The official mandate has come down from the top—that it is December, and we all write about games, so we all have to pick some arbitrary number of them that we enjoyed above all others this year. I am taking on this task in the way of our forefathers, using their traditional number (10) and order (from great to most greatest). Games were chosen for this list using a highly scientific list of criteria, including but not limited to dopamine levels, blood alcohol content, coin flips, and the rate at which the number of in-game explosions approached infinity. Today is #10-#8.
10. Fable 2
I played Fable 2 during a two-week period in which I saw some significant real-life difficulties, so the game’s emotional moments, being fiction, didn’t resonate as strongly with me as they did with others. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the risks the game took or the choices it forced the player to make. Yet while it went further than most games, it still didn’t go far enough, with punishment for doing the right thing in the face of temptation still being too easy to make up for later. But the game play was there; Fable 2’s shallow but broad mechanics encouraged experimentation while making sure there was always something new to try.
9. Mother 3
Yeah, this is a recent fan translation of an old GBA game. I don’t need to explain it, you know all about it already. The translation itself shamed some professional efforts, as it was flavorful but didn’t diminish any of the game’s most affecting moments. And the game itself was fantastic—it floated several candid depictions of loss on a sea of outrageous absurdity, a combination of themes that you’ll recall was loved by your college English professor. It’s easy to see why Nintendo opted to not bring this out in the States, as Mother 3 has a combination of themes and content that makes it almost impossible to market. But it was that combination that made Mother 3 one of the most unique and powerful titles in recent memory.
8. Spore
I feel like a lot of people didn’t really understand what Spore was trying to do, and why it was one of the year’s best games. Complaints like that most of the game modes weren’t fleshed out or complex enough were ridiculous—forcing players to figure out a whole new complicated set of interconnected rules every few hours isn’t a learning curve, it’s a learning Everest. Spore took the correct approach by instead being the first few hours of four very good games, staying put in the early periods that encourage playfulness and experimentation. Instead of throwing new rules at you, Spore throws out endless waves of surprising, often beautiful new content. The space phase is worth playing solely for this reason, as who knows when you’ll trip over your next tuxedo walrus? I often play games just to see what new art will be on the next screen. Spore is the king of games for this type of player.
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