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My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Mother 3

Posted by Bob Mackey

It's the end of another year, and that can only mean one thing: it's list season. Inevitably, you're going to see top ten lists by the thousands; and, as an official member of the enthusiast press, I'm afraid I can't violate my directive. But, to make things a little more interesting, I've decided to assemble my 10 favorite games of this year in non-hierarchical form because--let's face facts--it's hard to pick a favorite. And unlike other top 10 lists, this one will be doled out to you in piecemeal for--oh wait, we've reach the end of the list! Thanks for playing.

I know, I know; Mother 3 didn't come out in 2008--its Japanese release date was April of 2006. But none of that matters when you're a love-starved Earthbound fan looking for his next fix--and besides, who's writing this list, you or me? Sorry for getting a bit emotional there, but I can't help it; Mother 3 is a game worth getting emotional about. Finally getting a sequel to something you've loved for over thirteen years is a pretty monumental event, especially when said sequel doesn't pee all over what made its predecessor good in the first place. Mother 3 may be tad different than Earthbound, but in keeping with the tradition of the series, it's completely unlike any game out there--despite being built on a very old, Dragon Quest-y foundation. And thanks to the heroic efforts of Tomato and his translation team, Mother 3 might just be my favorite game of the year. I now regret never ranking my list entries.

But my love of Mother 3 shouldn't come as a shock to any of you loyal readers out there; the fact that about 50% of my output on 61FPS has been entries about all things Mother proves that I'm absolutely crazy about the series in a "this man must be institutionalized for his own safety" kind of way. When the Mother 3 translation patch hit in late October, I celebrated the event by heading over to Fan Gamer and forking over some serious cash for unofficial Earthbound merchandise. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that a game with such a troubled development history actually turned out good; otherwise, there wouldn't be such a call for celebration or the irresponsible spending of semi-disposable income. Of course, I haven't exactly finished the game yet, but unless it somehow makes all of my limbs fall off after exploding the final boss, Mother 3 deserves its ranking at the top of my best games of 2008 list.

Thanks for following these installments of the past few weeks; I'll be back in 2009 with more baffling choices. Happy new year!

The Final List:

Audiosurf
Braid
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fable 2
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Persona 3: FES
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
Rock Band 2
Mother 3

+ DIGG

+ DEL.ICIO.US

+ REDDIT

Posted Dec 23 2008, 12:00 PM

Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, mother 2, bob mackey, mother, top 10, top 10 of 2008

Comments

Ian said:

This reminds me...I'm eagerly waiting for my Mother 3 Player's Guide to come (I preordered, so it and my Franklin Badge should come in January). :D

December 24, 2008 11:24 AM

About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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