Video
games can be many things to many people, so the idea of proclaiming a
single one as the best of 2012 strikes us as a little limiting. This
year, instead of screaming at each other for hours in a sweaty,
smoke-filled room until we emerge with a handful of winners, your
friends at 1UP have decided to forsake categorization and write about the
experiences that brought us the most enjoyment this year
— and that’s the point of playing video games, isn’t it?
Video games can sure be…what’s the word I’m looking
for…busy? Part of the medium’s charm is immersing
yourself in a complete sensory overload. This isn’t a judgment call attempting to condemn games which busy the screen with noise. 2012
brought experiences like Super Hexagon, Hotline Miami, and Thirty
Flights of Loving, which were were all
games that I cherished, partially due
to loving the sensory overload that each one delivered. But
it’s the providing of the exact opposite of this noise that made the opening of
The
Unfinished Swan resonate so
strongly with me. In a year filled with
noise — not bad noise, mind you, but noise — Giant
Sparrow’s game embraced minimalism through its design,
aesthetics, and mechanics. (Side notes — for a great read on
the topic of minimalism in games, check out 1UP contributor Nickolai
Adkins’ fantastic
blog.)
