BEST FILM OF 2006:

-Casino Royale
Runner-up: The Departed

I already wrote an extensive review of this back when it came out.  I’ve seen it three times now, and I rarely ever see movies in theaters more than once.  After 2002’s disastrous Die Another Day, Bond is back.  Plain and simple.

BEST NEW TV SHOW OF 2006:

-NBC Sunday Night Football
Runner-up: None.

Ok, so that’s kind of cheating, but I’ve been trying to cut back on TV so that I can actually play the games I buy, so I’ve tried very few of the new shows that started in 2006.

BEST RETURNING TV SHOW OF 2006:

-24 (FOX)
Runner-up: Family Guy (FOX)

Season Five of 24 proved that the show has still got it in spades.  After the disappointing Season Three and the good but not great Season Four, Season Five came on strong and captivated from beginning to end.

BEST VGM ALBUM OF 2006:

-ZX Tunes
Runner-up: Culdcept Saga OST
2006 wasn’t a great year for VGM, but these two rose to the top.

BEST PS2 GAME OF 2006:

-Okami
Runner-up: Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

Okami is heavily flawed, but beautiful.  While it falls short of its attempt to clone Zelda, it’s still an artistic masterpiece with a wonderful atmosphere and should not be missed.

BEST GBA GAME OF 2006:

-Final Fantasy V Advance
Runner-up: [None]

Although FF5 makes a much better port to GBA than FF4, this basically wins by default since Rhythm Tengoku wasn’t released in America.

BEST XB GAME OF 2006:

[The only 2006 Xbox game I played was Black and that was nothing special]

BEST NGC GAME OF 2006:

-The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Runner-up: Chibi Robo

Poor, poor GameCube.  Its last year saw very little support and one of its biggest alleged 2006 releases (Super Paper Mario) was promoted to Wii.  Still, it got two absolutely fantastic adventure games in Chibi Robo and Zelda.

BEST DS GAME OF 2006:

-Brain Age
Runners-up: New Super Mario Bros., Super Princess Peach, Elite Beat Agents, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

DS finished up its sophomore year as the dominant video game platform in the world following the releases of strong fall 2005 and first-half 2006 titles that pushed it to the top.  Unfortunately, its fall 2006 line-up left a lot to be desired as big name titles disappointed left and right.  Leave it to Brain Age, the non-game, to impress me most of all.  I played that thing almost daily for a month straight.

BEST PSP GAME OF 2006:

[The only 2006 PSP game I played was Loco Roco and it didn’t blow me away]

BEST X360 GAME OF 2006:

[I did not play any 2006 Xbox 360 games]

BEST PS3 GAME OF 2006:

[Motorstorm, the only PS3 game I played in 2006, hasn’t been released in America yet, not that it would be worth nominating anyway]

BEST WII GAME OF 2006:

-The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Runner-up: Wii Sports

A brand new Zelda on day one?  How can you go wrong?  Sure, Nintendo cheated to make it a launch title since it’s really just a port of the Cube version, but it’s still fantastic.  Most surprising is just how well it works with the new controller.  Definitely worth it.

MOST DISAPPOINTING GAME OF 2006

-Yoshi’s Island DS (DS)
Runners-up: Children of Mana (DS), Magical Starsign (DS), Final Fantasy III (DS), Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

Lesson #1 of video game brand management: Never, ever, under any circumstances, allow one of your most trusted franchises (Yoshi) to be fucked up by a mediocre developer (Artoon).  Hideous music and an annoying blind spot between the screens took one of my most wanted games coming out of E3 and shit all over it.  As for the others, I kind of knew that Children of Mana and FFXII would be garbage, I didn’t really know what to expect out of Magical Starsign, and FF3’s snail-paced battles put a stop to any enjoyment that might have come from that one.

THE “WHERE THE F*CK WERE YOU?” AWARD

-Super Paper Mario (NGC)

We were so close.  It had a release date.  It was almost out.  And then it went to Wii.  Will it be better for the switch?  It better be.

MY TOP 5 MOST ANTICIPATED GAMES OF 2007

05. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice For All (DS)
04. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
03. Super Paper Mario (Wii)
02. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
01. Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)

I really hope those EGM rumors of a Mother trilogy on DS in America come true, but since that’s pretty far fetched, I’ve left it off this list.  Also not on this list are Resident Evil 5 which is looking like a 2008 release and Phantom Hourglass whose exclusive stylus controls have me worried.

OVERALL TOP FIVE GAMES OF 2006:

05. Okami (PS2)
04. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
03. Brain Age (DS)
02. Chibi Robo (NGC)

*GAME OF THE YEAR 2006*
01. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii/NGC)

Zelda takes the top spot, but since that’s been talked about to death, I want to use this space to tell you all to go buy Chibi Robo.  Seriously, the game is extremely good and it costs less than $15 new these days.  Just pick it up and enjoy the happiness.

Casino Royale was definitely great, I don't really remember ANY good movies coming out this year, let alone anything from the beginning of the year. That one tops the short list.  I did not like The Departed, it just had a rather meh ending.

Heroes and Friday Night Lights are both pretty amazing.  Heroes is pretty well written and directed, Friday Night Lights has some really great acting.

24 hasn't been good since the the middle of season 2.  It's absolute garbage and they will never top the season 1 ending.  After 5 seasons of Jack Bauer getting out of the most retarded situations ever it just gets kind of old.  It's got action and suspense I'll give it that much, but it's been so drawn out over the 5 seasons that it's every season is exactly the same with a different plot twist for the "day".  Meh.

No comment, didn't listen to either!

I don't play video games anymore, except WoW, so these don't apply.

Best GBA game of 06...go play Atlus' four releases:

Summon Night Swordcraft Story
Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2

One of those is sure to top FFV Advance.

I think.

Ramza

Speaking of Rhythm Tengoku, did you ever get around to completing it?  (Or at least unlocking the 48 main stages?)  The 6th and 8th Remix stages always make me smile, the former for its all-encompassing crusade, and the latter because it's so irritatingly catchy.   

All of those games, with the exception of Justice For All, are on my "distant" anticipated list.  As for titles on the near horizon:

05) Meteos: Disney Magic (DS)
04) Lunar Knights (DS)
03) Chocobo And The Magic Picture Book (DS)
02) DJ Portable Max 2 (PSP)
01) Nanostray 2 (DS)

Nanostray 2 is gonna kick SO much ass.  ..... is what I'm hoping for.  C'mon Shin'en, make this the end-be-all shumup for the DS.

Is no one looking forward to Diddy Kong Racing?  Man I played hours of that when I was a kid!  Sure it's a Mario Kart rip-off, but it was well done!

I beat the game and unlocked all of the stages.  I don't have either the coordination or the patience to get all the perfects.  I think I got one or two of those.  Still, I loved every minute of it (except the stages where your character is singing and clapping the Japanese song -- I really sucked at those).  My favorite stage is probably the 3rd Remix.  I love the bouncing rabbit!
   

Honestly, the first half of this year looks pretty barren to me.  Outside of Phoenix Wright and Wario Ware (both of which I already have), MP3 is the only other thing I'm really interested in getting in the first two quarters of this year (assuming of course that it really comes out in Q2).  Granted, I will buy FF6 Adv and Dawn of Mana, but I don't really care about either of them.  Oh, I just remembered I'm getting Hotel Dusk next week, but it's not something I'm really anticipating, you know?  I suppose it's possible that Super Paper Mario could turn out to be Q2, but we'll have to wait for Nintendo to announce its Q2 lineup to find out.  The five titles you listed don't really interest me, but I do think Lunar Knights looks promising.

Sorry, I put many, many hours into the N64 version, and it was fun for awhile, but the farther I got into it, the more the relatively slow vehicles and Rare's COLLECTATHON™ gameplay became tiring.  I came pretty close to finishing it, but I got fed up and never did.

Nice!!!  I had never thought to do that!

waaahhh,, im lucky if i have time to squeeze in a few hours of games a month...
im sure this speaks for Mr S. as well...