While there were a good number of exceptional games this year, there was one that stood head and shoulders above the rest.  My game of the year had a compelling enough story to keep me glued to my console for days at a time, prompting an additional playthrough of the game – something that I have not done (interestingly enough) since the previous game in the series.  More importantly, my game of the year progressed the interactive entertainment medium more than any other game this year with its ambitious, envelope pushing design choices and production values.  My game of the year for 2008 was Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots.

The Metal Gear saga first began in 1987 with the story of a rookie soldier codenamed Solid Snake and his solo infiltration mission into the fortress of Outer Heaven.  Throughout the next 21 years, players lived and died with Snake through multiple releases on multiple gaming systems along with the series’ memorable cast of supporting characters such as Revolver Ocelot and The Boss in exceptionally intricate and often headache-inducing storyline.  The story became so unwieldy as to become a hindrance to itself, prompting series creator Hideo Kojima to make the claim every year that the latest Metal Gear would be his last.  While the statement never actually came to fruition with past games in the series, Mr. Kojima made the claim again with MGS4, as well as turning the main protagonist an elderly man as a consequence of the cloning process that spawned not only him, but his brothers Liquid and Solidus Snake as well.  All throughout, the player is reminded that Old Snake has seen a lot of fighting and his body is tired – his body reminds him of that fact when he quips about his continual back pain or coughs up a lung whilst smoking a cigarette.  The rapid aging of Solid Snake was a symbolic gesture – an allegory of how the player has aged alongside Snake and the confirmation that Metal Gear Solid IV would be the ultimate conclusion of Solid Snake’s story.  Every dangling plot thread, every last bizarre detail over the past 21 years would finally be revealed in this game.  And MGS4 accomplished this in spades.

Every last plotline from the nature of FoxDIE to the Revolver Ocelot’s arm to the etymology of the shibboleth ‘LaLiLuLeLo’ was explained, presented in arguably the most daring gaming narrative ever constructed – a narrative that kept me engaged from start to finish as I hung onto every word of the storyline.  While I freely admit that some of the explanations weren’t as satisfying as they could have been, to finally realize that the story was heading toward its swan song most definitely was.  And while the exposition during some of the cut scenes did run a little bit on the long side, they were by far the best, most engaging cut scenes I have ever seen in any game and they handily kept my full attention.

What’s particularly interesting about the cutscenes in the Metal Gear Solid series is that traditionally they are always done in-engine. This time around, the boundary between pre-rendered cut scene and in-game graphics have been blurred so much that it is actually rather difficult to really tell the difference. Rounding out the technical package is the sound engineering, which is equally impressive as the graphics – MGS4 is the first game that I want to hear in full 5.1 surround sound. The level of technical polish is of the highest calibur – the amount of time spent refining the visuals and the game play really shines through and the game is just an incredible experience because of it.

However, it wasn’t just the fan service or the technical qualifications that made MGS4 rise up above the other games this year – it was also the presentation of the material.  Metal Gear Solid IV represents the convergence of two media that are often at odds with one another in vying for the consumers mind share – film and gaming.  No other game before this does anything quite as daring or ambitious as MGS4 in trying to mesh cinema and gameplay.   Whether it be setpiece moments such as the return to Shadow Moses (which mind you, had me in near tears), and the shocking in-game emulation of the original Metal Gear Solid to the simultaneous split-screen battle with Old Snake fighting off an army Gecko robots and Raiden locked in battle with Vamp atop Metal Gear Rex, to the final crawl to the final room where connect with Old Snake and literally experience all of his pain and suffering, it just goes to show that Guns of the Patriots has truly set a new standard in presentation and that the future is bright for interactive entertainment.

Hideo Kojima, thank you for making my most beloved game in 2008.  I salute you on yet another masterpiece.

P.S. Please make more Metal Gear games!

Mega Man 9 was an interesting game in 2008 as it was designed with old school 8-bit graphics as homage to the old days of the NES. Along with the old school graphics came old school gameplay: that is, Capcom made the game incredibly difficult to satisfy fans of the series, oftentimes evoking thoughts that the game was deliberately designed to frustrate you. In fact, I don’t remember the original Mega Man games on the NES ever being this difficult.   And yet, I still had a lot of fun with the game – a testament to solid game design.

Stuff that can kill you here: insta-kill spikes on the ground, a spinning pendulum, and a teleporting robot that shoots stuff.  Yep.

Needless to say, I have not finished Mega Man 9 – I stopped at around the 6th robot master defeated before my interest was diverted elsewhere to another game. This was only after dumping a good eight or so hours dying, breaking controllers, and calling myself an idiot for getting tricked by the game. Perhaps I will finish the game one day.

‘Nuff said.

Jim Noir – My Patch

LittleBigPlanet is an important game because it represents the advent of user-generated content to the home console. With everyone all over the world creating their own unique levels, it’s only fitting that the music actually comes from all over the world. The end result is an eclectic, multicultural collection of songs that captures the essence of the LittleBigPlanet community so perfectly.

Cafe Tacuba – Volver a Comenzar

While the soundtrack of LittleBigPlanet is more notorious because of the subsequent recall of the game, the lack of the true version of the Tapha Niang doesn’t sour the fact that it is my most memorable soundtrack of the year: it remains the only game music that kept me smiling the entire time in 2008.

Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra – Tapha Niang

While it was always true that Valkyria Chronicles was going to be a hard sale- niche genre, poor PR, and an expensive console… 33,000 copies sold over the month of November in North America is still abysmal.  Which is an unfortunate circumstance because between amalgation of traditional strategy RPG with western style action and the unique watercolor artstyle powered by the CANVAS engine, Valkyria Chronicles easily ranks among the best titles of the year.  As I mentioned in a previous post, if you own a PS3 and have not picked up Valkyria Chronicles, you’re part of the problem.

Like, seriously now. How does this even work?

Edit: BTW, the winner is Ivy from Soul Calibur IV

Spore was supposed to be one of the most high concept and advanced games ever made; every decision you made had a consequence later on in the evolution. When I finally got my hands on it, I found out that was somewhat true. But I just could not get over the fact that the difficulty was just not there – Spore unfortunately played like a very dumbed down collection of minigames. If I wanted to play an RTS game, I would go and play an RTS game. I would not play Spore in its place.

I will freely admit that the Spore Creature Creator is an exceptionally powerful tool and that it’s still interesting to see what the Spore community is able to make. I’m definitely proud of the Mr. Saturn species that I was eventually able to grow and evolve from its meager roots as a single celled organism. However, the Creature Creator is only a small component of Spore – its just not enough to sustain my interest in the game that was supposed to be the apex of all god games.

This year, Capcom took the reins and led the charge in the downloadable realm across all three of the major gaming platforms.  Beginning with Bionic Commando Rearmed in August followed by Megaman 9 in September and most recently with Street Fighter 2: HD Remix this past November, there is no question that Capcom had set the bar as far as downloadable titles go.  Megaman 9 impressed me with its bold retro direction; an 8-bit game being released sixteen years past its prime is very meaningful in its own right.  SF2:HDR showed me what a rabid fan following and community can do when handed the wheel to a beloved game franchise.  But to me, it was Bionic Commando Rearmed that really set the standard of what a downloadable game can and should be.

Capcom took a tremendous risk with Bionic Commando Rearmed, especially considering that it very much wasn’t a well established franchise like Megaman and Street Fighter.  Bionic Commando, as beloved as it was back in the NES days, did not have the storied history that the other two series had.  For all intents and purpose, it was a forgotten franchise.   But somehow Capcom allowed Grin to work with the intellectual property and BC:R wound up being much more than a simple remake given a high-def makeover – the game was completely modernized.  The classic Bionic Commando soundtrack was completely remixed and features one of the best soundtracks of any game all year.  Archaic features of the original NES game were completely re-thought out; the old luck based wiretapping was converted into a three dimensional cyberspace puzzle minigame.  Add in a new two-player co-op and challenge room modes where you can compete against the rest of the world and you have one of the best value games of the year.

Every year around this time the major gaming websites put out their lists for Games of the Year and other related awards.  Although I originally wanted to follow suit, I realized that the following two obstacles were clearly in the way of me being able to construct such a list:

1. I have not played nearly enough games to really make a decisive ranking on which ones are the best, and
2. Of the games that I have played, I love them all a bit too much to put them in any sort of an order.  Kind of like picking your favorite ten children.  Or something.

Moreover, a categorical approach seemed to be easier for me to manage in my head.   As such, I will be presenting to you my Best of 2008 every day until the New Year.

Here’s to a great year and here’s to 2009 being even better!  Hope you enjoy the read!