This year was good to me. I spent most of it with my beautiful girlfriend, I adopted the best miniature pinscher in the world and named him Pixl, and I dropped out of community college to go to art school. I’m thankful to have another year on this Earth under my belt and I’m thankful to be in a position of moderate wealth (I make $7.15 an hour at Dairy Queen), because I was able to consume some pretty awesome media this year.
Although I don’t talk about movies in this post, briefly I will say my favorite movie of 2008 was Wall-E, followed by Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, and Pineapple Express.
After this post, I won’t be posting again until 2009.
Happy Holidays!
Without further ado, here are my favorite games and music of 2008.
10. Spiderman: Web of Shadows
Nintendo DS
Who would have thought that you could take Spiderman and turn it into an excellent Metroidvania title complete with beat-em action, full voice acting, and great 3D side-scrolling graphics? Not me, but small developer Griptonite seemed to know exactly what they were doing when they created one of this years biggest sleepers on the DS. Absolutely incredible title, and the best Spiderman game I’ve ever played.
09. PixelJunk Eden
Playstation Network
Eden is a truly unique platforming game. It has fantastic music, and weird Photoshop-esque design graphics along with an awesome multiplayer experience. You can watch videos on this title all you want, but it won’t really click until you pick up the controller and try it yourself. This title was also a bargain this year when it debuted at $9.99.
08. Patapon
Playstation Portable
A huge sleeper this year. I ended up picking up the game for ten dollars at Walmart. It’s an incredible adventure though, as it’s drumming and rhythm real time strategy game play are completely unique. Very few games ever reach this level of originality.
07. Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
Nintendo DS
Let’s face it, the Harvest Moon series is running out of steam and the games are getting worse with every new release. However, Natsume is running a companion series pretty well called Rune Factory and it’s the much needed evolution that Harvest Moon needed. The game is an excellent standalone farming sim, but when you add the incredible dating sim and the deep RPG with magic, XP, and leveling up, you get a really great package.
06. Bionic Commando: Rearmed
Playstation Network
This remake of a classic NES game is pure retro goodness made new with snazzy graphics and an even snazzier soundtrack. The addition of multiplayer kept my girlfriend an I busy with this title for hours on end.
05. Mario Kart: Wii
Nintendo Wii
Mario Kart really didn’t get any better with the addition of motion controller and the online mode sucked, but if you plugged in some Gamecube controllers and played with some friends than, this was one of the essential Wii games of 2008, if your console was collecting dust.
04. Space Invaders: Extreme
Nintendo DS
Holy shit, was the game out of left field. Most retro remakes are absolute crap, but Space Invaders: Extreme proved to be much better than the original to the point where it’s an incredible title without the Space Invaders name. Again, a huge sleeper of 2008, although it’s never a big surprise as the ultra-violent shooters and Madden titles are always more important.
03. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Nintendo Wii
With more special features than Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition, Super Smash Bros. Brawl proved to be the ultimate party game. The fighting engine complete with all the incredible Nintendo characters fighting with Sonic and Solid Snake made Super Smash Bros. Brawl one of the most incredibly in depth gaming experiences of the year. It’s super fun and the game’s premise never tires. It’s a fantastic title and it’s too bad that it’s attachment rate to the Wii isn’t as high as the Wii Play attachment rate to the Wii.
02. Mother 3
Gameboy Advance
I know that it was technically wasn’t released this year, but I’ve been waiting two years for the translation to finish and it finally did, and I played it, and It’s truly one of my favorite games of all time. Mother 3 has to be played to be understood, and to understand it, you need to appreciate and realize that video games can be much more than games.
Games can be creative and relevant cultural commentary wrapped up in one of the best video games ever created.
01. Little Big Planet
Playstation 3
Little Big Planet came dangerously close to being overhyped, but in the end after you take a step back from this incredible level creation title, you really can appreciate the level of detail and the labor of love that Media Molecule had with the title. Sometimes the game may be tragically hip, but if anything is timeless about the game, it’s the replay value as some of the levels users have created are absolutely mind blowing.
The bottom line is that no other game like LittleBigPlanet exists. It’s one of kind and you can’t get the kind of experience you get in LittleBigPlanet elsewhere.
05. Clark - Turning Dragon
Warp Records
Chris Clark has never been professional diagnosed as clinically insane, but if one thing is to be said about his music, it’s the fact that it’s truly schizophrenic. It’s not weird and nor does it contain awkward field recordings of animals humping; but it does one thing and it’s that his noise beats are sonically sound and perfectly executed, and when it seems like it’s all crashing down, his ability to glue it all together, really set this record apart from any other noise to come before it.
04. TV on The Radio - Dear Science
Interscope Records
TV on the Radio have always been politically in tune (with the left) and it shows even more with their pre-election masterpiece, Dear Science. The group’s music has never been more relevant and while their instrumentation may be a little too fine-tuned in the studio, one thing is for sure, the group sure knows how to craft great song after great song.
03. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Vagrant Records
Leaving the trademark talk-singing behind meant that The Hold Steady was getting more serious about their music than ever, and this bar rock band was really able to show just how important and relevant their tragic youth music can be without all the immature emotional and punk trash found on the airwaves and on youngster’s iPods. A record about life sucking, but not as much as it could be.
02. Hot Chip - Made in The Dark
EMI Records
This album is almost perfect, as it’s an album that truly spells out what Hot Chip really intend to do with their music and that is to create emotionally relevant tunes that are completely danceable if you let your guard down. The perfect record to let play all the way through, and the only album I purchased on vinyl this year.
01. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
Def Jam Records
Mr. West reinvented himself with this tragic album as he was coming off of the death of his Mother and the break-up of his fiance and himself. While most critics and fans found Kanye’s use of tribal drums, and auto-tune to be weird and cheesy, I found them to be absolutely genius and further testament to everyone’s claim that Kanye is one of the greatest producers of all time. While Kanye’s lyricism could always use some help, one thing is for certain, this guy knows how to craft almost perfect pop music.