The unsung greats of 2006

Dont be at yourself

Every website has announced their games of 2006, and most of them have been very predictable. Inevitably, many great games have slipped through the cracks - what have been yours?

I picked up two games for £10 each in the Game sale, and they've proved to be excellent buys.

The first is Yakuza - and hideous localization and dodgy music aside, it's very good - the closest Sega may get to making Shenmue 3.

The other is Rogue Trooper. Or as I like to think of it, Halo for the PS2. Whereas where Halo just regurgitates the same old ideas again and again, Rogue Trooper is packed with plenty of new ones. This game deserves to be played more, and it deserves to have a sequel.

An honourable mention also goes to EXIT, the only game that compelled me to play my PSP this year.

Ciaran500

Viva Piñata (360) - Its been advertised pretty heavily, received greats review across the boards and looks fantastic yet it didn't sell nearly as many as it should of. I fear it cause people can't get over its childish looks and simple gameplay on the surface. But get stuck into it and it has more depth than most games and is more addictive than crack.

Vyse

Yep, Viva Pinata for me as well. My game of the year. Having great fun with it at the moment.

rgiller

Have to agree with NBM about Rogue Trooper. Great game with good controls and some original ideas. A bargain at €15 from Play or cdwow (can't remember which one I got it from). Wouldn't really call it halo for the ps2 as it's a third person job. I thought it was in some ways similar to Gears of War. It uses a cover system for combat as well (though not as effectively). Definitely worth a look.

Got a bit of craic out of Hitman Blood Money for the Xbox too. A great technical achievement...

humanji

Pathologic was a bizarre game that was almost hypnotic to play. I still don't know if it was a good game or not because I just can't make my mind up about it. But it reaslly was unique and the only way I can think of describing it is to say play it yourself. It's confusing even writing about it!

Retr0gamer

An awful lot of people never bought Loco Roco or We love Katamari. Shame on you all.

Smellyirishman

Retr0gamer wrote:

An awful lot of people never bought Loco Roco...Shame on you all.

You bought a PSP? Shame on you .

I think Hitman is a good one alright (along with VP).

Rhyme

Not as obscure or engaging as some of the previously mentioned titles, but Red Steel really deserves a second chance. It's horrible reviews really don't do it justice... sure it's not winning any prizes in any clear-cut department but it's not a 6.0 or a 5.5 (1up and Gamespot respectively). More of an 8.0

johnny_ultimate

Prey - around a 1/3rd of the way through but a truly unique and innovative FPS. Didnt make that many end of year lists, and some reviewers gave it average scores (except IGN, in a rare break from their usual nonsense scores).
Also the games everyone should have bought but many didn't - again, Katamari springs to mind.

[CrimsonGhost]

Guitar Hero. I know it was the eurogamer game of the year, but sales of it over here certainly were far below what they should have been for such a super game. So I second their opinion of it being an unsung hero. Certainly for me it clock up more hours than anything else I've played this year.

Wertz

I was disappointed not to see SotC in any yearly round up lists (except maybe US ones, where it issued in late 2005)
Definitely the most fun I've had with a new console game all year...

LoGiE

As Retr0gamer said above Loco Roco was one of the best games I've played in years never mind 2006. You just can't get the music out of your head!
Another game I thought deserved more notice was DOW: Dark Crusade. It completely changed the single player mode for one thing...

tman

Feeling guilty about ignoring Rogue Trooper now... I have many fond memories of spending hours reading through my bro's 2000AD collection (starting at issue 1!), but I guess I got a bit burned by Judge Dredd and couldn't muster any hope for this game.
I've ordered it now anyways, tis dirt cheap on play.com at the mo...

We Katamari is another one that I'll have to pick up...

KdjaCL

Rogue Trooper is my game of the year. Loved it from start to finish shame it ended


kdjac

evad_lhorg

I want to get Psychonauts on the xbox and we love katamari on ps2. they are 2 I have heard loads about. I had psychonauts held for me in work until I got paid but a knob end put it out on sale so I now am in search again.

CiDeRmAn

Rogue Trooper? Read it back in the day and loved it then and couldn't wait to get it when it came out on PS2, found it all a bit short to be honest and lacking depth, all the extra weapon modes never used at all just run and gun, maybe a sequel would sort it out.
I would have much rathered Rebellion release a console version of Alien Vs Predator 2, not that rubbish they brought to the consoles a year or so ago, the FPS they made, now that was sweet.
Unsung game of the year, SOTC, Katamari easily.

Dont be at yourself

But everyone in teh specialist press have been banging on about SOTC and Katamari!

Rogue Trooper's biggest fault was its difficulty - on medium it's an absolute breeze, and can be played, largely, as a run-and-gun. Stick it up to hard and you find yourself ducking for cover, placing mines, using your holo-decoy, the works. It's packed with genuinely innovative ideas, has a great setting and cast of characters, and it's easily one of the best shooters I've played on the PS2.

KdjaCL

Had Rogue on PC and looked nice, the control i felt was perfect, using Gunnar like was superb and great fun the scrap upgrades worked well, made leave noone alive even going out of my way to take out Pill boxes just for the bonus scrap.

Last guy was fairly hard but well worth €24 got about 14 hours out of it. Online was fairly crap tho was expecting more from it tbh.

Script wise it was a very faithful conversion from comic to game, Gunnar Helm and Bagman were actually funny at times. But once you got the sniper upgrade by using the back to wall move you could take out anyone anywhere with single shots.

I got SOTC katamari and Psychonauts the previous year so they dont count vs Rogue ;p

kdjac

phoenix2181

I know this was on some of the gaming site lists but DEFCON was such a simple & mind blowingly addictive game, no flash grahics or sounds...just some good old clean thermonuclear warfare at it's best!

FranchisePlayer

Call of juarez I thought was quite good only the damn buginess of the voice acting got on my nerves.

TheAlmightyArse

Rhythm Tengoku!

It's a Japan-only release for the GBA, which may be why it was overlooked pretty much everywhere, but it's my game of the year. A series of rhythm-based minigames by the WarioWare team, packed with imagination and charm. Brilliantly designed and immense fun to play, over and over again, which I've been doing for months now. And it comes with free stickers.

super_furry

Amped 3. Not only is it a great snowboarding game, but it's got a great off the wall 'plot' and is often hilarious.

super_furry

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Prey - around a 1/3rd of the way through but a truly unique and innovative FPS. Didnt make that many end of year lists, and some reviewers gave it average scores (except IGN, in a rare break from their usual nonsense scores).

Indeed. There's so many great ideas and original touches in there, shame it was so overlooked.

andyps2.5

If I had to choose my faverite games of 2006. I would pick:
Ace Combat: The Belkin War
Burnout Takedown
And
GTA: Liberty City Stories

Ciaran500

andyps2.5 wrote:

If I had to choose my faverite games of 2006. I would pick:
Ace Combat: The Belkin War
Burnout Takedown
And
GTA: Liberty City Stories

Umm, this isn't about your favourite games of 2006. Besides Vice City Stories was far better and two of those games were out before 2006

ObeyGiant

super_furry wrote:

Amped 3. Not only is it a great snowboarding game, but it's got a great off the wall 'plot' and is often hilarious.

Agreed. That game had me from the moment I discovered I could play the entire game in the a bunny costume.

mcgovern

Viva Pinata, addictive is not the word.

event

guitar hero as someone said, simply amazing

sprinkles

Psychonauts..... strange idoesn't come close. picked it up in the sale for the PS2 and it's been over shadowing my wii and xbox all week. Also I think raving rabbits is probably the most fun game on the wii at the minute. Has me in stitches playing it.