I’ve completed my months-long task of painstakingly recreating all of my lost GOTY lists over the course of my professional career as a writer. But what I have yet to ever do (quite the impossible task to people nostalgic for a certain era of games) is make a game of the year top ten list for when I was in high school, and work my way backwards.
Who knows if I’ll go past the year of my birth! But, as expected, I will be limiting myself to only one sentence per game, as both a challenge to myself and a relief to my editor. He needs a break very badly.
2009
Honorable Mentions: “Angry Birds,” “Assassin’s Creed 2,” “Halo 3: ODST,” “Katamari Forever,” “Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2,” “Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story,” “Pokemon Platinum,” “Resident Evil 5,” “Peggle Dual Shot” and “Halo Wars”
10. “Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time” — Any “Ratchet & Clank” game is automatically good, but this one was a step up from “Tools of Destruction” in every way.
9. “Guitar Hero: Metallica” — The fact that two band-specific games came out in one year, both of all-time fav bands (and both were great), is a miracle.
8. “Borderlands” — We take it for granted, but this was a little bit of a revolutionary twist that really created a groundswell, and considering the late stage swap in art style, this could have been a disaster!
7. “Demon’s Souls” — Didn’t play it at the time, but this is by far the easiest, least polished, and roughest playing of all the Soulslikes From Soft ever put out.
6. “Plants vs. Zombies” — A perfect little turret defense game, and one that was iterated on, but never topped by PopCap.
5. “Left 4 Dead 2” — Remember when Valve made really good video games, ones with co-op, year after year, AND WE ALL GOT UPSET AT THEM, AND THEN THEY STOPPED PUTTING OUT GAMES? I do.
4. “The Beatles: Rock Band” — It’s a crime that there’s no easy way to play this again because it’s magical, and the intro cut scene is still used by Paul McCartney in his concerts today!
3. “Batman: Arkham Asylum” — The best Batman game, a wonderfully clever Metroidvania, and the introduction to combat that everyone would steal going forward.
2. “Uncharted 2” — The best single-player campaign ever made up until “The Last of Us” came out; the jokes all land, the set pieces are brilliant, and even the multiplayer was fun as hell.
- “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” — The hundreds, if not thousands, of hours I poured into this multiplayer was obscene, but not a single second of it was wasted time. The maps, the guns, the perks, the feel, the DLC, the memes, the community this spawned around weed specific nameplates… one of the GOATs of multiplayer.
2008
Honorable Mentions: “Super Smash Bros. Brawl,” “Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts,” “Gears of War 2,” “Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2” and “Mirror’s Edge”
10. “God of War: Chains of Olympus” — The fact that this made my top ten of this year proves this was a bad year for games, because this is one of the lesser “GOW” games!
9. “Advance Wars: Days of Ruin” — I will never forget the DAY Nintendo RUINED this franchise by refusing to make more of them. They were so fucking good!
8. “Rainbow Six Vegas 2” — Ubisoft can go to hell for not making a third one of these. They were terrific tactical shooters set in a great location.
7. “Left 4 Dead” — Remember when Valve made… *editor grabs me by the neck and wrings me dry*
6. “Grand Theft Auto IV” — I appreciate this more now than I did when it came out, and would kill to see “GTA VII” set in New York/Liberty City again just so I can see it come to life once more.
5. “Call of Duty: World at War” — This had a great campaign, very good multiplayer, and zombies (when it kicked ass and wasn’t done to death with added nonsense).
4. “Dead Space” — In my head, I think about the remake, but upon watching footage of the original I think “we thought that was good looking?” Still a great game, though.
3. “Castle Crashers” — This might be the best beat ’em up of all time, and for some reason nobody decided to just steal all of the ideas from this game since?
2. “Rock Band 2” — The peak of the musical bridge track rhythm genre, the zenith of the phenomenon that was plastic instrument heaven, and the apex of listening to songs from bands you would go onto love (Steeley Dan, for one).
- “Fallout 3” — The best game Bethesda ever made, the best Fallout, and an awakening for me as a gamer. That soundtrack, the Gary vault, finding a Deathclaw out in the open, the DLCs, all of it is just transformational, transcendent work from beginning to end.
Image Credit: “Fallout 3,” Bethesda Studios
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