Year in Review: 2021
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/30/21 at 09:11 PM CT
Alack and alas, 2021 has come and gone, and it was nearly a dreadful remake/remaster/port/whathaveyou of the exceedingly dire 2020. Was there anything praiseworthy to get excited about? Or was it all Fails? Read on to find out:
Top 5 Fails
5. The Year of Ransomware
Ahh, remember back in the Summer of 2021, when we thought the worst thing the year had to offer was a bunch of ransomware attacks? Yeah, they were pretty annoying, and blew up the news during the brief window in which it seemed that COVID might be under control. Fortunately European investigators and the FBI managed to find and arrest a number of the shitheels behind the wave of cyberattacks. Of course, this rare competence shown by bureaucrats is likely going to give us all a false sense of security, so when the next big cyber-meltdown hits, we can all stand around with our mouths open, wondering how it happened. Again.
4. Nintendo Network “Plus Expansion”
Nintendo demonstrated some Sony-grade hubris …
MeltedJoystick Games of the Year 2021
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/26/21 at 04:04 PM CT
For the second year in a row, the watery rock floating torturously around Old Sol, which we call “Earth,” was beset by plague. While at first it seemed like things might be getting better, it was but an illusion, as not only did the virus that shut-down the whole of 2020 mutate into “delightful” new forms such as Delta and Omicron, but the true extent of the havoc caused by 2020’s torpor finally came to light. Supply chain issues, microchip shortages, and mass resignations combined to make for another challenging year.
Gaming didn’t fare particularly well, with continued delays, cancelations, and long-time-coming projects turning out to be lesser than imagined. Even as console gamers attempted to forge ahead bravely into the 9th Generation, the lack of available hardware units helped to disguise the dismal “launch window” slates for Sony and Microsoft.
That said, even with an overall uneventful and poor release schedule, 2021 turned out to be one of the most …
Games of the Decade: The 2010s
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/19/21 at 03:43 PM CT
Last year was pretty crazy for every global citizen. So crazy, in fact, that the MeltedJoystick Crew failed to acknowledge the fact that 2020 not only ushered in a new console Generation for gaming, but also marked the end of a decade. As we all get retrospective thanks to the rapidly-approaching New Year, let’s take a look back at the decade that was the Twenty-Teens, calling out each year’s best game (in hindsight), and giving the Banner Years the credit they’re due.
2010: “Red Steel 2”
This was a good year for the Nintendo Wii. Instead of becoming complacent with their “Blue Ocean” of non-gamers, Nintendo continued to push out a number of stellar first-party titles during the motion-controlled system’s middle-and-late life, with titles like “Super Mario Galaxy 2” and the controversial “Kirby’s Epic Yarn.” Third-parties helped bolster the Wii further, with the exclusive release of “Sonic Colors” (the only good 3D ‘Sonic’ game) from Sega and the …
Square-Enix to take “Dragon Quest 10” ‘Offline’ in February 2022
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/12/21 at 01:26 PM CT
Usually when there’s a headline about a massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game going offline, it’s met with nostalgic reminiscence and melancholy from said game’s fanbase. Either it’s a long-running game that just isn’t profitable anymore, or it’s a new effort that just failed to get off the ground. Regardless, it’s destined to become a talking point in the argument between IP rightsholders and media preservationists who would rather see such doomed titles open-sourced or given the option to run on official private servers than disappear entirely.
Thus it came as a great shock to learn (back in May of 2021, during the ‘Dragon Quest’ 35th Anniversary Livestream) that Square-Enix, with its long and dismal reputation of taking beloved flagship game franchises and unnecessarily turning one or more of their mainline, numbered sequels into MMOs, was taking one of these games ‘offline’… but in a good way. In February of 2022, “Dragon Quest 10 Online” will …
Review Round-Up: Fall 2021
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 12/05/21 at 01:31 PM CT
Welcome back to another installment of the MeltedJoystick Review Round-Up. Here’s what our staff has reviewed since last time:
Nelson’s Reviews:
Fall is traditionally my “busy season” when it comes to my agricultural career, and I’ve been putting in the hours, operating heavy machinery, burning brush piles, and generally cleaning up a lot of messes that don’t need to be there when planting time rolls around again next Spring. Of course, that doesn’t really cut into my videogaming time all that much, since videogames happen in the evening and work happens during the day. So I’m not really sure how I managed to play and review a miserable 3 games this Fall… other than the fact that the Crew still has had messed up scheduling that has prevented us from finishing “Borderlands 3” (which we started in EFFING MAY of this year), and Chris and I haven’t managed to get together enough times to finish the second episode in the ‘Boot Hill’ Indie RPG series. I …
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