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

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.

#53: World of Goo (MAC OSX/Wii) – 10– 2
Official game site

http://timothyzhu.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/large.jpg

If: Best game on WiiWare, though I wish it was twice as long as it is.

World of Goo designer Ron Carmel mentioned the game had a staggering 90% piracy rate

Braid, as told by World of Goo

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/sept08/goo/wog2.jpg

Gravel Puzzleworth : I liked it! Interesting how they packed so much so content in; every level had new ideas. I do sort of resent that I was never stuck. Maybe a bit too easy.

Forksclovetofu: Clever design and execution, comparable in some ways to Katamari. My downstairs neighbor is a mechanical engineer who knocked out the first fifteen boards in under an hour; he says this should be called “Building a Bridge”. But it’s an AWESOME bridge.

Two way tie for #51.

#51: Trauma Center 2: Under the Knife (DS) – 11 – 2
Official game site

CraigG: Ridiculous storylines, great overacting and frantic action. I totally think I could do a real operation after playing this.

Abbott: Trauma Center has given me the habit of dynamically posing while shouting "Let's begin the operation!" to my dog.

http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/885/885044/trauma-center-under-the-knife-2-20080627040541691.jpg

Nhex: Oh god, not Trauma Center. It's a pretty cool game at first, but the difficulty curve is awful. Despite the stylus control it really doesn't embody the great accessible stuff on the DS (stuff like Phoenix Wright, Mario Kart, EBA, etc.) and ends up as a noble experiment. I know, I'm saying this despite it being successful enough to get franchised out for 3 sequels - but it is simply too hardcore.

lol at almost none of my ten cracking the top 50

#51: Resistance 2 (PS3) – 11 – 2
Official game site

http://%u201Dhttp%3A//talkplaystation.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/resistance-2-multiplayer_14-06-08_09.jpg%u201D

S1ocki: Pretty good! Seems like an improvement on the original in every way--controls, graphics, weapons, enemies, plus a totally different co-op campaign and sixty person battles online! Shoot dudes in the face! U should buy!

GM: R2's a pretty generic shooter. I enjoyed playing a sixty-dude team deathmatch the other night, but you have to cope with an almost endless series of sniper headshots immediately upon respawn.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2094/2185266011_618d9970ac_b.jpg

Jeff Levine: In some ways, there's lots of single player improvements over the first game, but Resistance 2 has lots of annoying and at times horrible gameplay design decisions that really bring the whole experience down. It doesn't make sense that I can destroy a 100 foot tall alien with a few well placed rockets, but can't harm an eight foot fish alien just because it's swimming in the water. I'm also not too fond of the way difficulty is increased by simply throwing way too many enemies against you.

#50: Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii) – 12 – 2
Official game site

http://skattertech.com/media/2008/03/super-smash-bros-brawl.jpg

Captain Lorax : Single player mode was fun while it lasted. It's more fun to play with friends. Map creation was a good idea but it could have used more parts and pallets. Online wasn't bad when I tried it against strangers but you have to wait about three minutes for each individual brawl. Playing a friend with a friend code is where it's at. I had my phone of speaker while we played each other.

Forksclovetofu: If this was on XBLA, it might easily be my favorite game of the year; the online component is utterly hamstrung by the useless “friend code” debacle and the single player gets tiresome after awhile. Still, playing this with four people is fuckin' bananas. Good times; even for button mashers. Really disappointed this charted so low.

http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2008/01/super_smash_bros_brawl_wii_07.jpg

S1ocki : Aren't you guys worried about pedophiles getting your friend codes and molesting you?

Tombot : I don't get the hate for the single player. This is a blast.

http://games.gearlive.com/blogimages/miyamoto_mario_luigi.jpg

More tomorrow.

Did i vote in this? I don't think I voted in this.

Either way, good job so far.

as a result of this poll, I have finally decided to nut up and buy World of Goo in the near future

also nthing the praise for Forks, who is doing the Lord's work here

also also I am eager to see if my first-place game got any other votes

no street fighter yet, I did give it a lot of points tho

the spore ez-chair people are amazing, wow.

what i meant about world of goo - at college writing essays i would think of something clever, but follow and mull and read around the thought till it seemed trivial and obvious, something that must have occurred to everyone - then i'd write a sentence or two of super compressed academese, summing and dismissing the whole thing, totally inpenetrable to professors or anyone else. goo is a little like that with its delights - it presents them to you as if you are already bored with them?

it is also a really satisfying way to spend money - to buy it almost pays for itself in pride.

#49: FIFA ’09 (XBLA/PS3) – 14 point – 2 votes
Official game site

Polyphonic: I don't understand socc... I mean, football. I've never played it; I never watch it apart from the World Cup and I have a shaky understanding of its rules. But I love sports video games, and when a good one comes along, I will play it until I puke.

http://sportvideogames.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fifa09_rooney01optimised.jpg

Roberto Spiralli : Yet again, this is fucking terrible. The biggest problem is the movement of the players which is unnatural, clumsy and very axis-bound. Turning is sluggish and gives the feel of dragging oil tankers around the pitch. When I went to pass, what happened onscreen was frequently not quite what I intended. Tackling is very weird, partly automated and I couldn't get the hang of it at all. I don't know how they keep getting it so wrong, except for the fact that people keep buying this shit and it gets the same lazy ass decent reviews every time, so maybe the developers don't even know that their product sucks.

Cozwyn: I never thought I'd say anything positive about FIFA in my life but this game is meaty and physical and deep and FUN!! The shooting is definitely the best bit; it feels crunchy and heavy compared to PES' floaty and light kicks. The animation is, as ever, impeccable but there was some horrid slowdown during replays.

MPx4A: It is a disgrace that there is no training mode, but it is quite good that the soundtrack has Cut Copy and Gonzalez EA really appear to have brought their A-game with regards to the online possibilities in this; just as long as you have the means to play with people who will pass the ball in co-op games and not just pick Man United all the time, you’re likely to find a good match.

AleXTC: The level of detail in the gameplay and moves/combinations you can do is just great.

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/images/community/fifa09/fifa0901.jpg

we won the war!!!

lol say no to racism

http://sportvideogames.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/fifa09_rooney01optimised.jpghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Cave_troll.jpg

Five way tie for #44.

# 44: Singstar (PS3) – 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

http://www.gameguru.in/images/singstar-90s.jpg

Daniel RF : Singstar must be the best party game ever. Sadly, my friends and I have yet to get it together to actually HAVE a party so instead I've been playing on my own, which I realize makes me a very major saddo... but it's fun! It's funny that the game doesn't care about lyrics, so you can stutter your way through a song and if you're in tune it doesn't really matter. Also the attempts at judging rapping are some bullshit; I let the Eric B and Rakim track play while I chatted with a friend and it really didn't matter, as long as there were audible sounds (even laughter) the rap-o-meter thought I was doing okay!

http://www.acegamez.co.uk/screenshots_ps2/PS2_Singstar_Pop_Hits_Screenshot_001.jpg

Noodle Vague : What I didn't give Sony credit for are the Eye-Toy and SingStar games, which must give the PS3 a hell of a lot more mass-market appeal than 360. I guess Sony themselves don't make a big deal of those titles to hardcore gamers, but they sure do seem to make a big difference in console sales.

# 44: Crash Commando (PSN) – 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

http://static1.filefront.com/images/bgfwkkubaa.jpg

Jeff LeVine: Basically a competitive multiplayer shooter take on a Contra / Metal Slug / Bionic Commando game with maybe a dash of N+. The online component seems to work fine (no lag in the few games I had time for) and uses really good AI bots to fill up extra slots. As frantic and fun as Call of Duty deathmatch but in awesome 2-D! Seems easily worth the ten bucks they are asking.

Jamescobo: I knew it was love the first time I banked a grenade perfectly. This game needs open-mic chatter badly; this push-to-talk nonsense is preventing people who kill me from having their sexual orientation loudly impugned in hilarious fashion.

# 44: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (DS) – 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/rdonlyres/22D908FF-4556-4B5C-94D3-9832F57408F4/15867/tactics1.jpg

Dy: My reactions are becoming more positive the more I play but it’s quite slow and certainly no match for Tactics on the PS.

Webber: It's better than FFTA1, but still somewhat infuriating. It’s a good choice if you’re looking for a game to sink a ridiculous amount of time into. I played through about twenty hours but since I didn't like the way I was leveling (and because I am ridiculously anal), I restarted and put in _another_ twenty or so hours into it. I found and used a fourth thief dagger relatively early on this time so my team is well on their way to becoming dual-wielding killing machines.

Will M: Really enjoying it. This game is absurdly slow but it makes my terrible commute relatively fast by comparison so I don't mind. Apparently I've played forty hours now? I think I'm technically 2/3 through the game but I am really fucking dicking around a LOT; I feel sure I could have easily beaten it by now.

http://spong.com/artwork/f/i/finalfanta97917.jpg

# 44: Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden - Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa (PC) – 15 points – 1 vote – FREE GAME
Official game site – Download Here

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j161/kevinsblogger/barkley1.png

Nhex: Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden is a ridiculous farce that's actually pretty fun (it uses the RPG Maker engine and basically plays like Super Mario RPG). Even though story-wise it's an ironic fan-wank of Space Jam and Sir Charles, like Super Columbine RPG it uses the medium and its nostalgia to poke fun at the genre in really amusing ways specific to fans of SNES RPGs of the mid 90s.

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/us/Other/News%20Stories/2008/Charles%20Barkley%20Shut%20up%20and%20Jam%20Gaiden/ART/RAW/backley--screenshot_large.jpg

# 44: Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble (PC)– 15 points – 1 vote
Official game site

Mordy : One sleeper pick for me is Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! It's this really neat pack of minigames set in a 1920s boarding school. It's very Dorothy Parker'esque.

http://www.macgamefiles.com/imgs_screen/19990.jpg

FINALLY at the halfway mark. More tomorrow.

I considered voting for Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble. I definitely liked a lot of things about it.

I love that our poll has Shut up and Jam Gaiden on it.

The tension is killing me!

hah i was just coming here to post that

Okay, okay; more tonight at the latest.

Thanks for all your work on this; I've been enjoying it as much as (or more so) the music polls.

yah thanks dude, my urging is made out of excitement and anticipation, not bitching

It's cool; I've been annoyed at myself for not getting this finished up too.

yeah this list more than the music lists makes me want to go back and discover a bunch of good stuff

(if the second half would be presented in a new thread I wouldnt mind, this one slows my computer terribly as it is. didnt help logging out either)