Nintendo DS VGChartz Game of the Year Awards 2008
by VGChartz Staff, posted on 26 December 2008 / 11,572 Views
The DS had a great 2008 in both sales and games, with over 30 million systems sold and a number of excellent quality titles released, particularly among the strategy and RPG genres. 2008 saw the little handheld take off particularly well in PAL regions, and while the system slowed down in Japan this year, the release of the DSi has perked it back up for the holidays. With that said, we're here to talk about games, so we present to you the best DS games of 2008.
Best Shooter: Bangai-O Spirits
Somewhere between a port and a sequel, this game followed in the footsteps of the original Nintendo 64 title. This Treasure-developed title adds in a number of almost puzzle-like aspects to traditional shooter gameplay, along with allowing the customization and mixing/matching of weapons to find the best combination to clear each level. Despite a punishing difficulty level, the game was boosted by 4-player multicard co-op and a strong level editor to beat out the competition. Unfortunately, its critical success has not been matched by commercial success, with only approximately 10k in sales in North America and even fewer in Japan.
Runner-up: Call of Duty: World at War, Space Invaders Extreme (tie)
Reader's Choice: Space Invaders Extreme
Best Action/Fighting, Best Platformer: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Konami's Castlevania series has had somewhat of a revival on the DS, with Order of Ecclesia marking the third entry in the series on the handheld. The latest game is no slouch, with some of the finest 2D graphics available on the system to date, excellent music, voice-acting, and writing all enhancing the typically stellar traditional Castlevania gameplay. Order of Ecclesia effectively blends action with platforming to take home both titles this year, and to date has sold just over 150k worldwide, with nearly all of those sales from North America.
Action/Fighting Runner-up: Bleach: Dark Souls
Platformer Runner-up: Kirby Super Star Ultra
Action/Fighting Reader's Choice: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Platformer Reader's Choice: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Best Adventure, Best Puzzle: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
One of the DS's more unique titles, Level 5's Professor Layton and the Curious Village placed the player in the middle of a murder mystery where nearly every interaction with other characters and even the environment resulted in a new puzzle to solve. With a fantastic 2D art style, great music, and a well-crafted story all surrounding hundreds of well-crafted classic puzzles, Professor Layton easily wins out in both the Adventure and Puzzle categories. The game has already seen two sequels in Japan, and we can only hope that they'll be released overseas soon -- the Curious Village sold over a million in Japan alone, with over 300k each in the North America and PAL regions.
Adventure Runner-up: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Puzzle Runner-up: The Quest Trio
Adventure Reader's Choice: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Puzzle Reader's Choice: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Best Racing: GRID
The racing genre hasn't seen much activity with Mario Kart DS still at the top of the sales charts, but Firebrand Games' GRID is one of the best simulation-focused racers on the DS. GRID is not so much a port of the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 game of the same name as a sequel to Race Driver: Create and Race, and the latter's robust track creator is again the main hook here, along with single-cart multiplayer and online play. The racing options are thin this year on the DS, but GRID is still a worthy winner. Consumers haven't reacted as kindly to the title, with only an estimated 20k in sales for North America this year.
Runner-up: None
Reader's Choice: GRID
Best RPG: The World Ends With You
In a year flush with RPGs for the DS, it takes something special to stand out, and that's just what The World Ends With You delivers. Arguably Square-Enix's most unique title in years, the game delivers a fresh RPG experience in nearly every aspect, whether you look at the comic book art style, the hip hop/techno music, the dual screen simultaneous battling, or the original and deep storyline, never mind the impressive gameplay depth. With north of 300k in sales worldwide, The World Ends With You oozes with style and is one of the few titles this year to deliver both a truly original experience and a high-quality title.
Runner-up: Final Fantasy IV
Reader's Choice: The World Ends With You
Best Strategy: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Days of Ruin is the second DS entry in Nintendo's handheld strategy series, and while not much has changed from Advance Wars: Dual Strike, that is very much a good thing. The game maintains its rock-paper-scissors style of turn-based strategy mixed with anime-inspired art style, adds an online multiplayer mode, and despite a lack of evolution in the gameplay it is still the best strategy game on the DS this year, beating out a number of worthy contenders. Sales have already surpassed the prior title in North America, crossing the 300k mark.
Runner-up: Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Reader's Choice: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
Best Sports: Skate It
Sports games haven't fared too well on the DS in general, so it makes sense that a new franchise would be the one to beat out the old, tired franchises this year. Skate It is Electronic Arts' alternative to the Tony Hawk franchise, and attempts to take a more realistic view on the skating experience. Tricks are harder to pull off but are more satisfying, and the touchscreen controls work surprisingly well. Tons of customization options, a skate park editor, and online play round out the package. Skate It launched in November this year, and as of this writing has crossed 30k in sales in North America.
Runner-up: New International Track & Field
Reader's Choice: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Best Graphics: The World Ends With You
There's a lot that can be said about this game, but the comic book art style is really the first thing you notice that makes it stand out. The story is presented in beautiful hand-drawn portraits with a handful of low-animation scenes, but the 2D graphics are well done and the style presented in the game is unmatched. It may not push the system the most this year, but The World Ends With You is definitely the best-looking DS game you'll find.
Runner-up: Final Fantasy IV
Reader's Choice: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Best Musical Score: The World Ends With You
Music is often an overlooked facet of a game, and quite frankly we haven't encountered many original scores that are still memorable years later. However, The World Ends With You has a soundtrack that is fresh, memorable, and enjoyable, mixing original hip hop and techno music. There are 40 different songs, recorded by various Japanese pop artists -- so much content that the game's music takes up more than a quarter of the cartridge's available space. Best of all, you can purchase items in the game that allow you to listen to any song at any time. The soundtrack is also available on a CD and on iTunes.
Runner-up: Final Fantasy IV
Reader's Choice: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Most Innovative: Guitar Hero: On Tour
Most people probably thought that a genuine Guitar Hero experience on the DS just couldn't happen. How could you recreate the feeling of playing a guitar on a portable device? Vicarious Visions provided a clever solution, utilizing the GBA slot for a small Guitar Grip peripheral and the touchscreen as simulated strings to create a guitar simulation far more accurate than was believed possible. Combine the clever gameplay with 25 songs stuffed into the DS cartridge and local cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes, and you get a quality Guitar Hero experience on the go.
Runner-up: The World Ends With You
Reader's Choice: The World Ends With You
Biggest Disappointment: Spore Creatures
It wasn't really clear initially what we could expect from Spore on the DS. When it was first announced, there weren't any details available, so many assumed it would be some kind of scaled-down version of the PC title, but what we got was a very limited, linear adventure game. The creature creator was interesting, and necessarily more restrictive than the PC version, but lost a lot of its appeal in the transition. Worst of all, Sporepedia, the online database of Spore creations, was gutted for the DS game -- your DS creations get uploaded to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and can only be seen by other DS users, taking a lot of the community aspects away from the game. Spore Creatures is by no means a bad game, but it isn't the experience we were expecting, either.
Runner-up: Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness
Reader's Choice: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Best Game No One Played: The World Ends With You
There were a number of candidates for this award, with some great titles selling decently but not as well as they deserved, and other minor hits selling hardly anything at all. However, what it eventually came down to is a refreshing, original take on a generally stale genre not getting nearly the attention it deserves, especially outside Japan. The World Ends With You is a fantastic game which every traditional game-playing DS owner should experience.
Runner-up: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin , Professor Layton and the Curious Village , Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (tie)
Reader's Choice: The World Ends With You
Game of the Year: The World Ends With You
Have we talked up this game enough yet? Every facet of The World Ends With You excels, and in addition to the high quality there is a ton of depth with different types of items (pins, clothing, food) and extra gameplay modes. The fact that such an original experience could come out of Square Enix, noted lately mainly for safe spinoffs and sequels, makes the greatness of The World Ends With You all the more amazing. With five total awards this year, The World Ends With You is a great choice for DS Game of the Year.
Runner-up: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Reader's Choice: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
