Big in Japan
Like a kidney stone through the urethra of my life, another Tokyo Game Show has passed. We saw some great things in Japan: katsudon, vape stores, attempted park fights, coming at the king, and video games.
Some of those video games — the best of the best, the largest and most properly shaped stones — are represented below. As Tokyo Game Show wanes alongside every other big gaming show as announcements and the like are spread across more and more, there were still some cool video games for us to play and tell you all about. These are those games, including the most cool of those games, one which keeps getting awards.
Metal Gear Online (Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain)
The Phantom Pain came out not even a month ago and it is just the start. We’ve not even seen the full brunt of the push-back to early glowing reviews. I’ve only reached the “first ending” myself. There’s a lot to unpack, digest and though we are already full Metal Gear Online is still homing in next month like a chocolate mousse impaled by a Stinger.
That the online component makes you feel like an NPC, that you can feel the hilarious shame of getting knocked out, strung up, and ripped off the battlefield like a tooth tied to a slamming door is cool. It is online competitive multiplayer with just about the full gamut of single-player options and all those idiosyncrasies add up to a unique feeling competitive game just as they did for the single-player. Couple it with some one-life, no-respawn modes and, yes, Metal Gear Online is Metal Gear, online.
Runners-up: Gravity Rush Remastered, Super Rude Bear, Monster Hunter Stories, Phantasy Star Online 2, Street Fighter V.