Brutal Gamer Awards: Xbox Game of the Year 2017

The past year was an amazing year for video games. There were a lot of great games released in 2017 and here is a list of console exclusive Xbox One games that have been nominated for Game of the Year. It was also a big year for Xbox, but not so much in the realm of exclusive titles. Microsoft did release the Xbox One X, the super-powered console and it has received a warm welcome. Without further delay, here is the Brutal Gamer’s list of (semi) – exclusive titles for 2017. First up is the sequel to Halo Wars.

Halo Wars 2

The isometric shooter made its return to the Xbox One in early 2017. This sequel featured a new enemy and lots of explosions and best of all, more Halo! It looks like the crew of the Spirit of Fire is back in action. Join Captain Cutter as he takes on a new enemy, The Banished. This brutish faction led by Atriox, looks to take control of where the Halo rings originated, the Ark. Featuring an action-adventure style of gameplay mixed with real-time strategy (RTS), Halo Wars 2 was a welcomed addition to the Xbox library. This next game featured a talking gun and a boy in a red hoodie.

Rise & Shine

From Adult Swim Games comes the tale of a boy and his gun. Rise & Shine is a zany bullet-hell 2D side scroller and was a secret hit when it was released in January. Set in a world ruled by gaming parodies, players take on the roll of Rise and his trusty companion gun, Shine. Rise must blast his way through an almost endless army of baddies and try to save the day. Check out our review of Rise & Shine, in which we gave the game a 91 percent. Up next is another action-adventure game, but this one takes place in a realm of magic and fantasy.

Path of Exiles

Set in the magical realm of Wraeclast, Path of Exiles has been a major hit on the Xbox One. This console exclusive tried to cash in our the Diablo-esque approach to hack and slash games. Players would build a character and travel the lands killing monsters and earning loot. Even better, Path of Exiles is a free-to-play game. Do not let that scare you as it is still jammed packed with quality content. The story is engaging and can be experienced with a friend in co-op. Enough with the violence, this next game is jammed pack of cuteness.

Super Lucky’s Tale

Does it get much cuter than a game about a fox? Well it is about to get all sorts of zany up in here with Super Lucky’s Tale. This 3D platformer is all about the fox with a tale, or tail. It seems as though Lucky has been sucked into a magical book and he must do what he can to clean things up. Along the way, players will experience the colorful and beautiful world that appears in Lucky’s Tale.Our final game took more than 100 years to develop, or it seems like it took that long with all the delays.

Cuphead

All the way back in 2014, gamers saw the first glimpse of this grainy and cartoony adventure staring a man with a cuphead. The unique aesthetic introduced Cuphead into instant stardom. Every year during the Xbox E3 presser, gamers would wait with bated breath for another glimpse at this spectacular game. Each year, the team at Studio MDHR would release just a little bit more and like a crazy drug addict, gamers would eat it up. Then things went quiet and Cuphead started to become almost a legend. A game so ambitious, it was all hand-drawn animation, may never be released. Then gamers finally saw the light of day in 2017.

It is with great pleasure that Brutal Gamer awards the 2017 Xbox Game of the Year Award to the amazing game, Cuphead. It has lived up to the hype and delivered in so many ways. Not only is the aesthetic of the game unique, its approach to gameplay is also unique for the Xbox One. Each mini-world consists of several bosses and a timed race level, instead of the typical side scrolling adventure, players fought bosses over and over. This approach worked wonderfully as it level was in itself an unique adventure. It is a rather difficult game as well, but can be enjoyed with a friend through couch co-op. I could go on for several hundred more words about how great this game is, but I would rather just highly recommend you go out right now and purchase the game.