Following Mike and Tara in their posts, are my favorites of 2008! And, for the hell of it, my most hated games too. I’ll keep this short with one game per console.

Favorites
Wii: Okami
A quest/adventure type game that is a port of a PS2 game, Okami rivals my love for Twilight Princess. It has beautiful music and art, and is just a great game for fans of this genre.

DS: Final Fantasy Chronicles: Ring of Fates
I was originally going to list Layton, but since it’s mentioned twice already, let’s change it around. Ring of Fates is a good ol’ hack and slash, and though the AI is incredibly dumb, the multiplayer is good fun if you have someone to do it with.

Most hated
Wii: Alone in the Dark
A survival horror run by cinematics that seemed like a cool idea but just failed miserably. The graphics, controls, and gameplay are all horrible, and this might be the only game that I played for a mere hour before giving up.

DS: Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles
An adventure game that I actually had fun with at first. However, after a while, the poor controls, repetitive play, and sound inbalances got to me. This really didn’t need a DS version.

To follow Mike’s post, here are my personal favourite DS games for 2008 and what I’m looking forward to in 2009 (where some might not be released in the US but I can dream!). I played more than these games listed, but the other games I played this year all came out before 2008, so I figured they didn’t count.

2008 Games
1. Professor Layton and the Curious Village: I admit that the puzzles drove me nuts, but I loved everything else about the game. The characters, the music, the artwork, the plot . . . everything! Although that tower freaked me out since it looked really unstable and scary. Can I has the next two games in the series, PLEASE.

2. Gyakuten Saiban IV aka Apollo Justice: I prefer the third game in the series, but this one was nice. Snarky!Phoenix is made of so much win. Main bad dude needs more backstory, though. It was just so random almost.

3. The World Ends With You: I admit that I was stylus mashing this game, but I still enjoyed it. Very addicting game.

4. Time Hollow: A really awesome, underrated point-and-click adventure game. Fascinating storyline that deals with time travels. However, like most linear adventure games, not much re-playability.

5. Princess Debut: I still think I lost my mind for playing this, but I liked it! It’s the XX-chromosome in me.

6. Chrono Trigger: DUN DUN DUN! I like having a portable version of this game! Oh, man, NOSTALGIA.

2009 Games
1. Gyakuten Kenji: Dear Capcom. Please release this for the English-speaking countries. Please? Pretty please? I must have my Miles Edgeworth loving.

2. Suikoden Tierkreis: I hope this game is good as its predecessors! It will feel weird not hunting down all 108 characters, but it’s all right. The preview looks great, so I am anticipating this game dearly!

3. Sigma Harmonics: The OST for this game is fabulous. I really hope Squenix releases this for NA.

4. Professor Layton II and III: Release date “ju sae yo”! (Korean for please give!)

And another year has come and gone. I think it’s time we look back at our favourite games of 2008. I’ll start off my list first, I know I’m probably missing quite a few games from the DS list, that or it was a rather average year (compared to 2007, I could rattle off many titles that I love) and most of the games I played were quite forgettable. And I’ve only owned my Wii for a couple of months so I’ve still got quite a bit of catching up to do with some of the older titles ahem No More Heroes being one.

So here’s Michael’s favourite games of 2008.

Favourite Wii game(s):

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl
  Best get together have a few drinks and waste the night game. Brawl nights were long and fun. It be just one more game, one more round and before we knew it the sun had already come up. We were all casual players as well, nobody knew advanced techniques and or long combo strings, all we did was yell furiously at each other as we mash buttons trying to get away from the golden hammer wielding Olimar. Damn you Olimar, you look ever so harmless but you always end up winning the match. *fist shake*

• de Blob
  Fantastic little third party game based off a neat little freeware game and developed right here in Melbourne, Australia. Who knew free roaming levels, jumping off buildings and splattering them with shades of colour could be this much fun? I’m still going through my first run, I only started playing this last week. I’ve got a lot to get through and I still need to get some friends over for a spot of multiplay, hopefully sometime next week when I unlock some more stuff. I urge anyone who hasn’t got their hands on this game to go out and get (or at least borrow/rent) it now.
• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes
  The Wii isn’t really the console for 2D fighting games is it? I mean the wiimote + nunchuck option isn’t all that appealing. Luckily Capcom decided that this game should be a Wii exclusive. Sure you can go the wiimote + nunchuck route but what fighting fan would want to play with auto-combos and oversimplified button specials and supers? However hook up a classic or a GC controller and you’ve got it the way Capcom intended it to be played. One of the easiest crossover fighters to get stuck in to that or I’ve played too many Japanese doujin fighting games … but I digress, a simple four button layout, three attacks (light, medium and heavy) and one partner button for assists and tag outs. Insane over the top combos, flashy supers and old school anime characters beating down Capcom ones. Sadly due to licensing issues this won’t see the light of day outside of Japan so you’re going to have to go with the freeloader disc or home brew region free channel route if you want to play this.

Favourite WiiWare game(s)

• World of Goo
  I’m only a few levels in world two, blasted windmill. I’m terrible at physic related games but World of Goo has so much charm, it does get a bit frustrating but it’s frustratingly fun. I had a few friends over to play some co-op the other day, we managed to get through the levels quite easily which by myself would of taken numerous numerous tries. I think I’ll invite them over again so we can blast through a few more.
• Tetris Party
  It’s Tetris. What more do I need to say?

Favourite DS game(s)

• Professor Layton and the Curious Village
  I know there’s all these stellar role playing games that are topping everybody’s favourite DS game list but well I don’t like them, I just don’t like role playing games. Anyway Professor Layton and the Curious Village, such a charming game, lovely presentation, gorgeous animated cut scenes, neat voice acting and devilish puzzles. I’d be racking my brains out on the train ride to class trying to figure out some blasted numbers puzzle only to realize after fifteen minutes of frustration that I was over thinking it and the answer was right in front of me all along. I really hope we don’t have to wait too long for the two sequels to be translated.
• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
  I know, new Ace Attorney game without our beloved Phoenix and the rest of the crew that we got to know and love! What were Capcom thinking? These new characters couldn’t be possible as good as the old ones? Well was I wrong. Trucy is now my favourite Ace Attorney character (quite obvious with the avatar I’m sporting), sorry Franziska. A few new elements but overall plays like the other games, you know point and click adventure games aren’t really my thing but the cast of characters and the story that’s what really drew me in here.

I’ve been a big fan of text-based adventure games ever since Phoenix Wright came out here, thinking that it was one of the first of its kind (at least from Japan). Wow, I was sure wrong. Apparently there are a lot of these kind of games out there, one of them being Famicom Tantei Club Part II which was originally released on the Famicom Disk System (an add-on for the original Famicom), and later ported to SFC.

Though extremely linear (moreso than Phoenix Wright), it has a great story. Murder, detectives, old ghost stories, and the occassional bit of light humor. Amongst all the next-gen (or is it current-gen now?) games I’m playing, it makes for a good “old school” game to play. Sometimes I just NEED to play something 2D and completely outdated (this is not sarcasm). Man, I feel old. Stupid kids with their polygons and what-have-you.

So, if you’re interested in playing it and not completely and utterly put off by 16-bit graphics… unfortunately you can’t play this game through normal means. Not only was the game released in Japan only, but the SFC port was available ONLY through Japan’s version of Nintendo Power. Isn’t that awesome? We didn’t get cool stuff like that… Anyway, the translation patch is available here. And then after that, Google is your friend.

Aaaaaand actually, while we’re on the subject of Nintendo swag, Club Nintendo finally launched! I have 480 points so far. Need… to earn platinum status… anyway, I’ll let someone else blog about that…

Thought I’d give a plug for this service. Goozex is an online service where you can trade games with other people. By sending games to people, you earn points — and they’re reasonably set, unlike the trade-in value you get from Game Stop. With the newer games trading at 1000 points, I’d estimate 20 points = $1.

After you earn points, you can use them to request games from other Goozex users. Goozex does, however, charge a $1 transaction fee (”trade-in credits”) for the service (yes, that’s how they make $$$ for themselves).

The Good:
+ A much better alternative over Game Stop (low trade-in value, also hate them), eBay (seller/paypal fees up the wazoo), and craigslist (too many fake/spam users and people who generally waste your time).
+ Great for if you want to collect some older games that don’t have a lot of people requesting it.
+ Reputable service; in November 2007, it was ranked best website to trade games, ranked by EGM and GamesRadar.com.

The Bad:
- Newer games have a huge queue, so not recommended for getting games near launch date. (Still in line for Fallout 3 and Tales of Vesperia..)
- It’s the internet, so there are always douches out there. Some people never receive their game (you don’t lose points if you don’t, it’s just annoying), and some people receive games in bad shape. But hey, you make the same risk with Game Stop (online) and eBay.

Overall, I’d say it’s worth a look. You get 1 trade-in credit and 100 points for joining. And if you do join, please use my referral link