1. Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor ; Not only my Game of the Year 2009 (Japanese version on that one natch), it is also my Game of the Generation. S&P2 stands for what the Wiimote excels at and throws at you the most imaginative level design I have seen in years. Treasure and company decided to throw every single element they could come up and somehow fit it into an on-rails shooter that, for all intents and purposes, should not exist. It is a title that does not bother itself in explaining why stuff happens -it just happens, and every time it happens you have to re-learn how to play the game. Creativity oozes at every enemy encounter, from the side-scrolling portions to the 360 degrees battles. And when you think it could not get better, Treasure changes the objective altogether while retaining the same basic mechanics, point and shoot/slice while jumping/dodging. A cult classic in the making, and an oasis of pure and distilled game mechanics in a generation overrun with bloated cinematography and unfulfilled expectations.
2. Donkey Kong Country Returns ; My favourite platformer in years. If the Super Mario Galaxy games are paragons of creativity in 3D platforming, DKCR is the same in 2D platforming. It beats out last year's New Super Mario Bros. Wii at its own game -the difference being that DKCR doesn't shy away from delighting you with amazing graphics and music. Every level relies on a different gimmick, yet that doesn't prevent it from being an exemplar herald of how this type of gameplay has evolved through twenty-five years despite its decade-long lull.
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; The first Galaxy was an example of how gameplay design did not have to succeed at the expense of audiovisual presentation. I hate to say "more of the same", but in this case Galaxy 2 delivers out exactly what everybody loved from the first game. It is more platforming-based than before, and although I believe the second half of the game is quite inferior, it always interests you and makes you wonder just how mad its developers truly are. Although definitely better than GotY 2007, it sadly succumbs to worthier competition and some stupid decisions that hinder me from ranking it higher.
4. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn ; Like Aeana put it in a tweet, "Golden Sun 3: more Dragon Quest than Dragon Quest 9". I will say, however, that it fails at being a challenging RPG because of the easy difficulty -the battle system is as great as always, but it doesn't give enough obstacles to force you to master it. Its main strength relies on the out-of-battle level design, outdoing Zelda from the first puzzle to the last one. Never do I feel cheated out by the dungeons in GS3, and like the following game in this list it will remind you of the JRPG fan of yore. Wonderful presentation and music give it a plus, too.
5. Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Skies ; Dragon Quest games have this je ne sais quoi that, despite the light-hearted plots, tug at my inner child by reminding me of when games used to be amazing worlds where impossible things happen. I won't say that DQIX is the de facto DQ, but it does a lot to renovate the formula without eschewing altogether. It's comfort food for the JRPG connoisseur, but sadly its writing leaves a lot to be desired.
6. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars ; It's fun, frenetic, and absolutely gorgeous. I may not know half of the cast, but the presentation is so well-constructed that it makes me want to research about them. It's the best fighter on the Wii, by far.
7. Persona 3 Portable ; A JRPG classic that gets improved with superior gameplay and portability. This was my first foray into the Persona 3 universe and it didn't disappoint. It is tough, but never unfair, although I will admit that P4 had a much more intriguing difficulty curve and plot. I would not like the same formula implemented to Inaba in a theoretical Persona 4 Portable, however.
8. Trauma Team ; Probably the best use of the original waggle aspect of the Wii Remote, coupled with a dramatic plot that, while failing at any sort of believability, keeps you interested at all times. Even the dreaded Endoscopy sections have its value if you are patient enough to truly appreciate what they are trying to do here. Absolutely breath-taking game.
9. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth ; While I always appreciated the "first-person" aspect of the main series, the fact is that investigation in-between courtroom scenes was a chore and rarely enticing enough. The change in formula is magnificent, and I hope it gets its due serving with real court cases. It would be higher had the writing not left so much to be desired.
10. Valkyria Chronicles 2 ; It's difficult to actually say that this game deserves to be in this list, because anything that's actually fun about it is stuff it inherited from the first installment. It takes a lot of backwards steps from the prequel and it definitely leaves a lot to be desired -not because of the platform choice, mind you (I thought going portable was great), but because of design decisions like the credit system that are not fun and the plot that somehow became more laughable than before. Whatever seems to be the case, the fundamentals of the series are still very serviceable, and elevate VCII to be higher than it should be on its own merits.
Honourable Mentions (for having the balls to be garbage):
Metroid: Other M ; for being a piece of shit that did everything wrong at every single step.
Final Fantasy 13 ; for being a piece of shit and killing my love for Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy 14 ; for being a piece of shit and somehow managing to overturn FFXIII as the biggest what the fuck in the franchise this year.
