THE RULES

To be eligible, the product listed must have been released in the U.S. in 2008.  Ports (Chrono Trigger, Rez HD) are not eligible for category victories though they may show as runners-up.  Remakes (Final Fantasy IV, Bionic Commando Rearmed) are fully eligible.  Emulated re-releases (Super Mario RPG) are ineligible unless they are being released in the U.S. for the first time (Cho Aniki).

BEST FILM OF 2008:

-In Bruges
Runners-up: Iron Man, The Bank Job

A very different sort of gangster film, Martin McDonah’s touching tale of self-discovery and redemption (always wanted to say that!) was a pleasant surprise in a year of high profile disappointments from the usually reliable Indiana Jones and James Bond franchises.

BEST NEW TV SHOW OF 2008:

-Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)
Runner-up: None

The Sarah Connor Chronicles fills the void left by the cancellations of Dark Angel and Firefly.  It’s a hopelessly nerdy character-driven show governed by palpable fan service and evangelical overtones.  While the first season spun its wheels, the second season has been absolutely fantastic so far -- deep character development and varied story-telling techniques continue to drive the series forward and keep this viewer satisfied.  The show is being moved to Friday which is shorthand for an impending cancellation, but at least it was great while it lasted.

BEST RETURNING TV SHOW OF 2008:

-Family Guy (FOX)
Runners-up: ?

Seth McFarlane and company have really come back into their own with this season’s episodes of Family Guy.  After a few seasons of just being funny, the show is back in its full glory of downright hilarity.

BEST VGM ALBUM OF 2008:

-Soma Bringer Original Soundtrack
Runners-up: No More Heroes OST & Arrange, Valkyria of the Battlefield: Gallian Chronicles OST, Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin OST

A brand new Mitsuda album that approaches Chrono and Xeno levels of awesomeness?  How can anything beat that?  That’s right, nothing can.

BEST DS GAME OF 2008:

-Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Runners-up: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV, Kirby Super Star Ultra, Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice

It was a pretty slow year for the DS, but Konami’s Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia delivered the goods.  After years of trying, IGA has finally made a Metroivania game that feels like a Castlevania game.  Hardcore pattern-recognition and skill-based gameplay make one of, if not the best, games in the Metroivania subseries.

BEST PSP GAME OF 2008:

-Patapon
Runners-up: God of War: Chains of Olympus, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

Pata Pata Pata Pon.  Pon Pon Pata Pon.  Pata Pata Chaka Don.  If it wasn’t for the grinding and resource management distractions, this game would have been really great.  As it stands, it’s just quite good.  Squenix gets the runner-up nod for finally making an FF7 cash-in that isn’t complete garbage.

BEST 360 GAME OF 2008:

-Grand Theft Auto IV
Runner-up: Rez HD

I’ve never been able to get into the GTA series thanks to the awful controls and myriad technical issues, but GTA4 addresses just about all of my complaints.  I may not have played a whole lot of it, but what I did play sure entertained me a good deal more than contenders such as Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Castle Crashers, Braid, Dead Space, Fallout 3, Force Unleashed, etc.  Let me also be clear that I think Rez HD is a better game than GTA4, but it is ineligible to take the win since it is essentially just an upgraded port of a 2002 release.  Finally, please note that Capcom’s holy trinity of downloadable games doesn’t get any runner-up nods on the 360 platform since they require a d-pad that isn’t a piece of shit.

BEST PS3 GAME OF 2008

-Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Runners-up: Bionic Commando Rearmed, Mega Man 9, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

MGS4 is more of an experience than a game, but what an experience it is.  From the radically different “No Place to Hide” Act 1 to the cathartic final fight, I was enthralled from beginning to end.  For me to be motivated enough to finish a 30-hour game in a week definitely says something about this game’s appeal.  I’ve already written a very lengthy review of this game, so I’ll stop at that.  For our runners-up, you know Capcom is onto something when it releases three absolutely amazing 2D games in three classic series in a mere five months.  More please.

BEST WII GAME OF 2008

-No More Heroes
Runners-up: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mega Man 9

Like MGS4, I’ve already written at length about this one, but I want to reiterate just how much W-I-N this game is.  Suda 51 took all the best stuff about Killer 7 and got rid of all the confusion, leaving me with one of the best aftertastes since Ys VI.

MOST DISAPPOINTING GAME OF 2008

-Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS)
Runners-up: Mario Kart Wii (Wii), Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (DS)

You might argue that Kohler’s unending hype for Layton is what did this one in for me, but I really was expecting a point and click murder mystery with some logic puzzles.  I was not expecting a book of fifth grade math problems with pretty aesthetics.  I tried really hard to like this game, but in the end, I really hated it.  I am of the firm belief that puzzles in video games should be directly connected to the progression of the story (see Zelda and Metroid games), and Layton’s angle is as far away from this ideal as I can imagine.  As for the other two, Mario Kart came off as neutered and Dragon Sword’s accessible controls were negated by its mind-numbing game design.

THE “WHERE THE F*CK WERE YOU?” AWARD

-Rhythm Heaven (DS)
Runners-up: Disaster: Day of Crisis (Wii), Soma Bringer (DS)

It’s selling like gang-busting hotcakes in Japan, and it’s been promised for us, but where is it?  Very little translation is necessary to get this out here, so the delay has got me very worried that the big N is going to localize the tunes.  Don’t do it, Reggie!  The others are more curious.  It seems to me that since the Wii and DS became mega popular, Nintendo is actually bringing LESS of the games it publishes in Japan to the U.S.  You’d think it could take more risk since it’s raking in the cash hand over fist with evergreen titles like Wii Play, but I don’t see that happening.

MY TOP FIVE MOST ANTICIPATED GAMES OF 2009

05. Klonoa (Wii)
04. Cave Story (Wii)
03. Sin & Punishment 2 (Wii)
02. Resident Evil 5 (360/PS3)
01. Street Fighter IV (PS3)

If No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle gets moved up a month, it would easily top this list, but it’s slated for January 2010, so no dice.  Also, rumored Nintendo projects like Kid Icarus would probably be on here, but they’re not real yet, so I gotta go with what I know.  Once again, I can’t list the 360 version of SF4 in good conscience due to the d-pad.  Speaking of SF4, it’s more or less tied in level of anticipation with RE5 for me, so on any given day you could reverse those two and I wouldn’t argue.  But today, I’m feeling SF4 a little more since SSF2THDR has put me back in the SF frame of mind.  Besides, the ease of managing a CPU controlled character through the entirety of RE5 has me slightly concerned. 

OVERALL TOP FIVE GAMES OF 2008:

05. Mega Man 9 (PS3/Wii)
04. Bionic Commando Rearmed (PS3)
03. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
02. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

*GAME OF THE YEAR 2008*
01. No More Heroes (Wii)

For a year that the press is heralding as the year of casual games and user-generated content, there were a surprising number of true, old-fashioned hardcore games that brought back the joys of yesteryear (hearing the PC-loving Yahtzee bitch about dying a lot in BCR made me laugh at his ineptness at skill-based games).  While only two of those made my top five for 2008, all of them were most welcome additions to this year’s assembly, and I look forward to what 2009 will have in store for the style of games I was raised on.

For this actual list, No More Heroes gets top honors because it was just an absolutely wonderful experience.  It took a while to get into, but my time was well rewarded.  I didn’t “get it” until I started exploring the town of Santa Destroy on foot looking for Lovikov Balls, but then the subtle genius of Goichi Suda began to sink in, and I was hooked.  No More Heroes is a love letter to geek chic, and it won my heart.

I’ve already raved about MGS4 and our 2D friends, but let me explain why SSBB makes this list.  For me, SSBB finally made the SSB series fun.  I always liked the idea of the series, and damn do I love me some Nintendo fan service, but the gameplay in the first two never felt quite right to me.  This one finally gets it right, and I had a blast.  I’m especially thankful that Nintendo had the wisdom to make it humanly possible to unlock all the characters and stages with little difficulty and in a reasonable amount of time.  My only real complaint is with the online lag, so kudos to Sora for delivering the goods.

And that, my friends, is 2008.  See you next time!

I'm surprised to see Apollo Justice here.  On last mention, I believe you were still dragging in Justice For All.  Did you finally play catch up, or did you just skip Trials And Tribulations, and jumped right into Apollo?  (And if it's the latter, shame on you!)

And that, for me, is why MGS4 slipped to third in my own overall ranking.  It is an incredible experience, no doubt, but there were several times when I was just craving for more "game."  On multiple playthroughs, I've found myself having to artificially extend play time, by purposefully hanging back in several areas; I dreaded coming up to the next set of successive "Pause, Skip" movie sequences.  On that count, the game disappoints when compared to MGS3, which had the proper balance of pacing and ratio between cutscenes and gameplay.

I suspected from the beginning that the gameplay in Dragon Sword, as well-executed as it is, wouldn't be able to sustain itself for a full game.  I called it quits half way through; it really was that mind-numbing.

I'm guessing the non-vocal tracks will remain the same, but the vocals and voice cues will see a conversion into English.  Personally, I'm all for it; as someone who's played the ever loving shit out of the import, it'll be great to get a different spin on the songs.  And Nintendo has been pretty competent with their localization efforts with the Warioware series.   

Last we've heard, the game is still scheduled for a first half 2009 release.  Let's just hope that doesn't mean late June.

My own list stacks up pretty close to yours, though I'm hoping Klonoa will be more than just a straight-up port of the first PSOne game. 

5) Sin & Punishment 2 (Wii)
4) MadWorld (Wii)
3) Resident Evil 5 (360/PS3)
2) Punch Out! (Wii)
1) Street Fighter IV (360/PS3)

Hear hear! You better have played Phoenix Wright 3. That thing is HOT.

I'm going to bite my tounge and not go into why, but I couldn't disagree more. First, original fifty episodes are where it's at - everything beyond it outside the Stewie movie and the Star Wars special are some of my biggest busts of the past few years. Unfortunately, Futurama is following in its footsteps.

Please tell me they've dropped both the old dude drooling over Chris and McFarlane's obsession with having characters butt-naked onscreen for extended periods of time.

Soma isn't quite at the top of my own list, but yes, I found it very welcome after the disappointing Armodyne. Probably the first Mitsuda release I've really enjoyed since Xenogears. Have you checked out Inazuma Eleven?

I tend to find it to be amazing for casual play (especially with four players and all items on high), but the one-on-one fights turn out to be blockfests and suffer because of the slower gameplay and ease of getting back to the ledges. That, and Meta Knight needs to take a flying leap off Yoshi's Island permanently...

But yeah, definitely a great one.

Edit: Totally agreed on the D-pad thing. I have MM9, but I've yet to play it seriously because of the 360 controller.

I'm afraid I'm still dragging in AA2.  I played the demo of AA4, and considering how few good titles were released for the DS in 2008, I felt that was enough to consider it a runner-up.  Rest assured that I will not skip AA3 once I get back to playing this series seriously.

I wish I had time to play games more than once, but I agree that MGS3 is a better game than MGS4.

You made it farther than I did.  I was sick of it by the time I got to the hub world.  Sold that sucker quick.

I think it'll be more than just that considering how Japanesey the game is, but I hope you're right.  Nintendo already announced its very sparse Q109 U.S. line-up, so we definitely won't be seeing it here before April.

The latest issue of NP features an interview with the developers and that says they will be tweaking some of the level designs, tightening the controls, and modifying Klonoa's flutter-jump so that it goes up a bit at the end.  The main reason it made my top five for 2009 is that I just couldn't think of five 2009 games I really wanted.

They have reduced the appearance of the old guy, but MacFarlane's (sorry, I spelled his name wrong in my original post) obsession with naked cartoons is as strong as ever.

My Q408 order won't arrive here until mid-January, so I haven't had the opportunity to listen to that one yet.  In past years, I've delayed this post until after it came, but I felt Soma Bringer was so good that it wasn't worth delaying the post for the last order.