2018, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

The 2018 Game of the Year is Super Smash Bros Ultimate.
The runner up is God of War.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

The Switch had an amazing launch year, but its offerings seemed kind of weak in 2018 until the end of the year.  However, the PS4 had strong releases throughout all of 2018.  The XBox One also ran.  Without further ado, here is the list of games for 2018:

 

Among Us (PC/Mobile)
This Mafia/Werewolf style game released in 2018 to very little fanfare.  However, during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns it became one of the most played games in a year when everyone was playing games.  By the end of 2020 over 500 million people had played Among Us.

 

Celeste (Switch/PS4/XB1/PC/Mac/Linux)
Celeste is named after the mountain and not the girl climbing it.  This puzzle platformer was a hit with critics with scores ranging from 88-94 on Metacritic.  Celeste has sold over 1.5 million units on Steam alone.

 

Dead Cells (Switch/PS4/XB1/PC/Mac/Linux)
One thing that got Dead Cells notoriety was the fact that IGN copied their review from Boomstick Gaming.  However, it also happened to be a really good game.  Dead Cells scored an 87-91 on Metacritic and has sold over 10 million copies.

God of War (PS4)
Kratos gets a reboot in a variety of ways including joining the Norse mythology instead of the Greek.  God of War scored an impressive 94 on Metacritic and has sold over 23 million copies to date.

 

Monster Hunter World (PS4/XB1/PC)
Before 2018, Monster Hunter was extremely popular in Japan but was a niche franchise in the rest of the world.  That all changed with the release of Monster Hunter World which had most of its sales outside of Japan.  Monster Hunter World has sold over 20 million copies and scored an 88-90 on Metacritic.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4/XB1)
Rockstar strikes again with this open-world Western game releasing five years after GTA V.  Red Dead Redemption 2 scored an amazing 97 on Metacritic and has sold over 55 million copies.

 

Spider-Man (PS4)
Spider-Man games go all the way back to the Atari 2600, but this entry is the first time it became one of Sony’s first-party IP.  This open world game went on to sell over 33 million copies.

 

Octopath Traveler (Switch)
Square-Enix completely underestimated how popular this retro HD-2D RPG would be.  Physical copies were unavailable for most to purchase for the first two weeks after its initial release in Japan, because there weren’t nearly enough physical copies available.  Octopath Traveler went on to sell over 3 million copies total.

 

Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)
Everyone is here!  Nintendo amazed everyone by announcing that their latest entry would include every character ever in Smash and more.  They went on to release even more characters in the following years through DLC.  SSBU scored a 93 on Metacritic.  It has sold over 32.4 million copies and is still going strong.

 

Other (please specify)
If you think another game deserves to be "Game of the Year" other than one of the 9 listed above, then please vote “Other” and say your game in the comments.  If the "Other" category takes at least 2nd place and no other game gets at least 40% of the vote, then  there will be a runoff vote including the most mentioned game(s) from the comments.

 

Voting for 2018 Game of the Year will end on Thursday, Dec 21 at 11:59 PM, EST.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 22 December 2023