Everyone hates "Top" lists people make at the beginning and end of the year. BUT OH WELL! YOU'RE GETTING THEM AND YOU'RE GONNA LIKE 'EM! Haha. Random outbursts are fun. Now this list is going to have two categories. One for strictly 2011 games and another for non-2011 games. Here's most all of the games I've gone through and beaten or liked enough to make this list. If you take to time to read through this, I'll thank you in advance. Without further adieu, here we go!
Non-2011 Games
4. Bit.Trip Runner (2010)
My good friend Eddie, aka EddieRuckus, gifted me this game on Steam this year. Now once you get into this you're immediately immersed by the music and environment. The game play is simple, yet rage inducing. The music is simple, yet layered and amazing. The visuals are simple, yet a beauty to look at. Once you get into it, you'll play until you win, despite all the anger. This game is fantastic to me.
3. Tales of the Abyss (2006)
Now people say Final Fantasy is the best RPG game on the market. Hard to argue that, but the "Tales Of" series gives it a run for it's money. I never played FF growing up and my first RPG was actually Tales of Symphonia (one of my favorite games of all time). Tales of the Abyss expands upon the battle system set in ToS, the story is a bit more grandiose, and the art is updated for the PS2. The characters for me are solid enough, but some of the writing and puzzles are lacking. But this game is a wonder to play through and I never felt bored. I highly recommend this game to RPG fans.
2. Super Meat Boy (2010)
Ever since I saw Jill, aka Jillers86 (and to a certain point MANvsGAME), play this I knew I wanted to play it. So when I got Steam, Super Meat Boy and Left 4 Dead 2 were my first games for it. In SMB we follow Meat Boy, who has to navigate levels filled with saws and peril to save his girlfriend Bandage Girl from the evil Doctor Fetus. The levels are simple enough..at first, trust me I've played this for 87 hours. The side scrolling aspect, the multiple deaths you can garner per level/world, unlockable characters, the platforming, and the general rage inducingness pulled me in. I've 100%'d this game and it was well worth it.
1. Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
Now the best non-2011 game for me this year would've been Super Meat Boy. I got so into that game as you can tell by what I wrote above. But then I got gifted this. I've seen the intro and some game play plenty of times and always wanted to get into it. Got it started playing it and got engulfed immediately. The story is great, the characters (as a comic book/super hero fan) are awesome, the controls, fighting, and upgrades are easy to pick up, and even after the main story you've got a ton of upgrades and trophies to unlock. Love this game, highly recommend.
2011 Games
8. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Now I just got my PS3 for Christmas and I've already played a bit of Uncharted 3. Blah blah I haven't played 1 or 2. Doesn't matter. I'll get to them. The game play so far is a great mix of Drake parkouring through levels, a fps, hand to hand combat fighting. Also the story so far is pretty good. Like National Treasure....if it were a good movie. I won't get into this much as I haven't even finished it, but so far I love it
7. Mario Kart 7
Oh look Mario Kart 7..is number 7. Wonder if I planned this out? If you've been to any of my casts earlier in the year and asked me if I was gonna get a 3DS I would've gone on a rant about how the 3DS is too expensive, no games, weird technology, etc. BUT, now that I've owned one for about 2 weeks now I love it. And this was the first game I bought for it. I'm a Mario Kart nut. From the SNES version to the N64 one, all the way to the Wii version, I love 'em all. While this takes a bit of getting used to it's still the Mario Kart I love. Fun course from all the era's, same game style and even new items. What more can I say, it's Mario Kart.
6. Madden 12
Football! Football! Football! FOOTBALL! NFL football is easily my favorite team sport and Madden is the go to franchise to play the sport...and actually it's the only official one haha. Again I've only had my PS3 since Christmas so I haven't gotten too far in playing this. But I have started a franchise mode, draft, and started up a season. I haven't played extensively since my PS2 days, but so far from the stadium/player design down to the controls this game is well produced and well made. I can't wait to dive into a bit of online and get to my first off-season in franchise mode.
5. WWE 12
Oh man WWE. I wish I could say I'm one of the lifelong fans that grew up with the WWE/F in the 90s and watched the attitude era when it was in full swing. But alas I didn't. I got into the WWE after the Royal Rumble leading up to Wrestlemania 20. I've been hooked ever since. I've also played all the Smackdown vs Raw games, some more extensively than others, and already I can tell this is a step-up. The roster is great. The main game mode, imo, is pretty good as well. The matches, while they can be repetitive, are done very well and are very fluid. The "create a anything" (you can really create almost anything) is expansive, creative and virtually limitless. The online is spotty too, but a blast if you stick with it. As a WWE fan, as a video game fan, I love this game.
4. Minecraft
*Opens Minecraft for the first time. Creates a world. Get's plopped in the ocean. Swims to land. Starts punching trees to make shelter.* I don't know about you, but I watched A TON of Minecraft before I actually started playing it myself. I wish I could tell you I'm an expert player. A master of pixel art, of buildcraft/industrialcraft, or even just creating cool structure's. But I'm not. I've played a ton of Minecraft. I build my house. I make my mine. I pick my way do to bedrock and I keep mining. Sometimes I hit that ole abandoned mine shaft, sometimes I hit diamond, sometimes I find a cave or ravine and get killed by a Creeper or Cave Spider. That's how I play Minecraft. It's addicting, it's fun, it's blocks. I love it.
3. Super Mario 3D Land
I've owned this game for less than two weeks and it's number three on this list. Now I've grown up with Mario. Played it since my NES, into SNES, N64, etc. Now in this game Mario has to race through Mushroom Kingdom to save Princess Peach from Bowser. Crazy premise, I know. For me, at first, the aspect is a little funky, but as I played on it got better for me. Also the levels are amazing, even though it's in the old school style, it's looks updated and new. The music is new and at times they remixed old tracks and I flipped out. The game play is easy for the most part. But when you get to the second part of the game it can become oddly difficult and you can sink 20 lives into a level easily. This game is easily the best 3DS game so far and easily one of the top games (for me) this year.
2. The Binding of Isaac
This best indy game I've played this year. I can say that since it's not 2010 and this doesn't have to contend with Bit.Trip Runner or Super Meat Boy. Don't get me wrong, this is a dark, evil, bloody, gory game. But it's addictive, easy to play (I say that after cranking 40 hours into it), and there is a metric shit ton of things to collect, do and unlock. You're Isaac, a fun love kid growing up with his mother. His mother starts watching Christian broadcasting and becomes a fanatic. Thinking God wants her to kill him, Isaac must escape into a dark world of the basement, caves and finally the womb, all filled with monsters looking to destroy Isaac. The different tears, power-ups and ways to make Issac stronger never ends. This game is highly re-playable, highly addictive, and I love this game SO much.
1. Pokemon Black and White Version
Okay. You all know me if you're reading this, so you damn well know that these are my games of the year. I've played Black Version on cast and beat White Version in about a week and a half after release day. I've been playing Pokemon since I was 8 and my mom and dad got me Red Version and a Red Gameboy Pocket for my birthday. The games have gradually gotten better over the years. With Red/Blue/Yellow kicking off the series in what could be the best games in the series. Gold/Silver/Crystal had time, day/night, new Pokemon. Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald brought even more Pokemon, movement in the sprites, and even more game play. I'm not huge fan of Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, but it brought the era of the Pokemon on two screens, immersive worlds, downloadable content and yet again, more Pokemon. Finally a new chapter was written. It brought a huge world overhaul, the cities and parts of the world are huge. The Pokemon are new (albeit most are bleh) and the storyline is actually a storyline in this game. Seasons are introduced and even the new triple battle system is fun to play with. There is so much they added to the Pokemon world that was already huge. I know people don't like this, but I love it, and yes a Pokemon game is MY number one game of 2011.
Black and White rocked. Seriously, great games.
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