It’s that time again! Well sure we may already be half way through 2010 but that can’t stop me from listing what I thought were the ten best games of 2009. Hell this could almost be a retro gaming article by now. One advantage of my tardiness is you can now find most of these titles at about half their original price marking some essential well priced gaming.

The main reason I took so long in creating this list is that I wanted to try and play every hot title from 2009. I managed to get through quite a load but since 2010 has already produced enough to rival last year it’s hard keeping up. I’m only one man! But for what it’s worth, here is: -

Jordan’s Top 10 Games of 2009

#10 Shadow Complex

Shadow Complex was a revolution in downloadable gaming providing one of the lengthiest and well produced games to be only available through XBOX Live Arcade. Not only was it a high quality polished affair but it also played damn well, inspired by a ‘Metroidvania’ style of side scrolling shooting. A wide range of guns and collectibles created an addictive need for exploration and who can forget the foam gun? Expansive, immersive and with a bit of a story to boot, Shadow Complex is an exemplary feat at digital distribution.

#9 Borderlands

Borderlands was an exceptional first person shooter marred by its lack of end game content. All the promise of RPG elements blended with an FPS worked well and played great, until the end of the game made all that leveling and weapon hording essentially pointless. Then DLC came out with extra items, levels and bosses. Then more DLC came out, adding extra areas and even more levels to chew through. Eventually Borderlands grew to be an FPS of online MMO proportions and continues to draw crowds with hours of added on content and replay value. This makes Borderlands one of the top games of 2009.

#8 Henry Hatsworth In The Puzzling Adventure

Flying completely under the radar and even almost missing a release here in Australia Henry Hatsworth is a brilliant DS game that blends platforming and puzzling action into one huge game. Players must juggle between a top screen of hack n slash side scrolling action and a bottom screen of Columns style puzzling with each screen having effects on the other. It’s an ingenious stroke of game design that truly utilizes both screens of the DS for superior gameplay. Not only does it play great, but the graphics are beautiful with vivid animations reminiscent of Metal Slug.

#7 Resident Evil 5

Throwing out any remaining resemblances of the horror genre Resident Evil 5 was still a great action third person shooter. Sure it wasn’t scary, but it was still full of the creepy mutants and zombies known through the series and a lot of conclusions were drawn through the story with the Umbrella Corporation. Full online co-op play certainly added to the experience and the game has continued to expand with DLC and eventual Playstation Move support.

#6 Red Faction: Guerilla

Nothing is quite as satisfying as simply destroying everything in sight. Guerilla gave you the means, the tools and the reason to lay waste to a developed Mars bringing destruction upon the Ultor Corporation with rockets, C4, and the almighty sledge hammer. The single player campaign was an immersive open world third person experience that really let players run loose with destructive sandboxing, and when you take that all online it shapes up one great third person action game.

#5 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

We all know the score by now. Record breaking sales that lead to a complete studio meltdown, the Modern Warfare series has a solid history with all sorts of gamers. Elitists liked to complain, emphasizing every glitch and hack that was inevitable for a title of this scope but you can’t deny that Modern Warfare 2 is at the pinnacle of online death match first person shooters. Sure the tanks and planes of Battlefield are impressive, but when it gets down to simple running and gunning action nothing beats the perks and rewards of the Modern Warfare games and this sequel simply brought more to the table.

#4 Tales of Monkey Island

Who would have thought 2009 would be the year of the return of Guybrush Threepwood? Not me that’s for damn sure, and if any of you do know me you’ll know this might be a little biased. The Monkey Island series are one of my all time gaming favourites, and playing through a huge adventure seeing the faithful return of so many classic characters the experience was mind blowing. Nostalgia aside, Telltale Games certainly provided with hours of hilarious dialogue and carefully crafted puzzle solving making this their best game yet.

#3 Batman: Arkham Asylum

Now this was a surprise. Batman games haven’t been known for high quality, and a dark-and-brooding next gen title wasn’t exactly at the top of everyone’s wish list especially coming from an all new developer Rocksteady. Who would have known they’d create what became many gamers #1 game of the year? Arkham Asylum was simply amazing, polished to a complete shine in every aspect from gameplay to story to graphics. The stealth aspects were well realized and the combat was intuitive with an array of tools to trick and subdue enemies. The story and difficulty progressed perfectly creating one of the best single player video game experiences ever.

#2 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

After that glowing rant on Batman I feel like I should have already got to #1 by now but here we are only at #2. Only one title could compete with Batman for single player experience of the year and while it was a very tight competition Uncharted 2 just takes the cake. Just like Batman it was purely refined and polished wrapping gameplay and story together into a well paced package, but where Uncharted 2 exceeded was in voice acting, dialogue, scripting and cut scenes. The game played like a movie with epic backdrops and sound tracks with convincing characters creating a experience far beyond most of Hollywood.

#1 Street Fighter IV

A revolution of a genre, Street Fighter IV was my favourite game and most played of 2009 releases. Not only did it see the return of one of gamings most loved series it also sparked the new wave of fighting games all striving to take on the reigning king. Even the arcade scene felt a rebirth as Street Fighter IV brought crowds of new fighting fans out – at least until the eventual console release.

Now superseded by Super Street Fighter IV it will always be the original SF IV that I’ll remember bringing me back to the arcade, giving me reason to buy an arcade stick and keeping me up for a straight 8 hour session with mates on the day of release. Appropriate for entry by players of any skill level SF IV built upon trusted fighting gameplay mechanics further refining an incredibly tight system with infinite potential for rewarding dedicated players.

Honorable Mentions –

Well that was quite a ride through a worthy year of gaming. 2009 did not disappoint, but with the slew of amazing titles that have already been released this year I think 2010 might still take the cake.

There are a few more titles I would have liked to put in this list but couldn’t mainly because I couldn’t play them for long enough or at all but they still deserve a mention.

DJ Hero

DJ Hero is a lot of fun and narrowly missed my top 10 list for the year simply because I haven’t played it enough. I also hoped for a bit more of an electronic soundtrack over the mass of pop and hip-hop but it suits the turntable gameplay that is a blast.

Killzone 2

Great online or off, Killzone 2 polished the console FPS experience while offering little that was new. It looks great but the controls were a common gripe and the single player lacked compelling narrative.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

I’m still yet to play this one but it had a very positive reception so it’s worth a mention.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Same as above, the use of human psychological analysis sounds very interesting.

infamous

Three big third person open world games were released quite close together last year making it hard to cover them all. While I finished Red Faction Guerilla and played a bunch of Prototype, I just didn’t get a chance to play the PS3 exclusive infamous to my dismay as the reviews were overwhelming.

Bayonetta

While I’m not sure if Bayonetta is top 10 worthy this slides out as an exception anyway since it was only released in Japan last year, with a local US and PAL release in 2010. What can I say, I like J-pop.