My favorite games from 2006 « Patrick Curry’s Thoughts on Game Design

January 21st, 2007

My favorite games from 2006

2006 was a strange year for me and gaming. I spent a good deal of my free time last year writing, so I didn’t play quite as many games as I did in 2005 (at least not as deeply). And with the advent of downloadable demos on the 360, I had lots of fun playing just a little bit of lots of different games. But with that said, there were a handful of games that really hooked me this year, and I thought I’d share.

New Super Mario Bros.

by Nintendo for Nintendo DS

Let’s get this out of the way now: I’m a big Mario fan. New Super Mario Bros. does a fantastic job of carrying torch of the classic NES and SNES games, but still manages to have a new trick or two up its sleeve. New Super Marios Bros. is like platforming bliss, with highly replayable levels, lots of secrets, and so many homages to classic Mario games I really couldn’t list them all. While it’s not as deep as Super Mario World or Yoshi’s Island, and they somehow managed to forget to include any flying gameplay… New Super Mario Bros. is a must-play game for anyone with a Nintendo DS.

Gears of War

by Epic Games for Xbox 360

Gears of War isn’t the best game ever… and it’s not the most innovative game ever… but Gears is one of the best looking and most fun games I’ve played in years. And I’m not ashamed to say it: I’m a wee bit jealous. Gears of War takes many of my favorite elements from Resident Evil 4 and Counter-Strike, mixes in phenomenal art direction, nice sci-fi/horror touches, and comes out as a fun and memorable single- and multiplayer shooter. Playing through Gears in coop mode is not to be missed. It’s been said before, but this is truly the 360’s killer app.

Okami

by Clover Studio for Playstation 2

Everything about Okami is very Japanese: the story, the setting, the characters, and of course the gameplay. Okami looks like a Japanese watercolor painting come to life, with a unique visual flair that I haven’t ever seen in a game before. At its core Okami is a classic action/adventure, but it has a very unique hook. Instead of casting magic spells or using big guns, you use a magic paintbrush to interact with the world, drawing elements into the game world, or striking out the enemies you want to attack. Okami is one of the few games with this level of harmony between its visual art direction and gameplay mechanics. If you like “art games” like Ico or Shadow of the Colossus, I highly recommend Okami.

Wii Sports

by Nintendo for Nintendo Wii

If you’ve read my game ideas, you’ll know that I really like the idea of videogames that push the player to do something besides sit on the couch. Wii Sports does just that, and it’s damn fun. The game features very simple, very arcadey versions of Tennis, Bowling, Baseball, and Boxing… all of which you control by swinging the wiimote around. The game is so easy and so accessible it almost boggles the mind. Combined with the coolness of the Mii characters, Wii Sports is the game that made me buy a Wii and four wiimotes, even more so than Zelda. That’s saying something.

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5 Responses to “My favorite games from 2006”

Rollin commented:
posted January 21st, 2007 at 6:01 pm

I have a grudge against New Mario for the same reason you mentioned. It pays too much homage and bring little “new”. False advertising if i ever seen it.

Wii Sports was the most fun game i ever played, but it has a serious design flaw: it’s a pack-in. Which means it gets old fast.

A bigger problem than that, though, is figuring out the remote. Once me and my Wii friends resorted to wrist flicking, there was no point in motioning full swings. Our scores all skyrocketed and everyone was more competitive, but the fun was gone. And maybe it’s the tennis lover in me, but even emulating James Blake doesn’t make it any more enjoyable. However, easily the game of 06. While it lasted.

I’ll take this opportunity to beg you for a full fledged tennis game. Stuff one remote in your pocket for movement and use another for the racket. I know, i’m genius. Let me know when you need me at the office.

Get started!

Patrick commented:
posted January 21st, 2007 at 7:48 pm

I’ve wondered if you could attach a wiimote to your body to be used for sensing it’s movement. Something like wiimote belt-buckle might do the trick, where you strap it to your hips, so it then can tell which way your body is moving and leaning, independent of your hands. It would be great for Tennis or something like Firefight/Gunslinger. “Lean down to duck into cover!”

Turk commented:
posted January 24th, 2007 at 12:06 am

Someone needs to make a detective game for the wii. Use a flash light, study crime scenes, shoot people. Use the wii’s strength (pointing), while trying to avoid it’s pitfall (depth).

Did you play Bully? What a great concept both market and game wise. An open world GTA style game targeted at teens. A perfect game for the little brothers of the world who want to play GTA but no one will get it for them. I wish I could get some sales numbers but I heard it did over a million units around the holidays.

Rollin commented:
posted January 24th, 2007 at 3:27 am

Well Pat, in WarioWare (dunno if you got it), there’s a minigame where you and a friend hold one end each of the remote-chuk and jump when your characters have to jump over an obstacle or pitfall on each side of the track.

What i did to make it both more fun and easy was put the remote in my pocket. It worked great until my legs tired.

It’s a simple game, but i think the remote-in-pocket thing will catch on. Otherwise i’ll have to patent it before people get wise.

Patrick commented:
posted January 25th, 2007 at 3:25 am

Rollin, I’ll have to try the pocket gag with Warioware. It would probably work for jumping, but I maintain that Wii-belt-buckle is the true way of the future.

Turk, I’m all for detective games, no-matter what the platform. At least four of the 52 ideas were variations on the dectective theme, maybe more. It could work well on the Wii, but you’d have to come up with some motion controls to flesh it out, or some twist that would make it more than a modern point-click adventure game.

Patrick Curry’s Thoughts on Game Design

January 21st, 2007