I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve either barely played or not played at all Orange Box, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Halo 3 or even Super Mario Galaxy. Because I haven’t played what many think are the best games of the year, I can’t honestly look you in the eye and tell you that, without a doubt, my pick for Game of the Year is accurate. Of course, these things are always up to debate, because it’s always been about perspective and opinion, something which I have little of the former and too much of the latter, but still; I feel guilty judging what I think is the best game or movie when I’ve played/seen so little this year.
So this year, I’m simply going to list nominees, being everything that I’ve seen, and pick which I liked the most. Not necessarily the best. Just what I liked the most. I’ll include stuff from last December as well, to spread things out.
NINTENDO DS
Nominees: Kirby Squeak Squad, Phoenix Wright: Justice for All, Hotel Dusk, Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations
I played a lot of DS games this year, but many of them were released last year, so I can’t really add them here. Squeak Squad was incredibly fun, albeit incredibly easy and incredibly short, which was too bad. PW:JFA was a slight step down from the first one, but was still quality. It gets a bad rap, but it was pretty damn good, all things considered. Hotel Dusk was fun and had a great script, but there were some issues that marred its playability. Still, it was quite good. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about it much, but I found Phantom Hourglass to be a little disappointing. Gameplay-wise, it was great. Graphically, it was beautiful; arguably the prettiest game on the DS so far. But as far as the story’s concerned, well, it left quite a bit to be desired. I’ll get into that some other day. Maybe. Finally, PW:TT was just plain awesome. The last two trials, with Dahlia Hawthorne joining Revolver Ocelot and Bill Laimbeer in the Greatest Villians Ever Pantheon, are some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing a game ever. This one is easy.
WINNER: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations
NINTENDO WII
Nominees: Super Swing Golf, Metal Slug Anthology, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Super Paper Mario, MLB Power Pros, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Ghost Squad
What a sorry list this is. No Metroid, no Mario Galaxy, no Zach and Wiki? What the hell is this? Well, I kind of ran out of time for console games this year. Hence the abundance of pick-up-and-play games instead of long, story-based games. Super Swing Golf was decent, but even with the Wii controls, I liked the PC version a little more. Metal Slug is Metal Slug. It rules. Although not even Ralf and Clark could save Metal Slug 6. WarioWare was awesome the first two weeks I had it. Then it kinda lost replay value pretty quickly. Still, fun while it lasted. I didn’t like Paper Mario that much. Physically, it was a great game, but it just wasn’t… fun. MLB Power Pros is awesome. I spent a stupid amount of time with it making an all-star team in Success Mode (featuring Hulk Hogan, Jesus Christ, MC Hammer, Steven Seagal, Dr. Poque, Ryo Sakazaki, Ryo Hazuki and Clark Steele). The engine needs work, and the announcer sucks, but it’s all passable. Most importantly, it’s fun. Mario and Sonic got terrible reviews, but I enjoyed it. I don’t know if I’d play it much after a month, but I had fun. Same with Ghost Squad. Fun times.
WINNER: MLB Power Pros
PLAYSTATION 2
Nominees: Art of Fighting Anthology, Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s, Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, King of Fighters XI
See what I mean? Not much time for consoles. I debated whether or not to put Guitar Hero 3 on here, since I own it, but have only played it twice, since my guitar is not in the vicinity of me. I’ll save it for next year. Art of Fighting is just plain hilarious. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard playing a game. Good times. GH:80s was pretty awesome, but probably didn’t need to be $50. Song list was too short, too. Fire Pro is half awesome. I love the graphic style, and I love the customization. But the engine sucks. I’m sorry. I like the timing system and everything, but punches never connect and matches end in like three minutes after a scoop slam. KOF XI, while not as good as KOF 2000, is still pretty awesome. As long as you don’t unlock the boss characters. They suck. But this game rules.
WINNER: King of Fighters XI
PC GAME
Nominees: Sam and Max Season 1 – Culture Shock; Sam and Max Season 1 – Situation: Comedy; Sam and Max Season 1 – The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball; Sam and Max Season 1 – Abe Lincoln Must Die!; Sam and Max Season 1 – Reality 2.0; Sam and Max Season 1 – Bright Side of the Moon
Okay, so I didn’t play many PC games this year. But I’m happy with what I played. Culture Shock was very short, but a great intro to the series. Situation: Comedy was okay, but a little underwhelming. The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball was probably the worst of the series. There were literally four puzzles. But it had a nice comeback with Abe Lincoln Must Die!, which was pretty awesome. It paled in comparison, however, to Reality 2.0, which was just plain fucking awesome. Especially the end. Bright Side of the Moon was a satisfactory ending to the season, but that’s all.
WINNER: Sam and Max Season 1 – Reality 2.0
MOVIES
Nominees: Futurama: Bender’s Big Score, Darjeeling Limited, Price of Sugar, Superbad, Rush Hour 3, Bourne Ultimatum, Simpsons Movie, Ratatouille, Sicko, Knocked Up, Blades of Glory, 300
Okay, we’ll breeze through this. Futurama was disappointing; it could’ve been a lot better. Darjeeling Limited was absolutely great. Not as funny as Royal Tenenbaums or Rushmore, but still, very, very good. Price of Sugar was interesting. That’s all. Superbad was awesome. Absolutely hilarious. Rush Hour 3 sucked. Just terrible. Bourne Ultimatum was pretty solid. I hated the Simpsons Movie with a passion. Just hated it. Ratatouille was very, very good. Not as good as The Incredibles, but still, pretty damn great. Brad Bird is on his way to a Miyazaki-like resume of great animated movies. Sicko was good. Not much else to say about it. Knocked Up was very good. Not great, but good. Blades of Glory was awful, but funny. 300 was pretty sweet. In the end, the top three were Darjeeling, Superbad and Ratatouille. Tough choice between the three.
WINNER: Superbad
OTHER STUFF
WRESTLING PPV/EVENT
Nominees: Kaiju Big Battel G4 Pilot, WWE Wrestlemania 23, WWE Cyber Sunday, Kaiju Big Battel More Better Fighto, ROH Man Up
The G4 Pilot was good, but it was the same show as Shpadoinkelmania a few months earlier, and that one was slightly better. WM23 was solid, but didn’t feel like a Wrestlemania. I was there for Cyber Sunday, which was a decent show with a good main event. More Better Fighto was pretty awesome, although it didn’t have Kung Fu Chicken Noodle, which is too bad. Also, Super Wrong didn’t get much of a reaction, which made me sad. Man Up was just plain awesome. Every match was awesome.
WINNER: ROH Man Up
VIDEOGAME SHOW RELEASE (IP=in progress)
Nominees: Mega64 Time, Consolevania Season 3 (IP), VideoGaiden Season 3 (IP), Angry Video Game Nerd, GameLife Presents Andrew Rosenblum’s Action Death Threat Magic Explosion
I’d already seen most of what was on Mega64 Time, but it was still pretty sweet. Consolevania has been okay, but there haven’t been enough episodes to really pass judgement. VideoGaiden’s also young, but so far, it’s not nearly as good as Season 2. The Nerd started off incredibly, but has kind of lost the touch in the last few months, particularly since he began taking himself too seriously. Nothing made me happier than Andrew Rosenblum’s fall from grace. Oh wait, there wasn’t any grace to begin with. Little shit.
WINNER: Mega64 Time
BEST PODCAST
Nominees: Wrestlecrap Radio, The Bryan and Vinny Show, The Mega64 Podcast, The Sound of Young America
WCR has kinda fallen off the table a little bit. It was never groundbreaking comedy to begin with, but it’s slipped. The Lance Storm interview was very good, though. Bryan and Vinny are awesome. Bryan Alvarez rules in pretty much any capacity. I watch very little current wrestling anymore, but B and V do a great job of covering it all, and in a usually hilarious manner. Mega64 is always funny. I haven’t listened to TSOYA in a while, but I try to catch them whenever they have an interesting guest, like Jackson Publick or Zack Galafinakis.
WINNER: Bryan and Vinny
SWEETEST ROAD TRIP
Nominees: Spring Break in Errol, NH; Otakon in Baltimore; Virgin Fest in Baltimore
Spring Break sucked. I had to deal with freezing temperatures and a creepy dude who owned weapons. Fuck that shit. Otakon ruled, partially for the road trip. It was awesome. Convention was pretty good too. Virgin Fest was pretty neato; got to see the Beasties, and got ridiculously tanked at my friends’ house in DC, causing me to puke the next morning on the way to the concert; the first time I’d hurled in about a decade.
WINNER: Otakon in Baltimore
WORST FOOTBALL GAMBLER
Nominees: Duke Davis, Bill Simmons
This one was close, but since I didn’t even finish the season, I’m gonna have to give myself the edge.
WINNER: Duke Davis
