Naughty and Nice ’22: The Year in Years

1. Wii U turns 10

It’s not as though I was expecting much pomp and circumstance for this unfortunate failure of a console that, by our best estimate, the Xbox X & S combined have yet to outsell. Sorry, had to sneak in the shade there.
But while Nintendo has learned to be a good sport about the Virtual Boy, they are not ready to give any nostalgic regard to the console that walked so the Switch could break the sound barrier.
Perhaps worst of all, though, is that there are still worthy games trapped on the Wii U despite what seemed an earnest effort to rerelease so many of them on the Switch. No Nintnedo-published Wii U titles were saved this year, the most recent being 2021’s reissue of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water.

2. Mega Man Legends turns 25

When you’re probably the most mistreated spinoff in videogame history, it’s hard to stay off the naughty list every 5 years. And surely they never will. Capcom has no love for these classics, after all, and all who could champion the series on the inside have long since departed the company.

3. Ms. Pac-Man turns 40

Gaming history’s first, iconic leading lady deserved better than this. How did Bandai-Namco mark the occasion, you ask? By erasing her from history.
In this year’s Pac-Man Museum +, (an otherwise large update to an original collection of Pac-Man-series games released for her ex-husband’s 34th anniversary) Ms. Pac-Man’s game was excluded, and her presence in other games (most notably Pac-Land) had been sprite hacked into a new character called “Pac-Mom” who I’m no doubt is assuring the Mr. that nobody got replaced and she was always his wife and that nobody is going to make a Lifetime movie out of this.

4. Queen Elizabeth II’s reign turns 70

And frankly, I couldn’t think of a worse way to celebrate it.

1. Uncharted turns 15

Sometimes in life, there are happy accidents. And one such accident is the Uncharted film getting out of development hell and finally out the door the same year the series turned 15.
Naughty Dog didn’t take the year lying down, either, pushing out Legacy of Thieves Collection for the occasion, and WITHOUT it being riddled with bugs on launch. Certain other series should take note.

2. Kirby turns 35

Nintendo runs really hot and cold for anniversaries, even those for its major franchises. In truth, they’ve done little more than drop a milestone game and a frivolous one this year.
So why is this in the nice list? It’s because of you, dear reader(s). You see, Best Condesenglingly Named Category-winner and all-around fun game, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, is the first game in all this time to ever out-sell the original Kirby’s Dream Land.

3. Atari turns 50

See also, Pong turns 50, the Atari VCS/2600 turns 45, the Atari 5200 turns 40 and SwordQuest turns 40.
Just when I was wondering how I was going to jury rig my Atari VCS’s A/V output into my capture card, A wonderful collection of old Atari games appeared: Atari 50. With games from each era of Atari’s tenure as arcade, computer and console makers, it was already a superb collection that wouldn’t have been served well as a miniconsole. But the disc is more than that; it’s also stuffed with historical documents, old videos and even development notes covering decades of Atari’s run.

4. Lincoln Memorial turns 100

The Park Service had a month of events centered around the centennial in May, and I even paid my first-ever visit to the memorial as part of my first-ever flying trip since COVID began.
The Memorial is larger than life, yet simple and understated. But in person, both the Memorial and its short inscription hold a power that must be seen to be believed.
“In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union the memory of Abraham Lincolin is enshrined forever.”

1. Mortal Kombat’s 30th Anniversary

Mortal Kombat‘s anniversary was, to be fair, at least acknowledged by Ed Boon and NetherRealm Studios, so it’s not as if it was completely forgotten. But the celebrations were underwhelming for the 30th anniversary for one of the most popular fighting game franchises around. For its 30th birthday, all it received was a mobile game, a celebratory video, and numerous vague hints that a new game is coming. Warner Bros. Discovery is notably going through tumultuous times with CEO David Zaslav and his extreme cost-cutting crew taking over, but there’s no evidence that they’ve touched the video game publishing side (yet). They didn’t have to release a new game, but they could have at least provided a visual teaser or something else more special for one of the biggest fighters around.

2. Persona’s 20th Anniversary

This year was, to be fair, not Persona’s actual 20th anniversary year, considering the first installment to the franchise originally released in Japan in 1996. But Atlus celebrated the anniversary for a year’s time, teasing plenty of announcements along the way. Despite the initial promises through empty panels on the franchise’s anniversary website, the only games announced were ports. All the other products were assorted merchandise. The final announcement ended with a wet thud, with release dates for multiplatform versions of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden being confirmed. There’s a good chance that Atlus is working on the sixth mainline installment, but this would have been the best time to announce it regardless of how complete it is.

3. Metal Gear’s 35th Anniversary

Here we are again, with Metal Gear once again gracing the “Naughty” side of an anniversaries list. But the circumstances are a bit different this time. Creator and director Hideo Kojima and much of his development crew have been gone from Konami for about seven years now, since released. Their new franchise, Death Stranding, is working out for them considering a sequel is now on the way. But Konami’s game development side has shown signs of life this year after announcing a stream of Silent Hill games and a Suikoden remaster set. There was barely even an acknowledgement of Metal Gear’s anniversary this year, but I have faith that its 40th birthday will at least provide something.

4. Portal’s 15th Anniversary

This one’s more of a personal pet peeve, but still counts among a more general list like this one. This year marked 15 years since Valve released Portal, one of the most unique puzzle games of its time for more reasons that it established a too-frequently-quoted meme. It received a superlative sequel in 2011, sure, but with Half-Life: Alyx showing that Valve still intends to release internally-developed titles, it would be nice to receive a third game even if the original two creators are long gone from the company. This one, again, may be a bit more personal than the others, but I’m certain that I’m not the only one who would like another installment. It’s been more than a decade since the last one, after all. I guess I know how Half-Life fans felt before Alyx, and perhaps still feel.

1. Street Fighter’s 35th Anniversary

Capcom honored the legacy of Street Fighter, which remains among the most popular fighting game franchises, in two key ways. The biggest was through revealing plenty of info for Street Fighter 6 throughout the year, the newest installment with content that will bridge the gap between the older and newer generations through new and returning characters and features. This wasn’t all, though: The Capcom Fighting Collection released included a solid online-enabled port of Hyper Street Fighter II – The Anniversary Edition, a special version previously released to commemorate the 15th anniversary way back in 2002. Considering how the previous collection of Street Fighter games remains available, there’s not much more Capcom could have done for the anniversary.

2. Star Wars’ 45th Anniversary

Disney and Lucasfilm have always made sure to acknowledge Star Wars’ anniversary, considering it’s always been by far their most popular franchise. But they gave it the most fitting celebration yet with the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, one set during the long gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It showed what Obi-Wan and Darth Vader were up to before Luke Skywalker and Leia fully came into the picture. It wasn’t the best Star Wars series of the year (that was Andor, which occurred during that same lengthy time period), but it was a fittingly solid installment in a long, long saga.

3. Predator’s 35th Anniversary

The first Predator movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was a classic, but its progeny has been inconsistent in quality. (I personally have a soft spot for Predator 2, though.) But it received a great anniversary gift through Prey, the newest Predator film with an Indigenous American lead (Naru — as played by Amber Midthunder) that takes place in the early 1700s. It is a shame it couldn’t receive a theatrical release and arrived directly to Hulu, likely to prevent a 20th Century Studios film from having to go to HBO Max. But it was nonetheless a great gift.

4. Final Fantasy’s 35th Anniversary

The 35th anniversary for the Final Fantasy franchise, notably happening on the very day this is being posted, was one of the best anniversary occasions yet. Square Enix released remastered and pixel-perfect versions of the original Final Fantasy games with remixed soundtracks on PC and mobile platforms, and just announced their console releases for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch worldwide (though the very limited physical versions are already selling out). Square Enix has also spent time promoting the next mainline numbered title, Final Fantasy XVI, set for release without going through development hell. Assuming there are no hitches, this will be the first time a FF game will release without suffering from a prolonged development period since Final Fantasy XI released way back in 2002 — 20 years ago. That’s something to celebrate by itself… if there isn’t a delay. Let’s hope I didn’t jinx it.