1. Vanquish ; Simply put, this is the best TPS ever created. Flawless controls, excellent level design, a wide variety of enemies and unique encounters, high speed, and high difficulty make this one of the most enjoyable games Ive played this generation. Its not without its flaws, but they are so minor that they do not affect my opinion of the game in anyway.
2. Super Street Fighter 4 ; Not much to say about this one. Capcom took the already-excellent SF4 and made it that much better. A superbly balanced game with a huge roster of fighters. The one blemish on this series is the completely unnecessary requirement of having to link the final move of a chain in order to cancel it, but between playing for hundreds of hours and plinking, youll get used to it.
3. Bayonetta ; Platinums other masterpiece. I use that word lightly, since there are a ton of little annoyances about this game that stop me from placing it higher. That aside, the combat is superb, the enemy design is masterful, its packed to the brim with content and unlockables, and the aesthetics are very unique and memorable. All it would take is a minor revision, a Bayonetta: Black, and this would quite easily be one of the best games of all time. Until then, its just excellent.
4. Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi Extra ; I love everything about this game. The bullet patterns are creative and unique, the stage design is flawless, the soundtrack is excellent, and the art and theme fit the mood of the game perfectly. But better than all of that is the scoring system. Its (somewhat) simple, intuitive, and most importantly, fun. Its hard to say for sure, but this is probably my favorite Cave game.
5. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift ; The chocolate to Street Fighters vanilla. I guess. I suck at analogies. Anyway, much like SSF4, ArcSys fixed what sucked about Calamity Trigger and improved the game in every way. The fast-paced, deep gameplay, great graphics and music, and a sizable roster of VERY unique characters make this game an absolute blast to play. And hell, even the story mode is highly entertaining!
6. Deathsmiles ; I was very surprised by how much I liked this game. Everything about it is just extremely well done. One thing that I really liked about this game was how much freedom youre given. I love the ability to choose which stages you will play in what order, and even how difficult each stage will be before you play it. Not to mention the game comes with a nice variety in modes, from the original game to Mega Black Label, to MBL 1.1. And in typical Cave fashion, the bullet patterns are excellent as is the stage design. And much like Ketsui, this game features an excellent scoring system that is always fun to try and exploit.
7. Halo: Reach ; After being kinda down on the series since Halo 2 came out, I wasnt expecting too much out of this. But Bungie really knocked it out of the park. The campaign, for the most part, is very well designed with lots of interesting encounters that you can approach in multiple ways, with lots of weapons and enemies to keep things interesting. The multiplayer is the real meat of the game though, and this is where Bungie really kicked it up a notch. Replacing the horrible Battle Rifle is the DMR, and really, that alone makes this game much better than its predecessors. On the other hand, I truly hate all of the armor power ups. Jetpacks, armor lock, camo, and even the stupid dummies just completely ruin the game if theyre left as starting abilities. So to avoid that crap, I played Team Arena and Team Doubles with my friends for weeks until Bungie decided to remove Slayer Pro and force their power ups down my throat. I havent played it much (or at all) since then, but the game was absolutely excellent while it lasted. I realize they've fixed this issue by now, but in the time it took them to do that, I completely lost interest in the game.
8. Crimzon Clover ; This is the surprise of the year for me. Without a doubt, this is the absolute best indie game ever created. The gameplay system is a little different here, since you have a homing laser you can use in conjunction with your standard shot, and you have a meter that acts as your bombs and hyper drive, but everything works together very, very well. And again (I know Im sounding repetitive here), the bullet patterns and stage design are very well done, with a large variety of enemies and many interesting setups for you to deal with. Theres never a dull moment in this game. And on top of that, the art and graphics are very well done, and it looks much better than many commercial shooting games. And once again, the scoring system is fantastic and extremely fun to play with. Entering break mode with a high multiplier, soaking up gold stars and tons of points, then entering DOUBLE break mode and annihilating everything you see is pure fun. And if that wasnt enough, the game is complete with three different difficulty modes catering to all skill levels, three different ships to play as, and even a shop to unlock a bunch of crap in! Truly a fantastic game.
9. Nier ; Another very surprising game for me. I wasnt expecting much out of this, but once I finally decided to buy it and play through it, I found it to be one of the most fun and interesting games of the year. First things first: the combat in this, while fun, is quite simple and not particularly great. With that out of the way, the game excels in other areas. The characters and story, for starters, are without a doubt some of the best Ive seen in a videogame in quite a few years. The soundtrack is absolutely excellent and hands-down one of the best this generation. And the mash-up of different genres is very well done, going from action-RPG, to text adventure, to 2D side scrolling, to bullet hell, to an isometric dungeon, and theres even some blatant nods to classic Resident Evil and Zelda. I enjoyed the game enough to happily get the 1000/1000 on it, even if it was a bit of a chore. Nier's just such a unique game and one of the most enjoyable RPGs Ive played in years. It's simply a breath of fresh air.
10. Super Meat Boy ; Not much to say about this one. The game has perfect controls, tons of characters to play as, and tons of levels, almost all of which are expertly designed. The music is great, the art is charming, and the homages and spoofs of older, classic games are appreciated. It shows theyve got their heads in the right place. This is the best platformer in well over a decade; I loved the game enough to get 100% on it and I would gladly do it again.
And my honorable mentions (Ill try to keep this brief):
x. Resonance of Fate ; tri-Aces best game. Such a fun, unique battle system that more than makes up for the rest of this games shortcomings. And tinkering with custom gun setups until youve made a perfect Frankenstein monstrosity of a weapon is probably more fun than it should be. And I like playing girlie dress-up games with Leanne.
x. Deathsmiles 2 X ; An interesting sequel, for sure. The games a little odd, but its Cave, so the stage design and bullet patterns are top-notch. The scoring system is very fun and fast-paced once you get used to the changes, but DS2X didnt really grab me in the same way that the original did. Still a great game though.
x. Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu ; Honestly, I wanted to put this in my top 10, but I thought I was getting a little heavy on shooters so I figured I should bump one of them down. This game is very, very good though. Great bullet patterns and stage design blah blah, yes Im a broken a record. Whats really interesting here is that every mode on the disc is very fun and worth playing. Ver 1.5 is a blast, Arrange B is one of the oddest things Ie seen in a shooter, and honestly, Arrange A might be my favorite mode in the game. I love filling the screen with bullets, jacking up my hit counter until Ive been cornered, then quickly switching to boost and clearing a path. The one thing I dont like about this game is chaining. Now thankfully chaining in Daifukkatsu isnt as strict as its predecessors, but its still a chaining system and I still dont like it.
x. Mass Effect 2 ; Solid gameplay, good characters, good graphics, and a fully realized sci-fi world to explore. Its a great game that would have been even greater if Bioware didnt forget to include a central storyline and the entire middle section of the game.
x. Touhou Koumajou Densetsu 2: Strangers Requiem ; A very fun Castlevania clone with Touhou characters, awesome artwork, and it even has professional voice actresses reading every line in the game. The bosses in particular are very well done. Very impressive for a doujin game. Now I wouldnt rank this up there with the rest of these games, but I thought this was definitely worth a mention since its so niche. And also because its the best Touhou game ever! [/backhanded compliment]
And now I'm gonna throw this out there without proof-reading it at all.
