The Second Annual Coint and Plick Poll: ILG’s Best Video Games of 2008

is super smash gonna place in this? easily my fav game OTY

Can't wait until we get out of one vote land!

Gonna be awhile, but I actually like the one shots! Given the number of games that charted and the number of people who voted, the average is that each person nominated four unique games and then picked six that others had nominated. What I glean from that is we recognize a good game when we see one and, by and large, have surprisingly similar tastes. Stands to reason to me that means that these one shots are probably an excellent way to discover overlooked gems.

super smash is totally going to place, but might get dragged down by non-wii ownership

predict it still doing pretty well though.

great job with this forks! kind of weird nhl only got one vote.

Two way tie for #68 here:

68: Iji (PC) – 6 points – 1 vote – FREE GAME
Official game site – Download Here

http://bulk.destructoid.com/ul/104397-/iji_screen3-noscale.jpg

Nhex: Iji is a freeware 2D platform shooter inspired by Amiga era games and action titles like 'Flashback' and 'Out of this World'. With its great music and long story mode, this could easily have been a commercial title in the late 80s. It’s clearly a project of passion and it shows in the details of the menu interfaces and cutscene dialogue.

Two of those #70s were mine - both things I thought would have other support. Weird.

68: Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (DS) – 6 points – 1 vote
Official game site

Iroquois Pliskin: What's remarkable about Shiren is how much unlearning it foists the player inured to the conventions of traditional-RPGs. All the trappings of the game bespeak RPG standbys: there's an inventory full of swords and spell scrolls, recovery herbs, and the like. There's experience points and levels and so on. But Shiren the Wanderer swiftly undercuts this expectation; all the elements of the RPG language are there, but the basic syntax of the game is radically different. It all turns on the game's attitude towards progression. In the classic Role-Playing Game, core appeal of the genre is the progressive empowerment of your player-characters over the course of the game. Whatever the setting, you expect to continually gain levels acquire better weapons. When you die in Shiren, there is no progress-saving resurrection item on offer. Every time you fall, you irretrievably lose all of your levels and items. You start again from level one in the starting town. There are persistent elements of the game, which progress and improve between playthroughs, but your character isn't one of them.

http://dsmedia.gamespy.com/ds/image/article/850/850522/mystery-dungeon-shiren-the-wanderer-20080207031039179-000.jpg

hahaha btw i do not remember like half of the stupid things i sd about games lol drunk posting

i can only think of two maybe three games that someone else might have voted for that i voted for ;_;

I didn't play enough games this year to think I oughta vote but I will just say Shiren the Wanderer is bloody fantastic

Forks, didn't mean to diss the one-votes - it's cool. Just curious to see the games where more than one random person was interested in enough to put on their poll

shiren sounds bizarre!

do you level up in it (only to lose the levels?)

I can diggit Jeff; just warning you that we're looking at another day or two of single votes ahead.
I also really wanna play Shiren.

67: Dyson – (PC) – 8 points – 1 vote – FREE GAME
Official game site – Download Here

http://www.indiegames.com/blog/images/timw/dyson2a.png

Whoa Dyson looks cool.

indeed, does look AWESOME

66: Guitar Hero: World Tour (360/Wii) – 9 points – 2 votes
Official game site

CraigG: Simply put, I'm just really good at Guitar Hero! Ironically, it also improved my speed and given me a renewed vigor for playing the "real" guitar.

Forksclovetofu: Man, I gotta say I don't know if I can buy another fucking C-Note plastic Fisher Price instrument for another system without beginning to feel badly about myself as a person but I do kinda want this for my 360. Online play that works would make this a whole new game.

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/10/bill-gates-with-slash.jpg

more later tonight; my work internet is buh-roken

I abstained from this just because there are 3 or 4 08 games I expect to be contenders which I've not finished (or even started) yet. Which, in retrospect, was a bit daft really. Regretting not getting my votes in now, but hey.

gg forks!

Nice work forks, looking forward to the following installments!

forks if i submit now can you completely do over the whole thing

why is there no #69????

No sixty-nine, cause of a two way tie for sixty-eight.
S1ocks, you're obliged to be the first ballot for when I do this next year.

There's a log jam of twelve ten-point-one-vote games tied for #55 and here they are.

55: Space Invaders Extreme (PSP) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

Brilliam: This game is like a Basement Jaxx record: familiar, but so over-the-top noisy and fun and colorful and explosive that you can't help but shake your ass with excitement every time you put it on. Space Invaders Extreme, perhaps even moreso than Pac-Man Championship Edition of last year, nails updated retro gaming.

cozwyn: Distracting and fun!

jamescobo: 2008 might be an even better year for remakes than for "new" games.

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/space-invaders-fractal-big.jpg

JimD: It's fantastic! Space Invaders in a Rez style with a complex and addictive combo system and fun weapon power ups. Bizarrely addictive and highly recommended.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_v0fV15P7uQo/RmQCWGSr1PI/AAAAAAAAAsg/EiyBbnWrPy8/s400/EARTH+1.JPG

55: Karoshi 2.0 (PC) – 10 points - 1 vote – FREE GAME
Official game site

Karoshi is a Japanese word and means 'death by overwork'. In this game many things are not what you'd expect and the goal of each level is counter-intuitive: you need to die.

http://www.vertigogaming.net/PSP/Karoshi0.png

55: Boom Blox (Wii) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

Iroquois Pliskin: It's the finest Wii game since Wii sports and maybe even better.

Tombot: Boom Blox is pretty fun! I thought the music was the worst part, as the loops are too short and obvious but I do like being able to pick off the animals if I'm doing badly.

Forksclovetofu : Surely a great game although you will feel like a dork for playing electronic Jenga with a glorified remote even if it is THE FUTURE OF FUN!!!!! I only wish the developers had the courage to stop trying to make me get involved in some totally arbitrary anthropomorphic storyline. Great, you are chickens fighting in the old west and monkeys defending a citadel. Guess what? NO ONE CARES. WE JUST WANNA BLOW SHIT UP.

http://www.gameguru.in/images/boom-blox-1.jpg

Lamp: Not only is this addictive and awesome but it also has a great soundtrack from Mark Mothersbaugh. One of the levels has this jazz groove track that sounds like WTF Nintendevo and it is really rad. Overall though, it's no Dokapon Kingdom.

55: Trackmania United Forever (PC) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

JeffLevine: I finally got into this game and what sold me was the fun, crazy community levels online. Internet play is really smooth and it's a great way to sample all kinds of user made tracks. The only downside is that sometimes those tracks are kind of broken or just too confusing for a quick jump in and try out race against fifty (or whatever) other people. Great fun though when you find a good server. Trying to improve your line and move up the leaderboard is really satisfying but awful hard; I'm currently in 638,374 place in the world rankings. The free version of the game (online mode + 65 offline tracks) should be able to be run fine on most people's PCs, I think. Just saying.

Cozwyn : This game is great: the N+ of racing games. Damn if it isn't addicting. I'm happy with the DS 'port; the handling is a bit twitchy but the unlock structure and instant restarts makes it compulsively playable.

http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/gaming/upload/2008/05/TrackMania%20United%20Forever%202.jpg

55: Peggle Nights (PC) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

http://www.spendtimeonline.com/gamepics/p/peggle-nights/peggle-nights_sc2.jpg

http://rockpapershotgun.com/images/sept07/gmanlovespegglelarge.jpg

55: Gears of War 2 (360 ) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

CraigG: A perfect bit of mindless entertainment, with a storyline (and acting) on a par with Walking Tall.

The novelist Nathan Englander, a fan of the game, cites its third-person viewpoint, in which the player looks over the shoulder of the character being controlled, as a key to its success. 'In literary terms,' Englander told me, 'it’s a close-second-person shooter. It’s Jay McInerney and Lorrie Moore territory. You’re both totally involved and totally watching.' As for the collapsed architecture and blown-open spaces of the Gears world, Englander said, 'There’s the hospital from Blindness and the house from The Ghost Writer, and I know that beautiful, ruined world of Gears as well as either of those.'

http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/71A0F56C-2037-41A7-B8C4-746BF90E5D07/0/gowguy.jpg

Jim: It's an improvement on the previous game but the only reservation I have about it is that there's too much non-shooting orientated gameplay. They obviously tried to switch things up a little and so you end up doing platformer type shit for about 45 minutes. Climax of this game is weak-sauce; no tough boss or anything. All in all, decent game but too many vehicle sections and not focused enough on the usual combat. I still enjoyed it.

Forksclovetofu : I think we can all agree that GoWII is not going to be remembered as this generation's Bleak House.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2008/20080811.jpg

55: Chrono Trigger DS (DS) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

Cankles: Best game ever and anyone who disagrees can eatadiccup. Revisiting a lot of older games (or really just shit in general that I loved when I was ten or eleven years old) is almost uniformly v.v.v.v. unrewarding.
Except for Chrono Trigger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's pretty unique among Squaresoft bullshit in that regard. FF7 is atrocious to me today, but I could probably sit down and HELLA dig on some CT.
It was the first videogame I was actually able to BEAT on my own. *** lone, manful tear trickles down face, is absorbed by neckbeard ***
There's a puffed-up, Fisher Price, safety scissors quality to CT that really helps it out in the long run. CT just wanted to be a shiny, flashy experience that fleshed out a smaller, simpler world (gaming- and narrative-wise) and ended up succeeding on all the levels that all the FF games flailed and failed at.

Jamescobo: I’m the guy who voted for Chrono Trigger and yes, I only gave it ten points. Now, obviously, Chrono Trigger would easily be the greatest game released in any year in which it happened to actually hit stores; it's just such a minimally enhanced port on so many levels that it's impossible for me to vote it in any higher than this. TAKE THAT, SQUARE ENIX. My sincerest condolences to the families torn apart by all the soon-to-be suicides among S-E shareholders; a bereavement ham will be airmailed to you next Thursday.

http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/chronotrigger-cosplay.jpg

Fight the same series of wimps in the forect for an hour or two? I DON'T THINK SO. I think I'll BEAT THE GAME 3 times.

Will M: The great thing about CT is that there's virtually no running around in circles to get experience points; there's almost no item management (aside from buying new weapons when you can and the occasional potion) and talking to the villagers is pretty fucking entertaining. The game never wastes your time with MEDIEVAL VILLAGER #457 FROM THE TOWN OF LUHIM or whatever. Battles are fast. The sheer lack of a "battle screen saves about 6 seconds per battle versus, say, FF3. Beyond that, you can avoid battles when you want to. You can't avoid them ALL, but you can avoid enough of them that it's awesome. Add up the speedy battle pacing and perfectly metered episodic quests and adventures and you've got a game that is fun to play at all times. There's always something to do; there's always at least a mild sense of urgency and there's always new environments to explore.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Dmi7Txvz7iI/R-gy7EHEVrI/AAAAAAAAAMk/5-HFmtB-zO0/s400/chrono-trigger-return.GIF

Nhex: It's one of my all-time favorites but still, try not to let the nostalgia/hype faze you. You're starting with probably the most distilled essence of the SNES DQ/FF formulas at the end of an era so if you're not already into that genre, it may turn out not to be your thing.

Caek: You know how the first 30 minutes of The Royal Tenenbaums is just montage? The first few hours of Chrono Trigger is like that. No rhythm. Really weird.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c15/chefstubbies/chtatpic.jpg

Lamp: For me, the point where you first get the ship is when I fell for Chrono Trigger. Once the game opened up a little and offered the ability to pursue each of the character's individual stories at my own pace, to create random parties and discover new abilities, it just got crazy rewarding and immersive. Superfun.

55: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

Mitch Krpata: Finally, a Final Fantasy VII product worthy of the name. It's all heart. Crisis Core would be compulsively playable even if you’d never spent a moment with Final Fantasy VII. The basic mechanics share much with traditional RPGs, but they’ve been streamlined to include some real-time action elements. Although combat is still menu-driven — you can choose to attack, cast spells, and use items from your inventory — you maintain full control of Zack at all times and can block or dodge at will. Zack travels and fights alone, without a supporting cast of characters. This is different from what you find in most Final Fantasy games; it makes for economical use of the PSP’s screen and the relatively brief battle sequences keep the action moving.

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5125/official9yc0.jpg

55: Nancy Drew: White Wolf of Icicle Creek (Wii) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

http://static.gamecrazy.com/images/games/boxart/13038.jpg

Lamp: I kind of loved the general theme of downward mobility and turn-of-the-century cut-scenes that light the characters in this game in such a ghoulish, polygonal fashion; it’s a perfect fit for a murder mystery.. The Arctic setting is pretty on point for a frigid sleuth like Nancy and the puzzles are great and surprisingly tough. Good use of the wiimote as well. It’s not quite as good a game as Zack and Wiki, but in the same vein and still pretty dope.

55: You Have to Burn the Rope (Internet/PC) – 10 points - 1 vote
Official game site

Nhex: Needs no explanation. In my heart, it deserves MORE points.

David R: LOL at folks on the interwebs saying "I keep on hitting the boss with my axe, but it doesn't work!"

http://www.mazapan.se/tmp/yhtbtr.png

Tombot: Is there a three-page Gamasutra article about this yet?

Noodle Vague: I thought this was shit until the third go when I unlocked the secret room.

End Music MP3

55: Buzz! Quiz TV (PS3) – 10 points – 1 vote
Official game site

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/da/Leeroy_Jenkins_Jeopardy_clue.jpg

this is such a weird list so far

How can you not love a list where Gears of War 2 ties with You Have to Burn the Rope?

Okay, more later.

hahaha btw i do not remember like half of the stupid things i sd about games lol drunk posting
― Lamp, Wednesday, February 4, 2009 4:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

qft

oh. me being drunk obv, and my stupid shit

is there some wacky script hiding somewhere on this page btw? it's loading and scrolling v.slow, it's unreadable for me : //////

Didn't know about space invaders extreme, think i'll have to get it.

It would've placed higher if I'd voted (Nothing else on the list so far would've).

Coz, i'm having to log in anonymously to read the thread. Try that and tell me if it's the same problem you're having.

great work btw, sorry wasn't bitching ^^;

Not at all; it looks hella crappy unless I'm logged out... in some cases, a lot of the post simply doesn't show!

It looks fine for me - it's just slow to load because it's pulling in so many large images from different places and youtube videos & slow to scroll because images don't have height and width tags so as they load in they change the formatting of the thread.

yah it was loading slow for me last nite but i have img off at work and it loads quickly - altho i think with img off some of the comments are lost e.g the boom blox entry which had like four or five and has none now. either that or forx has been editing for brevity?

Nope. Just general board weirdness.

Two way tie for #53.

#53: Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (DS) – 10 points – 2 votes

Official game site

http://www.ripten.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/etodd2-header.jpg

Forksclovetofu : Awesomely hardcore; I got killed a dozen times before I realized that there are baddies in this cart that you simply should not fuck with unless you've got major hours logged. Typical Atlas: it asks so much from you, delivers a thin opiate gruel and demands that you step up to the plate hard if you wanna suckle. The mapping element and obsessive grinding really reminded me of bygone epic junior high Basic D&D campaigns. Definitively the opposite of “casual gaming”; requires you to devote way too much energy to ciphers and care far more than you should about showing the game who’s boss.

Lamp: I had a pretty good time with the dungeon mapping element that allows you to graph out the dungeons on the DS touchscreen instead of forcing you to remember layouts or keep a hand-drawn map of your own. It's a pretty narrow and obsessive little game, but it can get engrossing.

The first level of Etrian's labyrinth is filled with a number of beasts that don't appear too tough, though once you reach the first boss and realize that this over-sized dinosaur can kill any of your party members with a single swipe, you're forced to spend literally hours killing the snails and hedgehogs you so recently took for granted, just to crank up your experience points enough to survive the dragon. And it only gets worse from there.

Abbott: Freaking impossible.

http://www.gamingnexus.com/Images/News/8853/3.jpg

Will M : You have to, like, try.

fuck that game fuck that game fuck that game.

Every time I read that I wonder if I am actually G-Zeus and maybe I hit my head and had a coma but SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE AND UI JUST PLAYED FABLE II FOR OVER 2 HOURS

exhibit a: "had a coma"

Not to slight the hard work you've been doing, but for the compiled list of all games, you should probably hyperlink all the games on the list to their respective entry pages... I don't even want to think about how annoying that would be to do!

that was actually on my to-do list after I get the 2007 results up. you ppl better thank your lucky stars that no woman would ever have me.

oh right, the 2007 results were just a straight-up ILX poll result. they're up now, so I'll get started on this rn since I'm miraculously free at work today.

wow, that was much less onerous than expected - both 2008 and 2009 are fully indexed.

thumbs up brother