8 Wonderful Games You Might Have Missed in 2016
2016 was jam-packed with great games. Here are eight that were unjustly overlooked.
2016 was so jam-packed with great games that you'd be forgiven if you missed some. Like, say these eight gems. Many of these could have easily been on our Games of the Year list in their own right, but we picked these in particular because they deserve more attention than they got. Many of them are small, experimental, and wildly creative—any combination of which could explain why they slipped past most of the game-playing public. If you're looking for something surprising, or personal, or original, here you go.
- [*Pony Island*](http://store.steampowered.com/app/405640/) is a trip. What begins as a jaunt through a buggy children’s game ends up as a cosmic showdown over a haunted computer that might actually be the gateway to hell. Blending genres, meta-gaming conceits, and daring humor, Daniel Mullins’ experimental PC game is one of the most surprising things to happen in 2016. It was one of the first, too: its early January release means it’s probably been long forgotten by most of the folks cooking up year-end lists like these. Don’t sleep on it—just be prepared to be messed with.
- A girl, her dog, and a Southern United States that’s finally succumbed to the flood; [*The Flame in the Flood*](http://store.steampowered.com/app/318600/) merges the survival game genre with a devotion to Southern Americana. The Molasses Flood’s debut game is haunted by Flannery O’Connor, decrepit churches, and howling wolves. A killer bluegrass soundtrack rounds out an experience that’s as lush as it is desperate. It’s a frustrating game, to be fair, and falls into many of the same pitfalls that survival games are accustomed to, including artificial scarcity and unpredictable spikes in difficulty. All the same, few games capture the aesthetic sensibilities of the American South quite like this one.
- The relatively unheard-of studio Ocelot Society did the impossible with [*Event0*](http://store.steampowered.com/app/470260/): they made a chatbot interesting. Set within the standard but comforting framework of a claustrophobic spaceship exploration game, *Event0* is really about building a relationship between the player and the ship-bound AI, a chatbot named Kaizen. Being able to see the limitations of Kaizen’s technology (basically the same stuff that’s been used since we were all tooling around with AIM bots a decade ago) doesn’t stop him from being a convincing and sympathetic companion as you try to figure out how to return to Earth. Kaizen may not be trustworthy, but that just makes him all the more bewitching.
- Christine Love’s latest visual novel is a rare beast in the videogame world: sexy. Set aboard a cruise ship where you, as titular Ladykiller (a lady yourself), must impersonate your brother during a long week of flirtation and kinky hijinks. Games rarely try to titillate in any but the most immature and borderline offensive ways, but [*Ladykiller in a Bind*](http://ladykillerinabind.com/) is the rare title that skillfully tells an interactive story that treats sexuality as both serious and worth enjoying. Prurient interest aside, this is a well designed visual novel, with engaging systems and smartly written, lovable characters.—characters with whom you can have some very special times, if you so choose. __Warning: Trailer is NSFW.__
- One more ship. One more time into the wreckage, my fingers sliding over my keyboard, typing hurried commands to my trio of drones. Search the next room. Open that hatch—slowly. Cut the power, fall back, and get out of there; we’re not alone. A space salvage simulation played via a command line, [*Duskers*](http://store.steampowered.com/app/254320/) is supremely tense, a subdued horror experience that is one of 2016’s unsung standouts. It carefully keeps you at a remove from the action, ratcheting up the anxiety in the process. In a year crowded with good games, *Duskers* stands out as one of the most original, and one of the most under-appreciated.
- [*Small Radios, Big Televisions*](http://www.smallradiosbigtelevisions.com/) is like the tide. It flows calmly, back and forth, quiet and meditative as change slowly takes hold. It’s a point-and-click puzzle game that tasks the player with finding cassette tapes, each one holding a snapshot of a beautiful world that doesn’t exist anymore. Always subtle and quiet, it’s an engrossing and calm puzzle game for a moment when you need something beautiful and quiet, something that unfolds serenely under close attention.
- Feel the rush of fire just inches past your vacuum-sealed hull and breathe in the silent infinity of deep space. In a starved genre, *House of the Dying Sun* is the space combat sim you’ve been waiting for. It’s quick and focused, offering concentrated doses of dogfighting at high speeds. Take on the role of a ruthless ace assassin alongside a growing fleet of fighters, destroyers, and frigates. Hunt the remnants of a traitorous cabal that took your emperor from you. With the stars glittering across your viewscreen, take aim and fire.
- In a year obsessed with hacking, Blendo Games’s *Quadrilateral Cowboy* is the most affecting piece of hacking media I’ve encountered. It might be its limited scope: at its heart it’s the story of a life spent among three friends, working, playing, and thieving together. Or it might be the early cyberpunk clunkiness at the core of the aesthetic, complete with a briefcase-sized laptop you have to carry around and set up every time you want to get into a network. With filmic flair and a winning, blocky style, Blendo Games’s latest is a smartly designed hacking sim with a warm, welcoming heart.
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