QuickJump QuickList special edition: 2007 Games of the Year (with a QJ.NET twist)
We can’t have a whole slew of QuickJump QuickPeek special editions without having QuickList’s own fanfare, now can we? As one of QJ.NET’s mainstay features that crop up every now and then, this QuickJump QuickList special edition will be especially special to be redundantly descriptive. We’re compiling a unique list of games from 2007 that we here in QJ.NET believe aren’t worth missing out on. On to the list at the full article!
First things first, this isn’t just your normal kind of “Game of the Year” list. We’re adding a bit of the special QJ.NET spice to the same old formula that comes out every year across many publications – both online or on print.
We’ve added a handful games that you could call wildcards. More specifically, games that we think deserve a second chance. They’re the diamonds in the rough, so to speak; the ones that some of you may have missed.
Oh yes, we’re still going to be listing down a couple of the hard-hitting titles – the games that we know you’re expecting would eventually land on a regular GotY list. But see, isn’t that the point of adding a twist to this GotY formula? If all we did was list down the titles most of you are expecting to be here, then that just defeats the whole purpose!
If you still insist on checking out the biggest games of the year though, you can check out the big barge of QuickJump QuickPeek special edition fireworks we set off the other day. We’ve got separate entries for the PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, DS, and PC.
So, take a gander! You never know what you’re going to find below. We’re listing them down in no particular order, just a healthy barrage of good titles that have caused countless sleepless nights among many a gamer.
Calling all Cars! – Incognito Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment
PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
I think I’ve had more raw fun in its fast, frantic, and ridiculously fun four player face-offs than I’ve had with just about any 3D game in the history of forever. Hyperbole? I don’t think so. While there’s definitely fun to be found in games like God of War 2, or Halo 3, or Mass Effect, Calling All Cars! grabs you by the short and curlies and doesn’t let go for the from the minute a match starts, till the second the timer hits zero – it’s an adrenaline fueled ride like no other.
You’ll yell, scream, curse, swear and stare incredulously as a boost powered opponent zooms by to swipe the cagey criminal scum from under your nose, do a 360 off a steep ramp and dump him off at the jail cell, all before you can say, “dude! WHAT THE @#&*!!” The best part? This happens in just about every encounter, CAC! is pure unadulterated gaming goodness, it’s the good old days of 2D reincarnated, a love letter to a bygone era, simple but addicting pick up and play funness!
The only down side? Fickle gamers. Sad to say, but once the shiny sheen of newness wore off gamers moved on to the next new thing. Because of this CAC!‘s community suffered a premature death, never given room to breath or a chance to find its feet, it wasn’t long before people moved on. All hail the disposable society!
Portal – Valve Corporation
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Portal deserves to be a part of this QuickList for three reasons. First, the game’s insanely fun (insanely is the word) and innovative. The gameplay is relatively simple, but Valve did a bang up job making this fun and worth playing over and over. And over.
The second reason is none other than GLADoS herself. She’s practically the personality of the entire game. She may be a b… um… feisty computer, but the game just wouldn’t be the same without her.
The third reason is the credits song: Still Alive by Jonathan Coulton. And with that, I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
– Isaac C.
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords – Infinite Interactive, D3Publisher
Nintendo DS, PSP, Xbox 360 (XBLA), PC, Nintendo Wii
If there’s one thing that really makes Puzzle Quest stand out, it’s Drong, your cannibalistic comrade-in-arms.
Yes, forget about the excellent gameplay, the great visuals (regardless of which version you’re playing) and the other characters this game has to offer. Those are givens.
The main reason why I fell in love with this game was to see what Drong wouldn’t eat. Ever since I dragged an ogre carcass back to his doorstep, nothing’s ever been the same. Every quest was less of an adventure to destroy Lord Bane as it was a gourmand’s quest to find something edible for Drong. True enough, Drong will even eat the body of Lord Bane in the end, if you have him in your party, and that’s one heck of a way to end a purportedly kid-centered game.
Trauma Center: New Blood – Atlus
Nintendo Wii
Any game that allows two people to play doctor together deserves to be on this QuickList. Seriously, Trauma Center: New Blood is the latest and arguably the overall best in a trilogy that stands in a league of its own. New Blood takes some of the best elements from previous Trauma Center games and tweaks them to the point of excellence.
What’s new this time around? To name a few: new doctors, hot new female characters, new challenge missions, new disease strains, more surgical situations patterned after “real-life,” a new variation of the Healing Touch, full voice acting (as performed by notable voice actors in the voice-over industry), and for those who have played the previous games in the series, a couple of very, very welcome cameo appearances.
Of course, the meat and bones this time around is the two-player cooperative mode, complete with all the fun little nuances of surgical team strategy. With all the goodies that New Blood offers, it may prove a difficult task for most developers to improve upon a surgical simulation such as this one.
– David T.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 – Cing, Nintendo Company Ltd.
Nintendo DS
Cing’s Hotel Dusk: Room 215 deserves to be on this list, not only because it was an immersive game that not only grabs your attention with its in-depth storyline, but because it managed to show gamers – especially in the Western regions – that games aren’t all about pugilism, shooting, or even saving princesses.
The protagonist Kyle Hyde’s dry humor never fails to deliver. You can’t help but smirk at his abrasive wit, and also sympathize for him and the other characters as you amble along, solving the mystery behind Hotel Dusk.
Granted, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is more of an interactive novel of sorts, but it managed to deliver stories that no paperback novel can do.
– Sally B.
Crush – Zoe Mode, Sega
PSP
I’ve always maintained that the Zelda series was virtually unrivaled in the level design department. And that’s whether you’re playing the 3D Zelda titles or the earlier 2D top-down iterations. Fortunately for Crush, it doesn’t fall short in this element. In fact, the guys in Zoe Mode have earned my respect in that they were able to conceive of levels that are perfectly laid out whether on 2D, 3D, or, more aptly put, in 2d-to-3d-and-back-again.
To say that the gameplay of Crush is a mind job to understand (especially if described with feeble words) is an overwhelming understatement; it’s actually simpler than it sounds by the time you’ve finished the tutorials with Dr. Reuben – required mad scientist accent included.
Crush has taken the 2D and 3D platformer-puzzle paradigm and flipped it around (literally and figuratively) and redefined it into a unique concept and dimensional plane altogether. While Super Paper Mario only had the 2D-3D switching element from a side scrolling view, Crush takes it a step further by including a top-down bird’s eye view twist.
Indeed, M.C. Escher would have been proud.
– Gino D.
Super Mario Galaxy – Nintendo Company Ltd.
Nintendo Wii
So maybe Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube didn’t live up to the standards that Super Mario 64 established back in the day. With the renaissance that Nintendo is now enjoying with the Wii, Mario has also made a strong case for this year’s top honors. With its insane level design, innovative and easy controls, refreshing gameplay, and lovable characters, Super Mario Galaxy punched itself a one-way ticket to gaming’s all time elite.
Naysayers will always poke fun at Super Mario Galaxy as too softcore, but after fighting the first boss, this blogger begs to disagree. In that vile encounter, Mario lands on a small planet with a huge egg resting ever so innocently on top. But wait! There seems to be an elastic tail with a rock attached to its end protruding out of the egg.
You whack the rock and it goes flying into space, only to be pulled back by the elastic tail. The rock smashes the egg open, letting loose an understandably upset, but totally cute flower dinosaur creature. Instead of apologizing, Mario has to whack the rock over and over again to send it reeling back and smashing the cute monster dead. And they call this a kids’ game? What would Dr. Phil say?
– Glen D.
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl – Game Freak, Nintendo Company Ltd., The Pokemon Company
Nintendo DS
Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl proved one thing to Nintendo: that people can never be too old for Pokemon. Yes, even with the series having more notches in its belt (movies, merchandising, animated TV series, the works) than a guy with lots of notches in his belt, the English releases of Diamond and Pearl made it clear that ol’ Ninty has one of the strongest if not THE strongest franchises in its arsenal. Oh, and the games themselves are fun to play, too.
With Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, players who thought they had finally outgrown the phenomenon found themselves suddenly being pulled back in. With no less than a bajillion new Pokemon added to the ever-increasing list of monsters you can catch, battle, or pimp the everliving crap out of (with the Super Contests and all), it was time to catch ’em all again.
But besides a meatier roster and improvements in both the graphics and sound, the latest entry of the Pokemon series also included a new feature that was a long time coming – online play. Now you could trade or battle against fellow Pokemon masters from all over the world, truly making the art of setting cute monsters against each other a global experience.
We all know what should be next, though. A Pokemon MMORPG. Ninty, you have the ball on this one.
– Ryan C.
BioShock – 2K Boston, 2K Australia, 2K Games
Xbox 360, PC
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Bioshock is, without a doubt, one of the most complete games this year. Splicers spouting the most disturbing lines while coming at you with shotguns and dynamites barely touch the tip of the iceberg. It’s a first-person shooter polished to near perfection peppered with other gameplay elements that many FPSes don’t offer.
An engaging narrative and a plot full of intrigue make for a very horrifying (in a good way) trip through the majestic underwater city known as Rapture. As players go along and blindly follow mysterious personalities in an attempt to go back to the surface, the action intensifies when new types of enemies appear and more Plasmids become available.
Of course, there are also the big daddies and little sisters that bring extra scares to the table. Aside from electrocuting the bad guys and hacking vending machines for cheaper purchases, you’ll be making moral decisions trying to figure out whether to harvest little girls for extra firepower, or save them to feel a bit fuzzy inside.
Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar – Stardock
PC
Galactic Civilizations and all its expansions conveniently fall under the notorious category of what I’d like to call the “Just one more turn” genre of games. Turn-based strategy games such this have contributed to many sleepless nights and the classic “eyebagged” look for many gamers who love playing these kinds of games, this blogger included.
Watching your little space empire Explore, Expand, Exploit and Exterminate the other alien races is definitely a joy to behold as the developers continually add new features to pave your way to complete galactic domination. I especially love the way how Stardock carefully puts into consideration all the comments gamers put up as suggestions with what they want to see in future expansions of the series.
Speaking of which, I can’t wait until the next expansion comes out next year when Twilight of the Arnor finally allows you to commission the mighty Terror Stars. I can think of no other way to bring out your inner Vader while you happily blow up planets in your wake.
Godzilla: Unleashed – Pipeworks Software, Atari
Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2
Giant rubbery monsters going at it in various cities. That’s gaming gold right there. Well, I’m pretty sure that some might disagree with my assessment, I stand by my decision to include Godzilla: Unleashed to this list.
The battles in the game have a certain aspect to it that makes you feel like you’re controlling a giant monster. In addition, the different tactical possibilities in every level add a layer of complexity to each match.
The story mode isn’t as deep as some of the more involved games in the market, but it still provides an interesting playthrough and a variety of missions to keep players hooked. Me? I’m on my eighth run through and still counting.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward, Activision
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo DS
Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? I was hesitant regarding Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare when it first got announced, given it launched just months after the appearance of FPS juggernauts like Halo 3 and Bioshock. After a long play-through of Open Beta and the PC port, however, I happily put down my doubts like the last guy who stared down the business end of my M4 Carbine.
And while the single-player mode was disagreeably short, this title wins out with the sheer fun that the multiplayer mode offers. The customizability over weapons and skills gave players of different tastes the right tools to fit their style.
And let’s not forget the game physics: unsuppressed weapon fire is detected with unerring accuracy on your map, and footsteps can easily be traced to their source. While effects like these force brazen gunslingers to plot their moves carefully, it doesn’t slow the gameplay any.
It’s a decidedly fast and furious romp that’ll satisfy even the more adrenaline-stoked couchside warriors out there. Indeed – the franchise’s step into the 21st century is a healthy blend of its classic action, and much-needed innovation.
– Tim Y.
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