2) Bastion

Bastion Anklegator

Bastion was one of those games that caught more than a few people by surprise. It had a lot going for it: the vibrant aesthetic, the gruff real-time narration, the fluid control and thoughtful design. But what really made Bastion special was the combination of these pieces that fused into something more than just the sum of its parts. Bastion is a very, very special game for myriad reasons, and finishing the story of The Kid was a bittersweet conclusion.

The odds of getting a Bastion sequel at this point are slim, at least for the immediate future. Developer Supergiant Games is already hard at work on its next project, Transistor, which so far looks and sounds like a worthy successor. Every chance we’ve had to look at the title leaves the impression that the spirit of Bastion lives on in Transistor. But for those who remember the haunting melodies and rhythmic strums as you raced against a second cataclysm, nothing can replace The Kid.

Fortunately, the success of Bastion isn’t something that can be easily ignored. While the game might have been a sleeper hit, with the vast majority of sales occurring after the initial release, it has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of two million units to date. That kind of publicity is hard to overlook – especially knowing you’ve got an established audience clamoring for the next chapter.