The NGal Awards: Best of 2008

Welcome to the first annual NGal Awards! 2008 was a year full of surprises; some of them good, some of them bad. However, because the staff of NintendoGal could never agree on which fell into which category, we’ve decided to let each of our writers make their own pick for every category. So have fun reading, and be sure to leave a comment or two with your opinions as well!

1. Game of the Year

• Radical Edward: The World Ends With You – Not only did I spend more time this year playing WEWY than any other game, I also enjoyed every single second I spent with it. I’m not a big RPG person, but battling in WEWY is so fun I actually WANTED to grind levels (not that I ever really needed to). No other game this year can get me to froth at the mouth while I describe its genius to other people. This is the kind of game Square Enix used to make in its heyday – something wholly original with a captivating story and the best gameplay around.
• Kurono: Super Smash Bros Brawl – Even with it’s lackluster online, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is still an immense amount of fun. Adding more characters, a story mode, keeping the same basic gameplay, and throwing in a bunch of unlockable challenges the series still shines. Especially when you get 3 or more of your buddies together for an all out brawl.
• The Sound Defense: Super Smash Bros Brawl – There are a variety of reasons why Brawl is the year’s best game: its mountain of features, play modes and collectibles, its amazing soundtrack, and its generally high level of polish. All these things, however, are trumped by the simple fact that Super Smash Bros. has continually been the ultimate multiplayer experience; from the moment you pick up the controller to the moment you put it down, Brawl is amazingly fun for all players, more than any other game release we’ve seen this year.

 

 

2. Best Wii Game

• Radical Edward: Super Smash Bros Brawl – A lot of people complained that Brawl was more of the same – a Melee clone with new characters and stages. And maybe it was… but what people forget is that Melee was a brilliant, timeless game; and everything Melee had, Brawl took and made better. More characters, more stuff to collect, more stages, an expanded adventure mode… the online may have been a disaster, but no other Wii game this year offered the sheer amount of gameplay Brawl did.
• Kurono: Mario Kart Wii – Mario Kart Wii – You’re probably wonder how GOTY and Best Wii game are different since they’re both Wii games. It’s simple really, Mario Kart does one thing that SSBB doesn’t; it has functioning and enjoyable online play. Throw in their constant release of challenges and you got a game that has you coming back for more.
• The Sound Defense: Super Smash Bros Brawl – It may not have utilized the Wii’s unique controls to any great degree, but Brawl still knows how to make us smile. It’s a significant upgrade over Melee, with a massive single-player adventure, a large yet balanced roster, and online competition. Did we mention the amazing soundtrack? And the fact that it’s Super Smash Bros.?
   

 

3. Best DS Game

• Radical Edward: The World Ends With You – Yes, you have to listen to me gush about this game again. There were a few great DS games this year that could have gotten this slot, but WEWY just had everything I look for in a great game: a good story, impossible-to-put-down gameplay, incredible music… if you haven’t played this yet, go find a copy.
• Kurono: Final Fantasy IV – It’s a remake of a popular game but it’s a remake no one should miss. Enhanced visuals, greater depth of story telling (added in some story originally taken out), superb audio and a heightened difficutly. It’s all meshed together for one joyful experience for new and old fans a like.
• The Sound Defense: The World Ends With You – This unique RPG adventure swooped in this April on the Nintendo DS and presented gamers with a new kind of adventure, sending you into battle in the streets of Shibuya with touch-screen and button-controlled real-time action, and level-up systems involving trends, pins, and a sliding HP-select bar. This interesting change of pace paid off in spades for Square Enix, and gives TWEWY my award for Best DS Game of 2008.
   

 

4. Best WiiWare Game

• Radical Edward: Mega Man 9 – Who knew the best downloadable game of the year (on the Wii) would end up being a throwback to the 80’s? Capcom proved that newer isn’t always necessarily better with this nostalgic, NES-style hit. Gamers weaned on the N64 and Playstation whined about its graphics and difficulty, but old-school gamers around the world rejoiced, and rightly so.
• The Sound Defense: Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People, Episode 5: 8-Bit Is Enough – The entire Strong Bad series had an excellent showing throughout the second half of 2008; this serie sof adventure titles sported easy-to-use controls, clever puzzles, and hilarious writing. The final episode, with its varying gameplay options and its top-of-the-line script, takes the cake and clinches this award.

5. Most Innovative, Wii

• Radical Edward: No More Heroes – Most of 2008’s Wii games were safe retreads into familiar territory – sequels that could have been done on the Gamecube four years ago. No More Heroes however, was a mature, hilarious, hardcore game for the Wii… talk about innovative. You see NMH’s innovation doesn’t lie in its wiimote waggling (though using it as a phone was cool), but rather the fact that there is nothing else on any console even remotely like it.
• The Sound Defense: Wii Fit – There wasn’t a game released this year on any console that dared to be as different as Wii Fit. Games have used your body as the control method before, such as Dance Dance Revolution, but Wii Fit takes it a step further, making you move your hips, stretch your arms, do push-ups, check your balance, and a variety of other things to help get you into shape.

 

6. Most Innovative, DS

• Radical Edward: The World Ends With You – WEWY managed to use every one of the DS’s unique abilities, and used them well. While most games use the extra screen as nothing more than a map or inventory screen, WEWY demanded full attention on both screens, as you fought two different battles on each screen at once. Touch screen battles were fun and fast-paced, and even the internal clock was used to add shut down experience and limit character upgrades.
• The Sound Defense: The World Ends With You – With all the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games Square Enix was churning out, TWEWY was the last thing anyone expected out of the RPG giant. Featuring a brand-new, dual-screen, real-time battle system, as well as a brilliant new setting in trend-crazy Shibuya, TWEWY is easily the most innovative title to show up on the DS this year.

 

7. Best New Franchise

• Radical Edward: The World Ends With You – I know, by now you’re probably ready to shoot me in the face for choosing WEWY for so many categories, but I can’t help it. WEWY was a breath of fresh air this year from a company that doesn’t like to take risks. Square Enix put Shibuya on the map by creating a living, breathing world dominated by consumerism and characters that wouldn’t be able to survive anywhere else.
• The Sound Defense: de Blob – It was a close call between this game and TWEWY, but when it comes right down to it, de Blob was the game I wanted to see more of once I had finished. THQ’s painting platformer is so simple, but so polished, that I fell in love with the game mechanics right away and practically had to pry myself away when I was done. de Blob is one franchise I definitely want to see continue on in future years.

 

 

8. Best Liscensed Game

• Radical Edward: LEGO Batman – It may have been the same as previous LEGO games gameplay-wise, but this entry in the ongoing series was the best so far in every regard. Offering tons of areas to explore, items to collect, and obscure villians to play as, LB paid a loving homage to a great franchise that hasn’t previously had much luck in the gaming venue.
• The Sound Defense: Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People, Episode 5: 8-Bit Is Enough – "Licensed games are never good," Strong Bad ironically declares near the beginning of this episode. He then proceeds to prove himself wrong by starring in the funniest, cleverest WiiWare title we’ve seen all year. Filled to the brim with hilarious video game jabs that gamers new and old will appreciate, this is one title everyone should experience at least once.

 

9. Best Script

• Radical Edward: Professor Layton and the Curious Village – This extremely enjoyable DS game is in a word, charming. St. Mystere and its inhabitants are as fun to interact with as it is to solve their maddening puzzles, due in large part to the excellent writing. The plot will keep you guessing until the very end, with twists and turns around every dark corner.
• The Sound Defense: Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People, Episode 5: 8-Bit Is Enough – This final episode in the series is by far the funniest, and the most relatable to gamers. You’ll come across quips about old-school DRM, region locks, and licensed shovelware, in addition to the normal comic stylings of the citizens of the Homestar Runner universe. This is easily the funniest game of the year.

10. Best New Character

• Radical Edward: Sho Minamimoto – A smarter-than-he-looks villian who speaks in equations and peppers his sentences with references straight out of your calculus textbook? Awesome.
• The Sound Defense: Strong Bad – This arrogant, wise-cracking, self-serving, teen-girl-squad-murdering luchador is the clear highlight of SBCG4AP, overshadowing all other characters and even the actual gameplay. Players are sure to explore every inch of Free Country USA just to hear everything this angry awesome fellow has to say.

 

 

11. Best Peripheral

• Radical Edward: Guitar Hero World Tour’s Drum Set – World Tour took Rock Band’s drum set and blew it out of the water with their peripheral. You play it as though you were playing an actual drum set, and this one won’t drown out the television with overly loud pads. It may be one of the only plusses World Tour has over Rock Band 2, but it’s a big one.
• Kurono: Wii Balance Board – It allows a new way to interact with games and is great when used right. Also, it’s not just a shell casing for the Wii remote that adds little to no new experience to a game.
• The Sound Defense: Wii Balance Board – The Balance Board is not only a new way to play games, but it’s one that developers have jumped onto eagerly, providing us with entertaining balance-based games like Skate It, We Ski, and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party. Any device that lets you play games with your butt has to take the award.

 

12. Biggest News

• Radical Edward: Sin and Punishment 2 – Some people don’t even know what Sin and Punishment IS, but this was honestly the biggest surprise for me this year. It was the only news that I didn’t even begin to see coming, and it excites me far more than any other of Nintendo’s announcements this year.
• The Sound Defense: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – This was a major bombshell for two major reasons. Firstly, it came out of nowhere in the middle of a press conference generally aimed toward casual gamers at this year’s E3. Secondly, this is the first time that Rockstar’s super-popular GTA series has shown up on a Nintendo system. What this could mean for other third-party developers with potential non-casual games to bring to Nintendo is anyone’s guess.

 

 

13. Biggest Disappointment

• Radical Edward: Animal Crossing: City Folk – People may have complained about Mario kart Wii and Brawl being rehashes, but that was before people played City Folk. What was being billed as a new entry in the series really boiled down to the same exact game we played years ago with a few tacked on additions. While it’s still a great game for newcomers (and the definitive version of the game), there just wasn’t enough new content here to justify a purchase for longtime AC fans that deserve better.
• The Sound Defense: Wii Music – After seeing the entertaining things Nintendo had managed to do with Wii Fit and Wii Sports, two rather simple concepts, I was excited to see how Wii Music would turn out. When I got to play it at E3, however, I ended up with one of the most shallow gaming experiences I’ve had in a long time. People point out to me the extra features included in Wii Music, such as song sharing, but these make no difference if the core gameplay isn’t entertaining, which is unfortunately the case with the first-party title.

 

14. What We Want In 2009!

• Radical Edward: New Star Fox, more Nintendo developed WiiWare titles, WEWY, Layton, and EBA sequels, better Club Nintendo prizes, and for the love of all that is holy, a 2D Metroid!!
• Kurono: What I want in 2009 is Madworld and The Conduit. I have high expectations for these games. A non-ported M-rated game and an FPS that should be ground breaking for the Wii. Both are showing great footage and gameplay, and should be top games next year.
• The Sound Defense: More non-casual games at press conferences. While it’s a major exaggeration to say that Nintendo has forgotten about their original core base (we did get the Big Three recently, after all), Nintendo isn’t really showing many non-casual games in their future, and third-parties right now are picking up the slack. A reminder that we’ve got some great first-party goodies on the way would pacify us for some time.

That’s it for this year’s awards. Thanks for reading, and have an awesome new year!

 - The NGal Staff