Topic: I plan on buying around 20 eShop games this year (22/20!!!!!!!!!)

Steamworld Dig. Obviously, I've immediately liked this developer, heard nothing but good things. Got it on 3DS since I've been ignoring it too much this year it seems (tbh, this list is literally half of the games I've played this year, barring a couple of replays of games I've played frequently for like a decade).

So here's some fun! I heard about the sales of the entire Guild series and went to see if Attack of the Friday Monsters was on sale. It was seemingly not as far as I could tell but then I went to the page and realized. I already bought this game. For whatever reason though, I never downloaded it.

So there was a game missing and I literally didn't know until now! That's amazing!

That sale starts on Thursday.

Fractured Soul might be the game on my list I knew about earliest. Yes, including the remake of the game from 1991.

I'M SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT

Whoa Dave! is $.99 and usually $5. I hear decent things about it so you might want to look into it for #20. Duck Tales is also less than $7 and Weapon Shop de Omasse is $3, I had a lot of fun with that one this year.

Ugh, they only dropped Art of Balance on Wii U like a buck. It's a great game alone or in a party setting but if you've played any of the other ones it's essentially exactly the same.

What kind of a sicko doesn't have Pirate's Curse or Azure Striker Gunvolt? You only have 3 days left!

I got more than 20 Wii U eShop games this year.
My 25 Favourites!

EU eShop only. Counted games from December 2013-December 2014
Not counted retail games (Bayonetta, NES REMIX 2, etc.)

1. STEALTH INC. 2 - A Game of Clones (Curve Digital)

Honorable mentions: ANOTHER WORLD - 20th Anniversary Edition (Digital Lounge), KickBeat - Special Edition (Zen Studios), XTYPE+ (PhobosLab)

I don't have, but will get (when on sale): Pier Solar and the Great Architects, Gaiabreaker, How To Survive.
I want Gravity Badgers and Ittle Dew too, but they're not available in my region.

But yeah, that's it for this year.

You mentioned the EU eShop, and I have both these titles from the EU eShop.

Oh look, a thread that summarizes how willing I am to bankrupt over awesomeness.

I just got Ittle Dew on Christmas, but then again I'm in the States. Good luck, @SKTTR!

Here's eShop games I have bought this year:

1. NES Remix
2. Child of Light
3. Scram Kitty & his Buddy on Rails
4. Swords & Soldiers
5. Pullblox World
6. Art of Balance
7. Guacamelee
8. Shovel Knight
9. Ittle Dew
10. Pier Solar & the Great Architects
11. Another World - 20th Anniversary Edition
12. Armillo
13. Abyss
14. Steamworld Dig
15. Stick it to the Man
16. Toki Tori 2+
17. Unepic

So not quite 20, but close.

So I wanted to do this entirely to prove that even on a fairly low budget, I could get a good chunk of original games. You wanna know how many non-used games I got this year outside of these games (and outside of Christmas presents)? 4. Thankfully used games are so easy to get, and thankfully some devs online will give out a free game or something and thankfully my brother has games etc. I mean, I did get more than 4 used games certainly, I'm not poor or close to it. Just had to have a tighter budget but things seem like they'll be way better soon in that regard.

And this year, sticking with Nintendo meant I clearly avoided a **** show every else in gaming so I feel I was rewarded for this idea. Also happy to give more of my money directly to developers instead of to increasingly awful publishers (though Ubisoft did make Child of light...). The thing is, I don't think this was perfect. I've just accepted that I won't play every game for long (if at all) ASAP so the fact that 1/3 of these I've put 1 or less hour into is fine. But there is a point where I question "why didn't I give money to this game instead of this one?" But I also decided the main obscure Japanese title I should get on 3DS retail was Code of Princess, a game that cost like 40 bucks when there's so much more to get. Most of these I feel I am fine with paying what I did. Yes even the so-called shovelware. I admittedly don't play Tower Defense, but while Zacisa's Last Defense is kinda laughable in terms of art, I got enough enjoyment out of it already, even if I feel it probably also has balancing issues or something similar. Stick it to The Man though....I'm sorry, I'm the only person that didn't think it was funny. Wasn't awful to play and it was certainly interesting and creative but in terms of comedy, it's just so obvious almost the entire time and is something 90s tv would've cancelled. Otherwise every game I got to play (about 15 of them) was either good enough or was of very high quality. About half and half with that I guess. Wish I played more of the top-tier stuff or that certain games lived up to Shovel Knight but this worked out fine. It does show while the eShop is genuinely good and has plenty to offer, it can still do better. I hope people continue to support it as well, if not better than they have. I also hope people take advantage of getting quality games for so much cheaper than what you can buy in a store while actually supporting the people who actually make video games. I mean, you can get Darksiders 2 for like 8 bucks or something right now. A full price game from 2 years ago, for 8 bucks. ...I had actually considered getting RE:Revelations btw but 1. screw Capcom and 2. I haven't done any legit retail game on this list so it would be awkward if I ended it that way.

Honestly, the worst I did was buy a quality comedy game where the comedy failed for me and 2 games that are considered shovelware that I thought were fine for the super cheap prices they were. So that's good. Imagine if most of this money just went to me buying into the hype of Watch Dogs and Destiny? ;p This kept me playing games, and in this awful year, I will take it. And it was an interesting experience.

Probably won't repeat this for next year unless I become rich but that's partially because I'd like to try out Steam finally and also VC still exists.

Glad it worked out for you! Honestly the worst game I got this year was Destiny, but it came with my white PS4 so I didn't have a choice in the matter and I wanted the PS4 more than the game. I got about 12 eShop games (counting VC), 8 retail games, 5 retail PS4 games counting Destiny and 5 PSN games. I haven't put in a whole lot of time into all of those games especially as I haven't kept track of 3DS in that (maybe 6 eShop and 10 retail? It was a good year.) and that's pretty good for PS4 considering I only got it in September. I got decent chunk of those games for free, about 14 across all platforms. Oh, I bought four Wii games for $27 total. Three were in a blind grab bag at an anime convention and I made out all right there, the fourth was Disney Epic Mickey for $7 three days ago, I figure that's a fair price for that game. I didn't have any of the grab bag games already but I haven't played them yet.

People say 2014 was bad for games but I always get the impression those people don't have a Nintendo platform.

Exactly.
There are 8 EU Wii U eShop games not available in Germany.
(10 if you count the other versions of "Meine ersten Mitsing-Lieder": Mon Premier Karaoké and My First Songs.)

1. Gravity Badgers (Wales Interactive)
2. Master Reboot (Wales Interactive) *
3. BLOK DROP U (RCMADIAX)
4. Midtown Crazy Race (Jose Varela)
5. Paper Monsters Recut (Mobot Studios) *
6. Shiny the Firefly (Stage Clear Studios, Padaone Games)
7. Ittle Dew (Ludosity)
8. Tested with robots ! (MR Games)

The reason I have Master Reboot and Paper Monsters Recut is because I got them via Download Code for reviewing (on WiiWareWave.) Very glad about that!
Ever since I played Master Reboot I wanted Wales Interactive's other eShop game Gravity Badgers.
And as a Zelda-Fan I was interested in Ittle Dew right from the kickstart.
I have a weird affection for Tested with robots ! too. If this was cheaper and on the German eShop I'd consider giving it a try. In my eyes it doesn't seem to be a Spikey Walls, Meme Run, or The Letter.

Edit: @Pahvi: Cheater! You have games from 2012/2013 in your list.

Yeah it says nothing about made this year, just bought this year.

Lucky. The main eShop games I want still haven't come to the system. Rex Rocket, Assualt Cactus Android (or something), and C-wars. At this point I'm not even sure C-wars can com to the Wii U. >.> At least I'm finally getting Shovel Knight.

Ah, ok. Then I've got a few more eShop games (from 2013) in 2014.
DuckTales Remastered, Dungeons&Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, Star Wars Pinball, maybe one or two others but nothing outstanding.
I already got all great 2013-games in 2013.

9.3/10 Toki Tori 2+ (Two Tribes)
9.1/10 The Cave (Double Fine)
9.0/10 Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation)
8.9/10 Knytt Underground (Nifflas' Games)
8.8/10 EDGE (Mobigame)
8.7/10 Toki Tori (Two Tribes)
8.6/10 NES REMIX (Nintendo)
8.6/10 Zen Pinball 2 (Zen Studios)
8.5/10 RUNNER 2: FUTURE LEGEND OF RHYTHM ALIEN (Gaijin Games)
8.4/10 TNT Racers - Nitro Machines Edition (Keen Games)
8.3/10 Trine 2 - Director's Cut (Frozenbyte)
8.2/10 CastleStorm (Zen Studios)
8.1/10 Nano Assault NEO (Shin'en Multimedia)
8.0/10 Chasing Aurora (Broken Rules)
8.0/10 RUSH (Two Tribes)
8.0/10 Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party!! (Knapnok Games)

I got close to 20 Wii U eShop games this year (with VC and 3DS it'd be doubled).
1. UnEpic
2. Blok Drop U
3. Pure Chess
4. Child of Light
5. Stick it to the Man
6. Color Zen
7. Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails
8. Swords and Soldiers
9. Another World 20th Anniversary
10. Pushmo World
11. Shovel Knight
12. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition
13. Armillo
14. Shut the Box
15. XType Plus
16. Art of Balance
17. Blok Drop X Twisted Fusion
18. Stealth Inc 2

I still have The Swapper, Tengami, Lone Survivor and Teslegrad to pick up although I'm waiting for a sale on them. So far this year I'm looking forward to FAST Racing Neo, Affordable Space Adventures, Steamworld Heist, Assault Android Cactus, Citizens of Earth, Earthlock and Mighty No 9.

I got my WiiU back yesterday (my brother borrowed it for the holidays) and I counted the eShop games I got this year (excluding 3DS and that handful of VC titles I got during the Zelda sale). In chronological order of purchase:

Jan: Ducktales: Remastered / Bit.Trip RUNNER 2 / Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party
Feb: Giana Sisters: Twisted Dream / Mighty Switch Force HD / Knytt Underground
Mar: Dr. Luigi
Apr: //
May: //
Jun: NES Remix / Toki Tori 2+
Jul: Guacamelee STCE
Aug: Scram Kitty & His Buddy on Rails / Child of Light / Toki Tori / XType Plus / Steamworld Dig
Sep: Swords & Soldiers
Oct: NES Remix 2 / Master Reboot / TNT Racers NM Edition / Stealth Inc. 2
Nov: Shovel Knight
Dec: //

it's 21. Beside a few of these (the NES Remix games, Stealth Inc. 2 and Shovel Knight), all of them were bought with some kind of discount or using the deluxe promotion. As for quality, some of these games were good: Stealth Inc. 2, Guacamelee, NES Remix, TNT Racers, Mighty Switch Force, Scram Kitty, Toki Tori...
Other games, I wouldn't buy them again, like Ducktales Remastered, Giana Sisters, Steamworld Dig, XType Plus, Dr. Luigi, Knytt Underground or Swords & Soldiers. It's interesting to notice that all the games I wouldn't buy again have scored as much or more than Scram Kitty, which - for originality - is my eShop game of the year.

You mean as NL score? The NL review score of Scram Kitty was exceptionally low, compared to other indie reviews this year. On Metacritic, I think SteamWorld Dig was the only game in your list above that got a higher score than Scram Kitty.