/dev/games 24 Nov 2007 05:01 pm
2007 High Scores: The “Almost Made It”s
In an effort to get back into the habit of regular posting, I’m going to do a list series where I discuss, of all things, the games I played this year that I liked the most. This is especially valid now that the year is pretty much over, and I can’t think of a single release until sometime in 2008 that would have a chance of getting onto this list. Today I’m listing out five games, in no particular order, that could have been #10 if there had been fewer incredible releases this year.
Bioshock
This game really could have been something special. In fact, the first hour led me to believe that it was. I’m glad I saw it through to the ending, but the game just had too many flaws to bump it up into the top 10. Also, the game was a little longer than I’d have liked (in fact, I’d much rather the main character killed himself about halfway through to let the game end on an exclamation point) (actually, if they did this, I’d probably have put this above some of the top picks) (oh well, maybe next time?).
Blue Dragon
I never beat this one, and unless my current pile runs out I probably never will. An epic adventure blah blah blah. The art direction is really great and the story is actually kind of OK. The sluggish battle menus are probably my biggest complaint, and while that sounds like a nitpick, this is a HUGE problem when you’ll fight probably 5,000 battles over the course of the game. On the plus side, this was the only RPG this year where you can just automatically kill bad guys without fighting them if you level up an ability.
Everyday Shooter
This game only really makes this list because I was SO PUMPED for it until I played it and found out it had really terrible control and mostly bad music. Moving on…
Contra 4
It’s a really, really hard game that feels like a remake of Contra 1 for the NES. That’s pretty great, sure, but I just can’t help feeling that the game has no real flow for how the levels are assembled. Also, you only get the good music if you play on Hard, which sucks because every person that plays on Hard will likely run out of lives before they’ve scrolled the screen twice. Sad!
Rhythm Tengoku
While this game didn’t come out this year and thus is disqualified from the main list I didn’t get a chance to play it until I picked it up during my trip to Tokyo. It’s a WarioWare-esque music game, and it has some really creative microgames.
on 25 Nov 2007 at 12:28 am 1.mike! said …
please elaborate on the bioshock flaws you found, i’ve yet to play the full version and am curious as to how i should adjust it in my queue.
on 25 Nov 2007 at 7:34 pm 2.Ben said …
Bioshock is a game where at first you think you are entering a real living world beneath the sea, only to discover that you’re playing Condemned with super powers. There were some interesting moments, for sure, but one you feel good about taking down a Big Daddy, there’s no real challenge left and you’re just going through the motions. Also, the “choice” that the game dangles in front of you ends up being pointless; in fact, you get the better ending if you make the “wrong” choice. I liked playing around with the powers, and I especially liked taking pictures, but hitting hundreds of crack-addict-esque people got really boring.