It’s once again that time of the year for everyone to make their Game of the Year posts, so it’s high time I made mine, seeing as how all the games I wanted to play are out. Just like last year keep in mind I only play Wii, DS, PSP and I JUST bought a PS3, so I’m limited in my selection. And of course I can only choose games I’ve played, so don’t be insulted if some of your favourite games didn’t show up.

Two things you should know before reading this list. First of all, there will be mild spoilers for Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. I will put all the spoilers in bold so you can know to just scroll past them if you don’t want to read them.

Second, I’m not doing a PS3 Game of the Year, even though I have one. Deal with it. Now let’s get started with PekoponTAS’ 2010 Game of the Year Awards!

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Best Box Art: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP)

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This box art is very simplistic, but at the same time it’s so cool that I can’t stop looking at it. It reminds me a lot of the box art from Etrian Odyssey in the fact that all the characters are looking from the side, and while the images don’t say as much as Etrian Odyssey, it still leaves an impression of the characters heading into battle with something off panel.

All the characters are falling from the sky, and there’s something awesome about it, especially since it actually looks like they’re falling, rather than standing in mid air like a lot of crummy group shots. I also like how all the characters are positioned almost like a perfect fitting jigsaw puzzle, with only a few open spaces between them.

I really like how Aqua and Mickey’s arms are in the same positions. When you focus your eyes on the area around Mickey’s shoe and Terra’s shoe, you can get a kind of clear view of both Mickey and Aqua’s poses, and it just looks really awesome. It’s also really interesting how Mickey doesn’t seem out of place in this picture, because he looks equally serious. In fact, he looks more serious than the others, and since he’s in front it kind of looks like he’s their leader.

Sometimes less is more when it comes to box art, though that can be said for just about anything. If a box art is really detailed with a ton of art on it, it of course will look nice, but it will also look really cluttered, which is why Mario Galaxy 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Kirby’s Epic Yarn didn’t win this prize.

Runner ups:

Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii)

Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

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Best Story: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (DS)

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If you missed out on this game when it came out, chances are good you’ll never get a hold of it unless you shell out a lot of money online. Very few copies were released to stores, so it was already rare the day it came out. Even just roughly two weeks after release, it's already hard to find. It’s a shame as this game has the most amazing story out of any game I’ve ever seen or played.

The basic concept is that you and eight other people are trapped on a sinking ship, and in order to escape you have to play a game called “The Nonary Game” which was set up by someone who calls himself “Zero”. The way the game works is that everyone has a bracelet on their arms with a number from 1-9. Throughout the ship are doors with numbers on them, anywhere from 1-9. In order to open the door, the people have to use the numbers on their bracelets to create a root number that has the same number as the number on the door. In order for it to work, the combination must use anywhere from 3-5 people, and everyone who inputted their number must enter the door. Once they get through the door, they have 81 seconds to find a device to scan their bracelets on it. Should these 81 seconds run out, a bomb in their stomach will explode and kill them instantly. If they all scan their bracelets on the device, the detonator will deactivate, and they can continue. In order to escape the ship, the people must traverse the ship and find a door with the number 9 on it. Once they enter the number 9 door, they are free.

That of course is just the basic premise. Throughout the game you’ll learn more about the Nonary Game and the past of each character, and over time the overall mystery will start to be unveiled. There are also six different endings, so it’s a rare case of a visual novel/adventure game encouraging you to replay the game. I’m not going to spoil anything as you’d hate me if I did, so I’ll just say that if you want an amazing story with a lot of intense moments that will send your emotions of fear and tension on a wild ride, buy this game. It is truly one of a kind, and any fan of visual novel/adventure games simply MUST play it.

Runner ups:

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS)

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Best Soundtrack: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)

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Since I’m not a music buff or anything, I’ve never been good at explaining WHY I like certain music. If there’s anything that I CAN explain about Miles Edgeworth’s soundtrack, it’s that it fits the context of the game flawlessly, while still being great to listen to without knowing the situation. Since I honestly don’t know what to say about it, I’ll just link some of the best ones and let you figure out why I love this soundtrack so much. The main reason? It’s just plain good.







Runner ups:

Ys Seven (PSP)

Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs (DS)

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Best Original Character: Shi-Long Lang (Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth)

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I’m not entirely sure what the popular opinion is on this guy, but I think he’s really cool.

Shi-Long Lang is an Interpol Agent who comes from Zeng Fa. He often quotes proverbs from Lang Zi, and is often referred to as a wolfman due to his appearance and frequent analogies involving wolves. He’s ruthless, but he’s charismatic and respects every one of his fellow agents, often to the point of being ridiculous and corny. He is on the hunt for the head of a smuggling ring, and has been after him for years. His motivation is that the head of the smuggling ring has been producing counterfeit bills that are so good that nobody can tell them apart from the real ones. Because of this, Zeng Fa’s economy is in ruins, and until the ringleader is caught, things won’t get any better.

Agent Lang hates all prosecutors for reasons I can’t quite remember, but I believe it was that a prosecutor forged evidence to get a criminal off the hook. Because of this, he is less than co-operative with Miles Edgeworth. His philosophy is to arrest a suspect even if there isn’t much evidence to support it, and let the courts figure out if the criminal is guilty or not. He is rash and reckless, and often gets in the way of Miles’ investigations. However as the story progresses, he starts to trust Miles more and more, realizing that they’re on the same side. By the end of the game Agent Lang still isn’t exactly friends with Miles, but he is at least on good terms with him, and accepts him as a respectable ally.

Agent Lang has clear character development. When we first meet him he seems like an obnoxious idiot with no knowledge of how to run an investigation. However as the story progresses, we see how cunning he actually is, and he ends up saving the day on a few occasions because of his craftiness. As mentioned earlier, he slowly starts to be more co-operative, and this is when he’s the most enjoyable. He’s still not exactly helping Miles, but he’s at least more reasonable and willing to listen. He also becomes more likable as he has some funny lines later on, his best moments involving his encounters with Larry Butz and Wendy Oldbag.

While Agent Lang may not be as complex as some characters from other games I played this year, he was certainly the most enjoyable, and that is overall what is most important about a character in my opinion.

Runner ups:

Mishera (Ys Seven)

Rief (Golden Sun: Dark Dawn)

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Funniest Game: Sonic Colors (Wii)

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When it comes to how people like their Sonic, it usually falls into two categories. There are the people who like the badass hardcore serious approach to the series, and the people who enjoy the silly Sonic which is full of cheesy lines, 90s slang, and over the top goofiness. For me, I prefer the latter because when you stop and think about the basic concept of Sonic, there’s no way it can be taken seriously. Sonic the Hedgehog is a cartoon character, and the sooner people realise that and learn to accept that it’s not SUPPOSED to be taken seriously, the more we can have wonderfully hilarious Sonic games like Sonic Colors.

Sonic Colors is what many would consider a step back for the character, but for me that step back is actually a huge leap forward to what I can only hope becomes the norm for the Sonic series. Sonic Colors is full of the cheesy dialogue, lame jokes, 90s slang, and over the top silliness that I love about The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. In Sonic Colors, Sega takes no shame in making Sonic sound as corny as possible, while not being unbearable. The story focuses on Sonic, Tails, Eggman, (Dr. Ivo Robotnik in my book) and two sidekick robots that can only be described as the modern day Scratch and Grounder. THIS is the cast of characters that Sonic had at his best. Even once Knuckles showed up things started going downhill, which I’m sure will lose me a lot of points, but screw it, I still say Knuckles is a horrible character.

While Sonic has gone back in time to his egotistical lame joke spewing self, Tails has actually been UPDATED for the better. Rather than being completely useless and a total suck up to Sonic, Tails actually has a lot of great moments too. Throughout the game Tails seems to be less tolerant of Sonic’s immature behaviour, and often when Sonic tells a lame joke, Tails will take it in stride, but you can see and hear his frustration as he tries to quickly brush the jokes aside. Tails also seems to be able to talk back to Sonic a bit too, as one of the last cutscenes will show. Sonic and Tails have a much more brotherly relationship than before, which makes them both a lot more relatable, AND believable.

The characters are the most on character they’ve been in a very long time. Aside from the fact that the lame jokes and cheesy dialogue are so bad that they’re hilarious, one of the big reasons Sonic is so damn funny in this game is that it’s such a MASSIVE personality switch. He was originally egotistic and cheesy, but over time his personality got farther and farther away from that, and the character was something completely different. He was still slightly cheesy, but it was never on purpose like it used to be. Seeing Sonic switch from his current form back to his old self is such a HUGE change that it’s simply hilarious hearing this sort of thing coming from Sonic.


Welcome back Sonic, you egotistical fourth wall breaking goof. : )

If you didn’t like The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, you probably won’t like the story telling in Sonic Colors. For those who do, this game is a riot and an absolute joy to not only see Sonic’s games return to the quality of the Genesis days, but also his personality of the Genesis days.

Runner ups:

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge (DSiWare)

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)

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Best PSP Game: Ys Seven

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For a system many consider to be dead, the PSP had a lot of big name games released for it this year. What with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Valkyria Chronicles 2, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Ys Seven, and Ys: The Oath in Felghana, the PSP certainly had a good year. However out of the ones I played, Ys Seven gets the award for best PSP game. It was a great Action RPG that had a fun and easy to learn combat system, and a really amazing soundtrack. The plot wasn’t much to write home about, but that’s not really that big of a complaint to me. The game was fun, the bosses were epic, the music was awesome, and that’s all that really matters. If you want a PSP game to play over the holidays, go find a copy of Ys Seven. It’s a great game that should be played by all PSP owners. It’s also on PSN, so you don’t even HAVE to find a copy! You can just download it right from your very own home!

Runner ups:

Ys: The Oath in Felghana

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Best DS Game: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

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As I mentioned before, what makes this game so awesome is the story. I didn’t mention earlier that in-between story sections are Escape the Room puzzle sections, and those are also fun, but really the main draw of the game is the absolutely stellar writing. I cannot express enough just how immersive the game is, and how glued I was to it. There were times during the more intense parts of the story where I was completely still with the exception of my chest moving from breathing, and the tap of the stylus to continue the text. This game really messes with your head in terms of fear and tension, and there were a few story segments where once they were over, I noticed that I was drenched in sweat. These moments were usually right before one of the bad endings, which even made getting the bad endings an amazing experience.

One of the things that is so great about this game is that while it IS a visual novel, they still don’t show a lot of things. Twice in the game do they describe a person who exploded from a bomb in their stomach, and both times they never actually show the body. Instead, they describe it in gruesome detail, and let your imagination do the work for you. There are other great moments like this where they very well COULD show you things, but instead decide not to and let your imagination run wild. In this way, it’s still a lot like reading a book, but with visuals and sounds to help you out, and raise the atmosphere.

This game has proved to me that I CAN enjoy reading, so long as I have a bit of help to paint the scene. A big reason why I can’t enjoy books is I don’t know what any of the characters or locations are supposed to look like. With visual novels, that is no longer a problem, and I can enjoy it much more. If you have similar problems, then you should probably give this game a try as you may be surprised at how enjoyable reading can be. However now I just sound like someone out of an educational program who's pushing reading on people, so let me wrap this up by saying that fans of story heavy games MUST buy this game, and you should do it now as it’s already rare. Just keep in mind the game is rated M, so you younger kids will have to ask your parents or order it online.

Runner ups:

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs

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Best Wii Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2

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The Wii certainly had a lot of great games this year, and no genre populated those good games more than platformers. As a platformer fan, I’m thrilled that they’re coming back, but even with big names like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Donkey Kong Country Returns, and Sonic’s greatest game ever made, none of them managed to top Mario this year.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 does away with all the pointless crap of the first game, and instead focuses on level design. No stupid hubworld to get lost in after taking a break, no pointlessly tragic backstory with some character I don’t care about, and no stupid shitty levels on a Manta Ray. (Well, those were replaced with slightly less shitty bird flying levels) Mario Galaxy 2 takes all the potential the first game HAD, and makes all that potential become a reality. The levels were designed with sheer brilliance with something different in nearly every stage, Yoshi returned as a rideable helper, and unlike in Sunshine was actually a HUGE part of the game, and the addition of hunting down the green stars instead of playing the whole game again as Luigi was a great idea. Everything that was wrong about the first game was fixed in Galaxy 2, especially the exclusion of a lot of REALLY cheap stages. (Battlerock and Dreadnought Galaxy Purple Comets anyone?)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 was easily the best game on the Wii this year, and is the best game on the Wii period. This game is one of the greatest platformers ever, and if it’s not in your collection of Wii games, you officially don’t own a Wii.

Runner ups:

Sonic Colors

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

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2010 Game of the Year: Super Mario Galaxy 2

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I’ll be honest and say that when I first heard about Super Mario Galaxy 2, I wasn’t all THAT excited. However as the day of release grew near, I got more and more excited. Once the game started scoring perfect 10s, I got REALLY excited. When the day finally came, I didn’t expect it to live up to my expectations, but boy did it ever. It exceeded expectations. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was just pure fun, and it’s what Mario is all about. Mario Galaxy 2 shows that Mario has still got it, and Nintendo still knows how to make a great game. It has also fully convinced me that Mario no longer needs to be in 2D, as last year’s Mario outing, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, was an absolute snorefest compared to Galaxy 2. Mario is the only character aside from Billy Hatcher that has had a 3D platformer that I enjoyed, and Mario continues to succeed at making me enjoy a genre I normally hate. If only all 3D platformers could be as well made as Mario Galaxy 2. If that were the case, the gaming world would be a wonderful place indeed. However seeing as how nobody has ever perfected the 3D platformer as well as Nintendo, I think I’ll just stick to Mario.

As cliché as it may be, Mario truly is the king of video games, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 proves that. It is the best 3D platformer ever created, and is one of the best platformers ever, be it 2D or 3D. If that doesn’t deserve game of the year, I don’t know what does.

Runner ups:

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (DS)

Ys Seven (PSP)