My Top Picks of 2009

Sometimes people say these kinds of lists are the best games of the year, sometimes favorite games of the year but either way games that are my favorite are games I, generally, consider to be the best. This list is meant for me to express what games I felt you should try your hardest to play and my brief explanation why. That said, this isn’t a top 10 list, I could really only come up with 7 but there are a few games I haven’t played enough of. If any of those do grab me, I’ll post about it. Knowing that, read on to see what games I loved the most in 2009.


Ben

Batman: Arkham Asylum is the whole package. Combat that is simple yet rewarding in its rhythmic nature. An environment that invokes a strong sense of place that contains just enough structure to keep pace yet never feels confined. Story and characters that are expertly delivered and continually interesting, even if you think you know where the story is headed. A presentational style with small touches like bats flying out of defeated enemies and a stark black and white filter while paused. Batman: Arkham Asylum is consistent and while that may not seem like anything special, the high quality that it keeps at from beginning to end is.

As I’ve said before, PixelJunk Shooter is a game of details. The little bubbles behind your ship in water, the way the water bulges as you exit to the surface, the steam of water meeting magma—there are plenty of small details like that. Each of the three main elements react with each other to create deep yet logical situational puzzles that give a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. PixelJunk Shooter excels in its interactions, something that is intrinsic to video games. It takes what makes games great and does it exceptionally well.

Roadies are good at taking down stages, the Bouncer is a burly melee attacker, the Thunderhogs play bass guitar which supports the others. Brutal Legend sticks to it’s concept, Metal music, and never falters from it. All the aptly designed units taking part in a real time strategy-like stage battle where the power is drawn from the fans. The mythical epic story and world creation lore. The enemies that range from a hair metal group to demonic beasts. The fantastical world with motor cliffs, a peninsula consisting of a wall of amps and “Bladehenge”. All of these well integrated elements resonate outstandingly throughout the game.

Few games get the feel of a car as right as Forza Motorsport 3. Each aspect feels superb: the sense of weight, the for feel how much traction you have, sound of the engine and tires. When racing depends so heavily on pushing the car up to its limits without breaking it, these kinds of details really matter and that is where Forza excels. Along with a career mode that balances structure with open choice, robust tools for user created content and community features, Forza 3 offers just about all you could want out of a racing game.

If you had any doubts about the quality of The Beatles: Rock Band, the opening cutscene puts them to ease. Then the menus carry that reassurance further, the venues, the Beatles themselves, the iconic imagery—it is all there. Then when you play Yellow Submarine, you see the water distortion, bubbles rise up, the studio transforms into an underwater sanctuary and the Beatles are there, you are there, playing the song with the fish, coral and submarine all around. The Beatles: Rock Band lovingly takes the songs and imagery of the Beatles and injects it in every aspect Rock Band to create my favorite music game.

Noby Noby Boy is unadulterated fun. It latches on to the child within you, the one long forgotten, the one who enjoyed the simple pleasure of playing with a box, the one whose imagination ran free. It is childhood personified. Playing without inhibition, helping one another reach a goal, silly daydream imagery doodled onto paper—it is all captured beautifully with charm for all to enjoy. Capturing a feeling as strong as Noby Noby Boy does is something so incredibly rare in gaming and often not even strived for. But when a game succeeds at it, there is a pronounced effect.

For much of the same reason, my favorite game of the year is Flower. Like Noby Noby Boy captures the feeling of being a child, Flower captures pure emotions. It does so with expertly arranged progression that moves from the ethereal beauty of elegant movement in open lands to terrifying torture in confined, bleak paths to the final liberating crescendo. The game lets you know what freedom feels like, imprisons you and then lets you break out of it. Every moment of the game leads up to this and it subsequently gives a rush of emotions unlike anything I’ve ever felt from the medium.