Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2006: 30 - 21
Justice is served.
25. 42 All-Time Classics
DS, Nintendo, Gameplay.
Dave: About 40 All-Time not-Classics, more like, plus one or two actual classics.
Simon: What a completely stupid, profit-high, creativity-low concept for a videogame: bundle Hearts and Hangman, Bridge and Chess, Black Jack and 8-Ball, Poker and Darts,10-pin bowling and Mentos and Soda into one game, make them all stylus controlled, set some granite challenges and see if it sells. But what a completely incredible, value-high, boredom-low execution. As someone who rides a lot of trains, this is the best DS investment of the year and, even if it is of no wider consequence to the world of evolving videogames, its consequence to your collection could never be overstated.
Oli: The ultimate DS companion, incredibly full-featured, impossible to tire of, and impossible not to find people to play it with. Don't go anywhere without it. Did I mention you can play solitaire on the bus?
James: That this DS game sounds like the kind of PC shovelware title you might find languishing in a cheap plastic sales carousel beside such names as Krazy Kart Racer and Dog Grooming Tycoon makes me smile.
24. Disgaea 2 - Cursed Memories
PS2, Nippon Ichi, Gamepage.
Simon: Nippon Ichi needs a new trick, that's for sure, but when they've got their current one down so well, when the hours condense into moments and you think of strategies in terms of generations, not dice throws, maybe new tricks would only muddy the issue. Disgaea 2's the deepest and widest videogame of 2006 and, for many of those still mining those depths, no doubt for much of 2007 too.
Luke: I actually want to be a Prinny. That's how good this game is.
23. Test Drive Unlimited
Xbox 360, Eden Studios, Gamepage.
Kieron: They're still making Test Drive games? How quaint.
Oli: Flawed and clumsy in places, this was still the first truly original serious driving game since Gran Turismo. The sense of dangerous, barely controlled power in real-world conditions is totally exhilarating.
Luke: What, you mean people actually liked this? I guess car handling and entertainment aren't important in racing games any more, especially when you've got licensed clothes and a huge, flat and horribly dull island to explore.
Tom: You sort of have to tilt your head and squint a bit, but when you do you could swear you're playing Project Gotham Racing 4. If it only had one car. And was Need For Speed from about 1998. I did like it, in a sort of "graffiti art" kind of way, but I think I was more excited by the canvas than the paint.
John: TDU feels to me more like a blueprint for how other games need to think, rather than a wholly successful implementation of its ideas within itself. It's excellent to be a rich driver in an exotic location, and it's brilliant that you are playing the game along with others, but without feeling as though you're in a temporary multiplayer bubble. It's still your island, despite other players driving around it. However, it never quite pulls me in. Rather I see the potential for other games to think this way, creating multiplayer worlds that remain personal. I would love to see Neversoft picking it up for the next Hawk game, and indeed so many others.
Alec: Far more fun than any game about being an upperclass twit and moving to Hawaii to spend all your untold riches on expensive cars that can't take corners very well should be. It's also a hugely intriguing step forward for MMOs.
22. Okami
PS2, Clover Studio, Gamepage.
Kieron: With TV On the Radio's Wolf Like Me, it's been a good year for lovers of all things lupine.
Dave: Um, I think I forgot to vote for Okami. I couldn't have forgotten to vote for Okami. Did I forget to vote for Okami? I didn't mean to. It's brilliant! Even in a foreign language!
Oli: We will probably never see the like again. The only great Zelda clone ever made, generous to a fault, comical and fantastical, and never less than breathtaking to look at. Like a videogame version of the old TV series Monkey. Clover had a short life but couldn't have had a better swansong.
Luke: One the most resplendent games of the year and another feather in Capcom's oh-so-feathery cap. Visually stunning it may be but the fact that the dungeons and puzzles leave even genre legends like Zelda in their wake is what really steals the show.
James: Truth be told, I'm loving the PS2's mature period. Instead of straight-out flatlining like the Xbox and GameCube, it's bowing out gracefully, developers squeezing the last few quality drops from its architecture in its twilight years. And we still have God of War 2 and Rogue Galaxy to come! Stop laughing at Sony's protracted launch of the PS3, bask in the opportunity to relish the remains of the PS2's day.
Keza: Okami is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, but underneath its gorgeous exterior it's more derivative than it might appear. It's essentially Zelda with a wolf, and now that we have an actual Zelda with a wolf I'm not so sure that people are going to take so incredibly well to it when it eventually turns up in Europe. It's captivating, though, and wonderfully stylish, and full of truly lovely ideas, but I know a lot of people who got bored with it after the first ten hours, after the novelty has worn off a bit, your eyes feel overstuffed with beauty and the game's repetitive dungeon-based structure starts to grate.
21. Defcon
PC, Introversion, Gamepage.
Kieron: Proving that every mushroom-cloud has a silver lining, Introversion's second game was a direct, atmospheric and chillingly funny re-imagining of the RTS.
Alec: Destroying Manchester before breakfast will always feel good.
John: I still haven't played enough Defcon. By which I mean, I'm still really bad at Defcon. I've yet to win a game, and yet have thoroughly enjoyed my every defeat. Perhaps I shouldn't have kept playing against the developers, or people like Kieron. Does anyone who's rubbish at Defcon want a game? Let me know.
James: I'm going for the 'cool' vote here, obviously.