Gravity Rush

One of the all-time best feelings I’ve felt in any game I’ve ever played is free-falling in Gravity Rush. The series’ protagonist Kat is one of the most gorgeously drawn and animated characters I’ve ever seen, and she is never more expressive than when she is dropping from the sky. Gravity Rush’s camera swings anywhere you want it to go, allowing you to frame Kat’s free fall however you please. You can follow her from afar, ascribe to cinematography’s rule-of-thirds and frame her dramatically, or stick the camera comically close to her. Kat’s hair and clothes catch in the wind, which rushes past her as she twirls through the air and spreads her arms with reckless abandon. She’s like a little kid realizing that she can fly for the first time.

Gravity Rush had a lot going for it, like its gravity-defying combat, its beautifully drawn world which lifted design elements from classical French architecture, and its charming cast of characters, but its biggest draw is that it’s simply the most liberating game. Tons of games allow me to do far more than Gravity Rush, but few of them have ever matched the high of being suspended above a town and then just letting it go. There’s something intoxicating and empowering about Kat’s ability to reduce the world to a blur around her as she zips past it all. It’s just best-in-class movement, and it’s criminal that Japan Studio and Team Gravity aren’t around to give us more astounding worlds to float around in. — Moises Taveras