Pong and Beyond

Whenever we pick up a gaming magazine and have a flick through the reviews and previews there is a consistent thought that “if the list was redrafted would this make it?” It has been over a year since we started this blog and many gamers appear to agree that 2011 may have been one of, if not the, best year gaming has ever seen.

Since we have just entered a new calendar year (happy Belated New Year readers) it is one of those tropes of blogging to do some form of round-up so here are twenty predictions for games from 2011 that we think would make it onto the list.

This list is made up of entries we both agreed on, moving it down from about 30 entries based on personal agreement… and because some of those weren’t as strong.

Downloadables

One thing that has been rapidly increasing in recent years is the market for downloadable games on places like XBLA and PSN. Despite the PSN hacking fiasco earlier this year things have been great for online transactions.

Taking the obvious out first one sure-fire game for the list is the incredibly addictive Minecraft. This does feel like a cheat seeing how it has been in beta for a long time but since it was only completely launched in November of 2011 it still counts.

If nothing else, the addiction some of our friends have to it (and I remember a rather vivid conversation about this on a very cold Christmas night), it seems inevitable… and it seems fun enough for it.

Aside from this there are three other downloadable games that we both agreed would make it onto the list. The games From Dust, Bastion and Stacking are all likely to make the list because not only were they acclaimed but they also stood out from other games released this year.

Portables

Well it was a big year for portables since we saw the worldwide release of the 3DS as well as Japanese launch of the PS Vita. Due to this fact a game that would be an essential addition to the list is one of the top rated games on the 3DS; Mario Kart 7. In fact, looking at the current list of otherwise fairly inadequate releases for the 3DS, I must say the platform has been fairly disappointing so far. I’ll admit – the otherwise brilliant Ocarina of Time just isn’t my sort of game… Honorable mention though, although it’s really too old for the list now.

iOS also continued to grow and grow with an increasingly large array of gaming apps available to the world. Granted it was released late in the year but I would not bet against the graphically beautiful Infinite Blade II.

Replacers

2011 saw the release of a lot of acclaimed sequels and whilst there are some we think will be simply added to the list (more on that later) here are some we think will replace their earlier counterparts.

LittleBigPlanet 2 and The Witcher II we think will go on to replace their earlier counterparts still leaving one entry from each series making an appearance on a future list. However Pokémon, Call of Duty and the vs. Capcom games have multiple entries on the list so they will probably be taking one for the team with, in order, Black & White, Modern Warfare 3 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom.

Sequels

I actually cannot get over how many successful sequels and threequels emerged this year. Valve continued their run of amazing games with the much lauded Portal 2 which we recently acquired for free from Steam during their Christmas promotion (score!).

I would then start to go on about Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Arkham City, Skyrim or Skyward Sword but it would sound clichéd and this post is getting rather long.

Originals

To round off our list of twenty games there are some multi-platform games that could get a nod next time they draft a list. One of them is Catherine which has yet to be released in Europe but has been on my wishlist for about a year and will continue to be so until I find a copy.

Bulletstorm, L.A. Noire and Child of Eden are all also dead certs for future lists.

Other games that didn’t even make it to the twenty include the likes of Ms. ‘Splosion Man, Xenoblade Chronicles, King of Fighters XIII, Battlefield 3, RAGE, Dirt 3, Total War: Shogun 2 and Amazing Breaker. So yes, it has been a great year and there are many games we didn’t get to mention. May 2012 be even greater!