Gamestation stores to be re-branded.

[Gamestation stores to be re-branded.]

Gamestation hasnt really felt the same since GAME bought them anyway, ive said it before elsewhere but the quality of staff, retro game titles, just the general feeling of the stores dropped through the floor. Ive stopped going to my local stores more and more now and started buying everything online, i would never have done that 5 years ago but its such a chore to deal with the staff now that i just dont want to go in there anymore.

[VOTE: N-Europe's Top 25 Wii Games! (THANKYOU!)]

Its really difficult for me to narrow these down, so many great games...

 

1. Monster Hunter Tri - This game totally suprised me, id played a little of the series on PSP and was lucky enough to be invited to one of the Monster Hunter Tri events held by Capcom in Glasgow. Its such a personal game, everything you use, from your weapon to your clothes are crafted by you, every time you battle a monster there is always the chance they will drop that one ingredient you have been waiting on and lets not forget the fear of dropping into the water sections and realising some HUGE mouth was swimming right towards you!

 

2. No More Heroes - Never has a game been so Unapolagetic about being just that. It knows its a game, it knows that you know this too and it has no problem showing this. Its not a perfect game, the side missions to raise money can get old pretty fast, but the boss battles really set this game apart from the others. Travis is one cool character and i enjoyed the time i spent on both of his adventures.

 

3. The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword - Its another Zelda game and it does what a lot of people feel Twilight Princess shoud have done, it gives you direct control over Links sword and shield! This completely changes how you play the game for the better. Sure the actual game around this hasnt changed that much, but as always with Nintendo, the story is great, the world is beautifull and interacting with puzzles directly by using the wiimote is a complete joy!

 

4. Super Mario Galaxy - I had my doubts after Sunshine that i would ever play another Mario game that i would truely enjoy, i was wrong! The title manages to merge all of the control mechanics that made Mario 64 such a wonder to play, with the worlds and creatures from previous Mario titles to give it a truely epic feel. The graphics are without a doubt some of the best i have seen this generation on ANY console, once again Nintendo prove that its not the horse power behind a machine but the style you use to render the world that is important. This was one of the most important releases for core gamers owning a Wii and one that kept many of us glued to our Wiis for months to come.

 

5. Xenoblade Chronicles - This has to go on record as the best mmo i have ever played, why? Because they removed all of the annoying human controlled characters. Okay so its not an mmo, but its a game that looks and feels like it is, and yet despite that it weaves a spellbinding story that deeply effects the player (who didnt shed tear during the first real loss in the game?) and drives you continually onward to reach the end. Unlike a lot of rpgs you pretty much have free roam of the environment, and it is truely a wonderous place! A world that has grown up on the body of a gigantic god like creature frozen in time was always going to be something different, but the vast forrests and plains are amoungst the most unique locations you will see on the Wii. As everyone knows, a good rpg can live or die by its antagonist, this game has some of the best so far, though not much to look at they are smartly written and give you cause to not only hate and want to kill them, but sometimes feel sympathy for them. Props to the developer for also keeping the Japanese language track intact, im not sure i would have enjoyed the game anywhere near as much if it had been the UK dub and hearing some of my favourite anime voice actors behind those characters really made the experiance a lot more enjoyable for me.

6. Tatsunoko vs Capcom - Ive been a huge fan of Capcoms Vs series since they started appearing on the Sega Saturn and PSX back in the late 90s, the crossover dream matches always have over the top super moves and bright colourfull graphics so when i heard that the game was to be released in the West i was more than a little excited. The game did not disappoint, featuring more fighters that its Japanese counterpart and showing off the new fighting system that we would all come to know and love in MvC3, this game pretty much had it all. Gatchaman, Karas, Frank West, Ryu, as diverse a cast as you could imagine is represented in the roster! It has to be said though, until i got ahold of the classic controller for Wii i really struggled with fireballs and dragon punches but that was not the thing that annoyed me most, it was the removal of the animated end sequences. Now i know this was down to license rights but with all the trouble Capcom went to you would have thought they would have rounded the package off with the end sequences? Still, its a fighting game and it does that part amazingly well so it made my list anyway.

 

7. Metroid Prime Trilogy - This should be a no brainer to anyone who enjoys games, in this pack you get all three Metroid Prime games with Wiimote enabled controls and an achievement system! Every one of the games in this set are worth the asking price, the important thing to remember is though it uses fps controls, it is first and foremost a 3d platformer and metroidvania-esq adventure. The stories of all three titles are augmented with logs and the ability to scan using Samus's visor, if you are willing to explore the world you will find a huge amount of lore that will enrich the game. It isnt until the third title that the wiimote really comes in to its own but even just having the ability to move Samus's head around in the previous 2 makes a huge difference. Lastly, this game looks AMAZING! On the Gamecube it was way ahead of its time, on the Wii it still looks great and no one is going to know its an older title unless you tell them.

 

8. Okami - When i first played Okami on the PS2 i said to my friends who were there at the time how great this game would be on the unreleased (at the time) Wii. I was overjoyed to see this title launch on the Wii a year or so later, the game looks good thanks to the stylished cell shaded graphics and the story is as epic as it ever was. What made this title a killer game was the inclusion of Wiimote controls, using the controller to phsyically draw the shapes instead of trying to approximate on a thumbstick raised this game up from great, to incredible! If you have yet to play this you have done yourself a great disservice, its available now pretty cheap so make it one of your WiiU launch titles when that monster finally launches.

 

9. New Super Mario Bros Wii - This never nearly made my list, not because its a bad game or because i didnt enjoy it, but because at the time i had just finished the DS game and didnt see that much difference between the two. That was until i decided to play the game with my girlfriend and her son a few Sundays ago and suddenly i got it! This game really comes into its own in multiplayer, at first everyone is trying to kill each other and its fun for a while but around world 4 its obvious that working together is way more effective. My girlfriend is a Professory Layton player, her son is a COD player, neither of them have really played a Mario game seriously but i was able to have both of them play this with me and it was like they had been playing Mario games their whole life! The game itself is full of colour, the soundtrack is very catchy and its good to see a proper follow up to Super Mario 3/world. That said, playing it in one player is fine, but it dosent quite match up to the previous titles in the series until you add those human players, then it becomes a ridculous, fun, crazy and upredictable mess in the best possible way. If you are looking for that one game to bring players of every level together, this is it! Forget Wiisports, there is too much sitting around waiting for a turn, this is the game that everyone can play together and all have fun at the same time.

 

10. Silent Hill Shattered Memories - I love survival horror games, Resident Evil has lost that edge, its a great game even now, but its more action horror. Silent Hill has been really ropey since Konami dissolved Team Silent and i had no hope that we would ever see a great game in the series. Then this one showed up and it reminded me what it was about Silent Hill that was scary, it wasnt the monsters, it was never the story, it was the town, that thing was the real enemy and this game knows it! So the game has a subroutine constantly running in the background that remembers key events and how you react to them, at the very beginning you fill out a questionare about yourself at a psychiatrist and this changes the types of enemies you meet and even how some of the games characters look and act when you find them. It also remembers things like which door you choose first, if you venture into the girls bathroom, lots of seemingly unimportant events that shape the games world around you. For instance, i met Cybil, the cop who helps you out in the game, she was a bit of a hardass, had short blonde hair but was helpfull. I witnessed someone else playing it and she not only had a totally different physical appearance, she was a different character! In previous titles you could carry weapons, guns etc which have been completely scrapped in this game. When you see a monster in this game, you run and run fast! The feeling of panic and fear as you see creatures scrambling over walls to get to you, attracted to the light of your torch, its something i havent felt since the original PSX game all those years ago. Its not a long game, but it will really make you think about the choices you made and may even force you back in to see how things change if you do something different.

 

Honorable mentions should also go to Red Steel 2, Guilty Gear Core, House of the Dead Overkill and Resident Evil 4, all great games but no where for me to add them.