Remember last year when I was saying how I didn’t finish as many games as before? This year was even worse. I had to check to see if I had actually played ten games from 20091. But that won’t stop this site from brining you my glorious opinion. So here we are, at another list!
The Book of Revenant’s Top Ten Games of 2009!
Number Ten is Ninth Loser
Biohazard 5
My number 10 pick for 2009 is a game I actually thought came out in 2008. The reason for this is probably because it replaced my online multiplaying of Left for Dead. In fact, it rendered me incapable of even having fun with L4D. I’ve heard complaints about the game but I found none of them in my two player cooperative runs. That’s right I completed the game multiple times. That’s enough to get a nod from me.
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Number Nine Is Still Fine
Wii Sports Resort
Wii Sports was a good Duck Hunt. Gave you a way to mess around with the crazy controller found in your Wii. Wii Sports Resort gave a bunch more to do and reasons to do it. It got my blood pumping and I even got to play it with my non-gaming significant other. That’s a victory and a good game.
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This Game Really Tries to be Eight
Street Fighter IV
Even though Ken is pretty much indestructible if you aren’t good at this game, it has a pretty solid online that, yes, you could find faults with, but also provides a great amount of other people to play with. I bought arcade sticks to play this game and I bought it on two different systems. It’s fun. Real fun.
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Honorable Mention: Sloppy and Solid All Together
Persona PSP
The little port that tried. The load times should have been faster even on the PSP. The new soundtrack is awesome, though, and I’ve already played the songs over and over in my car.
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Insert Funny Joke About the Number Seven
Seventh Dragon
Did this get placed here because of the bad number relevance? Or because it was up in the list but not that up in the list? A bit of both, really. Seventh Dragon is to Dragon Quest as Etrian Odyssey is to Wizardry. The big difference is that Wizardry games are hard, but DQ games usually aren’t. This leaves Seventh Dragon in a difficult place as it really is much tougher than its skeleton makes you think it will be. This doesn’t stop my enjoyment, though.
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Give Me More Six
New Super Mario Brothers Wii
Fun is what this game is about. It’s what this game brings to the table. People kept raving about New Super Mario Brothers and I just didn’t get it. This time, although, I get it. NSMB Wii is what we the people want out of a 2D Mario game. The multiplay is an awesome experience as well.
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Trying To Stay A Five
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
My aforementioned Biohazard 5 stint went on for a good time but it, and the coop experience of Left 4 Dead just don’t scratch all the itches for online first person shooting. Modern Warfare 2 does just that and gives RPG like stat management which drives me wild.
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Honorable Mention: Best Game of 2009 I Bought But Didn’t Play
FRAGILE
The name sounds cool and the box looks awesome. And it’s a horror game! I just… didn’t get around to it.
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I Want Four and Four
SaGa 2: GODDESS OF DESTINY
If you know me the only surprise about the list is that this isn’t number one. Well, I wanted it to be. SaGa 2, known as Final Fantasy Legend 2 in the USA, is the game that really got me going with RPGs. This game is awesome and a fine remake with good additions. So fine that it didn’t get an Honorable Mention and made it into the list despite being a remake. But the top 3 were just better.
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This Game is Right for Three
Dragon Quest IX Protectors of the Starry Sky
What a year. A new DQ and a new Final Fantasy as well. I’ve always had. DQ9 added some changes with the monsters on field and the multiplayer. I found these hurt the game just a little. What was left, though, is still an awesome fulfilling Dragon Quest experience. Worthy of any RPG lover’s time.
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The Almost Made It To Number 1 of 2009
Final Fantasy XIII
Maybe it’s that the game isn’t FF12. Maybe it’s the child in me. FFXIII is just good. It is the transition from FF10 and FF10-2 that I had been feeling in my bones. It’s everything I wanted in a Final Fantasy game. It’s not everything I want in an RPG, it’s not everything I want in a game. I don’t know if such a game would ever exist. But what I wanted in Final Fantasy XIII is there.
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Honorable Mention
Pocket Monsters Heart Gold
I remember picking up Pokémon Gold my senior year of highschool and loving all the changes it made to the formula. It really was the upgrade that every new Pokémon iteration since should have used as a standard. As much as I love Pokémon, this has sadly not been the case. Nonetheless, playing through this remake is a great trip down memory lane and dare I say even better than the first time.
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The Best Damn Game of 2009
Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor
I love RPGs. There is a subpart, though, the strategy RPG, that I dislike. When Atlus announced that a new MegaTen game would be a strategy RPG, I was worried. I have tried many times to play strategy RPGs and never got through them. This year alone I have tried to get through Final Fantasy Tactics twice to no avail. Why? Because of how much fun I had playing Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor. This game didn’t make the whole genre playable to me, but it gave me a chance to enjoy a genre I previously did not. I recommend this heartily to all of you who have tried the Strategy RPG genre and never found it quite to your likings. It’s just amazing.
- Don’t worry, I have! [↩]
