Platform games don’t work on a touch screen, right? Anyone who’s played the numerous shoddy 8-bit and 16-bit conversions will likely concur, as did I until I was lucky enough to cross paths with Ravenous Games’ wonderful little iOS platformer.
I’ll admit now that it’s certainly the least well-known game on this list, looking and playing along the lines of a NES Mega Man, but with bite-sized levels and a time attack element that borders on WarioWare in how quickly some of the levels can be romped through in the pursuit of three stars. It’s a perfect format for playing on a phone and is one of a handful of real-time action games that feels both responsive and actually under control when played with on-screen buttons.
In fairness, it’s unlikely to convince people who are already sniffy about iPhone games, but I had more fun with it than many games that cost several times the asking price. To me, it’s an example of why indie devs are enjoying a resurgence, thanks to things like regular free content and functionality updates, and accessible developers that you just don’t get with the EAs and Capcoms. The fact that it’s seemingly done the impossible in making platforming fun with a touch screen is just icing on the cake.
My enjoyment of the Gears series up to this point is such that Gears 3 is deserving of a position on this list, even if the overriding impression that I was left with was disappointment. That’s unfortunate, because it wasn’t the fault of the game itself – that was as strong as ever – but rather the anticlimax of a finale. In retrospect, both its predecessors ended on notes that swung between frustrating and insultingly simple, so perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising, but to leave so many unanswered questions was just messy and felt like a lazy setup for inevitable returns to this universe.
If last generation’s defining games, the Grand Theft Auto series, feels like it’s past its best – a feeling that, I would suggest, is shared by Rockstar, given the reduced prominence of the franchise – what Red Dead Redemption did was prove that the formula itself is still full of life.
I know for a fact that many of the first game’s most ardent fans will disagree vehemently with this, but for my money Mass Effect 2 will stand as one of the primary examples of how to improve on a game for its sequel. It may have jettisoned some of the RPG ideals of the first game, but I found its attempts at streamlining perfect, creating a brilliant action-RPG – emphasis on the ‘action’ – with one of the best open-ended stories in recent history. The important thing is that what the first game did best – creating a wonderfully vibrant and believable sci-fi universe – was preserved and expanded.
What is likely to be Bungie’s last entry in the series that it grew from niche Mac RTS to one of the biggest FPS franchises in history proved to be a fitting goodbye. It was almost like, freed of fitting another game into the Master Chief’s story and carrying the Xbox brand now that games like Gears of War can share the load, Bungie was able to flex its creative muscles, and while I’ll concede that it’s still super soldiers killing aliens, it was the most fun I’ve had with a game in this series since I first took it online.