Inspired by http://ignconsolegameofageneration.ign.com/ , which I used to create a list and then was dumbfounded when it was not actually saved in any way. Great job IGN.
Rather than carving this down to a Top 10 I'm just going to include every game I feel strongly enough about to put on the list. Only one game per franchise to prevent repetition.
Listed alphabetically rather than ranked.
999 is a fantastic story that takes advantage of its medium and chosen hardware better than any other story focused game I can thinking of.
The only game where choice ACTUALLY matters. I've played Alpha Protocol at least half a dozen times and still manage to find new things every time. While people complain about the gunplay, I find it legitimately fun as a stealth game. Just... make sure you invest in Chain Shot for boss fights.
While the campaign is forgettable, Anarchy Reigns is a multiplayer focused game and that is where it really shines. Sega's mismanagement unfortunately meant this game died far too soon. R.I.P.
P.S. The soundtrack owns.
The best single player AND multiplayer in the series. Brotherhood was the last meaningful expansion upon the single player formula, and the balance in multiplayer was at its best in this entry; later games gave too much power to defense.
Nuts & Bolts is easily the most creative game on this list, and figuring out optimal ways to tackle each new objective was the most a game made me really think. The multiplayer was also great.
Arkham's gameplay isn't about just making it through encounters, it's about being perfect. Get through a fight with one flawless flowing combo. Make it through a predator room without ever even being spotted. Become the Night. Though Arkham Asylum was more structurally sound, the mechanical improvements in City make it hard to go back to Asylum's comparatively simple combat and stealth. Arkham City also greatly expanded upon the challenge maps, taking them from a curiosity in Asylum to a huge chunk of the game that took up over 100 hours between the four characters.
An honorable mention also goes out to Arkham Origins, which had a lackluster single player but more than made up for it with its unique and fun multiplayer mode.
Binary Domain is a great example of a game being more than the sum of its parts. The combination of story, characters, and gameplay made this a surprising enjoyable experience.
Dead Rising was the first game on this list that made me think "this is next gen", and was the game that made me buy an Xbox 360. While it's a bit hard to go back to now, the setting, faaaaan-tastic main character, photography system, Majora's Mask-esque time limit, and "anything is a weapon" combat system combined to make a frustrating but quirky and enjoyable game. Dead Rising was also the game that got me hooked on achievements, which is maybe a point against it in hindsight.
Deadly Premonition is one of the smartest games I've played in a long time. I could go on at lengths about the genius way the York/Zach relationship deals with the player/protagonist disconnect in most games, or how exploring the town enhances and expands upon the already solid storyline, while still telling a complete and competent tale without it, but there isn't enough room here and most people have already made up their mind about DP one way or the other. Even among the people who "like" Deadly Premonition though I think a lot of people don't give it enough credit for what it does right.
A side note about this inclusion: I'm including the original version of Deadly Premonition, not the Director's Cut. I feel the added scenes hurt the narrative's quality by explaining some things that were originally left up to the player to interpret. It's still fantastic, but if you were going to play this game for the first time I'd recommend the 360 original over the technically superior PC port.
Human Revolution was the first Deus Ex I played, and also the second, third, and fourth. I don't have that much to actually say about it, it's just a really solid game.
The majority opinion among DMC fans is that Devil May Cry 3 is the best game in the series, but I actually prefer 4. On the fly style switching adds so much to the way Dante plays, and even though I'm not a True Style Tournament level player, when I DO manage to pull off a cool style switching combo I feel like the biggest badass in the world. I honestly wasn't bothered by the whole "play the game again in reverse" thing because complaining about stages in a character action game is like complaining about the stages in a fighting game. They're just window dressing, the real important things are enemy placement and the character you're playing as, and DMC4 changes both when you switch to Dante. I also thought Nero was a lot of fun to play as, though he's nowhere near DMC4 Dante.
I've never been good at fighting games. I really want to, but for whatever reason they're the one genre I've never been able to get into. Divekick fixes this by distilling everything down to two buttons, so every match is that clutch final moment where you're both close to death and connecting with one hit would be enough to close the match. Really fun game, I'm hoping when the new characters drop it'll reinvigorate the PC and PS3 userbases.
Some people may find this blasphemous, but I think Double Dragon Neon is the greatest side-scrolling beat-em-up ever made. While beat-em-ups are generally regarded as shallow button mashers, Double Dragon Neon has a fantastic juggle-based combat system, an incredibly fun "Gleam" mechanic where ducking an attack at the last second grants you a temporary boost in power, and a super fun style. If you can go with the PC version, which adds the online co-op WayForward originally promised for the console versions but were unable to deliver due to their publisher not wanting to spend the money.
You wouldn't think a game called Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective would be one of the best written games of the generation, but that isn't surprising once you learn this game was written by the creator of the Phoenix Wright series. Clever gameplay, super smooth animation and a memorable cast of characters make this handheld title stand toe to toe with the full-fledged console games on this list.
To me, Halo Reach was the definitive multiplayer Halo experience. Armor abilities added the variety of load-outs from other games without locking content behind leveling up, a practice I personally find infuriating. Armor abilities are the biggest shakeup Bungie ever introduced to multiplayer, and I think it made the game way more fun. And yes, I am one of the people who liked Armor Lock. Nothing is more satisfying than locking at the last second to explode a ghost that was about to splatter you.
Special mention goes to Halo 3: ODST, which has the best single player campaign of any Halo game and some fantastic smokey sax. Halo has always been about the multiplayer to me though, so Reach edges it out to make the list.
Oh my God, Metal Gear Rising. Though it's not as deep as some of Platinum's other offerings, it more than makes up for it in style. The parry and Zandatsu mechanics make Rising a unique romp, but the game isn't afraid to kick your ass on higher difficulties. Rising also gets a special mention for having the greatest DLC of the generation: Jetstream, which is quite possibly even better than the actual main campaign.
Though it had some flaws (mainly anything involving guns), Mirror's Edge offered an experience unlike any other on the market. It could be frustrating when you stumbled, but when you got into a groove and were nailing every move Mirror's Edge was one of the most exhilarating games you'd ever played.
Nier is a story about a father who would go to any lengths to save his daughter. (Years before games like The Last of Us turned this into a trope.) The gameplay is nothing to write home about, and the story in your first playthrough isn't THAT interesting, but the music, voice acting, and way the game plays with genres through camera perspective and some other specific ways will keep players engaged until the ending. If the game ended there Nier would be a novelty, seldom mentioned beyond "hey remember that game Nier that turned into Diablo for one level?" But it is only in the second playthrough that Nier reveals its full hand, transforming it from a fun homage to video games with a fun cast of characters into a constant emotional gut-punch that leaves you feeling both fascinated and hollow by the end.
No More Heroes doesn't do everything perfect, but it does it with style dammit. It's a high-octane thrill-ride with a quirky cast of characters, and I think it had some kind of message? Maybe? Whether the things I derived from the game were intentional or not, it was a very memorable experience and on a console that didn't have a lot of those. Though No More Heroes 2 polishes a lot of the clunkier aspects of the first game, it just doesn't have the soul the first game had.
Who'd have thought Pac-Man would become relevant again in the year 2010? Expanding upon the gameplay of Pac-Man Championship Edition, DX is a brilliant twist on the Pac-Man formula. The fast-paced gameplay and frantic music kept me playing until I'd S-Ranked every course.
Okay, so technically this was originally a GBA game, but it only came out in Japan originally so I'm going to count it. Every aspect of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is practically flawless. The characters, the writing, the music, the mysteries, the animation, everything in this game is just top-notch and memorable, and I instantly became obsessed with this franchise after finishing the spectacular fifth case. Though the third game, Trials and Tribulations, is regarded as the best in the series by a lot of people, for me the original is still the most memorable. Not just one of the greatest games of the generation, but one of my favorite games of all time.
Sleeping Dogs is possibly the greatest open-world game of all time. Both the melee and gun combat are fantastic, and the story, while somewhat cliched, is extremely well-told and makes you actually care about a lot of the characters in it. While the story is straight-laced, the game gets wonderfully goofy in its side-missions, DLC, and some of the ridiculous stuff you can do while just running around in the open world.
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is a Mario Kart clone that outdoes Mario Kart. The item balance is way better than in recent Mario Kart games, and vehicle transformations are far better utilized than in Mario Kart 7. Because it's not stuck on Nintendo platforms the game also has way better online than any of Nintendo's outings. Highly recommended, especially the PC port.
Sonic Generations is the one game where I think Sonic Team finally nailed how to make a Sonic game in 3D. Though Classic Sonic's stages are fun, it was Modern Sonic who had me coming back to this game again and again to try and improve my times for each level. It's a lot of memorization, but finally nailing that run and shaving a handful of seconds off your time was incredibly satisfying.
Vanquish is the greatest console game of this generation, and I don't even usually like third person shooters. Combining the sensibilities of character action with the cover based shooter, Vanquish eliminates the problem I HAVE with cover based shooters, which is that waiting around behind cover is boring. Though some people likely played this game like a Gears of War game and thought it was decidedly average, you're supposed to play this game constantly running around and stopping as little as possible. The game even gives you a stat at the end of each level telling you the percentage of time you spent behind cover to discourage you from using it so much. It might take a while to get yourself out of that typical TPS mindset, but once the game finally clicks with you things start to really heat up. The suit's abilities are extremely versatile, and each weapon in the game has a use. Vanquish is incredibly infuriating at first, but once you start to learn the flow of combat and things start to come together it becomes one of the most enjoyable games of the generation. If the game never came together for you I'd recommend looking up some high level gameplay on YouTube, with a pro at the controller Vanquish is like poetry in motion.
I'm actually not huge on the PS3 Yakuzas. I hold that the PS2 games are vastly superior due to the quality of writing found in them. While Yakuza 3 I really did not enjoy in hindsight, Yakuza 4 was a pretty enjoyable game even once the story started falling apart at the end. The addition of three new playable characters is great, and each character has a very unique style of combat. Akiyama is the stand-out to me as a character, but Tanimura and Saejima have way more going for them combat-wise. Yakuza 4 is also packed with the overwhelming amount of side-content you'd expect, and when I took over 60 hours to do all of it it's hard to argue I didn't enjoy this game. Yakuza 4 renewed my faith in the series, which made the subsequent lack of localization for 5 sting even more.
