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Game of the Year 2021

While I wouldn’t consider 2021 to be a particularly great year for games, there were a few welcome surprises along the way. Even when the Triple-A scene is fairly barren, the indie market continues to thrive like it has for the past few years, making sure I’ve got a fully rounded-out list of great games.

11 – Toodee and Topdee

Release Date: 4th August
Publisher: dietzribi
Developer: dietzribi
Platforms: Windows

It’s a trend, almost to the point of mockery, that half of the indie scene on Steam is 2D platformers, and I’d be willing to bet that a good chunk of them were top-down puzzlers too.

Combining the two genres is something that seems impossible on the surface, but this game cleverly highlights the similarities between the two. A puzzle game was definitely the right angle to take, and there’s a lot of clever mechanics to be had here.

I always like the idea of puzzles games, but often they lose me halfway through. This is either because they’re so easy I breeze through them or impenetrably difficult. For whatever reason, this game managed to sit right in my sweet spot. I found every puzzle challenging in a new way, but I was eventually able to solve them after thinking about it for a while.

Despite not being a very long game, they manage to mix a lot of fresh ideas in there. Almost every level adds something new or looks at an established mechanic in a new way. It never gives you a chance to settle into a groove, which is good for a puzzle game because it keeps your brain whirring away.

10 – Flynn: Son of Crimson

Release Date: 15th September
Publisher: Humble Game
Developer: Studio Thunderhorse
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac

I’ve already used my joke about 2D platformers on the last one…

Often my favourite games are the ones that do something brand new or put a unique spin on an old concept. Flynn isn’t really like that. It’s not breaking new ground for the 2D Platformer or the sidescrolling hack and slash, but it’s an extremely good version of both genres.

The combat is pretty light, but that’s usually what I’m in the good for in games like this. It doesn’t get much more complex than knowing when to dodge and when to strike, but it doesn’t need to. The game drip-feeds you new weapons at a steady pace that slowly allow you to mix up your playstyle, and that’s all it needs to stay fresh for the duration. The boss fights have a classic feel, although those well-versed in the genre might find them a bit easy.

The animation is a real highlight. The way it creates the energy effects with just a few frames and pixel styling is beautiful in its way. Indie animators really seem to have nailed how to do so much with so little. Ultimately, Fynn: Son of Crimson will please anyone who likes 2D hack and slashes.

9 – Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars

Release Date: 28th October
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Alim
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows

A tabletop style JRPG?! Hook it directly into my veins.

To be frank, the themeing and style absolutely carries this game on its back. Without it, this wouldn’t have even entered my radar, and I can’t say I would’ve liked it as much either.

That’s not to disparage it entirely. The combat systems and story on the table are fun, but they are also flawed in some key areas. I’m willing to overlook those flaws, though, because the overall thematic experience the game offers is very strong.

The combat system is a fairly simplistic one – at least, as far as modern JRPGs are concerned – slowly building up currency that every character needs to attack makes for a strategic balancing act that no other genre can quite match. That said, it isn’t breaking any new ground, and by the time players are in the late game, it gets a bit repetitive.

The story is solid and hits all the beats it needs to, but I failed to connect with the characters in the way that I do with some of my favourite JRPGs. However, like I said, the tactile nature of the tabletop style wraps it up in a package I adore. Hand of Fate might do this theme a bit better, but when it mixes a JRPG into things, I just can’t stay away.

8 – Unpacking

Release Date: 2nd November
Publisher: Humble Games
Developer: Witch Beam
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac, Linux

A game I finished the same afternoon I started it, Unpacking is a cosy game that sticks in mind despite being just a couple of hours in length.

What makes it so special to me is its capacity for storytelling. The fact that with no dialogue, or even a single character shown on screen, it comprehensively tells the entire story of the first half of someone’s life. From their very first bedroom as a child, all the way through to moving into a place of their own with a partner.

Psychologists will tell you how we’re all shaped by our environment and how we can shape our environment to shape us, but this game really shows that to you. The objects this person owns slowly gives you a comprehensive look at who they’re going to become and who they want to be. Meanwhile, the environment around you and what you can and can’t touch tells you about the people around them.

The objects they carry with them from place to place and the ones they leave behind give you a sense of hobbies and ambitions they’ve left by the wayside or are still trying to pursue. It’s a very realistic story told through a cosy lens, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

7 – Portal Reloaded

Release Date: 19th April
Publisher: Humble Games
Developer: Witch Beam
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac, Linux

With every passing year, it seems less and less likely that a Valve official Portal sequel/prequel/whatever is going to grace the world. It’s possible the series gets the Half-Life: Alyx treatment at some point during the new few years, but it’s impossible to say.

In the meantime, plenty of fan-made Portal games have come out to varying degrees of success. They all play around with interesting ideas, but I think Portal Reloaded is by far the best yet.

The new mechanic for this standalone mod is Time Travel. A third portal allows players to go into the same test chamber in the past and move stuff around there. This sets up a brilliant scenario where things in the past affect the future, and things from the future can be brought into the past, but not the other way around. The ability to switch between each at any time means that everything can essentially be in two places simultaneously.

Once again, this hits the puzzle sweet spot for me. It had me really scratching my head at times, but I was always able to eventually connect the dots and feel very smart by solving it. Even if it did take me an hour to get there.

6 – Far Cry 6

Release Date: 7th October
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Toronto
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows

Despite my general lack of interest in the First Person Shooter genre, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Far Cry franchise. There’s something I find wonderful addicting about Ubisoft’s style of open-world design, they tap into my completionist side in a major way.

Additionally, I really like the game’s shooting mechanics. They’re not very complex, but the wide array of weaponry on offer means there’s enough to think about to keep me engaged. I’m always aware of what guns are useful in what scenarios and how I can best use them.

At its core, this was a decent entry in the franchise. I don’t think it’s better than 5, which is my favourite, but the world felt different enough and had plenty of activities I enjoyed to keep me engaged. That said, I didn’t actually finish it. I probably will eventually, in 3-4 months I’ll get the itch to play it again, but for now, I’m satisfied with where I got to.

At the end of the day, anyone who’s been into gaming for a while will know whether or not they like this franchise by now, so there’s not much more to say.

5 – Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Release Date: 10th June
Publisher: Finji
Developer: Greg Lobanov, Alexis-Dean Jones, Lena Raine, Madeline Berger
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows, Mac

Chicory is another relaxing indie game, but in a different way to Unpacking. Where Unpacking tells a warm and simple story, Chicory looks to dive a bit deeper.

At its core, I saw Chicory as a story about learning to love your own creations. Everyone creates things in some way, and most will have experiences in being unable to see past the flaws in what they’ve created. The idea of the tortured artist who hates their work has been seen in media plenty of times before, but there’s usually a twisted romanticised feeling to it.

Chicory doesn’t glamourise these internal struggles; instead, it takes a much more grounded look at it. When I see Chicory and the player character struggle mentally, I see a very honest representation of what the creators have gone through. It’s something many people will have experienced at some point, yet portraying it in fiction can often be difficult. That’s why I think this game should be commended so highly.

On top of that narrative, there is some fun puzzle gameplay that connects everything up nicely. It wasn’t too difficult, and I only struggled in a couple of places (the hint system is adorable, by the way), but how everything interacted made each puzzle fun to complete.

The boss fights are great, too, even if they are quite forgiving. The tone of the game changes so deliberately and drastically that they really feel intimidating and impactful opponents. It ties the gameplay back into the narrative perfectly.

4 – Dodgeball Academia

Release Date: 5th August
Publisher: Humble Games
Developer: Pocket Trap
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows

A far more joyous experience now, Dodgeball Academia is light, humorous and an overall blast from start to finish.

It’s about a school that is all about learning to be great at dodgeball, a game I have a lot of fondness for from my own school days. The combat gameplay really does it justice, too. Everything’s in real-time, and the different aspects of play like the scrambles for the ball, the near-miss throws and expert dodges capture what I love so much about the real game.

Then, it piles on lots of different powers and effects that both the balls and characters hold, and you end up with a surprisingly complex combat system. The RPG-style progression system was the right choice to back this up, too, and it made for some brilliantly challenging battles.

The tone of the game makes it stand out as well. Sometimes it tries a bit too hard with the jokes, but the light-hearted feel brings a tremendous sense of joy to the experience. The characters are over the top, and the story events are whacky in exactly the right way. It meant that the whole experience was still lodged into my brain half a year later.

3 – Scarlet Nexus

Release Date: 24th June
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
Developer: Tose, Bandai Namco Studios
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows

When new JRPGs come along, especially new IPs, I quickly want to jump on the bandwagon and see what they’re about. I don’t always click with them, but I don’t mind that because finding the ones I adore is such a rewarding experience (see my journey with the Xenoblade games).

The thing about Scarlet Nexus is that there are plenty of things I don’t like about it. However, in spite of those things, I couldn’t quite pull myself away from it until the credits.

Starting with the narrative, I think it’s very strong but could’ve been told better. I don’t really see the point in splitting the story into two separate campaigns. I know the start and end are virtually identical either way, but the sections in the middle felt very weirdly paced, and it was because chunks of it had been taken out and put in the other campaign.

That said, I did really enjoy what was on offer. It took me a little longer than usual to get my footing in the world, but once I did, I had great investment in the story’s outcome. A big part of this was the cast of characters on display, who I enjoyed a great deal.

The thing about the characters is that they’re all kind of unlikable. JRPGs with big casts of party members are often like this, but I feel Scarlet Nexus steps over the line of “quirky” to unlikable. However, I don’t mean that as a bad thing. While it did put me off the characters in the beginning, digging deeper into what drives them to be this way was compelling.

I found it especially interesting that, even when the story progresses and the characters open up, they don’t change who they are a great deal. Instead, the player (and the protagonist) have a deeper understanding of them as people and appreciates them more because of it.

The gameplay was plenty of fun, too. I’m glad it was real-time combat, as I suspect I would’ve gotten bored with turn-based in this scenario. The SAS led to loads of different battle tactics, and the slow way in which its complexity opened up made for a very satisfying progression curve.

Ultimately, Scarlet Nexus doesn’t rank among my favourite JRPGs, but I’m still very glad I took the time to play it.

2 – Metroid Dread

Release Date: 8th October
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Mercury Steam, Nintendo EPD
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

While I’ve immersed myself in the Metroidvania genre over the years, I’d never actually played a proper 2D Metroid game before Metroid Dread. It was a surprise when it was announced, and I was immediately excited.

What I think it did more expertly than most Metroidvanias I’ve played is guide the player without letting the player realise they’re being guided. It’s not perfect, and there were some points where I thought it was too heavy-handed, but it took me quite a while into the game to notice how it was gently pushing me in the right direction.

Metroid purists might dislike that fact about it, but if I had total freedom in a world that big, I’d be constantly getting lost and frustrated, and eventually, I’d just give up. It was the perfect level of help that I needed to keep me going along without feeling too restricted.

That’s not to say it didn’t allow exploration because it definitely did. While the critical path was rarely hidden, it still readily rewarded players for remembering where the roadblocks were and identifying the new tools that could be used on them. It managed to have the best of both worlds in that regard.

The combat system was a bit fiddly at times, but the overall design of the major fights, especially the bosses, were brilliant. I’m a big fan of classic boss-fight design, with varied attack patterns that require expert movement and timing to dodge.

Everything came together for a true modern classic and reminded everyone why Metroid has an entire genre named after it.

1 – Bravely Default 2

Release Date: 26th February
Publisher: Square Enix, Nintendo
Developer: Claytechworks
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Windows

Well, I wasn’t even remotely surprised by this outcome. After 2020 gave me one year off from JRPGs topping my Game of the Year list, Bravely Default 2 put me back in my place with an engaging story, lovable characters and compelling combat.

While, truth be told, I wouldn’t put this on the level of Octopath Traveler or the Xenoblade games, I still absolutely adored my time with Bravely Default 2. The combat system balances the classic turn-based JRPG style while sprinkling in just a dash of modern innovation.

The Brave & Default commands gave every battle an innate layer of strategy to every battle, even the random encounters. Knowing when to hold back and build up attacks or charge forward and take several at once meant I was actively thinking at all times.

The freedom the class system gave was brilliant too. Octopath’s style of having a character’s primary class set in stone gives a stronger sense of character; however, Bravely’s style of giving full customisation made strategising much more fun.

With 24 different classes to choose from, all having unique abilities and useful scenarios meant that I was able to find a strategy that perfectly suited my playstyle. The rate at which they’re introduced to the player is perfect, and it meant that I was looking to experiment when I got a new class, and I’d always try it out in my party. I never felt like my loadout was set or that I was always relying on the same strategies.

The overall story is a lot of endearing JRPG nonsense, but I don’t think it needed to be particularly stellar. The characters were clearly defined and likeable enough that they carried the narrative on their backs, even when the plot was a bit lacking.

At its core, Bravely Default 2 is a modern version of the classic JRPG formula, a formula I adore. I doubt I’ll replay it any time soon, but I will most certainly reminisce on my time with it fondly.

AEW Match of the Year 2021

After talking about WWE a couple of weeks ago, the time has come to see the best of what AEW has had to offer this year.

As my interest in WWE has waned significantly in 2021, my interest in AEW has grown twice as much. I can’t pinpoint exactly why it is. Truthfully, there are several reasons. All I can say for certain is that at this exact moment – while I like both companies – I consider myself more of an AEW fan than a WWE fan.

That wasn’t something I’d expected I’d ever say, but AEW has done a fantastic job of appealing to exactly what I want out of wrestling and is yet to let me down in a major way like WWE regularly do. That’s not to say the company’s flawless. I’ll talk about some of that throughout this list, but I know which wrestling company I’d rather spend more of my time watching right now.

12 – Bryan Danielson vs Eddie Kingston – Rampage 29th October
(Eliminator Tournament Semi-Final)

Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson featured in two matches on my WWE list, and you can be damn sure he’s going to feature on more than one here, in what you could argue has been the best year of his career. I wasn’t sure how he was going to fit into AEW when he left WWE, but he’s just been getting better and better.

Eddie Kingston has had a similarly great year. I’ll talk about it in more depth shortly, but his fire and passion for pro-wrestling are like nothing I’ve ever seen, and he has all the potential to be the biggest star in the industry if he wants to, even if he isn’t the most polished in the ring.

Arguably, it’s that lack of polish that makes Kingston’s matches so great to watch, especially when in the ring with an ultra-polished technician like Bryan. Kingston fought with the level of scruffy desperation that he always does, and Bryan used that to his advantage to slowly wear Kingston down and out-pace him throughout the match.

He weathered the storm of Kingston’s brutal onslaughts and picked his openings to take control. It’s classic psychology, but they meshed so well together and made for an intense bout that Kingston even carried with him after it was over.

11 – MJF vs Darby Allin – Full Gear

For those who claim AEW has “no future” and “doesn’t build new stars”, I wonder if they keep their eyes tightly shut during matches like this. While MJF espousing the “pillars” of AEW’s future might be a bit over the top and self-aggrandising, there is a level of truth to it. There’s absolutely no question that both of these men will have great AEW World Championship reigns at some point in their careers.

Both of these men have such clearly defined characters, and they understand exactly how their characters should interact with the world around them. MJF talks and talks and talks, forging words that can make crowds react however he wants. Darby, meanwhile, is closed off and only talks when he has something impactful to say. They really are polar opposites of each other, and I have no doubt that they will have multiple feuds throughout their careers.

I certainly hope they do, at least, because if this match is anything to go by, their future matches could be some of the best the company will ever see. People praise MJF’s talking skills all the time (and rightfully so), but his ability for in-ring storytelling is just as strong. No matter who his opponent is, he knows exactly how to get the most heat out of the situation.

Allin, of course, is worthy of this praise too. He’s the kind of cool babyface WWE don’t understand how to make at the moment, and he has such a great command over maintaining that persona, even when getting his arse kicked in the ring.

To put it simply, these were two men with incredible in-ring chemistry letting loose and putting on a show.

10 – Hikaru Shida(c) vs Britt Baker – Double or Nothing
(AEW Women’s World Championship)

Throughout 2020, I heavily criticised AEW for its failure to treat its women’s division properly. In 2021, the problem definitely isn’t solved; however, they have made significant steps in the right direction. The TBS Championship has showcased the depth of the division and ensured that there is more than one major story on the go in the division at any given time.

Their other biggest positive step was putting the belt on Britt Baker, who is arguably one of their most popular wrestlers right now, despite being a heel. That’s not to be down on Hikaru Shida, her title run was full of brilliant matches, but the company treated it poorly, which tainted it. Britt Baker, meanwhile, has gotten the right kind of treatment and feels like a big deal because of it.

This match was a showcase of exactly what makes both of these women so great. Shida allowed her babyface potential to flourish and showed how a babyface’s in-ring style can be sufficiently brutal and hard-hitting. Baker, meanwhile, upped her heel game, allowing her character to take centre-stage, which enhanced all of her excellent in-ring work.

Even though the crowd was cheering Britt Baker, the heel, when she won, it still felt like the story had been told effectively, and it’s telling that following that match, she gets the boos, despite still being popular with fans.

9 – CM Punk vs Eddie Kingston – Full Gear

Just about everything that can be said about CM Punk’s return earlier this year has already been said, but I’m still so thrilled to see him on TV week-to-week. I started watching WWE in December 2013, and he’d be gone from the company just a month later. It meant that while I love his work, I only ever got to experience it through the lens of history.

Ever since Punk has come back, his presence has felt truly special. His handling hasn’t been perfect, but at the moment, he’s in a situation where his star won’t fade as long as he’s handled at least semi-competently. His current work with MJF is fantastic, but the first true glimpse of the “Punk of old” we got was this feud with Eddie Kingston.

Usually, in wrestling, the point of the story is to serve the match. However, this was a case where it felt like the match was serving the story. I mean this in a good way, to be clear. This match was simply a physical version of their first promo battle. They fought messy and dirty but still beat the ever-loving shit out of each other.

In just eleven minutes, they put on a gripping match that could’ve been the main event of any Pay-Per-View and worked so hard to stand out from the other brilliant matches on Full Gear’s stacked card. Punk can still create incredible wrestling matches and moments like he did in his WWE heyday, and anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.

8 – The Young Bucks(c) vs Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston – Double or Nothing
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

After Moxley lost the AEW World Championship at the end of 2020, there was some worry about how he’d fit into the roster when not in the main event. He cooled off significantly in the second half of the year, but throughout Spring and early Summer, he was as hot as ever.

AEW’s fantastic treatment of its Tag Team division means that when the big matches roll around, it feels like a main event scene in and of itself. Moxley & Kingston feel like two men bound in spirit for all sorts of reasons, and watching them officially team up throughout the year was a joy.

The ironic thing about AEW having consistently amazing tag matches on PPV is that you start to run out of new things to say about them after a while. The Young Bucks did what they always do best, pulling big moves and exciting action out of any opponent they step in the ring with.

Not that Moxley or Kingston needed that “pulling out” of them. They’re firmly on the Bucks’ level. They brought an extra dose of brutality to this kind of match, which isn’t seen very often in the fast and flippy world of AEW Tag Team wrestling. I think that’s what made it stand out to me. Every major tag match the Bucks have is incredible, but this felt unique compared to the rest.

7 – The Lucha Bros(c) vs FTR – Full Gear
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)

The other side of the “always incredible tag team matches” coin is The Lucha Bros, who finally feel like they’ve been truly unleashed on AEW as a team. They’ve been putting on hype-worthy matches in both the tag & singles division since AEW started, but now they’re finally the focal point of the tag world.

Their feud with FTR was an odd one, especially since it started with them taking the AAA tag titles. A genius move, don’t get me wrong, it just felt a tad messy in terms of storytelling. That said, the themes were clear. FTR have no respect for the Lucha Libre style, and they were on a mission to destroy it.

This plays through in the match, as FTR are geniuses at getting the most heat out of a match depending on their opponents. Over the years, I’ve professed my love for their style all I can, and watching The Lucha Bros collide with it was as joyous an experience as I expected.

The pace was start-and-stop enough to give someone whiplash, but that’s exactly what the story needed. When the openings came for Lucha Bros to get their signature style into the match, they made the most of it before FTR shut it down. The last section was classic near-fall drama, which rounded off an exciting match with several highs.

6 – Bryan Danielson vs Minoru Suzuki – Rampage 15th October

I’ve never been as into Japanese wrestling as I’d like to be. I did my best to keep up with it for a few years, but once AEW started, I didn’t have the time or energy to keep watching NJPW. It’s a shame, because, on the rare occasion I watch a show, I always have a good time. More importantly, the one man I always love watching more the most others is Minoru Suzuki.

He carries himself with an aura of complete indestructibility, but he’s not some big-guy monster-type. His style is genius and technical and meshes perfectly with wrestlers who are traditionally a bit more flashy in the ring. Thankfully, Bryan Danielson is a man who knows how to do both.

The reason why I love a match like this is similar to why I love just about any match Walter puts on. It’s hard-hitting, brutal and exhausting to watch (in a fun way) and builds moves and spots that are traditionally a bit more mundane (by modern standards) to be match-ending high spots.

At its core, this is two of the best technical wrestlers in the world doing what they do best, and that’s always a recipe for success. A recipe that AEW knows to let speak for itself, rather than muddying the waters like a certain other company.

5 – Kenny Omega vs Bryan Danielson – Dynamite 22nd September

From this point upwards, ordering this list was insanely difficult. All five of the matches I’m about to talk about were simply incredible in their own way. In a situation like this, what ranks highest comes down entirely to personal preference, so that’s what I’ll try to explain.

Having come into the wrestling world on WWE’s style of wrestling, the idea of time limits on matches seemed weird to me. I’d seen NJPW do it, but the idea of having a match go for 30 or even 60 minutes and then on a draw seemed like an awful idea.

I didn’t hate it when Okada & Omega did it a few years ago, but this year I really saw exactly how brilliant of a narrative tool it could be. Two major matches accomplished this, and this one was the first. Omega & Bryan have long been regarded by many as the two best wrestlers in the world today, so people immediately wanted to see it when Bryan showed up in AEW.

Thankfully, Tony Khan knew that’s what everyone wanted and booked it immediately. To say it was what everyone was hoping for would be an understatement. I don’t think words can adequately describe the spectacle these two put on, two of the best to ever do it, in their prime, working their asses off.

While the rematch hasn’t happened yet, this 30-minute draw has kept it at the forefront of everyone’s mind, and people will pay through the nose to see it whenever it happens.

4 – Hangman Adam Page(c) vs Bryan Danielson – Winter Is Coming
(AEW World Championship)

The second big-time limit draw of the year, this one was even more impressive for various reasons.

Firstly, it was 60 minutes instead of 30, and yet the action never once dipped. As far as hour-long matches go, I’ve seen a few better-constructed ones, but I was still completely and totally gripped from start to finish by this one. Secondly, it was for the title, which gave it such a more important aura than the previous one, where the lack of the title took away from the drama somewhat.

I think it shows just how much faith everyone had in Hangman Page that they threw this match at him as his very first match as World Champion. His skill was never in any doubt, but even some of the best wrestlers couldn’t make an hour-long match entertaining the whole way through. Both in storyline and in real life, this felt like a true test of what kind of Champion Page could be, and he passed with flying colours.

I have no idea how the rematch will go down in a couple of weeks, but I know I’ll be just as glued to my screen as I was while this one was on.

My Favourite “Old” Games I Played For The First Time In 2021

Obligatory reminder that “Old” in this context just means “released before 2021”.

2021 hasn’t been a fantastic year for games, on the whole. That’s not to say there haven’t been any good ones, but the list of major releases this year felt pretty lacking compared to the past few. I mean, the reasons why are fairly apparent, but still.

However, that just means there’s been more time for me to play some of the games from previous years that passed me by, and I played some really great ones this time around.

REALLY great.

As in, I got a new favourite game of all time this year…but we’ll talk about that in a bit. As usual, I’ll be updating my 100 Favourite Games list throughout this piece, stating the ranking I’d give to any game I felt deserved a spot.

9 – Slime Rancher

Release Date: 1st August 2017
Publisher: Monomi Park, Skybound Games
Developer: Monomi Park
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows, Mac, Linux

Interestingly, I was partly convinced I’d already played Slime Rancher at some point, but it turns out I didn’t even own it until this January, so I immediately jumped on it.

This kind of game has had its formula perfected by this point, so new games don’t necessarily need to do much innovation to be great. All they really need to do is have a strong sense of theme and enough explorative elements to stop things from getting too repetitive.

Slime Rancher is brilliant at that. Its map isn’t particularly huge, but it carefully staggers the rate at which you can explore it to ensure you’ll always be working toward something. Even with such a limited inventory, it was always a great thrill to come home with many new slimes and things to feed them.

The game’s story and atmosphere were nice and warm too. It’s fairly simple, but life-sim games don’t need huge & complex plots to be memorable. This tale of lovers forced apart is one of those bittersweet things that hits you in just the right way to stay with you for a while after the game is over.

Technically, players can keep going infinitely, but personally, I found the credits rolled at just the right point in the game, and I was satisfied to leave it there, which is something not many games like this can manage.

8 – Fable 3

Release Date: 26th October 2010
Publisher: Microsoft Games Studio
Developer: Lionhead Studios
Platforms: Xbox 360, Windows

This is a game that I’ve wanted to get into for a long time. I finally got around to finding a PC version of the game, and I had a great time with it.

I’m aware that the Fable series comes with a bit of a stigma of disappointment thanks to Peter Mollenuex’s propensity for overpromising and underdelivering, but since I wasn’t exposed to any of that, it didn’t affect my experience in the slightest.

It was far from a difficult game, that’s for sure, but I didn’t really care about that because the world was such a fun and engaging place to be. There are plenty of other games out there that offer deep lore and endless sidequests, but that isn’t what this game wanted to be, and I love what it is instead.

The aggressively British charm is naturally going to appeal to me, and recognising the voices of various British comedians I didn’t know voiced in the game never ceased bringing me joy. It’s a cartoony world, but it felt so alive. It drove me to try and reach that good alignment no matter what else I did.

Being king/queen was a lot of fun too. Admittedly, the banking system does break the challenge of it, but so few games give you that proper experience of ruling a kingdom. It was so endlessly charming how people would come to you and ask you to make key decisions about the world you’d spent the first half of the game exploring.

Place on 100 Favourite Games List: 89

7 – Professor Layton and the Lost Future

Release Date: 27th November 2008
Publisher: Level-5, Nintendo
Developer: Level-5, Matrix Software
Platforms: Nintendo DS, Android, iOS

When I initially wrote my 100 favourite games list a few years ago, there were a couple of games that I managed to forget, and perhaps the most noteworthy one is the Professor Layton games.

At the time, I had only played Curious Village and half of Pandora’s Box, but I still had lots of fun exploring the world and completing the puzzles. This year, I endeavoured to play more of the series, and I’m now 4 games in. They all offer very similar experiences, but the one that I think is the most tightly crafted so far is Lost Future (known as Unwound Future outside of Europe).

All Layton games have a great selection of puzzles on display. They’re genuinely great puzzles too. While the early game is generally filled with very simple riddles that can be breezed through, towards the end, I came across some genuinely challenging ones that make me feel smart to solve.

What separates all of the games in the franchise, though, is the story, and that’s where this game stands out. Layton’s worlds are strange in just the right ways, and Lost Future draws you in immediately with a fantastic premise. The idea that a future London is being ruled by an evil Layton is the kind of concept you can’t turn your nose up at. It gets perhaps a little ridiculous towards the end, explaining how time travel wasn’t actually involved, but in a weird way, that just made it more fun.

Place on 100 Favourite Games List: 71

6 – Hades

Release Date: 17th September 2020
Publisher: Supergiant Games
Developer: Supergiant Games
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Mac

During 2020, I rolled my eye sat a lot of Roguelike/lite Dungeon Crawlers. I was a bit tired of the genre, having played so many over the past few years, which meant that when the entire internet started heaping praise upon Hades, I decided I wasn’t going to bother.

I wish I hadn’t, though, because I finally got my hands on it in January this year, and I loved every second of it. While it doesn’t really break any new ground in the genre, it is arguably the most masterfully crafted game in said genre since The Binding of Isaac.

Just about every aspect of the game is worthy of at least some praise. The art direction is gorgeous. Everything on the screen just pops in the right way, even when in the heat of battle. Speaking of battles, the combat system is smooth as butter, with the different weapons allowing for plenty of variety and letting players pick the play styles most suited to them.

The bosses are finely tuned and plenty of fun, even after fighting them several times. The way all of the different Gods interact with the player make them all endearing and memorable characters, and the story was the biggest surprise of them all, cleverly working in the repetitive nature of the genre.

Eventually, I reached a point where I was satisfied with it and haven’t felt a desire to play any more ever since (which is why it’s not higher on the list). However, I still thoroughly enjoyed all of the time I spent with it.

Place on 100 Favourite Games List: 69

5 – Tetris Effect

Release Date: 9th November 2018
Publisher: Enhance, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Esonair, Monstars, Stage Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows, Oculus Quest

While I don’t have much of a connection with the “classics” of gaming, I’ve always had a soft spot for Tetris. I’m not entirely sure why, but it’s an inherently satisfying game to play and an excellent way to keep the brain active while having some time to kill.

I’d heard for a while that Tetris Effect was one of, if not the best, version of Tetris ever made, and having now played it, I can say I am firmly in that camp. Disregarding the classic atmosphere of Tetris, with none of the classic music, this instead looks to create a version of Tetris that feels more like experiential art than a game.

That perhaps makes it sound more pretentious than it is, but I really can’t name another video game experience like this one. At its core, the gameplay is your basic Tetris affair, but it’s surrounded by this wonderfully atmospheric and powerful soundtrack, aided by some incredibly beautiful visuals that respond and build as you play.

Even when it gets intense in Tetris Effect, the game still exudes this calming aura that makes it such a great way to focus your mind for just a little while and play a genuinely great classic game.

Place on 100 Favourite Games List: 66

4 – Miitopia

Release Date: 8th December 2016
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS

What may at first seem like “baby’s first JRPG” is actually an unapologetically warm and joyful adventure…that is also a relatively easy JRPG.

Despite being one of the most “Nintendo” games ever made, there’s something about Miitopia that can’t help but draw people in. I’ve always thought Miis were a fairly dull concept. They play to that minimalist style I hate about Funko Pops. However, this game does all the work necessary to inject personality into them.

I think that’s the keyword to describe what makes this game such a joy to play; it’s stuffed to the brim with personality. Being able to create any character your heart desires and go on a grand adventure with an ever-growing cast makes for endlessly fun scenarios. It means that every character becomes meaningful to the player because they’re someone meaningful to the player that created/chose them.

While the gameplay mechanics are fairly simple, it’s still a formula that I get a lot out of. I tend to prefer micro-managing my party and choosing all of their moves, but only having one under my direct control makes for interesting scenarios and stops battles slowing to a crawl as I desperately min-max everything.

It could’ve easily gotten repetitive, but it makes sure that there’s always something new on the horizon. Be it something to do with the area, or a new character, or even just the constant fun designs with the new gear for the party members. It’s a well that seemingly never runs dry, and I just couldn’t pull myself away from it when I played.

Place on 100 Favourite Games List: 54

3 – Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All

Release Date: 19th October 2002
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom Production Studio 4
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, Windows, iOS, Android

Last year, I played the first Phoenix Wright game and immediately loved it. It drew me into the Visual Novel genre (one I’ve never particularly cared for) and showed me exactly what it could be at its best. The mechanics were brilliant, the characters were all lovable, and the story was endlessly compelling.

Justice For All does exactly what a sequel should do. Expand on everything that was great about the original while keeping the core of what people loved. As great as Phoenix Wright cases are, they had the potential to get repetitive over the course of an entire trilogy, so in the second game, it’s brilliant to see how they’re keeping things fresh.

Firstly, the writing quality is still as good as it ever was. New characters are brought in, and they all have clearly defined personalities that get exactly the emotions they’re supposed to out of the player. More so than that, though, they know exactly how to manipulate the situation to put the player in a different mindset in each case.

Going into full spoiler territory, they pull great tricks such as having you defend someone genuinely unlikable. Plenty of clients before have been a bit difficult to love, but Maximillian Galactica and Matt Engarde are genuinely douchebags. Speaking of Matt Engarde, that whole final case is utter genius.

After putting the player in the mindset of bluffing and talking in circles to keep trials going and force clients to slip up, they are forced into a situation where they have to pull at those straws to defend someone they know is guilty. When the client is innocent, all of those tricks seem like fair play and needed for justice, but when they know their client is guilty, the slimy underbelly of it is exposed.

It’s masterfully put together, and the quality hasn’t dipped from the first game, so expect to see the final game in the trilogy on this list next year.

2 – To The Top

Release Date: 18th May 2017
Publisher: Electric Hat Games LLC
Developer: Electric Hat Games LLC
Platforms: PlayStation VR, Windows, Oculus

I haven’t played as much VR as I would’ve liked this year, but that isn’t to say I didn’t get to experience more of this rapidly developing field.

A game I initially stayed away from was To The Top. The Parkour seemed fun, but when I first got my VR kit, it seemed like a recipe for motion sickness galore. While that may still be the case for some, I’ve been lucky enough to not experience such problems, so I gave it a go.

I’m glad I did because I can honestly say that this is the most fun I’ve ever had in VR. There are plenty of VR games that give you great power fantasies. Blade & Sorcery makes you feel like a warrior, and Superhot VR will make you think you’re in the Matrix. There’s just something so joyous to me about flinging myself around a big open space without a care or worry in the world.

In real life, I have quite a fear of heights and drops. I won’t even get on rollercoasters for this reason. Playing this game felt like it was giving me the thrilling experience those things could, only without having to confront my phobias.

The movement system is so fluid, and something about how I treat VR spaces made it click with me immediately, and I was clambering around these giant playgrounds and flinging myself off of tall things in no time. To me, it’s just an uncomplicated burst of joy whenever I play it, something no other VR game has given me in the same way.

Place on 100 Favourite Games List: 38

1 – Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Release Date: 1st December 2017
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Monolith Soft
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Those who read the 2020 edition of this list may remember that the first Xenoblade game took my number 1 spot last year, hitting number 14 on my all-time favourite games list. I wanted to have a good gap between playing the two games, and this summer, I just couldn’t stay away.

I came into this sequel with slightly lower expectations than the first. While I know now that the fanbase is fairly split on this debate, at the time, I’d only heard that Xenoblade 2 fell a bit short of the original. Having now played it for 200 hours, I can see why some people feel this way.

However, personally, I couldn’t disagree more.

Xenoblade 2 is definitely messier, I can’t deny that, but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Sequels always run the risk of piling too much stuff onto something that already works, but I can honestly say I think everything Xenoblade 2 added was worthwhile and enhanced my experience from the first.

The Blade system is utterly genius, and the personality injected into the unique Blades made me want to experiment with my loadout and get a feel for what everyone was like. Even when I had my reliable strategies, I didn’t just want to stick to them because every Blade brought something new to the table.

The world feels so much more alive than in Xenoblade 1. That’s not to say the original’s world was bad, there was some real beauty in there, but Monolith Soft took a hard look at what the Switch was capable of and pushed it to its absolute limits. I don’t care that sometimes the framerate stutters or that sometimes things take a moment longer than they should to load. It’s worth it for what they’ve created.

I could talk for another thousand words about all the things I love, so I’m going to boil it down to the moment that made me decide this was my new favourite game of all time. Which it definitely is, by the way.

One of the reasons I love JRPGs so much is how easily I find I can connect with their characters and stories. Not necessarily because they’re realistic or relatable, but because the length of the games have so much time to develop them into fully-formed people with a satisfying story.

I’ve connected on deep emotional levels with plenty of games over the years. However, there’s one thing no form of media has been able to do for me since I was a kid. Make me cry. To be clear, I don’t just mean tearing up a bit; I mean full-on tears were streaming down my face with no way of stopping it. Not that it’s a sensation I seek out, I’ve just noticed over the years that nothing I’ve played can push me to that emotional extreme.

Then I watched the ending of Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

I absolutely refuse to spoil it, but it did what I thought no game would ever do. I can’t even put my finger on exactly why. The plot is so masterfully crafted, and the characters had grown to mean so much to me that the ending pulled tears of both joy and sadness out of me in equally immeasurable amounts.

When I think about my “favourite games of all time”, there’s some intangible quality that connects me to all of them. I can’t describe it, but it’s a powerful feeling I can immediately recognise. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gave me that intangible feeling in a more powerful way than any piece of media I’ve ever experienced in my life, and that’s what makes it so special to me.

Place on 100 Favourite Games List: 1

WWE Match of the Year 2021

While I’ve been busy in the latter half of this year writing content for GameRant and Keengamer, I still wanted to come back to my personal page this December and cover my favourite parts of my favourite things from the year. WWE, AEW, games old & new will all be covered over the next month.

I’m starting with WWE because, truth be told, I’ve enjoyed WWE a lot less this year than previously. I’ll talk about it more in my AEW list, but I’ve found myself really losing interest in what the company is showing week-to-week. That’s not even mentioning all of their horrible business practices and baffling creative decisions that have intensified this past year.

That said, I’d be a fool to deny the fact that the company put on some cracking shows throughout the year. While weekly TV is still pretty dire, WWE’s Pay-Per-View output has been mostly great in 2021, a darn sight better than what 2020 offered.

11 – Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair – Survivor Series

The situation surrounding this match was odd, to say the least. The heat between Becky & Charlotte seems to come from a genuine place, but the way it was used on TV took the reality out of it a bit. It’s hard to say for sure where the line between kayfabe and reality was, and we’ll probably never know until both women retire and include it in the books they’ll inevitably write.

What I can say, though, is that it led to a somewhat strange, but very compelling match between them. Going in, I had very little interest since Becky vs Charlotte had been done to death by this point, but this wasn’t like anything they’d done before. Both women were technically heels and they brought in this real heat everyone’s been hearing about to create a great match.

There were so many sections in there where they wrestled almost like it was a shoot. I don’t mean actually hitting each other, but doing the kind of things that often happen when a match breaks down. Awkward shoving, an exchange of sloppy strikes, that kind of thing. They knew exactly the story they were playing with and built a match around it.

The finish could’ve been a bit better, rollups are stupidly overdone, but it’s very much an in-character move for both wrestlers.

10 – Finn Balor(c) vs Pete Dunne – NXT Takeover: Vengeance Day
(NXT Championship)

A quick moment of silence to mourn the loss of NXT as it was.

…

*sigh*

One of WWE’s worst decisions this year has been “NXT 2.0” and everything it entails. They deliberately and systematically dismantled everything about what was my favourite wrestling brand for many years, and rebuilt it in the shape of mid-2000s WWE; the worst version of WWE.

Putting my endless complaints about that aside, the first half of 2021 was stuffed to the brim with the usual NXT magic, and this match is just the tip of that iceberg.

Balor & Dunne are two guys who you know will click in the ring as soon as look at them. Balor flourished during his second run with the NXT title, able to work both face and heel styles with ease. He could bust out the fast-pace crowd-popping stuff, but took great care with the slow technicalities of his opponents.

This style made Dunne a perfect opponent. Dunne’s all about keeping his opponents grounded and picking them apart with carefully-placed attacks. Balor could go for extended sequences of counter-wrestling, before bursting free with something flashy. It felt like they were slightly stiffer with their strikes in places too, bringing together a proper battle.

9 – Cameron Grimes vs LA Knight – NXT Takeover: In Your House
(Million Dollar Championship)
(Ladder)

Cameron Grimes was an unexpected star this year. His comedic chops were always obvious, but it never felt like he’d rise about the lower mid-card in NXT. However, the right story came along at the right time and sent him…well, you know.

His unexpected wealth that came from the GameStop stock bump at the start of the year created this brilliant character of something with all the money in the world, but no idea how to be rich. To describe any of the comedic segments would rob them of their glory, but I can assure you they were all fantastic.

LA Knight was the perfect foil in this instance, and they created a story that elevated both men and all of the matches they had together. Naturally, Ted Dibiase was on hand to throw some money around, and the Million Dollar Championship gave it a strong set of stakes.

That match itself culminated everything perfectly. Ladder matches tend to be multi-man affairs these days, but this was a reminder that one-on-one variations of the match can be just as thrilling. Unlike a multi-man, these two were able to tell a very strong story using the ladders while the pace steadily escalated to miraculous heights.

8 – Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn – Smackdown 2nd July
(Last Man Standing)

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are the definitions of “destined to do this forever”, topped perhaps only by Bayley and Sasha Banks.

Their feud surrounding and after Wrestlemania was pretty great for the most part. While Logan Paul was certainly an unwelcome addition, Zayn was able to make it work better than I expected. They had a bunch of matches throughout the year, and all of them were good-to-great, but this was by far the best one.

On free TV and to qualify in the Money in the Bank ladder match, these two destroyed each other in the most fun-to-watch way possible. Whether intentional or not, it felt like it wrapped up all the elements from the few times they’ve feuded in their WWE career.

The action was mad but had a good pace to it. Last Man Standing matches can often get really dull with all the counting to 10 the referee has to do, but this match got it right. The escalation of the destruction was on point, with every spot building on the last as they tried to put each other out to pasture.

If this is the last match these two ever have in WWE (which might be the case if the rumours about Owens’ contract are true) then it will be the perfect finale for their time in the company together.

7 – Roman Reigns(c) vs Daniel Bryan – Smackdown 30th April
(Universal Championship)
(Daniel Bryan Leaves Smackdown If He Loses)

If anyone ever had any doubt that Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson is the best wrestler in the world today, then his performances across 2021 should put those doubts to rest. This man is going to appear multiple times in both my WWE & AEW lists this year. To think just three years ago we thought he’d never wrestler again.

As the culmination (for now) of Bryan’s WWE career, this was a brilliant way to go out. His involvement with Roman Reigns through the spring was a rousing success at every turn and showed the best sides of both characters. Reigns has firmly taken his place as the evil overlord of WWE this year, and the ways he continually competed with Bryan in the ring and in promos is a big part of that.

Reigns’ style at the moment can be a bit lacking at times, but when he’s in the ring with someone who can make the most of it, he shines brighter than ever before. His match with Cesaro at Backlash was a close contender for this list, for that very reason.

Reigns’ slow way of wearing his opponent down absolutely has its place in the modern wrestling scene and this match proves why. Yes, when he does with with someone like Orton, it’s dull, but when he does it to a guy like Bryan who is an expert at mat-based counter-wrestling, it’s a thing of beauty and makes Roman seem untouchable, even when he’s having to cheat to win.

6 – Adam Cole vs Kyle O’Reilly – NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver
(Unsanctioned)

Adam Cole is another name who has made a huge splash across both companies in 2021, and it’s wonderful that his last feud in NXT was one as epic as this.

While crowds have turned on Kyle O’Reilly lately (and given the crap NXT 2.0 has him doing, I can’t say I blame them) performances like this prove he absolutely could be the face of NXT with the right booking. He has the charisma, and the in-ring prowess to do it all.

The pair had a few matches throughout the year, and each one appeals to people differently dependant on their tastes. Personally, I prefer this first match because of the epic atmosphere surrounding it. The criticisms against it are valid, and the kickouts did get a bit ridiculous, but I think people let that take too much away from the rest of what there was.

This truly felt like two men who couldn’t stand the sight of each other trying to end the other’s career. The spots were cool, absolutely, but it was the way each man performed these spots that brought the story to the forefront and made sure the audience were constantly feeling the burn of their hatred for each other.

Even the endless kickouts played to this somewhat. It felt almost like they were staying in the match purely out of spite for each other.

5 – Sasha Banks(c) vs Bianca Belair – Wrestlemania 37
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

The duel main events of Wrestlemania absolutely crushed it this year. I’ll talk about Night 2 shortly, but Night 1 was equally as wonderful.

Sometimes the content of a match is secondary to the momentous occasion, and the atmosphere of the room on the night. This was absolutely one of those cases. The shot of Sasha and Bianca taking it all in at the start was utterly beautiful. Few wrestlers get this epic of a coronation, it was Bianca Belair’s night and she owned it.

Everything came together how it should. The wrestlers had all the chemistry in the world, the entire crowd was behind Belair and the story had pulled the best out of both women. Sasha got to play the heel, which is objectively where she’s best, and Bianca knew exactly how to play off it. Belair felt powerful, endlessly likeable and so very deserving of the championship.

The moment-to-moment action was virtually flawless, with a handful of memorable spots thrown in for good measure. However, everything surrounding it is what will make this go down in history as an all-time great Wrestlemania match.

4 – Roman Reigns(c) vs Edge vs Daniel Bryan – Wrestlemania 37
(Universal Championship)

Triple Threat Wrestlemania main-events are apparently sure-fire recipes for brilliance, there’s never been a bad one.

This match had everything going for it. It was Edge’s first world title shot since his return, Daniel Bryan was the underdog once again, worming his way into the match unexpectedly. Roman Reigns was the unstoppable force. In hindsight, Reigns winning was pretty obvious, but the build was so brilliant that, in the moment, I thought all three men had equal odds of winning.

The match itself was a beautiful mix of technical prowess, fast manoeuvres and slow, hard-hitting action. Reigns’ slower style went over so well in this triple threat environment, as the third man could constantly keep things going. It largely shunned the major tropes of the match too, there were very few times where one man was removed from the situation.

The action built in every meaningful way, with The Usos getting involved, all kinds of weapons brought into play and all three men getting believable nearfalls. The stacking for the finish was brilliant too, both Bryan & Edge had done enough that it didn’t damage their credibility and it boosted Reigns to the monster we see today.

3 – Walter(c) vs Tommaso Ciampa – NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver
(United Kingdom Championship)

Walter became NXT’s best wrestler slow gradually, I didn’t even notice…or maybe he’s just been this good the entire time.

I’ve sung Walter’s praises before. His match with Pete Dunne was my 2019 match of the year, and his first match with Ilja Dragunov in late 2020 made the whole internet sit up and take notice. The man continued this roll into 2021, with not just one, but two incredible Takeover matches.

The first was against Ciampa at Stand & Deliver, and there was a lot of hype going into this one, knowing it was sure to be a killer match. Ciampa is no stranger to working a hard-hitting style, but here his quick & technical manoeuvres served him better against the mass of meat that is Walter.

The most memorable moment of the match, which I can’t fail to mention is when Walter chopped THROUGH the announce table, splitting a section of it in half. The man has always had the best chops in the business, but seeing something like that was one of those “holy shit” moments that make a match feel special.

The rest of it was technical mastery, and to try and describe it would rob it of some of its magic. It just built and built and built until one man simply couldn’t carry on.

2 – Women’s Royal Rumble – Royal Rumble

Both Royal Rumbles were brilliant this year. The men’s had an emotional story and all the fun action people want from the match, but it was the women’s Rumble that had that little something extra.

I’ve talked about Bianca Belair’s rise to the top already, but this was yet another monumental moment on that path. The booking of the match was utterly spectacular the entire way through. Belair coming in at Number 3 let him shine several times in the match, especially against her long-time rival, Bayley, who carried a significant portion of the action.

The first seven entrants of the match were some of the best wrestlers on the roster, including a number of notable NXT entrants, making the thing feel really star-studded early on. The ring got pretty full pretty quickly, and that meant there was always plenty going on, and everyone was getting their stuff in. This is when Royal Rumbles are at their best.

Once all the entrants were in, things got real exciting real fast. Charlotte, Rhea & Bianca were the absolute perfect picks for the final three because they all easily could’ve won the thing. What’s more is it was two wrestler the fans really wanted to win vs Charlotte, who was not popular at the time.

Having the younger women team up on Charlotte was the right decision, and having Rhea & Bianca duke it out in the final two made the thing so very tense, and one of the most exciting final twos in recent memory. Both women could’ve won, but it was Bianca Belair’s night, and to say she earned it would be an understatement.

1 – Walter(c) vs Ilja Dragunov – NXT Takeover 36
(United Kingdom Championship)

I still feel like I’m reeling from it all these months later.

After their match set the wrestling world on fire in late 2020, a rematch was a certainty. It also made Dragunov the clear and obvious choice to end Walter’s historic 800+ day title reign.

If they beat the life out of each other in their first match, in this one they damn-near murdered each other. It felt more brutal than any weapons match I’ve ever seen in the best way possible. Dragunov’s determination to topple Walter came through loud and clear and made it impossible not to root for him.

The fact that he didn’t try to use any tricks to take Walter down was noteworthy either. He wanted to beat Walter at his own game, just hitting the man as hard as he possibly could until something finally gave. The way they continually leathered each other with strikes and chops of all kinds was mindblowing and way more compelling than you’d think it would be.

Each man’s technical prowess shined through clear as day too. This was a masterclass in mat-based wrestling, a style I didn’t think I enjoyed just a few years ago, but now adore.

Then, of course, it was topped off in the glorious emotional climax of Dragunov finally putting the nails in Walter’s coffin and winning the title. The fact that he actually made him tap was incredible. Walter seems like the kind of character that should never tap, but it didn’t diminish him by doing this, it just made Dragunov’s win the definitive article.

WWE Money In The Bank 2021: Predictions & Analysis

I don’t know if it’s because crowds are back or if WWE has finally pulled out of the post-Wrestlemania slump, but I’m more excited for this show than I have been for any WWE show since Royal Rumble.

Money In The Bank has had a disappointing few years. The women’s briefcase was non-existent last year thanks to Becky’s pregnancy, and the men’s briefcase has been treated like garbage and hasn’t had a good cash-in since 2016. I don’t know why, but I feel like this year is going to be different. WWE’s history doesn’t really warrant this optimism, but sod it; I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.

The non-ladder matches all look pretty damn promising too. As much as the weekly TV product has been in the toilet, WWE’s Pay-Per-View output this year has been surprisingly great every time.

Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio(c) vs The Usos
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)
(Kickoff Show)

Surprised this was the match that got bumped to the pre-show rather than the other tag titles. It’s reasonably arbitrary at the end of the day. It just felt like this match had more build & heat going into it.

Either way, I think it will be good. I know pre-show matches don’t usually get as much time as they need, but The Usos practically lived on pre-show tag matches for a while, and they still pulled it out of the bag in a major way every time. Rey & Dominik have been great, and I’m super happy for them about getting the tag titles, but I don’t see their reign lasting any longer.

The Usos have the momentum right now, and them winning the tag titles will just make Roman look even more legit if he’s backed up by two champions. I guess their disagreements could screw things up, but they already told that story last month with Roman costing them, so now’s the time to switch those belts.

AJ Styles & Omos(c) vs The Viking Raiders
(Raw Tag Team Championships)

The one thing that hasn’t picked up since Wrestlemania is the tag title scene on either show.

Styles & Omos are great in general as a pairing, but this tag title reign has been really underwhelming. They’ve defended the titles twice, and neither match has been anything worth shouting about. I feel like we’re all still waiting for Omos to show us what he can do, and it’s starting to seem like he can’t do a whole lot. Either that or management don’t trust him to do anything. I’m not sure which is worse.

That said, this could still be a good match. The Viking Raiders are one of the best tag teams WWE have on the main roster, and even with Omos’ limited moveset, I’m hoping the other three can pull this out of the bag. Unfortunately, if any match is going to get cut for time or bumped to the pre-show, it’s going to be this one.

I’ll go with AJ Styles & Omos to retain. It’s a possibility Raiders win the titles. It’s not like it would make much difference, either way, to be honest. It just felt like WWE were trying to do something with Styles & Omos in this title reign, and they haven’t done it yet, so the reign should continue.

Bobby Lashley(c) vs Kofi Kingston
(WWE Championship)

I’m just happy to see Lashley defending against someone other than Drew.

This storyline has been pretty good. Xavier Woods has surprisingly been the MVP of the storytelling (pun intended). Even though this is Kofi’s story (who has still been great), Woods is the one whose fire I can feel whenever he cuts a promo. He’s looked surprisingly good against Lashley, too, even getting a win on Raw.

I’m confident this will be a great match. Kofi’s run as champion a couple of years ago proved he could compete in high-quality singles world title matches consistently, and Lashley is better than he’s ever been right now. The big man vs little man dynamic is obvious, and both men know how to play to that potential.

Bobby Lashley is 100% retaining, though. A second run with Kofi at the top would be incredible, but there’s just no way Lashley’s losing that title before Summerslam. Every story the rumour mill has about Summerslam involves plans where Lashley is champion, so I don’t think WWE is budging on him anytime soon.

Rhea Ripley(c) vs Charlotte Flair
(Raw Women’s Championship)

After the bizarre and terrible ending to their match at Hell In A Cell, I’ve not been particularly interesting in this rematch. I really only care about the result.

The build’s been ok, but nothing particularly special. Charlotte & Rhea have been going back and forth since just after Mania now, so we’re running out of directions for the story to go. They’re also taking Rhea’s character in a weird direction. They want her to be heel, but they’re putting her up against Charlotte, who is even more of a heel, so it’s not going to work. I’m sure the match will be good. Both these women are at the top of their in-ring game. It’s just all a bit heatless at this point.

As for the result, it’s a hard one to pick. It’s Charlotte, so her winning is always a possibility; it’s just a matter of what you think the Summerslam plans are. Becky Lynch is definitely going to be fighting for one of the women’s titles; it’s just a matter of which one. If she’s going for the Raw title, Rhea is almost certainly retaining here because no one wants to see Becky vs Charlotte for the 100th time.

However, I actually think Becky is going to return to Smackdown and challenge Bianca. This is partly because, after Bayley’s injury & Sasha’s absence, the main-event scene of the Smackdown women’s division is pitifully shallow. It is also partly because that’s where Rollins is, and WWE (rightfully) like to keep couples together on the road.

It’s really a coin flip in my head, so I’m going with Rhea Ripley to retain because it’s what I want.

Roman Reigns(c) vs Edge
(Universal Championship)

As much as I was thrilled when Daniel Bryan got added to the Wrestlemania main event, I was a little disappointed we wouldn’t see the singles match between Reigns & Edge instead. Thankfully, WWE knew there was still money there.

Edge came back and kept all that fire he had in the Wrestlemania build. The added wrinkle of the drama between The Usos has given this build a different feeling to the Wrestlemania one, though. Reigns has very much settled into his groove for this character, and we know what to expect from him, which allows his opponents to consistently play off it to great effect.

The last few PPVs have shown that Reigns’ title matches will always get as much time as they need, so I’m really looking forward to seeing these styles collide. Roman hits hard and fast, while Edge is notoriously more wily and opportunistic. I think a lot of great storytelling will come from Edge picking his spots and creating opportunities for himself.

Roman Reigns is winning, though. Unless something monumentally unforeseen happens, there is no way Reigns is losing that title any time this year. In fact, assuming WWE can get Reigns vs Rock for next year’s Wrestlemania, I wouldn’t expect to see Reigns drop that title before 2022’s Summerslam.

Women’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match

The booking surrounding this match has been bizarre. Raw sorted out all four of their participants the week after Hell In A Cell, but Smackdown has been drip-feeding them. They also conspicuously left the final spot open, only to suddenly announce it would be Tamina on Twitter.

The last-minute nature of it all very much feels like some sort of plans have fallen through, especially considering fans were speculating that people like Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch or even Sonya Deville could fill that final spot.

Regardless, here are each competitor’s chances.

Natalya & Tamina – Lumping these two together because the reason they won’t win is the same, they’re the Women’s Tag Champs. I know that just a year ago, those champions were also singles champions, but Natalya & Tamina are not in the same position that Bayley & Sasha were this time last year.

Zelina Vega – A surprising return, especially considering what her husband’s currently up to, but a welcome one. Hopefully, on this run, WWE will fully treat Vega as a wrestler and not as a manager who sometimes gets in the mix with other women. Vega would be the most interesting choice to win, in my opinion, but I don’t see it happening.

Asuka – Asuka’s run as Raw Women’s Champion last year was great when it was allowed to be. Unfortunately, the lasting impression of that reign was how badly she was treated in the latter half of it. I don’t think WWE have any intention of putting her back in the title picture anytime soon, and she’ll probably move to Smackdown in the draft, so she’s not getting the briefcase.

Nikki Cross – I’m not really sure what this new character of Nikki’s is supposed to be. From what I’ve seen, it looks like she’s the one who came up with it and is enjoying doing it, so good for her; I just don’t quite get it yet. Of course, if it gets her featured on TV more often, then I’m all for it; I think she’s great. I think she has a very small chance to win this briefcase, but I’m not optimistic.

Naomi – Again, I think her chances are slim, but not zero to win. She’s been on the back burner for a long while, but people react to Naomi when given the opportunity. I could easily see WWE wanting to put her back in the spotlight with this briefcase, and I’d be all for it too.

Liv Morgan – Normally, I’d discard Morgan as someone with no chance, but on Smackdown, she actually has been making some waves in her story with Sonya Deville. It would be awesome to see it go somewhere, but I can’t really convince myself it will. I certainly hope it does because, as I’ve said, Smackdown is in desperate need of more top talent in the women’s division; I’m just unsure.

Alexa Bliss – On the surface, Bliss seems like the only legitimate pick, but I’m not so sure. I think Bliss will get a women’s title match at Summerslam (assuming Becky goes to Smackdown, as I have previously predicted), but I don’t think she needs the briefcase to get there. She’s been slowly building since Wrestlemania, and even if her stuff is just a poor man’s Bray Wyatt, it’s more interesting than Charlotte going after the title for generic reasons.

This is a really tough pick because the field is so open, and I’m not behind the seemingly obvious choice. I’m going to go with the only person with a solid story going into this match and pick Liv Morgan.

Men’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match

What an incredible lineup this is. I’ve really got nothing more to say, this is eight of the best out there right now, and we could be in for one hell of a match when they all get together in the ring. It’s made it a very tough match to call too.

Ricochet & John Morrison – The “no chance” club, as I like to call them. They’ll no doubt both get some great spots, and the rivalry they’ve built for themselves has been fantastic. The Falls Count Anywhere match on Raw was a great watch and showcased both men to their fullest. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re going to get even close to winning this thing. The only way I could see Morrison winning is to further drive the wedge between him & Miz.

Drew McIntyre – Normally, I rank these in order of how much chance I think they have, but honestly, all six of these remaining guys have an equal chance as far as I’m concerned. Drew has only just got out of the WWE title scene, and I don’t see him going back into it anytime soon. He’s not even allowed to challenge Lashley anymore, so I see little point in giving him the briefcase.

Riddle – He’s got the tag team with Orton waiting in the wings, which will be a good story whichever way they go. Personally, I hope they challenge for the tag titles at Summerslam, but Riddle winning the briefcase and then feuding with Orton would be a good way to push him to the top as fast as possible. Like almost everyone in this match, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he won.

Shinsuke Nakamura – It looked like he was going to receive a substantial push at the start of the year, but it ended up going to Cesaro instead, so maybe Money in the Bank would be a way to make that up to him. He’s been on quite the hot streak recently, and it’s put him in the forefront of people’s minds in regards to this match. I just can’t quite see it.

Seth Rollins – This top three is so hard to pick between. Ultimately, what’s made me move away from Rollins is that I think he’s going to stay on Smackdown after the shakeup. As I’ve said, Roman is not losing that title anytime soon, so having a Smackdown guy win it is pointless. Whoever wins it will end up on Raw after the shakeup, which I think both of these next two guys will do.

Big E – The man who seems to be the sentimental favourite to many (myself included) Big E’s time in the spotlight feels like it’s so very close. I think a switch to Raw and a New Day reunion is in the works for the shakeup, and he would be arguably the perfect candidate to eventually take the title from Lashley. There’s a really compelling argument to be made here.

Kevin Owens – Like Big E, I feel pretty confident that Owens is switching to Raw soon. He’s done all there is for him to do on Smackdown. He wrapped up his feud with Sami Zayn, feuded with Roman at the start of the year and has been everywhere in between. There’s nothing left for him to do on the blue brand. His face run is absolutely deserving to be in the world title picture, and Lashley vs Owens is a nice, fresh matchup, which Raw is desperately lacking. On top of that, Money In The Bank has always felt like a gimmick that’d suit Kevin Owens perfectly.

This is such a tough choice. There are six viable candidates, and I could honestly be talked around to the other two as well if someone conjured a compelling enough argument. This is going to be one hell of a match where I will be on the edge of my seat.

I want it to be Big E, but I think it’ll be Kevin Owens.

Man, I’m excited.

Thanks for reading! I’ve been a lot less active on here lately because I’ve been writing for Game Rant! Check out my stuff here: https://gamerant.com/author/ryan-woodrow/