Well this is it. It's the last day of 2009 and with it comes our overall picks for Game of the Year. If you owned even one of these platforms you played some incredible games this year. If you owned all of them like me you're still probably digging under your couch cushions trying to scrounge up enough change to buy all these amazing games. If next year is as good I'm afraid I'm going to need another job. Hopefully one that doesn't require any hours so I have time to actually play all these games.
Of course, with such an incredible lineup of games it's hard for any two people to have identical opinions on what their favorite games this year were, but these were ours, decided by votes from our staff and users. We hope you'll enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed writing them. Please be respectful when posting opinions on the list, and enjoy!
Best First Person Shooter: Left 4 Dead 2
It was a close fight but Left 4 Dead 2 beat out Modern Warfare 2 to win our award for the best First Person Shooter of 2009. With more weapons, more zombies, completely new levels, and the new and improved AI Director 2.0, Left 4 Dead 2 betters its predecessor in every way. If you’re looking for hectic and challenging co-op action, nothing out there beats Left 4 Dead 2.
Runner-up: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Reader's Choice: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Best Third Person Shooter: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
A bit of an obvious winner, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves takes the award for our best Third Person Shooter in 2009. If you haven’t experienced this game yet you are missing out on one of the most action-packed adrenaline rushes this generation. Truly one of the greatest triumphs of pacing and design, few games can even compete with Uncharted 2 in the third person shooter genre.
Runner-up: Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time
Reader's Choice: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Arcade Shooter: Pixeljunk Shooter
There are few genres existing today with the kind of history that the arcade shooter has, so it’s refreshing to see original ideas still turn up in the genre. Pixeljunk Shooter’s unique fluid physics-based gameplay sets it apart from others in the genre. Add to that gorgeous graphics and art, and some classic boss fights, and you get our best arcade shooter of 2009.
Runner-up: Space Invaders Extreme 2
Reader's Choice: Pixeljunk Shooter
Best Action-Adventure: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
In a genre full of amazing games, it’s even more amazing that one stood out enough to win this award so solidly. Uncharted 2 picks up its second award, this time as our Action-Adventure game of the year, for delivering a movie-like adventure experience the likes of which this industry has truly never seen before.
Runner-up: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Reader's Choice: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Action: MadWorld
There was no action game released this year as gruesome as MadWorld, but there weren’t any as stylish either. Platinum Games’ first Wii project oozes unique design from every pore, from the stylish black, white, and red graphics, to the completely original and awesome soundtrack and the epic boss fights. MadWorld is an action experience you won’t soon forget.
Runner-up: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Reader's Choice: God of War Collection
Best Adventure: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Professor Layton holds its crown as best adventure game for one more year. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is our pick as best adventure game for its brilliant storytelling, puzzles, characters, and music (I still hear the theme song in my head when I do Sudoku puzzles). This is a franchise that has certainly earned its place in history.
Runner-up: A Boy and His Blob
Reader's Choice: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Best Platformer: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Okay so it was a bit of an obvious winner, but even if this year had had more competition it would have been tough to compete with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. One of the most difficult Mario games in years, New Super Mario Bros. Wii marries the incredible classic 2D platforming with creative level design and addictive multiplayer. It easily gets our pick for the best platformer of 2009.
Runner-up: Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Reader's Choice: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Best Fighter: Blazblue: Calamity Trigger
If you haven’t figured it out yet, we really liked BlazBlue. It offers not only deep and engaging gameplay for fighting game veterans but also something easy to learn and enjoy for the less dedicated. Add to that gorgeous graphics and tons of style and you have a fighting game that should not be missed, and sorry Street Fighter IV, but our pick for the best fighting game of 2009 is BlazBlue.
Runner-up: Street Fighter IV
Reader's Choice: Street Fighter IV
Best Racing Game: DiRT 2
With perhaps the best graphics in the racing genre to date, DiRT 2 is more than just a pretty face. DiRT 2 offers fast and fluid gameplay that no arcade racing fan should pass up. If you are looking for something that’s simply fun to play, there’s not much out there more fun than DiRT2, and that’s why it wins our award for the best racing game of 2009.
Runner-up: Forza 3
Reader's Choice: Forza 3
Best WRPG: Dragon Age: Origins
It’s been a long time since an RPG like Dragon Age showed up, and even longer since Bioware made one. The spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age: Origins combines Bioware’s mastery of modern video game storytelling with classically difficult and strategic RPG gameplay. Truly an experience for veterans of the genre, Dragon Age: Origins is a perfect marriage of the old and new, and easily earns our WRPG of the year award for 2009.
Runner-up: Borderlands
Reader's Choice: Dragon Age: Origins
Best JRPG: Demon's Souls
It’s hard to describe Demon’s Souls to those who haven’t played it, because it’s so completely different from all RPGs before it, but if you have played it you know in addition to being brutally difficult it’s also brilliantly unique and offers a multiplayer experience different from any seen before in gaming. Add to that an incredible atmosphere and engaging gameplay and you have our favorite JRPG of 2009.
Runner-up: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Reader's Choice: Demon's Souls
Best MMORPG: Aion: Tower of Eternity
With World of Warcraft constantly dominating the market most MMORPGs have taken to completely copying its style and gameplay, which makes for a pretty bland genre without much variety. Enter Aion, with its gorgeous and interesting world and focus on the freedom of flight. Here you will find something completely unique in the MMO genre. Aion is our favorite MMORPG of 2009.
Runner-up: Free Realms
Reader's Choice: Aion: Tower of Eternity
Best Music and Peripheral: The Beatles: Rock Band
Clearly a labor of love, The Beatles: Rock Band set a standard for style and attention to detail that was completely unseen in music games before it. No game in the genre matches The Beatles: Rock Band’s incredible representation of a band. The dreamscapes are so gorgeous that you could literally just stare at them and experience something amazing. It wins our award for best music & peripheral game of 2009.
Runner-up: DJ Hero
Reader's Choice: The Beatles: Rock Band
Best Strategy: Empire: Total War
Halo Wars may have been the best console RTS game this year, but it’s easy to forget Empire: Total War, a game that didn’t have a massive ad campaign to keep it fresh in our minds. However, what Empire lacked in advertising it made up for in scale. With enormous battles, great balance, incredible graphics, and breathtaking naval battles, Empire: Total War is among the best strategy games of all time, and certainly our pick for the best one of 2009.
Runner-up: Halo Wars
Reader's Choice: Halo Wars
Best Simulation: The Sims 3
It may seem like an obvious winner, but there are more great simulation games out there than ever before. Nevertheless, The Sims 3 takes the award in the genre its franchise pioneered. With streamlined gameplay removing the worst of The Sims 2’s overloaded hassles, and some addictive new features, The Sims 3 is our pick for the best simulation game of 2009.
Runner-up: Little King's Story
Reader's Choice: The Sims 3
Best Sports Title: Wii Sports Resort
Baseball has never been my favorite sport to watch, but I still love watching people play this particular game. Sure there are some impressive visuals that accurately depict famous Major League players and an amazing attention for detail in how all of them play the game, but what struck me as the best part of MLB ’09: The Show was Road to the Show. It is a surprisingly fun marriage of Sports game and RPG that allows you to slowly grow up your own baseball player from the lowliest of minor teams all the way to the Big Leagues and manage every stat they have along the way. Fans of the sport should definitely look into this title.
Runner-up: Fifa Soccer 10
Reader's Choice: Fifa Soccer 10
Best Puzzle Game: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Professor Layton nabs its second award of 2009, this time in the puzzle game category, edging out Scribblenauts. With hundreds of challenging classic brain twisters and a new one added every week, it’s hard to beat Professor Layton and its dominance of this genre. If you haven’t tried the franchise yet, you’re missing out. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is our favorite puzzle game of 2009.
Runner-up: Scribblenauts
Reader's Choice: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Best Downloadable Content: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
The Grand Theft Auto IV episodes have set new standards for what DLC should be. The Ballad of Gay Tony, being our favorite of the two, won for adding a lot of features to Grand Theft Auto IV, not the least of which are a host of weapons and vehicles (including the sorely missed parachute) and multiplayer modes. If you were disappointed in a lack of content in the original GTA IV, try out this DLC, and see if that changes your mind.
Runner-up: Wipeout HD Fury
Reader's Choice: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned
Best Original Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
Shadow Complex just edged out Flower in an epic battle of classic versus innovative for our downloadable game award. Shadow Complex is an incredible and addictive classic side scrolling adventure in the vein of Metroid and Castlevania before it. It’s not only a great game for a great price but a new standard for graphics and presentation in a downloadable game.
Runner-up: Flower
Reader's Choice: Flower
Best Graphics: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Okay, so it’s not much of a surprise, but wow, Uncharted 2 takes yet another award. If you can’t tell how gorgeous it is from the screenshots, play the game because, amazingly, it’s even more beautiful in motion. Truly an achievement for the ages in game design, Uncharted 2 isn’t just a technical marvel, but also full of brilliant and gorgeous set-pieces that will wow gamers and non-gamers alike.
Runner-up: Killzone 2
Reader's Choice: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Best Music Score: Halo 3: ODST
ODST may not have lit up the review charts, but it absolutely excelled in music. While the Halo series has always had excellent original soundtracks, the score of ODST is a step above even its brethren. Halo 3: ODST offers a variety of incredible music ranging from haunting melodies emphasizing the rookie’s isolation to sweeping epics in the heat of battle, and that’s why it gets our award for best music score in 2009.
Runner-up: Persona 4
Reader's Choice: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Most Innovative: Scribblenauts
While the execution may not have been perfect, it’s hard to argue with the brilliance of the concept of Scribblenauts. You may not be able to write anything, but thousands of words are recognized by the game and generate fully interactive weapons, objects, people, and creatures. If you had made the game would you have remembered to add Cthulu? Scribblenauts is our most innovative game of 2009.
Runner-up: Flower
Reader's Choice: Flower
Biggest Disappointment: Brutal Legend
As a huge Tim Schafer fan I was looking forward to Brutal Legend more than any other game going into 2009. That made the game’s inability to meet expectations even more painful. While Brutal Legend isn’t actually bad, its clunky controls, poor strategy gameplay, and lack of quality, witty humor we’ve come to expect from Tim Schafer certainly make it disappointing, and it wins our award for biggest disappointment in 2009.
Runner-up: The Conduit
Reader's Choice: Resident Evil 5
Best Game Noone Played: Demon's Souls
I’m tired of talking this game up. Go buy it. What’s wrong with you people?! With rave reviews and incredible fan reaction Demon’s Souls far exceeded expectations… in everything but sales. While it didn’t bomb, all we can hope is that more people will go out and give this amazing and unique JRPG the chance it deserves.
Runner-up: Half-Minute Hero
Reader's Choice: Demon's Souls
Most Anticipated Game: The Last Guardian
If you played Shadow of the Colossus and/or Ico this award shouldn’t be a surprise to you, but if you didn’t, shame on you. So far all we have is a great trailer using in-game graphics and some lovely music, but with the pedigree behind this game we expect nothing short of excellence. The Last Guardian is VGChartz’s most anticipated game of 2009.
Runner-up: Final Fantasy XIII
Reader's Choice: Final Fantasy XIII
Overall Game of the Year: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
I suppose after all the other awards it won this isn’t much of a surprise, but you just can’t say enough about this game. It has incredible action. It has perhaps the best voice acting in video game history. It has the best graphics on any console, backed up by great art design. It offers a movie-like experience without breaking up the action with lengthy cutscenes and heavy dialog. On top of all that it even has a very fun multiplayer mode. This is just about as fun as gaming gets. Uncharted 2 gets its final award in 2009 – it’s our overall game of the year.
Runner-up: Left 4 Dead 2
Reader's Choice: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
