I'm Right, Damnit!
Once again, since I've got not much to do, it's time for the 2006 Game of the Year Awards! Because we really need another one of these stupid ranking things to get all hot and bothered about. Huzzah! To further the flamebait, I'll add another subjective metric - how much of an improvement was this year's stuff over last year's?
5: We <3 Katamari
Making the list because I recieved it two days after making the previous GotY, this game is one of the most simple, yet fun experiences ever. Just roll stuff up and listen to the King chide you nonstop about random crap. It's leaps and bounds above the original gameplay-wise (as there's more fun objectives and only half the amount of those God-forsaken Cow and Bear levels.) The soundtrack also gets mad props for being one of the most pleasant I've heard since...well...the original Katamari Damancy. Sadly, the developer has decided against diluting the KD brand, thus no more games. Well, by him, anyway.
Is it more fun than Metroid Prime Pinball? Oh yeah. MPP started to wear thin after a while, as the tactile feedback of an actual pinball table was lacking after a bit. Plus I discovered that the physics are more set in stone than generated at playtime. Score one for '06.
4: Tetris DS
A seminal purchase - one made every console revamp. This one gets props for playing with the formula, however. Push mode is the best thing to happen to Tetris in years, and Mission mode is delightfully fresh. Infinte Spin makes single-player original Tetris a bit lacking, though. It also wins a few bonus points for reminding me how much of my youth was wasted moving a little man around a screen. And also for only having one-gameplay based unlock (Infinite mode)!
Is it more fun than Psychonauts? Yeah - Psychonauts is hard to recommend playing through a second time, as it's a one-shot deal. Incredibly funny voice acting, though. The optimal situation is that you're playing Tetris DS online against others while listening to someone else play through Psychonauts in the background.
3: Dead Rising
I've not had much 360 time, so my experience with this title is rather limited. However, it still is one of the best games I've played in a long time. Why? Well, mainly because 90% of it is beating the hell out of Zombies with common household objects.
Let me digress a bit - there's a Final Fight machine in a grocery store near where I live. Every time I'm in there I can't resist dropping in a quarter and playing through the first couple stages, even though the screen is so completely shot that I'm flying blind half the time. Why? Because nothing compares to Haggar wailing on G.Orbiter and co. with that lead pipe.
If you extrapolate that feeling and form an entire game around it, that would be how I feel about Dead Rising. Capcom's really got a good thing going with their zombie franchises here now that consoles have enough horsepower to throw hundreds of them at you simultaneously instead of giving you three zombies, 15 bullets, and horrible controls (i.e. Resident Evil (any non-4)) Plus, beating zombies to death with everything from 2x4s to HDTVs is immensely satisfing.
Is it more fun than Meteos? Ooh, the first hard one. Dead Rising gets it for now, but when Meteos: Disney Edition comes out...(Don't laugh - it's actually shaping up to be a pretty decent game.)
2: Wii Sports
The Wii's killer app, and a pack-in, no less! Even with only an hour experience playing this game, it struck me as one of the most fun experiences I've had all year. Unfortunately, I still am Wii-less at the moment (ba-dum-psh!) but this game has taken all the doubts that I've had about Nintendo's new direction and eradicated them. It also doesn't hurt that it's one of the few games I've seen that everyone wants to play - even both sets of parents, who haven't picked up a controller since Super "MER-e-Oh" Brothers.
Is it more fun than Advance Wars: Dual Strike? Yep, and it's kinda sad - it reminds me a bit of the Futurama episode where three people in a row are playing Skee-ball, Virtual Skee-Ball, and Virtual Virtual Skee-Ball. Perhaps I should just go outside and toss a ball around instead of playing all this Nintendo crap.
1: Guitar Hero II
Of course. It's a slam dunk, as no other game has Trogdor in it. Wii Sports comes close, but even its vermisilitude can't compare to Guitar Hero's, as wonder is narrowly defeated by rocking the hell out. And that's all this game will do for you - plug it in and it will rock your Goddamn face off.
Is it more fun than Guitar Hero (I)? Guitar Hero I is anything but un-fun. Indeed, it's one of the few of last year's games that I played consistently throughout the year, and it's got killer tracks. How can I compare Iron Man to Carry On My Wayward Son? More Than a Feeling to Sweet Child O' Mine? Thus, only by badly needed refinements to gameplay (Practice Mode, not having to buy crap twice from the store, easier Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs) is GH II superior. However, GH I is still getting playtime! It's DDR Syndrome all over again until someone develops Guitar with Intensity or HeroMania or something.
Honorable/Horrible Mentions:
Drill Dozer
Shock and awe - a Gameboy Advance game actually makes the list! Mainly because it has the greatest level design that I've ever seen in a platformer, as well as a rather fun gameplay gimmick (the Drill, natch.) The special levels are spectacular in seeing just how hard one can push the limits of teh h4rdc0r3 of drillers - and if you finish the game, there's a passcode to see if you can complete it...without getting hit!
Yoshi's Island DS - It's unbelievable how much this reminds me of Nintendo's golden age of platformers. This is platforming done right, folks.
DDR Supernova (PS2 & Arcade) - Further winning the Lifetime Achivement/Damn Kids, Get Off My Lawn Award for being another winning DDR entry with lots of cool songs and creative step patterns. And as an added bonus, the PS2 version doesn't have nearly the level of inane unlocking frustration that was in DDR Extreme 2. (Not to mention that you can play the damn songs before having to do some challenge related to them, friggin' *finally*!)
Killer 7 (PS2) - And this sucker gets *least* entertaining game of the year. I don't really care much for story-heavy games (there are these things called 'movies' and 'books' that accomplish the same task of story-conveying) and coupled with the monotonous gameplay of run forward, hear laughter, aim gun, shoot something, GOTO 10, is just not all that entertaining. Couple that with the PS2's inexcusably bad load times and you've got yourself one hell of a dud.
And the year's most 'WTF?!!' moment: Roxor's last gasp. Faced with an immenent settlement that would force Roxor to 'respect Konami's patent on dance games', they decided to do what DDR fans had only dreamed about - made it possible to play any song with any step pattern on any ITG 2 arcade machine, Copyrights be damned. Konami would never support this as long as DDR's going strong (it's the Business 101 equivalent of harakiri - destroy any future mixes sales *and* open yourself up to lawsuits? Sold!), so one can only assume that this is a final act of spite on Roxor's part.
And that was the year that was. Be sure to stick around for my last post of the year - and I'm sure looking forward to what 2007 will bring: A Wii for mii, Super Paper Mario, Dead Rising 2 (C'mon, Capcom, I know you're working on it), and the same three blurry screenshots of Duke Nukem Forever.
5: We <3 Katamari
Making the list because I recieved it two days after making the previous GotY, this game is one of the most simple, yet fun experiences ever. Just roll stuff up and listen to the King chide you nonstop about random crap. It's leaps and bounds above the original gameplay-wise (as there's more fun objectives and only half the amount of those God-forsaken Cow and Bear levels.) The soundtrack also gets mad props for being one of the most pleasant I've heard since...well...the original Katamari Damancy. Sadly, the developer has decided against diluting the KD brand, thus no more games. Well, by him, anyway.
Is it more fun than Metroid Prime Pinball? Oh yeah. MPP started to wear thin after a while, as the tactile feedback of an actual pinball table was lacking after a bit. Plus I discovered that the physics are more set in stone than generated at playtime. Score one for '06.
4: Tetris DS
A seminal purchase - one made every console revamp. This one gets props for playing with the formula, however. Push mode is the best thing to happen to Tetris in years, and Mission mode is delightfully fresh. Infinte Spin makes single-player original Tetris a bit lacking, though. It also wins a few bonus points for reminding me how much of my youth was wasted moving a little man around a screen. And also for only having one-gameplay based unlock (Infinite mode)!
Is it more fun than Psychonauts? Yeah - Psychonauts is hard to recommend playing through a second time, as it's a one-shot deal. Incredibly funny voice acting, though. The optimal situation is that you're playing Tetris DS online against others while listening to someone else play through Psychonauts in the background.
3: Dead Rising
I've not had much 360 time, so my experience with this title is rather limited. However, it still is one of the best games I've played in a long time. Why? Well, mainly because 90% of it is beating the hell out of Zombies with common household objects.
Let me digress a bit - there's a Final Fight machine in a grocery store near where I live. Every time I'm in there I can't resist dropping in a quarter and playing through the first couple stages, even though the screen is so completely shot that I'm flying blind half the time. Why? Because nothing compares to Haggar wailing on G.Orbiter and co. with that lead pipe.
If you extrapolate that feeling and form an entire game around it, that would be how I feel about Dead Rising. Capcom's really got a good thing going with their zombie franchises here now that consoles have enough horsepower to throw hundreds of them at you simultaneously instead of giving you three zombies, 15 bullets, and horrible controls (i.e. Resident Evil (any non-4)) Plus, beating zombies to death with everything from 2x4s to HDTVs is immensely satisfing.
Is it more fun than Meteos? Ooh, the first hard one. Dead Rising gets it for now, but when Meteos: Disney Edition comes out...(Don't laugh - it's actually shaping up to be a pretty decent game.)
2: Wii Sports
The Wii's killer app, and a pack-in, no less! Even with only an hour experience playing this game, it struck me as one of the most fun experiences I've had all year. Unfortunately, I still am Wii-less at the moment (ba-dum-psh!) but this game has taken all the doubts that I've had about Nintendo's new direction and eradicated them. It also doesn't hurt that it's one of the few games I've seen that everyone wants to play - even both sets of parents, who haven't picked up a controller since Super "MER-e-Oh" Brothers.
Is it more fun than Advance Wars: Dual Strike? Yep, and it's kinda sad - it reminds me a bit of the Futurama episode where three people in a row are playing Skee-ball, Virtual Skee-Ball, and Virtual Virtual Skee-Ball. Perhaps I should just go outside and toss a ball around instead of playing all this Nintendo crap.
1: Guitar Hero II
Of course. It's a slam dunk, as no other game has Trogdor in it. Wii Sports comes close, but even its vermisilitude can't compare to Guitar Hero's, as wonder is narrowly defeated by rocking the hell out. And that's all this game will do for you - plug it in and it will rock your Goddamn face off.
Is it more fun than Guitar Hero (I)? Guitar Hero I is anything but un-fun. Indeed, it's one of the few of last year's games that I played consistently throughout the year, and it's got killer tracks. How can I compare Iron Man to Carry On My Wayward Son? More Than a Feeling to Sweet Child O' Mine? Thus, only by badly needed refinements to gameplay (Practice Mode, not having to buy crap twice from the store, easier Hammer-Ons/Pull-Offs) is GH II superior. However, GH I is still getting playtime! It's DDR Syndrome all over again until someone develops Guitar with Intensity or HeroMania or something.
Honorable/Horrible Mentions:
Drill Dozer
Shock and awe - a Gameboy Advance game actually makes the list! Mainly because it has the greatest level design that I've ever seen in a platformer, as well as a rather fun gameplay gimmick (the Drill, natch.) The special levels are spectacular in seeing just how hard one can push the limits of teh h4rdc0r3 of drillers - and if you finish the game, there's a passcode to see if you can complete it...without getting hit!
Yoshi's Island DS - It's unbelievable how much this reminds me of Nintendo's golden age of platformers. This is platforming done right, folks.
DDR Supernova (PS2 & Arcade) - Further winning the Lifetime Achivement/Damn Kids, Get Off My Lawn Award for being another winning DDR entry with lots of cool songs and creative step patterns. And as an added bonus, the PS2 version doesn't have nearly the level of inane unlocking frustration that was in DDR Extreme 2. (Not to mention that you can play the damn songs before having to do some challenge related to them, friggin' *finally*!)
Killer 7 (PS2) - And this sucker gets *least* entertaining game of the year. I don't really care much for story-heavy games (there are these things called 'movies' and 'books' that accomplish the same task of story-conveying) and coupled with the monotonous gameplay of run forward, hear laughter, aim gun, shoot something, GOTO 10, is just not all that entertaining. Couple that with the PS2's inexcusably bad load times and you've got yourself one hell of a dud.
And the year's most 'WTF?!!' moment: Roxor's last gasp. Faced with an immenent settlement that would force Roxor to 'respect Konami's patent on dance games', they decided to do what DDR fans had only dreamed about - made it possible to play any song with any step pattern on any ITG 2 arcade machine, Copyrights be damned. Konami would never support this as long as DDR's going strong (it's the Business 101 equivalent of harakiri - destroy any future mixes sales *and* open yourself up to lawsuits? Sold!), so one can only assume that this is a final act of spite on Roxor's part.
And that was the year that was. Be sure to stick around for my last post of the year - and I'm sure looking forward to what 2007 will bring: A Wii for mii, Super Paper Mario, Dead Rising 2 (C'mon, Capcom, I know you're working on it), and the same three blurry screenshots of Duke Nukem Forever.