It’s getting to be about the time of year that we — we being “Joystiq bloggers” — have to start thinking about our choices for the best games of the year (this one being 2009). Off the top of my head, in no particular order, here are some of the games likely to make it into my top ten:
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Shadow Complex
- Halo Wars
- Street Fighter IV
- Halo 3: ODST (For Firefight, if nothing else)
- ‘Splosion Man
It’s worth noting that I haven’t played a fair amount of the games I need to play. Assassin’s Creed 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Uncharted 2 spring immediately to mind. It’s also possible that Torchlight just might make it on there once I sink more hours into it.
Anyhway, the point I really want to get to is this: I think ‘Splosion Man has to be my pick for overall game of the year. I don’t know if that’s radical/crazy/pretentious, but it’s my choice. The reason I say it has to be my pick is simple: I had more fun playing that game than any other this year. Throw out production values. Throw out the “games as art” debate. Throw out writing. It’s not that ‘Splosion Man didn’t excel in any of those areas — it did — but the simple fact is I enjoyed it more than anything else this year.
I’ll save more commentary for later, when I get my thoughts in order, but I had to share. Please, give me your thoughts on the best games this year. I could use the help.
That’s crazy to think that Halo Wars came out this year. I forgot about that.
Funny enough I agree with you on the choice of Game of the year and my list of games that I haven’t played yet is much longer than yours trust me, I just jumped in a few months ago after leaving the nintendo only policy behind me. Splosion man is one of the games I did play and is actually my favourite game. I know there are some excellent games out there but mostly they are sequels that we have come to except superb quality from. Splosion man was something new, innovative and just crazy, developed by a small studio who took the risk to do something original likewise the Maw that I haven’t played yet unfortunately. I really hope they get some recognition because that’s the kind of developers we need and as a prospective employee for the industry (currently a student) that’s the kind of studio and games I would love to work for. Put it simply Splosion Man is the first game I managed to get my girlfriend to play with me and as she is a doctor is a bit hard to actually get her involved but splosion man with its attractiveness and just amazingly simple but very effective gameplay managed the impossible.
Firstly a big thanks to the developers and really looking forward to Comic Jumper!
Secondly Sensei really love the podcast and have been listening to you guys for some time now unfortunately I did not manage to contact you guys yet with an email being really busy as usual you have much more fans that you can think of! Keep up the good work and great choice!
All the best!
My Picks:
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Shadow Complex
‘Splosion Man
Torchlight
Borderlands
Also for consideration:
Saints Row 2 (January PC Release)
Mirror’s Edge (January PC Release)
Moon
Skate 2
LocoRoco 2
Flower
Street Fighter IV
GTA IV: TLaD (not sure if it counts but…)
Dawn of War II
Halo Wars
GTA: Chinatown Wars
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Braid (Windows April, Mac May, PS3 November)
Zeno Clash
Halo 3: ODST
Totally agree on your selection, Richard. Twisted Pixel has earned the Best XBLA development award for accomplishing what no one else did: take a simple approach, a fast idea, develop it, and give us a great XBLA title. Of course, it also ads to the formula that they are doing what other lazy developers aren’t: give us gamerpics, themes and Avatar props for our support on buying this great title. Need we say more?