Best of the Decade: Soulcalibur II

Soulcalibur II

Platforms: GameCube, Playstation 2, Xbox

Release Date: August 27, 2003

Publisher: Namco

Developer: Namco

Every Soulcalibur game has meant a lot to me. Until recently, it was the only fighting game series I had ever gotten into. It was one of the titles I bought alongside my beloved Dreamcast on 9/9/99. I bought it on a whim because of a fantastic review score in Electronic Gaming Monthly. I had no idea whether I’d like it because I had never liked a fighting game before, but my gamble payed off and I’ve been playing it ever since. 

Just as I’ve never been a huge fighting game fan, I’ve never been much of a multiplayer gamer either, but the Soulcalibur series has long been the exception to both of these rules. Wrapped up in the many tales of souls and swords I’ve encountered over the years across four games now are countless battles, painful wins and losses both, and many hours of honing my skills, trying new characters, and improving my game. 

The most important aspect that these games have brought into my gaming life is the social element. Few of my friends are into fighting games and the genre usually isn’t worth the effort if you have no local competition to spar with. Here again Soulcalibur proved the exception. I’ve known many people that have enjoyed a quality bout of weapons-based combat and just about all of them have been well matched to my own skill. Winning a close match by that fraction of an inch against a good friend never fails to bring a smile to my face. 

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Best of the Decade: Metroid Prime

Metroid Prime

Platform: GameCube

Release Date: November 17, 2002

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Retro Studios

We’ve been in the 3D era for so long now that the painful memories of awkward transitions into the third dimension are starting to fade. Save for perhaps the lingering spectre of controversial Castlevania adaptations, most franchises have either made the move into 3D, made their position on maintaining their 2D purity clear, or been forgotten entirely.

I’m sure every gamer old enough remembers the magic of firing up Super Mario 64 for the first time though. The sheer amazement at the revolution in control and design that game brought is almost certainly unmatched in scale and importance. That Nintendo pulled off the trick again a number of years later with The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and transitioned another of their classic franchises into 3D while making one of the most loved games of all time is simply stunning.

So who would have thought, one console generation later, that they could do it all over again? 

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First Impressions - Metroid: Other M

As I dusted off my trusty Magic 8-Ball to peek into the future of what Metroid: Other M had in store for me, I was not prepared for the rather unorthodox answer that awaited me.

“Man, you better hang on, ‘cause this is going to be one rocky ride.”

I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen that come up as an answer before.

The all-knowing plastic sphere was right, though. Other M has been tossing me around like a roller coaster, with thrilling highs that kept me begging for more and terrifying lows that left me wondering whether I wanted to keep going at all. 

To put it simply however, it can pretty much be boiled down to one simple statement. When the game shuts the hell up and lets Samus do her Samus thing, it’s a mighty good time. When it attempts to derail the proceedings with needless cutscenes, horrible voice acting, and bad writing (none of which you can skip, by the way) things go sour really damn fast. And I do mean fast. 

After 15 minutes with Other M I wanted to put it down and never so much as see it ever again. If the disc happened to end up on fire and at the bottom of the ocean being eaten by whales or something too I wouldn’t have complained. What I’m saying is that Other M makes a horrifyingly off-putting first impression.

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ModNation Racers - Annoyingly Close to Perfection

One question lingers above the head of ModNation Racers, casting its ugly shadow on the game’s cute facade and refusing to budge until a satisfactory answer is provided once and for all.

Is ModNation Racers better than Mario Kart?

After all, Sony’s newest kart racer is clearly lusting after the throne. They have set out to infuse the user-created madness of LittleBigPlanet with the core kart racing gameplay of the king of the genre, Mario Kart.

Have they done it? Has the king been dethroned?

Sadly, in a plot twist straight out of a bad sports movie, ModNation Racers came within ten feet of being the king of the hill and then tripped over its own feet and rolled all the way back down to the bottom.

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Best of 2009 - Honorable Mentions, Part Two

And now for the rest of those unfortunate games that just didn't quite cut the mustard. In some alternate universe these could be just as deserving of a slot in the top ten, but for some reason they got left behind. They are grouped here so they can at least get some shot at the recognition they so clearly deserve.

Borderlands

Borderlands nearly ended up in the main list, but was just barely edged out of the last slot by the more original, surprising Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.

Still, to say Borderlands is less original is not to say it is less enjoyable. It doesn’t exactly rewrite the definition of what a modern shooter should be, but it doesn’t really need to. There’s plenty of room on my shelf for games like Borderlands, titles that don’t really try to do anything spectacularly new, but that take established conventions and make them feel fresh and fun. 

At the end of the day, if I’m having fun with a game, isn’t that what matters most? 

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