Thursday, January 13, 2011

Nintendo 5-Star: Games Of The Year!

Written by Pokefreak

As you may or may not have noticed, 2010 has ended. And like everything else, the video game world deserves a best of the year section. So we might as well get to it for us as well. Each section has had nominees voted by our users and each winner won a vote by our mods and TheFreakyManga. There's no fanboyism here. Just democracy.

WII GAME OF THE YEAR

We actually had a tie for this game, so we'll split the award in half and go from there. Our first winner is no surprise, Super Mario Galaxy 2. This game is the king of all platformers, the Mario 3 of it's time. Excellent level design and amazing music make this a game that must be in anyone's collection. If you haven't bought this yet, you don't have a soul.

Game number 2 is Monster Hunter Tri. This game was my personal choice as well. The game features a number of ecosystems to hunt monsters in, who all act completely natural. The game's customization features and overall gameplay finess is very polished and easy to learn. This was a great game and easily the best in the series.

Honorable mentions to Trauma Team for it's fantastic plot. (and so Freaky will shut up about it)

DS GAME OF THE YEAR

This shouldn't be a surprise, but Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver came out on top. While it is a general remake of the Gameboy's Gold and Silver, the game was absolutely phenominal and gave everyone's sense of nostalgia a blast. And even to those who were semen when the original came out, this is a great introduction to what made Pokemon what it is today. Nothing short of amazing.

Honorable mentions to Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, who lost by one vote.

DOWNLOADABLE GAME OF THE YEAR

The game that was made by one man for five years, Cave Story takes the spot by storm. With it's original concept and great retro style, it's no wonder this game captured the hearts and points of millions. This game is available on both WiiWare and DSiWare. A very wise choice to those who only have one. Hats off to Pixel.

BEST GAME ON A NON-NINTENDO PLATFORM

Our team gave this to Red Dead Redemption. It's basically Grand Theft Auto meets John Wayne. Like chocolate syrup and lemonade, it looks awful but plays very nicely. This game acomplishes what GTA couldn't; make it so you want to be the good guy. And it's a game set in the wild west. That's reason enough to buy it.

BEST SOUNTRACK

We gave this award to Kirby's Epic Yarn. While the game didn't feature as many nostalgic tracks as we may have wanted, the music included was very touching and fits the game perfectly. It's cutesy style is nothing short of great.

BEST ORIGINAL GAME

Super Meat Boy takes the cake (or the meat pie) in this category. With it's platforming ideas mixed with controller-throwing difficulty, this game pulls off something that Cave Story just couldn't. We know this isn't a Nintendo game now, but it was scheduled for a WiiWare release when I started the votes and it was out on XBLA and PSN, so we included it.

BEST SCRIPT

Barely beating out Ace Attorney Investigations was our old top-hatted friend Professor Layton and The Unwound Future. This game made it seem like Luke and the professor weren't just walking puzzle-solving minds. And as we dove into Layton's backstory, we got a sense of the characters around us and why Don Paolo hates Layton so much. A very fantastic tale of mystery.

BEST NEW CHARACTER

Again, barely beating out Ace Attorney Investigation's Kay Faraday was Prince Fluff of Epic Yarn. This was the cutesy blue Waddle Dee with a crown that followed Kirby around when playing in two-player mode. He's so cute, he doesn't even need a reason to be here.

Hats off to Quote from Cave Story for doing the best Link impression.

BEST RETRO REVIVAL

Donkey Kong Country Returns wins here. About time we got to an award. We haven't had a new DK game since Donkey Konga 2 on the Gamecube, and what a way to bring back the character. This was certainly an amazing way to bring back our favourite primate. Nostalgia for the win.

MOST ANTICIPATES 2011 RELEASE

No surprise Pokemon Black and White wins here. With good reason, too. There's over 150 new Pokemon, a bigger than usual region and tons of new features. I have imported the game and I have to say, you will all love it. Best Pokemon game on the DS, by far.

GAME OF THE YEAR

Despite Johnny's argument for Red Dead, our overall  game of the year goes to Mr. Nintendo himself in Super Mario Galaxy 2. What is this game? Nothing short of perfect. This is the game every Mario fan would love. There's no reason not to get this game. You will buy it. YOU WILL BUY IT. Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver came in close second.

These were our picks for 2010. Nintendo certainly outdid themselves last year. Can they do it again? We can only hope. What were your picks for 2010?
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1 comment:

  1. Yay trauma Team got an honorable mention!
    I'll shut up now :P

    ReplyDelete