Best of the Decade: World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

Platforms: Windows, Mac OS

Release Date: November 23, 2004

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

This one took some soul searching. After all, I have a history of hating this game about as much as I love it. World of Warcraft is undoubtedly one of the biggest time and money sinks that this industry has ever seen. It’s mindless. It’s repetitive. It’s expensive. It’s a waste of so much time that could be better spent playing other things.

Right?

Well, maybe not.

Yes it’s true that I seem to treat it like an addiction, something to be shoved out of the way and ignored for personal health rather than indulged in and enjoyed. 

What I was finally able to admit, after much thinking over the subject, that there must be a reason I continue to be drawn to this world. Beyond seeing numbers crawl upward as I gain levels, beyond the addiction of growing stronger and gaining cool new stuff, there is truly something greater here that no other game in the past decade could match.

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Best of the Decade: Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy

Platform: Wii

Release Date: November 12, 2007

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo

Everybody that buys Nintendo consoles anxiously awaits those rare days when we get to unwrap the plastic covering a precious new proper Mario game. Mario may be in half of the games Nintendo releases these days, but his proper platforming outings, the ones for which so many gamers hold him so dear, are still fairly few and far apart.

There’s a reason for this. Every last one of Mario’s games has been stellar. Some perhaps more or less than others, but more than just about any other franchise in Nintendo’s stable, Nintendo keeps each of Mario’s outings fresh and unique.

The ultimate case in point is Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo made us wait for this one. Like Super Mario Sunshine, Wii owners were left without a new Mario game at launch. Sunshine, while a terrific game, received an unusually tepid response from the masses, for a Mario title at least. This left people wondering what would follow. Had Nintendo lost their touch? Could they revive the magic of Super Mario 64 two generations after the landmark title had come and gone?

Indeed they could. 

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Best of the Decade: Wii Sports

Wii Sports

Platform: Wii

Release Date: November 19, 2006

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD

As geeks go, I must admit to being a somewhat boring example of the breed. I don’t often stand in lines at midnight waiting for new games. I haven’t stayed up playing a game for 24 hours straight. I haven’t played every game in a series through in a marathon session on a whim. 

At least, it used to be that way. November 19, 2006 marked a turning point of sorts in my geekdom. It was when I decided to head out into the cold winter night and create my first geeky tale. I’ve had others since, waiting in line for Left 4 Dead 2 at midnight, standing in line for countless hours in a packed mall to buy an iPhone 4, but nothing matches the wild, impromptu journey I took that night.

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Best of the Decade - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Platform: GameCube

Release Date: March 24, 2003

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD

The Legend of Zelda series is often accused of being stagnant, of reusing the same tricks over and over again without embracing new ideas. Sure it’s true that most Zelda games feature a similar progression, set of weapons, and basic thematics, but if you look beyond the basics, this is a series that has actually done quite a bit to play around with the formula over the years.

Link’s Awakening brought the series to the portable realm and gave us a rather bizarre little story not at all like the Zelda norm. Majora’s Mask dared to take things in an even darker direction than Ocarina of Time. It featured a more touching storyline and played around with the accepted Zelda mechanics more than perhaps any other game in the series with its time-traveling antics. The handheld pair of Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages saw Nintendo dare to hand the development reigns partially over to an outside studio. Phantom Hourglass showed us how much fun a Zelda game could be when controlled entirely via the touch screen.

The Wind Waker deserves to stand among these series entries that dared to be different. At a time when gamers were clamoring for more Ocarina, for more of that dark, brooding world they had come to love, Nintendo created a vibrant, colorful, and cheerful world that rubbed many the wrong way when it was first announced. Despite the initial skepticism, the world gamers eventually had the opportunity to explore in The Wind Waker is one of the most enthralling and memorable in Zelda history precisely because it was unique.

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Best of the Decade: Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus

Platform: Playstation 2

Release Date: October 18, 2005

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: Team Ico

Whenever the overplayed argument over whether or not games are art gets dragged out for another flogging, there’s one title in particular that never fails to come up in the discussion. It’s certainly not the only title that gets put forth as an example of a game that does something more than mindlessly entertain, but it does seem to be the most consistently mentioned.

Though I will celebrate another title or two before this list is complete that I feel stand alongside it as the industry’s most museum-worthy productions to date, Shadow of the Colossus undoubtedly deserves to be recognized as a standout effort that truly represents the best of what this medium has to offer in terms of interactive emotion.

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