We’ve finally reached the last day of our 2009 Xbox 360 Awards & Holiday Shopping Guide, culminating in our Game of the Year. For those following the awards throughout the week, you may have a good guess as to what game will be our game of the year. Is it the same as your pick?
In any case, please remember that while we’ve chosen only one winner from each category, all games nominated within each category are all worth considering, depending on how much you enjoy that category. This week’s feature has doubled as a shopping guide as well as an awards “ceremony”. With that, let’s draw back the curtains for the finale…
Summary of Awards so far:
2009 Xbox 360 Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter IV
2009 Xbox 360 Best Role Playing Game: Dragon Age: Origins
2009 Xbox 360 Best First Person Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2009 Xbox 360 Best Action/Adventure Game: Assassin’s Creed II
2009 Xbox 360 Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
2009 Xbox 360 Best RTS Game: Halo Wars
2009 Xbox 360 Best Live Arcade Game: Shadow Complex
2009 Xbox 360 Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2009 Xbox 360 Best New IP: Batman: Arkham Asylum
2009 Xbox 360 Best Sequel: Assassin’s Creed II
2009 Xbox 360 Best Story: Batman: Arkham Asylum
2009 Xbox 360 Best Value: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2009 Xbox 360 Most Overrated: Batman: Arkham Asylum
And for good measure, I’ve been playing the 360 since 2006 so here are my Xbox 360 GotY picks for the past three years:
2006 Xbox 360 Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2007 Xbox 360 Game of the Year: BioShock
2008 Xbox 360 Game of the Year: Fallout 3
Counting up the tally, we have Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 leading the pack with 3 awards, Assassin’s Creed II with 2 awards, and Batman: Arkham Asylum with 2 awards (and 1 “negative” award). Street Fighter IV, Dragon Age: Origins, The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo Wars, and Shadow Complex all earned 1 award in their respective categories. Let’s see which game gets propelled to the top.
Xbox 360 Game of the Year 2009
Street Fighter IV
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Assassin’s Creed II
Left 4 Dead 2
I’ll start with the least likely candidate for game of the year from the list of five games above: Left 4 Dead 2. Compared to the other 4 games in this category, Left 4 Dead 2 is the only game on this list that did not win any awards at Leveling Down. However, it’s here and recognized for two reasons – the first reason is that if there were a Best Co-Op Game of 2009 award, Left 4 Dead 2 would have won that. The second reason is that Left 4 Dead 2 is a game that does many things correct in its execution, but it just kept coming in second place compared to the other games on this list. It never truly trounced any other game among our major categories. Suffice to say, being nominated for game of the year on this site means we recognize how good of a game it is, but Left 4 Dead 2 just doesn’t have enough to pull in the gold.
Up next is Street Fighter IV, our winner for Best Fighting Game of the Year. Does being the best fighting game of the year make it deserve the game of the year award? It’s debatable. On the one hand, fighting games are only a small subset of the overall 360 fanbase, compared to say, FPS games. But on the other hand, Street Fighter IV was a revolutionary title within the fighting game genre – taking the classic series and injecting it with an amazing graphics overhaul while keeping the gameplay accessible yet competitive. It practically did everything right for a fighting game on the console (including having minimal lag!) except the curiously missing party mode. Unfortunately, if you’re not a fighting game fan, Street Fighter IV is not going to change your mind and thus, falls short of winning Game of the Year.
Third place for our Game of the Year this year goes to Batman: Arkham Asylum – our winner for Best Story and Best New IP, but also the winner of our “Most Overrated” award, taking it down a notch. I agree with cmfl3x’s assessment that Batman: Arkham Asylum was the most overrated game of the year. It seemed that reviewers were drunk with the fact that they were actually playing a good licensed title and were quick to hand out practically perfect scores to a game that had glaring gameplay negatives. I still argue that if the game didn’t have the Batman license on it, it would have been scored lower. In any case, it’s still one of this year’s best action/adventure games due to its enjoyable story, familiar cast of characters, and a well designed combat system.
Coming in second place for Game of the Year at Leveling Down is Assassin’s Creed II – the winner of our Best Action/Adventure Game award and Best Sequel award. Assassin’s Creed II truly improved upon its predecessor, and does a fantastic job of letting you take on the role of an assassin in Italy during the Renaissance. Unlike the original game and its questionable required boring submissions, Assassin’s Creed II’s story progression was overhauled to be a lot more in line with Grand Theft Auto. In fact, I would go so far as to say Assassin’s Creed II is basically Grand Theft Auto IV in the Renaissance era. There’s a main quest-line you can follow, but there are always optional sidequests you can take on such as assassination contracts and deliveries for fun (and extra money). It’s one of the longer action/adventure games this year, and is definitely worth your money.
Does it come as any surprise to us that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is our 2009 Game of the Year? The winner of our Best First Person Shooter, Best Multiplayer, and Best Value awards had such high expectations, yet Modern Warfare 2 filled every one of cmfl3x’s and my hopes for the game. It delivered a thrilling campaign, dozens of co-op missions, and a multiplayer mode that just keeps on giving. If you think back to the “Most Overrated” category, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is basically the only highly scoring title this year that we did not feel was overrated. I would even argue that it’s underrated with it only scoring a 94/100 average on Metacritic. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is basically gaming perfection on the Xbox 360. Put it up against any other game released this year and there’s really no competition. If you have a Xbox 360 (or even a PS3), you must own this game as it’s the pinnacle of a multiplayer first person shooter done right on the console.
That concludes our awards/holiday shopping guide this year. Feel differently about your game of the year? Please share! Have a safe and happy holiday season enjoying the best of what 2009 offered us in gaming. While 2009 didn’t seem to offer us much until November 2009 when Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed II, and Left 4 Dead 2 released, the first quarter of 2010 is shaping up to be very promising with many titles I’m looking forward to playing such as: Bayonetta, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2, Dante’s Inferno, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Lost Planet 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Resonance of Fate, Final Fantasy XIII, Crysis 2, and Super Street Fighter IV. All of these titles are scheduled to be released in the next 3 months so if there’s no other games you want for Christmas this year, start asking for gift cards. You’ll be burning through them pretty quick in the next few months!
