Welcome to Kakuchopurei’s Best of 2018 feature, where we rank our favourite and not-so-favourite gaming things of 2018. We’ve done four of these so far, so it’s now down to the wire; the big one.

Here are Days One to Four, linked here for your reading convenience:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four

Now let’s end this. Are you ready to find out the best of the best? Well, scroll on through for the winners right after these intermission pics of the Malaysian cinematic classic, Bujang Lapok.

Let’s end this shiznit!

Best Ongoing Game

Warframe

This category’s dedicated to the games that are older than two years and are still being updated and kept alive and kicking.

Overwatch is great and all, but really no game can be as everlasting and as persevering as Warframe, perhaps the only game earning Digital Extremes money right now. The game just released its mega-huge Fortuna update and added new warframes. They also adhere to its really fair F2P style of things with incremental updates. Best of all, the game’s community is growing, going so far as to have yearly conventions in Canada dedicated to the game and developer Digital Extremes’ efforts.

Last I heard, Blizzard’s the only ones who can do game-specific conventions of a particular scale and fan fervour. That’s a great benchmark for your game to be based on; Warframe and its 5-year ongoing gaming streak will keep on going if it continues placating its fans with the updates they want.

Runner-Up: Overwatch, League of Legends.

Best Spider-Man Suit From Marvel’s Spider-Man

Vintage Comic Book (From The Comics/60s Animated Series)

Let’s not mince words here: Kakuchopurei is run by Spider-Man fans. So it’s only natural all of us went ga-ga over Marvel’s Spider-Man. Look at the features we did in case you don’t believe us.

But the most important debate to settle here is not whether Captain Yuri Watanabe is bae material or not (she is; end of discussion). It’s about which of the 30+ Spidey suits in the game kicks the most ass in a fashion & practical sense.

It was an arduous battle; moreso than for GOTY further down on today’s list. In the end though, we went for the obvious choice: Vintage Comic Book Suit. It stands out jarringly and humorously in the game, it comes with the dumbest yet funniest Suit Power ever, and it’s obvious nostalgia bait. And we love every second we spend swinging in digital New York in the outfit.

Runner-Up: Iron Spider Suit (Avengers: Infinity War), MK IV suit.

Best Ensemble

Red Dead Redemption 2/Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Age

You know a game’s main and supporting cast is good when you start feeling for them even if you know their fates long before you even loaded the game onto your consoles. Both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Age are prequels, meaning that you already know the final fates of certain characters at the back of your mind.

Which is why we’re going to cop out here and give two games this coveted spot since they share a few key things. They both delve into the past and with characters who help shape their respective prequels into a grand narrative. And they also take long-ass hours to complete.

What RDR2 and Xenoblade 2: Torna pulled off here is pretty awesome: you gave a damn about all of them even if you already know ahead of time what’s going to happen to half of them. Whether it’s Arthur Morgan, Hosea, Dutch, and the Van der Linde gang, or the JRPGing motley crew led by Lora and Jin, both camps have well-written characters that play out as you would expect in their dire situations.

Runner-Up: Marvel’s Spider-Man, Dragon Quest XI, 

Worst Game Of 2018

Fallout 76

It’s not every day a game so reviled and so disappointing can exist in the same year and earn complementary dubious honours. Except for Mass Effect: Andromeda last year; lord knows which idiot publications would throw away all their credibility to give this game full accolades.

Let’s not mince words: Fallout 76 is not just a huge disappointment that’s waiting to happen, but it’s also a pretty broken and dull experience that does not do its franchise name justice. The game has little to no story, the combat and exploration mechanics are basic, the graphics aren’t even that impressive, and the online gets unstable.

You have to try really, REALLY hard to mess this up so bad for your audience. In that regard, Bethesda passed with flying frickin’ colours.

Runners-Up: Agony, Metal Gear Survive, The Quiet Man, Super Seducer, Extinction.

Best Game Of 2018

Before we reveal our winner, let’s start with the Runners-Up of this category, because the following games deserve to be in your library.

God of War: Our first 10/10 game and with good reason – it’s an amped-up action-adventure game that makes a father-son outing more epic than it should have any right to be.

Dead Cells: The best Dark Souls/Metroidvania hybrid you can find that offers that “one more playthrough” addictive factor.

Assassin’s Creed -Odyssey: It’s a bit too big for its own good, but traversing around ancient Greece and action-RPGing your way as a badass mercenary has its perks.

Red Dead Redemption 2: Best cowboy simulator that’s marred by the second half of the story and its GTA controls. However, it excels at taking its time, uncovering its gameplay & open-world layers.

Monster Hunter World: The best iteration of the hardcore giant-slaying classic that caters to everyone who loves action games, yet tough enough for purists. Plus, indentured cat servants and cat chefs!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The best casual/hardcore-tailored fighting game featuring a bunch of Nintendo characters you didn’t hear about eons ago.

Dragon Ball FighterZ: The quintessential tribute to all the zany fights in the shonen manga that jumpstarted the shonen trope.

Dragon Quest XI: The quintessential JRPG 100+ experience of 2018, even if parts of it seem a bit too old-school for its own good.

Return of the Obra Dinn: A clever “whodunnit?” adventure game with a very unique monochromatic art style.

And now, our GOTY of 2018…

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Marvel’s Spider-Man

Again, this site is run by Spider-Man maniacs, so you shouldn’t be too surprised at this clear GOTY pick. And it’s not to say the nominees here are slouches and also-rans: God of War, Dead Cells, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Red Dead Redemption 2, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Dragon Ball FighterZ are stellar games you should add onto your shopping list.

But as far as stellar gaming experiences go, Marvel’s Spider-Man takes the top honour because it makes superheroic web-slinging fun. Really, really fun. The cast of characters here is cool and energetic, especially the banter between newcomer Yuri Watanabe and the web-headed wizard. Everything about this game is both an ode to comic book-reading Spider-Man fans and even gamers who want more than a decent Spider-Man game that makes do with an awesome open world.

It’s a really tough choice, but we have to give Insomniac Games for a job well done. They went above and beyond to make this game spectacular. Or amazing. Or sensational. Pick your favourite Spider-Man comic book header; they all work within this context in recognizing this game’s qualities for this gaming year.

Thanks for making it this far and indulging us, dear readers! We’ll be taking a few days off before we jump back into the fray in full force.

Stay tuned to Kakuchopurei when we return on 7 January (at the latest). Until then, have yourself a Happy New Year and may all your gaming prophecies and wishes for 2019 come true.