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C3 Special | 2006 Top 5: Nintendo DS, Wii, GBA and GC

on 31.12.2006 at 19:31 User Icon

Posted by Cubed3 Autobot (c3bot) Number of Comments

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James Temperton

1) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii): It has proved instantly that the Wii can do 'proper' games and do them brilliantly. Twilight Princess is a truly epic creation. It looks brilliant, sounds brilliant, has an excellent plot, great characters, stunning environments and dungeons, epic battles and from start to finish it is challenging and brilliant fun. An unbeatable combination and a title that expands upon the excellence of Ocarina of Time to make a masterful video game. For me, it is the combination of traditional and conventional video game styles that makes this title the best game of the year.

You get all the best bits of Ocarina of Time refined and then improved by the superb implementation of the Wii remote controller. So much to see, so much to do and whilst I wasn't mad keen on spending three solid days (and nights) playing it to get the review done in time I am now able to enjoy the greatest game of all time at my leisure.

2) Wii Sports (Wii): Wii Sports might not be the best game of 2006, but it is certainly the most important. TIME magazine called it the greatest video game of all time, whilst that is a pack of lies and just a slight overreaction to the hype, Wii Sports is certainly very good. Everyone who I've got to play this game has loved it. Young old, male or female it seems that everybody loves this game. Bowling, tennis and golf are the best elements of it without a doubt and I've had great fun with all three. The Wii Fitness Test and Training elements are a great way to expand the game and anyone that doesn't have fun playing this game needs help. A great social game and one that gets gamers to enjoy their hobby with the rest of their families and friends. This is the first game to get me genuinely excited about the industry in quite some time. You can talk all you want about graphics and HD, but this game is simply magic.

3) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS): And so I started to struggle to remember just what had come out in 2006. Off to the C3 archives I headed and found out (rather happily) that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney only made it to Europe in March. Whilst it hit Japan and the USA quite a bit earlier during 2005, translation issues halted it in Europe for a while. Without a doubt this is my favourite DS game ever. I'm quite a bookworm a lot of the time and all the reading fun that this title provides is more than enough to keep me entertained. The graphical style, plot and humour are the best aspects by far. This game really is a treat.

4) FIFA 07 (GC): I thought the GameCube deserved one entry into my top five and the most obvious choice for me is EA's latest crack at the football. Being an avid footie fan this one has spent quite a bit of time under the hood of my GameCube and even now in the lovely glowing slot on my Wii. Easily the best FIFA game ever made (not much of a task) and a massive leap forward for the franchise that brings it a lot closer to the Pro Evolution series. Great fun in multiplayer too.

5) Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS): Another cheeky option. Once again translation shenanigans kept this title out of European stores until the New Year. One of Nintendo's best promoted titles of the year with a massive campaign in shops, on TV and in the print media too. I was a big fan of the GameCube version but found myself quickly getting bored with it once I'd completed most of the main 'objectives' in my life. The DS version then was a breath of fresh air. My brief love for it lasted just a few months but during that time I fell for the enchanting world of Animal Crossing all over again. Pure Nintendo brilliance and a whole lot of fun and cute childlike giggles to boot.

Adam Riley

1) Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS): There were three Castlevania games on the GBA, each of which was special in its own way, but then Dawn of Sorrow came out on the DS and blew them all away. However, there were a few aspects that seemed out of place, such as the touch-screen seals and need to quickly pull out the stylus and brush away ice blocks. This time round, though, with Portrait of Ruin Koji Igarashi-san has brought DS owners a pure Castlevania adventure that drops the gimmicky touch screen usage and gives us better additions in the form of two players on-screen at the same time.

Yes, now you can interchange between protagonists Jonathan and Charlotte in real-time, using either the male lead's brute force to work your way through, or make use of the sexy Charlotte's magical prowess wherever necessary. But not just that, as you sometimes have to use both in tandem to solve various puzzles and reach new areas as you aim to make your way around the main castle to uncover special portraits drawn by the main evil, Brauner. Once these portraits have been found, your characters are warped to new stages (similar to the way Super Mario 64 works) that offer up new style locations, such as a dark forest, terror-filled desert and eerie old town.

With more intricate detail poured into the graphics, a soundtrack that beats out the majority of past iterations and more variety overall than other editions, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin not only shines out as one of the strongest in the franchise so far, but one of the best DS games on the market since launch...

2) Phoenix Wright: Justice for All (DS): The first Phoenix Wright that hit Europe was such a joy to play through that people were desperate for Capcom to translate the second GBA game in the series for the DS. Thankfully that is exactly what happened and the Japanese release came with a full English translation, thus allowing importers to play through what is definitely one of the funniest, most in-depth adventure games of the year. The cases are much more like real-life ones now, the process of evidence collection is far more elaborate and everything fits into place better than you could ever imagine. A sequel that betters its predecessor in every way!

3) Yoshi's Island DS (DS): Yoshi's Island on the SNES is still hailed today as one of the best 2D platform games of all-time. Therefore, when the development of a successor was handed to a Third Party (Artoon of Yoshi's Universal Gravitation fame), people were apprehensive. Luckily, though, the original template has been stuck to, with enough extras thrown in to make this a worthy follow-up. The use of both screens and the inclusion of different babies other than Mario that adds various new aspects to the gameplay means that the game is much more complex than the 16-bit version, but definitely in a good way for veteran platform fans.

4) Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA): This year has been massive for the Final Fantasy series, with three huge releases coming in the last quarter of 2006

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Ghost-in-the-Snow

Reply Quote #1

Eh?

602

L39 Krunch

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Nice! Some great games...it's not been a bad year overall.

on 31.12.2006 at 19:35

Flynnie

Reply Quote #2

is currently watching The Best of Smackdown 10th Anniversary 1999-2009

2741

L77 K.K. Slider

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Metroid Prime Hunters was not a fave for anyone then?

on 31.12.2006 at 19:50

shiptoncraig

Reply Quote #3

Been a member for 7 years!

3402

L84 Crono

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I suppose it had stiff competition, but was good on wi-fi.

360 Gamertag: shiptoncraig
PSN: shiptoncraig
Steam: Guess what?

on 31.12.2006 at 19:54

danielread

Reply Quote #4

L2 Toad

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Mario Basket Ball is amazing, im guessing it got overlooked becuase its not out in the uk yet, i imported it from cd-wow, i dont like basket ball, but i love mario basket ball!

New Super Mario Bro was awesome to, much better than mario 64, and electroplakton was good fun also.

Red steel and wii sports for the Wii

Fifa 07 for the GC

----
My Wii Code - 2986 1627 6438 2084

on 31.12.2006 at 20:57

Simon_

Reply Quote #5

really need to sort out my posture. :/

3975

L89 Tom Nook

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5) Project Hacker: Kakusei (Awakening) (Wii)
DS?

Famitsu gave wii sports 10/8/8/9 which is pretty awesome aswell

Avoid Games Like the Plague, productivity++

on 31.12.2006 at 22:56

koushiar

Reply Quote #6

L4 Buzz Bomb

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1. zelda TP
2. AC:WW
3. FF3 (im am assuming Smilie

its not out in the uk yet)
4.NSMB
5. resident evil DS

on 01.01.2007 at 01:47

zcollvee (aka zafarali)

Reply Quote #7

The Fuzz now out: http://zafarali.posterous.com/the-fuzz-1 free mp3s

1518

L62 Krystal

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1.animal crossing wild wild world
2.pokemon troezi
3.asphalt urban gt2
4.pokemon ranger
5.mario 64 DS

My Life & blog: Random Thoughts, Photos, stuff, videos and links Smilie

site|blog|twitter

on 01.01.2007 at 08:24

Raff

Reply Quote #8

Retired Quote Tower Engineer

11864

L100 C3 Master

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1. Zelda (GC)
2. Chibi Robo (GC)
3. Odama (GC)
4. ...
5. ...

Metroid Prime Hunters was not a fave for anyone then?

The C3 Forum is the only place I've been where people consider it anything but derivative shit...

It's going to be shit and you jolly well know it.

on 01.01.2007 at 09:47

tismatron

Reply Quote #9

L10 Bombomb

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For such a simple premise, i'm still amazed at how well wii sports has been crafted. Yes the programmers didn't spend lots of time on the graphics, but the technical achievement of using the controller in real time just blows me away every time Nintendo really have developed this controller for years, the best motion sensing i have ever experienced, and it doesn't need head sets and sensors all over your room!
Showed this to tomorrows world 10 years ago and it would have looked out of place, tomorrows world was all about big and vast, the wiimote is so darn small, yet can do everything promised by the massive things 10, 15 years ago. Amazing.

Playing other games, such as Rayman Raving Rabbids, they are awesome fun, but don't appear to have the same control as the sports titles, when you spin the controller to chuck a cow, it doesn't spin as fast as your hand, etc.

Wii sports got my whole family interested,as you say, and it really is going to bring gaming to the mainstream as Reggie Promised, so long as the steady stream of these basic premise games appear. Bring on 2007!

Can't wait for Wii Music.

on 01.01.2007 at 12:43

~phil

Reply Quote #10

Hiding in the shadows...

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