For previous entries, read here.
"My top 30 Games I played in 2010" blog series continues with #6 - 10!
#10 - Pac-man Championship Edition DX - XBLA
One of my all time favorite XBLA games is Pac-man Championship Edition. It was a fun exciting twist on the Pac-man formula. loved it so much, that I kept playing it over and over, for many days, long after I earned every achievement, just trying to get my scores that much better. So when I heard that a sequel, Pac-man Championship Edition DX, was coming out, I was very excited.
Pac-man Championship Edition DX takes everything that was great about the first Pac-man CE, and multiplies it by 100. In edition to an expanded list of game types and challenges, with a leaderboard for just about everything, the gameplay has gotten even more crazy. The goal in the original CE was to chomp your way through dots and ghosts, to make a fruit appear. Once eaten, it would change half of the maze to something new. This allowed for rapid changing gameplay, and lots of chomping thrills.
In DX, it retains everything from CE but adds a few new elements. Instead of ghosts coming out of the middle zone, and swarming the mazes like in traditional pac-man games, now they appear on the maze, asleep. Once you pass by them, they awake, and immediately start chasing you. You want this to happen. Why? Well once you get a bunch of ghosts together and eat a power pellet, then you can turn around a chomp those ghosts in succession. This allows for some crazy moment. You have not lived til you have eaten 30 ghosts in a row.
The second new element, is the addition of bombs, which you can earn by gaining points (just like lives) that you can use to bomb away those ghosts, if things get to hairy. Finally, the third new one, is ghosts that have a power pellet inside. Ghosts scattered across the stage contain power pellets also, which you can use to keep your power pellet chain going.
Pac-man Championship Edition DX XBLA is not only a great sequel, the DX edition manges to blow the original edition away with it's exciting and frantic gameplay. Pac-man DX feels like a instant hit and will be a game that I will keep coming back to for years to come.
#9 - Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock - Xbox 360
I've bought a lot of Guitar Hero games, and even though I love music games, I'll admit, the GH series over the years hasn't had that magic spark, especially compared to the Rock Band series which I greatly love. It's been missing for quite some time. They've tried new things, and laxed on others, but in 2010 it surprisingly changed.
Early in 2010 I was looking at Guitar Hero: WoR, with disdain. Even though I liked some of the new changes in GH5 especially with the challenges (which is manged to complete a ton of), and the free Van Halen game that came with it, I thought Warriors of Rock was gonna be yet another game with limited changes.
I was so wrong.
Guitar Hero: WoR returns with a story mode, a simple, yet actual purpose to playing. as you play through, New and past GH characters change, into warriors (or monsters heh) that unlock powers while playing. Every character in game has a special ability when you play in story mode. Sometimes it's a tiny boost of star power after hitting every ten notes, or 6 x the normal multiplayer instead of 4, etc. This all helps you earn stars, that in previous games were limited to 5 max (well 6 if you count perfect)h these new powers, you'll able to go well beyond that, earning extra stars. as your players turn to warriors, they gain access to even stronger versions of their powers that allow you to earn a crazy amount of stars.
Everything you unlock during story mode,instruments, characters, powers, can be used in the new Quickplay plus mode, that combines the old quikplay modes from 4 and 5, with an expanded version of GH5's challenges. Every song, on disk, import, and DLC, has challenges you can beat and instead of 1 per song, it can be up to 13 per each song. This allows for a crazy amount of gameplay far and beyond the new story mode, and far beyond any Guitar Hero game to date.
But beyond all the expanded amount of content, and new abilities, GH has one of the most memorable things ever in a music game.
2112 by Rush.
It includes, in story mode, the 25+ minute Epic: 2112 by Rush, all parts, and narrated by Rush themselves. I won't spoil anythign for you, but for me, a long avid music fan and game player. This is easily one of the most epic things I have ever experienced in a video game. It's an experience like no other.
I, for one, am glad that finally, Guitar Hero gets a well deserving game.
Also, the new Soundgarden CD that was given away with new copies of the game was extra sweetness. Spoonman, save me!
#8 - Super Street Fighter 4 - Xbox 360
One of my favorite games on 2009 was Street Fighter 4. In 2010, Super Street Fighter 4 came out. Instead of a typical update, Capcom pulled out all stops. New characters, videos, content, tournament modes, new moves everything top to bottom refined.
I'll spare ya the extended reasoning. SS4 is A game that needs no introduction, no extensive reasoning to explain why this game is on my list. If you have played this game in 2010, you know how ultimate, fantastic this game is. it's well-rounded, full of content and replayability that stands head and shoulders beyond most fighting games.
Capcom I think you for not only bringing me back to the fighting Genre with the great Street Fighter 4 in 09, but keeping me around, hungry and loving every minute of it, with a great masterpiece in Super Street Fighter 4 in 2010 and beyond.
#7 - Sonic Colors - Wii
If you managed to catch a blog I made a while back, you know that I love Sonic Colors and why.
Beyond just an excellent game, it's a breath of relief, a shed of tear from the eye. Sonic has a long rough road on consoles in the last few years. I'm glad that not only has he returned with a good game, but a great one, that manages to show us all why we fell in love with Sonic all those years ago on the Genesis.
And yes, this is the only Wii game I got in 2010, but it's definitely a great one.
#6 - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West- Xbox 360
I'll admit, I didn't get to play a lot of Enslaved until just recently, but the bit I played in 2010 was worthy enough of placing this in the top ten. Enslaved is a creative retelling of the story, Journey to the West. 150 years in the future, humanity is scrapes of what it was. The land is a wasteland, and humans are being enslaved by machines. I won't dive too much into story here - Enslaved is too good to let any details slip out on plot.
What I can say is beyond the fantastic plot, what really capture my attention was the attention to detail. The environments are amazing, lush and full of life. It sucks you in, and makes you feel like you are there. The attention to detail to Monkey and Trip is also amazing. The characters act very lifelike. Their facial expressions are so real, soo...spot on...soo...what it should be if a person was to look like in real life if they were in that situation. Like Monkey when he's mad, or Trip when she is shocked, or scared. It's scary how, they got the animations down so right.
Enslaved is a wonderful package, Story, characters, gameplay, environment, it's something that I'm glad to have experienced in 2010 (and into 2011)