Thank you! I've always hated Mariokart Wii and anytime I mention how bad it is, my friends act like I'm crazy.

Spore was a polarizing game, many, myself included, expected so much more of it. The first game was basically (the excellent) Flow copied, then you make your main character style(s) in what didn't feel like evolution at all. I don't remember if it mattered much what you made, I tried some different designs, didn't seem to matter. I found the simulation part of Sim Earth and Sim Life more interesting at the time. A character editor rather than a simulation in Spore.
Turning it into distinct games was also not what I expected, a more Civilization style progression would have been better, organically changing gears instead of distinct ages. It was still a good game, but paled in replayability compared SimCity and Sims.

Braid was awesome. Dunno if it started the indie revolution, certainly popularized Indie games. I would sooner attribute that to Geometry Wars in 2003 starting of XBox Live Arcade. Not indie itself (from the makers of the PGR series) but it started the interest in smaller games, which opened the door for indies on consoles.

Yeah Fallout 3 lost a lot of the series identity. It gained it back in atmosphere but I rather consider Fallout 3 a reboot of the series instead of a continuation. From Fallout 3 and onwards it's a very different series compared to the first two games.

It's an odd year, a lot of good sequels and interesting new games. Yet those new games wouldn't go on to make great sequels themselves. LBP2, Mirrors Edge Catalyst, L4D2, Dead Space 2, Valkyria Chronicles 2, all weren't as good as the originals. Or maybe I was just getting increasingly tired of all the sequels.

Other: Rune Factory Frontier

And of this genre, this is the one I enjoyed the most. Followed by the first Story of Seasons game (released as Harvest Moon on SNES) and Stardew Valley.

Nowadays the genre is gigantic, there are like 150-200 farming simulators on the Switch alone. I’m not sure I’d call myself a fan of the genre, but I was a big fan of a few of the games over the years, and Rune Factory Frontier was by far my favourite. Its also one of the few games of that generation I put over 100 hours into single save, the others being Dragon Quest 9 and Xenoblade Chronicles.

What sets it apart? First, the game graphics are not as cutesy as some of the others, and somehow it remains the best looking game of the franchise despite being way back on Wii in 2008 (in Japan). Second, there is a much stronger story focus, there’s more a sense that things are moving along, there’s a lot more in the way of character development and dialogue, so things feel more alive. Third, the town is better, this is more of a preference thing, but I found the town to be more interesting than any of the other games. Fourth, I think it’s how beautiful the different times of the day are, the runey system is bonked, but the runeys themselves give the game a great atmosphere, kind of like the bioluminescence in the dark forests of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X. This game was out before those two.

Cultural Impact: Braid. Which is also among my favorite games from this year. There were technically indie games before Braid, but let's face it (games like Alien Hominid, Yume Nikki, and Aquaria, for example), like five of us ever heard of them. (Even I didn't hear about Yume Nikki for more than a decade after its release.) Braid changed that forever. Of course some of the novelty of it being an indie game was somewhat lost on the fact that the designer apparently had $180,000 just lying around to sink into making this game himself, so not entirely an inspiring story of the little guy overcoming the odds here, but nonetheless, like Ross Perot before him, Jonathan Blow made independence more appealing, only without threatening to reduce your grandparents' Social Security payouts. He's sort of the Ross Perot of video games. Anyway, point is that this was the first indie game that really sold large numbers of copies. Now that it was evident there was a market for modern 2D games and such, games that people could make on their own terms, the business was soon flooded with such titles, creating the vast indie landscape that we know today. Being primarily an indie gamer myself these days, I have a highly positive view of this development.

It was time for something like Braid too. It'd been over a decade since 2D games had been much of a thing and clearly there was a growing hunger for a reinvention thereof driven by some combination of nostalgia and a yearning for less commercialism in game design.

Favorite Games: Braid was also one of my favorite new games in 2008. It wasn't quite the next Portal to me, but the game's regular introduction of new time mechanics and the ways you used them to find deceptively simple solutions to many a head-scratcher that appeared extremely complicated on the surface level kept me constantly engaged, and it's equally enigmatic narrative that turns your traditional damsel-in-distress plot into something much more interesting and clearly personal served as its own kind of captivating puzzle.

That said, when it comes to my absolute favorite game from this year, at the time it was Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge indeed remains among my favorites of '08. Second-fave maybe today. The story's cliched and forgettable, but Mirror's Edge is a rare game that won out for me on style points alone just because of how revolutionary it felt to play a parkour-based action-platformer in the first-person perspective. Why hadn't anyone thought to make a first-person platformer before, or at least that I'd ever heard of? It still feels completely awesome and remains a strikingly unique game even today! Even in comparison to its own sequel, which largely ruined the whole experience by changing the format to a semi-open world adventure.

My absolute favorite 2008 game to play these days though is Valkyria Chronicles, not only for its gorgeous art style and all that, but for its dedication to the human element of war. Morality in Valkyria Chronicles isn't clear-cut: everyone fights for a reason, not just because they're born evil or something, they each have their own flaws. And I mean that the game does this for all of its characters, not just the leads, and that makes it really stand out from the crowd. And racism is a major theme that the game takes the time to really explore with sincerity of conviction. It's probably my favorite tactical game.

I also quite enjoyed my time with Persona 4 and its particular cast of characters. In addition to strongly appreciating the way its game play is directly connected to its storyline and themes, it was among the only games out there at the time that confronted topics like people's gender presentation and one's often complex relationship thereto head-on, and I appreciated that, especially when it came to characters like Chie, Naoto, and Kanji, though on a more secondary note, I was disappointed (yet hardly surprised) by its seeming unwillingness to validate non-heterosexuality, particularly as it may have pertained to a couple of those characters.

To craft a list of my favorites from 2008...

1. Valkyria Chronicles
2. Mirror's Edge
3. Braid
4. Rock Band 2 <-- Noticing a pattern here yet?
5. Persona 4
6. World of Goo
7. Fallout 3
8. Fable II
9. Mario Kart Wii

I played a lot of SimEarth and SimLife, and really loved them, but I find them to be very niche compared to SimCity, Sims and SPORE - which is fine, I like them just the way they are, and, if you're actually into that thing, find them deeper "simulation" experiences than the 3 I placed as his Top 3. The thing is, I find those 3 were both very satisfying sims, and very mainstream friendly. I actually played a lot of SPORE (but nowhere as near as nearly as much as my older son) and found that there are quite a few differences while making your creatures.  Yes, it had its problems, it didn't live up completely to its promise, but for me it was really entertaining and replayable.

There were other "indie" games before Braid, and "indie" revolution was cooking for some time with XBLA and STEAM, but I distinctly remember when it launched and sold a lot, everyone started noticing out that "guy without a publisher made a game and earned...WHAT MONEY?!?!?".

"Braid is considered the definitive title that launched wide interest in independently developed video games starting around 2008 and onward.^{[115][116][117][118]} The Guardian considered the game as the "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" of indie gaming, a potent symbol for the saleable potential of non-mainstream productions".^[119] Joshuah Bearman for The New York Times called Braid the "Easy Rider moment", showcasing how a small developer can be as successful as a large one.^[120] Indie game studios Playdead, Supergiant Games, and Amanita Design stated that Braid was not unique as it was released on newly-created digital distribution services alongside other successful indie titles like Castle Crashers, World of Goo, and Super Meat Boy. However, they continued, Braid's financial success without aid of a publisher showed that small teams could achieve mainstream success, paving the way for many future indie games developed out in a similar manner."

True, Braid showed Indie games could be very profitable and it got lots of attention. I do think it's XBLA and digital games on PS3 that created that marketplace for indies to thrive in. Like Flow was originally a Flash game on PC, on PS3 it made actual money. I don't know when paying for smaller games on Steam became popular, maybe that started with Braid. Now as @Jaicee stated, having 180K laying around to make a game isn't exactly a rags to riches story. But certainly showed taking a chance can pay off big.

SPORE was very entertaining and accessible. I just remember all my friends being disappointed by it. I played it through twice and didn't feel like trying out anything else after, plus the 5th stage wasn't all that fun to play. SPORE, great concept, lackluster execution.

In contrast Braid was universally loved, yet didn't have to deal with preconceived expectations :) Such a nice surprise of a game and, unlike SPORE, it certainly inspired a lot more games like it. It does feel like it set of the modern 'story platformer' genre.

Thank you for the excellent reminder. I'll still keep my vote for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. 

2016 is going to be very tough then, because I'll have to pick between Stardew Valley and Persona 5 (2016 Japanese release date, and I've played Royal). 

I'm starting to realize 95% of games I've played are over 15 years old. By now I'll just have to go with whatever I've played: Lego Batman.

This year for me, is a bit like last year. Taken by itself this is actually a pretty bad year if you asked me, and yes from this year there wouldn't be much that would stick with me over time. In reality though I played of stuff from 2007 this year because of a renewing interest in console games.

From the poll I played Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Mario Kart Wii and a bit of Super Smash Bros Brawl. Fallout 3 was quite the game, a near endless world with a near endless storyline. At that point in time though, such a game was too big for me, and I lost interest at some point. I have seen the end though because my mother did play it all the way through. At a family friend's house I came into contact with GTAIV. It was at least 2009 however by this point. I remembered I liked the simpler first two games in the series from years earlier, and I wanted to get into this one. However after I got it and played with it myself I was let down quite severely. I felt it was utterly boring. Because you "can do anything", you're actually doing nothing. In addition I didn't like the characters or felt interested in the scripted events of the storyline. I dropped the game quite quickly. On Wii, which by now got more and more playtime, I got Smash and of course Mario Kart. The latter cannibalised the former heavily. I had played the N64 Smash and liked it, but I never really played much of Brawl. This is because of Mario Kart Wii, which I liked very much. I felt it was an obvious step above the to me disappointing Double Dash and I like most of the tracks, the mechanics and the new bikes which added an extra layer of strategy.

From the 'other' list I played Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Guitar Hero World Tour and SoulCalibur IV. SoulCalibur IV was nice, but it wouldn't replicate the times I had with family and friends during the original SoulCalibur days. It couldn't really, the multiplayer sessions were over. Professor Layton was also good, I had fun with it, but the novelty was gone because it wasn't the first game I played in the series anymore. Then Guitar Hero World Tour, which I played a lot. I was like Guitar Hero III, but with other songs, so that was great. I was easier though, and songs would be simpler. Though, with III they went overboard with the amount of notes that actually played on some songs.

This year doesn't really have a standout for me, I'd say in itself an indicator of the year's quality in my experience, but because of the amount of playtime it got, and because nothing else clearly beats it, my vote is for 'Other', with Guitar Hero World Tour.

One thing that has gradually happened to gaming is that the top games have gotten longer and longer.  As a result it is hard to play a lot of games in one year.

On the other hand, if you get into retro gaming, you probably have more money now to try a lot of the games you missed the first time around.  There are a lot of great games that are 15+ years old.