TNL's GotM: December 2008

[Andy]

Previous entries:

November 2008: Gears of War 2 [360]
October 2008: Fallout 3 [PS3, 360, PC]
September 2008: Mega Man 9 [PSN, XBLA, WiiWare]
August 2008: Castle Crashers [XBLA]
July 2008: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 [XBLA]
June 2008: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots [PS3]
May 2008: Lost Winds [WiiWare]
April 2008: Grand Theft Auto IV [PS3, 360]
March 2008: Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Wii]
February 2008: Devil May Cry 4 [PS3, 360]
January 2008: Burnout Paradise [PS3, 360]
TNL's Games of the Month 2007
TNL's Games of the Month 2006

[ As usual, straight ports, retro compilations, and retro XBLA, Virtual Console, and PSN titles are ineligible. Exceptions can be made for ports if they have not otherwise been released domestically, and noteworthy remakes. ]

I'm sorry guys. I know I've been neglecting my post here, a variety of reasons contributing to that, which I wont bore anyone with. But thanks to Yoshi for the cover last month. My efforts didn't appear to have been terribly missed, but I do appreciate the stand-in. I've been the steward of this institution, Yoshi, but this was your idea, after all. Thanks.

Anyway, let's get to what's important: deciding the best game of December. And by that, I mean picking Lumines Supernova or Meteos Wars. Seriously, this is a sad group of titles for any month, let alone a Holiday month.

For me, it's Lumines Supernova. I adore Lumines, and this is easily the definitive version for me. The skins and music are superb (which is very welcome coming from the utterly blase XBLA rev), and the interface and visuals are definitely the most stylish the series has seen. Playing on a dpad that actually functions is a huge plus, too.

Prince of Persia was a big disappointment for me. Such a gorgeous game, such well produced trailers, but then you get to the meat of the game and you're presented with the most bizarrely anachronistic and awful dialog/characters/plot and setup on top of game design that literally seems to be paint by numbers at this point, set to universal toddler difficulty.

I do wish I could get into the Persona games, though. They look really interesting aesthetically, but 100 hours of dungeon crawling sounds like death to me.

Notable (or not so notable) absences: Nuthin'. A fucking Dragon Ball Z game almost made the list this month. A game featuring a werewolf version of Sonic the Hedgehog almost made the list this month. This month is an embarassment.

[Bacon McShig]

Notable (or not so notable) absences: Nuthin'. A fucking Dragon Ball Z game almost made the list this month. A game featuring a werewolf version of Sonic the Hedgehog almost made the list this month. This month is an embarassment.

Eh, bad as those may be they deserved to be there more than Merv Griffin's Crosswords. That's the worst game I've played... possibly ever. Hell, you could have at least given a nod to Dash of Destruction, that was much better and it was free.

[Gooch]

The listed choices are laughably terrible can all go suck my grandma's thong.

The best December release is Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

[epmode]

Persona 4 owns this list so hard it hurts. Not that that's saying much this month.

[Despair]

Damn, the only game on the list that I actually played was POP and that sucked.

[NeoZeedeater]

I'm not going to vote before playing Persona 4 but A Vampyre Story is a big omission on the list.

[Pineapple]

I didn't play any of these games but PoP was the only one I even really cared to try.

[kingoffighters]

Persona 4 easily by a kilometer.

[Tain]

but A Vampyre Story is a big omission on the list.

oh shit, totally forgot that came out that month.

[StriderKyo]

I've played none of those. I can't decide which to vote for - Lumines based on how much I liked the first one on PSP and how cool Mizuguchi is, or Persona 4 based on Shidoshi's review in the only issue of Play I've ever bought.

Decisions, decisions.

Can I retroactively vote for Valkyria Chronicles? That just took up all my spare time for three weeks straight.