Nostalgia of the year

About the nomination

In Nostalgia, we pay tribute to those games that somehow reminded us of the spiritual times of crispy dishes, warm luplash -eyed monitors and majestic pixels the size of a brick. If you are also not indifferent to projects that even in the Rhino Bet sister sites era of hyperrealistic graphics are not afraid to return us to the very origins of the game industry – this nomination for you.

Gambling summarizes the results of the year: the best games of 2018!

Third place – The Messenger

For most children of the nineties of the entrance to the world of video games, pirate clones were Nintendo Entertainment System And Sega Mega Drive , on which we all ruthlessly chopped into two -dimensional platformers. And one of the best episodes in this royal genre – Ninja Gaiden. She was no longer destined to return in that very form, but it was she who became the source of inspiration for the authors The Messenger.

The passing, at first glance, Arkada in fact turns out to be not only an excellent Sidskroller, but simply a hilarious fantastic comedy. According to the plot, the hero masters time travel and begins to move between two eras – and the past here looks and sounds like an eight -bit game, and the future pulls 16 bit. The same locations at different times can be completely different: an impassable, dotted with spikes, the path in five hundred years turns into a green lawn, and vice versa.

Gradually, the game turns into natural metroids: wandering by levels, the messenger learns more and more new tricks. Hooks for the walls appear in his arsenal on the walls, and Wingsyut, and the hook-cat-where is the pensioner Ryu Hayabusa there!

What is especially good The Messenger is that it was able to become a game not for a ninja, but about the ninja: the control is responsive, and the difficulty is not wound artificially. Well, the chic soundtrack is worthy of the publication on a separate CD.

Second place – Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Once CRPG based on the system Dungeons & Dragons, could be safely distinguished in a special class. There were a lot of them, and they seriously (and often for the better) differed from other computer roles. Remember at least Baldur’s Gate or Planescape: Torment! It is not surprising that the developers are still trying to return the players to the past. So appeared, for example, Pillars of Eternity And Torment: Tides of Numenera. And the same nostalgic to the brain of RPG bones has become Pathfinder: Kingmaker From the Moscow studio OWLCAT Games.

Chris Abellon himself participated in the development, so the plot turned out to be twisted, and role capabilities – saturated: desktop Pathfinder – This is a deep modernization of D&D version 3.5, and digitized it as carefully as possible. Such a spaciousness for wagging the role of at least a scoundrel, at least a sugary righteous today is not so easy to find, and only the creation of a character can take several hours. And even though not everyone appreciated the introduction of a strategic regime in the game, for connoisseurs of role -playing classics, it was a real feast. Yes, damp, yes, with shortcomings-but unless the great RPG of the past has once happened otherwise?

Mention are worthy

Projects that are freely or involuntarily in the player nostalgic feelings, a lot of things came out in the past year – and many of the top three of the best did not have a couple of points before the place in the top three.

Two Point Hospital has become an almost absolute copy of its own unique economic strategy Theme Hospital. As in 1997, we take provincial hospitals under our management, which need to lead to prosperity, and try not to die of laughter during the salvation of patients from more and more idiotic diseases.

Atmospheric horror Paratopic , like a nightmare from the era PS1 , I tickled the nerves well for fans of antiquity. So the creations of David Lynch could look, he is not a movie, but video games. The thing turned out purely for an amateur, but at least spectacular. Although it is not completely clear what she scares more-plot or still graphics.

A deep trace in the hearts of lovers of step -by -step tactics left Into the Breach. And do not look at the discreet wrap of this inhabitant ascetic game! It is simple, at first glance, rules (supplemented, in fact, a lot of nuances) make it easy for development, but damn complicated for perfect passage.

Sony made the expected attempt to jump on a train passing by a retro -consumption with its PlayStation Classic. A selection of two dozen games turned out to be an amateur, and most technical solutions were not accustomed. However, enthusiasts almost instantly learned to launch third -party programs on the system, so that folk love and long life of the PlayStation Classic are guaranteed.

Switched color schemes in the Return of the Obra Dinn simulate old monitors: you can pretend that you play the Commodore 1084 or, for example, Macintosh

Lucas POUP, author of the famous Papers, Please , Five years later, finally pleased the audience with a new work. Return of the Obra Dinn – leisurely chamber adventure made in a terrible monochrome 3D. And one opportunity to switch the graphic design between archaic monitors is already enough to provide this game with a place in our selection.

First place – Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry

Point-N-Click Adventure-perhaps the most conservative game genre. Moreover, no matter how many times critics state the death of quests, they still return. It is enough just to tighten the permission of the picture and make the interface a little more friendly, and the new adventures of the old heroes will certainly find their audience. Here is the old red tape of Larry Laffer again in the case! And for this series Leisure Suit Larry I didn’t even have to flirt with the action or move from the usual 2D to the third dimension. The only change is in the setting: having woke up after the next unsuccessful date, the ladies' saint finds that the yard is no longer native eighties, but the era of smartphones, the Internet and the total dictatorship of political correctness.

Leisure Suit Larry smoothly grew into a socio-political satire from the universal simulator of the forty-year-old virgin, but this did not affect the quality and number of humor. The game makes fun of everything that surrounds us – from video games and anime to sexism and homophobia. And with all this remains a great quest!

Come out Wet Dreams Don’t Dry About twenty years ago, could compete for the title of game of the year. Sorry, the times are not the same. But the "nostalgia of the year" is exactly about her!

The very existence of this nomination proves: it is early to write off the old school from accounts. Classic games became legends not only because they were the first, but also because they were really cool. And modern developers still have something to learn from the masters of the past.

Gambling summarizes the results of the year: the best games of 2018!