Psychochild’s homework assignment this week concerned innovative games:

What is one of the most innovative console games from the last 2 years? What is one of the least innovative console games during the last 2 years? Focus on console games, if you will. But, if you’re not a console gamer a PC game is fine. Give your rationale for your choices. Pick at least one, but you can go up to 5.

I appreciated the easy week, what with the holiday and all. /me tips his hat.

Here are my choices for most innovative games of the last two years:

1. Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC) - As much as I’ve grown to love my consoles (especially my 360), I’m still a PC man at heart. HL2 gets my nod for best game of the year, most innovative … everything you can throw at it, this three our four hour beauty deserves it. The reason? Two words: Alyx Vance. I have never cared about an NPC the way I did during Episode One. She’s funny, she’s responsive, she’s helpful … what could have been a multi-hour escort mission was instead far, far too short for me. Can you imagine how great Oblivion would have been if every character were as convincing as Alyx? Or if mobs in a massive game could physically interact with your avatar in the way Alyx did with the zombies and ant lions? This, right here, is ‘next generation’ gaming. Valve beat everybody to the punch, and has set a very very high standard for the rest of the industry to follow.
2. Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) - Just *barely* making it in under the two year mark, RE4 is a shooter that is going to go down in the annals of gaming as a watershed moment. This game was one of the best titles ever released on the GameCube, a complete reinvigoration of the Resident Evil franchise, and has entirely set the tone for modern shooters. A lot of the goodness from Gears of War came from filing the serial numbers off of RE4. Plus, it was fricking scary, and it’s getting harder and harder to get actual fear out of gamers today. We’re kind of a jaded lot, you know?
3. Kirby: Canvas Curse (DS) - I could have just as easily picked Brain Age, or Nintendogs, or any other of a number of really great and innovative games for the DS. All things considered, though, I really like Kirby. The control scheme is unlike anything else I’ve ever played, and is one of the first titles that hit the system where the touch screen was obviously a centerpiece of the design. The system has gone on to great landmarks like Elite Beat Agents and Trauma Center, but I remember it all started with a little pink ball of fluff.
4. Burnout 3: Takedown (Xbox) - I really don’t like racing games, or sports games, or anything with folks ‘pushing it to the limit’. The fact that I have been gaffed like a fish by EA’s yearly ‘release a new game’ schedule, and on a driving game no less, surprised me greatly. I even traded in Burnout 4 for the new 360 version when I had the opportunity; I bought the game twice. The reality of it is that Burnout isn’t a racing game so much as a game about speed. You go fast, you fly far, you blow things up. Criterion took the sport of racing and stripped away everything about it that was unimportant. In doing so, this wonderful minimalist leftover is the perfect way to let off some aggression and grab yourself a bit of easy satisfaction.
5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360) - While the game itself has some definite flaws, the innovations involved in going from Morrowind to Oblivion have to be respected. Even if the NPCs weren’t all Alyx Vance, their individual goals and motivations set them apart from the usual sword-fodder. Bringing the ‘GTA’ concept to roleplaying is going to be something we’ll see copied a lot in future years, and that’s just the point; innovative games lead to ripoffs because they’re just so dang good.

My choices for the least innovative games of the last two years:

1. Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space (Xbox)- Sweet jesus on a stick. ‘Time manipulation’ is something that got popular in Ubi’s Prince of Persia series, and then showed up here in horrible horrible forms that man was never meant to play. You’re a time traveling cat, you see, who is fighting against the evil pigs for control of the chronospectrum. Also features the most ludicrously over-developed cat person creator you’re ever likely to see. This is deep, like Tony Hawk deep, and allows you to make your own Cat-Man. *shudder*
2. Black (PS2) - There have been a lot of bad shooters in the last two years, but Black takes the cake for ‘tries to do a lot and fails at everything’. The concept of ‘Gun Porn’, which is what Criterion was going for here, just fails utterly; bullets are just not that interesting.
3. We Love Katamari (PS2) - I liked the first one, I thought it was pretty cool. Self-referential humor, and completely uninspiring attempts at ’story’ do not improve upon the original design.
4. Dead or Alive 4 (360) - The ‘fighter’ genre is dead. Get over it. Please.

Please argue with me in the comments; surely I’m wrong about something? :)