TSA’s Top 100 of 2013 Recap: 85-81 – Game & Wario, Devil’s Third and South Park

It’s quite interesting that I get to look back at the games I covered in my initial Top 100 post back in December, well, for me anyway. Out of these five titles, only one has stayed on my radar and that’s South Park: The Stick Of Truth.

The rest have, for me at least, faded into obscurity and pushed aside by other titles coming out for both this and the next generation. So, let’s find out what happened with the following games.

85. Game & Wario

We begin with the only game that has actually released out of the five games here, Game & Wario. The game released on the Wii U first in Japan back in March. Famitsu awarded the game a solid 31/40 in their review, particularly praising the games replayability factor. However when it was made available to Western audiences in June, the title received a much more mixed reception.

Our very own Blair seemed to really enjoy his time with the game and awarded it an 8/10 in his review saying, “It’s fun, it’s mad and it’s often hilarious. We couldn’t have expected anything less from Wario and his friends – WarioWare, you’re no longer required; the next-generation of Wario is here.”

However not everyone shared Blair’s enthusiasm for Game & Wario. The title currently has a Metacritic ranking of just 61 with 44 of the 57 reviews being categorised in the Mixed category. Most of those reviews seem to be criticising the title for any lack of depth, and saying Nintendo Land is a much better compilation. Blair’s opinion is definitely in the minority, among reviewers at least.

84. Devil’s Third

Back in December I described Devil’s Third as a game that was in development hell. Well, it seems like only divine intervention will really bring the game to light: since THQ dropped the title before collapsing, the developer Valhalla Game Studios still seem to be looking for a publisher to bring Devil’s Third to shelves.

The last real update that was given on the game was in May when creator Tomonobu Itagaki broke his silence on the game saying there hadn’t been any news because there was nothing to report.

My personal opinion is that Devil’s Third will not be coming out this generation. If it did it wouldn’t be out until late next year by which time next-gen titles will have stolen the show, meaning Devil’s Third would almost certainly flop.

If there is any future for the game then the best course would be to redesign it for the Xbox One and PS4. Either that will happen or it’ll be cancelled due to no publisher support.

83. Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons

Unlike Devil’s Third above, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons has a release date of August 7th 2013, at least on Xbox 360 for the Summer Of Arcade promotion where it will be priced at 1200MSP. In the run up to the this fast approaching release date there have been quite a few previews posted up around the net as well as a new trailer.

I think the most interesting thing I’ve seen in the various previews for Brothers is the comparison to Journey, with many saying that this could be 2013’s Journey experience.

The trailer does show some interesting gameplay and the control scheme is definitely different, with each brother controlled by a single analog stick. We’ll soon find out if Starbreeze Studios have created a masterpiece once reviews start popping up.

82. Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium

Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium  looks to be dead. It was being developed by Vigil Games under supervision from THQ but once THQ closed its doors the future of this game became completely unknown. Vigil Games also closed its doors in January and it doesn’t look like anyone bought the rights to the title during the auctioning off of THQ’s properties. Even the official website for the game is now defunct, so expect nothing to come of this.

It’s a sorry affair for a promising title. Originally the game was going to be an MMO but when THQ got into trouble it was stripped down to a single player game. Now, like its owner, Dark Millennium has joined the cemetery of fallen and cancelled titles. Sorry, Warhammer 40K fans.

81. South Park: The Stick Of Truth

The one game on this list that has managed to keep my attention ever since its announcement; I’m a huge South Park fan and when Stick Of Truth was announced I was quite intrigued, then when it was confirmed to be in the same style as the show I became very intrigued.

At the time SP:TSoT was owned by THQ but due to the publisher’s closure, the rights were bought up by Ubisoft, with Obsidian remaining as the developers of the game. At E3 a new trailer was revealed announcing a Holiday 2013 release.

Of course the trailer also features the best South Park character, Randy. Recently Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show’s creators, revealed that original game script was a massive 850 pages which has since been trimmed down. However, the bits that have been cut could still make some sort of appearance – most likely as new TV episodes instead of DLC.

Join us tomorrow for the next recap focusing on numbers 80-76 from the Top 100 of 2013. Looking at any other numbers before those would just be confusing.