Best of '07: Part III - And the Winner Is...

The following is copied and pasted from my final post on former blogs...

Game of the Year 2007
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

I admit it (or, "believe it or not", if you happen to view me as a bit of a Nintendo fanboy), I actually didn't think Super Mario Galaxy would be up for this award, much less win it. Don't get me wrong, I expected the typical Nintendo quality and a fantastic 3D Mario game... But I figured that we had been there and done that. Mario 64 was extremely revolutionary and one of the greatest games of all time... Mario Sunshine, however, didn't quite live up... I wasn't sure ANYTHING could, really. How do you improve on something that set the standards for 3D platformers?

The answer, apparently, is to set those standards again. Super Mario Galaxy is sort of a weird title in that it feels just like your typical 3D Mario game, yet at the same time feels very different. Running around planets, messing with gravity, trying on different suits... It all somehow feels NEW. The controls are extremely tight - something absolutely needed in a game like this - the camera very, very rarely gets in your way, the platforming is fun, and the motion controls, when present, add something worthwhile to the experience and are fun to mess with. They even managed to make an oddly compelling multiplayer option designed specifically for parents and non-gamers.

So with a very complete package, extremely tight gameplay, and adventure that's fun through and through, I had no choice but to give the Game of the Year award to Super Mario Galaxy.

...however, it was still an EXTREMELY tough call. There were times when I really, really wanted to give this award to Bioshock. There were other times when I was moments away from bestowing it on Call of Duty 4. But in the end, the Italian plummer won out.

-------------------

Also, I neglected to mention in Part II that I wanted to give the PSP Game of the Year "Runner Up" title to "Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles" for FINALLY letting me play Rondo of Blood, as well as giving me a portable version of Symphony of the Night. For a port, Final Fantasy Tactics was great as well, and I lament the fact that I haven't yet played Silent Hill Origins, which might be pretty great.

-------------------

This concludes my time with LiveJournal, Xanga, and MySpace Blogs, I suppose. It's been a blast.

As stated previouisly, I can be found at brittonpeele.blogspot.com, but I'm excited to say that I also bought the http://www.brittonpeele.com/ domain name. For now (and probably until I nail a publishing deal/get an agent), it merely redirects to the afformentioned blog, but that'll be updated at least weekly with links to my Daily Toreador columns. So if you're interested in keeping up with my, you can go there.

Also, if you're into the whole Facebook thing, you can check out my Page there: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Britton-Peele/18963145383?ref=nf

Thanks for reading, guys. See you on the other side.