So, what games did I get (or start playing) this year...
Awakening is easily in the top three among all
Fire Emblem games. It's got a great level of challenge, while having accessible,
optional features that make it playable to newer or less-skilled players. You can play it casually, but there's also great potential for min/max tweaking with the Second Seal and parent/child mechanics. The player-character feature implemented in
New Mystery of the Emblem has been properly implemented. Finally, there's just the right amount of fanservice (and I'm not talking about Tharja or Cherche) for fans of past games. The only thing I feel is missing is the GBA generation's instant-quicksave-when-you-shut-off-the-system feature, though how feasible such a thing would be on the 3DS is not something I can confirm.
Saints Row 3 was crazy fun and satisfies all my destructive catharsis itches. In fact, it does it so well that between SR3 and GTA:SA, I doubt I'll ever need to buy another game of its kind again unless they come up with something revolutionary. Too much of a good thing?
Kid Icarus: Uprising has great aesthetics, great voice acting, great gameplay, great music, great everything. Give me more.
Creeper World 3 is a strategy game I've been anticipating for the past couple years, and it does not disappoint now that it's finally out. While it retains some of the pacing problems of past games (in that once you turtle through the initial crushing resistance the gameplay becomes a bit of a grind), there are much more offensive options at your disposal that greatly raise the skill ceiling and reward you for aggressive-yet-skillful play. A delight for speedrunners.
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is a strategy game whose great potential has been, perhaps permanently, marred by loads of bugs and a number of balance issues that the dev team has been tragically slow in even addressing, much less fixing.
I wish I had people to play
Magicka with. Being a late arrival, it seems impossible for me to get a proper appreciation of the game clumsily faffing about by myself.
Rogue Legacy is probably one of the best designed metroidvania games of all time, and certainly among the best that I've played. Any game with such intuitive and tight controls is okay by my book.