We’re at the end of 2009 so I thought I’d present my top 10 favorite games of the year (parenthesis indicates the platform I played each one on). In no particular order…
1 – Batman: Arkham Asylum (360) – This game reminds me a lot of Persona 4 in that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Persona 4 was a decent dungeon crawler combined with a decent anime life sim, but when you put the two together, you got one of the best games ever. Similarly, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a good brawler, good stealth game, good exploration game, and good Action/RPG, but put it all together and you get one of the best games I’ve ever played.
2 – Plants vs. Zombies (PC) – A unique take on the tower defense genre that also happens to be one of the funniest games of the year. I loved the game, even though I found it overly easy, but it quickly became my wife’s favorite game ever. For a game to thoroughly entertain both of us, despite our vastly different tastes in games, is no small feat.
3 – Defense Grid: The Awakening (XBLA) – Great graphics, excellent gameplay balance, and well designed levels all make this the tower defense game to beat for hardcore strategy.
4 – Splosion Man (XBLA) – Another hilarious game that also ends up being one of the most enjoyable fast-paced platformers ever. Forget New Super Mario Bros. Wii, this is the game you want for both single and multiplayer platforming action.
5 – Torchlight (PC) – Titan Quest has long been my reigning champion for Hack & Slash RPGs since it’s arrival in 2006. Torchlight doesn’t overthrow it, but it’s nearly as good and different enough to be worth playing.
6 – Devil Survivor (DS) – A great branching story combined with an unusual take on the Strategy/RPG genre made Devil Survivor my favorite DS game this year. In the end, I grew tired as the battles became more tedious than fun, but for the first 20 hours or so, I was completely captivated.
7 – Half-Minute Hero (PSP) – Best RPG parody I’ve ever played. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do a great mini-RPG since the start of XBox Live Indie Games and Half-Minute Hero finally showed me one way to do it. Take all the essence of a standard RPG, cut out the filler, and speed the whole thing up about 100 times and you’ve got one frantic game that’s a blast to play.
8 – Rock Band Unplugged (PSP) – When I first heard of this game, I thought it sounded like a waste of space. Then I tried it and was instantly hooked. Whereas Rock Band on the home consoles is a great multiplayer game, Rock Band Unplugged is a far better single player game. Having to control all 4 instruments throughout the course of a song makes for much more interesting gameplay and a good deal of immersion.
9 – LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival (PSP) – I never got into the first 2 LocoRoco games because they seemed far too slow and easy. LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival fixes all that by being one of the hardest games on the system. At first, the controls were confusing and unintuitive (couldn’t do wall jumps consistently) but after messing around a bit with the demo levels, everything clicked and I was hooked. If you’re the kind of person who liked Mirror’s Edge for its time trials & speed runs, this is the game for you.
10 – Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP) – At first I held off on this one. $40 for a game I’ve already played where most of the graphics are still the same? I’m glad I finally decided to get it. Despite the old graphics, this version of Persona has been drastically improved in many ways. The music is fantastic, the new cutscenes gorgeous, and the translation drastically improved, but what really got me was the increased speed. Load times on the PSN version are next to nothing and with the option to skip animation in combat, the whole game is a much faster and more enjoyable game. I’m really looking forward to trying out the restored content (Snow Queen Quest) once I finish with the main game.
Honorable Mentions – FF4: After Years, Droplitz.
Best Pre-2009 game that I finally got around to playing this year – Tales of Vesperia
Most Disappointing Game – Resident Evil 5 (Adding multiplayer really threw off the delicate mixture of excellence that RE4 had going for it. Still fun, but I expected more. Oh well, at least Mercenaries was better than ever)
