Binge Gamer Dot Net

2006 was one of those years that gave us a lot of really good games, but only one or two true classics. However, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a ton of interesting gaming news. For instance, in West Virginia, schools started adding Dance Dance Revolution to the gym class curriculum to help fight youth obesity.

Ralph Baer, the true father of video games before Nolan Bushnell more or less stole his idea, was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George W. Bush. Not only did this finally work to give Baer the recognition he deserved for giving birth to a ten billion dollar industry, but it once again proved that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Finally, in 2006 we saw the death of a dear friend when the Entertainment Software Association announced that the annual E3 show would be scaled back due to rising costs. However, after two years of that hogwash it seems that E3 will be returning to it’s past glory.

We’re getting close to the end. So close, in fact, that the final entry (which will hand out our award for Game of the Year) of this weekly list will be published later this week, on New Years Day. How very exciting. Either way, here’s what you missed if you’re just catching up with us:

Top Ten Games of 2005
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.) Excite Truck

Excite Truck Gameplay

Excite Truck is another of those games that you either love or hate. If you are one of those people who hated it, you can eat me. We here at BG love Excite Truck for a very simple reason: In an age where games seem to forget that they are, in fact, video games, Excite Truck understands it’s purpose perfectly: to be fun, plain and simple.

Excite Truck, at it’s core, is your typical racing game. After all, when you strip away all the extra stuff found in most racers, all racing is the same: beat the other guy. However, the transforming terrain and the (then) new way of controlling your car was more than enough to keep the game fresh.

There isn’t really much more to say. When the game was shown off at E3 2006, it was one of the first Wii titles that people were able to play, along with Wii Sports and Twilight Princess, and… nope, that’s about it.

9.) Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas

Rainbow Six Vegas intro

If you had ever played a Rainbow Six title, odds are you found Rainbow Six: Vegas to be… let’s say “different”. The first “next gen” entry in the franchise, Rainbow Six: Vegas had you clearing out a Casino that has been occupied by terrorists in the beautiful(ly colorful) city of… well, you can figure out where.

While the squad and enemy AI were both beefed up for the franchises debut on the Xbox 360, most who played the game spent their time online.

Rainbow Six: Vegas featured a killer ranking system that worked much like the ranking system you can find in Call of Duty 4, where you earned experience based on how awesome you were. When you plug this into a multiplayer mode that featured ten different modes of play, and you had yourself something that people became addicted to.

Rainbow Six: Vegas holds the distinction of being the first Xbox 360 title to be adopted by Major League Gaming and remained part of the circuit for nearly a year, with it’s final appearance being made, most fittingly, in Las Vegas.

8.) Saints Row

He speaks!

Saints Row is, without a doubt, the best Grand Theft Auto clone out there. Seriously. Because not only did it succeed in doing what all others failed to do (emulate GTA while keeping it fun), but Saints Row was able to improve on areas that the GTA franchise had always come up short with – like the inventory system and weapons combat. Instead of cycling through each and every weapon your character was holding, like you do in GTA, in Saints Row you picked your weapon from a circular one-button menu system. This made quick switches from, say, your pistol to your rocket launcher, a breeze.

The other big difference between Saints Row and GTA was the inclusion of multiplayer. Featuring four different modes of play, up to sixteen people could hop into a game and lay waste to each other. However, in the early months issues of lag were forcing players to enter games where only eight players were allowed.

Very few GTA competitors could stand toe-to-toe with the actual product. But Saints Row not only stood toe-to-toe, but it towered above anything that Grand Theft Auto had done to that point. However, thanks to Grand Theft Auto IV (which took some ideas from Saints Row), Rockstar North has retaken their throne.

7.) Okami

Okami trailer

Ah, yet another artsy game that looked beautiful, played wonderfully and was rewarded by being purchased by about twelve people. You people disgust me sometimes.

Okami played primarily as an action/platformer, and in that respect it was adequate, maybe a little bit above. But it was certainly nothing to be remembered or could in any way be considered revolutionary. At least, not until you used the celestial brush. When used, the celestial brush allowed you to paint images that would have real-world effects. So, if you wanted to attack an enemy, you’d draw a slash through them, or draw a loop if you wanted a gust of wind.

Okami didn’t start out with the cel-shaded, watercolor-style art that we see in the final product. Early screenshots of the game showed Amaterasu in a photo-realistic environment that was pretty damn impressive for the PlayStation 2. If there were more than just a single screenshot floating around, I’d show you more. But there isn’t, so I can’t.

Deal with it.

Oh, and pick this one up on the Wii, will you? Maybe you don’t like artsy games that dare to try new things, but I do – and I’d really like to play an Okami 2 down the road.

6.) New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros. gameplay

When New Super Mario Bros. was released, it was a departure for the series. How so? Well, by going back to what made Mario Mario: Solid 2D platforming. Just like the NES days, the game played as a side-scrolling platformer where you crushed blocks, collected coins and jumped on everything living not named “Mario”. This was the first time Mario appeared in this kind of game since 1992.

…that’s all I got. Really. Not only is it hard to write about a Mario game, but it’s really hard to write about a 2D Mario game that doesn’t deviate at all from the classics – which really only goes to show you that when something is as timeless as Mario, you can do almost nothing to the gameplay and keep everything working great.

5.) Dead Rising

Mega64: Dead Rising

Another thing that never gets old, as proven by Dead Rising, is that killing zombies in new and interesting ways is always fun. Always. Zombies are the Nazis of the new millennium, you can get away with killing them all you want. Even if they’re Spanish or Black, but I digress. The reason why Dead Rising is so fun is not because you’re killing a ton of zombies, but because you’re killing a bunch of zombies with katanas and bowling balls.

In a shopping mall.

If that idea sounds familiar, congratulations – you get a gold star for knowing your nerd pop culture. The idea is undoubtedly taken from George Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead. So much so, in fact, that the people who hold the rights to the Dawn of the Dead movies (original + remake) took Capcom to court for copyright infringement. Thankfully, Capcom won the case as the Judge said that Dead Rising did not infringe on the films and that the elements in the game was a “wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak”.

4.) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on Wii

Oh, yay, another Zelda game. What is there to say this time? The game plays much like every other 3D Zelda title. The Z-targeting is utilized once more and once again you had to save the world from an unseen evil. Seriously, if you had ever played a previous Zelda game, you had an idea about this one.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was announced in 2003 for the GameCube, where it wa also revealed that the game would be developed by the same team that worked on the much superior Wind Waker. In fact, Twilight Princess was originally meant to be the direct sequel to Wind Waker, but because people complained about the cartoonish graphics the game failed to sell in the United States. This prompted project director Eiji Aonuma to go to Shiggy (Miyamoto) and say something along the lines of “Yo… I don’t want no more Cartoon Network Zelda games”. Miyamoto, it is assumed, said something akin to “You’re right. I wanna buy a new boat. Make it look real”. Miyamoto also told Aonuma to come up with some new gameplay ideas.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess went on to become a massive hit for both the GameCube and Wii. However, the general consensus was that the GameCube version was slightly better than the Wii. Jeff Gerstmann, who hasn’t played a game he hasn’t been able to bitch about later on, commented that the Wii controls felt “tacked on” while almost everybody else thought they were expertly implemented.

3.) Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Deadpool FTW!

If Diablo II had come to consoles, it would have to play like Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Developed by the massively underrated Raven Software, Marvel Ultimate Alliance was a top-down action-RPG where you could play as any of 47 (54 if you include the PSP) Marvel Superheroes. These heroes ranged from the classics like Spider-Man, Wolverine and the absurdly overpowering duo of Captain America (seriously, you could clear the whole damn game with JUST him) and Iron Man, to lesser recognized heroes like Moon Knight and the always awesome Deadpool.

The definitive version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance is the Xbox 360 version. Why? Because you have eight additional characters to download, including Venom, Magneto, Hulk and Nightcrawler.

There is a sequel in the works from Vicarious Visions. It looks as though it is going to take on a more comic book aesthetic to counter the somewhat realistic-looking world that the original was set in. When we will see it, however, is anyone’s guess.

2.) Gears of War

“Mad World”

Gears of War is one of those games that picked one thing and decided to do that one thing as well as it could. What was that thing? Killin’ shit. The presentation was done well, of course, but the story wasn’t particularly good and did little to inspire gamers to push forward. No, what did that was an unmatched sense of pure joy when burying your chainsaw bayonet into the head of whatever Locust scumbag dared to stand in front of you.

By Cliff Bleszinski’s own admission, Gears of War is one part Resident Evil 4 and one part kill.switch. This influence can be seen in the choice of an over-the-shoulder camera (Resident Evil 4) and the use of a tactical cover system (kill.switch). If you don’t remember kill.switch, don’t worry – you’re not alone. While the game was a borderline revolutionary step (I use that R word entirely too much) with it’s implementation of blind fire and cover, the game wasn’t exactly, um… popular. Hell, even I forgot about it.

But let’s not forget the most important thing to come out of the immense success of Gears of War: Megadeth’s song of the same name.

1.) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Elder Scrolls IV intro

I (JW) loved The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, but at the same time I (JW) thought that Bethesda could have done more to streamline what I (JW) felt to be a clunky menu system. Thankfully The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion not only fixed this somewhat minor complaint, but built on an already excellent title to create what can only be described as one of the most awe-inspiring video games to ever make it to retail.

From the moment you stepped out of the sewers and took in the sheer scope of the world around you, it was hard to not run around, killing the occasional boar or bear as you explored. Once the player stopped drooling over how stunning the game looked, they would discover that the game featured improved AI that actually made the game a challenge. The final product was the culmination of four years of development. The design team began work on the game shortly after The Elder Scrolls III was released in 2002, although the game wasn’t officially announced until 2004.

There were some complaints, though. Without going into all of them, I’ll simply say two words that can best summarize the frustration that many felt: Horse Armor.

Worst Game of 2006
Bad Day L.A.

American McGee is one of those game makers who seems to get by on name alone. Yes, American McGee’s Alice was an amazing game, but what has he done since? He has been working on a treatment of The Wizard of Oz that doesn’t look like it’s ever going to happen, and in the interim has been working on games like Bad Day L.A., a game that has absolutely zero reason for being.

The game is full of political “satire”, although you would hardly notice it. The story is meant to be a scathing critique of American politics and general Americana through the medium of humor, but all it really winds up doing is working as a ten-hour string of fart and dick jokes.

It doesn’t help that the game itself was terrible in every conceivable sense.