What a half-year it’s been for video games. As Nintendo closed out global production of its beleaguered Wii U, its hybrid TV-handheld Switch games console arrived to acclaim as well as sales shortages so drastic the system is still all but impossible to find.
Not that Nintendo’s concomitant sprawling sandbox adventure for Wii U and the Switch stands alone in accomplishment or splendor. We’ve also visited dreamscapes scored with Tin Pan Alley tunes wherein the devil dwells literally in every detail. We’ve orchestrated troupes of conflicted adolescents who can project Jungian “personas” to do battle with everything from supernatural archetypes to their own insecurities and foibles. We’ve ambled through an anthology of remembrances experienced through the eyes of a departed family member on the precipice of their demise. And we’ve rifled through a mislaid phone to make sense of the tale of its absent owner.
In the run-up to TIME’s Best Games of 2017 So Far, weigh in on your favorites in the poll below. Here are your choices: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Pinstripe, Persona 5, What Remains of Edith Finch, Nioh, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, 1-2 Switch, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Yakuza 0, Nier: Automata, Night in the Woods, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Resident Evil 7: Biohzard, Hollow Knight, Thimbleweed Park, Prey, Card Thief, A Normal Lost Phone, The Sexy Brutale.
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