Game Of The Year 2010

Looks like alot of people online... at least in the dungeons where I travel... thought 2010 was a crappy year for games. I didn't find that to be the case personally. I'm not super-big on playing new games *just* as they come out, frequently splitting my time with games for older consoles or trying to play catch-up on my backlog.

Still and all, there were a lot of new first-run games that I bought and I enjoyed nearly all of them a great deal. Of particular note: Ketsui, Vanquish, Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu, Super Street Fighter IV, Limbo. All top tier games I've spent a lot of time with. Other notables that aren't really my thing, but that I've dorked around with and feel are really damn decent: Epic Mickey, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Halo: Reach, Super Meat Boy.

I spent a lot of time in older games like Okami, Brutal Legend, Wolfenstein, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, Battle Garegga... easily as much or more than I did new games, so I might not be the best judge of the best game in a year of its release. There's so much I didn't get to. I probably should rename this (dubiously distinctive) award 'Game I Had The Most Fun Playing 2010' so that I could cast a wider net for titles that were more representative of my time. But that doesn't roll of the tongue or type quite as easily as Game Of The Year. So I'll stick with GOTY and do the traditional thing everyone else does and stick to just the year's releases.

This was a really good year for Cave fans (and a lot of general STG fans) with all the releases from that publisher. And I gotta say Ketsui and Daifukkatsu really impressed me. I still play both games frequently. Daifukkatsu isn't actually that old, but that I still need to give Ketsui 'one more go' months and months after its release is saying something. My love for Vanquish is the subject of a lot pedantry on this 'blog. It is the Xbox 360 game I am closest to getting all achievements for... and I have no real interest in achievements as a whole.

However, Game Of The Year for 2010 was undoubtedly Sin and Punishment: Star Successor for the Nintendo Wii. While I spend more time on my Xbox 360 (and probably my Sega Saturn) than I do the Wii, the little white box once again (second year in a row) comes up with that one game that leaps to the top. And once again it is a game with firm roots in a venerable arcade style of gaming. Where Muramasa last year was a platformer and loosely, a beat 'em up, S&P is a rail shooter. Muramasa added elements to the basic formuals of old games and coupled that with a stunning art style. S&P does more or less the same thing, adding dodging and melee elements to a game that could've been just like House of the Dead or Time Crisis.

I don't need to rehash what I've already said in another post about this game's details. It is simply awesome. And it just goes to show that you don't need super PS3 visuals, or a completely modern set of mechanics to make the best game. If there's anything particularly forward-thinking about this game, it is that it's probably the best use of a motion controller I've seen yet. The wiimote/nunchuk combo is perfect for it. The mechanics themselves aren't even new... they were clearly defined in the first S&P game that came out for the Nintendo64 years ago (now on the Virtual Console, go buy it). But those original controls took some serious getting used to, but on the Wii they're a breeze.

Given the legendary setpieces of the original S&P game, and the sheer scale of its onscreen action (pretty much developer Treasure's standard) it would've taken one hell of a game for the sequel to top the original. And that's exactly what was delivered.

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is a must-own title for the Wii. And an swift shot to the balls of anyone who trots out the usual bullshit about the Wii being a suckass console. It has incredible visuals, blazing action, is difficult, hardcore, and a high point for the machine's standard controller.

Score that ten out of ten.

These Guys Are Insane

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/sinandpunishment/vol1_page1.jsp

...and they make insane games. I cannot wait to finally be able to play S&P 2.

I've had to wait because I don't have a Japanese wii... though there's some temptation to get one since Milestone's Ilvello was canceled for US release.

Bring on the Sin and Punishment!

(pic from Play.tm)

Smashing and Spazzing

My son has a new (current) favorite video game; Super Smash Brothers Brawl please step forward. His sister thinks its fairly decent too, but for him its just a ragin’ good time.

Me? Enh, not so much. I’d probably have called it Super Spaz Brothers Brawl.

Here’s the deal. It is just so chaotic and frenetic there doesn’t seem to be any strategy to it. I think that there probably is… but I’m just not interested in sorting it out amongst all the flashes, characters, and items. I’ve never seen a game with so many power ups. A lot of characters is kind of becoming the norm, but power ups? There seems to be almost as many different items to pick up and use as there are fighters, and I think the game boast sixty-two combatants! And they all seem to have basically the same (or very similar) moves, that are all executed the same way. Nintendo’s answer to game balance issues seems to have been just make all the same character with different skins and a few tweaked nuances.

I’m sure I’m waaaaayyy simplifying, but that’s what it looks and feels like. I’ve spent about three hours playing it now. I get why the game was anticipated, why it sold a ton, and why it is still pretty popular as of this writing which is a half-year after its release. There is a lot to do in the game; it has a nearly full-size single-player adventure mode despite its basic design as a multi-player fighting game. It has cool character designs, many of which span the entire history of home video game consoles (Pitt from Kid Icarus? Wow!), and tons of unlockables. If you like the basic play you have tons of reasons to stay at it. But every time I’ve played it, it becomes an exercise in alternating button-mashing with trying to stay/float/jump/glide on to the platforms of each stage.

All the flashes, blams, item effects and specials make a Soul Caliber 3 fight look dim by comparison. Even with making the characters look quite different from each other it is still quite easy to lose where you are and wind up getting socko-ed into the sky. I’ve enjoyed other spastic fighting games… not Smash Brothers so much, I’m more of a Power Stone man myself… but this one is just too much, I guess. It kind of reminds me of the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series. Those are closer to a traditional 2D fighting game in presentation, but they are still muy spastico with very little in the way of finesse, and a lot of items, flash, and running around all over the stages.
Like I said, I can see what is great about Super Smash Brothers Brawl. There’s no way I’m going to criticize it around my kids. But I gave it a shot, to see what all the hype was about, and it just ain’t my thing. Am I getting to old for this stuff?