Hogan Reviews

Another year, another “Top 10 Games” list that I feel the need to stress that I’m aware some great games aren’t on it because I simply haven’t played them. I’m just one man with a blog and a full time job, not a website that gets sent review copies! So I’m sure God of War: Ragnarok should be near or at the top of the list, but I can’t put it on there because I haven’t played it… I have played a lot of games that didn’t get released in 2022 though, including looking at 120 hours + on Super Robot Wars 30 thanks to buying all of its DLC along with the base game… and I’m still not done with it! So let’s look at what 10 games I managed to cobble together this year!

After taking a year off the core WWE game series returned with an entry that was… alright. It looks stunning and isn’t a complete mess like the previous entry, but it’s showcase mode was mired with intrusive cutscenes and the always fun Universe Mode saw little to no change once again. Why is it #10 on this list? Well I got quite a lot of fun out of it playing with my older brother, just like when we kids, plus a few evenings downloading CAWs and messing around was still fun… plus any other games I’ve played not on this list wasn’t worthy of a Top 10 position… If they exist at all. (My review will be coming… God knows, whenever I reach it in my infrequent “Wrestling Games Rundown” feature, I guess.)

“When is Kirby ever going to jump to 3D?” was a common question the past few… decades, and now we finally got it, and it was good to boot! Colourful, fun gameplay and some great level design and music. I’ll admit I only really got a week or so out of it, in true Kirby tradition it is very accessible and therefore easy, and for whatever reason I never went back for the harder bosses. Still though, can’t deny it was fun and a great foundation to build on for future entries. (My play through fell during the “dark times” of this site, so I don’t know when I’ll get around to reviewing it…)

I’ve never been into the LEGO games, but I remember playing the original Star Wars entries and really having fun with them, so when “The Skywalker Saga” was announced I was all in. I’m happy to report that it was just as fun as I remembered, though like Kirby its gameplay loop was short. I liked the idea of DLC characters but without any new missions or even hubs to free roam around it didn’t seem like a worthwhile investment, so the game just… faded into the background. Still had a lot of fun with it for a week or two though! (My play through fell during the “dark times” of this site, so I don’t know when I’ll get around to reviewing it…)

It’s time for my trademark “is it really a new game though?” entry, and in this case Sonic Origins is… well, no, it’s not really. It’s a compilation, and honestly the new music in Sonic 3 & Knuckles is seriously pants BUT the first two Mega Drive games hold a very dear place in my heart as games I loved as a child and to see them not only blown up to 16:9 but bookended by fun animated cutscenes was such a fun experience for me that I still holds a place in my mind at the end of the year, so I felt like I had to include it. I mean the “Anniversary Mode” for each game is new, right? (I will be sprinkling some reviews of each game in the collection in the future, based in and around reviewing the second Sonic movie next year)

Sifu is one of those games that looked really fun in all the trailers but I didn’t actually get round to buying it until it was cheaper towards the end of the year. In this case though it does it a disservice as the combat is so fluid and fun that I thoroughly enjoyed myself… apart from when I was getting my arse handed to me, obviously. It does take some practice, and I have a feeling that if I went back to it now I’d be terrible at it and have to learn the timings all over again, but that doesn’t take away from how good it still is! (My play through fell during the “dark times” of this site, so I don’t know when I’ll get around to reviewing it…)

While I’m not as in to the TMNT scrolling beat ‘em ups as I am series like Streets of Rage seeing another beloved-by-many 2D scroller get the Streets of Rage 4 treatment and get a new entry that both modernises it and still pays homage to the older entries was a joy to see… and play! While it came out during one of the “blog black outs” I’m sure I’ll get round to reviewing this on here at some point, you know me and scrolling beat ‘em ups … (unless you’re new here, in which case: I’ve always loved scrolling beat ‘em ups and even did a long-running weekly marathon featuring them a few years back. Check the tabs up above!)

Sonic Frontiers was a latest in “will this 3D Sonic actually be any good?” line up and after a flat trailer it seemed like it was going to be another “no”, but somehow it’s actually really fun! I checked out of 3D Sonic games after Heroes and so it was a pleasure to finally see such positive press and fan reaction for a new entry so I put it on the old Christmas list (or Amazon list so my family can put some money together and get something specific), and while I’ve only had a week or so to play it I’ve already had a blast. Sure some of the old level homages are a bit clunky and I can see some of the side quests becoming rather dull at you get deeper into the game, but hey-ho: a top 10 list has a 3D Sonic game in it! Who’d of thought? (Review coming soon!)

The King of Fighters has been a favourite franchise of mine for some time now. On this site I’ve covered games, anime, manga and that God awful live action version of it, so I’m always happy when a new entry in the franchise pops up, and even more happy when it’s really fun to play! While you can argue it didn’t really bring anything new to plate beyond a few new characters and story (especially if you compare it to the up-coming Street Fighter 6), I still played it for weeks on end and will happily pop it on again each time a new DLC team or character drops. (My review can be found by clicking HERE)

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was one of the only PSP games I played for more than a few hours here and there because I loved both the story and the Missions mode where I could just flick the PSP on, do a couple of quick missions and pop it off again. That being said I got to the Sephiroth fight and was too underpowered for it and instead of grinding or looking up the best Materia / Accessories I just… stopped playing. Fast forward to now and I the remaster, subtitled “Reunion” to blend in with the Remake Trilogy, came out a few weeks ago and I’ve just lost myself in it all over again. All the annoying kinks in the gameplay have been fixed and it looks great as well. I’m currently 95% into the Missions and on the last Chapter, and I’ll be sorry to see it go… (My review can be found by clicking HERE)

Oh look, another “Top Games of 2022” list has Elden Ring as the top choice… I know, sorry for the predictability, but very few games have taken my breath away as much as Elden Ring has. The true open world (so no mainline quest to follow with map markers, instead a full-on “Breath of the Wild” carve your own path style) was overwhelming at first but I soon just got into this mindset of “look at that over there! That looks amazing, I’ll see if I can make it there” and then spent several days worth of gameplay doing loads of things on the way to it. Having not really played any of the FromSoft “Soulsborne” games it took a little while to get into the combat, but I was soon rolling around, backstabbing enemies… dying over and over BUT not really minding, because it was just so much fun. Hell, writing about it now has put me in the mood to play it again right now… I did play it during one the quieter blog times, it could do with just one more positive review on the internet, right?