jeanm

Surprising isn't it? A DS title is my game of the year 2010. Never heard of it? Now that doesn't surprise me. Essentially Shin Megami Tensei IV, this game is a first persona view dungeon crawler. Over 70 hours of RPG gameplay on this small DS cartridge. It's basically dark sci-fi Pokemon where the objective of the game is to collect and train demons to fight alongside you. You can literally spends hours just fusing demons. The story is extremely intriguing with twists and turns around every corner. Absolutely loved it.

Bungie's last Halo game turns out to the best in the franchise. I wasn't going to buy it at first but due to all the positive response, I decided to pick it up and boy was that a good idea or what? The campaign is fantastic mostly because it throws out all the religious cult gibberish from the original trilogy and also the flood!! The multiplayer is what truly shines. Matchmaking has never been better. Great maps and also the "perks" are pretty nifty. This is probably the game I played the most this year and will probably keep playing for months to come.

I avoided RTS games.........until StarCraft II came out. This is another one of those games I didn't pay much attention to until it came out. The campaign is sooo much fun! Every single mission is different from the last and the normal difficulty setting is perfect for RTS noobs like me to learn the ropes. The story does a fantastic job of catching the player up to speed on what happened in the previous game and also move the story even further. Oh my God those cutscenes.....Blizzard outdid themselves with those. Didn't get much into the multiplayer cuz let's face it...I suck at it. I'll try and get back to it if I can. The expansion, Heart of the Swarm, is already a day one purchase for me.

One of my favorite games of 2009 received an update and oh man, it just made an already awesome game even MORE AWESOME. New characters, stages, challenges, balance tweaks and upgraded online play make this the definitive version of SFIV. This is one fighting game that I will be playing for years to come. Also worth noting that SFIV has now taken Street Fighter Alpha 3's place as my favorite Street Fighter game ever.

I own three version of this game......THREE!! It was my 2007 game of the year for a reason. This version streamlines a lot of stuff from the original version mainly the walking around which makes the game move a lot faster. The new female main character is fun to choose because it has a different storyline along with new music. The best part about this game: I can now fit one of my favorite games of all time in my pocket and have it on the go.

The game everyone loved to hate in 2010. I seriously don't understand all the hate generated towards this Final Fantasy. The graphics are one of the best this generation. But what I liked the most about XII was the combat. I was literally always looking for monsters to fight because it was so much fun. I'll admit that the characters aren't the most memorable ones in the series but they do a good job of moving the story forward. Lighting probably won my personal "Best new character in 2010" award. She's a bad ass.

I've been a Metal Gear Solid nut for years. Metal Gear Solid 4 was my game of the year 2008. Now in 2010, Hideo Kojima gives another MGS game and it's probably the most massive one yet. Taking cues from the highly successful Monster Hunter franchise, Snake has an insane amount of weapons to choose from, which are all upgradeable AND he has his own private army that you can recruit. Story does a pretty good job of setting up the events of the first Metal Gear game on NES. I spent over 30 hours with this one and I highly recommend it!

Never been big on Pac-Man but this edition is sooooo much fun! It's extremely hectic and fast! Love the visuals and the music. This is the perfect "come home from work and play for 20 minutes" kind of game.

Another game everyone loved to hate in 2010. I enjoyed it a whole lot more than the internet apparently. I've always wanted Samus to have a voice but Team Ninja did what it does best: create a convoluted story. Seriously!! Did you guys play Ninja Gaiden? Nuff said. However, what I did enjoy was the gameplay itself. I found the combat to be extremely satisfying. We've never seen Samus kick so much ass as she does in this game. Nintendo, please give Metroid back to Retro Studios. kthxbye.

Mega Man 9 was a revelation for me! I fell in love with 8-bit games all over again after I beat Mega Man 9 more 10 times over the course of two years. Mega Man 10, while not as perfect as 9, is still a damn good Mega Man game.