The best games of 2011, at least by my judgement.

As 2011 was violently run down by the monster that is time, I found myself reflecting on the video games I picked up over the past year. Although my library didn’t grow as extensively as it has in past years I still spent money on more games than I figured I would beginning the year. Here is my list of the top games I played, mixed in with a few of the disappointments I suffered as well. This isn’t definitive, 2011 had an incredible amount of games released, and I missed a great deal of them. My gamer card should be revoked, but until it is I will create lists!

Pokemon Black/White

I’m sure the cool kids are screaming in pain that I’d even mention this. But I’ll put my justifications up first, you don’t have to agree, but you should give it a fair shot. 350 hours logged in on the cartridge alone. That isn’t counting the time I spent managing the online portion of the game. This game is the most complete Pokemon to date with daily quests, a completely external world where you can gain access to more in-game items and catch exclusive creatures, this game easily hits my top ten.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

This title speaks for itself, one of the most renowned Zelda games of all time, remastered in beautiful 3D and put on a handheld. This game gave 3DS owners a reason to be proud, and aside from some time killed playing Pilot Wings, and a few hours of Lego Star Wars, there wasn’t a whole lot going for early adopters of Nintendo’s handheld.

Skylanders: A Spyro Adventure

This might be one of the best games you’ll never play. It’s a touch childish and involves collecting action figures, but it’s the beginning of a new genre. This is the first game that attaches action figures and collecting to video games successfully. The Bakugan games made a vague attempt at it the year before, but Skylanders got it right. I find myself disliking Activision enough to loathe giving them credit, but this title is solid. Gauntlet meets Pokemon meets family fun, bundled with tons of unlockables, reasons to replay, and multiplayer. You scoff now but this game is flat out stellar.

Batman: Arkham City

This might be the best game I played all year. It ties with Gears of War 3 (to be mentioned next) for the best damn story I’ve ever played through. A game takes a lot to make me drop my jaw at the end, and even more for me to ignore life, blow off papers, and forget about my wife. Arkham Asylum, however, did all three in a single week. If I could have a video game do-over, it would be beefing up my limited knowledge of Batman before playing. Even with what little I know of the Dark Knight, this game should win an award for absolute incredible writing, polished game play, and perfect execution.

Gears of War 3

As mentioned earlier this game ties for best story hands down. This final piece of the Gears trilogy frames the tragedy of Serra so perfectly I’d be amiss not to mention it. If you haven’t played the Gears Trilogy your new years resolution should revolve around getting that done. If you haven’t gone back and played through Gears 1 and 2 after finishing 3, the light shed on the series makes it an entirely new experience. Gears of War is perfect writing coupled with incredible game play and visuals. If you missed this, find a way to fix it. Sell blood, a kidney, whatever it takes, but Gears is a must from 2011.

Little Big Planet 2

Cake guns, computer chips, race cars, and too much cuteness. Little Big Planet holds a special place in my heart and the sequel last June did not disappoint. You can pick it up now at bargain basement prices packed with extra content, this is another game that you won’t regret spending the money on, like it’s predecessor it is pure fun.

Portal 2

Escaping from a pissed off Glados who’s had years to rebuild the testing center while you rested, can easily be the most fun I’ve had on a PC in years. Portal 2 takes what could be a very dull repetition of the first game, and uses hilarious twists and turns to create an awesome story, and a unique experience. Buy this game, you won’t regret it.

Now that I’ve discussed the best games I played last year, I’d like to cover a few, well one disappointment I was forced to suffer.

Rage

This game wins my story fail award of 2011. I loved every second of RAGE, I ate it up. Day in and day out I blasted through hordes of mutants, and bandits, finding esater eggs left around the world by I/D. Soft. And then, as if I had sinned against the game, it was suddenly over. 2 minute cut scene, minimal resolution and bang… the end. No epic boss, no giant serenade, no listening to a lengthy story of conspiracy and me being some form of meddling kid, just the end. Some may see that as artistic and exciting I saw it as heartbreaking. The game built me up so beautifully I was ready to know everything about the mutants. I wanted to know why the authority decided to betray the human race, instead I got a general inclination that everything would be ok and a pat on the back via achievements. Is it the worst ending i’ve ever experienced? Absolutely not, but it was definitely the most deflating.

Super Mario 3D Land:

This choice may cause the gaming universe to writhe and scream, but hear me out.  I had so much excitement built up for 3D Land and it was good.  It wasn’t a bad game, it simply didn’t live up to the expectations I had for it.  The levels seemed out of order, the worlds had no theme.  I didn’t want a repeat of previous Mario’s, I simply wanted some form of organization. There was no big world, or ice world, there was simply an ice level here and there, or a level with giant Goomba’s  Maybe I got too excited, the pre-play event I attended in September got me so amped for 3D Land, and finishing the game felt so-so. I enjoyed playing through it, I just didn’t get the pleasure out of it I expected.

How about you lovely internet folk? What are your best/worst games of 2011? Which game broke your spirit, and which one changed your life? I wanna know, I need more stuff to play until the PSP Vita launches.

Last Star Wars comic of the year is the third issue of Crimson Empire III, and GONK reviews it here.
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GONK cracks open the final issue of the ‘Deluge’ story arc in Star Wars: Knight Errant.
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When I was asked to provide my buddies at Big Shiny Robot with a review of David Laphams take on The Strain I nearly busted through my jeans. This comic rendition of Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s best selling horror novel of the same name was released this past Wednesday, December 14th, through Darkhorse comics for the low low price of $1.

A table side ghost story sets the issue in motion. A small boy sits in the candlelight as his grandmother tells the tale of a tall man’s misfortunes on a hunting trip and the important of quenching ones hunger in an effort to get the him to finish his dinner. Little does the boy know that the details and messages within his grandmothers story hold the the keys to his survival and the answers to the questions involving a mysterious plane landing in New York. A plane, that upon arrival, is discovered to be holding a cabin pull of dead passengers. Spoiler alert!! It’s got a little something to do with an ancient vampire. Not some glittery, baseball in the rain vampire. But a new take and perspective on an old archetype that only come from the mind of Del Toro.

Even if you haven’t read the source material you shouldn’t shy away from picking this up. The art provided by Mike Huddleston is top notch. His versions of the characters and environments is spot on with the images I had in my head while reading the book. That being said, Lapham does a great job of including details from the book to keep those familiar with the source material happy.

Anyone who enjoys titles like Hellboy, Locke & Key, or even some of Brubaker’s crime stories, would be doing themselves a favor by dropping the 20 nickels on this one.

When I first heard about this short story, my first reaction was to curse under my breath. Why hadn’t I come up with it first?

But my second reaction was to buy it.

Poirot and the Doctor teams an actor playing Poirot on stage and a Tom Baker cosplayer in London for a Doctor Who convention together to solve a mystery.

The story was fun and bittersweet, the writing was clever, and it certainly left me wanting more. There were different places I might have taken the story, but author Christopher Ruz knows where it’s going and takes you there. It’s humourous at times and ends bittersweet and I’d recommend it to fans of good writing and Doctor Who.

I read the story and felt quite compelled to pass on my knowledge of it. It’s been published by the author and I know how tough it can be to get other people talking about your stuff, but this story truly deserves it.

It’s less than a dollar for Kindle, what have you got to lose? (It doesn’t seem to be available for Nook or Smashwords yet.)

(And while you’re at it, don’t forget to check out my books.)

Dark Horse is launching a new Star Wars series this week, about one of the Empire’s top spies. GONK targets the first issue of Agent of the Empire for review.
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GONK checks out a new printing of some The Phantom Menace tie-in comics, as Dark Horse looks forward to the TPM 3D release.

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I’m a pretty big fan of Robert Rodriguez, and I’ve even enjoyed (for the most part) his Spy Kids movies. I thought the first one was the best, but the second one was good, too. The third one had it’s moments, but I was glad to see the series end.

And then Spy Kids 4 came. And since they’re the only Rodriguez movies I can show my kids, they were big fans and I just HAD to see Spy Kids 4. It’s out on Blu-ray this week and I have to say that it holds up much better than the last film in the franchise.

Retired OSS spy, Marissa Wilson (Jessica Alba) has a new baby, two stepkids, Rebecca and Cecil Wilson (Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook) and a husband Wilbur Wilson (Joel McHale), who is a spy hunter. Things take a turn for the worse when the villain Tick Tock escapes and goes after her stepkids to tries and retrieve the necklace Marissa gave to Rebecca.

The original Spy Kids come back to help save the world. Rebecca and Cecil have been activated along with the dog and the baby. These characters and their antics keep kids laughing throughout the movie.

It is not only an entertaining movie, it teaches children the importance of family, but then again, that is a reoccurring theme in all of the Spy Kids movies. It’s a movie you can sit and enjoy with your kids without wanting to shoot yourself.

And I loved watching Jeremy Piven chew the scenery in a number of roles in this film. Joel McHale, too. It’s just kind of campy fun that you can’t help but enjoy if you’re sitting with your kids.

It could be worse, they could want to watch The Smurfs.

You can pick it up on Amazon.

The geek girls here at Big Shiny Robot decided to get together and start a podcast, and we’re happy to present our very first two-part test episodes to see what you think! Consider it a preview of things to come in 2012 – the Big Shiny Girlcast will release once per month and include four of your favorite Big Shiny Robot geek girl writers – Bizarrobot (Erin), Miss Mecha (Jessie), Scarlett RoBotica (Kelly), and Wonderbot (Carly).

In the podcast, we’ll be bringing you geek news and chatting about video games, comics, movies, anime, sci fi, tech and more! And, of course, we’ll feature some geek girl news that you might not be getting from your other podcasts.

Since these are test episodes, please bear with us as we had a few audio issues in Part Two and are still working out how we want to run each episode. Part One features Miss Mecha and Scarlett RoBotica chatting about Miyazaki’s next film, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Black Friday and our review of The Muppets. Part Two features all four of us chatting about conventions, the fail-tastic Wonder Woman Pilot, and TONS more! (Part one was recorded on Sunday, November 27th. Part two was recorded in September.)

To get the episode, you can subscribe to “Big Shiny Robot’s Big Shiny Podcast”  iTunes feed and download the episode “Big Shiny Girlcast – December 11” for free. Most importantly from all this, we’d like you to let us know what you think! Listen to both parts and let us know what you think works and what you think doesn’t work so great. We had a blast recording these and hope you like em!

Please leave constructive comments or criticism right underneath this post. Thanks for listening!

Talk about your Empire Strikes Back of Clone Wars episodes?

There’s really not a way to talk about this episode in my mind without spoilers, so, be warned.

This episode was nothing but the perfect middle part of a Star Wars trilogy. It had elements of so many Star Wars films, though, it’s hard to say where it drew most of its inspiration, though the plot bore little resemblance to any of the Star Wars movies.

After the events of the last episode, having lost an entire colony of Togruta to slavers, Anakin, Obi-wan, and Ahsoka decide to go undercover into the world of slavery in the Star Wars galaxy. Anakin and Obi-wan disguise themselves as slavers and Ahsoka as a slave. But, like all the best laid plans of mice and men, things go pretty much horribly awry.

Obi-wan is caught, then Anakin rescues him in classic Return of the Jedi style, then they get caught, then Ahsoka gets caught. Then Anakin is forced into the service of the slavers if he wants his friends to live.

And that’s pretty much where the episode ends.

There’s some very telling character moments in this episode that I love. Firstly, Anakin’s assumed name in this episode is Lars. That’s a pretty big tip of his hat to the man who rescued his mother from slavery and I doubt the use of the name was merely coincidental. And since he mentions it to no one, playing it off as though it’s just some assumed name, with this mission in particular it seems as though he’s quietly showing his gratitude.

Just that one little moment was so touching that it made me love the writing in this episode. But there were so many more.

First off, handing Artoo the lightsabers and pulling them out just like Luke on the skiff in Jedi gave me a chill. Doubling down on that, having Ahsoka and Obi-wan ignite their lightsabers as well in a fashion reminiscent of the Jedi in Attack of the Clones. And Obi-wan getting on the flying lizard creature that seemed so much like the one in Revenge of the Sith? I love watching this show made by people who love Star Wars as much as I do.

But this episode also had a lot of difficult concepts and moments that hit me right in the gut. Not in a bad way mind you, but this episode was just one big downer. Obi-wan gets shot in the back, a slave commits suicide after a failed assassination attempt, another slaver drops a dozen slaves out the bottom of a repulsor platform just to make Obi-wan realize who will be hurt if he’s insubordinate.

It was harsh.

Add to that the fact that Anakin is being forced to do things that are completely outside his will in an effort to save his friends. He’s in a difficult position and there are no easy ways out of it. Difficult choices are going to have to be made, and none of the choices are very Jedi like.

This whole enterprise is the insidious nature of Palpatine’s plan. But where is he? Like the rest of this season, there is so much coming back to The Phantom Menace, not just story and thematic elements, but the Phantom Menace himself. The Jedi are going to have to sell their souls to make it through the war, Anakin in particular. He relies more and more on his force choking as the war goes on, making his reaction in Revenge of the Sith to Padme all the more telling. But it’s not just Anakin here. Ahsoka almost kills that guard, knocking him off the building with the force. And Obi-wan is beaten in this episode, the entire galaxy is on his shoulders and he just wants to help, but there’s just nothing he can do.

This was an incredibly dark episode and I can’t stop turning it over in my head. It was challenging and worked so well and in all the right ways.

But none of this story could have been told without the stage it was told on. This show looks incredible, even more now that it ever has before. The lighting, the sets, even the sky and horizon, are all characters, each one a brilliant tool to tell such a heartbreaking story.

I really don’t understand how they keep topping themselves. Seriously, that last group of shots of the flying-lizard creatures flying through the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.

To the cast and crew of this episode of The Clone Wars, all I can say is this: Well done.