LogFAQs > #876682567

2008


Notable Games:

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Audiosurf
Barkley: Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
Bionic Commando Rearmed
Braid
Castle Crashers
Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Dead Space
Devil May Cry 4
Disgaea 3
Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Fable 2
Fallout 3
Far Cry 2
Final Fantasy IV DS
Gears of War 2
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Grand Thefy Auto IV
Street FIghter II: HD Remix
Left 4 Dead
Littlebigplanet
Lost Odyssey
Mario Kart Wii
Mega Man 9
Metal Gear Solid 4
Mirror's Edge
N+
No More Heroes
Patapon
Persona 4
Rock Band 2
Saints Row 2
Spore
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Tales Of Vesperia
The World Ends With You
Valkyria Chronicles
Wii Fit

transience's take:

1 - Geometry Wars 2
2 - N+
3 - Mega Man 9
4 - Castle Crashers
5 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Overall: 2nd

Gamerankings:

1 - GTA4
2 - LittleBigPlanet
3 - World of Goo
4 - Metal Gear Solid 4
5 - Gears of War 2

GOTY Media Picks:

1 - Fallout 3 (69)
2 - GTA4 (39)
3 - MGS4 (38)
4 - LittleBigPlanet (24)
5 - Gears of War 2 (8)

GameFAQs:

1 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
1a - Metal Gear Solid 4
3 - Fallout 3

Dear god. This year. 2008 has the most video games that I care about over any year by far. It's just an incredible assortment of awesome-ass video games. I can easily make a top 20 of the year and I'm pretty picky about my video games. I came super close to putting it #1.

Where to start? I can't hit on all of these because it will be like 8 posts and I'm not Heroic Mario or Leonhart. I guess I can start with the two blockbusters that overshadowed the rest of the year (and honestly, the last 2 years). Super Smash Bros. Brawl's release was almost anticlimactic because there was SO much hype for SO long that there was just no way to actually enjoy it as a simple standalone video game. Never before or since had there been a media cycle quite like this one. Every night at 3am there were updates that people tuned in for. Sometimes it was YOU MUST RECOVER and sometimes it was new characters. It went on for a year. Brawl finally came out after years of waiting and delays and was.. pretty good? I played this game to death in 2008. I never got into Melee and never played Smash 64, but Brawl hit a sweet spot with me as I finally had friends on a similar skill level to play with. I won't go too deep here because Brawl has been overanalyzed for a real long time. What I will say is that the shift from extreme excitement to minority disappointment to all-around ambivalence has been a really interesting dynamic with this game. Casual fans moved on to Smash 4 and competitive fans stuck with Melee. Brawl ended up in this weird spot. I still think this game is great though. I can't really justify playing it today as I don't have anyone to play against anymore. I generally feel like you can only really love one of these games since they're so similar and Brawl was that game for me.
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xyzzy