2019: The Year Of The Narrative Games

Disco Elysium
Quite frankly, deleting (NAME REDACTED) would be a sweet release for him. But don't you touch our boy Kim.

Ah, 2019. The year before The Year. This was the year in which the Switch Lite was introduced, allowing players to buy a Switch that was slightly cheaper for the trade-off of only being able to play in handheld mode.

It was a fantastic year for narrative games, as Divinity: Original Sin II and Disco Elysium dominated the cultural conversation, while battle royale games like Fortnite dominated the charts of highest-grossing games. It was also arguably The Year of Tetris, with Tetris 99 and Tetris Effect revitalising everyone’s love for the timeless puzzle game (although Tetris Effect wouldn't make it to Switch until 2020). Surely, we’ll save one of the Tetris games, right?

Kate

2019 was a very, very good year for me. And I get to go first, which means I have the pick of the bunch! And my choice is… Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy.

This is the first time I’ve picked a game that I think exemplifies what is truly great about the Switch, and what became slowly more apparent as the years went by: It’s a fantastic place to catch up on games that you might have missed. It’s a really accessible little console, and Nintendo’s utter dedication to ports – whether you love it or hate it – makes it really easy to play a whole ton of their best games in one place. The Ace Attorney games are best on DS, if you ask me, but they’re best played on the Switch.

Ollie

This will be my first ‘obvious’ pick of the bunch, but I simply can’t leave this one out: Luigi’s Mansion 3. I mean, it’s potentially still the most beautiful looking game on the Switch, right?

It’s also leaps and bounds ahead of what was achieved with Dark Moon on 3DS, with an incredible variety of rooms and floors to explore. It’s got plenty of replay value, with lots of little bits and bobs to collect as you scale the hotel, and we all love a bit of Professor E. Gadd. Just wonderful stuff.

Alana

2019 is probably the hardest year for me, and it might be the year I’ve put the least amount of time into my Switch. But one game that snuck in and took me by surprise is AI: The Somnium Files.

It shouldn’t have surprised me, though! 999 and Virtue’s Last Reward are both incredible puzzle games that make you sweat and twist your brain in ways you never thought were possible. AI does a little bit less of that, but it shows what Kotaro Uchikoshi can do with a budget, and the team managed to create some wonderful characters who were engaging and likeable. It was hard to watch them go through what they had to in order to find out the truth, and the truth will shock you.

(Kate - This has just reminded me that I need to play AI: The Somnium Files. Thank you, Alana!)

(Ollie - I’ve actually been meaning to play this one for a while, too. I think it’s on Game Pass actually, so I might save myself a few pennies and play it there.)

Gav

Cadence of Hyrule: Ridiculously And Needlessly Convoluted Subtitle has to be my biggest surprise of 2019.

After a Big Zelda SoundtrackTM took a backseat in BOTW and Nintendo let the grandeur of the landscape itself do the heavy lifting, Cadence felt like a love letter to the series’ romping roster of themes. Add in the addictive beat-based gameplay which tied your movement and adventure very directly into music, and it was easily my most delightful gaming experience of 2019.

Tom

Well this is a bit of a disaster, as there are two games I love and I can only save one; I have to consign a first-party strategy RPG that I spent 200 hours playing into gaming purgatory. That’s because I have to save Sayonara Wild Hearts.

It’s a glorious ‘visual album’ that you can clear in about 50 minutes, but I play it through at least once a month. Lovely music, a touching story and unique presentation. Oh to think of the game I just binned, I need a lie down…

Important 2019 games that are now in the bin:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Pokémon Sword & Shield, Link’s Awakening, Ring Fit Adventure, Super Mario Maker 2, Dragon Quest XI S, Tetris 99, Baba Is You, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Cuphead, Slay The Spire, Untitled Goose Game, Ori and the Blind Forest

Thoughts: Listen, this was a busy year. We are only five people, and we can't save everything. Fire Emblem and Pokémon SwSh were both great zeitgeisty games, but... well, they weren't the kind of games that cemented themselves in our hearts forever. Still, it's a little bit sad to see Ring Fit Adventure get binned, because it was definitely one of the most engaging fitness games we've seen in a long time.