The Video Game Critic

Hi,

I was curious what your personal games of the year were.  By this I mean a game you played for the very first time in 2006, not necessarily one that was released in 2006.  (Strangely, many I'm listing here were released in 2006.  I just don't want to constrain anyone from listing anything they played that was released before 2006.)

Anyway, here are mine:

New Super Mario Bros. (DS, 2006)

I must have played this through at least five times.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP, 2006)

I played through the story mode twice, and am going through it a third time.  Plus I've logged many hours into the awesome online segment.

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Xbox, 2004)

Good stealth/FPS adventure.

Soul Calibur (Dreamcast, 1999)

Good graphics even for today.  Now I see what the fuss is about.

Metroid Prime Hunters (DS, 2006)

The holy grail of portable 3D gaming: a great online FPS.  Mediocre single player adventure, unfortunately....

Tetris DS (DS, 2006)

The pinacle of Tetris-rehashes.  Awesome online.

Super C (NES, 1990)

One of the greatest instant-gratification run'n'gun games ever created.

Neo-Contra (PS2, 2004)

Holds a candle for instant-gratification shooting games when the "action" genre is dominated by 20 to 40 hour long adventure games.  Plus the best cut scenes, ever.

Worst game of the year:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC, 2004)

I don't see what the appeal of this series is.  Bad graphics and nothing original.  The only way this series sells is because it appeals to the worst aspects of humanity.

Mediocre games of the year:

Half Life 2: Episode One (PC, 2006)

Why didn't Valve just release the whole "Aftermath" in one nice package?  Oh yeah, they could reap more money by slowly releasing it in a three-segment series.

Sin Episodes: Emergence (PC, 2006)

Cold Winter (PS2, 2005)

FYI, my past personal games of the year:

2005: Half-Life 2

2004: Half-Life 1

2003: Metal Gear Solid

2002: Advance Wars

2001: Super Smash Bros.

You have quite the list there. For me, my games of the year were:

Fire Emblem II (GBA)

Advance Wars Dual Strike (DS)

Mario Kart (DS)

Oblivion (360)

Fight Night Round 3 (360)

Gears of War (360)

Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

Wii Sports (Wii)

Madden 07 (Wii)

Mario RPG Partners in Time (DS)

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)

Geometry Wars (Xbox Live! Arcade Original)

Honarable Mentions:

Contact (DS)

Star Fox: Command (DS)

Metroid Prime: Hunters (DS)

Tetris DS (DS)

Project Gotham Racing (360)

Assault Heroes (Xbox Live! Arcade Original)

Red Steel (Wii) - I've changed my mind since my review on this, by the way. I now consider it in the C range, pending more playing time. In any event, there are definitely some things I like about it (that could bode well for future Wii action games) and hence why it's an honorable mention on my list.

-Rob

Hmm, I totally goofed big time when I ommited New Super Mario Bros. from my list. It is certainly one of my "games of the year."

This is not a list of favorites, just some thoughts on a few games i've played this year...
 

Shadow Tower (PS1) - I'm a huge Kings Field fan and I finally decided to give this game a playthrough. Not as bad as all the reviews seem to think, but still pretty below average. I did squeeze about 2 weeks out of it and now i'm curious about the sequel.

Yoshi's Island DS - Nowhere near as good as the original game, it's still tons of fun and has kept me playing for hours on end. The difficulty of the last world really hit me like a ton of bricks and some of the secret levels are even crazier. Another excellent DS game.

Twilight Princess (GC) - A fun, solid addition to the zelda franchise and worth the time and money I spent. But it still just feels like a step down from wind waker. The worst part is, I can't pinpoint exactly how or why specifically (Maybe another playthrough of both would help). All I know is wind waker left me satisfied, while Twilight Princess left me wanting more (of what?).

Oblivion (Xbox360) - A great game that sucked away all my free time like a blackhole. Almost 2 months gone exploring it's huge world and I didn't even do any of the thieves guild quests.

Cave Story (PC) - A friend recommended this game to me and i'm so glad I listened to his advice. Fun and challenging with memorable characters (Huzzah!) and an interesting story. There are rumors that the game will be ported to the psp and if thats true, I will finally have a reason to go out and buy the system.
 

Personal favourites this year, in no particular order:

1.  Border Down - Dreamcast

I have never been a huge horizontal fan but this game is amazing.  It's a hori for vert fans I am telling you.  Clever level design, great shooting mechanics and enemy patterns and some very nice backdrops make this one of the best 2D shooters I have played.

2.  Condemned - 360

No game has ever affected me on a primal level like this before.  A deep game with great action mechanics, an incredible story and a perfect set of varied levels.

3.  Rage Racer - PlayStation

A great retroish racer.  Like Sega Rally it is short on tracks but this works out to be great because you practice each one to perfection due to the easy to get into but hard to master arcade racing physics they went with.

4.  P.N. 03 - Gamecube

GC owners should feel lucky that they got this game.  An old school 2D shooter wrapped up in some gourgously stylised graphics with an incredible soundtrack.  A real trip to play and a tribute to old style gaming

5.  Perfect Dark Zero - 360

Great single player and co-op campaign in tons of varied locations.  Keeps all the old Rare-isms from their previous games and has some great online multiplayer.  Bots are a great addition for those without Live.

6.  Tomb Raider Legend - 360 (though multiplatform)

Glorious return to form.  Still some shooting action unfortunately but pretty close to a perfect Tomb Raider experience.  I disliked Tomb Raider 2 onwards but this is as much fun as the great first game.

7.  Gears of War - 360

Perfect game, nuff said.

8.  Ridge Racer 6 - 360 (RR7 on PS3 is the same game with 4 more levels and worse graphics)

You liked Ridge Racer Type 4?  Then you will love this!  One of the best racing games of all time.

9.  Dead Rising - 360

This game is pretty frustrating for the first few hours but then you hit the sweet point and from then on in it is all good.  There is always a cool new thing to discover which you didn't realise before.  It has good humour, great actors, a decent plot, a HUGE area to explore which is filled with tons of detailing and some very satisfying weapons.

10.  GRAW - 360

I used to be a Rainbow Six man but have no converted to the Ghost Recon crowd.  The single player is outstanding and the multiplayer is (shock horror) possibly even better than Gears in my opinion!

Lots of 360 games I know.  You could call me a fanboy but I didn't pay any money for my 360 and got nearly all the games for half price through plenty of bargains.

1.  Border Down - Dreamcast

I have never been a huge horizontal fan but this game is amazing.  It's a hori for vert fans I am telling you.  Clever level design, great shooting mechanics and enemy patterns and some very nice backdrops make this one of the best 2D shooters I have played.

Well I was like you feeling kind of dumb for not getting it when it was brand new at £35 ($68) but this game has shot up in value.  It's now the most expensive shooter on DC.  Only a couple of import shops still had it in stock and they wanted £120 ($236) for it.  It is available on eBay a bit cheaper for around £80 ($157) without shipping.  If you take your time though you may be able to get a bargain.  I got mine on a Buy It Now just after it went on for a mere £50 ($98).