The year 2016 will be remembered for years to come as one of the strangest years in a long time and it all started with a gorilla named Harambe. But a lot of good came out of this year too, including some really fantastic games and gaming hardware.
Later this year, we'll host the Double D-Pads' awards for various games per genre, our disappointments, gaming hardware, and more. Please note that while there are obviously going to be games missing (our polls ended in November), we only pick games we've actually played. But without further ado, we officially present the 2016 game of the year (and our first game of the year award):
Stardew Valley
With all of the great video games that came out this year, nothing brought me as much joy, relaxation and overall fun than Stardew Valley. It mastered the SNES era in a beautiful game that relies on fun and simple story telling than Hollywood edge of your seat gameplay. It's a relaxing masterpiece and a sleeper hit for fans of role-playing, farming, social games, and retro gaming.
On the surface, Stardew Valley may just look like another run-of-the-mill nostalgia grab we've seen pop up over the years. You know the style: retro graphics, retro sounds, and retro gameplay. But it's much more than that. It managed to feel like a modern take on the SNES classic, Harvest Moon. Harvest Moon is still doing it's thing today, but it's drifted from what the original games were. And while Story of Seasons is a what the series became (while losing the Harvest Moon name), Stardew Valley is the first clone to get it right and then some.
After the first year, the game managed to become a little stale at first with repetitive missions and work. Not too long ago, most of that was fixed with the introduction of their first major patch. And ConcernedApe—the single developer for this game—is promising is more to come, including co-op multiplayer.
Stardew Valley is soon to be playable on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while it's been available on PC for several months now. And if you own the PC version, be sure to play around with the multitude of mods available.
Runner-up: DOOM
id Software's newest DOOM definitely deserves a mention as it was a total surprise for most people this year. After the uninspiring multiplayer beta, fans and new comers were a little turned off by the new DOOM. But then the game became an overnight success for it's amazing "balls to the wall" gameplay that requires you to constantly move to survive. More on this in the upcoming awards write up.
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