Sure, “game of the year” lists are there to reward the best games out there. They are also, however, great big popularity contests. The best selling or most hyped games outright overshadow a bunch of obscure games that deserve some small bit of the spotlight.

That’s where our list comes in. Here are ten games that we thought deserved some attention. Some of them are niche titles, some came out at the wrong time, others are just games that we liked. Read through our list, and maybe you’ll pick up one of these games instead of Sequel X the next time you hit Gamestop.

Zack and Wiki                                 Nintendo Wii - October 23 - Rumas Recommends

[Nick Rumas]

There’s really not a whole lot to say about Zak & Wiki that hasn’t been said already. I feel the same way about it now as I did when I first got it — Capcom crafted a fantastic point-and-click puzzle adventure that’s as charming as it is clever. The ramp-up in difficulty as the quest progresses can be frustrating, but it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

In the end, Zack & Wiki is satisfied in being nothing more than a fantastic collection of environmental puzzles, and that’s fine. In my opinion, though, the greatest thing about the game is the amazing potential that it reveals — the potential revival of the point-and-click genre on Wii. If a talented developer were to take the formula demonstrated here and apply it to a story-driven adventure of Monkey Island proportions, we could have megaton material on our hands. Here’s hoping.

SSX Blur                                                                             Nintendo Wii - February 27

[rbelmont000]

I was desperate. I had beaten Zelda TP and Warioware Smooth Moves. I basically hated Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and Raving Rabbids. I only played Red Steel for the multiplayer. I needed another game to sink my teeth into. I was desperate.

Then, SSX Blur was released. I had never played an SSX game before - 1080 64 all the way - but I needed a new Wii game and I couldn’t wait any longer. So, I bought it. Fantastic decision. The first thing you notice when you boot up the game is the great production values. The menus, graphics, sounds, and music are all great, which is something that I have come to expect from EA Canada (007: Everything or Nothing, SSX, Need for Speed). How does it play? That depends on what type of gamer you are. If you are the type that doesn’t want to take the time to get good, like many of the reviewers who gave the game bad scores, then you won’t like it. This isn’t a game you can pick up and play, you have to sit there and figure out the controls. When you do get it, it is so satisfying. It’s like you actually accomplished something. The controls for the most part are excellent. You carve using a combo of tilting the nunchuk and pushing the analog stick left and right which is, in my opinion, one of the best “feeling” uses of Wii motion control. The tricks are simple to do, you just sort of wave around the Wiimote, so it’s more about knowing when to do tricks rather than what tricks to do. The Uber Tricks are where people seem to have problems, and they are hard to do. Once you get them down, you’re golden. The game is pretty long, so I still haven’t beaten it. I like to go back and play it and just go down the mountain, because it is just so fun. Seriously though, SSX Blur is only 30 bucks now, so go out and get it.

Earth Defense Force 2017                                                         Xbox 360 - March 20

[Michael Tucker]

I wanna make this clear: EDF is a pretty terrible game. The story is terrible, the dialogue is laughable, the levels are repetitive, the controls are pretty sloppy, and the gameplay is often unbalanced. The extent of the poorness of these qualities becomes apparent within the first five seconds of gameplay. Strangely, however, within the first five minutes of gameplay you find yourself experiencing a curious sort of fun.

EDF is a game best played with a friend. The reason for this is that you need someone to be there with you appreciating how bad the game is- and because the game gets insanely hard at certain spots and your AI controlled teammates are little more than distractions. The player pretty much just runs around killing waves and waves of aliens as you tries to defend some random city that you usually blow to bits anyway before the level is over. Generic, right? Well, consider the fact that the game gives you a seriously insane amount of weapons to choose from with which to kill your enemies. There’s a handful of general weapon classes under which you can pick up dozens of variations. You got your machine guns, rifles, rocket launchers and other goodies. The further you get into the game the more it seems that the designers put more weapons in the game than they knew what to do with so they just started getting silly with what they were capable of. There is one weapon, and I’m not kidding, that’s just a single grenade that you throw and then run away and twenty seconds later you turn around and watch the entire horizon explode in flame and flying bodies. Yeah, it’s great.

But these bodies, these alien creatures, are something to behold in of themselves. What you can gather from your teammates’ B-movie dialogue, these alien creatures just showed up on earth one day and started wrecking shop. So as you first encounter these aliens you’re confused as to why they just look like giant ants and spiders that crawl out of burrows in the ground. And then, later, you fight some more that look like giant chrome space ships, and then, even later, some that look like mecha-godzilla. Oh well, you find yourself thinking, your job is just to make them go boom, which actually becomes pretty challenging later on.

Somewhere around the second dozen levels or so fighting off a hundred giant alien bugs starts to get difficult. Though your newer weapons make bigger explosions, every enemy you kill seems to spawn two more in its place. If you mess up once your screen becomes filled with giant ant legs and you can’t tell what’s going on until you realize your guy is lying dead on the concrete. To your surprise you’ll find yourself using actual strategy as you try to survive to the end of the level. Each victory brings the hope of newer weapons and before long “one more level” syndrome occurs.

Brokku(the nickname the other staffers have lovingly applied to my brother) and I still sit down for sessions when we’re bored and finished with whatever other games we’ve been playing. The first ten minutes usually consists of us blowing each other up accidentally as we get readjusted to the game and then we’re on our alien blasting way again. We think we’re pretty close to the end. According to the game we’ve made our “last stand” against the aliens at least three or four times now so I have a feeling that the next one might be it for real.

Picross DS                                                   Nintendo DS - July 30 - 4cr Review (8/10)

[Gregory Gay]

Picross and I have a bit of a relationship, you see? I’ve spent a good chunk of my life waiting and praying for another entry in the series to make it to US shores. I finally got my wish this time around. Picross DS is an excellent entry in the series, and a must-own for any puzzle fanatic.

The paint-by-numbers gameplay is easy to grasp, any Sudoku maniac will be sucked in instantly. The game does a fantastic job transitioning you into more and more difficult puzzles. You won’t have to worry about running out either, there are dozens of unlockable grids. Those still not enough? Nintendo has put up a bunch of downloadable content for free on the WiFi Connection. If you make it through all of those, you can download puzzles designed by your friends (and design a few yourself). There are even a few bonus minigames to keep you busy.

If you don’t already own this game, you must be some kind of wrong person. Fix this immediately.

Link’s Crossbow Training                                                 Nintendo Wii - November 19

[Jody Anthony]

Check your wallet. Do you have $20? Ok good. Now check your living room. Do you see a Wii sitting near your television? Great! Now head out the door to your nearest game shop and ask for one Wii Zapper with Link’s Crossbow Training. Hand the clerk the money and take your Zapper home. Congratulations, you just bought digital crack!

Link’s Crossbow Training is one of the most fun games I have played this year. Sure it’s just another minigame, but come on. It’s pure gold for two reasons. One, it’s Zelda related, and two, it’s amazing fun. Simple to control, easy to play, but difficult to master. You will find yourself telling yourself “ok, just one more game…” and before you know it, bam, you’ve lost 3 days of sleep. Okay, maybe it won’t be that addicting, but you will still find yourself loving every moment, and just trying one more time for a slightly better score. Invite your friends over for some multiplayer and laugh at them when they have 9300 points to your 96000. Then tell them to go buy a copy as well. A ton of fun and at only $20 you’d be crazy not to pick it up. If you have it and you don’t like it, well I’m sorry but you officially have no soul. BUY BUY BUY.

The Godfather: Blackhand Edition             Nintendo Wii - March 20 - 4cr Review (8/10)

[Gregory Gay]

An EA game, a movie tie-in, and a Grand Theft Auto clone? Normally, three strikes would be enough to count a game out. In terms of sales, it was a strike out. Not really a surprise – it was a port of a last-gen game. EA didn’t even bother advertising it. The strange thing is, despite all of the things working against it, Blackhand Edition was an awesome game.

Seriously, it was awesome. Quit staring at me. I haven’t cracked. The game itself wasn’t really fixed up from the previous version. Content-wise, it is still a weak ripoff of the Grand Theft Auto series. The real difference came with the motion controls. Blackhand Edition has better controls than ninety percent of other Wii games. Remember Wii Boxing? That’s how you beat on rival mobsters. Want to strangle them? Reach the remote and nunchuck forward like you’re going to grab someone’s neck. Now, shake them until your enemy is dead. Stealth kill? Sneak up and snap the controllers back, bringing in the cord between them like a garrote. Shooting was even a snap, with both free-aim and lock-on schemes. The controls worked really well. Eerily well, in fact.

Perhaps it was a good thing that EA didn’t advertise the game. Jack Thompson would have had a field day with it. Godfather has been one of the few Wii games to really make me think about the violence-in-gaming debate.

If you’re looking for another GTA-style game and you have a Wii, give Blackhand Edition a chance. The controls alone are worth the $30 price of admission. Rumors have been flying around about a Godfather 2. If EA keeps this control scheme, I’m there day one.

Contra 4                                                 Nintendo DS - November 13 - 4cr Impressions

[MegaShaun]

The original Contra was one of the coolest and most difficult NES games out there. I couldn’t even beat it WITH the infamous 30 lives code. Of course, I was only 8 years old at the time and my gaming skills were not what the are now. The next time I experienced Contra was with the SNES classic, Contra 3: The Alien Wars, which raised the bar even higher for what I would come to expect from 2D side-scrolling games. Now, 20 years after Contra made its first appearance, the world is treated to what is arguably the best Contra ever: Contra 4 for DS.

The game brings together spectacular animation, graphics, sound, and gameplay in a neatly packaged format. Old favourites like the fortress boss, waterfall, and even “3D” base stages are all here. The behind-the-back 3D stages are actual 3D environments this time, but with 2D sprites and movement planes. Part of what makes the gameplay so great and addictive is the preservation of old-school Contra mechanics: power-ups, one-hit deaths, treacherous enemies, and Boss weak spots (you hit them for massive damage). Additionally, it’s just plain FUN to cut down the oncoming hordes of enemies.

Cramped fingers? Check. Nervous twitches? Check. Spread gun? Check. Unending alien onslaught? Check.

Best Contra ever? Check.

Pac-Man Championship Edition                         Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade) - June 6

[Gregory Gay]

How on earth does Pac-Man make any sort of top ten list in this day and age? By single-handedly trashing every other downloadable game, that’s how. Championship Edition is the true Pac-Man 2, taking the style of the original and spicing it up just right.

You still travel through a maze. You still chomp on little dots and fruits. You still run from ghosts. Everything else has changed. Mazes shift, movements speed up or slow down. In what is probably the most intense Pac-Man level ever, the lights have been turned out. You must find your way around by the dots alone. When the dots are missing, you have to avoid the ghosts while feeling your way around. the maze. Gameplay isn’t the only thing to get an overhaul. Championship Edition has been given a snazzy neon-tinted visual upgrade as well.

Championship Edition is easily one of the best deals on Live Arcade. I didn’t expect anything resembling thought and innovation from the tarnished franchise, so Championship Edition exceeded my every expectation. Namco, when can we expect “Championship Editions” of other classic arcade games?

Hotel Dusk                                             Nintendo DS - January 22 - 4cr Review (10/10)

[Gregory Gay]

A dark past, murder, betrayal. These are the things that make for a good yarn. These are also just a few of the twists that Hotel Dusk’s plot has in store for players. The adventure title embraces its film noir roots and goes all out. The dialogue is stylish and well-written, the gritty artwork really comes to life on the DS screen.

Hotel Dusk is most definitely a case of style over substance. The puzzles are slightly hit or miss. Most of the time, you won’t care. The beautiful artwork and novel-worthy storyline will keep you entertained. More interactive novel than game, Hotel Dusk is a must for any fan of a good mystery. If you grew up on the point-and-click adventure genre, Dusk doesn’t disappoint.

Etrian Odyssey                                                                         Nintendo DS - May 15

[CoffeeMan]

This title didn’t really get the attention it deserved. For any Hardcore or older RPG fans, it’s a must have to your collection. This is a classic dungeon-crawler RPG, that we’ve beenused to in our younger days. This game as a great selection of character classes. You form your 5 man party and go down in the dungeon. The neat thing about this game is the usage of the touch screen. When I played dungeon crawlers when I was younger, I usually had a grid paper to draw the map of the dungeon. Well Atlus implemented just that on the touch screen! A grid-like interface to draw your dungeon maps on them. Make sure to add this game to your library, or at least the upcoming sequel.

What about the others?
What other games did the 4cr forumites love? We asked them to chime in - here are their opinions!

[gotcha force]

Alien Syndrome didn’t deserve the bad rap it got from, pretty much everyone. its the kind of game that didn’t need great graphics or a deep story to draw you in. all i can say is, i played it for over 60 hours, and i still play it with friends today. and yeah, the menu system wasn’t perfect, but neither is your face!

[Tirade]

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness for PSP.

I don’t care if it’s a re-release, it’s still fantastic.

[Sno]

WarTech: Senko no Ronde for the 360.

A great mash-up of mecha fighting games and scrolling shooter sensibilities complete with online versus. In particular, fans of Virtual On will probably really enjoy what is offered. Senko no Ronde made it to the states mostly intact from its original Japanese release, aside from an unfortunately bland preface to the original title, but what was originally received reasonably well in Japan was panned by American critics.

It could be argued that UbiSoft setting a bewilderingly high price point for the American release led to much of the critical backlash, and it could also be argued that it’s simply not a game made for the average American audience. It’s very niche, but being that it bombed, it’s also sitting in bargain bins. So now that it’s selling for pocket change, go and take a chance on this really cool and original 360 title.

Glory Days 2 for the DS.

A wonderful little two dimensional side-scrolling strategy game of sorts, but with a fast-paced action slant. You command a chopper or fighter jet, endeavor to destroy enemy vehicles and aircraft, rescue civilians for cash, and then build various vehicles to push your team’s front line forward and capture territory.

Supreme Commander

The very worthy spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, one of the greatest RTS games of all time, didn’t exactly light the world on fire when it was released earlier this year. Primarily at fault are its gargantuan system requirements that place it in a realm beyond the reach of most more casual PC gamers, though the game also comes across as somewhat impenetrable to newbies. Still, if you can run this behemoth, i implore that you give the game a try, learn it’s complex queuing and way point systems, and enjoy one of the most epic strategy games ever produced.

Space Giraffe (For Live Arcade on the 360)

Jeff Minter’s spiritual follow-up to his Tempest sequels, Space Giraffe is actually a very different beast and requires a very different play style. High scores were unreachable by those who didn’t learn how to aim their weapons with the right analog stick or take the time to “bull” enemies off the top rim for bonuses. Moreover, the wild psychedelic visuals were off putting to many gamers who didn’t understand to listen for sound cues. So, to put it simply, if you go in expecting a literal update of Tempest, you’ll be sorely disappointed. However, if you go in with an open mind, you’ll find one of the most underrated arcade games of the year.

[Donato]

Zack and Wiki: Quest For Barbaro’s Treasure

‘Nuff said.

[Kenofthedead]

Zack and Wiki, but that goes without saying.

Picross DS, a great puzzle game that most missed as they didn’t know what it was.

Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol, as much fun as the Gamecube game, just smaller. Being Wal-Mart only in the states didn’t help I’m sure.

Phase, it’s Guitar Hero for the iPod and plays incredibly well.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker

Contra 4, despite being such a popular series, people seemed to have forgten about it in the midst of all these big releases.

Crush, a 2D to 3D and vice versa puzzle game. It had horrible sells despite being such a good game at making you think about how to beat the puzzles.

Odin Sphere, one of the more charming RPGs to be released on the PS2. Got wonderful scores in all reviews as well.

[Ness]

CHUUUULIP!

Also,

Hotel Dusk: Room 215
Rogue Galaxy (This one flew under the radar a bit)
Earth Defense Force 2017
Soul Nomad & The World Eaters

If you have a certain game that you want to champion? Disagree with our picks? Let us know. Leave a comment below.

The Games You Missed In 2006