1. Super Meat Boy ; It's extremely punishing, but the controls are perfect. Because of the instant restart you keep trying to beat those seemingly impossible levels til you've found a reliable method. Punishing but never frustrating. SMB may be one of the finest 2D platformers I've played so it's easily my goty.
2. Donkey Kong Country Returns ; Retro work their magic and prove they can make an incredible platformer as well. I never got into the other DKC games, but I played through this about 3 times in total.
3. Mass Effect 2 ; I haven't even finished this yet, but screw it: the general gameplay and design improvements over ME1 justify a high ranking already. I just lose myself completely in ME's richly detailed and dense universe. The removal of certain flawed gameplay elements and overall streamlining make for a very polished and fun game. The improved performance is the icing on the cake.
4. Pac-Man CE DX ; Ghost trains. Nuff said.
5. Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor ; Oh man, oh man! This wins the 'year's biggest surprise' award. Never played the original S&P so I didn't know quite what to expect, but this is one big adrenaline rush. I have a feeling this game flew under the radar of many people so I'll just stress how everyone with a Wii should at least give this a try. Play it on easy, I don't care, as long as you play it!
6. God of War 3 ; This didn't have the variety in locales GoW 2 had, but it's still a phenomenal action game. Best combat of the trilogy.
7. Alan Wake ; The story isn't that great, but the atmosphere and action are remarkable.
8. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; This is a fantastic platformer and an overall worthy sequel to SMG1, but it's also somewhat of a disappointment. They expanded on the ideas present in the original, but it never grabbed me the way Galaxy 1 did.
9. Vanquish ; Mikami takes a look at the third person shooter formula and puts his spin on it. There's nothing quite like boosting towards an enemy, kicking him and finishing him off slow mo in the air. I really shouldn't have forced myself to sit through the crappy cutscenes, because they really hinder the flow of the game. Replaying this on hard with skipped cutscnes is the best way to experience Vanquish.
10. Limbo ; It has some weaker bits, but it's one of those memorable 'finish in one sitting'-experiences I'd like to see more of.
x. Darksiders ; Very enjoyable Zelda-clone, not exactly top 10 material though.
x. Divinity II: Dragon Knight Saga ; decent rpg that gets more fun with each new area.
On to duds/disappointments of the year:
- Heavy Rain: what a disaster. I'd be okay with the lack of actual gameplay if I'd care about the story and characters somewhat, but I didn't. This is a prime example of a direction games shouldn't take when it comes to storytelling. Really surprised by the amount of praise this game got.
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. There was promise here! MS has some very talented artists and the variety in locales is impressive, but the game drags on for waaay too long and the overall level design is inconsistent. And those titan battles! Yikes.
- Kirby's Epic Yarn: My first Kirby game and I despised it. Game has a great look, but the levels are so easy it gets boring fast. I'd really like to see if the later levels are a bit more challenging, but I just can't get into it.
- Enslaved: Ninja Theory... just doesn't learn.
Soort van grootschalige lego zeker? Ik zie totaal niet in waarom dat zo fun zou moeten zijn want ik haal niet al te veel plezier uit gewoon wat dingen bouwen