Game of the year 2007

[Bodhesatva]

Erik Aston said:
Let me first say that I think GOTY 2006 was hands down, no questions, Wii Sports. GOTY cannot just be a great, high quality, evolutionary game. It should be a revolutionary game that takes the world by storm and demonstrates the potential to influence future games.

Until it was delayed, I thought Spore would be that game for 2007. I think it will be competing with Wii Fit and LittleBigPlanet in 2008.

For 2007, there are several games which are at least close to that description. Smash Bros., COD4, GTA4 and Halo 3 are not, IMO. They are high-polish evolutionary games.

The ones I'm watching as GOTY candidates are, in order:

1. Super Mario Galaxy
2. Assassin's Creed
3. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
4. Metroid Prime 3

Galaxy is an evolutionary game in many ways, but the gravity-based puzzles, the IR pointer use and the co-op play are potentially radical innovations.

Assassin's Creed is a literal merging of form and function; of art and gameplay. Prince of Persia style platforming in a sandbox world is maybe the freshest approach to sandbox play since GTAIII. The one 2007 game I'm jealous of as a Wii guy.

Phantom Hourglass and Metroid Prime 3 will really have to impress to leapfrog those two. It sounds like both games will get extremely good reviews for their perfectly polished and innovative controls, but I expect these other two games will be influential even beyond that.

I absolutely agree with all your assessments.

Wii Sports was, in my opinion, the game of the year last year by a mile. How long has it been since there was any game as influential as Wii Sports? It's difficult to say, but I'd put Wii Sports in the top 3 most influential games produced by Nintendo ever -- which is saying a whole lot, given that they invented a couple core genres.