2008 Action Game of the Year

Indie action games tend to bring back memories of the old-school (since when did old-school mean 15 years ago?) days of the arcade when everything was about short bursts of extreme excitement and tremendous challenge.

This year's top Action games feature shooters, shooters and more shooters. Great-looking, great-playing, and a whole lot of fun.

Number 5 - T.W.T.P.B.

What's the title stand for? Only the best of the best get to learn that… but does it matter? Not in the slightest. All you need to know is that that little acronym up there stands for excellent arcade shooting action.

T.W.T.P.B. is hardcore, top-down, old-school shooting action right down to the point that it gets insanely hard, even on the easiest mode, about half-way through. It lures you in with beautiful graphics and slick gameplay tweaks and then smacks you around a bit with unstoppable enemy waves that you have to struggle against over and over until you can pretty much see the patterns of enemy fire before they even appear. But that's what it means to love a shooter.

The neon look harkens to the neon look of the fantastic Puppy Games titles (see number four below!) and has a fun inclusion of swappable abilities for your craft. You can speed up your shots, slow down time, heal your ship or fire missile blasts that recall Macross missile insanity. Balancing these powers is the key to survival. Beyond the furious gameplay and slick graphics, though, T.W.T.P.B. has done a great job branding itself with an intriguing and subtle storyline of warfare in the name of a holy empire. T.W.T.P.B. deserves your time, besides, if you don't spend the time to get far enough in the game… you'll never know what the title stands for.

Number 4 - Droid Assault

Puppy Games has absolutely nailed the retro-chic vibe. Almost no one does it better than they do, so it's always sure to be an arcade action event when they unleash a new game upon the world and Droid Assault fit that bill for certain.

Like the rest of their library, Droid Assault looks fantastic. The whole game has the feel of being crafted from living neon. Lines are bold and blocky, and everything glows with a pastel hue. It's a pitch perfect presentation.

Roll into this that Droid Assault is a fresh take on arcade shooters and this becomes a title you should absolutely be downloading as you read this. You start with a lowly droid with lowly droid abilities. You roam about levels picking up power-ups and doing battle with other droids… some of which are more powerful… but all of which you have the option of controlling. The central idea in Droid Assault is that you have a certain amount of energy to spend recruiting other droids to be a part of your unstoppable droid army. Simply target a droid, hit it with a control beam and wait a few seconds… then proceed to wreak havoc in your shiny new droid. All other droids in your army will then fight on their own… and if your current model gets destroyed, you'll jump into one of the other droids have you under your command. Managing who to try and control and when is pretty vital, and often the machine you most want to control is the one that your army has already critically damaged. It gets to be quite the juggling act.

Think about it, people. An army of droids! You don't have to dream anymore.

Number 3 - Noitu Love 2

Remember those gorgeous chunky pixel art games from the Megadrive and Amiga? No? Well perhaps you're familiar with the more recent incarnations of Metal Slug and its colorful hand drawn 2d artwork? Noitu Love 2 is very reminiscent of that style. It's a 2d side-scroller with a crazy story that sees you kungfu fight your way through seven levels of robot bad guys.

The game looks and sounds like the best of the old school side scrolling battlers. There is a huge amount of animation in every level and it's worth playing just to smile at all the artwork.

If there is one downside it's the difficulty, which emulates old-school challenge every bit as well as Mega Man 9 (though the journey here is perhaps better!).

Noitu Love 2 will test your love with unbridled challenge. Each level introduces enemies requiring a new approach and old-school bosses with unique strategies to test your skills and eat at your limited number of lives. Replaying the levels to perfection so that you have enough lives for later stages is the order of the day. As difficult as Noitu Love 2 is, it is just as rewarding, giving ample reason for you to slug through an equally intense, exciting and difficult (but not punishing) beauty of a game.

Number 2 - Zombie Shooter

If you go back 5 years, you'll find Alien Shooter as our Action Game of the Year and #4 in our Top 10 games of 2003.

Since then there have been spin-offs, expansion packs, and a sequel, but none of them really captured the magic of the original. On the surface, Zombie Shooter looked to be more of the same, replacing Aliens with Zombies, but somehow miss along the way everything that made the original so great. We thought it was going to be another sad game in what had become a merely above average series. That is right up until we played it.

Zombie Shooter delivers what feels like the first real sequel to the fantastic Alien Shooter. The levels are interesting, the moments of terror are intense and it features the most zombies you'll ever see in a single room (Dead Rising on the X360 included). There's nothing innovative about the game, but not every game has to be innovative, some get by on just being great fun, and Zombie Shooter definitely delivers on the latter.

2008 Action Game of the Year - Everyday Shooter

In seeing Everyday Shooter here you might be wondering what year these awards are from.  I mean the game is positively ancient.  It was released in 2007! Well at least on the PS3.  However old that may (or may not) make the game, Everyday is a PC new-comer having been released on the PC for the first time in spring of 2008.  So though it may feel like a bit of deja vu, it's a path well worth taking again, or for the first time if you aren't one of the 5 or 6 people who owns a PS3. 

Everyday Shooter is a hard game to describe though reviewers have gone to great lengths to describe it.  At it's most basic, it is a multi-directional shooter through a variety of levels with unique challenges and soul-ful music.  However, while the game is basic and perhaps even simple in some ways, the sensations you feel while playing the game are wonderfully complex. 

Each level in Everyday Shooter is a unique journey.  The graphics are procedurally generated and respond to both your ship and to the music.  Due to their more esoteric style and reactive nature, the visuals give the player the sensation of creativity that is added upon by the game play that consists of choosing to grow some enemies larger while removing others from the artistic canvas in front of you. 

There are plenty of games that have been called art for their significance to the industry and approach to game play, but Everyday Shooter is art in a different way. It is a game that makes players feel like an artist. That same sensation leaves players feeling like they've more than just played a game; in playing Everyday Shooter they've had an experience. Or maybe that's all bull and it's just a fun shooter with cool reactive graphics. In the end who knows, and who cares. Everyday Shooter is great and a rewarding play that is always worth another [first] go.

Action Game of the Year Award History

History:
2008 - Everyday Shooter
2007 - Darkside
2006 - Titan Attacks
2005 - Zombie Smashers X2
2004 - Hamsterball
2003 - Alien Shooter

Spread The Word:    Del.icio.us  |   Digg  |   Slashdot  |   Reddit

By: Michael Scarpelli
Posted: Wednesday December 17, 2008