What a year to be indie. We've had tons of amazing games come out within the past 365 days; I'm sure we all have our favorites. Mr. "Meat Boy" McMillen compiled his top ten Flash games, and the fine gentlemen at IndieGames.com made a list of their own. I humbly suggest that Tim and Michael had a couple glaring omissions in their list, but this could be attributed to the strength of the titles that came out this year. The following are nothing more than personal preference, I actually encourage you to discuss your own favorites. Without further ado, here's my top five.
5. -- Captain Successor
Modular Lego construction, Asteroids shump-ness, and real-time player-generated content... all in one title? Throw on top of all this an open-ended Roguelike progression system and you have a game that is mathematically proven to be awesome. And for you that haven't made the upgrade from Forever yet, you really are missing out. My ramming spike monstrosity (with bubble shields, natch) could totally kick your ship's ass.
4. -- RunMan: Race Around the World
This game is just really, really, fun. If we didn't have the stiff competition of the two platformers below this would have been an easy game of the year. Screw Sonic -- how 'bout that banjo music?
3. -- Home
This game moved me. The gameplay brought a tear to my eye, all the while having assests that would be at home on an Atari title. Forget Rohrer-what's-his-name, Stephen Lavelle is the king of the art game. Check here sometime next week for further proof.
2. -- VVVVVV
This is one place where Tim, Michael, and I agree on. I love this game and it's still only in beta. If it weren't for a couple of 4chan dicks said beta would still be available, but the wait is indeed worth it. I mean every word of my review. I wish I could have grown up playing it, so I could have fond memories of the game right now.
1. -- Mother effing Spelunky
This game changed the way I view the medium. This is the future. Derek Yu opened the Pandora's Box of procedural generation for real-time games and there isn't any going back. I've played for countless hours and hundreds of playthroughs and I still can't get enough. I've felt the joy of exploring a world Metroid-style, blowing up giant spiders with a shotgun straight from Doom, and feared for my life in a dark jungle level infested with ghouls -- all in one playthrough. This is by far my favorite game of the year, and it's high up there on my all-time list. It makes you excited about the future of our medium, doesn't it?
(Honorable mentions should go to both Doom, the Roguelike and the iPhone's Hook Champ for devouring a good deal of my time this year as well.)
Spelunky's from 2008
Spelunky came out December 21st, 2008. It's not a 2009 release.
Not Quite
Aha, but that wasn't the final 1.00 release -- which did indeed come out this year. I didn't play it till about June at any rate; it was about the same time I discovered Chris Crawford's collection of written works.
Yeah I agree we should let
Yeah I agree we should let Spelunky roll into '09.
Notably, three out of five of your selections were platform games.
Perhaps next year things will really get weird.
linux :(
LINUX SPELUNKY PLZ
no reason not to exist
meanwhile i'll play the DOOM roguelike until it's out
Linux spelunky
@parkbench: Apparently the spelunky source code will be opened some time soonish, and I guess someone will make a linux version available after that.
From a note on the main site: "I'm planning on opening up the source code before the end of the year so that people can modify the game to their heart's content."
Parkbench: SPELUNKY LINUX
Parkbench: SPELUNKY LINUX HAXXORZ HERE. Or at least it should work, I don't run Linux. Consider it an early Christmas present. =p
Patrick: Yeah, I was suprised at how many amazing platformers came out this year as well; all three are up there in my echelon of 'favorites of all time'. Since the industry has phased out the genre (they've gone the way of the FMV game it seems) it looks like indie dev's are filling that gap. I'm hoping for craziness come 2010 as well. Then again I haven't gotten to sample Mount & Blade or Solarium Infirnum yet, those look pretty awesome.
So what was everybody's favorite this year?
"Stephen Lavelle is the king
"Stephen Lavelle is the king of the art game"
damn right! it's about time people realize that increpare is already doing everything the rest of the world is still arguing if it could be done.
Hmm...
"Forget Rohrer-what's-his-name, Stephen Lavelle is the king of the art game"
It's not that I don't like any of two because I spend time exploring games of both and I consider them two of maybe dozen designers known to me whose games should be known widely.
But I think that this statement is just a sort of, em, a mistake, to not say faux pas. It makes me feel as if someone 30 years ago would try to say "hey, forget about Coppola because Scorsese is here!". So wrong, isn't it? Both Jason and Stephen have their own languages of telling stories, of telling their games to the players. And both of these languages seem very intimate, original and true. While I personally think that there is more of Jason in his games, I cannot resist to appreciate creations of both spending hours and hours on thinking who they are (basing on their art), or what their games really mean, or what interpretation fits them from my point of view.
I mean, seriously, we don't need to see game artists (and how many of them became known in indie community? 4? 6? 10?!) as enemies or sides we can choose. See their work as something astonishing even if you don't agree with or don't understand Yet. Because sooner or later, if you will become more sensitive, open and insightful, most likely you will find something interesting in every creation.
It's not that I dislike
It's not that I dislike Rohrer; by all means Passage is a monumental game. It's just that Jason got a NY-Times article and Stephen is criminally underappreciated. As a reviewer it's my job to point you towards amazing games and developers, I really dig Stephen's stuff so I really stress how engrossing his works are. Lavelle is also extremely prolific, I'm in the process of writing up a combo-review of four of his games he made within the past six weeks (and that doesn't include the three other games made in this timeframe). I'm not trying to turn this into a Genesis vs. Super Nintendo fanboy war, I just wish more people knew of increpare.