Still a mediocre year, but by now there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. The tables were turning. The PC hadn't brought much new I was interested in and while I kept playing my usual evergreens I felt it would keep falling like consoles did years earlier. If that happened, my gaming days would be over. However at this time new interesting things started creeping up out of the dark. The Wii had released and now the PlayStation 3 was around the corner. My stepfather was interested in the latter very much. It was HD and it had bluray. All new stuff, so we got one. I subsequently got the 'itch' myself and with Twilight Princess from last year still in my mind I got a Wii not much later.
From the poll I ended up playing Bioshock, Uncharted Drake's Fortune and Super Mario Galaxy. Bioshock was cool, unique and actually a new PC game, but sadly it couldn't hold my attention and I never finished it. Uncharted was great, a lot of fun though the first game in this series was a bit crude. It did however help getting me back into console games and was a good psychological followup to Twilight Princess for me in that regard, repairing another chunk of faith. With my Wii I soon also got Super Mario Galaxy. Though I think it wouldn't be until 2008 that I actually got it and played it. I wanted a new Mario 64, like I always do. Mario Sunshine had disappointed me five years earlier and was a big reason I stopped playing on consoles, so I was a weary at first. However I found that it was actually amazing. It quickly became one of my all-time favourites. Level design was inspired, the soundtrack was amazing (the Observatory theme, wow) and I loved the small half-hidden side-story about Rosalina and the Luma's. I really felt like Nintendo was back with this game, and that they really were out to make something ambitious and inspired like they used to. It looked gorgeous too, and even though Wii wasn't HD, Mario Galaxy surely was one of the generation's best looking games.
From the 'other' list I played Guitar Hero III, Mario Party DS, Zelda Phantom Hourglass, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Assassin's Creed and Mario Party 8. I also have Link's Crossbow Training, but I never played it. Quite a bunch of games, even though I said the year was still mediocre. You see I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this year. Yes I played a lot, but this was mostly because my interest in console gaming was rekindled a bit by a small set of key games. Of those other games I played, most were mediocre to forgettable to me and only two would become favourites. On top of that Call of Duty went 'modern' which didn't interest me at all, so that series, until now one I looked fondly upon, essentially ended for me. Even worse a SimCity game came out that didn't deserve to bear the SimCity name. This last thing really felt like being stabbed in the back and I was genuinely upset at yet another ruined franchise I liked and it didn't help my 'healing proces' so to speak. Zelda Phantom Hourglass was just 'okay', but I actually wasn't too bothered about it because Twilight Princess was still fresh as well. Assassin's Creed was all looks and no substance, and I was done with it quickly. The Mario Parties were fine for what they were. I actually played 8 as one of the first Wii games I got (along with Wii Play, New Super Mario Bros. and Wii Sports of course) quite a bit.
But then came Guitar Hero. I did only get this sometime in 2008, but I was immediately sold. This became an addiction. A pretty heavy one. I played it every day, and I got quite good at it. Not so good that I could casually complete Through the Fire and the Flames on Expert, but probably better than most and I could complete pretty much every other song on Expert and also 100% quite a bunch. Another good thing about it is that it widened my musical knowledge considerably. I discovered many new (well, not really "new" because my preference lies in 60s, 70s, 80s and some 90s music) artists, or delved deeper into ones I already knew, because I was inspired to look around. The game's sequels, which I religiously got for the next couple of years, also substantially helped with this. At one point, probably also 2008 or even 2009, I also randomly got Professor Layton for DS, and I was hooked on this game quite quickly. It deserves special mention. Puzzling is already fun, but the story with good characters and backdrop this game provides was surely an added bonus to keep things interesting.
All in all, the year was still a lot of disappointment, but with two absolute highlights, and maybe one or two minor ones, not all was lost. My vote is Super Mario Galaxy.
