01. Inazuma 11 3
02. Super Mario Galaxy 2
03. Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger Vs. Darkdeath Evilman
04. Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
05. Patchwork Heroes
06. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
07. Valkyria Chronicles 2
08. Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem
09. Sin & Punishment 2: Star Successor
10. NHL 11
x. Cladun: This Is An RPG
I won't be including remakes because that's lame. There were a ton of rather excellent ones, but my heart, as always, belongs to Lunar. I also excluded imports that are coming/probably coming here. I didn't include honorable mentions beyond 10 U.S.-released games, because lists get cluttered. I HIGHLY recommend browsing Japan-only titles, though (After-School Boy, "Dangan-Ronpa," and "Blue Roses," among others, are rather notable). I included Japanse titles in parentheses, because some of the English ones suck:
Inazuma 11 3 (Lightning 11 3: Challenge The World) (JAPANESE RELEASE); If you would have told me in 2007 that Level-5, the most overrated "big" Japanese developer ever, would produce the greatest new property of this generation and that it was a Captain Tsubasa-emulating soccer role-playing game, I would have beaten you savagely, knowing that my hobby would soon die. Instead, they amalgamated Captain Tsubasa, the touchscreen, Pokemon, Mitsuda music, Blitzball, and Shao Lin Soccer into the best video game of 2010.
Super Mario Galaxy 2; My opinions about Super Mario Galaxy 1 are known. This is the Super Mario World of the 3-d titles. Yoshi, cleverer, more memorable, more adventurous level design, perfect control "feel," and Super Mario music that actually sounds like Super Mario music and not American kids' movie stuff make this the best 3-d Super Mario.
Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger Versus Darkdeath Evilman (Absolute Hero Remodeling Project); The only dungeon crawlers I liked before this year were the Shiren The Wanderer series. Nippon Ichi put out Classic Dungeon AND Hero Remodeling in the same year. This has too many items, too many tokusatsu parodies, too many inside jokes, and too much grinding. The game's indulgence after indulgence in contrast with Classic Dungeons' system-driven gameplay. Yet, it works, and brilliantly!
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Turnabout Prosecutor 1); Yes, that 1 case drags out and it's easy, but the rest of your criticisms can shut it. You probably hated Turnabout Big Top, too. The Kidnapped Turnabout enters the Ace Attorney canon. Oh, and Iwadare's on his game, too.
Patchwork Heroes (1,000,000 Tons Of Debris); I may be wrong here. It's like Qix. It has the best soundtrack of this year and is done in a southern/eastern European style. It emulates Yurii Norshtein's cutout animation. It's not that hard a puzzle game unless you're going for scores, completion, and skill. In other words, it's subjectively designed for me. *plays 10 minutes on PSP* Nope! Awesome!
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep; How good do the combat, systems, Disney references, music, visual art, and dungeon design have to be to outweigh 1 of the worst big-budget R.P.G. stories ever? Play and find out.
Valkyria Chronicles 2 (Valkyria Of The Battlefield 2: Gallian Royal Military Academy); This is this year's R.P.G. comfort food. MMMMMMM. Satiated.
Mario Versus Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem (Mario Versus Donkey Kong 4: Mini-Land Assault); This is 1 of the great underrated series of recent generations. This is the finest iteration. If this wasn't by a Nintendo team, raising the difficulty, making the puzzles cleverer, and heightening the aesthetics would have occurred in separate games. Instead, it's on the all-time puzzle platformer shortlist.
Sin And Punishment: Star Successor (Sin and Punishment: Successor To The Universe); Too bad Bangaio Spirits is 1 of the greatest games of all-time. Sin And Punishment would be the best Treasure sequel yet if it didn't exist (and I include "Ikaruga" here).
NHL 2011; If a hero is someone one doesn't just admire, but with whom one would exchange lives, Mario Lemieux is 1 of maybe 20 people in history I consider heroes. He's forever tied, to me, with the self-apparently brilliant NHLPA 1993 and NHL 1994. Despite all of this history, NHL 2010 is the greatest hockey game ever.
Cladun: This Is An R.P.G. (Classic Dungeon: Assistance Of The Magic Binding Circle); The sequel, coming in 3 months, ditches the long subtitle for "X2" (as in "times 2"). System Prisma has the right idea. What more do you need to add to 1 of the year's top soundtracks, the visual customization, the delicate and deep (if arcane) gameplay systems, the perfectly balanced dungeons, and the Bangaioo Spirits-like story snubbing except, you know, more?
I wouldn't say this has been the best year for brilliance, in my opinion, but I've rarely seen so many "so close" releases. Sports (F-1, FIFA, NHL), puzzle (Pang, Mario Versus Donkey Kong, Hospital/Trauma, Picross), RPGS (Nippon Ichi's 2 stellar dungeon crawlers, Kingdom Hearts), and so on. I even rather loved Vanquish. It's been fun.
Oh, and I plan on kicking everyone who posts Heavy Rain in their top 3s. Booooooo!