For now, it\u2019s time for happiness! Unexpected joy! Lots of Nintendo stuff! With input from the rest of\u00a0Kotaku<\/em>\u2019s staff, here are the best video game surprises of 2017.<\/p>\n The more we learned about the Nintendo Switch, the more we got our hopes up. Of course, Nintendo is expert at dashing raised hopes, so most of us struggled mightily to keep those hopes in check. When it was announced, the gimmick of a portable home console sounded good but there could still have been some hidden catch or downside. When it came out,\u00a0the Switch seemed like a good console in general<\/a>, but no one was sure if there\u2019d be enough games. And then, somewhere around the release of\u00a0Mario + Rabbids\u00a0<\/em>in August, it became clear: The Nintendo Switch in the midst of the best console launch year ever. From\u00a0Zelda<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Splatoon<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Mario<\/em>,\u00a0Golf Story<\/em>,\u00a0Steamworld Dig 2\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Doom<\/em>, there are already too many terrific games on the system to keep up with. The Switch\u2019s\u00a0first year went better<\/a>\u00a0than almost anyone dared hope. May its 2018 be just as strong.<\/p>\n One hundred players start. The last one (or the last team) standing wins. Many people probably remember\u00a0Playerunknown\u2019s Battlegrounds<\/em>\u00a0as the new early access game with the terrible name that was consistently at or near the top of the Steam charts in March. Terrible name or no,\u00a0PUBG<\/em>\u00a0went on to conquer the world of PC gaming in 2017 with a simple premise and good-enough execution to become a beloved game and a streaming sensation. It seems likely that other games (like\u00a0Fortnite Battle Royale<\/em>) will cut into\u00a0PUBG<\/em>\u2019s audience significantly, and one may ultimately overthrow it.\u00a0PUBG<\/em>\u00a0will still be remembered as the game that brought Battle Royale gaming to the mainstream.<\/p>\n When cover art from Ubisoft\u2019s\u00a0Mario + Rabbids<\/em>\u00a0crossover\u00a0leaked in May<\/a>, the response was nearly unanimous: this is going to suck\u00a0so bad<\/em>. Then Ubisoft showed the game at their E3 press conference, and\u2026 wait, what? It\u2019s an\u00a0XCOM<\/em>-like turn-based tactics game? It actually looks kind of silly and maybe even\u2026 fun? Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto came out on stage to show off the game. The guy heading development cried during the press conference. Online sentiment\u00a0began to soften<\/a>. And then the game itself turned out to be\u00a0pretty great<\/a>, a smartly streamlined take on the\u00a0XCOM<\/em>\u00a0formula with an emphasis on mobility and a few distinct, character-specific abilities. It wasn\u2019t all that surprising that a Ubisoft studio could crank out a well-made tactics game, but it\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0surprising that Ubisoft\u2019s Minions-esque Rabbids would wind up mixing so well with Mario, Peach, and Luigi.<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah,\u201d we joked, \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0totally<\/em>\u00a0sure Nintendo will announce\u00a0Metroid Prime 4<\/em>\u00a0at E3 this year.\u201d We make those sorts of jokes to inure ourselves to the constant disappointment of wanting a thing to happen, then watching it not happen. Yet\u2026 there\u2019s always reason for hope, isn\u2019t there? Nintendo was on a roll with the Switch, and seemed to be consciously targeting the sorts of hardcore Nintendo fans they arguably left behind with the Wii and the Wii U. Maybe, just maybe, a new\u00a0Metroid Prime<\/em>\u00a0really could be in the works? Turns out, it was. Not only that, but Nintendo buried a second, more immediately exciting announcement in their subsequent livestream:\u00a0Metroid: Samus Returns<\/em>, a 3DS remake of\u00a0Metroid II: Return of Samus<\/em>, would be out in just a few months.<\/p>\n There was a point right around March where the PS4 was just on fire. In just a couple of months it\u2019d gotten a few big exclusives, including the beautiful-if-niche\u00a0Gravity Rush 2<\/em>\u00a0and the fantastic open-worlder\u00a0Horizon Zero Dawn<\/em>. But it was the Japanese games that put it over the top, and more pressingly, over Microsoft\u2019s competing Xbox One.\u00a0Nier: Automata<\/em>,\u00a0Yakuza 0<\/em>,\u00a0Persona 5<\/em>, and\u00a0Nioh<\/em>\u00a0all hit the PS4 at about the same time, a collection of wildly different games that had something for just about anyone. It was, and remains, a very good time to own a PlayStation 4.<\/p>\n There was always a good game hiding in\u00a0No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em>, but you used to\u00a0have to work to find it<\/a>. After several major free updates, Hello Games has made it\u00a0a lot easier to love<\/a>\u00a0their big, weird galactic exploration game. There\u2019s so much more to do and so many more reasons to do it that the\u00a0No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em>\u00a0of 2017 feels almost like a different game. If you bought it back when it came out, try starting a new game and see what happens. As nifty as Hello Games\u2019 updates have been, the\u00a0No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em>\u00a0community deserves just as much credit for keeping the game alive and interesting,\u00a0creating and rebuilding<\/a>\u00a0a galactic hub and, most recently, working out how to\u00a0wage a massive war<\/a>\u00a0in a game with no built-in PvP combat.<\/p>\n Bloodborne<\/em>\u00a0is a game built on mysteries, literally\u2014the city of Yarnham is built on a bunch of catacombs that players in a group called the Tomb Prospectors are\u00a0still<\/em>\u00a0exploring<\/a>, looking for rare monsters that few have ever seen. In November, they found\u00a0an elusive Flaming Undead Giant<\/a>, a beast no one had seen before, in one of the game\u2019s Chalice Dungeons. What other secrets might\u00a0Bloodborne<\/em>\u00a0be hiding?<\/p>\n Along with a bunch of Switch and 3DS games, Nintendo released a new Super Nintendo game in 2017. Two decades after it was cancelled,\u00a0Star Fox 2<\/em>\u00a0finally came out as a bundle-in with the SNES Classic. It\u2019s a weird game, and while it might not be enough to pull you away from the rest of the classic games Nintendo included on their retro console, it\u2019s certainly\u00a0a time capsule that\u2019s worth opening at least once<\/a>.<\/p>\n It may have seemed like Team Ninja\u2019s \u201csamurai\u00a0Bloodborne<\/em>\u201d action game\u00a0Nioh<\/em>\u00a0dropped with little fanfare, but it was actually a loooong time coming. Originally announced in the mid-2000s, it apparently went through\u00a0several substantial overhauls<\/a>\u00a0until Team Ninja took over development in 2010. Most games to go through such a process are released in sorry shape, if they\u2019re released at all.\u00a0Nioh<\/em>\u00a0is the welcome exception, a deep, finely tuned, extremely satisfying action game that stands toe-to-toe with the best in the \u201cSoulsborne\u201d subgenre.<\/p>\n When Capcom first revealed\u00a0Resident Evil 7<\/em>, there was some question as to whether this new game, with its first-person perspective and focus on a modern found footage horror aesthetic, would be \u201cResident Evil<\/em>\u201d enough. Turns out that yep, it is indeed possible to inject new ideas into the\u00a0Resident Evil<\/em>\u00a0formula\u00a0without losing the series\u2019s identity<\/a>. The first few hours are nearly unrecognizable, as your terrified protagonist creeps his way through a decrepit southern mansion overflowing with horrors. Then the game gradually settles down and you begin the\u00a0Resident Evil<\/em>-y work of upgrading your gear, uncovering secrets, and finding animal keys to unlock corresponding animal doors. Other venerated game series could take a few lessons from\u00a0RE7<\/em>\u00a0for how to shake up their own formulas.<\/p>\n At this point,\u00a0Half-Life 3<\/em>\u00a0is a tired punchline. Ditto\u00a0Half-Life 2<\/em>\u00a0Episode 3<\/em>. We know that neither one is ever coming out, or at the very least, whatever version of them may have been in development over the last 10 years just ain\u2019t gonna happen. So it was a bittersweet surprise when ex-Valve developer Marc Laidlaw, one of the chief writers of the\u00a0Half-Life\u00a0<\/em>series, published\u00a0a blog post titled \u201cEpistle 3.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0It told a lightly disguised, gender-swapped story of Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance\u2019s trip to the frozen north in the wake of the shattering cliffhanger the concluded\u00a0Episode 2<\/em>. It wasn\u2019t\u00a0Episode 3<\/em>, but it offered unexpected closure and even inspired a bunch of indie game developers to\u00a0come up with their own rough versions<\/a>of what the game might have looked like.<\/p>\n In the world of speedrunning, a single discovery can reverberate through the entire scene and change everything. That was the case with the \u201cBarrier Skip\u201d in\u00a0Wind Waker<\/em>, which two players cracked in 2016 but was only successfully replicated this year. Once the trick went wide, it\u00a0fundamentally changed the way\u00a0Wind Waker<\/em>\u00a0speedruns will work<\/a>\u00a0going forward. These are the sorts of unusual maneuvers that keep a game exciting 15 years after it first came out.<\/p>\n Ubisoft\u2019s\u00a0Beyond Good & Evil 2<\/em>\u00a0has been a specter at each of the publisher\u2019s major press conferences since the first teaser in 2008. Every now and then director Michel Ancel would say that he was still working on the game, but with no additional information or specifics. This year at Ubisoft\u2019s E3 press conference, they brought an exciting CGI trailer, along with a working version of the game. Sure, it was\u00a0a very rough build<\/a>. And sure, the CGI trailer was just that\u2014it wasn\u2019t gameplay. But we know a heck of a lot more about\u00a0Beyond Good & Evil 2<\/em>\u00a0now than we did at the start of the year, and it seems much more likely that one day we\u2019ll actually get to play it.<\/p>\n Sonic fans have a lot to be grumpy about. There just haven\u2019t been that may good\u00a0Sonic\u00a0<\/em>games, and the series has struggled to find an identity in the landscape of modern gaming. Along comes\u00a0Sonic Mania<\/em>, a remixing\/remastering of side-scrolling\u00a0Sonic<\/em>\u00a0greatness that often\u00a0feels like a devious ROM hack<\/a>, reimagining aspects of the classic\u00a0Sonic<\/em>\u00a0games to make its own twisting, turning levels. 2017\u2019s\u00a0other big\u00a0Sonic<\/em>\u00a0game<\/a>\u00a0was much less of a success, but by going back to the series\u2019s roots,\u00a0Sonic Mania<\/em>soared.<\/p>\n The anime visual novel\u00a0Doki Doki Literature Club<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0a wolfish tale<\/a>\u00a0dressed up in the sheep\u2019s clothing of cheery moe anime and schoolgirls next door. You probably still haven\u2019t played this, so I\u2019ll refrain from saying more. Just know that the surprise here isn\u2019t simply that the game is good.<\/p>\n Right up there with\u00a0Metroid Prime<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0Mega Man<\/em>, whose fans had already been burned by the disappointing\u00a0Mighty No. 9<\/em>\u00a0just last year. Here comes Capcom to announce\u00a0an all-new\u00a0Mega Man<\/em><\/a>\u00a0complete with in-game footage and a late 2018 release date. It\u2019ll be the first\u00a0Mega Man<\/em>\u00a0in eight years, and while it looks a little plastic-y in screenshots, it looks pretty great in action.<\/p>\n 2017 was a weird year for Twitch and YouTube in general, and no one man embodies that weirdness quite as well as Guy \u201cDr. Disrespect\u201d Beahm. The former Sledgehammer Games community manager decided to don a mullet wig, some aviator glasses, and a fake-rude persona to begin streaming games as Dr. Disrespect. He went on to become one of the most talked-about\u00a0PUBG<\/em>\u00a0players,\u00a0earning himself a suspension<\/a>\u00a0for in-game hijinks yet also being\u00a0overcome with emotions<\/a>\u00a0as he considered the admiration of his fans. Shortly after winning the \u201cTrending Gamer\u201d award at The Game Awards in December, he\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that he had been unfaithful to his wife and was stepping back from streaming to focus on his family. A fittingly controversial end of the year for a character who seemed designed to court controversy.<\/p>\n First revealed in 2011 at Spike\u2019s Video Game Awards ceremony, Epic Games\u2019\u00a0Fortnite<\/em>\u00a0has been on the cusp of release for so long that many of us thought it\u2019d never happen. It finally hit early access earlier this year, and didn\u2019t make much of an impact, at least not at first. Its profile significantly increased when Epic released a free-to-play Battle Royale mode that followed the template established by\u00a0Playerunknown\u2019s Battlegrounds<\/em>, albeit with some notable changes. By the end of the year, it\u2019s become one of the most streamed games on Twitch, gotten some new modes and other tweaks, and is attracting new players each day.<\/p>\n At first, it wasn\u2019t clear why hackers had been able to find\u00a0a hidden version of NES\u00a0Golf<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on the Nintendo Switch. After a bit more sleuthing, it turned out that the software was locked to a certain date and a certain Joy-Con motion, one that matched up with the famous gesture the beloved former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata used to make during each of the Nintendo Direct videos he hosted. Iwata died of cancer on July 11, 2015. The\u00a0Golf<\/em>game hidden on the Switch appeared to be programmed to unlock on a July 11. Nintendo has\u00a0remained cagy<\/a>\u00a0about the tribute, but a number of people have reported (sometimes with video) that the game does indeed work on the Switch. As our own Brian Ashcraft observed,\u00a0Golf<\/em>\u00a0on the Switch could be coded to allow Iwata\u2019s spirit to watch over the console and guide it to success. If that\u2019s the case, he\u2019s doing a marvelous job.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s it for the biggest, best surprises of the year. Share your own favorite surprises in the comments and we\u2019ll be back later in the week with the worst, most crushing disappointments.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source:\u00a0kotaku.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This year, a lot of things sucked. But a lot of things were also unexpectedly good! Let\u2019s celebrate those latter things with a big list. As we do every year at\u00a0Kotaku, it\u2019s time to take a look back on the highs and lows of the last 12 months. (See: the ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":72773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4548],"tags":[5529],"class_list":["post-72772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology-en","tag-2017-en"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"\nThe Nintendo Switch has the best console launch year… ever?<\/h3>\n
Playerunknown\u2019s Battlegrounds<\/em>\u00a0popularizes a new shooter genre.<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/s--Y_-EJUBg--\/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636\/ckytxzixs4jwfv1wgbqb.png\")
Mario + Rabbids = Excellent.<\/em><\/h3>\n
Nintendo announces not one but two new\u00a0Metroid<\/em>\u00a0games.<\/em><\/h3>\n
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Japanese games give the PS4’s 2017 a phenomenal start.<\/h3>\n
No Man\u2019s Sky<\/em>\u00a0gets good.<\/h3>\n
Bloodborne<\/em>\u00a0players are still finding new secrets.<\/h3>\n
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20 years later, Nintendo releases\u00a0Star Fox 2.<\/em><\/h3>\n
Despite its lengthy development,\u00a0Nioh<\/em>\u00a0turns out fantastic.<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/s--UYq6jCu7--\/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636\/g5ygwedtnl8cq049iowi.jpg\")
Resident Evil 7<\/em>\u00a0shows the\u00a0RE<\/em>\u00a0formula works in first-person.<\/h3>\n
Half-Life<\/em>\u00a0\u201cEpistle 3\u201d offers a strange sort of closure.<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/s--lYeX401q--\/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636\/hw4dutfc1z2u2onk7cu1.jpg\")
A single glitch changes\u00a0Wind Waker<\/em>\u00a0speedrunning forever.<\/h3>\n
Beyond Good & Evil 2\u00a0<\/em>finally returns to the public eye.<\/h3>\n
Sonic Mania<\/em>\u00a0celebrates everything fans love about Sonic.<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/s--VdkC8MDS--\/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636\/eoocq0k10rydjuhwcooj.png\")
Doki Doki Literature Club<\/em>\u00a0is not what it appears to be.<\/h3>\n
Capcom announces\u00a0Mega Man 11<\/em>.<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/s--4AAFJS-s--\/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636\/uxqzgzmsij03ezk2wd3z.jpg\")
A guy in a mullet wig takes over Twitch.<\/h3>\n
Fortnite<\/em>\u00a0actually comes out, catches on.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/s--jRL9gO8w--\/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636\/x0ex9372kyyxgdhosc5r.jpg\")
The Switch has a lovely hidden tribute to Satoru Iwata.<\/h3>\n
\n