Game of the Year Awards 2010 Day 4

2010 heralded Platinum Games into the limelight with some awesome games and that is why Bayonetta is at number 7 of my Game of the Year Award 2010.

7:

Bayonetta (360, PS3):

Bayonetta was the guiltiest pleasure of 2010 with its WAY over the top action, a stunning new female lead and some jaw dropping visuals. The plot was pretty much rudimentary with something about good witches and bad witches, a nasty rendition of Angels and some quack wanting the ultimate power but Bayonetta is SO not about the plot and makes no effort in correcting that. Rather the kinetic yet smooth and silky game play and quite possibly one of the greatest main character ever conceived makes Bayonetta linger in the mind even after finishing the game.

Bayonetta game play borrow very heavily from the Devil May Cry series (its pretty obvious as the director is the same guy, Hideki Kamiya), but just..I dunno...multiplied by a zillion!!!. I mean the game play takes the phrase 'over the top' to another level, nay another world, no...another dimension!!. The titular heroine can be made to dish out massive combos, perform outrageous moves, using an assortment of swords, shoot with handguns and heel guns (guns mount of heels!!!), torturing enemies with the use of torture machines! ...and if those antics fail then Bayonetta could summon these huge grotesque beasts from the netherworld to devour anything in her path!!..Yes Bayonetta is that insane. And oh yeah as embarrassed as I am to admit this but I thought the sound track was really catchy, hell I even loved the the rabidly hated battle theme!!

And although I did play the game on easy mode but that did not take away the fun, it actually made me like that game a bit more (after getting my back handed to me by one of the earlier bosses. Mentioning the character Bayonetta is quite important as she is really awesome. For starters her clothes are made from her hair (no funny ideas please), she has a whole librarian/school teacher/military instructor thing going, but with copious amounts of wanton sexuality and who loves to 'spank' naughty demons and all done with a charming British accent. Quite awesome if you ask me.

Platinum Games look set to become the toast of the gaming industry as the developers are not afraid in taking chances. And if you have legendary developers such as Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami taking the reins on the games then you bet your bottom dollar that games are going to be amazing. Bayonetta is a testament of that.

Game of the Year Awards 2010 Day 3

The platformer genre was very well represented in 2010 and saw many big name franchise making a splash. At number 8 in my Game of the Year Awards 2010 is Donkey Kong Country Returns.

8:

Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

I was a Sega fan as a kid and hence did not own a SNES which is why I never really knew about Donkey Kong Country series. The Wii did introduce me to the series through the Virtual Console service but I wasn't really impressed with Rare's popular franchise. But when Nintendo announced its barrage of games at this year E3 Donkey Kong Country Returns was the game which piqued my interest. Maybe the graphics were the real cause as basically the game design was identical as its SNES precursor (although the game development was done by Retro this time around rather than now Microsoft owned Rare), but whatever the case the game looked gorgeous. I was keen in knowing what the whole hoopla was about Donkey Kong Country popularity.

Fast forward to November and Donkey Kong Country Returns had knocked my socks off with its awesome graphics and spot on controls and inspired level design. Making leaps across canyons, dodging huge waves, transversing treacherous mines, battling awesome bosses was the quite rush and when you factor in the difficulty, it makes for some fine old school gaming. Yes the game is quite difficulty, sometimes so much so that I would almost fling my Wii controller across the room, but even then the difficulty is not frustrating as usually it would be my impetuousness which would lead to me wasting Kong's lives. The level designs are really well thought out with right amount of obstacles to overcome and finding secret areas. Each area of the game has a cool theme which makes for varied environments to look at and explore. And as I mentioned before the visuals are easily among the best on the Wii with staggering amount of attention laid on in the details and nary a hint of slowdown. Nintendo has brought out its A game and has delivered a stunning comeback from Donkey Kong and his cohorts.

You can always count on Nintendo to turn heads, and usually such events come about more often than other developers. It is as if people at Nintendo know exactly what gamers want and literally pulverize them with such knowledge and insight. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a fine example of such a fact as this game is easily one of the best 2D platformers I have played and is definitely one of the best games for the Wii. Period.

Game of the Year Awards 2010 Day 2

Coming in at 9 in my Game of the Year Awards 2010 is the diamond in the rough from Ninja Theory Enslaved.

Enslaved (PS3, 360):

To be really honest Enslaved never entered in my most anticipated games of 2010. I just watched the first trailer which came out back then only out of curiosity and dismissed it as a run of the mill action game forgetting Ninja Theory's previous title, Heavenly Sword. Even when the demo came out I did not download and on top of that I had heard my friend really disliking the demo which justified my lack of interest in the game. Just imagine my shock when most of the top video games sites where praising the game's plot and the characters. As I started to comb each and every written and video reviews (Thank God for Metacritics and Gamerankings) it become abundantly clear that Enslaved was a game which was worth my time.

What got my attention in the early sections of the game was the realistic symbiotic relationship of the main character Monkey and the 'damsel in distress' Trip. There was almost a Hollywood like quality of how the relationship was being treated by the developers. Sure Enslaved isn't the first game which has such a setup, games like ICO instantly comes to mind. But the motion capture and the acting really took the game to an amazing high. Andy Serkis, Lindsey Shaw and Richard Ridings really took a liking to their virtual counterparts and gave wonderful performances.

Hell even the game play was really solid but without really setting the world on fire. The action and platforming game play in Enslaved did come off as 'being there done that' but still what ever was presented was pretty neat. The world of Enslaved was also a star as most of post apocalyptic setting are usually bleak and desolate. Here the game world was bursting from its seam with color and hence made the exploring new areas a joy. But Enslaved would had placed much higher on my list if it weren't for inept ending which left me really frustrated. Without ruining the ending I will just like say that Ninja Theory could had ended the game on an epic note like they did with Heavenly Sword but in my opinion they did not.

Anyways Enslaved was a really good game as there were many points in the adventure which were really memorable and the relationship of the characters was done in a very believable fashion. Hence I cant wait to see what sort of game Ninja Theory comes out with.

Come back for more tomorrow as I make my way to number 8 on my Game of the Year Awards 2010.