10. Persona 4 Arena

Turning an RPG into a fighter is inherently an interesting prospect from a design perspective, since you have lots of things like status ailments, critical hits and different equipments and spells to add mountains of depth to a game. Not many developers have actually stepped up to the challenge to make a game around this concept. Luckily, Atlus and Arc System Works teamed up to give us this fascinating little gem.
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This was an even weirder year than usual for me, with pretty much every gaming high point counterbalanced by an accompanying low. The Wii was going through its last death throes… which consisted of two of the finest titles ever released for the system. (In North America. Eventually.) The 3DS finally received the XL upgrade I had been waiting for ever since its launch… and I still found the retail pickings to be pretty dire. The Wii U arrived after much anticipation… about a month before the final issue of Nintendo Power arrives in my mailbox. In between those events were wide stretches of absolutely nothing… which I used to catch up on a bunch of great older titles that I had missed out on the first time around.

Overall, I consider 2012 to be a net positive on the gaming front. I got to experience a bunch of great games and innovative hardware, while also filling in some glaring holes in my gaming history. And that’s not even considering all of the great Unplugged titles 2012 delivered. That said, I am really looking forward to what 2013 will bring both the 3DS and the Wii U; the first quarter alone should be fairly packed if everything arrives on schedule. But more on that when we get to our next Progress Report. On to my picks for 2012! READ MORE