Time for the Wii list now then, and this time I’m doing things a little differently. As we’re a UK-based site, I’m only going to pick titles that were released in the PAL region this year. Meaning that a couple of games on here I actually played in 2007, but given that the Wii isn’t a region-free machine, it would be unfair for me to feature Fatal Frame IV:  Mask of the Lunar Eclipse or Captain Rainbow (particularly as I’ve only played about five minutes of the latter). Blogging about it is one thing, including it in a top ten quite another.

So here’s my list of what I think are the ten best games released in Europe during 2008. The top five will arrive tomorrow, but in the meantime, feast your eyes on the bottom-half of the ten.

10. Boom Blox 

Spielberg’s first videogame of the millennium wasn’t quite what people expected when they first heard the hirsute uber-director was venturing into this medium. Far from an effects-laden blockbuster with a syrupy climax, Boom Blox was instead a fun, addictive party game with ace controls, brilliant physics and pretty basic (albeit cute and occasionally amusing) presentation. From Jenga-like puzzles to shooting galleries, and with a genius level creator which was easy to learn and genuinely enjoyable to mess around with, suddenly Spielberg’s involvement made perfect sense - he’d once again crafted a family-friendly, almost universally-appealing piece of entertainment.

9. Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure

Okay, it falls apart in the final couple of stages, but until then, Capcom’s cartoony puzzler seems to have brought the point-and-click genre kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The story might not be all that, but those brainteasers are bloody clever - intricate, ingenious and bizarrely logical given that they can sometimes involve a combination of objects that sounds utterly baffling out of context, but which makes perfect sense when you’re playing. Like shaking a monkey-turned-bell to turn a snake rigid so you can grab a key. It’s gorgeously presented, hugely charming, and offers a lasting challenge. Oh, and there’s some sublime use of the Wii remote in there, too.

8. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon

 

The roguelike isn’t a genre for everyone - unapologetically hardcore, often involving repetitive dungeons and infuriating randomness, it’s one for those who think modern games are too easy. Chocobo’s Dungeon is a particularly rare beast, then - an accessible dungeon-crawler which  keeps the most important elements of the roguelike template intact, but tweaks a few things to make failure a little less punishing. While its cutesy presentation arguably makes it even more niche, it’s great to look at, and even better to listen to - with its soundtrack comprising many remixed FF themes that franchise fans will instantly recognise. And once you’re done, there’s an incredibly hard extra dungeon to keep you playing for dozens of hours longer. 

7. Trauma Center: New Blood

It took its sweet time to get here, but the sequel to Second Opinion isn’t just more of the same. Granted, some of its operations are a little familiar, while the new virus is GUILT in all but name, but the presentation is vastly improved, with fully-voiced story sequences and a host of other tweaks to make for a more refined experience. Still rock hard, obviously, but the steep difficulty curve can be more easily navigated with a second pair of hands. Yep, it’s the co-op mode that makes New Blood so great - tackling operations with an assistant by your side, passing you the tools or suturing the wounds from tumours you’ve excised is one of the most unique and entertaining local two-player experiences you can have that doesn’t involve the removal of clothes and the transferral of bodily fluids. Well, unless you count one of you taking over from pus-draining duties. Yuck.

6. de Blob

The finest game to come out of Jamaica since Rasta World Dizzy on the Spectrum*, de Blob is a bright and charming colour-em-up that sees you enlivening worlds by bounding around them and splatting gobs of primary-coloured paint all over the place. It’s a particular breath of fresh air if you’ve been playing grey and brown shooters for weeks on end, and it’s so jolly that you can’t help but feel uplifted by the whole thing.  With excellent controls, a surprisingly efficient camera, and a characterful art style, de Blob is one of the best and most original third-party games on Wii. Naturally, as is the way of things these days when it comes to engaging, unique third-party games published without the benefit of huge marketing spends, it sold pretty poorly. Rectify this now, you fools!

*This may not be entirely true.

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So here is is, then - the Fire Emblem-less top ten (or at least the first half of it) of DS games which I enjoyed this year. This isn’t meant to be a definitive list of what was unequivocally the best on the console this year - it just represents the ten games I happened to like playing the most on Nintendo’s ludicrously popular handheld.

It’s been a solid but unspectacular year for the DS - this is the first year I can remember where I’ve not spent fortunes importing myriad Japanese titles and early American releases, which means two things. One, that European publishers are getting games to us that bit sooner, but also that it’s not had quite so many must-have games in 2008. There’s been nothing quite up to the standard of Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (though I’d argue that my number one and two picks run it pretty close), but hopefully we’ll see a few more first-party releases next year. We’ve got Mario and Luigi 3 on the way, the DSi should hit the west at some point in 2009 of course, and shortly thereafter we’ll have DSiWare. So it’s exciting times for the little handheld that could, and hopefully next year we’ll see an abundance of excellent portable games.

In the meantime, here are numbers 10 to 6 of my own list. Tomorrow I’ll bring you the top five. Feel free to express disgust, or even - though this is perhaps unlikely - admiration for my picks by commenting below.

10. Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

Rare’s papier-mache creatures made their debut on DS this year, and it felt like they’d come home. Pinata is a natural fit for the DS and the tactility of the touchscreen controls (it felt particularly satisfying to whack the evil ones with a spade) coupled with the more pick-up-and-play nature of the game made it arguably superior to the 360 original. Less complex and altogether more accessible, I’m surprised this wasn’t a bigger hit than its modest sales suggest. 

9. Daigasso! Band Bros. DX

Easily beating the slightly disappointing Rhythm Tengoku Gold to the best Japanese import of the year, this sequel to the original Daigasso offered karaoke, guitar-playing and space for 100 download tracks to play along to. Its rhythm-action gameplay is uncompromisingly old-school, but there’s a refreshing purity - and difficulty - to its mechanics that make it irresistible. And if you’ve not played The Final Countdown in multiplayer through the special downloadable Wii Channel, then you’ve missed out on one of the most unexpected musical treats of the year.

8. Advance Wars: Dark Conflict

The best handheld strategy series that’s not Fire Emblem went all emo on us, with a tale of destroyed planets, starvation, death and weird flower diseases. I’m not quite convinced that Advance Wars’ new look quite worked - I kind of miss that Tonka toy chunkiness of the original sprites - but it offered a compellingly dark tale married to that immaculately-balanced gameplay the series is renowned for. It’s probably the best of the two DS games so far, but can’t quite live up to the almost-perfect GBA original.

7.  Space Invaders Extreme

Pretty much the dictionary definition of how to update a classic, this made the thirty-year-old legend hip again. With terrific visuals which combine retro sprites with trippy backdrops, and a thumping techno soundtrack to keep your pulse racing, this offered enough tweaks on the original formula to make Space Invaders feel like a whole new game. An added bonus was that the DS game was superior to the PSP version. Tip: for bonus retro-geek points, import the Japanese original and get hold of a paddle controller, which slides into the GBA cart slot - it’s easily the best way to play.

6. Korg DS-10

Daigasso might be the best music game, but this was the best music maker - an incredible, fully-featured synthesiser which allowed you to create some amazing sounds. Somehow, it managed to sound brilliant even through the DS Lite’s tiny speakers. The Kaoss pad was a particular delight -you could use your stylus used to noodle away over your self-created loops, spitting out farty bass sounds, or tweeter-busting peeps. With intuitive controls, and more knobs to twiddle than Briana Banks’ fluffer, this is essential if you’re in any way musically or creatively inclined.

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Join me tomorrow for numbers 5 to 1. One or two of the entries may well surprise you, but if you’ve not guessed the number one yet, you’ve not been reading this blog long enough.

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