Forum posters and bloggers for other, less-exciting websites have been saying that 2011 was one of the best years ever for videogames—and they are absolutely, unconditionally right. Let’s look at the facts:

FACT: 2011 saw direct sequels to not one, not two, not four, but three former GameCola Games of the Year: Batman: Arkham Asylum, LittleBigPlanet, and Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy. (Yes, somehow we didn’t give Portal Game of the Year back in 2007, despite the fact that it topped our Top 50 Games of All Time list a few years later.) This is completely unprecedented, unless it’s happened before.

FACT: The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise finally broke its years-long dry spell by releasing a game that was, as many put it, playable.

FACT: For the first time in a decade, we got to know Jack. We also got the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a new Chrono Trigger, and the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a Final Fantasy VII remake.

FACT: Some popular shooting games were probably released, maybe.

FACT: Fans of the Back to the Future franchise were delighted to play as Marty McFly once again in a game that in no way involved giant balls of poop (at least, until the inevitable DLC comes out).

We gather here today to celebrate these games. Well, not these games. None of the games I’ve mentioned so far (save for one) actually won any GameCola awards this year. But others did, and we’re here to discuss the crap out of them.

Who are we? Well:

• Matt Jonas, news reporter, reviewer and video-er,
• Kate Jay, author and illustrator of “The Gates of Life,”
• Mark Freedman, reviewer and author of “What the Crap?“,
• Elizabeth “Lizo” Medina-Gray, editor as well as occasional reviewer,
• Vangie Ridgaway, author of “Gamer Girlfriend” and occasional podcaster and reviewer,
• Christian Porter, artist, blogger, news reporter, podcaster, reviewer, video-er and organizer, as well as author of “Poor Player’s Paradise,” Top of the Heap,” and “Power Gloves & Tinfoil Hats,”
• Alex Jedraszczak, the podcast master,
• Jillian Dingwall, reviewer,
• Michael Ridgaway, reviewer, podcaster, and former author of “Quantum Geek,”
• Nathaniel Hoover, editor, reviewer, podcaster, video-er, YouTube administrator, artist of “Sprite Flicker” and author of “Flash Flood” and “Impaired Closed Captioning,”
• Daniel Castro, author of “Don’t Be That Guy,”
• And, finally, me.

So join us today in celebrating 2011: the year that was, and, as always, be sure to tell us in the comments exactly where we went wrong. Here, I’ll start:

Where the hell is Gunstringer?!

Best Licensed Game

Batman: Arkham City

Christian Porter: The Batman: Arkham (Progressively Larger Geographic Location) series has been full of surprises. Arkham Asylum not only shirked convention by being a good superhero game, but it was actually an amazing game to boot, winning GameCola’s coveted 2009 Game of the Year title. Now Arkham City shirks convention by turning the sequel into a sandbox without making the game seem crammed with filler, and the game is still just as fun as the original. The same high-quality writing and voice acting also return, with tons of Batman villains around every corner, but somehow not feeling like they’ve all been shoehorned in. It’s an amazing adventure and, any other year, would be a shoo-in for Game of the Year.

Honorable Mention: Back to the Future: The Game
Last Year’s Winner: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Best Remake/Re-release

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Daniel Castro: What else can be said about this game? It’s freaking Ocarina of Time, a game remembered as one of the best games ever made—and now it looks so damn awesome that we won’t feel at all embarrassed showing it off to future generations. It’s not the perfect remake, since there aren’t any new additions besides prettier aesthetics, but I guess not everyone was waiting for newer mechanics or anything else for the game that they cared about and loved so many years ago. And, hey! The 3D effects are gorgeous, it’s portable, and you can aim by tilting your Nintendo 3DS in front of your face, which means I can finally play Ocarina of Time on the bus, drunkenly trying to aim at anything with the slingshot, while other passengers play shitty music on their cell phones. It’s fun!

Honorable Mention: No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise
Last Year’s Winner: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge

Best Use of Motion Controls

Child of Eden

Jillian Dingwall: Child of Eden is an arcade-style shooter in which you use your hands to target and destroy various enemies. It’s set in space, and the object of the game is to rescue a super-hot fairy girl who has been eaten by what appears to be the Internet.

This game is HARD. It’s quite confusing to begin with, and the enemies come flying at you from all angles resulting in flailing arms, sweaty armpits, unattractive facial expressions and frustratingly continuous failure. As a “game,” it’s not that great; however, you can switch off the super-death mode and play the game in the much less challenging  ”Feel Eden” mode (Eden being the name of the environment, not the fairy—that game would be called Child of Molestation), and this is where you begin to appreciate the genius of the game’s concept.

Child of Eden combines its  surroundings, music and motion controls beautifully, and when you remove the fear of death, the game becomes a highly enjoyable, exciting and ethereal experience. Shooting different enemies produces different effects which blend together seamlessly to create your very own, unique sound. The motion controls are impressively responsive and make you feel as though you really are in control of the celestial surroundings. I agree with those who feel it may not be the best game in the world, but as an experience, it’s definitely a worthy winner. Motion control is still in its infancy, but if Child of Eden is anything to go by, we have a lot to look forward once it hits puberty.

Honorable Mentions: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword; The Gunstringer
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Best New Character

Wheatley
(Portal 2)

Christian Porter: Homer Simpson, Rose Nylund, Jenny McCarthy—everybody likes a lovable moron. In Portal 2, Stephen Merchant fills the moron shoes perfectly. (I mean that in a good way.) Valve really hit the nail on the head by letting Merchant ad lib to his heart’s content, with some of the best comedy in the game coming from standing around and waiting to see what Wheatley will say next. No matter how many awful situations his rampant stupidity gets you into, Wheatley is simply impossible to hate.

Honorable Mention: Cave Johnson (Portal 2)
Last Year’s Winner: Sheep Man (Mega Man 10)

Most Innovative

Bastion

Alex Jedraszczak: To say that Bastion is the most innovative game of 2011 is a little odd. The game itself is a pretty solid action/adventure type game, but that genre has been around long enough to be fairly finely tuned. The innovation is all in exploration and storytelling.

The world literally drops from the sky as you explore. More than a cool visual effect, this leaves you always knowing when you’ve been someplace before. It’s pretty obvious where you’ve been, and this guides you where you need to be without needless exposition.

The game’s main claim to fame, however, is the storytelling. Rather than reading through boring text before getting to play the game, the story is told as you’re playing. The end result is a game that flows very well, and can be pretty entertaining when the narration is tailored to your in-game actions.

Honorable Mentions: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective; Catherine
Last Year’s Winner: Heavy Rain

Best Story

Portal 2

Portal 2

Nathaniel Hoover: Hmm…Portal 2, you say? Is it really the funniest game of the year? Absolutely. Unless you’re adopted. Or obese. Or a sympathizer to either demographic, for that matter. However, we here at GameCola are horrible, insensitive people, so we think it’s pretty hysterical. Eminently quotable. From the mad ramblings of Cave Johnson to the moronic assertions of Wheatley to the sarcastic barbs of GLaDOS, there’s no shortage of creativity in the humor. Throw in a prophetic talking turret, legions of its dimwitted cousins, a droll male computer, outrageous personality spheres, a few wonderful sight gags, and all the hilarious situations afforded by portals, springboards, and bouncy goo—especially in (un)co-operative multiplayer—and you’ve got pretty much the only game we could have voted for this year.

Honorable Mention: No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise
Last Year’s Winner: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

Best New Peripheral

3DS Retractable Stylus

Paul Franzen: Oooh. Oh, baby. Come here, my baby. Let me slide this thing in. And slide it out. Slide it in. Slide it out. Over and over. Aren’t we having fun, my baby? You can touch it, if you’d like. Just don’t scratch up the screen; this thing cost me $250 and still doesn’t have any games.

…Wait, what? What did you think I was talking about? I’m talking about the new stylus that comes bundled with the Nintendo 3DS! It’s retractable! That means you can make it whatever length is most comfortable to you! Stop it; there’s nothing sexual about that. And it’s fun to play with, too, while you’re playing with yourself. I mean, playing games! With yourself. Phew. I can’t believe I got through this whole thing without any innuendo.

Honorable Mentions: Wappy Dog; Pop Star Sparkle Gloves
Last Year’s Winner: Pokéwalker

Best Multiplayer

Portal 2

Vangie Ridgaway: In the Portal 2 co-op mode, GLaDOS has finally found a more self-sufficient mode of conducting her scientific testing at Aperture Science. Her latest creations are P-body and ATLAS, a modified turret and personality sphere, respectively, who are now possessed of arms, legs, and portal guns of their own. Together, the two of them explore a completely new set of testing areas, which are specifically designed for two players, and require both guns (meaning a total of four active portals!) to complete. The new puzzles require a fair bit of cooperation on the part of the players, which ironically seems to annoy GLaDOS, as she is constantly trying to set her two new testers against one another through her unique brand of “encouragements.” Expect more cleverly designed puzzles, a fun twist on the original portal gun mechanic, and more of the humor that the Portal series has become famous for.

Honorable Mentions: Trine 2; Gears of War 3
Last Year’s Winner: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Best Indie Game

Bastion

Michael Ridgaway: I could go on and on (and have) about Bastion’s fun Diablo-style gameplay, its beautifully vivid graphics, the poignantly shattered apocalypse it centers around, the amazing use of narration in the storytelling, or the awesome soundtrack that I find myself listening to at least once every few days. I could talk about those things, and they’d all be true, but for the moment I want to focus on how earnest the fans are and how keen Supergiant Games is to return that affection. For instance, one gentleman wrote to them asking for help in making his wedding ceremony extra special, and they delivered. A soldier in Afghanistan was not able to get a digital version of the game, so they specially made and sent him a physical copy of the game. Bastion really is the full package here, folks: an awesome game with awesome people behind it.

Honorable Mention: Orcs Must Die!
Last Year’s Winner: Super Meat Boy

Best PC Game

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Mark Freedman: If someone says the name Elder Scrolls to you, and all you can think of is your grandpa trying to figure out how a mouse wheel works, it’s time to get on the Skyrim bandwagon. I can’t think of any other game where, after playing 60 hours, you can still feel like you’ve only scratched the surface. Compared to other open-ended worlds, this game has the scale of an entire galaxy. Even if you’re not interested in combat, there’s so many beautiful mountains, lakes, caves, and forts to discover. With over 60,000 lines of dialogue and hundreds of hours you can spend playing, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth here. Kill some bears, craft your own armor, learn some spells, betray some townsfolk, or reanimate the dead…it’s all up to you. Despite its many bugs, this is truly a breathtaking adventure.

Specific to the PC version, some really great mods are finally coming out that make it feel more like a PC experience. There haven’t been a whole lot of beards in videogames, but Skyrim majestically integrates the tenacity and allure of beards in to such an epic quest as ever you’ll see.

Honorable Mention: Star Wars: The Old Republic
Last Year’s Winner: Mass Effect 2

Best Console Game

Portal 2

Kate Jay: The original Portal made its mark on the gaming world with its witty dialogue, innovative concept, and fast-paced gameplay. Fans asked for a sequel, and Valve gave us everything we asked for and more: Portal 2 took that theme and ran with it, releasing with a fully-fledged story with actual character development, backstory, and, of course, more snarkiness. Playing through Portal 2, we learn more about the history of Aperture Science and the men and women who made it what is was (before GLaDOS killed everyone, that is). Valve added new Aperture Products, including three types of gel, robots for the multiplayer levels, and defective personality cores. To add more frosting on this delicious, theoretical cake, Valve also provided players with plenty of free—yes, FREE—downloadable content for the multiplayer and single player campaigns. Portal 2 is clever, quirky, and charming, and it most definitely takes the cake.

Honorable Mention: Batman: Arkham City
Last Year’s Winner: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Best Portable Game

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Elizabeth “Lizo” Medina-Gray: What if you were dead, but you didn’t know how or why you died, and you couldn’t remember who you were? And then what if you found out that you could manipulate objects in the world, and even go back in time and save other peoples’ lives? And what if you learned of a mysterious conspiracy tied somehow to your murder, and you had only until dawn to figure everything out before you disappeared forever? Then you’d be the main character in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective!

Ghost Trick is a new game from the creator of the Ace Attorney series (and we all know how well-loved those games are here at GameCola). Fortunately for all of us Phoenix Wright fans who were hoping for another great portable game, Ghost Trick delivers in full. The characters are quirky and well-developed, the graphics and music are awesome, and the mechanics are unique, challenging, and fun. But, like the Ace Attorney games before, the thing that really made Ghost Trick stand out for me was its story. Many times, I’ve played a game and found myself disappointed because it didn’t surprise me in a big way—sometimes I feel like the ideas I have and the guesses that I make while playing a game are more interesting than what the writers actually do. With Ghost Trick, though, I had the exact opposite experience. I didn’t come close to guessing the ending, but beyond that, the story went places that I never saw coming, and that was a great thing for me. Plus, the story’s just really cool!

With awesome characters, a compelling story, only a couple of annoying puzzles among the many good ones, and probably my favorite graphics on the DS to date, Ghost Trick is definitely a winner.

Honorable Mentions: Pokémon Black/White; Super Mario 3D Land
Last Year’s Winner: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Best Downloadable Game

Bastion

Kate Jay: It’s not often that I download Xbox Live games, but then, it’s not often that games like Bastion come along to entice me. At a glance, this indie games seems like your typical RPG: a young hero sets out to save his world from destruction. However, Bastion takes a different approach to the whole “rebuilding the world” theme—the world literally rebuilds itself around you as you move around the richly colored isometric map. To make the experience even more unique, your adventure is narrated blow-by-blow in the mellow tones of Rucks, an NPC voiced by Logan Cunningham. Gameplay is fast paced, if a little repetitive, but the story moves pretty quickly, keeping the experience fresh. A sensational soundtrack rounds out this refreshing game, making it a must-buy for any RPG fans.

Honorable Mention: Trine 2
Last Year’s Winner: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

GameCola Staff Member of the Year

Alex Jedraszczak

Paul Franzen: A lot has changed since Alex (real name: Jeddy) first won this award in 2007. GameCola changed formats, from a monthly e-mail newsletter to an actual Internet website. All of our writers decided to grow magnificent beards. Our site started having actual fans. But while he won last time because he was the only person who consistently submitted his articles in on time, this year, he won because he helped bring GameCola to an all-new level in 2011—and the fact that we have actual fans now is due in no small part to him.

The GameCola Podcast, under the Jedraszczak regime, has way more listeners now than ever it had before. I mean, it has actual listeners now! Listeners who send us e-mails, ask us questions, record covers of our theme song on their saxophones, and draw pictures of us as the cast of Phoenix Wright. (Note: This hasn’t actually happened yet, but here’s hoping.) Kevin Leacock won this award last year for making the site much more accessible to new fans; this year, Jeddy’s winning for drawing those new fans to the site. Whether he’s role-playing as Metroid, singing the theme songs to old Nickelodeon shows, or just sitting back and letting us argue the merits of Ace Attorney Investigations, you can bet that, if you’re listening to a Jedrazcast, your next hour is going to be awesome.

And he still gets everything in on time, too. You can set your calendar by it.

Honorable Mentions: Matt Jonas, Christian Porter
Last Year’s Winner: Kevin Leacock

Game of the Year

Portal 2

Michael Ridgaway: Man, what was it with 2011 and awesome storytelling?

Portal 2 refined and added a lot to the platformer/puzzle elements from the first game for yet another amazing quantum-tunneling exploratory experience, but where it really shined was the story. In addition to the ever delightful GLaDOS, players were introduced to Wheatley and Cave Johnson, voiced by professional actors Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons, respectively. I’m not sure I ever stopped laughing while playing the game, and it very squarely fell into the category of “games I can only play with Vangie around or she will straight up cut me.”

Portal 2 proved that it was possible to tell an exciting, entertaining story in the context of an excellent game, and it raised the bar not just for videogames, but all other forms of media, as well.

Honorable Mention: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Last Year’s Winner: Heavy Rain

It’s not often that the GameCola staff gets together to do anything. We all hail from different parts of these here United States, as well as America’s hat, Canada, and America’s…thing that’s very far away from America, England. It really only happens once per year, if you don’t count all the podcasts and “Versus Modes” we do. And at that time of year, the GameCola staff unites with one single purpose in mind: to ignore my e-mails asking them to vote in the year-end awards. Jerks.

But eventually the votes come in, and the points are tallied. The awards are set in stone. Then more votes come in, and we quickly chisel away to re-stone the awards. And so it goes, until the dust (from the stones) settles and is wiped away to reveal…the article that you’re reading, right now, wrapped up warm in your Harry Potter snuggie, watching the snow fall outside your window, and wondering if you remembered to let the cat back inside.

What follows are the games that the GameCola staff, as a whole, posit to be the best games of the year of our lord, 2010. My apologies to Black Ops, Starcraft II, and Red Dead Redemption, and my much more sincere apologies to Excruciating Guitar Voyage, which I’ve previously described in GameCola as the greatest game of all time, and which didn’t receive so much as an “honorable mention” from our staff. Jerks.

But before we get to the awards themselves, I’d like to take a quick moment to thank all the people who contributed to writing this article, without whom none of this would be possible, mostly because I haven’t played Mass Effect 2 yet:

• Matt Jonas, reviewer and video-er,
• Christian Porter, author of “Top of the Heap,” “Poor Player’s Paradise,” various reviews, and frequent podcast and video contributor,
• Jeff Day, author of “Gamera Obscura” and proprietor of random.access,
• Vangie Ridgaway, author of “Gamer Girlfriend” and enabler of Michael Ridgaway,
• Michael Ridgaway, author of “Quantum Geek” and frequent podcast contributor,
• Kate Jay, author and artist of “The Gates of Life,”
• Eric Regan, author of “Captain Eric’s Psychic Thumbs” and creator of fantastic MS Paint art,
• Michael Gray, whose contributions to the site are too many to list here,
• Elizabeth Medina-Gray, staff editor as well as author of “testgame.exe: Making the Adventure,”
• And, finally, me.

Now, on with the flame-bait!

Best Licensed Game

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Matt Jonas: How can this be the same Ubisoft that slaughtered Turtles in Time?

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game is based on the motion picture directed by Edgar Wright, and the comic book series by Bryan Lee O’ Malley. It is a series heavily influenced by videogames. To coincide with the theatrical release, Ubisoft produced this fantastic Xbox Live and PlayStation Network title, which combines the gameplay of Final Fight and River City Ransom in a way that many others should learn from. Filled to the brim with references to classic videogames, Scott Pilgrim may be forgiven for its freezing issues, because it stays true to both the movie adaptation and the comic, sharing the greatest elements of both.

Honorable Mention: Epic Mickey
Last Year’s Winner: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Best Remake/Re-release

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge

Christian Porter: Step One in making a good remake is to give a rat’s ass about the source material. If you don’t care about it, then you’re just going to pump out utter garbage. Thankfully, LucasArts still cares at least a little about its adventure games of yesteryear. Monkey Island 2: Special Edition pays every bit as much attention to detail as the last Monkey Island remake they put out, and it’s still every bit as fun and entertaining.

Honorable Mention: Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals
Last Year’s Winner: The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Best New Character

Sheep Man
(Mega Man 10)

Jeff Day: Amidst all the incredible, emotional, and downright heartwarming characters that graced our screens this past year…one has to wonder why the HELL we turned them all away in favor of an ovine robot.

Aside from the obvious obsession that GameCola has with Mega Man games, there’s just no possible way we could turn our backs on the cuddliest character of 2010. Look at him! He’s soft! He’s adorable! And he packs some serious killer Thunder Wool. He could definitely use some of that wool to crochet his enemies…to their graves! Beyond warming our hearts with his soft exterior, Sheep Man is one bad motherfleecer that you should keep both eyes on at all times.

Bonus Factoid: Even in this terrible economic crisis, he was able to maintain some level of steady employment this past year, first as a sheepherder, and then in a circuit board manufacturing plant, before settling on Dr. Wily’s minion. Sheep Man must have one dynamite resumé!

Honorable Mention: John Marston (Red Dead Redemption)
Last Year’s Winner: Morgan LeFlay (Tales of Monkey Island)

Most Innovative

Heavy Rain

Vangie Ridgaway: This year’s Heavy Rain offers a bevy of innovations that make it well worth playing. The most significant innovation, of course, is the extent to which player actions influence the plot of the story. Bear in mind, this is no Fallout, where player freedom is so important that plot is almost secondary to exploration in the game. Story is everything in Heavy Rain, and every choice you make carries consequences, some of which are immediate, while some are so far down the road that you could have no way of knowing in advance what is “right.”

Heavy Rain is also innovative in its de-emphasis of combat and its deliberate focus on real motions and movements that people make every day. Buttons and joystick motions aren’t just used to move forward and attack; they allow your character to swing a golf club, rub balm onto a burn, and even rock a baby to sleep. In the same way that the story adaptation mechanism serves to make you think like the characters, this mechanic allows you to feel and move as them, thereby further increasing the immersion factor of the game.

Honorable Mention: Minecraft
Last Year’s Winner: Scribblenauts

Best Story

Alan Wake

Kate Jay: Do not go gently into that good night. At least, not unless you’re packing a flashlight. In Alan Wake, light is the key to overcoming the people and objects that have been consumed by an evil dark energy. The theme of darkness is often played out in horror games and cheap paperback novels; however, Alan Wake stands out from your typical “fight the shadows” game. It has a compelling (if short) storyline that one can easily imagine as a horror novella, or as an episode from “The Twilight Zone.” This very literary feel is appropriate, given the fact that the story revolves around the famed horror writer, Alan Wake. The game is riddled with narrative aspects: Alan narrates certain cutscenes as though writing a novel. You can also read pages from a mysterious manuscript that sometimes dictate events yet to occur in your gameplay. The game is infused with background factoids about the local people and places, further enriching the game’s story.

Characters play an equally important role in moving the story along: Alan’s brooding and mysterious writer persona is often counterbalanced by a welcome infusion of humor in the people he meets. Along the way, you meet a local stalker, a floating man in a diving suit, and two aged rockers who think they’re Nordic gods, just to name a few. It’s these quirky interactions that help keep the plot from getting too dark or convoluted.

As with a good book, you’ll find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat, ready to turn the next page—if you’re not afraid of going out in the dark to find it, that is.

Honorable Mentions: Red Dead Redemption, Nier, Heavy Rain
Last Year’s Winner: Tales of Monkey Island

Most Disappointing

Metroid: Other M

Michael Ridgaway: Metroid: Other M is not a bad game, and compared to many other games it’s pretty fantastic. If it were in an original setting with original characters and was developed by some smaller studio, we’d be lauding it as the sleeper hit of the year. But it’s not. It’s a Metroid game developed by Nintendo and Team Ninja, and as such expectations were extremely high. When the story, characters, and gameplay were found lacking, people were upset. As a fan of the series it was hard for me to be less than blown away by a Metroid, and this sentiment was echoed throughout reviews and discussions, both on GameCola and other sites, regarding the game.

(Dis)Honorable Mention: Final Fantasy XIII
Last Year’s Winner: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time Re-Shelled

Funniest Game

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

Matt Jonas: No More Heroes 2 knows that it’s funny. It constantly acknowledges the fourth wall and uses excessive amounts of bad language, just for the sake of it. Sex and drug references aside, the obscure anime-styled sequences will either have you rumbling on the floor in hysterics, or laughing through complete confusion. The violence is disgusting, but it’s so disgusting that it’s actually bloody amusing. This makes No More Heroes 2 a game that you’d be a fool to miss. It’s extremely witty and thoroughly off-its-head. Although this marks the endzone for Travis Touchdown, we will always appreciate how his humor can overshoot the gap.

Honorable Mention: Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse
Last Year’s Winner: Tales of Monkey Island

Best New Peripheral

Pokéwalker

Michael Ridgaway: The Pokéwalker is a little pedometer that comes packaged with every copy of Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver and allows you to train your Pokémon, capture new Pokémon, and obtain items that you can then transfer to your game. These functions are enabled by collecting “watts,” which are generated by real-life user movement (although some cheaters, myself included, occasionally resort to just shaking the device). It actually expands the experience of the game quite a bit by giving players something to do in-between game sessions, and it incentivizes exercise. Most importantly, though, it’s FREE, and once you have it you might as well use it…

Honorable Mentions: Game Boat, Wii Inflatable Racing Kart
Last Year’s Winner: A cardboard box (Let’s Tap)

Best Multiplayer

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

“Captain” Eric Regan: Usually when you’re thinking about the best multiplayer game of the year, you’re thinking about a big-budget, big-name title. Not here at GameCola, though! Boy oh boy, do we love our downloadable titles at GC.

There were many worthy titles out there, but Scott Pilgrim took home this year’s faaaaabulous prize. Now, I really hate using the phrase “old-school” in any way, but it’s a term that probably best explains what makes this title just so much fun. Much like the comic and the movie it’s based on, the game takes many pages from the days when videogames were just finding their feet. It’s very reminiscent of classic games like the Ninja Turtle arcade games, Double Dragon, and River City Ransom, but with modern touches, like the ability to revive your fallen companions, and more in-depth combos. It’s a really easy game to get engrossed in, and the experience increases by leaps and bounds the more people you have playing! While you can’t play Scott Pilgrim online (yet?), it does allow for one fantastic couch co-op experience!

Honorable Mentions: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Last Year’s Winner: Borderlands

Best Indie Game

Super Meat Boy

Paul Franzen: Anyone who’s listened to The GameCola Podcast, or been a fan of the site for a while, or…read anything I have ever written for GameCola, knows that I’m God-awful at videogames. It’s kind of embarassing. So why, then, would I ever like this game? Why would I enjoy Super Meat Boy—a game whose major selling point is pain?

Simple: Because the game makes losing super, super fun.

With one simple mechanic—an instant replay that showcases every single one of your failures simultaneously after you beat a level—the game goes from “depressingly challenging” to “YES! I died again! I can’t wait to see what that looks like!” It also helps that the core gameplay mechanics are fun—I’ve always been a fan of running very fast, and jumping, and meat. But what really makes this game great to me is that it takes the frustration out of losing, and that’s worth so much more than a game about playing with dirt.

Runner Up: Minecraft
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Best PC Game

Mass Effect 2

Christian Porter: BioWare has truly raised the pick-three-people-from-a-group-of-a-dozen-or-so-and-embark-on-a-story-heavy-action-RPG-adventure genre they like so much to an art form with Mass Effect 2. The gameplay is similar to but tuned up from the already great original Mass Effect, building up the story nicely for the third and final chapter. There’s tons of gameplay, and the game has excellent graphics—or, you could say it’s a game with a lot of mass, and excellent effects!

Get it?! It only took me four years to come up with that one.

Honorable Mentions: Fallout: New Vegas, Minecraft
Last Year’s Winner: Tales of Monkey Island

Best Console Game

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Michael Gray: Super Mario Galaxy 2 is absolutely amazing. Having two Super Mario games for the same console is amazing enough, but Super Mario Galaxy 2 delivers a great gameplay experience by building upon the solid formula that Super Mario Galaxy created. The sequel is twice as long as the original, and it has loads of new material that gamers will enjoy, such as Yoshi, Cloud Mario, and 40% more screentime for Luigi. It’s an undeniably fun experience for fans of the Mario series (i.e. everyone), and everyone agrees that it is the best console game this year. If you don’t count the console game that won Game of the Year, of course.

Honorable Mention: Red Dead Redemption
Last Year’s Winner: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Best Portable Game

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Elizabeth “Lizo” Medina-Gray: The Phoenix Wright series introduced us to a cast of wonderful characters and intriguing story-driven cases to solve, and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth continues the spirit of the series in a big way. There are new friends to meet, villains to bring to justice, and old characters from the original trilogy to randomly run into. Plus, you get to play as Edgeworth, who is—and I’m being conservative here—completely and utterly awesome. Especially enjoyable for those who have played the first three Phoenix Wright games, Ace Attorney Investigations is a solid adventure-style portable game, and one of the best games of 2010.

Honorable Mention: Valkyria Chronicles 2
Last Year’s Winner: Scribblenauts

Best Downloadable Game

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Michael Ridgaway: I enjoyed the Scott Pilgrim books and movie, but I swear the game is actually the best version of the series. (A movie and book based on a videogame-ish world work best as a videogame—go figure). Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game is pretty much a straight-up homage to River City Ransom, one of the greatest NES games ever, and it duplicates all the best mechanics from that game while introducing a few new ones. Additionally, the graphics by Paul Robertson and the music by Anamanaguchi are fantastic (I listen to the soundtrack at least once a week), and the multiplayer mode is top-notch, as well.

Honorable Mention: Mega Man 10
Last Year’s Winner: Trine

GameCola Staff Member of the Year

Kevin Leacock

Paul Franzen: If you aren’t a long-time GameCola reader, you might not even know who Kevin Leacock is; after all, in 2010, he only wrote like two actual articles. But be that as it may, you’re definitely familiar with his work. Intimiately.

Do you remember GameCola’s dark ages? Think back. Here’s a hint: We used to look like this. Kevin’s the reason we don’t anymore. Kevin ripped us from the evil clutches of an early 90s Geocities-inspired web design—clutches that we weren’t necessarily willing to be uncluctched from. Kevin, with the help of a few other staff members who will remain anonymous because they didn’t win any awards this year, built the all-new GameCola.net from the ground-up. It’s because of Kevin that we’re all here today—if it weren’t for him, we’d probably have all been here a few days ago, because GameCola’s old-school issues usually published around the first of the month. But that’s besides the point. Kevin took the rotting husk of a website designed by an incompetent me, and he turned it into something we can actually be proud to look at and access, instead of just thinking “well, the content’s great, but the ugliness of the site has this bad tendency to melt my eyeballs.” Kevin brought dignity, sleekness, and modernity to GameCola.net, and for that we’re all unrelentlessly thankful.

Technically, of course, he did all this in 2009, but since the site launched in early ‘10, it still counts. Thanks Kev!

Honorable Mentions: Matt Jonas, Michael Gray
Last Year’s Winner: Michael Gray

Game of the Year

Heavy Rain

Vangie Ridgaway: It’s not often that a game comes along that is so completely immersive, so shockingly brutal, and so terrifyingly life-like that you stay up all night, not just trying to escape the nightmares, but agonizing with yourself over whether or not you made the right decisions. Enter Heavy Rain, a mystery/psychological thriller game with a story that is more compelling than many movies of the same genre. But Heavy Rain offers more than just suspense. Its gameplay format forces you to become the characters, to live in their skin, to make their choices for them…and to accept the consequences. As you move forward in the game, the story adapts to your actions, and insists on holding you responsible for them. With so much on the line, players are forced to examine their own values and ethics, and to make decisions that range from the “morally gray” to the downright agonizing. Even so, the game moves ruthlessly forward, ever demanding an answer to the question that lies at the very heart of the game: How far would you go to save someone you love? The answer, be it terrifying or uncomfortable, lies only in you.

Honorable Mentions: Red Dead Redemption, Fallout: New Vegas
Last Year’s Winner: Batman: Arkham Asylum

The games that we’ll remember the most, however, are the cream of this year’s crop: The games that won awards in the 2009 GameCola Videogame Awards. They are as follows:

Best Use of a License

Batman: Arkham Asylum
(PS3, X360, PC)

Christian Porter: Normally declaring something to be the best licensed game is just damning with faint praise, since, when it comes right down to it, you don’t have to be a gaming masterpiece to dethrone 3 Ninjas: Kick Back or Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool.  However, where the developers of Batman: Arkham Asylum could have shoveled out a phoned-in piece of pure mediocrity, they instead delivered a great storyline, solid voice acting, immersive graphics, and a game that absolutely perfects the stealth combat genre.  Not just the Best Use of a License for 2009, but it is very easily the best use of a license ever.

Runners Up: 1 vs 100, The Beatles: Rock Band
Last Year’s Winner: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness – Episode 2

Best Remake/Re-release

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
(X360-XBLA, PC)

Paul Franzen: One could say that, in re-releasing the original Monkey Island for a current-gen audience, the developers really didn’t need to monkey around with it all that much. But I’m reasonably certain that one would only ever say that just to make that awesome pun. In reality, LucasArts took what was already the Best Game Ever and made it even better, mostly via the insertion of voice acting by Dominic Armato and a bunch of other people you don’t care about. Dominic is Guybrush, and his voice alone makes this version at least three times better than it was before. The developers also added shiny new graphics, which is kind of cool, I guess.

Runners Up: Marvel vs. Capcom II, Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
Last Year’s Winner: Final Fantasy IV DS

Best New Character

Morgan LeFlay
(Tales of Monkey Island, PC, Wii-WW)

Michael Ridgaway: The Monkey Island games are known for their colorful cast of characters, but never before has Guybrush Threepwood had such a consistent frenemy (it’s a word now, look it up!) as he does in Morgan LeFlay. She’s like Elaine Marley and LeChuck all wrapped up into one sassy and swashbuckling package, and despite all the misadventures that she and Guybrush survive together, you can never be exactly sure what she’ll do next. The tension that comes from having another woman in Guybrush’s life adds a lot to the story in Tales of Monkey Island, and she’s easy on the eyes, to boot (grrrrrrrrroooowwww).

Runners Up: Eddie Riggs (Brutal Legend), Matt Hazard (Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard)
Least Year’s Winner: Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet)

Most Innovative

Scribblenauts
(DS)

Christian Porter: When Scribblenauts was first announced, promising users the ability to generate any item they could dream up, I was more than a little skeptical, as I expected the whole system to gum up and break when anyone attempted to create any but the most basic items.  The reality couldn’t be further from the truth.  Scribblenauts’ item generation system is incredibly deep, with items ranging from hovercrafts, lemonade, philosoraptors, and everything in between.  The developers took an outlandish concept and delivered on it better than anybody thought they could.

Runners Up: Flower, 1 vs 100
Last Year’s Winner: LittleBigPlanet

Best Story

Tales of Monkey Island
(PC, Wii-WW)

Paul Franzen: The Monkey Island games have never been known for their great stories, by which I mean that their stories have generally just been a cobbled together means to achieve the end of giving Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate, wacky puzzles to solve. That all changed when Telltale Games took over the license in 2009 to create Tales of Monkey Island—their own episodic take on the classic point-and-click adventure series. They give you actual reasons for all this clicking, and all this pointing; they make you care about What’s Going to Happen Next, and—this is true—they make you invested in both the characters themselves, as well as the relationships between the characters, setting up a sort of love quadrilateral that gives the series depth that it never had before. Totally unexpected for this type of game, and totally awesome.

Runners Up: Dragon Age: Origins, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Most Disappointing

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
(PS3-PSN, X360-XBLA)

Paul Franzen: On the flip side from what Telltale did with Monkey Island are the truly horrifying things that Ubisoft did to Turtles in Time, arguably one of the best side-scrolling beat ‘em ups of all time. (To be fair, Ubisoft has sort of made it their mission statement to try to run the Ninja Turtles franchise into the ground, apparently because their CEO is Shredder.) They took the already-bad visuals of a game released over 15 years ago, and somehow made them worse. They erased the game’s decent, but not great, soundtrack, and replaced it with elevator music. They fussed with the control scheme, and they didn’t even remake the good version of this game, instead settling for the inferior arcade version, which has fewer levels than the SNES one. On top of this, they don’t give you the option to play this game in any sort of “classic” mode, so if you want to play Turtles in Time on a current-gen console…you’re pretty much out of luck, because this game bears only a passing resemblance to it.

Runners Up: Prototype, Brutal Legend
Last Year’s Winner: Silent Hill: Homecoming

Funniest Game

Tales of Monkey Island
(PC, Wii-WW)

Michael Ridgaway: At this point in gaming history, Guybrush Threepwood and his pirate antics are comedy legend. In 2009, Tales of Monkey Island continued this tradition with a hilarious script (featuring new jokes and some old favorites), an excellent voice cast (at this point, Dominic Amato IS Guybrush Threepwood), and enough goofs and gags to choke a gargantuan manatee.  In addition, TMI introduced new characters and story elements that added a lot of freshness to the series, providing more opportunities for both comedy and engaging storytelling.

Runners Up: Brutal Legend, MadWorld
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Best New Peripheral/Accessory

A cardboard box
(Let’s Tap, Wii)

“Captain” Eric Regan: In our highly technological world, how we play videogames is constantly becoming more in-depth and sophisticated.  We can stare into a camera, swing a remote at our televisions, and flip our controllers around to make our on-screen avatars do wacky things. Yet, this award winner, the cardboard box, hearkens back to a much simpler time in our lives: a time when a mere cardboard box could bring us joy. Millions of dollars are spent creating and purchasing advanced technologies every year! But, in the end, what is it that everyone really wants? A simple, cheap, ordinary cardboard box.  We may have to suffer through 42 iterations of the DS this coming year; however, all we really want is more boxes. Cardboard, please.

Runners Up: Darth Vader Wii Sensor Holder, Wii MotionPlus
Last Year’s Winner: Rock Band Stage Kit

Best Multiplayer

Borderlands
(PS3, X360, PC)

“Captain” Eric Regan: When you find Borderlands and multiplayer in the same sentence, the word FUN can not be far behind. The game may not be the most difficult or require the most skill, but anyone would be hard-pressed to find a better good-time experience for you and your friends!  Borderlands blends the RPG and FPS genres together in a way that other games have just not been able to. Its focus on co-op FUNNESS over competitiveness makes it much more appealing to a wider range of gamers. THUMBS UP! …err, I mean, it is well deserving of this honor.

Runners Up: Trine, New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Last Year’s Winner: LittleBigPlanet

Best PC Game

Tales of Monkey Island

Paul Franzen: It’s a new Monkey Island game. I don’t mean that in the same sense that Mario Kart Wii was a new Mario Kart game; I mean that this is a new Monkey Island game, and it’s just as good as the old Monkey Island games, even though it was made by a different company, and over 10 years after the last great MI game was released. If you’ve played the original games, you see what high praise that is; if you haven’t, you are missing out. It is roffle-copter funny, it has a surprisingly engaging (and surprisingly existing) story, and it’s one of the best co-op games I’ve played in a long time, despite the fact that it’s, technically speaking, actually only a single-player game. Seriously—play through this game with your BFF or your snuggle-umpkins, putting your heads together to work out the answers to tricky puzzles, or staring at each other agape when each of the game’s many plot twists hits, and tell me you aren’t having a total blast.

Runners Up: Dragon Age: Origins, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Last Year’s Winner: Fallout 3

Best Console Game

Batman: Arkham Asylum
(PS3, X360)

Michael Ridgaway: 2009 was not a banner year for console gaming, but, nevertheless, there were a lot of excellent contenders for this category. Batman: Arkham Asylum beat them all, and for good reason. Not only does the game look stunning, employ an innovative battle system, and give the player an entire gothic island to explore, but for many of us who grew up in the ’90s, it is also a lovely bit of nostalgia. Batman: The Animated Series was and still is a great show, and many of the voices and writers who worked on it contributed to this game. There are places that could be improved, certainly, but overall the game is an excellent blend of well-tuned mechanics, impressive atmosphere, and dedication to the Batman franchise that makes it the best console game of 2009.

Runners Up: Borderlands, New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Last Year’s Winner: LittleBigPlanet

Best Portable Game

Scribblenauts
(DS)

Christian Porter: Though up against stiff competition this year, Scribblenauts really came out ahead, thanks to its delivering on its goal of giving center stage to your own creativity.  How would you solve the simple task of getting a star out of a tree? Saw down the tree?  Use a grappling hook?  Have a tornado knock it down?  Fly to the star on the back of a pterodactyl? Drop a bowl of gumbo on it until it falls?  In Scribblenauts, all of these, along with countless others, are valid solutions, making the game infinitely replayable.

Runners Up: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
Last Year’s Winner: Chrono Trigger

Best Downloadable Console Game

Trine
(PS3-PSN)

Matt Gardner: Why Trine for Best Downloadable Console Game? As opposed to many downloadable games, which only give you several hours of entertainment, Trine is a full game with literally MORE hours of entertainment. A full game meaning, of course, a full set of Trophies, complete with a Plat! With games of this generation being more about Trophies than anything else, a Platinum Trophy is a must-have.

In the land of things not retarded, though, Trine has three unique and fun characters to switch between to solve various puzzles and defeat foes. It also lets you play the game with up to three people, allowing the wizard to create a box and the knight to destroy said box simultaneously. While they somehow forgot to include online multiplayer, the offline multiplayer is fun enough to warrant socializing with actual human people. That’s not hyperbole, my friends; this game will genuinely make you want to maintain a relationship with a real-life human person. Engaging and entertaining single player + the hilarious hijinks that inevitably ensue in multiplayer = Trine wins.

Also, PLATINUM.

Runners Up: Shadow Complex, Flower
Last Year’s Winner: Braid

Staff Member of the Year

Michael Gray

Paul Franzen: In 2008, when the GameCola staff voted Michael Gray as our Staff Member of the Year, we all thought it was a pretty big deal that he managed to write two whole columns every month for the entire year. Michael, apparently, did not see things this way. He about doubled his column-writing efforts throughout 2009, and, in this second half of the year, Michael helped keep the main site alive during its hibernation with frequent posts to our blog, which was mostly ignored by our other writers. Writing was only a part of what Michael did for GameCola this year, though, as he also hosted, participated in, and edited podcasts; recorded video playthroughs for our YouTube page; and edited articles for GameCola. He may not have had his DNA launched into space this year, but he produced an awful lot of content for us, and to say he went above and beyond would be an understatement.

Michael won our internal Staff Member of the Month award in 7 of this year’s 12 months, and when the new site launched, roughly half of its articles were written by or otherwise involving him; I think that perfectly encapsulates what his participation meant to GameCola in 2009.

Runners Up: Kevin Leacock, Nathaniel Hoover
Last Year’s Winner: Michael Gray

Guest Star of the Year

Marianne Fenwick

Michael Gray: Marianne Fenwick would make an excellent addition to the GameCola staff (hint, hint), except for the fact that she can only be found with the help of professional bounty-hunters.  This year, she found the time to participate in three GameCola podcasts, co-write an issue of The Grass Is Always…, and play with puppies.  This is the second time she has won Guest Star of the Year from GameCola, and next year, she hopes to win it again by playing her way through Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask…but she’ll settle for just being able to beat Chip’s Challenge for the first time.

Runners Up: Christian Porter, Adam Ryland
Last Year’s Winner: Marianne Fenwick

Game of the Year

Batman: Arkham Asylum
(PS3, X360, PC)

Michael Ridgaway: Back when Vangie was in high school, her class had a trigonometry problem that involved Batman, a grappling hook of length y, and a chasm of length x. Their task was to determine if Batman could cross the chasm with his grappling hook, and their calculations led them to believe that he could not. However, the answer in the back of the book said that he could, so they went back and re-checked their work. After many frustrating recalculations, they went to the teacher to see what they were doing wrong, and their teacher came up with the same result that they did. Exhausted, they consulted the teacher’s manual for the book, and to their surprise found that the reason Batman was able to cross the chasm despite the mathematical impossibility was “because he’s Batman.”

This is why Batman: Arkham Asylum is Game of the Year: because he’s Batman.

Runners Up: Tales of Monkey Island, Flower
Last Year’s Winner: LittleBigPlanet

Best Use of a License

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness – Episode 2
(PC/X360-XBLA/PS3-PSN)

The second part of an episodic series based on the Internet’s favorite videogame Web comic, (sorry,Ctrl+Alt+Del!) Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode 2 combines the battle system of a turn-based RPG, the puzzles of a point-and-click adventure game, and a robot that wants to have sex with fruit. The Penny Arcade authors are known for their critiques of videogames, but with this new series, they’ve shown that they have some idea how to make them, too.

Readers’ Choice: (tie) Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice, Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode 2, Lego Indiana Jones, and Strong Bad’s Cool Game Episode 5
Last Year’s Winner: The Simpsons Game

Best Remake/Re-Release

Final Fantasy IV DS
(DS)

In a year that saw Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest IV, Quest for Glory, and Pajama Sam all receive modern makeovers, it’s hard to see how any blah blah blah. I’m tired of that sentence already. Way to go, Final Fantasy IV! I bet you get released again next year, too, since Square-Enix doesn’t know when to say “no.”

Readers’ Choice: Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek
Last Year’s Winner: Lara Croft Tomb Raider – Anniversary

Best New Character

Sackboy
(LittleBigPlanet, PS3)

Technically, Sackboy isn’t just one character—it’s a species of character that populate the world of build-your-own-platformer LittleBigPlanet. But do you want to be the one to tell that adorable little guy that he can’t win a GameCola award? In the game you can dress him up, switch his gender, and even make him punch all the other little Sackboys in the face. He’s also probably the most marketable character in videogame history.

Just look at him, for crying out loud!

Readers’ Choice: Professor Layton
Last Year’s Winner: GlaDOS

Most Deserving of a Sequel

The World Ends with You
(DS)

FYI, The World Ends With You was also one of the top contenders for “Most Awesomest Videogame Name” before that category was scrapped. TWEWY is an RPG set in the modern-day Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo. Besides the standard RPG fare—fighting things, etc.—this game introduces a concept totally foreign to most gamers: Fashion. Wearing fashionable clothes in this game powers your characters up, and wearing unfashionable clothes makes you a weakling. It’s the worst of middle school, and it’s in a DS cartridge. Videogame world: We demand a sequel.

Readers’ Choice: The World Ends With You
Last Year’s Winner: Portal

Most Innovative

LittleBigPlanet
(PS3)

Not only is this a multiplayer-simultaneous 2D platformer, but it came out in 2008, not in 1988. And that’s not even the innovative part! You also get to utilize an in-depth level-creation system to make your own LBP levels and then share them online with the world at large. Sure, game-creating games, like RPG Maker, already exist, but none of them offer the depth and intuitiveness of LittleBigPlanet, in addition to actually being a great game in its own right.

Readers’ Choice: Wii Fit
Last Year’s Winner: Portal

Most Disappointing

Silent Hill: Homecoming
(X360/PS3/PC)

There’s not much to say about this game that Richo Rosai didn’t cover in his review last month. It’s not scary, it’s glitchy, it makes you mash buttons, its audio is broken, and it plays like the developers hadn’t even heard of Silent Hill before. What’s the point?

Readers’ Choice: Silent Hill: Homecoming
Last Year’s Winner: Guitar Hero Encore – Rock the 80s

Best New Peripheral/Accessory

Rock Band Stage Kit

This is a new category for us. It’s one I’ve always wanted to have but was never able to, since there are only so many neat accessories released each year. 2008, however, saw heart-shaped guitar controllers, lightsabers, a…plastic wheel, and, most excitingly, the Rock Band Stage kit. You’ve probably never heard of it until now, but if you didn’t added it to your Amazon wish list right after watching the above video, you probably just don’t enjoy life very much.

Come on! The thing adds FOG and LIGHT EFFECTS to Rock Band. In real life! In real life.

Readers’ Choice: Wii Wheel
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Best Multiplayer

LittleBigPlanet
(PS3)

And here’s award number three for LittleBigPlanet. The game’s as solid a platformer as any of the old Super Mario Bros. titles, but with the added bonus of a four-player simultaneous mode, which is almost unheard of in the genre. Can you imagine playing Mario 3 with your best friend at the same time, without taking turns? You don’t have to, because we now have LittleBigPlanet. Plus, that level creation mode we talked about earlier? THAT’s multiplayer, too, meaning that you and a friend can collaborate in the creation process.

Readers’ Choice: (tie) Left 4 Dead and Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Last Year’s Winner: Rock Band

Best PC Game

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 brings the D&D-inspired gameplay of Oblivion to a nuclear-bomb-torn Washington D.C., complete with a broken Washington Monument and friendly, albeit completely horrifying, zombies. The series hails from the PC, so it makes sense that you might want to play this newest version on a computer, though the game’s also available for PS3 and Xbox 360. If it makes you want to play the game any more, check this out: There’s a power-up in the game that lets you punch people’s heads clean off.

Readers’ Choice: (tie) Spore and The Political Machine 2008
Last Year’s Winner: Crysis

Best Console Game

LittleBigPlanet
(PS3)

Fable II? More like Fable who.

Readers’ Choice: Mario Kart Wii
Last Year’s Winner: Mass Effect

Best Portable Game

Chrono Trigger
(DS)

Wait. Chrono Trigger is the Best Portable Game of 2008, but Final Fantasy IV is the best remake? Well, whatever! It’s the classic story of time travel and large sentient frogs, complete with the bonus cutscenes of the PS1 version but without the disgusting load times. And it has optional touch screen controls, meaning Square didn’t ruin this masterpiece by forcing you to drag Crono around with a stylus. Huzzah!

Readers’ Choice: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Last Year’s Winner: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations

Best Downloadable Console Game

Braid
(X360-XBLA)

Speaking of time travel, Braid offers a different take on how time mechanics can be incorporated into videogames, allowing you to “rewind” the game’s action to avoid that upcoming death or solve that upcoming puzzle. It’s also very, very pretty.

Readers’ Choice: Mega Man 9
Last Year’s Winner: Bomberman Live

Employee of the Year

Michael Gray

2008 was a big year for Michael Gray. In the past 12 months, he’s written a variety of reviews as well as two monthly columns (”The Ten Reasons” and “Inside the Guide“), participated in our first-ever podcast, and made dozens of posts in our new blog. He won GameCola’s “Employee of the Month” award four times, and he had his DNA sent into outer space. He’s also worked to bring new readers to GameCola, and—although this isn’t strictly GC-related—he’s made over 100 walkthrough videos for Nancy Drew videogames. Nobody has done more for GameCola over the past 12 months than Michael Gray, making him the clear winner for this year’s Employee of the Year Award.

Readers’ Choice: (tie) Alex Jedraszczak and Kevin Leacock
Last Year’s Winner: Alex Jedraszczak

Guest Star of the Year

Marianne Fenwick

Who is this mysterious woman? There are two things we know about her:

1. She co-write an edition of “The Ten Reasons” with Michael Gray, via instant messenger.

2. She’s a total babe.

The column she wrote with Michael was very well-received, and for that, the GC staff voted her as our Guest Star of the Year for 2008.

Readers’ Choice: (tie) Britney Brimhall and Marianne
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Game of the Year

LittleBigPlanet
(PS3)

People sometimes say that GameCola is biased against PS3 games, but that’s hard to believe, seeing as we’ve now given five awards—not to mention our biggest honor!—to a PS3 game. Way to go, LittleBigPlanet! Even without the level creation system, you’re already a solid choice for Game of the Year, considering you’re one of the funnest side-scrollers ever made. But LBP’s main game, combined with a clever system for making brand-new levels? None of this year’s other releases even come close.

Readers’ Choice: Mega Man 9
Last Year’s Winner: Bioshock

That’s all we’ve got for you, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing more to be said. Are there any games you feel should have won awards, but didn’t? (Like, seriously, where the hell is Fable II?) Do you think Michael Gray is a piece of crap, and that the “Employee of the Year” award should’ve gone to Sprite Monkey? Are you upset that “Most Awesomest Videogame Name” isn’t a real category? If you are, or have any other thoughts on our 2008 awards, let us know in the comments field!

Whew! Take a look.

Best Use of a License
The Simpsons Game 
(PS3/Wii/X360/PS2/DS/PSP)

I’ve heard that Simpsons games, in general, “make you want to die,” but is that really, truly, entirely accurate? I can name three—Bart’s Nightmare, Virtual Bart, and The Simpsons arcade game—that are totally somewhat worthwhile. So what gives? Why the bad rep? It’s just Bart vs. The Space Mutants, isn’t it. Well screw that game, and screw the haters. The Simpsons makes good games, and this year’s classic is no exception. Thanks, EA, for taking this license and creating YET ANOTHER great title!

Board of Director’s Choice: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Readers’ Choice: The Simpsons Game
Last Year’s Winner: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Best Remake/Re-release
Lara Croft Tomb Raider – Anniversary
(PSP, PS2, PC, Wii, X360)

Well, it could’ve only gotten better, considering the original, am I right? Plus, it’s not like they’re making any worthwhile new Tomb Raider games, so maybe if they just keep remaking the old ones, they’ll eventually come out with some worth purchasing. It’s what Final Fantasy’s been doing for years. And hey, Lara Croft! She’s a total hottie! Was she in that Playboy spread from a few years ago? The one with the videogame characters? Ooh baby. She’s no Mia Fey, but she’ll do.

(…I’m sorry. I haven’t actually played this game and I have no idea why people voted for it.)

Board of Director’s Choice: Final Fantasy VI Advance
Readers’ Choice: Lara Croft Tomb Raider – Anniversary
Last Year’s Winner: Final Fantasy III

Best New Character
GlaDOS
(Portal: PC/X360)

GlaDOS: the disembodied computer voice that launched a million cake jokes. She leads you through the world of Portal—arguably the most entertaining game in Valve’s The Orange Box—and she’s apparently a lot cooler than “Female Pokémon Trainer,” who was a big-time front-runner in this year’s voting. Congrats, GlaDOS! Thank God you’re not a seagull.

Board of Director’s Choice: Godot (Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: DS)
Readers’ Choice: GlaDOS (Portal: PC/X360)
Last Year’s Winner: Balthier (Final Fantasy XII: PS2)

Most Deserving of a Sequel
Portal
(PC/X360)

Three hours of gameplay just made us want more—lots, lots more. Despite its length, Portal itself is worth a good $40 of The Orange Box’s price tag, considering that it’s one of the best first-person shooters ever made. (Seriously, have you tried to go back and play Wolfenstein 3D lately?)

Board of Director’s Choice: Hellgate – London
Readers’ Choice: Portal
Last Year’s Winner: Chibi-Robo

Most Innovative
Portal
(PC/X360)

So simple, so addictive. And so innovative! A shooting game without the shooting—at least, not your everyday, with-bullets shooting. Who knew that the first-person perspective could be used for anything else?

Board of Director’s Choice: Portal
Readers’ Choice: Portal
Last Year’s Winner: Electroplankton

Most Disappointing
Guitar Hero Encore – Rocks the 80s
(PS2)

What should have been the best Guitar Hero EVER ended up being a real disappointment, with lackluster songs, the entire game being hastily cobbled over GH2’s front end and, worst of all, expecting consumers to pay full price for it. Maybe Guitar Hero should go the Rock Band route, instead—selling new songs over XBLA and PSN rather than making a whole new game every few months. Hey, speaking of which….

Board of Director’s Choice: Chulip
Readers’ Choice: Lair
Last Year’s Winner: Kingdom Hearts 2

Best Multiplayer
Rock Band
(PS3/PS2/X360)

Take the fun of playing a Guitar Hero (that isn’t Rock the 80s) with your friends, then add extra friends and two extra instruments. You can’t go wrong. Seriously. If you haven’t played this game yet, just imagine how badass you’d feel if you were wailing away on a big plastic guitar while surrounded with friends wailing away on their own big plastic instruments. It’s just awesome.

Board of Director’s Choice: Rock Band
Readers’ Choice: Halo 3
Last Year’s Winner: Guitar Hero 2

Best PC Game
Crysis

Crysis—perhaps most famous for being so graphically-intense that most computers can’t actually run it—is arguably the best computer game released this year, closely beating out the new season of Sam & Max. Sales haven’t been strong for this critically-acclaimed FPS, but a potential port to the big-boy consoles in 2008 could put this game into the black.

Board of Director’s Choice: Hellgate – London
Readers’ Choice: Crysis
Last Year’s Winner: Sam and Max Season 1, Episode 1: Culture Shock

Best Console Game
Mass Effect
(X360)

The first part of a planned three-part epic, Mass Effect is by the people who brought us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and a host of Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate titles—so you gotta think, right from the start, that it’s destined to be good times. A hardcore open-ended, Western-style RPG, Mass Effect has a strong character-driven plot that involves…space exploration and stuff. I don’t want to give too much away; you really should just check this game out for yourself. Now. Right now.

Board of Director’s Choice: Rock Band
Readers’ Choice: Halo 3
Last Year’s Winner: The Legend of Zelda – Twilight Princess

Best Portable Game
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations
(DS)

None of the competition even came close to besting this latest Phoenix Wright title for the DS. It’s got plot to spare, classic point-and-click action, and memorable character after memorable puzzle after memorable trial. Unfortunately, this game may be Phoenix’s last stand—the next game in the series stars an entirely different lawyer, though word is that Wright may have a role in the new series: a role that’s bound to depress the spiky-haired defense attorney’s many fanboys.

Board of Director’s Choice: Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker
Readers’ Choice: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Last Year’s Winner: New Super Mario Bros.

Best Xbox Live Arcade/Wii Virtual Console/PlayStation Network Game
Bomberman Live
(X360-XBLA)

Well, it’s Bomberman. And not the crappy Act Zero version, either—this, right here, is honest-to-God gigantic-headed Bomberman. And you can play it over Xbox Live! No more will you have to have actual, real-life friends in order to play Bomberman; now, you can play with all the random, pain-in-the-ass homophobic 14-year-olds that your heart desires.

Board of Director’s Choice: PAIN
Readers’ Choice: Bomberman Live
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Employee of the Year
Alex Jedraszczak

You might’ve noticed this, but Alex’s been picking up Employee of the Month almost every month this past year. And with good reason—the guy’s always got his articles in way, way ahead of deadline, he’s willing to help out with the occasional Versus Mode, he comments all over the issue, and, oh yeah, his writing’s not too bad, either. He’s even got three reviews for us this month—which he sent to us over a month before the deadline—and he probably would’ve gotten EotM this month, too, if a plucky new guy hadn’t sent in thirteen reviews.

Board of Director’s Choice: Michael Gray
Readers’ Choice: Christian Porter
Last Year’s Winner: Steve Hamner

Game of the Year
Bioshock
(X360/PC)

The Atlas Shrugged gone horribly wrong shooter actually lends an air of artistic respectability to the stale FPS genre, not to mention a few scattered RPG elements. Plus, it’s underwater, and you get to kill things called “Little Sisters.”  And hey, it’s the “spiritual successor” to System Shock, and everyone loved System Shock, right? No, seriously; the game’s provocative plot, immersion, elaborate and artistic world, and kickass gameplay make it a no-brainer buy.

Board of Director’s Choice: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations
Readers’ Choice: Halo 3
Last Year’s Winner: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

So, what did we miss? Anything? It’s doubtful—we kicked some major ass in putting this list together. Still, if you think that something other than Bioshock should’ve gotten top honors, or if you’re a really, really big Rock the 80s fan…post!

You’ll note that several categories—such as “Best PS2 Game,” “Best DS Game,” and so on—are dead. This is because nobody makes single-platform games anymore, so it doesn’t make sense to have individual system categories anymore.

Got that? OK! Dive on in!

Best Use of a License
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, GCN, MXB, X360, PC)

And lo, for the third straight year, this award goes to a Star Wars game! (And for the second straight year, this award goes to a Star Wars game that incorporates Legos.) Funny—I always thought these games had a sort of reputation. A sort of bad reputation. A sort of EA Games-esque reputation. But GameCola never lies. Except for that one year we gave the “Best New Character” award to a random seagull in Wind Waker…but shh, don’t tell anyone—we’re trying to pretend that never happened.

Board of Director’s Choice: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, GCN, MXB, X360, PC)
Readers’ Choice: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, GCN, MXB, X360, PC)
Last Year’s Winner: Lego Star Wars (PS2, GCN, MXB)

Best Game No One Played
The Shivah (PC)

I would’ve called this “Best Indie Game,” but then I realized that this was the only indie game I’ve actually played this year. Not to mention that calling the category that would disqualify “Sneak King” from the voting, and I think we can all agree that Sneak King deserves some kind of award. Alas, this is not that award, as the Best Game No One Played of 2006 is one of the only competent (and not only that, but good!) point-and-click adventure games released this year.

Board of Director’s Choice: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Sumoner (PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Sneak King (PC) and Sam & Max: Culture Shock (PC)
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Best Remake/Re-release
Final Fantasy III (DS)

Despite its hideously, horrendously ugly 3D graphics that are somehow way worse than its original NES visuals, Final Fantasy III on the DS eked out a close victory over Final Fantasy V Advance on the GBA. Final Fantasy III was the only Final Fantasy game never to have been released in the United States, and now that it has been, nerds everywhere will have to move on and find something else to lament.

Board of Director’s Choice: Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA)
Readers’ Choice: Mega Man Powered Up (PSP)
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Best New Character
Balthier (Final Fantasy XII, PS2)

Dubbed “one the most compelling Final Fantasy characters ever created” by GameCola’s Steve Hamner in his review last month, Balthier gained notoriety for being one of very few interesting characters in a game that, while featuring a brilliant plot and neato keen new battle system, didn’t have much in the way of character development, inasmuch as you would say frat boys don’t have much in the way of not puking all over themselves.

Board of Director’s Choice: Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th (Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Balthier (Final Fantase XII, PS2)
Last Year’s Winner: Wander (Shadow of the Colossus, PS2)

Best Sequel
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, GCN, MXB, X360, PC)

It could hardly help but be the Best Sequel of 2006, could it? After all, it took an already incredible game—its predecessor, Lego Star Wars—and removed its only bad bit—the fact that it’s based on the newer Star Wars Trilogy. That’s basically the definition of a great sequel, isn’t it? Building upon the old while getting rid of the lesser parts of the old? It also didn’t hurt that you can PLAY AS CHEWBACCA AND RIP PEOPLES’ ARMS OFF.

Board of Director’s Choice: Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2, GCN, MXB, X360, PC)
Last Year’s Winner: We <3 Katamari (PS2)

Most Deserving of a Sequel
Chibi-Robo (GCN)

Well that certainly makes sense! At some point next year there’s a Chibi-Robo game coming out for the DS, and I guess you could sort of call that a sequel, though it’s not on any of the big-boy consoles. The fact is that I’m just glad Chibi-Robo won something, as I was beginning to suspect that nobody on the GC staff but me actually liked it at all. C’mon guys, what’s not to like? You get to clean up after slobs! What could be better!

Board of Director’s Choice: Chibi-Robo (GCN)
Readers’ Choice: Gears of War (X360)
Last Year’s Winner: Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

Most Innovative
Electroplankton (DS)

And speaking of games that nobody ever played! I’m pretty sure GameCola’s Elizabeth Medina-Gray is literally the only person ever to have purchased this game—especially since the darn thing wasn’t even sold in stores, really. You poke these little creatures and they make noises that can be considered music. Or something. I didn’t really get it, to be honest, but I’m pretty sure that videogames define innovative as “something most people won’t be able to comprehend.”

Board of Director’s Choice: Electroplankton (DS)
Readers’ Choice: Wii Sports (Wii)
Last Year’s Winner: Trauma Center: Under the Knife (DS)

Most Disappointing
Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)

I know, I’m surprised too. There are two things that are massively disappointing about this game (which is, incidentally, the sequel to a former GameCola Game of the Year!):

1) The fact that several of its levels are taken from the first game (for some reason, players were actually hoping to explore different movies than the ones in Kingdom Hearts).

2) The fact that, about halfway through the game, it just gives up on trying to be interesting and makes you play through all these worlds a second time, rather than giving you anything new to do.

Its focus on Organization XIII didn’t help things, either—it’s like Square didn’t realize that the entire appeal of KH is traversing old-school Disney movies from your childhood with big-shoed Sora, and thought instead that everyone’s favorite part was the boring story they came up with to string everything together.

Board of Director’s Choice: Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Bomberman: Act Zero (X360) and Zoo Tycoon DS (DS)
Most Disappointing: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare (PS2, MXB, GCN)

Best Multiplayer
Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)

Now, from what I’m told, the original Guitar Hero also features a two-player mode; the only problem is that nobody knew because nobody owned more than one guitar controller for the game. But even if it does have multiplayer, Guitar Hero 2 still does it better, because this time each of the players can play on different difficulties, meaning that newbies can play with experts and still have a good time.

Board of Director’s Choice: Guitar Hero 2 (PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Guitar Hero 2 (PS2) and Wii Sports (Wii)
Last Year’s Winner: Star Wars: Battlefront II (MXB, PS2)

Best PC Game
Sam and Max Season 1, Episode 1: Culture Shock

Telltale Games, somehow, did the absolutely impossible: They managed to bring back Sam & Max without ruining it. They actually did it twice, releasing two titles in this relaunched series toward the end of 2006. The original’s major selling point—its sense of humor—is as present here as it was there, as is the classic style of gameplay that’s virtually gone in today’s gaming landscape.

Board of Director’s Choice: Sam and Max Season 1, Episode 1: Culture Shock
Readers’ Choice: Star Wars: Empire at War
Last Year’s Winner: N/A.

Best Console Game
The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (GCN/Wii)

This game could become famous for being the first Zelda game I actually complete. I have started—and absolutely failed to finish—no less than FIVE separate Zelda games, but I think this will be the one to break the streak. Mainly because I’m playing it on the Wii and get to use the controller as a sword, which makes me feel cooler than I have at any other point in my life. It gets bonus points, too, for having each of its versions be the visuals reverses of one another. (Seriously. The GameCube one is entirely backwards.)

Board of Director’s Choice: The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (GCN/Wii)
Readers’ Choice: The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (GCN/Wii)
Last Year’s Winner: N/A.

Best Portable Game
New Super Mario Bros. (DS)

More a homage to the original series than an entirely original title itself, New Super Mario Bros. gave gamers what they’ve been wanting for years—a brand-new, good, 2D platformer. It doesn’t look like this is a trend videogame companies are going to follow, but we can deal with having one of these every several years, right?

Board of Director’s Choice: Monster Hunter Freedom (PSP)
Readers’ Choice: New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
Last Year’s Winner: N/A.

Employee of the Year
Steve Hamner

One of our most consistent (in terms of writing at least one article a month) and talented (in terms of being awesome) writers in 2006, Steve won this year’s award in a near landslide victory. You know him for his reviews, his innovative The Vana’diel Diaries, and from his frequent appearances in Versus Mode (including this month’s edition of the column); with any luck, we’ll be able to keep him writing all of those things well into the new year.

Board of Director’s Choice: Travis Combs
Readers’ Choice: Elizabeth “Lizo” Medina-Gray
Last Year’s Winner: Zack Huffman

Reader of the Year
Genevieve Regan

For some reason, it seems like this award is always going to someone related to a member of the GameCola staff, and this year is no exception, as not only is the winner—”Captain” Eric Regan’s twin sister—related to one of us, but so were all of the runners up. I can’t tell if that means we have great families, or that we have no readers. Congratulations, Genny! Hope to keep hearing from you in 2007. And thanks for the cupcakes you brought to my birthday party.

Board of Director’s Choice: Genevieve Regan
Readers’ Choice: Richard E. Franzen
Last Year’s Winner: Richard E. Franzen

Game of the Year
Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy (PS2, GCN, MXB, X360, PC)

Could there have been any doubt, given that it won so many of the above accolades? There’s only so much more that can be said about the game, so let me just leave it at this: Storm Troopers in hot tubs. You heard it hear first! Unless you’ve already played the game yourself, that is.

Well, there you have it! Here’s to another great year of gaming—and, more importantly, to hope that George Lucas makes more Star Wars movies so we can get another Lego Star Wars game. I hear they’re making Lego Batman, but it just won’t be as cool.

Best Use of a License
Lego Star Wars (PS2, MXB, GCN)

It’s a big enough feat to make a Star Wars game that’s actually more fun than a pile of rancor dung; but for a developer to combine that with a Lego game that’s more entertaining than a pile of chewed up bricks is just about unbelievable. Lego Star Wars has the humor, charm, ease of playability and replay value that just about every licensed game ever lacks, and it puts both of its licenses to phenomenal use.

Board of Director’s Choice: Lego Star Wars (PS2, MXB, GCN)
Readers’ Choice: Lego Star Wars (PS2, MXB, GCN)
Last Year’s Winner: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords

Best New Character
Wander (Shadow of the Colossus, PS2)

Taking home the gold in a year so dry of fresh blood that something called “Finny the Fish” squirmed his way onto the ballot may not seem like an accomplishment; but Wander, with his girlish jump and his overall high amount of pansitude, could be a contender to our hearts any year.

Board of Director’s Choice: Jack Russell (Radiata Stories, PS2)
Reader’s Choice: Finny the Fish (Finny the Fish & the Seven Waters, PS2)
Last Year’s Winner: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, PS2)

Best Sequel
We Love Katamari (PS2)

Though its soundtrack isn’t nearly as brilliant as that of its predecessor (it’s hard to beat “I’m so in love with you/I want to wad you up into my life”), We Love Katamari builds on Katamari Damacy in every other way you’d want it to. The game features new objectives, new environments, a plethora of new characters, insight into one of the principle characters’ past, and a multiplayer mode that, while disappointing, is still a step up from that of the original.

Board of Director’s Choice: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (PS2)
Reader’s Choice: We Love Katamari (PS2)
Last Year’s Winner: Metroid Prime 2 – Echoes (GCN)

Most Deserving of a Sequel
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

This game just begs for a new game plus mode. Am I right, or what? C’mon, anyone who’s played through it and seen the ending knows perfectly well where my mind’s headed with this; it’s just a shame the game’s developers weren’t on the same wavelength. But they’ve got a chance to redeem themselves now, don’t they? Make the sequel that should’ve been a new game plus mode! Let us know what happens to the characters after the game’s climactic ending. Give us some closure!

Board of Director’s Choice: Radiata Stories (PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Jade Empire (MXB)
Last Year’s Winner: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$ (GCN)

Most Innovative
Trauma Center: Under the Knife (DS)

There’s so many puns involving “your stylus” and “playing doctor” with this game that I’m having a hard time not dying from laughter due to all the hilarious jokes swarming my brain. Being the only game on the market (and, more importantly, ever) to offer much in the way of surgery simulation, Trauma Center is the perfect foil to Capcom’s Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, both being titles that’ll save you loads of time, energy and cash in the form of schooling. I know I’d trust a doctor who trained on Trauma Center; that’s for darn sure.

Board of Director’s Choice: Trauma Center – Under the Knife (DS)
Readers’ Choice: Guitar Hero (PS2)
Last Year’s Winner: Feel the Magic: XX/XY (DS)

Most Disappointing
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare (PS2, MXB, GCN)

It’s pretty much a guarantee in recent years that a new Ninja Turtles game is going to disappoint. And how could it not, when compared to the brilliant past titles for NES and SNES? It’s a shame that Konami, rather stubbornly, refuses to make a Turtles game that fans of the original series would ever want to play, choosing instead to make something akin to a thousand other mindless, generic platformers out there that no one who knows anything about videogames, or indeed, actually likes videogames, would ever buy. This is the sort of crap you get for Christmas from people who wanna get their holiday shopping done as quickly as possible and are just grabbing the first thing that catches their eye.

Board of Director’s Choice: Shining Tears (PS2)
Readers’ Choice: 50 Cent: Bulletproof (PS2, MXB)
Last Year’s Winner: Leisure Suit Larry – Magna Cum Laude (PS2, MXB)

Best Multiplayer
Star Wars: Battlefront II (MXB, PS2)

LucasArts, in an attempt to show that they could make decent Star Wars titles if they wanted to gosh darnit, released not one, but TWO Star Wars games actually worth playing this year! While not as engaging or unique as Lego Star Wars, Star Wars: Battlefront II offers a great multiplayer experience that builds on last year’s title without ruining it, which has generally been an unexpected plus with sequels. The PS2 version has the advantage here because you can go online without paying Xbox’s monthly fee; but either version is still worth your while.

Board of Director’s Choice: Soul Calibur III (PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Champions – Return to Arms (PS2)
Last Year’s Winner: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$ (GCN)

Best Game Boy Advance Game
WarioWare: Twisted!

WarioWare games have consistently been some of the best games of the past several years, and Twisted! tweaks the formula by asking you to actually physically turn your GBA around in circles in order to steer cars, catch various things, and do whatever else the game shouts at you to do. Granted, there aren’t as many GBA games this year as there have been in years past, and this category might not even exist next year; but if it doesn’t, I’m glad to see it go out with such a great title.

Board of Director’s Choice: Final Fantasy IV
Readers’ Choice: The Legend of Zelda – The Minish Cap
Last Year’s Winner: Kingdom Hearts – Chain of Memories

Best PSP Game
Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade

It’s gotta be a lonely, lonely existence as an action-RPG for the PSP. Heck, it’s gotta be a lonely, lonely existence to be a game for the PSP, considering the system has yet to be much more than an expensive MP3 player. Still, for what it’s worth, Untold Legends is an entertaining enough game; and it’s certainly gotta be more worthwhile than a half-dozen ports of crummy PS1 games.

Board of Director’s Choice: Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade
Readers’ Choice: The Lord of the Rings Tactics
Last Year’s Winner: N/A

Best DS Game
Mario Kart DS

Considering the sheer amount of mediocre mascot-starring kart racers available to us today, it’s almost hard to imagine one of their ilk being worth anything so grandiose as a GameCola year-end award; but Mario Kart has yet to be anything less than stellar. Adding several new characters to the cast, new items, new race tracks and allowing gamers to go online via the DS’s WiFi capabilities, Mario Kart DS is a must-own among the other seven or so DS games currently in existence.

Board of Director’s Choice: Yu-Gi-Oh: Nightmare Troubadour
Readers’ Choice: Mario Kart DS
Last Year’s Winner: Super Mario 64 DS

Best Xbox Game
Jade Empire

Easily one of the best games I’ve played all year (and one of the best action-RPGs I’ve ever played, to boot), Jade Empire completely trumps the much more publicized Fable, despite being just about the same game. It’s more expansive, it’s got a better story, it doesn’t end after six hours and it offers you much more in the way of choices, which was Fable’s big selling point.  If you own an Xbox and you don’t own this game, you probably don’t actually exist.

Board of Director’s Choice: Jade Empire
Readers’ Choice: Jade Empire
Last Year’s Winner: Fable

Best GameCube Game
Super Mario Strikers

It seems like I’ve been saying this for a lot of categories this year, but it sure hasn’t been a great 12 months for the GameCube, eh? There couldn’t have been more than 30 games released this year exclusive to the Nintendo console, and more than half of them were made by Nintendo itself. It’s no surprise, then, that the best GameCube game of 2005 is a Nintendo title, one of those new-fangled Mario sports games. Me, I pine for the days of NES Open Tournament, but those days are long past.

Board of Director’s Choice: Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
Readers’ Choice: Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
Last Year’s Winner: WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$

Best PlayStation 2 Game
Shadow of the Colossus

A third award for Shadow of the Colossus makes it the Lord of the Rings of our awards this year, but trust me: It deserves all the praise it’s getting. While Champions: Return to Arms and We Love Katamari put up a great fight this year, Shadow takes them both out with a jab from Little Mac’s power glove. Here’s hoping the developers of Ico and this year’s best PS2 game keep churning out the hits.

Board of Director’s Choice: Dragon Quest VIII
Readers’ Choice: Destroy All Humans!
Last Year’s Winner: Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas

Reader of the Year
Richard E. Franzen

I was wondering how long it’d be before a fellow Franzen won this award! Rick’s my older brother, and he’s been a loyal reader of GameCola since its inception in 2002, despite not having played an actual videogame since around 1990. That’s dedication. He’s written us tons of letters, given us all kinds of useful feedback, and even voted in our Readers’ Choice awards every year we’ve had them. He also helped me solve Mario 3 when I was just a wee gamer, showing me all his fantastic “Rick Tricks” that I still use to this day. Thanks for all you’ve done for us, and for me, Rick!

Board of Director’s Choice: Genevieve Regan
Readers’ Choice: Heather Keels
Last Year’s Winner: Geoff Osman

Employee of the Year
Zack Huffman

Zack’s been a godsend to us in 2005, giving us great review after great review after great review, ripping into bad NES games in a snarky manner much more creative than you’d expect from a videogame critic. He’s also worked on two monthly columns this year, one of which proved to be one of the more popular columns of 2005, and one of which just getting its start a few months ago. Thanks for all you’ve done for us, Zack!

Board of Director’s Choice: Zack Huffman
Readers’ Choice: Elizabeth Medina-Gray
Last Year’s Winner: Neal Iannone

Game of the Year
Resident Evil 4 (GCN, PS2)

My dear readers, I’ll be perfectly honest with you: I have never, in my entire life, played a single Resident Evil title, including the one we’ve voted Game of the Year for 2005. There’s no particular reason I’ve avoided them; it’s just that none of them have ever crossed my path. Still, just about all of our writers voted for this game, citing it as one of the best games they’ve played this year, and it’s hard for me to argue with that. It’s the latest in a long line of successful survival-horror titles, and from what I’ve understand, it’s the best in the series. So, cheers Resident Evil 4, and congrats on winning our most prestigious of awards!

Board of Director’s Choice: LEGO Star Wars (MXB, PS2)
Readers’ Choice: Dragon Quest VIII (PS2)
Last Year’s Winner: .hack//QUARANTINE – Part 4 (PS2)

Now that we’ve got 2005 out of the way, we’re on to bigger and better things. Click here for a sneak peak at some of the top titles of this here new year.