Where is the future of Star Wars going and what do we want to see from it? We talk about everything from the upcoming Han Solo film to the rumored Obi Wan movie. If after our last two hour The Last Jedi special you wanted even more discussion here it is!

Hi all! We're working on a post about all of our gaming predictions for 2018, and we need your help! We're reaching out to CG users to get 3 predictions (or less) they have for 2018 in gaming. Please try to keep each prediction to a paragraph or less.

Making this fun is encouraged. If one can be particularly wild, odd or bold without being offensive that would be great. Or they all can be, whatever.

Sorry for the short notice but we need these in by this upcoming Monday the 8th @ Noon PST/3PM EST and will subsequently post the list that night.

We will group the predictions in the post and cite who made what in a style similar to our interview format.

You may have gotten an email from Jon about this. To participate, you can email your responses in a reply to that email or PM me with the link below. Please DO NOT post your predictions in the comments below. We want these to be a surprise when we release them.

PM Travis here: https://cheerfulghost.com/messages/new?to_id=4

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for helping make the last year on Cheerful Ghost amazing. We're starting things off in 2018 with our 2017 Game of the Year Awards results. If there's a clear runner up, we'll share that as well.

Best AAA Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This should come as no surprise. Breath of the Wild has been topping Game of the Year lists all over the place, and with good reason. New game mechanics and a sprawling, sometimes intimidating open world breathe new life into the Legend of Zelda series.

Runner Up: Super Mario Odyssey. Nintendo had something to prove with a new console launch, and have they ever! This one is my personal GotY (but I'm playing Breath of the Wild now, so that may change) because of how it effectively brings fresh ideas into the Mario series and left me immediately wanting a sequel.

Best Indie Games (tie): Cuphead and Thimbleweed Park
Cuphead's charming sights and sounds coupled with intense platforming and Nintendo-hard boss fights seem to be a winning formula. If you could imagine the direct opposite of that game, it might be Thimbleweed Park, a game that seems like the LucasArts adventure game team made a game based on Twin Peaks or the X-Files.

Best Update/DLC/Expansion: Hearthstone's Kobolds and Catacombs
With 135 new cards and a new single-player Dungeon Run mode, this expansion is getting a lot of love from Hearthstone fans and has a well deserved spot on our list.

Best Mobile Game: Metroid: Samus Returns
One of the reasons I really want a 3DS, Samus Returns takes the series back to its side-scrolling roots in a reimagining of Metroid II from the Gameboy era. It expands on that formula with new abilities and, of course, much better visuals and sounds.

Runner up: HQ Trivia. A new take on trivia games, in which half a million people play for a pool of money by testing their knowledge of trivia. Technical issues aside, this game is a lot of fun to play. Just hide the chat.

Thanks for voting in this years awards, and here's to a great 2018!

This game is bonkers. In the best way possible. It's trying to edge out Super Mario World to be my favorite Mario game ever, and it's easily the best game I've played in years. It reignited my love for gaming. When I think of labels for myself, "gamer" is definitely one of them, but for the past year or so I haven't been prioritizing gaming like I once did. It wasn't because of a lack of time, but a lack of motivation. I'd get excited about a game and give it a few hours, and then just kinda drift. They were all super fun games, I just ... drifted. All that changed as soon as I finally got my hands on this game.

The premise is pretty simple. Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser (go figure, right?) and you have to save her. The game takes place in a world with many varied kingdoms, but you start off in the Hat Kingdom, a kingdom populated by sentient hats. Makes sense. There you meet your trusty companion for this game, Cappy, who can be thrown onto many enemies, NPCs, and some objects to take control of them, with their abilities. Everything from manhole covers to dinosaurs. This leads to some of the most inventive and unique gameplay I've ever seen.

To put some misconceptions aside, this isn't Mario in a modern, real-life setting except for one kingdom. Much of the pre-release coverage was from the Metro Kingdom, and with good reason. It's probably the best part of the game for me. But it appeared to many (myself included) that the game may take place in a more real-world setting, or at least have a real-world overworld with the ability to travel to others. That's not the case. It's just one of many unique areas you can visit. It's actually the home of Pauline, the damsel in distress from the early arcade Donkey Kong games, and she's come a long way since her being-captured-by-a-giant-ape roots. She's now the mayor! The story there culminates in one of the game's best set pieces with an homage to DK and Super Mario Bros.

Speaking of which, another game mechanic is 8-bit sections that fit in seamlessly with the 3D world. Hop into a pipe and you might be in an 8-bit Mario stage that plays out on a cliffside, allowing you to scale to higher places. I love seeing how Nintendo continues to reference their history while keeping things fresh.

Overall, the graphics are exactly what you'd expect from a Mario game, just with some more shininess and polish, but the music is the real MVP here. The soundtrack is full of songs that will get stuck in your head, especially Jump Up Superstar from the aforementioned Metro Kingdom. But look closer and you'll notice that little NPC animations are in time with the music. Listen as you dive underwater and you'll hear the song seamlessly transition to a version of the same song without the higher-pitched instruments and a softer EQ. And every song transitions to an 8-bit version when you enter those sections. Incidental sounds change key to match the music currently playing. The level of attention and detail here is astounding and very appreciated.

The mechanics keep a lot of the same platforming actions from previous 3D Mario games, and they still feel the same as ever. But some new hat-assisted techniques spice things up. You can take the long way around, or do some crazy hat parkour to take a shortcut. And each creature you take over with the hat gives new abilities that elevate the gameplay. Stack some goombas, throw some hammers with a hammer bro, jump into lava with a fireball, curve around corners with a caterpillar. Like I said in the first sentence of this review: bonkers. In the best way possible.

And if you're a couch co-op aficionado, this game improves on that from the Galaxy titles. I'd say about 95% of my playthrough, my wife was playing Cappy. If you remember Galaxy's co-op, player two controlled the star you kept in your hat and could influence the world a bit while also collecting star bits. Cappy has far more to do in this game, and it adds to the fun factor significantly. Cappy can take care of some enemies or hold others, and can allow player one to focus on other things.

One criticism the game has received is that it's too easy. It may be true that it's easy to get to the end credits, but as with all recent entries in the series, things really get going after you beat the game, and that's where the true challenge lies. There are a total of 836 moon instances in the game. Some of those, especially from boss fights, give you multi-moons, which drives that total up to 880. You can also buy moons for a boost, so you can rack up to a grand total of 999 moons with that. You only need 120 to beat the game, and yeah that's pretty easy to do. A secret area unlocks at 250 moons with some of the hardest platforming challenges I've ever experienced. Another unlocks at 500 that's basically a marathon of tricky but not punishing sections-- the trick here is that there are no checkpoints, so one mistake sends you back to the beginning. THEN after that there's a secret version of the final boss battle that's much harder. So yeah, if you're just playing for the credits, it may not be that challenging, but the challenge is there if you want it.

But it's not all rosy and peachy. A few minigames throughout the game are just not fun at all, and require kinda ludicrous scores to get a moon. Some moons out of those 836 are just uninspired. But the few bad things are a drop in the bucket, all told. The game is truly magical.

This is the game I needed to revitalize my gaming interest. After finishing it, I notice myself wanting to play other games in my backlog and games I have started but walked away from. It's pure, unbridled fun. All told, I racked up every single moon, every purple coin, every costume, and every collectible in around 75 hours. I wish I had 25 more. Or 50. I'm currently playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and that game is winning Game of the Year awards like crazy, and seems to be on track to winning ours as well. If something can unseat Super Mario Odyssey for the best game of 2017 then I'm very interested.

I normally hesitate to give scores for games, but this one needs no hesitation. Super Mario Odyssey is a perfect 10/10, easily. There are issues and annoyances, but those are very easy to look past when a game is this fun. It's an absolute must play.

VOTING HAS CLOSED
See the results here: https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/3585/cheerful-ghost-game-of-the-year-winners

Santa's work is done, but ours is just getting started. We've made our lists and checked them twice. Now it's your turn to decide which games have been naughty or nice. The nominees and polls are below, you know what to do! Please be nice and only vote once in each category. Voting will remain open until January 1, at which point we'll ring in the New Year with our results!

Best AAA Game

• Super Mario Odyssey


• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild


• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus


• Horizon Zero Dawn


• Civilization VI


• Resident Evil 7


• Starfox 2

Vote here: https://www.strawpoll.me/14705774

Best Indie Game

• Cuphead


• Superflight


• Ark


• Pyre


• Thimbleweed Park


• The End is Nigh

Vote here: https://www.strawpoll.me/14705786

Best Update/Expansion/DLC

• Diablo III's Necromancer Pack


• No Man's Sky's Atlas Rises Update


• Ark: Aberration


• Starcraft II Free-to-play


• Full Throttle Remastered


• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe


• Starcraft Remastered


• Hearthstone: Kobolds and Catacombs

Vote here: https://www.strawpoll.me/14705832

Best Mobile Game

• HQ Trivia


• Jackbox Party Pack 4


• Metroid Samus Returns


• Stranger Things

Vote here: https://www.strawpoll.me/14705815

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is out and as per Cheerful Ghost tradition we dedicate an entire episode to it. We talk about what worked and what didn’t and take a long look at the fan criticism of this movie.

Currently The Last Jedi holds a 93% Critic rating and a 56% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Fans have many conflicting opinions and are having fierce debates over the film’s merit, so we have lots to talk about. Get ready because this conversation contains some intense debate and nothing is off the table for discussion.

WARNING: This episode is full of spoilers, and as such you should also expect the comments on this post to contain them as well.

Do not expand the comments if you don’t want spoilers!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! We got a new Star Wars movie (stay tuned for more from us about that) AND Cheerful Ghost Game of the Year award season is starting! And as always, we need your help to make it awesome.

This is the nomination thread, so drop your nominations in the comments. We will keep nominations open through Christmas. The categories are the same as last year:

• Best AAA Game: This category is for the Call of Duties and the Fallouts, the big games with big publisher backing.


• Best Indie Game: The games that go their own way, sometimes self-published.


• Best DLC/Expansion/Update: Any addition to a game that had a very positive effect, from something as simple as an update or horse armor, to big expansions.


• Best Mobile Game: Self-explanatory. These are the games you play on your phone.

After the nominations are over, we will open up voting to pick our winners!

The power of Netflix shows keeps rolling and Stranger Things 2 is a fun testament to how great steaming shows can be. We talk about the new season, compare it to the first one and talk about where we’d like the show to go next.

The Yogscast Jingle Jam 2017 released today. For $35 you get Rust, Dungeon of the Endless, Qube Director's Cut, Garry's Mod, and two Team Fortress 2 badges. BUT, every day until Christmas, a new game gets added to the goodies.

The games will total $847 and all proceeds go to charity. While the bundle runs for most of the month, they say supplies are limited so if you know you're interested, it may be a good idea to jump on early.

Check it out here: https://www.humblebundle.com/yogscast-jingle-jam-2017

Apparently we all had time to watch the latest Marvel mega-hit Thor Ragnarok. Jon seems to have a huge crush on Chris Hemsworth so the episode may be worth listening to for that alone. Where do we think Marvel films should go next and what are we excited for in the upcoming Infinity War film? Spoilers abound but we draw the mark about halfway through the show.