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My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

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 over the next few excruciating days! Please enjoy.

Since I jumped on the current-gen bandwagon so late, the modern twin-stick shooter was an unfamiliar concept to me. I'd played a few of the old-school predecessors like Robotron and Smash TV, but, before picking up a 360, I didn't really understand how such limited gameplay could possibly hold my attention in our futuristic age of bells and whistles. Obviously, I hadn't yet experienced any of the Geometry Wars games at that point in time--otherwise, I would have been aware of my complete and utter wrongness. Geometry Wars 2's lack of superficial complexity is almost a necessity--with its insanely twitchy, adrenaline-pumping close calls, I don't think my brain could have handled much more than move, shoot, and bomb. And in applying these few concepts to six completely different game modes, developer Bizarre Creations makes developing stratgies a requirement for success--kind of unexpected from a game that, at first glance, looks like a screen saver gone horribly wrong.

Watcha Playing: Geometry Wars Galaxies

When I was a kid and had all the time in the world to play games I had no money to buy them. Now I'm an adult with a halfway decent paycheck I can afford to buy any game I want. Unfortunately that paycheck is attached to a full time job so I have little time to play. That is cruel irony. I have always loved beefy games; full blown action adventures, platformers, and the biggest time sinks of all, RPGs. However, it is only relatively recently that I've come to fully appreciate quick fix games; games like Geometry Wars Galaxies that I can play for hours or minutes and still get the full experience.

One Crazy Summer of Arcade

Today's LIVE Arcade release of Castle Crashers and the recent trend of incoming college freshmen gathering in front of me to learn writing can only mean one thing: summer is over. But man, what a summer it was. So many memories made while only moving slightly to avoid bedsores.

Of course, I speak of Microsoft's five-week-long "Summer of Arcade," an event that saw the back-to-back release of five awesome Xbox Live Arcade titles: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Braid, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Galaga Legions, and Castle Crashers. Sure, it started a little late, and it neglected to include a few of the more recent remakes (Commando 3 and 1942: Joint Strike got just a little bit screwed by the timing), but I can't remember a time that so much multi-genre awesomeness was packed into such an affordable month.

More importantly, though, I think it's a look at things to come for the future of gaming.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.