Borderlands
Gearbox
Xbox 360/PS3/PC
Gearbox's promise to deliver a first-person, dungeon-crawling shooter has gone without a hitch -- the result is one of the most compulsive plays since Fallout 3. ★
Brutal Legend
Double Fine
Xbox 360/PS3
Former LucasArts adventure designer Tim Schafer and his Double Fine studio bring the apocalyptic vistas of classic heavy metal album covers fantastically to life. ★
Cactus Arcade
Cactus
PC
An essential primer to cult indie dev Cactus, collecting games like his experimental quasi-Lynchian lo-fi first-person Mondo series, which excel at taking tasks like basic navigation and turning them on their head. ★
Canabalt
Semi Secret
Web/iPhone
Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman's one-button game was one of the truest "sensations" this year: launched in late August as a knocked-out five-day experiment which took instant storm. Run for your life. ★
Captain Forever
Farbs
Web
Captain Forever's retro aesthetic and anachronistic faux-command-line inconvenience warp you into an 80s-star-pilot narrative that literally binds you (via your webcam) to the seat of your ship. ★
Chime
Zoë Mode
Xbox Live Arcade
Chime's music and gameplay are more tightly and directly integrated than even its Lumines inspiration: it's as truly hypnotic and zone-inducing (particularly, and not surprisingly, when mixed with Philip Glass) as puzzlers come. ★
Critter Crunch
Capy
PlayStation 3
Capy's puzzle game Critter Crunch is staggering for the soft, surreal wonder of its Ghibli-esque backdrops, which underscore the hectic hand animated critter-bursts on top. ★
Drop7
area/code
iPhone
You've either never played Drop7 or the mere mention of its name sends nic-fit twinges through your spine. There is no middle ground. If you haven't played it yet, by all means go. But go forewarned. ★
Electroplankton
Toshio Iwai
Nintendo DSi
A fantastic primer to Iwai's brilliant touch/sound/light gallery installations made more accessible as consumer software, it's one of the highlights of the DS's library, and its most awesomely meditative experience. ★
Eliss
Steph Thirion
iPhone
A curious concoction of accessible play and alien origin, Eliss effortlessly gives us a sense of style leagues above the App Store's standard fare of pastel-shaded and casual-focused design. ★
Every Day The Same Dream
Molleindustria
Web
Every Day The Same Dream plays at issues of lives led in quiet, soul-sapping desperation by forcing you to subvert your own easy routines and comes fully loaded with a gut-punch for anyone who has been or is currently a wage-slave office drone. ★
Glum Buster
CosMind
PC
Developer Justin 'CosMind' Leingang's 4-year labor of love still hasn't quite earned the reputation it deserves. It stands as one of 2009's best surrealist short stories. ★
Hook Champ
Rocketcat
iPhone ]
The easy and lazy description reads: Spelunky meets Bionic Commando, and for once maybe lazy says it best. Retro styled and far more complex than it first appears, it's a perfect example of the App Store's overlooked gems. ★
Little King's Story
Marvelous
Wii
Overlooked due to its crayon and pastel fantasy, Little King's Story was one of 2009's best left field surprises. Manage a township unwittingly put under your control, protect your subjects, and conquer the things they fear. ★
LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias
Frontier
Wii
Arguably the best exclusive franchise WiiWare has to offer, Melodias brings every bit of the quiet charm of the original, and should be on top of the download list for any Wii owner. ★
Machinarium
Amanita
PC/Mac
Gone are the simple pixel-hunt-and-click-to-move-on tasks of Jakub Dvorsky's earlier games. Machinarium dives deeper into the bizarre order of its rusted steam-bot world, returning with a complex and rewarding set of puzzles. ★
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
Capy
Nintendo DS
Clash of Heroes overlays its fantasy RPG tale with intricately and brilliantly devised puzzle-battles, which play out by color-matching lines of troops to create, fuse and link attacks to launch against your enemies. ★
Noby Noby Boy
Namco
PS3
The design of each individual play session is as lackadaisical and boundless as the BOY himself. Those that said that Noby Noby Boy -- the Katamari Damacy follow-up from creator Keita Takahashi -- had no point themselves missed the point. ★
Plants Vs. Zombies
PopCap
PC/Mac
Plants Vs. Zombies gave the tower defense genre a much-needed shot in the arm of accessibility and brilliant humor, without uprooting the core entirely. ★
Retro Game Challenge
Namco
DS
A collection of remade early-days NES classics that never were, perfectly evoking a nostalgia we thought only emulators could summon. ★
Rhythm Heaven
Nintendo
DS
Heaven's the truest example of a music game that's purely about rhythm, and not just about Simon Says-ing patterns or following bars down your screen to the tune of your dad's favorite classic rock. It's alsot one of the year's funniest. ★
Rock Band
Harmonix/EA Mobile
iPhone
Losing the plastic-instrument charade might at first seem a down-step too far for more casual players, but with its promise of a continually refreshed music library, Rock Band is a long, long overdue and essential musical addition to the App Store.★
Rock Band: Unplugged
Harmonix/Backbone
PSP
Unplugged works the same magic pioneered back on the PS2's Frequency and Amplitude: you just need the willingness to escape into music without the fake plastic instruments. ★
Rolando 2
Hand Circus
iPhone
For every part that feels slightly safer than its prequel, it feels doubly refined, smarter, flashier. It hits all the right notes that should have made it the iPhone's signature mascot -- its Mario or Sonic. ★
Saira
Nifflas
PC
And then, from nowhere, came Saira, catching everyone off-guard, and expertly encapsulating the joy of exploration in a world as stunningly expressive and atmospheric as it is austere. ★
Scribblenauts
5th Cell
DS
Scribblenauts lets players conjure objects -- krakens, keyboard cats, Gods, time-traveling robot-zombie-smashing T-rexes -- to solve puzzles simply by sketching them. It's a thrill to try and stump the system and learn that they've got you covered. ★
Shadow Complex
Chair
Xbox 360
Shadow Complex was the best retro revival this year that had no predecessor of its own. For once, it wasn't lazy to give the game the comparative nod back to Super Metroid: it was unabashedly right there in front of you. ★
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor
Tiger Style
iPhone
A brilliantly crafted mix of arcade overtones, beautifully vintage children's book style, and a mature story that reclines quietly and lets players ask all the questions of it rather than imposing itself on you. ★
Small Worlds
David Shute
Web
What it does best is take Castlevania: Symphony of the Night or Metroid's iron-grip compulsion to 100% reveal map screens and bring it directly to the fore of the game itself, making it its own reward. ★
Spelunky
Mossmouth
PC
Taking the Rogue formula and applying it to the 8-bit platformer genre, Spelunky's enduring power and charm is its ability to create "situations" rather than rote level layouts. ★
Uncharted 2
Naughty Dog
PS3
The finest rollercoaster of the year that makes you climb off the train and rebuild the engine at the bottom of every hill. ★
