It’s almost here - 2010. A new decade, new games, even new consoles at some point. It’s with great excitement and anticipation I look forward to the next ten years of gaming, but before we get to that maybe we should take one more look at what great, varied games we saw over this previous ten years. I asked the rest of the staff to write a little bit about what they felt was the most important/unique/special game of the past ten years and you can read what they had to say below. It’s really quite amazing to realize what variety of games all released within ten years of each other.

After reading this you should take a moment to tell us what you felt was the best(according to whatever definition you choose) game of the decade and what made it stand out.

Jody - Wind Waker

The thing I like most about video games that aren’t simple puzzles, music games, or other “simple” games is the feel of discovery. Never in a game have I felt such a sense of discovery and adventure as I had in Wind Waker. Everything about Wind Waker screams charm, from the look of the graphics to the interactions between the characters to the sublime control scheme to the story. The characters are some of the most lifelike characters I have ever seen in a game even now, years later. The world was just so wonderfully realized. Sailing out into the great ocean, I was filled with an urge to go everywhere, do everything, see all the new things that I could discover. Have I had more fun with other games? Yes. Have there been better Zelda games, let alone better games in general? Sure. But none of that takes away from the joy that is Wind Waker. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime ride and one I am glad I have been able to experience. When I say that the Legend of Zelda series is my favorite series of video games, Wind Waker is a perfect example of why. From the very moment of waking up on Outset Island, looking out at the ocean and the island, I knew it was going to be something special, and I was right. The GameCube may get a lot of flack, but Wind Waker is reason enough to have owned one.



Greg - Diablo 2

Click, click, click, CLICK - click - click. Oh, what’s that? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of my left mouse button. Hold on just a second. Oh, screw you Baal. Oooohhhh, a unique item. Ok, just let me socket that. Click. Click.

Now, what were we talking about? The best games of the decade? Sounds good, what did you pick? Me? I haven’t picked a game yet, I’ve been too busy playing Diablo 2 for the thirty-first time. I must have lost track of time.

I’m finicky, and I’m constantly seeking out new experiences. I rarely replay single-player games, and if I do, it has to have been years since I last played it. I could rattle off the names of my favorite games for each year of the past decade, and I can almost guarantee that I’ve only played the game once. The game of the decade needs to be something special. It needs to be something that remains as fresh and exciting as the first time that I played it every time that I think about it. I spent a lot of time considering what my game of the decade would be, and in retrospect, it should have been obvious. My favorite game of the past decade is Diablo 2.

I tend to be a style-over-substance person. I can forgive, even love, games that have iffy gameplay if they have a storyline or art direction that hits me in the right way. Diablo 2 is the complete opposite. The graphics have not aged well (especially since the game is limited to a lower resolution) and the story is completely skip-able. No, the reason that I play this game over and over again, even today, is the gameplay. The formula is simple - it’s practically the elementary school version of the PC RPG - but it is so, so addictive. It’s impossible to adequately describe that visceral pleasure of sweeping through a cavern of monsters, leaving a sea of weapons, potions, and gold in my wake. There is nothing like taking down a boss and picking up a shiny new piece of chest armor. It’s amazing that it took nearly a decade for another game (Torchlight) to get the formula right.

There are probably a hundred games worthy of the title “game of the decade,” and there are certainly a dozen of those that had a bigger emotional impact on me than Diablo 2. Yet, the time that I spent playing all of those games combined is almost certainly less than the time I have spent playing Diablo 2. If that doesn’t qualify a game for that title, I don’t know what does.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, click click click CLICK click click clack.



Sean - Rock Band

How do you determine what games towers above the rest when you have three generations of consoles, handhelds, and thousands of titles to choose from? So many games gave me great experiences once or twice, but will I be playing anything into the new decade?

I think that’s why I have to choose Rock Band. It’s so far been a perrenial classic, suits nearly every situation, and has indefinite expandability to stay relevant for years to come. When Harmonix added decent drums and married their Karaoke Revolution sensibilities to the more-kitchsy-but-still-fun Guitar Hero, they elevated the genre above indiminidating feats of perfection to a cooperative rock fest that, as its library grows, anyone can enjoy.



Evan - Pokemon Silver

This was a tough choice. There were a lot of fantastic games that came out in these past ten years, but after a lot of careful thought, Pokemon Silver rises to the top of my list. Oddly enough, the game that it competed with as my favorite game of the decade is the near-perfect Metroid Prime 2.

Ahh… Pokemon Silver. Sequel to one of the most influential and successful games in history, and it actually lives up to its name and more. Pokemon Silver, which was last great Pokemon game, took everything that Blue and Red did and perfected it. The addition of real life days of the week, a time of day system, 100 new Pokemon, Pokemon Breeding, and the ever important little exp bar in the battle screen are all things that make Pokemon Silver a classic. But it’s not just the features or the “Second Castle” (Kanto), I formed a special bond with this game.

I remember spending rainy days inside with two of my brothers, all of us playing our Pokemon games trying to level up our favorites. I remember how hard it was for me to beat the Elite Four for the first time. I remember how I stayed up late at night after night to train my Eevee so that it would evolve into an Umbreon. I remember how Pokemon Silver was the first game I ever imported and I made it all the way to the Elite Four before the game came out in English.

I have so many memories related to this game, and I think that is what makes it not only my favorite game of the decade, but one of my favorite games of all time.



Michael - Beyond Good and Evil

I thought I was gonna write about Wind Waker because it is my equivalent of what people usually refer to as the best game of all time, but then I realized that this post isn’t about that. There’s a timeliness to decades that stylistically separate them from one another and while some great games, like Wind Waker, may age fairly well over time, other great games may age as quickly as the era in which they were released. Therefore, I feel that Beyond Good and Evil is the definitive title of the past ten years that, while an all-around excellent game, is very much a product of the 00s.

BG&E is one of the last few adventure games that practiced a carryover from the previous generation of trying to include a variety of gameplay elements from all over the spectrum. It seems like most modern games choose to focus primarily on perfecting a few core game mechanics and not exposing the player to underdeveloped gameplay sequences. In Beyond Good and Evil, however, the decision to take the varied approach was consciously made and tactfully executed by Michel Ancel and his team. No part of the game was really too complex for the typical hardcore gamer, but that’s okay. Beyond Good and Evil is a well packaged story where the gameplay always makes sense as something in which the characters would logically partake. There’s not a lot of extra beef to extend the hours a gamer can put in to the title, but there are just a few neat optional excursions the player can partake in which flesh out the small yet believable world of Hillys.

In its relatively short length and somewhat curtailed story, Beyond Good and Evil still manages to tell and show the world of incredibly believable characters who rather than being traditional epic heroes are really just the simple folk caught in the middle of war between two larger factions and just want to discover the truth and achieve understanding rather than the typical “kill all badguys” mentality.

It is because of these two things, the mixture of conglomerate gameplay style that was much more typical in the days of the N64 and PS1 and the subservise tactic of depicting the primary characters not as straightforward heroes but just people on a quest for truth, that I feel that Beyond Good and Evil is one of the defining titles of this decade which will stand out for years to come.