MadWorld

The year in review. Part Two: Nintendo, with guest editor Matthew Castle from NGamer magazine

We began this year full of hope for software success on the Wii, the little system that did. As it entered its third year on the market, fans dreamed of seeing the end of shovelware, as developers had now had plenty of time to make great games for the console. Maybe we’d see some great original content at last? No more PSP ports and half-finished releases, now that developers had come to understand the console so well?

We’re on to you. We’ve noticed you casting a roving eye over recent announcements of price cuts, seen you ogle the unveiling of lithe younger models. Yes, even you, 360 fanboy, the one who said the PS3 had no games. We caught you looking longingly at LittleBigPlanet’s Sackboy, imagining the things you would do to him if only you could get him online.

When it comes to comedy, no other medium is quite as hit-or-miss as videogames. It’s rare to see a game that’s genuinely funny (on purpose, at least), and most of the games that try range from passably entertaining to insultingly awful. Chalk it up to games and humor being subjective art forms, one man’s culture being another man’s trash, et cetera.

Thanks to two films - Chinatown and Blade Runner - every action game is practically required to have a Chinatown level. It’s not the Chinatown you see in real-life - a thriving community and marketplace established over a unique hybrid of  Western and Chinese culture – no, it’s all neon signs and gangsters, dragon statues and tile roofs. A lot of tile roofs. And it's usually in the future or

What’s the best part of any car race? The mad crazy wrecks. Hockey game? When a 6’5” Czech man-beast levels a lesser player with a right hook. Ultimate fighting? The whole thing. We like seeing people destroy each other; it’s in our blood. Or maybe it’s in their blood, and the way it spills everywhere and inspires unanimous ‘YEAHs from stadiums full of adrenaline junkies too timid to risk their own

Our Wii’s just hit puberty! House of the Dead: Overkill splatters onto screens this week, and later next month Sega’s following that up with a brass-knuckled punch from the post-apocalyptic bloodbath, MadWorld. We got to play through the first three levels of our most anticipated Wii game of 2009 and we just had to show you the outright nastiness that’s in store. However, one thing we won’t be spoiling is

At the end of every year we get a new year – one that is numerically superior to its predecessor and brimming with new stuff to buy. But how do you know what to buy if all the shiny “best of” awards are given at the end of the year? You could spend your precious 365.24 days reading game reviews, but what are they compared to shiny metallic awards?

This time last year we only had Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii to fend off the baby sims and Mega Party Game Blasts. Nintendo was tight-lipped about E3 and the third party offerings were slim as usual – in other words, there was no respite from the casual flood in sight.

Are you rich? For the low cost of roughly $5000, you can either purchase one segway (you tool) or the following 100 games that the GamesRadar staff is looking forward to most this year. Yeah, we know everyone’s got a list of games they want to see this year. But no one’s written about 100 of them!