Let’s face it, 2009 was a ho-hum year for video games. Granted, it was hard to follow 2008, the year that brought us Grand Theft Auto IV, Dead Space, Metal Gear Solid 4, Mirror’s Edge, Rock Band 2, Fable 2, No More Heroes, Battlefield: Bad Company, Mario Kart Wii/Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Wii Fit, Fallout 3, LittleBigPlanet, and Gears of War 2. Whew. That’s a pretty high bar to set. Still, 2009 did give us two Halo titles, a bevy of new music games, a handful of interesting new properties, and several worthy sequels that built on the stories, gameplay and presentation of their predecessors.
In all, I played a total of 22 games last year, and I managed to finish eight of them, a number that will increase to nine as soon as I polish off the last couple levels of Assassin’s Creed 2. Here’s the full list, which covers only retail console games, not downloadable games, PC games or handheld games (games in green are the ones I finished):
Xbox 360: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed 2, The Beatles: Rock Band, Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, DJ Hero, Forza Motorsport 3, Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Wars, Left 4 Dead 2, Lips Number One Hits, and Madden NFL 10.
PlayStation 3: Killzone 2, MLB 09: The Show, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Wii: Dangerous Creatures, Mad World, Pikmin: New Play Controls, Wii Sports Resort.
Obviously, there are quite a few games I didn’t even get around to acquiring. Among the most glaring omissions are Dragon Age: Origins, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, Demon’s Souls, Ratchet & Clank Future: Crack in Time, Brutal Legend, and Little King’s Story.
So what was my favorite game of the year? Was it Uncharted 2, the PS3′s thrilling adventure title that is soaking up “Best of” awards right and left? Perhaps Batman: Arkham Asylum, the sleeper hit that was also the rarest of gems: a licensed property that actually expanded the canon of the source material? Or could it be Modern Warfare 2, the best-selling game of the year that did $310 million in sales in its first 24 hours? Read on to see my Top Five…
5. Assassin’s Creed 2. The sequel to Ubisoft’s 2007 hit takes place in 15th century Renaissance Italy, with a cast of historical characters spanning from Leonardo Da Vinci to Machiavelli. Cities like Florence and Venice are recreated with exquisite detail, complete with markets, brothels, canals, and catacombs. Your character is nurtured throughout the course of the entire game, gaining abilities and weapons at a steady pace. It avoids the trap some games fall into of making you too powerful too quickly, and there’s cool new stuff even in the final levels. Apart from the main story, there are side quests aplenty: treasure chests to track down, an ancestral villa to restore, mysterious codex pages to decipher, and many others. My main complaint is that I’ve long lost track of the storyline, and at about 20+ hours so far, with another couple to go, it strikes me as about 25 percent too long. The controls are still not very precise, and I’ve had too many times where my guy frustratingly leaps into empty space or suddenly runs up a ladder instead of giving chase to an opponent.
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Activision’s juggernaut is a gorgeous, rewarding, ridiculous masterpiece of interactive military fiction. The climactic showdown is a pure gem of interactive storytelling, and the multiplayer modes are a thing of wonder, juicing up online gunfights with perks, accolades and awards so plentiful as to make the experience rewarding for even the slowest and clumsiest of triggermen. But in an apparent quest to out-do the first Modern Warfare, developers Infinity Ward made an unbelievable and hackneyed hash-job of the story. Here’s the first line of dialog delivered in the most anticipated game of the year: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Compare that with one of the many sparklers heard in Uncharted 2 that is an example of how to turn a cliche on its head.
Chloe (tossing a grenade in the air): Desperate times, right?
Nathan: What does that even mean?!?
Modern Warfare 2 is also starting to show its age a little bit, much like discovering crow’s feet on the face of your favorite starlet. It doesn’t really diminish your enjoyment of the product, but you make a mental note that things aren’t as fresh as they once were. This was most glaring in the lack of a cover mechanic. Nonetheless, MW2 is undeniably an outstanding game.
3. Batman: Arkham Asylum. Not only one of the best-looking games of the year, it is another example of perfect pacing, where your abilities and equipment improve just enough to take on the next challenge. It seamlessly combined several gameplay mechanics: Splinter Cell-style stealth, God of War-style brawling, and a cool “bat sense” detection system for discovering clues and monitoring enemies. The story is gloriously pulpy comic fare in which Joker takes over Gotham’s mental hospital and lures Batman in for a protracted game of cat-and-mouse that plays out on the physical and psychological planes. The wonderful voice acting of Joker by Mark Hamill is just icing on this already deliciously twisted cake.
2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Having uncovered the lost fortune of his ancestor Sir Francis in the first game, Nathan Drake is back for a romp through the Himalayas in search of the fabled paradise of Shangri-la. The game begins in spectacular fashion with a breathtaking sequence in which Nathan emerges from unconsciousness only to find himself dangling off a mountain cliff in a derailed train car. From there, the story moves backwards and forwards through betrayal, conflicting love interests, and enough hair-raising action to fill a dozen Indiana Jones movies. Indeed, voice actor Nolan North has so completely perfected the “lovable rogue” that Nathan Drake is emerging as the most interesting and enjoyable swashbuckler of this generation.
1. The Beatles: Rock Band. I haven’t seen a single list that put this game at the top, but for sheer enjoyment and bang for the buck, nothing satisfied me last year like this loving tribute to the greatest rock band of all time. Like Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band before it, TB:RB redefined how we enjoy music. Rare are the games that inspire people to research their subject matter while away from the console. For all the praise heaped on Assassin’s Creed 2 for its attention to historical detail, it was TB:RB that had me constantly checking Wikipedia, Google and Amazon for more information about the band and their music. I’ve had Beatles records in my collection for 20 years now, but it wasn’t until I played the game that I truly appreciated Paul’s intricate bass playing, the three-part harmonies and, yes, even Ringo’s signature drum work. This was the game I turned to for comfort after losing my job at Microsoft, taking solace in repeated play-throughs of “Here Comes the Sun.” There are nice twists to the traditional gameplay, too. In addition to playing the songs straight through in story mode, there are also chapter challenges that push you to score higher and unlock new photos of the band. A particularly nice touch is that when in quick play mode, a leaderboard of your friends’ scores is displayed alongside each song. If you have any competitive streak at all, you’ll be replaying each song to make sure you claim the top spot. Finally, the achievements are creative and challenging, such as, playing a perfect solo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps’”, or, nailing all the hammer-ons and pull-offs in “Octopus’s Garden”. It’s astonishing how appealing and universal the songs are, even after 40 years. When I drive my son somewhere, he asks, “Dad, can we listen to some Beatles?” And more often than not, when a Beatles song comes on, he knows what it is and can sing along. How cool will it be when, in 15 years he hears a Beatles song at a party and says, “Wow, I remember playing that song with my dad as a kid.” Perhaps The New York Times wasn’t too far off the mark after all when they said TB:RB may be the most important video game ever made, in the context of bridging the gaps between generations and between games and non-gamers. Congratulations, The Beatles: Rock Band, you were my favorite game of 2009.
