GOTY time! Instead of going with an overall site pick this year, we’ve each detailed our personal favorites of 2007 in the space below. Mario and Zelda may have gotten the most votes, but there are still some other interesting choices to be found. Read on to hear our reflections on the year’s best titles, and be sure to share your picks with us, too.

Mitch

GOTY: Super Mario Galaxy

Okay, it looks like I’m going to have to go the stereotypical route and say that my GOTY was Super Mario Galaxy. I know, I know. Me and the entire Nintendo universe have been saying that since even before it came out, but I just got here. Give me a break. I’ve been hard-pressed to find a game that made me feel passionate about gaming again, and well, Super Mario Galaxy was exactly that.

I’d recommend it more than butter.

…and i love butter.

Jody

GOTY: Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

I’m going to take the controversial road and pick The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass as my 2007 Game of the Year. Maybe it’s just because I’m the biggest Zelda whore I know, but Phantom Hourglass was the only game this year that I couldn’t WAIT to get more time with. I blasted through it in a week, and it was glorious. New Zelda Day is like the greatest day of the year for me, and I was actually able to celebrate that twice within one year. Amazing. The graphics, the controls, the story…everything about Phantom Hourglass just blew me away. I even liked the Phantom Temple! Heck, I loved it. Phantom Hourglass not only takes my Game of the Year spot, but it also takes my Favorite All-Time Handheld Zelda spot. (Sorry Minish Cap)

Honorable Mentions: Zack & Wiki, Super Mario Galaxy, Assassin’s Creed

Shaun

GOTY: Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition

This was a huge year for gaming, especially in the last quarter with all the holiday releases. But for me the high point came early on with the release of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. Yes, the original is already two years old, and yes, I’ve played through it multiple times. But the addition of Wii Remote-aiming is so beneficial and natural that it’s like gravy to RE4’s already excellent mashed potatoes. The improved control scheme makes picking off Los Illuminados minions more satisfying than ever. With all the bonus content not found in previous iterations, coupled with the bargain price, picking it as GOTY was a no-brainer. Good thing, too, because if RE4 has taught me anything it’s that brains always get shot at.

Honorable mentions: Metroid Prime 3, Contra 4, Zack & Wiki

Edgar

GOTY: Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

So many good games came out this year that I really can’t decide which title to pick. Do I pick Mass Effect for the 360, or Mario Galaxy on the Wii? Maybe I should go with Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS? Yeah, I’ll have to go with Zelda. The title brought tons of new stuff to the Zelda series; making Link move with the stylus and tracing the route of the boomerang are two things that come to mind. Zelda gets my vote for this year.

Honorable Mentions: Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy

Greg

GOTY: Super Mario Galaxy

This year was easily one of the best years for gaming ever. There are so many great games that I had trouble picking one “Game of the Year”. Ultimately, I’m going to have to go with Super Mario Galaxy.

Galaxy is not only the best game on the Wii to date, it was the only game this year that was an honest joy to play. It was a majestic throwback to the days where gaming was simple fun without becoming a simple game itself. Sure, I died a lot. Sure, there were tough areas. I never once threw down my controller in frustration. I kept playing and playing. In fact, I’m still playing. There is a ton of content in this game. This will probably be the first time I actually seek out all 120 stars in a Mario game.

There are a ton of other games worth mentioning. Bioshock was a fantastic exercise in creativity and innovation. Ken Levine set out to make an artistic statement using gaming as his medium, and he succeeded. For those who sought out every diary and listened to every cutscene, Bioshock was also an intriguing look at the human condition.

The Orange Box represents the best value ever in gaming, with five fantastic games. Half Life 2 still holds up after all of this time, and Episode 2 continues the story pretty well. Portal not only redefined puzzle games, it made us care about the enemy.

Eternal Sonata was a love-it or hate-it experience, but I certainly loved it. I played it from start to finish as quickly as I could. The battle system was a breath of fresh air, and the cel-shaded graphics were breath-taking. Sure, the story didn’t make much sense, but that could be said of most Japanese RPGs.

Speaking of stories, Hotel Dusk had one of the best this year. The DS adventure game pushed all of the right buttons for me. It was an example of style over gameplay substance, but boy did it have style! It’s noir-tinted plot is worth investigating for any mystery fan.

Last, but not least, is the latest Bioware epic, Mass Effect. Not only does it let Bioware retain its crown as the dev with the best writers in the industry, it created the coolest sci-fi universe in years.

This year had so many great games that I’ll still be playing them pretty far into 2008. Will next year live up to the precedent set by 2007’s games? If so, I need to take on another job to pay for it all.

Evan

GOTY: Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy hands down. There is no other game like it and not only is it my favorite game of the year, but it’s also my favorite game that has come out since Castlevania Symphony of the Night on the PSX. Everything about this game is pure joy.

The music is some of the best I have heard in years, the gameplay is fairly easy and yet really fun, the graphics are great, and the controls are better than any 3D Mario before it. They tightened the controls up and allowed continuous long jumps, both of which improve the game’s controls and gameplay over 64’s and Sunshine’s. But it’s not about any one thing; the whole game comes together and achieves perfection.

Honorable Mention: Contra 4 — Without a doubt the best DS game of the year. The gameplay is the good kind of difficult, where you lose because you make a mistake rather than the game doing impossibly difficult things.

William GK Zhang

GOTY: Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Although Barbie: The Island Princess gave me a good run, I’ll have to go with Zelda: Phantom Hourglass as my game of the year. Everything about the game just blew me out of the water, from the new innovative ways you used your map to solve puzzles to the way you felt a strange sense of happiness while playing it.

I remember, for examply, this one “Holy Crap” moment when I had to actually put the cover down on my DS to solve a small puzzle. Phantom Hourglass was riddled with these kind of surprises all throughout. In terms of graphics, the visuals kept to the formula of Wind Waker, which, when translated to the DS, were simply stunning. Overall, Phantom Hourglass is easily one of the best games of the year, and definitely a must-have title for DS.

Michael Tucker

GOTY: Aquaria

The base characteristics upon which I’m choosing my game of the year are probably different from what most people would use in deciding what title deserve this position. I’m thinking this because I doubt anyone else would choose the game I am with the myriad of other great titles that came out this year. Most people, in all likelihood, haven’t even played the game I’m talking about.

Yes, I’m talking (again) about Aquaria.

The reason I’m picking this quaint indie gem isn’t because it was necessarily the most fun, lengthy, or innovative game on the block — not that it is at all lacking in any of those areas — but I am picking it because, out of any game I’ve played this entire year, Aquaria seems to have, for lack of a better word, the most soul to it. Yeah, sure, all indie games have soul to them as they themselves are almost always entirely labors of love, but Aquaria is a game that has all the elements of originality that independent titles tend to have plus the quality and professional execution that’s generally expected solely from big studio productions.

Add to this that the game has some of the most beautiful presentation and graphics I’ve played in a 2D title, that it has truly unique and interesting gameplay mechanics, and that the story is an engaging and bewilderingly interesting composite of airy and sinister themes, I think that anyone who devotes themselves to playing through this game will be able to fully understand how I can choose for it to be my game of the year for 2007.

Honorable Mentions: Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy

Rumas

GOTY: Metroid Prime 3

First of all, let me make it clear that I still have not played Super Mario Galaxy. I’ve been guaranteed, however, that it will arrive by Wednesday. Hope it actually happens this time!

Back on subject, of all the games that I played this year, nothing was as enjoyable for me as Metroid Prime 3. That’s saying a lot, considering the fact that I actually have many complaints about the game, chiefly regarding the Phazon corruption/hunters storyline, which I found to be corny and formulaic at best.

Still, there was so much good in the title that I was easily able to overlook its faults. The artistry was top-notch; the sound design — I played the entire game with headphones on for greater immersion — was amazing; the atmosphere and mood of each individual location was masterfully evoked; and most importantly, the controls were revolutionary.

I know many of you love playing first-person shooters with dual-analog pads, but I normally don’t. It just doesn’t work for me. What Retro and Nintendo did with MP3, however, made me realize for the first time ever just how brilliant an experience the FPS genre can be on consoles. I never, ever want to go back.

Overall, Metroid Prime 3 is a fantastic game, and I feel it’s already being unfairly forgotten. It may not have done everything exactly right, but its successes immeasurably outweighed its failures. My favorite game of 2007, and one you owe it to yourself to check out.

Honorable Mentions: Super Paper Mario, Zack & Wiki