Each month, Critically Sane will select, from the releases in that month, a game that is worthy of our prestigious game of the month award, and sometimes, a few runners up that are worthy of recognition. These games will form the basis of our GOTY discussion later on in the year. We’re a bit late (again) but here are our June selections.
Game of the Month: Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight is a great homage to the NES era that takes its cues from the likes of Duck Tales, Mega Man, Castlevania, and Zelda 2. As the title character, you pogo attack enemies and giant bosses across massive 2D sidescrolling levels. Like the classics, it is a challenging game that can sometimes feel brutally difficult, but a risk/reward checkpoint system keeps the game from becoming frustrating. It honors everything that was good about the era and leaves out the bad. Had it been released in 1990, it would be fondly remembered as a classic, but as it stands, it is merely one of the best games of 2014.
Runner-Up: EA Sports UFC
EA Sport’s UFC brings a missing component to the sports genre, and subsequently, the industry as a whole – brutal, realistic fights. Some of the fights I had with my dozen or so hours with UFC had me wincing from how visceral it was. UFC did a great job of tugging at my love for the Fight Night series, and cranked it up a few notches to satisfy that craving to be a digital bad-ass.
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