't buy DLC, but for this game I made an exception and bought every single DLC available for it. Support Conversations were also a very welcome return, and they definitely did not disappoint. Also, out of all the games I've played this year, both console and handheld, this still holds the record for overall longest playtime, and I'm still playing it today. Overall, it's my definite handheld game of the year.

Honorable Mentions: YS: Memories of Celceta, Etrian Odyssey 4, Pokemon X/Y

Best Indie Game: Guacamelee
Lots of great indie games, but I think I have to give it to Guacamelee. It was everything I love about Metroidvania style games, and I just really love the style and design of the characters and world. Also, there were a ton of references to other games and other media scattered here and there, and it was funny to find them all. In general, it was a really charming package, and aside from being my favorite indie game this year, it's definitely up there as one of my favorites overall. Oh, and the co-op is pretty fun too.

Honorable Mentions: Kentucky Route Zero, Divekick

Best Import: Sen no Kiseki
I don't know how many people import often, but I've played a ton of imports this year so I decided to pick one out them. Sen no Kiseki had a lot of loading times (fairly long ones too) when it released, so when I first got it I kind of set it aside for a bit. But after that patch that reduced them, I had a complete blast going through this game. This was the series' first full 3D title, and while it probably it doesn't have the greatest graphics around, it's far from a pain on the eyes. With likable characters, solid gameplay, and personally one of the best, if not the best soundtrack out of the games I've gotten to play this year I think it tops the other imports I've played. I hope this sees a stateside release, but who knows when that could happen.

Honorable Mentions: Tales of Hearts R, God Eater 2

I only played a few myself and prefer to watch my friends play. But here's mine:
RPG- Bravely Default
Casual - Animal Crossing New Leaf, Pokemon X
FromWatchingFriendsPlay- Bioshock Infinite, Last of Us, Beyond Two Souls