| Publisher | ID | Played | Enjoyed | Which Publisher had the Best Year Ever? 5. Electronic Arts Not quite as magical as 2003's lineup, Ubisoft offered an equally solid roster of personal favorites this year; even their lackluster offerings like 187: Ride or Die were entertaining. Though my GameCube was buried under an avalanche of dust in 2005, Nintendo still pulled a solid 2nd place spot thanks to the wonderful stream of DS games. Konami didn't have a whole lot to offer this year but what I played was great. Even Castlevania: Curse of Darkness with its repetitive and slow gameplay managed to hold my interest. Eidos gets nods for two completely different games and for putting Tomb Raider off until 2006 (hopefully, it'll be good this time). And with 8,000 titles released this year I was guaranteed to enjoy at least a few from EA. And on Your Left |
| Activision | [A] | 5 | 0 | |
| Atari | [A] | 2 | 1 | |
| Capcom | [C] | 4 | 1 | |
| Eidos | [E] | 2 | 2 | |
| Electronic Arts | [EA] | 12 | 5 | |
| Groove Games | [GG] | 2 | 0 | |
| Konami | [K] | 4 | 3 | |
| LucasArts | [L] | 3 | 1 | |
| Majesco | [M] | 5 | 0 | |
| Midway | [M] | 6 | 1 | |
| Namco | [N] | 4 | 1 | |
| Nintendo | [N] | 7 | 5 | |
| Rockstar | [RS] | 2 | 1 | |
| THQ | [THQ] | 2 | 0 | |
| Ubisoft | [U] | 8 | 5 | |
| Vivendi | [VU] | 6 | 2 |
| Title | ID | Rel. | Insta-view |
| Bust-A-Move DS (DS) | [M] | Shallow presentation and lame touch screen control tarnish an otherwise solid (if typical) BAM game | |
| Gauntlet Seven Sorrows | [M] | Mindless button mashing fun for four. Even with online play it only lasts a few hours at best. Youch! | |
| Animal Crossing (DS) | [N] | Online play, new items and gameplay ensure this one will be in my DS for months (if not years) to come | |
| Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones | [U] | Dec | The franchise is dead again. Horrible animation & graphics, glitches, and even more absurd than #2 |
| Snood 2: On Vacation (DS) | [DSI] | Fun Snood gameplay and lots of challenges but DS features are totally ignored. Extras are fairly lame | |
| Peter Jackson's King Kong | [U] | Great cinematic experience, beautiful graphics. Exhillerating but oh-so-dreadfully-short! | |
| Sonic Rush (DS) | [Sega] | Classic Sonic platforming action with cool 3D segments and plenty of speed. A bit short but fun | |
| 50 Cent: Bulletproof | [VU] | Impossible to play thanks to a too-close camera and miniscule crosshair. Full of rap service if you like it | |
| Aeon Flux | [M] | Bloodrayne 2-ish gameplay with a movie license. Playable, passable, middle-of-the-road once again | |
| Need for Speed: Most Wanted | [EA] | Almost hits the perfect balance but needs more sports cars. Finely honed but AI is ridiculously tough | |
| True Crime: NYC | [A] | Vastly improved from SoLA but still too sloppy and buggy to be much fun | |
| Half-Life 2 (X) | [EA] | A faithful port of the great PC adventure, but with graphics at rather unimpressive levels | |
| DDR Ultramix 3 (X) | [K] | Fun new modes (mostly party stuff) and few old songs make DDR fun again, needs even more songs tho | |
| Mario Kart (DS) | [N] | I am NOT a fan of Mario Kart gameplay. Online play is a first and mostly painless but too impersonal | |
| Shamu's Deep Sea Adventure | [A] | Very pretty, but very linear and child-oriented. I played it out of shear morbid curiosity | |
| GUN | [A] | GTA-gone-West this is not. Too linear and "side missions" are just as repetitive as the story missions | |
| Harry Potter and the GoF | [EA] | Like Gauntlet but slower, more sluggish, and with annoying combat | |
| The Matrix: Path of Neo | [A] | A Morpheup leap above EtM but for every step forward it bullet time leaps 3 back. Sloppy, buggy | |
| Castlevania: Curse of Darkness | [K] | Nov | Bland, repetitive, but oddly compelling with a decent weapon/forging system |
| The Bible Game | [Crave] | Mario Party gone Christian. Hilarious presentation with some creative and some disturbing minigames | |
| Sims 2 | [EA] | Burned out from PC version, but offers a unique take on Sims control | |
| 007: From Russia With Love | [EA] | Nowhere near as great as Everything or Nothing, even more linear in design | |
| SSX On Tour | [EA] | Fun for a few days but not enough additions and a few startling subtractions from SSX 3 | |
| Battlefield 2: Modern Combat | [EA] | Offline AI rape! What ever happened to realism? Soul-swapping between squadmates is great | |
| Call of Cthullhu: Dark Corners... | [2K] | Smart, creepy, authentic horror game tainted by confusing puzzles and trial-and-error gameplay | |
| Stubbs the Zombie (X) | [Aspyr] | Playing as a zombie should be more fun than this! Seems pointless with little direction throughout | |
| Without Warning | [C] | WOW! Biggest, most unplayable disappointment of the year! | |
| Land of the Dead (X) | [GG] | Very ugly, mildly creative FPS that never really takes off | |
| F.E.A.R. (PC) | [VU] | Really great gunplay and FX but grows formulaic and repetitive for much of the experience | |
| Tony Hawk's American Wasteland | [A] | Lame-o story mode, I'm burned out on the series altogether | |
| The Warriors | [RS] | One of the worst movies ever gets a GTA/Manhunt gang-centric brawler. Solid, but repetitive fighting | |
| LA Rush | [M] | Rush is dead, killed off by the most generic hip hop street racing story mode and lack of any energy | |
| Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) | [Sony] | Put me off of all other games for at least 2 weeks! Utterly brilliant! | |
| Worms 4 | [M] | Oct | Better in 2D, unplayable in 3D |
| We <3 Katamari (PS2) | [N] | Fun and all but somehow missing the magic of the original | |
| Cold War (X) | [Dream] | I don't get it. A slingshot as a high-tech weapon of Cold War infiltration?! | |
| Lost in Blue (DS) | [K] | Great up until the worst block puzzles in history! A challenging, if kiddified take on the survival genre | |
| Far Cry Instincts (X) | [U] | Wow! Incredible! A total 180 from the original and just as good for it | |
| Total Overdose | [E] | Slightly flawed GTA gameplay channeling hilarious Robert Rodriguez comedy and over-the-top action | |
| Indigo Prophecy | [A] | Great. Short. Creative. Awkward ending. Coalition of Homeless. | |
| Dynasty Warriors 5 | [Koei] | My first real foray into DW territory. Fun and even a bit strategic but it needs more & faster gameplay! | |
| Ultimate Spider-Man | [A] | All the good bits from Spider-Man 2 simplified to stupidity. Pretty though | |
| Heroes of the Pacific | [U] | Just as lame as Secret Weapons over Normandy with just as unrealistic controls | |
| Ninja Gaiden Black (X) | [Tecmo] | HOLY HELL IT'S HARD! | |
| Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks | [M] | Awesome fan service and a halfway decent beat-em-up, especially in co-op | |
| Burnout Revenge | [EA] | Sep | Fun at first but I sooo miss Burnout 3, why the backward steps in design!? |
| Hulk: Ultimate Destruction | [VU] | WOWSERS! A total stress-busting, rampage of explosive destructive fun! | |
| 187 Ride or Die | [U] | Playable and even fun, the excitement gets lost in slow, simple gameplay and generic "street" story | |
| Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance | [C] | Street Fighter vs. GTA. The resultant "game" is a terrible mess of jerky gameplay and stiff animation | |
| Nintendogs (DS) | [N] | Tamagotchi for the millennium! Addictive, innovative, fun but can die off quickly with no long-term goals | |
| Pump it Up: Exceed | [Mastiff] | Best dancing game ever finally has a US release. Great pad and Xbox Live extras. Best step editor ever! | |
| Darkwatch | [C] | Aug | What a disappointment, another linear FPS disguised by intriguing story/setting with lots of spawn-holes |
| Nanostray (DS) | [M] | Impressive visuals, frantic shooter gameplay, irritating touch screen weapon control. WAY too short! | |
| Flatout | [VU] | Greatest physics ever, but after you get over them it's just another off-road racer | |
| Flipnic (PS2) | [C] | Jul | Best pinball outside the arcade. Creative and full of challenges, it's digital pinball the way it should be |
| Destroy All Humans | [THQ] | Hoping for Mercenaries-style fun, what I got was a lame mix of stealth, action and toilet humor | |
| Meteos (DS) | [N] | Finally, a quality puzzler for the DS! Meteos is tough, frantic, and full of unlockables | |
| Kirby Canvas Curse (DS) | [N] | Another first for the DS, a solid, fully-fledged platformer. Control is a little shallow but solid and fun | |
| Batman Begins | [EA] | Jun | It beats last year's Catwoman game... which isn't saying much |
| Advent Rising (X) | [M] | A big buggy mess of broken gameplay and generic sci-fi hooks that falls right on its face | |
| WarioWare Twisted (GBA) | [N] | Not to be outdone by the DS, Twisted is a whole new way to play WarioWare, fun and simple! | |
| Star Wars Episode III | [L] | A competent Jedi beat 'em up which lasts about as long as the movie. More fun in co-op | |
| Pariah (X) | [GG] | May | As generic as a sci-fi FPS can be |
| Predator Concrete Jungle | [VU] | The NES game was better than this. Fighting invisible pimps is just too ridiculous | |
| Area 51 | [M] | Another generic sci-fi shooter that doesn't live up to the hype. Passably entertaining but nothing amazing | |
| Stolen | [HIP] | A poor man's Metal Gear or Splinter Cell, it's well built and playable but not all that great | |
| Psychonauts | [M] | Artistic and creative, it was doomed to fail. I'd have evangelized it but I just don't care for platformers | |
| Midnight Club 3 | [RS] | The best of the series yet with full-on customization and great speed but damn does it get too hard! | |
| Jade Empire (X) | [MS] | I just don't like RPG's, especially ones that boil down to button mashing backed by crummy animation | |
| Dead to Rights 2 | [N] | Swearing does not justify this tries-too-hard bad cop shooter | |
| Lumines (PSP) | [U] | ADDICTIVE! Worth almost every cent of a PSP | |
| Lego Star Wars | [E] | Ultimate mindless Star Wars fun for two players, but a little boring on your own | |
| Ridge Racer (PSP) | [N] | Haven't I played 95% of this game before? Lame! | |
| Pac-Pix (DS) | [N] | Like most DS games, fun for a while but over too quickly and not a whole lot to do | |
| Unreal Championship 2 (X) | [M] | Apr | Why make UC third person? The melee moves are overly powerful with wonky animations |
| Red Ninja: End of Honor | [VU] | Sloppy Tenchu-wannabe with nausea-inducing camera and equally vomitous controls/story/dialog | |
| Splinter Cell Chaos Theory | [U] | Finely honed to a razor's edge with new gameplay, great story, and incredible graphics | |
| Timesplitters Future Perfect | [EA] | Just plain ol' sloppy | |
| NARC | [M] | Mar | Drugs are fun, for about 20 minutes, then this lame cop blaster shows its rough edges and poor graphics |
| Y's The Ark of Napishtim (PS2) | [K] | For the fans, a fun little action/RPG. No less, no more. | |
| WarioWare Touched (DS) | [N] | Touch screen games are great fun but a shorter roster than the original puts this game to rest too soon | |
| Star Wars Republic Commando (X) | [L] | Moronic teammate AI drags this mediocre FPS way, way down | |
| Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 | [U] | Broken command system, too trial-and-error, and once again set in WWII | |
| NBA Street V3 | [EA] | Feb | Improved and expanded but missing a certain magic from Vol. 2 |
| Oddworld Stranger's Wrath | [EA] | Is it an FPS? Stealth Action? It sure isn't as grand as Oddworld's other works | |
| The Punisher | [THQ] | Cool executions spice up an otherwise bland action/shooter whose fun fizzles out about halfway through | |
| Mercenaries | [L] | Jan | A great open-ended romp of destruction and simultaneous rip on North Korea! |