2005 gave us the Xbox 360. What else is there to say? …okay, okay. So there is more to say about 2005 than the release of the Xbox 360. It was also officially unveiled in 2005! …kidding. At E3, both the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo “Revolution” were unveiled to the public. 2005 also saw the introduction of the Family Entertainment Protection Act, a bill proposed by Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman and Evan Bayh that would have set a federal mandate for the enforcement of the ESRB.

In 2005, EA and ESPN announced a 15-year partnership that gave EA the rights to the ESPN name and license in their games. Finally getting fed up with EA’s crap, Take-Two and Major League Baseball announced that they had come to an agreement that made it so that Take-Two was the only third party publisher allowed to make baseball games. A slap in EA’s face? You tell me. Also, Take-Two bought both Kush Games and Visual Concepts from SEGA for $24M, and launched the publishing label we all know as 2K Games.

Also, with the controvery over the “Hot Coffee” scandal with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the ESRB re-rated the game AO – the first time this had ever been done to a previously released game.

Oh, and not that any of you guys care but 2005 was also the year in which I, JW, joined the United States Army. Obviously I am not in the Army any longer.

You new to this series? Sucks for you, because we’re almost done! Thank God, too – I’m getting tired of writing these damned things. Seriously. I’m getting to the point where I remember playing them, and it’s makin’ me feel old… anyways, here’s what you missed:

Top Ten Games of 2004
Top Ten Games of 2003
Top Ten Games of 2002
Top Ten Games of 2001
Top Ten Games of 2000
Top Ten Games of 1999
Top Ten Games of 1998
Top Ten Games of 1997
Top Ten Games of 1996
Top Ten Games of 1995
Top Ten Games of 1994
Top Ten Games of 1993
Top Ten Games of 1992
Top Ten Games of 1991
Top Ten Games of 1990

10.) LEGO Star Wars

Episode I as told in LEGO form
This should be easy enough to write up. After all, we all know the story of Star Wars, and while we all felt a little piece of us die inside when we first experienced Jar Jar Binks, there is no denying that the other trilogy is important as well. Thankfully LEGO Star Wars took the best part of the second Star Wars trilogy – the story, and eliminated the single worst element of the new trilogy: the acting.

Players were able to go through each of the three movies of the new trilogy with 56 different characters, ranging from the all-important characters like Anakin, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson? Pimp.), you also had the option of playing as lesser known characters like Captain Panaka, and a PK Droid… for some reason.

LEGO Star Wars is one of those games that you may find yourself plopping in your console on a cold night when you’re all alone, or drunk with friends. Traveller’s Tales not only perfected the under-appreciated genre of game known as the “time kill”, but they inadvertantly opened the door to a whole new franchise that would eventually incorporate both Indiana Jones and Batman.

9.) Nintendogs

Former G4 Host and Current On10.net co-host Tina Wood playing Nintendogs
Nintendogs was a blessing for everybody who lived in a studio apartment or in a complex where pets weren’t allowed because it allowed people who simply couldn’t afford the time or money to own an actual dog to finally enjoy the unconditional love of their own puppy – with the added bonus that your puppy would remain an adorable little pooch forever.

Before Nintendogs was brought to the Nintendo DS, the game was used as an early tech demo for the Nintendo GameCube. Seeing how the dogs acted, producer Hideki Konno went to the game’s creator and said something along the lines of “Hey Shigeru, that looks cool. Can we get that on the Nintendo DS?” to which Miyamoto said something akin to “…sure.” With it decided that the game would be coming to the Nintendo DS, Konno and Satoru Iwata then started debating on how many versions of the game would be released. Originally the plan was to release one version per breed in order to simulate the feeling of picking a dog at a kennel. However, it quickly became apparent to Nintendo that releasing sixteen versions of one game would take forever and cost a small fortune, so they eventually settled on three.

Nintendogs won several awards for best Nintendo DS and best Handheld games and has grown to be one of the most successful Nintendo DS titles in both North America and Japan. In fact, in Japan Nintendogs has spawned both a line of plush toys and, for some reason, trading cards. The latest version of Nintendogs, Dalmation & Friends, was released on October 16th, 2006.

8.) Guitar Hero

Custom Power Rangers Track
It’s the story of Pong for a new generation. You see, back in the 1970s Nolan Bushnell saw a demo for a game called Table Tennis for the Magnavox Odyssey. Seeing this fairly simple yet addictive concept had a lot of potential, Bushnell went back to Atari and said something roughly akin to “Let’s make people pay a quarter to play ping-pong.”. So what happened? Nolan Bushnell, the guy who popularized the game concept, went on to become known as the grandfather of modern gaming while Ralph Baer, the creator of the Magnavox Odyssey and the true father of video games, is all but a footnote in the eyes of many gamers.

Such is the story for Konami, who originally decided that gamers would love to simulate being a Guitar God, released GuitarFreaks in arcades. Seeing this game in arcades, Frequency developer Harmonix and publisher Red Octane decided “…that would be awesome on PlayStation 2.” Sure enough, it was, going on to become one of the most successful franchises of all time and making Harmonix one of the most respected developers in the industry. Konami? Well, they gave us Rock Revolution… yeah…

While Guitar Hero is known today for having dozens of licensed tracks, the original game hardly had any. Many of the tracks were covers by bands that members of the development team either knew or played with. In fact, of the 47 tracks featured in Guitar Hero, none of them were master recordings.

My, how times have changed.

7.) Dead or Alive 4

‘Nicole’ in Dead or Alive 4
The Dead or Alive series is a favorite target of the fighting game purists. “It’s too simple” or “It’s just a button masher”, they tend to say. And until DOA4, the critics were unequivocally right. However, Dead or Alive 4 brought with it several changes that brought the series to the next level, including a deeper sophistication to the fighting mechanics and a true, working online component.

Several new characters were introduced to the franchise, but none of them raised more eyebrows than SPARTAN-458, aka “Nicole”. Nicole was the product of Team Ninja and Bungie Studios and was originally intended to be the man himself, Master Chief. However, because using the actual MC would’ve dome some serious damage to the canon of Halo, Bungie opted against letting Team Ninja use the actual character for their game. Instead, they created SPARTAN-458. In combat, Nicole is actually a very balanced fighter, with both speed and strength that, in the hands of a decent player, could do a ton of damage to any fighter.

While the game was almost universally praised by reviewers, there were a few rather odd bugs in the game. One of these bugs involving the erasing of save data was patched fairly quickly, but one still remains. Go pop your copy into your 360 right now. Go on, I’ll wait……. good, now, look at the displayed results on your character selection screen…. uh huh, you see that?

“1st”, “2st”, “3st”? Weird.

Now if you are a fan of the series, you may have to settle with Dead or Alive 4. After all, now that Tomonobu Itagaki no longer works for Team Ninja or Tecmo, the fighting franchise that he created will never be the same.

6.) Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

Deleted Scene with Gen. Dwight Eisenhower
Few video games are based on true events, let alone true stories. However, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 was one of the few exceptions. In an industry where taking real events and embellishing them is the norm, developer Gearbox Software decided to go a different route and tell a very personal story that, to this day, remains the single-best World War II story told in any game.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 tells the true story 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division that dropped behind enemy lines on D-Day. Playing the role of the fictional Sergeant Matthew Baker, players have to complete missions that are based on the real-life objectives the 502nd were required to complete during Mission Albany.

The big draw for Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 was the command system, in where you could aim your crosshairs at a wall or a car and tell your squad to move for cover or lay down suppressive fire while you moved to flank your enemy’s position. It was worried early on that this would be used as nothing more than a cheap gimmick, but once you played the game and realized that the enemy AI was simply too smart to attack straight-on, the strategic use of suppression and assault really did mean the difference between life and death.

5.) Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus intro
Team Ico is back again with a game that some would argue surpassed their previous title, Ico in every measurable sense. Technologically, this was without doubt. The sheer size and scale of each of the sixteen Colossi that you must murder.

Yes, murder. Killing things in video games is nothing new, but never before had the player seen such emotion from the creatures that you are forced to kill. Many of them look as though they’re stricken with fear, and one of them won’t even fight back, instead simply trying to shake you off of him. However, when one consider that you were killing these creatures in order to restore the life of a young girl, it forced the player to examine whether they were doing the right thing or not.

Unlike Ico, Sony put their marketing team behind Shadow of the Colossus and as a result the game was a financial success. In fact, to make sure that people picked up Shadow of the Colossus, Sony had a four-prong advertising blitz that included television, magazine, online and an ingenious viral marketing campaign that claimed that remains of five of the colossi had been found.

Love or hate the game on its own merits, there is no denying that much the same way Ico had done before it, Shadow of the Colossus was a shining piece of digital art. Whenever a Roger Ebert or some other bloviating buffoon tries to say that video games should never be considered an artform, this is the game I tell them to play.

4.) Mario Kart DS

One messed up Mario Kart DS ad…
Back in 1996, I told you that there would be one more Mario Kart game to be mentioned in this series. Many of you thought I’d say Mario Kart Wii. A few of you theorized Mario Kart: Double Dash. Not a soul figured Mario Kart DS, which is a shame since I (personal opinion) find it to be the best entry in the series.

Mario Kart DS didn’t do too much to change its gameplay from the Nintendo 64 game, but the game did manage to give Mario Kart fans something they had been dying for: online play. Yes, the inclusion of online play made an already great racing franchise even better – so much so that Mario Kart DS has gone on to sell about 12 million copies worldwide. In fact, if you pop it in your DS right now, you’ll probably find somebody to play with online, which is more than what most PSP games can say.

…no, that’s all I got. I’ve said everything I can say about Mario Kart in the previous two entries to make the lists… move on. I hear #3 was awesome.

3.) Psychonauts

Psychonauts trailer
You should be ashamed of yourself. Tim Shafer’s Psychonauts was one of the best platformers ever, and you all freaking ignored it. And for what? Another Sims expansion? You disgust me.

Psychonauts tells the story of Razputin, a young lad who runs away from the circus to become a Psychonaut. Without telling you too much about the story, the game has you, as Raz, entering the minds of people you meet in the game world. This sets up for some of the most creative, off-the-wall platforming in one of the most story-rich worlds ever created.

The idea of Psychonauts started when Shafer was working on another game, Full Throttle. Originally Shafer wanted a sequence where Ben, high on peyote, goes on a psychedelic mindtrip. Sadly, Lucasarts heard this idea and said that it was too mature – because we all remember Full Throttle for being cuddly and lovable. Shafer held onto the idea, however, and Psychonauts was born.

So how bad did Psychonauts flop? Well for a while there were rumors that Tim Shafer’s studio, Double Fine, would have to close it’s doors. The game’s publisher, Majesco, was forced to stop publishing big titles and announced that it would pull out of the “big budget console game marketplace”. However, much like Buckaroo Banzai, Psychonauts simply refused to die and has since found great success on Steam, GameFly and the Xbox 360 as one of the launch titles for the Xbox Originals service. Which only proves once more that given time, all good things get their due.

2.) God of War

G4 examines what Kratos does after he kills Ares
On a stormy night in southern California, David Jaffe was getting baked with Russell Crowe. After about six hours of herb and debating what the symbolism behind the smoke monster on Lost was, Jaffe turned to Crowe and looked loningly into his bloodshot baby blues before saying “Dude… dude… let’s kill Ares.” At this point Crowe just busted out laughing and stumbled outside where he proceeded to punch a hooker in the ovaries before driving into a telephone pole. Jaffe never saw him again.

…obviously that story is a crock of bull, but doesn’t that sound like something Jaffe would do? Anyways, on to God of War.

You play Kratos. Of course, you all know that. As Kratos, you are summoned by the Greek Goddess Athena to kill Ares, God of War. Again, you all know this. When you aren’t sitting through the beautifully acted cut scenes, you’re more or less raining death and hellfire down on anything that isn’t you. The gameplay is very basic, without a question – but it’s a freaking blast.

One of the things that God of War spawned popularized (respect to Shenmue) that has since become standard in most games… whether we like it or not… is the use of quick time events. While these had been around for a while, going back to Dragon’s Lair if you wanted to be an overly technical shithead, God of War was the first time any of these were, how you say, “fun”. After you beat a boss into the dirt for a while, you were prompted to finish them off when a market appeared over their heads. Hitting the O button, you entered into a QTE that would ultimately end in the gruesome, yet awesome, death of the boss.

Unfortunately, because of God of War’s incredible financial and critical success, every video game under the sun now feels to shoehorn QTEs into it – I’m looking at you, Sonic Unleashed…

1.) Resident Evil 4

MC Chris laments on Resident Evil 4 and… a lesser game…
Do you know how good Resident Evil 4 is? Let’s put it this way – if the PS2 port had been delayed a few months and released in, say, February, 2006 instead of October, 2005, Resident Evil 4 would have won Game of the Year twice. It’s that awesome.

You play Leon S. Kennedy. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the franchise, Leon was the protagonist in Resident Evil 2, the #5 game of 1998. Now working for the federal government, Leon is shipped off to Spain to find the President’s daughter. However, it becomes quite apparent that it’s going to be a lot harder than simply going in and picking her up. Whether it be coincidence, destiny or a refusal to create new characters, Leon finds himself smack in the middle of another virus episode involving old friend Ada Wong and new acquaintance, Albert Wesker.

So why was Resident Evil 4 so awesome? Simple: Capcom finally got around to updating the now decade-old game engine that had run every other Resident Evil. Instead of fixed cameras set against a pre-rendered background, Resident Evil 4 featured a new over-the-shoulder camera and fully-3d environments that, in a way, made the series abandon the genre that it helped to create (survival/horror), instead opting for an action/horror style. Sure, it worked, and the tight controls and full-world movement helped launch Resident Evil 4 to the top of the game sales charts – where it would stay for a long, long time.

The story of Resident Evil 4 is a complicated one. “Officially” announced in 2001, the game had undergone several facelifts. For starters, before the official announcement, a proposed attempt at a 4th entry resulted in Devil May Cry. A second version debuted after Capcom and Nintendo struck a deal to make Resident Evil 4 a GameCube exclusive (more on that in a second), in which Leon was fighting a mysterious fog. Capcom eventually scrapped this idea and started work on yet another version of the game. This one is known as the Hooked Man Version. Debuting at E3 2003, Leon now found himself in a haunted mansion and fighting suits of armor and living dolls that made you go “…wasn’t that done?”. While the gameplay looked very similar to what would be the final product, the storyline was scrapped because it was “too paranormal” for the Resident Evil franchise. The final version to be scrapped was more or less the final product, only the crazed Spaniards that NOBODY THOUGHT WAS RACIST were more or less the good ol’ fashioned zombies.

I miss the zombies.

Worst Game of 2005:
Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green

Rantdog reviews this piece of trash
By the time Land of the Dead was released in theatres, it had more or less been decided that George Romero had lost his touch. Then they saw the movie itself and agreed that Romero had not only still had it, but that Land of the Dead was (arguably) the best movie in the series. Unfortunately the game that tied in with the movie, Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler’s Green, was a colossal turd that simply was beyond redemption.

As the protagonist, Jack, you have to fight your way off of your farm and through a city infested with zombies and… yeah, the story doesn’t matter. The fact that you could stand a foot away from the zombies and they would more often than not stare at you like you’re some kind of two-legged horse. The game’s developer, Brainbox Games, does deserve some credit. They found a way to take a zombie, which is nothing more than a mindless shell of a nitwit to begin with, and somehow make it even more retarded. For that, you have to just sit back, nod your head in disbelief and say “…well done, jackass. Well done.”

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