With a whole new Xbox 360 redesign this year, making the hardware slicker the the Dashboard more navigation friendly, not to mention the launch of the almighty Kinect, Xbox 360 gamers have had quite the year - and that’s without even mentioning the fantastic games we’ve been blessed with.
Here at Strategy Informer, we locked ourselves away in the underground bunker for days on end, trying to finalize our list of the best Xbox 360 games released this year. Finally we’ve emerged - so while we go and have a shower and change our clothes, why don’t you check out our Game of the Year awards for the Xbox 360 in 2010.
Best Kinect Game: Dance Central
Let’s be straight about this - the Kinect launch line-up wasn’t incredible. As with the majority of gaming hardware launches, developers were testing the water to see whether Kinect would sell. Still, that’s not to say they were all terrible, with the likes of Kinectimals and Kinect Sports definitely keeping us active for several hours.
The best Kinect release by far, however, was Harmonix’s wonderful Dance Central. Following on from the success of Wii title Just Dance, Harmonix’s take on the dance-em-up genre was made all the more straightforward thanks to the capabilities of the Kinect hardware. We’re not exactly the biggest fans of getting down, but Dance Central definitely got us on our feet.
Perhaps the most resounding feature of Dance Central was the quality song list, with such a welcome range of genres and choices that anyone can find something they’d like to dance to. If you’re planning on getting a Kinect for Christmas, we would definitely suggest you look into picking up a copy of Dance Central along with it.
Best Xbox Live Arcade Game: Super Meat Boy
By far the most difficult category to finalize, as the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace has seen some absolute stonkers this year. The likes of Limbo and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX had us churning through batteries for our Xbox controllers, so addictive was utterly entertaining was the gameplay.
There can only be one winner, however, and that honour has fallen to Super Meat Boy - a game that reminded us why we love gaming all over again. Taking control of Meat Boy and watching him jump into grinders and saws time and time again should be frustrating, but thanks to the quick nature of play, it’s always hilarious and forgiving enough that we’ll keep having “just one more go” forever.
For those people who want to take their gaming that little bit further, online scoreboards have kept us fighting for the top spot and ended with crazy four in the morning sessions. With several extra chapters promised for free download in the future, we’re very much looking forward to killing Meat Boy all over again in 2011.
Best Xbox Live Indie Game: Epic Dungeon
The Xbox Live Indie Game section of the Xbox Dashboard has been thrown about a fair bit this year, first being pushing into a ‘Specialty Shops’ section along with the avatar shops and DLC packs, then pulled back into the Games section just after ‘Demos’. Finally, it has ended the year where it should be - right next to the retail and Arcade games.
Of all the XBLIG success stories of 2010, Epic Dungeon was definitely our favourite. It offers a roguelike-style of play - essentially a quick-fire RPG experience, with short yet mental games. Players pick a fantasy character, then venture into the Epic Dungeon, battling hordes of bats, spiders and witches, and leveling up constantly.
The game was released as part of the Indie Games Winter Uprising - an unofficial promotion run by developers from the Xbox Community - and costs just 80 MS Points ($1)! We just hope there are more of these promotions in the future, if the quality of this release is anything to go by.
Best Multiplayer Game: Battlefield Bad Company 2
Knowing your enemy can be a huge advantage. DICE were clearly very much aware of the behemoth that is the Call of Duty series, and knew that they’d have to step up their game when it came to laying down the multiplayer components for Battlefield Bad Company 2. Even though we were anticipating Bad Company 2’s multiplayer would be pretty great, we honestly didn’t imagine that it was going to be this fantastic.
Conquest and Rush modes were back to keep the veterans happy, but it was the new additions that really hit the spot. Squad Rush saw a team of four attackers taking on four defenders, while Squad Deathmatch was all about the kills. The maps were far more compact and made for greater action too.
The Xbox 360 has shown itself to be the superior console for FPS play, and in the case of Battlefield Bad Company 2, this held very true. Eject that copy of Black Ops from your Xbox, and slam Bad Company 2 into place - your 360 will thank you for it.
Best Xbox-Exclusive Game: Halo: Reach
The last in the Halo series developed by Bungie - and what a way to go out. With an almighty bang, Reach is the grand finale that Halo fans were hoping for, with a huge, sprawling single-player campaign, full co-op play and, of course, a multiplayer to die for.
With players taking control of Noble Six in a war against the Covenant, play felt far more like the original Halo: Combat Evolved than later titles in the series. Many say that Reach is the definitive Halo experience - indeed, our very own Joe Robinson blessed it as “the most complete Halo game to date”, and he knows his stuff, does our Joe.
If you’ve not followed the Halo series up to this point, then you’ll probably let out a ‘meh’ and keep on skimming - but if anything, Reach is the proof that you should finally try and involve yourself in the Halo world. Sure, this chapter may have just ended - but we’d put money on it that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Halo world.
Xbox Game of the Year: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
A late arrival in the year, but boy, did it make an entrance. The third in the Assassin’s Creed series and the second to follow the exploits of the charmer Ezio, Brotherhood launched us back into the world of running, jumping and climbing at full pelt, with a huge side-order of sword battles and hidden blade assassination. Ubisoft had done the unthinkable - they’d made Assassin’s Creed even better.
Not only was the single player of epic proportions, with dozens of side missions and challenges to complete, but you could also send your own army of assassins in to do the dirty work for you. And what about the multiplayer? Oh yes, the multiplayer indeed - a virtual game of cat and mouse, except that you are both the cat and the mouse, plus you have no idea where the cat is…
After much deliberation, we have decided to name Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood our Xbox game of the year, beating off the highest of competition. Let’s just hope that the next Assassin’s Creed installment is as glorious!
Watch out for our Playstation 3 and PC Game of the Year articles coming soon!
