Multi-player gaming is being given more importance today than ever before. So much so that many people now see single player-only games as less value for money. While a negative side effect to the popularity of multi-payer gaming is that many games now come with tacked on multi-player modes just for the sake of it, a few stand out of the crowd as masters of the art, and here is a select bunch that made our list of nominees for Best Multi-player Game of 2009.
Street Fighter 4 did many things right. It remained faithful to the series’ past, it looked brilliant, and it played extremely well offline and online. But just as importantly, it led the revival of competitive gaming in a multi-player genre that was on a steady decline. DICE released the multi-player-only Battlefield 1943 to a thundering response, shattering day one and week one sales records for download-only games on Xbox LIVE and PSN. The game brought back the large scale multi-player battles that the Battlefield series is known for; something that was missing from Battlefield: Bad Company.
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Last year was without a shadow of a doubt the Year of the Fighting Games with almost every legendary franchise churning in a contender for the crown. While games like King of Fighters XII deserved to go into the garbage bin straight out of the factory, most of the others were solid heavyweights who put up a quite tough fight in the ring.
The two surprise hits of the year would definitely be the spiritual sequel to the popular Guilty Gear series – BlazBlue, as well as the dark horse, UFC 2009: Undisputed, both packing excellent gameplay elements. The sixth iteration of the Tekken series, going by the tried and tested formula of ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’, managed to blend in perfectly into the 15 years-old franchise, but perhaps lost its fizzle due to lack of new moves.
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The PSP has died many deaths in its lifetime. And the commonly proclaimed reason for its untimely demise is the lack of quality software on the platform. While games such as the recently released Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, LittleBigPlanet and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars chip in from time to time as counter arguments, it is fair to acknowledge that the story of Sony’s handheld isn’t exactly a fairy tale come to life.
At this point, you must be wondering if this is the review of Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines or an obituary for the PSP. The thing is, Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines felt like an obituary to the PSP. For all its flaws (which I shall describe to the tiniest gory details shortly), the fundamental mistake lies in the core design model that many developers have attempted time and again on the PSP and failed at it more often than not. Bloodlines goes down as yet another futile attempt at delivering an experience similar to that of the home consoles.
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Getting nominated for the Best Multi-platform Game of 2009 is a tough gig. Not only does the game have to be excellent, but it has to be excellent across all platforms. And that is no easy feat. It has to look good, control right and, if possible, build upon the strengths of each platform as well. Let’s take a look at our nominees and find out why they got the nod over other equally good games.
Borderlands was a bit of a dark horse. Not many people were following it before release, but once word of mouth got around, a lot of people ended up picking up (and loving) the game. Built upon the already successful UE3, it looked absolutely stunning across all the three platforms, thanks to its cel shaded visual style. It ran smoothly as well without any noticeable tearing or slowdowns. Modern warfare 2 was always going to be a nominee. It not only managed to look stunning across both the consoles, but ran at a dreamlike 60 FPS. On the PC side of things, it might have fallen out of favour because of its lack of dedicated servers, but its excellent Steam integration managed to bring back a lot of faithful fans.
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The handhelds are often shunned as kiddie or commuter devices. But truth be told, both the DS and the PSP sell by the droves and millions around the world can spend their time better in the train/bus/school/office/plane. It’s not just the portability though; both come with a line-up of fantastic games - some good enough to give their console counterparts a run for their money.
First up is Scribblenauts, with one of the most innovative gameplay designs in a long time. It breaks free from the shackles of linearity and set pieces and truly sets the player’s imagination free. You think of it, and it’s drawn on the screen. Not just that - but it behaves the way you think it would. Where else could you summon a Large Hadron Collider, which creates a black hole, or a biker who goes up against a raptor to save the model? It’s a shame that the controls were finicky and seemed to have a life of their own. Controls are not an issue for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks though. Everything you expect in a Zelda game is there - fiendish puzzles, dungeons, and a certain hero with the stupidest costume since Peter Pan. Spirit Tracks improves on Phantom Hourglass by leaps and bounds, a tough task in itself, and presents one of the best Zelda adventures in years.
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Choosing a winner for this year’s action-adventure category turned out to be an action-adventure game in itself; and a pretty tough one at that. Imagine going up to a deadly assassin or the Dark Knight himself and telling them that their respective entries, while being awesome beyond words, didn’t quite make the cut. Apart from the imminent health hazard that such a (thankfully) hypothetical situation presents, picking out a winner for this category in 2009 truly felt like a grave injustice to the other nominees.
But the fat lady has to sing, and so we must choose a winner. This year’s nominees included Rocksteady’s brilliantly crafted debut in the Batman universe. The game is not only an excellent superhero game, but would have easily topped this category had it been released in another year. In the same space, we also had inFamous, the open-world superhero (or villain) saga whose gameplay was arguably the most accessible and addictive this year. Assassin’s Creed 2 capped off the year by making an already tough choice infinitely tougher by weeding out all the issues that the original had, and brought all its elements at par or exceed what they were supposed to be - Legendary.
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Usually in a game when you come across water hazards or pools of bubbling lava, the only way forward is to swing across, climb around or jump over them. Avoidance is the only plausible solution. In PixelJunk Shooter, however, the way forward is often through molten lava and water bodies. The contrasting hot and cold characteristics of the game world form the basis of the PixelJunk Shooter formula. The word ‘Shooter’ is a little misleading because, although shooting is involved, this is very much a puzzle game.
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Deep within the office of Sony Computer Entertainment, there were pitches for the latest PSN project.
Interviewer: So how should we go about this one?
Iffy Bee: It should be bigger, better, and more bad a*s!
Interviewer: Oh…sorry.
*presses a button under the desk. A trap door beneath Iffy Bee opens, sending him down a lava pit *
Iffy Bee: Arrgghhh!
Interviewer: Next!
Krazy Cazz: RIIIIDDDGGGEEE RAAAACCCERRRR!
Interviewer: *facepalm* This will hurt.
*presses another button, an anvil falls on Cazz*
Krazy Cazz: Giant enemy anvil…for maximum damage. *groans*
Interviewer: Next!
Jenova Chen: It should be about Flowers. And stuff. Yo.
Interviewer: Hmm…go on.
Jenova Chen: Human emotion through nature. And stuff. Yo.
Interviewer: Perfect. You guys, from thatgamecompany, are hired!
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Staff casts nomination on Dragon Age: Origins!
Staff spots wild PS3 fanboys!
PS3 fanbots cast nomination on Demon’s Souls!
PS3 fanbots level up!
PS3 fanbots spot overclocked PC fanboys!
PC fanboys cast nomination on Dragon Age: Origins!
PS3 fanbots and PC fanboys caught in Flame War!
PS3 fanbots and PC fanboys in deadlock!
Staff sits on the sidelines, eat popcorn, drink coke. Watch the forums burn!
Forums burn! +5 flame damage with every post!
New challenger enters!
Community casts nomination!
Community votes for Dragon Age: Origins.
Community levels up!
Fanbots and fanboys level up!
Staff…eats popcorn and drinks coke (except for the poor SOB writing this)
Everybody +5 win*!
GAME OVER!
Community Pick: Dragon Age: Origins
IVG Staff Pick: Dragon Age: Origins
*HPS: Except for the idiot writing this, he just gets the chain-mail of fail
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Platformers have seen a bit of a resurgence over the last few years. 2008 was a fantastic year for the genre and 2009 was no different. And it’s the traditional side-scrolling platformers that dominated our nominees for Best Platfromer. In fact, only one of the five nominees this year is a 3D platformer.
First up is a classic that keeps reinventing itself. After a 3D outing as Super Mario Galaxy, the second Mario platformer for the Wii – New Super Mario Bros Wii (how do they come up with these?), goes back to the side-on perspective. NSMB is no cakewalk. In fact, the difficulty is punishing, but thanks to ingenious level design, frustration is kept to a minimum, and enjoyment to the max. 2008’s big PS3 exclusive – LittleBigPlanet, made the move to the PSP in 2009, and the result couldn’t be more satisfying. Nearly everything we loved about the PS3 version has remarkably been carried forward to the handheld intact, including the level editor, and the ability to download user-created levels.
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