At the very bottom of my lists page sits my favorite games of 2010, written back in 2010. Since then, I’ve purchased new games and split each year into two separate lists, allowing a larger number of games to talk about, so why not take another look back at 2010?
I don’t have much love for the Assassin’s Creed series, but every once in a while you just feel the need to leap from atop a roof onto a Templar and jab him a few times in the side with something pointy. Brotherhood gives that, but really, so does every other Assassin’s Creed. The only reason I have Brotherhood over any of the other because it was there at the right time and right price.
Final Fantasy XIII is a showcase of misguided decisions, mostly involving its extreme linear and hand-holding. We’re given a large cast with varying personalities, but little reason to care, which probably wouldn't have been a problem had I not spent so much time running forward. Despite all that, I liked the battle system.
We have nearly reached the point where there are more remakes of Lunar: Silver Star than original sequels. What other franchise can say that? Silver Star Harmony is a good game (and much easier to acquire than any of the earlier versions), but its very existence spawns questions like was this remake needed? What about a remake of Lunar 2 or the Japan-only Walking School? And that’s not even touching the biggest question: what about an original sequel? (After Lunar: Dragon Song, I’m kind of scared to ask.)
I don’t completely understand why Metroid Prime: Hunters seems to have more fans than Other M. Granted, the story is a poorly told and misguided attempt at digging deeper into a character that barely has any personality, but I hold that the third-person gameplay is still worth returning to, if only in a spin-off or completely original series. Some alterations should be made – turning the Wii remote always felt more awkward than it should have been – but there’s something there.
The excellent third Phoenix Wright game, Trials and Tribulations, gave fans a taste of playing as prosecutor and rival Miles Edgeworth, but gameplay didn't change in the slightest. Ace Attorney Investigations gives Edgeworth the limelight while altering gameplay with a third-person perspective and a lack of courtroom drama. Normally, that could be considered horrible because the investigations between the courtroom is generally boring, but by setting the entire game in this period, the story drama is brought along and the third-person makes finding clues a tad easier.
For years, I proclaimed Gold/Silver as my favorite of the Pokémon games. And then they were remade as HeartGold/SoulSilver, and I just don’t have the same love for them that I felt before. I don’t think that these are bad remakes, but I just enjoy Pokémon Diamond so much more.
You can’t complain about Super Mario All-Stars outside of saying it should’ve included Mario World. You can definitely complain about the high retail price and physical release over digital, but the game itself is a compilation of three of the greatest platformers ever along with a Mario game that tends to play a tad too unfair. The Lost Levels exists for completion’s sake, not because it really deserved to be placed alongside Super Mario Bros. 1-3.
Nothing is sillier than a dotted, tiny t-rex, and Super Scribblenauts is a better game than its predecessor because it allows players to actually create a dotted, tiny t-rex. Adjectives expand the possible spawnable creatures and items considerably while the change from touch screen controls to the d-pad is a needed and very welcome improvement.
Trauma Center and its sequels offered players a chance to play amateur surgeon, but Trauma Team offers multiple hospital professions, from first-responder to diagnostician, played by a strange cast, including a death row prisoner and a Gregory House-like sarcastic genius. Not every profession is fun to play as (controlling the endoscopic tube is so tedious), but most are fun.
A cult hit, 999 tells the story of nine people trapped aboard a supposedly sinking ship and threatens them with a variety of gruesome deaths. Despite the number of endings, 999 didn't make it easier to remember which decisions were made in previous playthroughs (the iOS version does, although it also removes the puzzles in favor of only story). Regardless, it’s an intriguing adventure.
