The new characters don't just look different.
In addition to Shovel Knight himself, Treasure Trove lets you play through the campaign as Plague Knight and Specter Knight, two of the original game's villains. So what makes Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove one of the best games of 2017? Quite simply, it's the characters. Still, you could've said the same thing way back in 2014, when Shovel Knight first came out. The tweaks include a steer assist function that's a huge help for younger or less talented players.īut Shovel Knight is more than the sum of its parts, and while its influences are obvious, the developers at Yacht Club Games took these familiar elements and spun them into something that feels both retro and brand new. (Just be warned: it'll take a while.) There are also a handful of new kart parts to earn, a completely revamped Battle Mode that's inspired by Mario Kart's Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 roots, and a few small tweaks to the game's racing controls. Two Splatoon inklings, King Boo, Bowser Jr., and the skeletal Koopa Troopa known as Dry Bones are all available right from the start, while die-hard Mario Kart fans can unlock Gold Mario, too. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ups the value by adding all of Mario Kart 8's downloadable content into the base package and introduces six new characters to the game. (And it isn't ruined by cheaters.) In other words, it just doesn't get old.Īnd that's just the basic version.
It has the highest number of tracks, the biggest roster, and more kart parts to unlock than any other entry in the series. On its own, Mario Kart 8 is both the biggest and most polished version of Nintendo's mascot racer to date. It feels like less of a game and more like a magic trick, and with so much to explore and discover, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild may not be the only game you'll want this year, but it's pretty much the only one you'll need.īut there's also a good chance that you haven't played Mario Kart 8 or any other Wii U game-despite a number of quality first-party titles, the Wii U never caught on in the marketplace. Somehow, Nintendo's designers created an environment that's both meticulously hand-crafted and still gives players the freedom to do, well, anything they can think of. If you can see it, you can travel there, and new mechanics like climbing and horse taming help make Breath of the Wild more explorer-friendly than practically any other game that came before it. Breath of the Wild takes everything you'd expect to find in a traditional Zelda title-fiendishly clever puzzles, lots of fun gadgets to play with, amusing mini-games, and a dark and moody plot tempered by a healthy sense of humor-and drops it in the middle of a sprawling open world that'll take hundreds of hours to fully explore. Nevertheless, many recognizable names still topped the overall charts throughout 2017, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.īasically, a lot of the games that sold well on home consoles seemed to sell just as well on PC, much to the surprise of no one.Yes, Breath of the Wild really is that good.
Steam also breaks down what games sold best during each month, and it was fascinating to see how many indie games rounded out the overall sales categories throughout 2017, with a lot of unlikely titles taking top spots, such as Night In The Woods, Streets of Rogue, Sim Airport and Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator managing steal away gamers from some of the bigger outings. Additionally, NieR: Automata managed to make the Gold cut in the sales department, moving more than 670,000 units throughout the year on Steam, and standing alongside other top-name games like Call of Duty: WWII, Fallout 4, Dark Souls III, and two of Ubisoft's titles, Assassin's Creed: Origins and For Honor. We also saw some unlikely games making the cut as well, such as NieR: Automata, a single-player action-JRPG, managing to retain more than 15,000 players at a time, managing to compete with other Western AAA games like Wolfenstein II. Oldies but goodies also made the list, such as Garry's Mod, Path of Exile and Rust, managing to secure more than 50,000 concurrent players at a time.