9th Dec, 2008 Just what in the hell is going on with Mario and Peach? It was so simple back in the old NES days of Super Mario Bros. She got herself kidnapped, he went after her with the help of Luigi, and all ended happily ever after. Or so we thought. The thing is that it didn't really. It's become ever more apparent that since that first rescue things have only ever got messier, dirtier and more manipulative in their relationship. Far from the innocent damsel and hero set-up that appeared ... » Read More

Game Industry reports, according to the data from Media-Control GfK, Nintendo ended 2007 on a high across mainland Europe, with DS titles topping the Spanish chart and Wii games heading the German list for software sales in the week ending December 30.

The full charts are as follows:

Spain
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
4. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
5. WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 (PS2)
6. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
7. SingStar Latino (PS2)
8. Imagine Babyz (DS)
9. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)

Germany
1. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
3. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
5. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
6. New Super Mario Bros (DS)
7. Need for Speed ProStreet (PS2)
8. SingStar: Apres Ski (PS2)
9. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)
» Read More 

Nintendo platform titles dominate the end of year German and Spanish charts.

Wii and DS games take ten out of 20 places across the two top tens for the week ended December 30, while only one PS3 game charts and Xbox 360 titles fail to get a look in.

Standout performers making the top tens in both Germany and Spain include Super Mario Galaxy, Brain Training titles, SingStar titles, Phantom Hourglass and FIFA 08.

Germany

01. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
02. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
03. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (DS)
04. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
05. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
06. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
07. Need for Speed ProStreet (PS2)
08. SingStar Apres Ski (PS2)
09. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)

Spain

01. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (DS)
02. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
03. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
04. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
05. WWE Smackdown! Vs RAW 2008 (PS2)
06. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
07. SingStar Latino (PS2)
08. Imagine: Being Mum (DS)
09. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)
» Read More 

The critical popularity of flagship titles, mixed with continued fan attraction to established franchises and the introduction of valuable new IPs (intellectual properties), has also led to considerable commercial success. Software sales are on the rise to the tune of around $10.5 billion (through October) in the United States, while the UK gaming market has taken a total of around £1.52 billion during 2007.
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Kotaku writes:

"2007 has been a crazy awesome year for gamers. While during years gone by we've all fallen prey to too much hype and not enough...what's that word again...fun, the most unexpected part of 2007 was that it lived up to our unreasonably high expectations.

So hit the jump for our Frankenreview, victory lap 2007 edition. We pulled reviewers' top rated games* from Game Rankings to relive some of our best moments from the year.

Note, on repeat games, we picked the higher ranking platform".
» Read More 

Kotaku announces the winners of Reader's Choice GOTY for the DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, XBLA, PSN, and Overall. (Mon Dec 31 2007)
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Kotaku's Brian Crecente writes:

"Our first-ever Game of the Year awards was a pretty straight forward deal. I asked all of the writers to submit a list of three games for each category and the three that showed up most in each category made it as a finalist. Once we had the list of finalists I asked each writer to go through and order the finalists and then tallied the vote. The one with the most points was named Game of the Year, the runner-up was named Not Quite Game of the Year. The game with the most votes for Worst Game of the Year received that dubious honor."

Super Mario Galaxy won Kotaku's Overall Game of the Year award. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune came as second, it won the Not Quite Game of the Year award. (Kotaku posted the overall results as a separate post, see the link at the Alternative Sources below for more details.)
» Read More 

Amazon.com on December 28 released its "Best of 2007" lists, which include the (1) bestselling, (2) most positively reviewed, (3) most-wished-for and (4) favorite gift products as determined by Amazon.com customers in 2007.

In the Video Games department for 2007, Nintendo Wii was the number-one bestselling product, the most positively reviewed product by Amazon.com customers, and the product that appeared most often on the Wish Lists of Amazon.com customers.

Super Mario Galaxy was the most frequently purchased Video Games product as a gift by Amazon.com customers in 2007.

The full report includes results for other departments, which are Books, Music, DVD, Electronics, Home & Garden, Health & Personal Care, Grocery, Gourmet, Computers, Software, [Video Games], Apparel & Accessories, Shoes & Handbags, Sports & Outdoors, Home Improvement, Automotive, Jewelry, Watches, Beauty, Baby, and Toys.
» Read More 

Picking the Destructoid Game of the Year was no easy task, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly varied community response to yesterday's list of nominees. It seemed like each one of the five finalists garnered an equal amount of support: "Pick Mass Effect!" "Super Mario Galaxy is easily the best!" "COD4 FTW!" "BioShock, hands down!" "No competition. The Orange Box!"

And the winner is...
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Dec. 26, 2007 - John Gaudiosi is a national journalist who has been covering the video game business for more than a decade. In addition to blogging for WRAL.com, he also writes about gaming for Wired Magazine, The Washington Post, Xbox.com and Yahoo! Games. Here are his picks for the best games of 2007:

¿ Mass Effect
¿ Halo 3
¿ BioShock
¿ Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
¿ Unreal Tournament 3
¿ Rock Band
¿ The Orange Box
¿ Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat
¿ Super Mario Galaxy
¿ Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Notes: In addition to his credentials already listed above, John Gaudiosi is a senior editor for Variety's Video Business and regularly writes about videogames for Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameDaily, GamePro Magazine, Kotaku, MCV, Prima Games, Business 2.0 Magazine, CBS, Chicago Sun-Times, ESPN, Home Media Magazine, NBC, Reuters, and The Hollywood Reporter. He also works on video game programming for networks like The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, Starz Entertainment and VH1.
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Yahoo has announced their Games of the Year awards, which culminated in their 2007 Overall Game of the Year. Here are the categories, winners and runners-up:

¿ Best Action Adventure Game: Super Mario Galaxy
¿ Runners-Up: Assassin's Creed, The Orange Box

¿ Best Online Multiplayer Game: Halo 3
¿ Runners-Up: Call of Duty 4, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

¿ Best Racing Game: Forza Motorsport 2
¿ Runners-Up: DiRT, Project Gotham Racing 4

¿ Best Sports Game: skate
¿ Runners-Up: FIFA 08, Madden NFL 08

¿ Best Shooter: BioShock
¿ Runners-Up: Call of Duty 4, Halo 3

¿ Best Party Game: Rock Band
¿ Runners-Up: Guitar Hero III, Warioware: Smooth Moves

¿ Best Role-Playing Game: Mass Effect
¿ Runners-Up: The Witcher, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

¿ Best Strategy Game: Supreme Commander
¿ Runners-Up: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, World in Conflict

¿ Best Overall Game: Super Mario Galaxy
¿ Runners-Up: BioShock, Rock Band
» Read More 

What makes a good video game? Strong visuals are important. Good controls are essential. A well-crafted concept helps too. These days, most games can boast at least two-thirds of that criteria.

So, then what makes a game great? Feeling. Emotion. Surprise. Interaction. Even addiction. It's a magical feeling when a game offers all these elements.

Here are the titles L.A. Times deemed the best experiences of 2007. Admittedly, they didn't play everything (because that would probably be impossible), but of the titles that did cross their paths, these are the ones that resonated most. Their favorites in order:

Best of the Year:
¿ BioShock
¿ Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
¿ Assassin's Creed
¿ Super Mario Galaxy
¿ The Orange Box

Honorable Mention:
¿ Halo 3
¿ Rock Band
¿ Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
¿ Cooking Mama: Cook Off
¿ Lost Planet

Worst of the Year:
¿ Lair

Dishonorable Mention:
¿ Fusion Frenzy 2
¿ 300: March to Glory
¿ Tenchu Z

[ By Pete Metzger, December 21, 2007 ]
» Read More 

The Simpsons Game for PlayStation 2 has finally managed to take out the top spot in the Australian game charts -- seven weeks after its initial release -- according to data trackers GfK Australia. The DS version of the game also made it into the top 10, taking out the seventh spot.

Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii -- last week's number one -- fell down to number two during the week of December 10-December 16. Drawn to Life for the Nintendo DS has reappeared in the overall charts at number three after a brief hiatus. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360 climbed up from the previous week to number five, while Activision's other chart topper -- Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock -- is nowhere to be seen. Halo 3 for the 360 has reappeared at number nine, while Nintendo's Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree bundle ended the week at number 10.
» Read More 

Provided below via the source link is IGN entire list of individual platform picks for Best of 2007. Here are selected categories and winners:

¿ PC Game of the Year -- BioShock
¿ PS2 Game of the Year -- God of War II
¿ PS3 Game of the Year -- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
¿ Best PlayStation Store Game -- Super Stardust HD
¿ PSP Game of the Year -- Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
¿ Xbox 360 Game of the Year -- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
¿ Best Xbox Live Arcade Game -- Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
¿ Wii Game of the Year -- Super Mario Galaxy
¿ DS Game of the Year -- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Wireless Game of the Year -- Digital Chocolate Cafe

For each applicable platform, IGN also picks the Best Action Game, Best Adventure Game, Best Expansion, Best Fighting Game, Best First-Person Shooter, Best Music Game, Best Persistent World Game, Best Platform Game, Best Puzzle Game, Best Racing/Driving Game, Best RPG, Best Simulation, Best Sports Game, Best Strategy Game, Best Graphics Technology, Best Artistic Design, Best Original Score, Best Licensed Soundtrack, Best End Credit Song, Best Use of Sound, Best Story, Best Local Multiplayer Game, Best Online Multiplayer Game, Best Downloadable Content, Most Innovative Design, Best Use of the Wii-Mote, Best Game No One Played, Best Revival, Biggest Surprise, and Best Developer.

IGN Best of 2007 Awards also feature gaming and non-gaming categories in Movies, TV, DVD (includes HD DVD and Blu-ray Discs), Music, Comics, Gears, Sports, and Stars. Of those categories, the gaming-related winners are:

¿ Best Videogame Adaptation (Movies) -- Hitman
¿ Best Videogame Soundtrack/Score (Music) -- Super Mario Galaxy Soundtrack
¿ Best Best PC Peripheral (Gears) -- Novint Falcon
¿ Best Console Peripheral (Gears) -- Rock Band: Special Edition
¿ Best HDTV (Gears) -- Pioneer Project Kuro Plasm...
» Read More 

The New York Times - Seth Schiesel, December 23, 2007:

For gamers 2006 was all about the introduction of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii systems; there weren't many great games released. This year, by contrast, has delivered one fabulous interactive entertainment experience after another. Even without Grand Theft Auto IV, which was delayed until next year, 2007 has witnessed the strongest lineup of new games since the fall of 2004, when Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and World of Warcraft were introduced.

Even with heavy hitters like Spore, G.T.A. IV and Super Smash Bros. on the horizon for 2008, it will be tough for next year to top the crop of 2007. Here are some of this year's most important, intriguing and just plain amusing games and developments:

¿ Best Newcomer
¿ Most Difficult Delivery
¿ Best Adaptation of an Adored Intellectual Property
¿ Best Unambitious Representations of the State of the Art
¿ Best Single-Handed Rescue of a Major Game System
¿ Game of the Year
» Read More 

20th Dec, 2007 Gaming is an up and down experience. Some years cram top quality titles into our every orifice until were bursting with videogame joy and have excess polygons dripping messily out of our ears, while some other years… Well, some other years are 1983. In 2007 though, weve had a very good year indeed. A scarily good year in fact. One which has provided us so much brilliance on every format that its a genuine worry that the laws of karmic balance will soon bring us a plague ... » Read More

1UP - Brian Gray, 12/19/2007:

As the last of 2007 creeps away, Japanese gaming mag Weekly Famitsu asked 280 users and 63 stores to sum up the game industry this year, publishing the first part of the questionnaire's results in this week's issue. A summary of the results is as follows.
» Read More 

Nintendo's DS Brain Training games have topped the charts in both Spain and Germany.

Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training is at number one in Spain, with sequel More Brain Training taking the coveted spot in Germany.

Neither the Spanish or German top ten has any PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 games, with Wii, PlayStation 2 and DS the dominant formats.

The top ten for each country follows:

Spain, week ended December 9

1. More Brain Training (DS)

2. WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2008 (PS2)

3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)

4. Imagina Ser Mama (DS)

5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)

6. Imagina Ser Disenadora De Moda (DS)

7. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)

8. Mario Party (DS)

9. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)

10. WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2008 (PSP)

Germany, week ended December 2

1. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)

2. More Brain Training (DS)

3. High School Musical - Sing It (PS2)

4. Need for Speed Pro Street (PS2)

5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

6. FIFA 08 (PS2)

7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)

8. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)

9. Wii Play (Wii)

10. Need for Speed Pro Street (PC)
» Read More 

The decision is in and the staff of G4 X-Play has named its Game of the Year!
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Nintendo of America President and CEO told reporters in a conference call Fri. that the company is pleased with sales of the latest Mario title, Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii home video game system.
» Read More