This has been simply an incredible year for games. Of course, the launch of the Wii last year has helped with that. My poor old PS2 has been pretty much forgotten for most of the year while Wii and DS rule.

Some of the best picks, this year:

Wario Ware Smooth Moves: I think it's even better than the original.
FFXII Revenant Wings: a great FF game from a surprising source. Hopefully, the Revenant Wings style will replace or at least beside the Tactics style.
Metroid Prime 3: vastly better than even the first one thanks to great controls and superior game design.
Super Mario Galaxy: Has some good ideas and bad ideas, but ends up an epic, fresh Mario adventure.
Guitar Hero III / Contra 4: both rocking in their own way.

Last year's games, this year:
Excite Truck: And now it's a BIG DAMN TRUCK! And with music of my own choosing!
Rayman Raving Rabbids: music stages yeah! Lots of other neat minigames too.
Final Fantasy III: definitely a great game still.
Wii Sports: still one of the very best implementations of Wii motion sensing and other design ideas such as the 'casual' approach.
Metal Slug Anthology: tons of fun on one disc, though the Wii controls are a little shoddy.

Disappointment:
Final Fantasy XII: haven't actually finished this yet... that's like the only FF game since FF2 (Famicom/PSX etc.), I even managed through X-2. But at least we got Revenant Wings!

Was always curious about Excite Truck.  Does it require the Wii Steering Wheel, or can it be played with the Wiimote by itself?  (I know I'll likely get the steering wheel once Mario Kart rolls around anyway; are the rumors still true about Nintendo's own brand being included with the game?)

I'd gotten used to the basic handling with the Nunchuck Control configuration, but waggling with the 'mote is just way too ineffective.  I always plug in the Gamecube controller for MSA.   

Really looking forward to Metal Slug 7 for DS, too  Could it possibly knock Contra 4 out of rank?

Man, you've sorely tempted me now..... was planning on waiting for the inevitable Greatest Hits release, but maybe I'll grab it sooner now than later.  My PS2 has been all by its lonesome self nowadays anyway.

Obviously, one's largely in it for the over-the-top beat-em-up action, but I'd heard the story took a big hit when compared to the first game.  Is this true?

There's a story in God of War?
Seriously, if you're playing this game for the story you've got your priorities wrong

Actually, the overall story may not have been interesting, but I really appreciated the immense variety of Greek Mythology they used this time round. I mean, they also obviously used plenty in the first game, but there just seemed to be more variety this time. I mean, damn, any game that uses Icarus and even friggin' Atlas HAS to be cool!

The only real problem I have with the series is that Kratos is such an immensely unlikeable character. They obviously wanted him to be Bad-Ass, and he is, but I never got the feeling that he was doing something that needed to be done. His purposes were entirely self-serving if you ask me, and he's extremely unhumorous about it.

i love Wii tennis so much i think im going to take up real tennis again next summer (i havnt played since i got kicked off the high school team for missing practices in 1990

i only wish the Wii players went past skill level 2000 because im up to 2100 already...

O_o

I'm soo confused with a lot of these picks.  I'm dumb founded.  Seriously....

Having just finished it, if there was a category for WORST game of the year, Eternal Sonata would take it. What a turkey!

Steering wheel? F no! The position of the Wiimote would make a wheel pretty clumsy, anyway. Not really looking forward to MKW or the wheel shell.

Yep, Cube controller is the way to go.

For me, Contra is a clearly a tier above Metal Slug. Metal Slug DS will likely be a fun game, but I doubt it will reach the caliber of Contra 4.

Thanks, Amazingu and Sami!  I'll be sure to pick up GoW2 and Excite Truck soon!

Really?  Which ones?

Best none 2007 game is Timesplitters : Future Perfect. I hope for TS4 you can give the Bots/Simulants orders just like in Perfect Dark. Also more Assault levels would be great.

I've played The Godfather : Blackhand Edition to death this year, I must've become Don of NYC at least 13 times. I like the freedom Sandbox style games give you, that and the fact that it plays like an RPG with guns. More weapon variety is needed though. The Street Sweeper isn't the best weapon, the Python on the other hand = Dirty Harry

Super Paper Mario retained the Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi style humour whilst successfully delivering a real-time battle system that requires more skill than just levelling up. The big criticism is difficulty, it was embarassingly easy making the game seem much shorter too.

Metroid Prime 3 : Corruption was decent and the last boss on Hypermode felt very satisfying. I think the Metroid series should take a bit of a Star Wars : Bounty Hunter turn with the next game on Wii. An alien community with some good Free Roaming Bounty Hunting would make a far more successful spin-off than Hunters did. She is supposed to be a ruthless Bounty Hunter after all.

Super Mario galaxy delivered in almost every single way imaginable, and the Grand Finale Galaxy was a pleasant reward at the end. Still, like almost every single epic Nintendo game, be it Mario, Zelda or Metroid, there is little or no replayability in it. Super Paper Mario is the only major Nintendo release to keep me coming back. The Sammer Guys weren't easy but it's that kind of side quest that feels rewarding. Zelda needs a Boss Replay mode and it still hasn't happened.

All in all it's been an underwhelming year for a Nintendo gamer but thankfully NoE retracted their statement condemning Brawl to a Post June 2008 release, which means we could still get it in Q2 2008. I just wish they would prioritise Brawl ahead of Kart.

Heh, I feel almost the exact opposite. I could play Mario Galaxy several times over, and plan on playing MP3 again sometime, but I couldn't even make it through chapter 4 in Paper Mario.

Chapter 4 is the one in outer space isn't it? People criticise games with no innovation then they they take dislike to innovation when it's implemented. People asked for a re-thinking of the Paper Mario series then they gave it crap reviews across the board. Nintendo Power (obvious bias) was the only different one. The official UK mag gave it 81%, I think. Now Future Publishing is taking over NP as well! Global monopoly or what?! The Whoa Zone at the end of Chapter 4 was great, I want to know why everyone thought it was so crap? Overtly long conversations shouldn't be a massive criticism. The volume of interlaced jokes/puns and the overall charm of the Paper Mario series was a pleasant change from the Survival Action Summer of RE4 and Scarface.

I have been wondering about Free Radical Design and their upcoming TS4 game. Some people say it isn't coming to Wii, others say it's going to be a Wii exclusive? The amount of effort they put into these games shows why they are, more or less, the best company at making FPS's, in my opinion.

For me, this year's best game was undoubtedly Persona 3, nothing else comes close. It surprised me positively in just about every regard: based on the initial press, I had expected it to be a shallow dungeon crawler, but it proved to be anything but that. While I still regard Persona 2 as the pinnacle of the series, P3 was an insanely good game, and even managed to dethrone Shadow Hearts 2 as my favourite RPG of the PS2 era. This is a great pick for anyone thirsting for a great RPG with a lot of character and story depth, and looking for a game that is a fresh breeze in an all too stagnant genre (this praise comes from a guy who is extremely jaded when it comes to traditional RPGs). The soundtrack works wonders within the context of the game, but, unlike earlier Persona music, not so much outside it.
The battle system deserves special mention as it was one of the game's highlights: without a doubt the smoothest, user-friendliest, best-crafted, and just plain coolest and best battle system I've experienced in any RPG, ever. Fighting was a pure pleasure in P3, I must've fought hundreds of battles in that game, and it never grew boring, it never felt slow, it was just perfect. A supreme achievement on the part of the designers.

A runner-up would be Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin. Great game, and I'm surprised that I always end up swallowing the same Metrovania concept over and over.

Portrait of Ruin might be a disappointment for me. I've tried it several times now but made little way into the game. It just doesn't grip me in the way other Castlevania titles do. Could be because I replayed Circle of the Moon and Aria of Sorrow this year and still enjoyed them immensely, Portrait just doesn't seem to compare to that brilliance. Dunno, maybe I'll get into it next year.

Circle of the Moon is a special case, as it's a little different from the other"Metrovania" CV games. I like it a lot because it feels much more old-school than the others, and it's the only Castlevania game since like 1995 that's actually a bit challenging.

As for Aria of Sorrow, I definitely think Portrait is better. Portrait is basically the exact same concept, just improved. IMO, it's bigger and better in every way, and the two-character system was a great addition (and one of the few *new* additions to this concept since Symphony of the Night). Dawn of Sorrow is even more similar: you could go as far as to say that it's the exact same game as Aria, just bigger, better, and prettier.

Aria is a great game, but I felt it was the weakest "Metrovania" CV game after Harmony of Dissonance. There's not much really wrong with it, the other games are just better, and the thing that puts it back in the competition (in my opinion) is it's soundtrack, which I found to be one of the weakest in the series (and in Yamane's career).

I'm going to put Guitar Hero 3 on my list. The ending of this game was incredible. I'm having trouble typing because Lou kicked the absolute shit out of me on hard for about an hour straight.

So I guess you're a fan of battle mode, then? ;p

Just curious what you thought of the game's tracklist, which is kind of the main sticking point for me. I wouldn't mind the sloppy PS2 porting if there were more songs I liked (both to hear and to play). I thought 2 did a much better job with balancing past and modern stuff that made good GH bait.

At least it plays good with hyperspeed in any case. The different perspective is actually nice with everything spaced out more.

Oh, but I think Aria is the superior game of the two. The GBA graphics manage to be more stylish and personal than the somewhat more sterile DS graphics, the gameplay and the flow of the game is better and while some of Aria's music isn't the strongest, neither is Dawn's. The "bigger" is basically relevant only on the account of the more worthwhile Julius Mode in Dawn.

This thread is full of happiness and win.  And potentially slight Apollo Justice spoilers:

http://www.forums.court-records.net/vie … 4b97acbb47

My thoughts on the Aria vs. Dawn thing:

I like both Aria and Dawn, but for me, Dawn is the best Metroivania game, period (yes, better than SOTN).  I like Dawn because the soul system and instant armor switching give it the most fun gameplay of any of the Metroivania titles.  I put nearly 20 hours into this one -- far more than I've put into any Metroivania title.  That's how much fun I had.  My problem with Aria is that other than the introduction of the soul system, the gameplay feels really stale and the music isn't nearly as good as Dawn's.  That said, I will readily admit that Aria has the best storyline of any game in the Castlevania series while Dawn's story is horrible (and don't even get me started on Dawn's horrible character art).

That is what put me off the game, I convinced myself to get it after obtaining 9 of every soul in Aria. Just to be sure I REALLY wanted it