My Favorite Games of 2006
My favorite games of 2006, in order. Once again, this is simply a list of the ten games I enjoyed the most, not the ten best games.
List items
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Easy call. 45 hours of pure Zelda bliss. Great story, unbelievably epic final boss fight, the best level design of any action-adventure game in years, really addictive gameplay with the wiimote... the only thing that held it back from being the game of the year was that it was too similar to its predecessors. It wasn't a huge leap forward to the new generation, but DAMN this game gets it done.
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Man, I can tell you that I bought this game on critical acclaim alone. A game where you play as an elite squad of male cheerleaders who show up at random times to cheer people up? What the fuck? And yet it's a blast to play. The gameplay is just solid rhythm gaming that takes a skill and nuance for timing that I found myself to be pretty damn good at. But what makes the game are the incredibly hilarious cutscenes that play before, during, and after the songs... hilarious art, writing and execution. And the "You're the Inspiration" song... I mean, wow. You go from laughing to literally wanting to apologize to the game. So great.
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My pick not just for game of the year, but best game of the generation up until March 2008. Boasts the most content of any game I have ever played, and yet never gets particularly old or tiring and never really lets down. Story is great (though perhaps not as great as some said) and there's a preposterous amount to do even if you don't feel like touching the story. Great music, great voice acting, great graphics... I mean, nothing came close to the scope of this game for years.
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I feel like I should have enjoyed this game more than I did, given that I'm a massive 2D Mario fan and this was the first 2D Mario platformer in 12 or so years and the the previous 5 were all hall of famers in my book. This is rock solid platforming and you couldn't ask for anything more from it, except for perhaps a functional save system.
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I had never played a Rainbow Six game before, and now I wish I had played all of them. Despite an awful, cookie-cutter story, the action and gameplay in this one are fantastic. Straight-up, the best squad mechanics in any game I had ever played. And fighting in casinos is pretty sweet.
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The original game was fantastic and while the genre clearly has aged a bit since then, it's still just as compelling now as it was then. I grew up on adventure games that had harmless humor and dealt with zero mature subjects (not trying to call you out, LucasArts, your games were and are great). The Longest Journey was the first one that really seemed to be made for adults. This game continues that story and creates some more branches, and Ragnar Tornquist is REALLY good at his job.
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The visual style was preposterously beautiful, and it reminded me of Wind Waker in more ways than one. Ultimately, though, it reminded me how special Zelda games are. Okami played well, had great music, funny characters, and was a solid action-adventure game. And it provided maybe a third as much content as Twilight Princess had, and they fit into the exact same genre. I would urge anyone to play this game and it's really great, but if you think it's better than Twilight Princess, seriously, just get out.
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This game was a beast. Hyper violent, great gameplay, and lots of fun to play cooperatively. Ultimately though I was miffed by how much critical praise it got. It's great, but it has its share of problems and chainsaw guns and witty dialogue can't hide them. I couldn't understand then or now how this could be considered a game of the year. Sorry, this is a list of my favorite games of the year, not the most overrated ones.
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This was a really great game - the gameplay's not nearly as solid as Modern Warfare but the slick interface and weapons make it somehow feel more... advanced. Also, some genuinely tense moments in the story made you want to keep playing.
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I feel like this game was made for me... Yoshi's Island except much much much harder with a crapload of extra content. I'm pretty proud that I got a perfect score on every level in this game and wish there was some sort of achievement for it.
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