10. Catherine
Although this game was out in America and Japan during 2012, it didn't reach the shores of Europe until early 2012 and I really wish it hadn't. I was browsing through the games on the PSN and saw that I had a discount for a game called Catherine, the name seemed familiar so I added it to the basket. Amazon had already tried to prod me into buying the collector's edition, but after seeing it came with under-wear and a rather risqué pillow-case, I decided it was just another adult game from Japan. Japan has a tendency to add tentacles and other such appendages to their adult games so it wasn't my cup of tea. Anyhow, I bit the proverbial pillow and decided to give the game a go a few weeks later. It seemed it was a puzzle game with adventure elements so I didn't think it would be too bad. Playing through the opening sequence I found the game to be rather intriguing, it gave you a typical romance conundrum and after playing too many RPGs with "save the princess" romance it was a nice change of place. The couple in question were facing a relationship going stale and after the main male character wakes up in bed with another woman he begins to fret about what he should do. However this is where my intrigue ended sadly. After playing the first puzzle which involved escaping from a nightmare sequence by climbing a wall of blocks by pushing them around, I became bored. The story wasn't interesting enough to keep me motivated enough to carry on playing the same puzzles over and over. Granted, they do try to spice the puzzle up by adding blocks with different functions the further you progress into the game. I realised that the difference between other romance orientated game wasn't something I actually wanted. The reason developers give you a story where you slay dragons or save the kingdom and end up with the princess is because this can't happen in real life. I'm not going to save Ferelden from the Darkspawn and end up with my love interest, I'm not going to save the universe from Reapers whilst forming a bond with one of my crew members. However, I can be in a relationship that gets stale and end up cheating. I'm not going to be subjected to climbing a wall of blocks in a nightmare of course. The music and graphics of Catherine are rather good though, however if this is what I was after I could just watched a film with flashy effects no? The game received the "Best Story" award from IGN which perplexes me to no end, that being said Catherine wasn't that bad. It was a short game and I did end up completing within a few days of purchase. Although I do believe it was an over-hyped release, compared to other releases it wasn't that over-hyped. This is why I have ranked it as 10, it wasn't good but then it wasn't bad either.