Grade Your Consoles/Portables 2009

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Give your consoles a grade from A to F depending on how you feel they did games-wise this year. Of the current systems I only have a PSP and a DS, so I'll only be rating those two.

PSP - D (for now)
I haven't played my PSP a lot this year. I started Ys7 a while ago but haven't made much progress, and I've been meaning to play Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and R-Type Tactics 2: Operation Bitter Chocolate. However, for some reason, I rather play my PS2 and old PSP games. There's still Darius Burst coming, so I'll give the PSP a D for now. I'll be back for a re-grade once I get around to finish this year's harvest.

DS - F (for now)
I can't think of a single DS game that made me excited this year. Where's the core action games? Last year the DS at least had Castlevania. Someone tell me if I missed something major that requires my attention. I'll reserve my judgment for now.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Ain't cha forgetting Taito's Space Invaders Extreme 2 sequel? That was much better than the first one. And let's not forget Ketsui Death Label...portable Cave-flavored danmaku madness on the go. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[neorichieb1971]

PS3 -

This is the only console I actively played in 2009 for any great length of time. Prince of Persia, Dead Space, Wipeout HD, Prologue, GOW collection, RE5, Burnout paradise are about the only games I played from recollection. Its been a crap year for nextgen games because the sort of stuff that came out towards the end of the PS2 era was actually more fascinating.

I do try to play the arcade cabinets as much as possible, but they are in the garage and its -5 outside. They are in winter hibernation.

2010 looks like a better year for PS3. It better be, i'm gradually getting tired of over complicated games that are extended by the use of stupid trophies. But if thats how gaming is going thats how its going. I hope Last Guardian comes out in 2010.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Ain't cha forgetting Taito's Space Invaders Extreme 2 sequel? That was much better than the first one. And let's not forget Ketsui Death Label...portable Cave-flavored danmaku madness on the go. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I find shmups that use both screens to be utterly unplayable. I would've bought it if they made a PSP version. Ketsui DS wasn't too bad but it was last year .

Edit: I wish I had a PS3 right now for Demon's Souls, RE5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 1 / 2, God of War 3 and Bayonetta (if they fix it.) That's a lot of hardcore action games!

[Elixir]

360 had Death Smiles, Bayonetta and Futari. PS3 had Demon's Souls. PSP had MHFU. Those are my picks.

[Ed Oscuro]

PC - it does everything but fry an egg
supergun - why do you eat so much of my money
DS - it brings Super GnG (and before that, Gradius Galaxies and other good stuff)
360 - this would be great on an HDTV I guess.

[ColonelFatso]

PC - it does everything but fry an egg

Good thing you have the 360 to handle that one for you then.

PC - Didn't play many recent releases this year, but Borderlands was pretty good. Would have bought MW2 in a heartbeat until IW/Actiblizzion decided to take a dump down the collective throat of the PC games community. Most of the games I want won't be out until next year, but Quake Live open beta brings it back up to an A+ year as far as I'm concerned.

Wii - Average year for the platform. Metroid Prime Trilogy was a fun way to catch up on good games I missed last generation, and NSMBW is sheer, unadulterated platforming bliss (apart from being way too easy). Besides that, there's still the host of amazing VC games hanging around there. B

DS - Scribblenauts. Enough said. A+

[Ed Oscuro]

PC - it does everything but fry an egg

Good thing you have the 360 to handle that one for you then.

It's actually not mine to fry with. I did get it to overheat shut down though. (That's fixed now.) 2007 unit too!

[Rob]

360 -- C -

Some crappy Metroid clone with lots of talking was the XBLA 'highlight' of the year, while there were a few shooter ports available on disc (nice), a somewhat disappointing Resident Evil 5 and unexpected Left 4 Dead 2 (real highlight). Gets a definite minus for ridiculous DLC I mistakenly purchased this year (Gears of War 2 maps to be heavily discounted a few months away, same for the Fallout 3 micro-adventures).

DS -- F

Sold it. As much as I like the actual system, the games suck. Needs a lot more action games.

[Vexorg]

I don't really think I could assign grades to any of the major gaming platforms, since in generall I didn't play enough of the major releases for any of them to be able to really say one way or another. My PSP pretty much got used for Disgaea and 2, my Wii spent most of the year at my parents' house (although I did reclaim it recently to play a few games like Muramasa and NSMB Wii) and aside from ODST (which I got mostly because my brothers like to play Halo online on a regular basis) I really didn't get many 2009 games for my 360. I've got a few on my "get eventually" list though (Beatles Rock Band, Borderlands, Forza 3,) but I'm in no hurry. I will say that the DS seriously mailed it in this year, and I only ended up getting one game (Scribblenauts, which was predictably overrated, but enjoyable for a while. It would be interesting to see what could be done here with more effort.) I think we'll be hearing about a successor to the DS sometime next year. The platform is starting to get stale, and even though it's still pretty handily beating the PSP in terms of sales, it's starting to look like the real competition for the handheld market is soon going to be coming from the iPhone, although this depends largely on how quickly iPhone games manage to stop being glorified shovelware and to catch up with commercial quality.

Speaking of the PSP, I do have to say that the PSPgo is quickly turning into the biggest blunder Sony has made in the post-Kutaragi era. Taking out features and jacking up the price is a sure recipe for epic fail, and it looks like the PSPgo is already selling less units per week than even the Xbox 360 in Japan, while regular PSPs continue to sell pretty much the same as they always do. I suppose if there's a bright side to it, it's making a lot more downloadable games available to regular PSP owners.

I will say that I have recently been getting back into PC gaming (mostly grabbing whatever Steam has on sale, but nostly playing Team Fortress 2 right now) after a lengthy hiatus, I still don't play all that much on PC though. I'm also finally getting a PS3, although this is mostly to play through a few exclusives, and I seriously doubt it'll be replacing the 360 as my primary console anytime soon.

It's actually been a surprisingly good year for games in general (not quite up to the standards set by the Fall of 2007, but pretty good nonetheless)

[sjewkestheloon]

Xbox 360 - A - Dragon Age: Origins which is clearly my goty and will be played for years to come; Borderlands which is fun and has legs in the way of loot grinding, boss runs, challenges, and 3 more characters that need to see lvl 50; Sacred 2 which sapped me of about 600 hours; Lego Indiana Jones 2 which has reignited the collecter in me; Star Ocean 4 which introduced me to a new series with a great battle system and lots of post game fun.

PS2 - B - Not really grading this for new releases but for the fantastic back catalogue and the pile of games that I am yet to play. Currently working on Star Ocean 3 and I can almost taste the last boss, and my future wife has got me Global Defense Force and Persona 4 for christmas. I'm pretty sure there will always be something to play on the PS2.

PSP - A - Purely a hyped grade due to the fact that I have only owned one for a week, but there is a pretty good catalogue of games that interest me, with my 2009 highlight being Rock Band UnPlugged which I am putting a lot of time into. Will not stop until I've gold starred every damn song.

[EinhanderZwei]

PSP - the game I praised the most was definitely Phantasy Star Portable. Sure, there were tons of other quality titles, but this one just shook me and gave hours and hours of challenge. A!

PS2 - highlights were Zone of the Enders 2 and MGS3. Kojima rulz! A

PS3 - I OBTAINED it! Ain't this enough Though I haven't played any games seriously yet, so for now - B

[louisg]

I have a Wii, but tbqh the last generation rules too much. I'm sure I'll get around to playing Wii and 360 games in 2012 or thereabouts.

[DJ Incompetent]

Ha, I don't remember what came out when. Iiiiiii'm misinformative!

360 ~ A- ~ Raidens & Futari. Splosion Man does platforming better than Mario Wii. All good news. L4D2 broke the online that was previously working. The AAA games are still godawful. Indie games made up for that as they have drastically improved and I play them now more than the commercial offerings. I dunno if that's sad or awesome. I wish I could play something with a story that didn't make me vomit. They should try making that sometime. Can they fix the custom soundtrack issue with the massive song load times? Please? Anyway, DJ Hero is fucking cool.

Wii ~ C ~ Wii Mario is a waste of money solo. Tiger Woods Disc Golf, Wii Sports-R, and Silent Hill Remix are the only things I can think of that try to take the controls seriously? Back to them thar light gun shooters. Thanks House of the Dead Overkill. You won Wii game of the year by default and you're buggy as hell.

PS3 ~ B- ~ It's doing the exclusive AAA single player games ok, but none of them are very interesting to me. Some cool downloads like Shatter tho. They've proven that the online is decidedly cheater's paradise only, so bring your haxors. If you can't, don't bother using it.

PSP ~ B ~ Half Minute Hero, Dissidia, and LBP were probably pretty cool?

PSPgo ~ A- ~ 4/5th of the UMDs I was after made it to the PSN already. I have no real complaints. I use this device for something pretty much every day. God bless it. Every purchase.

DSL/Ph ~ B ~ Homebrew with GBA flash carts is still apparently pretty neat. Knights in the Nightmare, Ketsui, 'n Space Invaders Extreme 2 are good times. Chrono Trigger new TLB was worth the purchase.

DSi ~ B ~ DSiware has something going for it when it isn't clocks. Knights in the Nightmare, Ketsui, Space Invaders Extreme 2, Chrono Trigger still all work.

iPhone ~ C+ Yeah it has a ton of shit, but..!...-yeah-...-ton of shit. Thank god this can do all kinds of other stuff though. Like icycalm ranting about DS applications reviewed on gaming sites.

Android ~ D ~ Games do exist, yeah?

WebOS ~ D ~ Soooooooo...

Dreamcast ~ C- ~ Some Lumines clone came out for it. It's apparently not bad. Some other games from Goat Store Publishing are out there now or soon.

PS2 ~ D+ ~ Bye bye. Youuuu suck. Everybody ♫ does ♫ stuff better than yoooooouu ♫♫ Ok Persona 4 is supposed to be alright. Not interested.

PC/Mac/Linux ~ C+ ~ Atomic Super Boss, fuck yeaaaah! I still steal music from you, computer. That's neat.

[kengou]

PS3 - B
I got it this year, and overall I'm happy with it. I haven't bought too many games from this year though, been mostly buying older games that I missed. I've bought UFC and Demon's Souls, both of which I enjoy. On PSN, Gravity Crash and PixelJunk Shooter are terrific. Of course I'm waiting until christmas for Brutal Legend and Assassin's Creed 2, both of which look to be great. That might bump my grade up to an A. Really not interested in the other big PS3 releases like Uncharted 2 or Killzone 2, though.

Wii - C
The Wii doesn't get an F this year because of NSMB, Tiger Woods 10 and Wii Sports Resort. Those were the ONLY Wii games of this year I got (already own every Metroid Prime game). Overall though this wasn't a good year for the Wii. 2010 should be much better though, with Red Steel 2, No More Heroes 2, Mario Galaxy 2, and Metroid Other M.

DS - D
Mostly for Scribblenauts. Didn't get anything else from this year. I just bought that system specifically for Ketsui though.

PC - B
Big releases I've bought: Batman, Champions Online, Empire Total War, Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition, and Torchlight. Overall a pretty good year, with the one downside being Activision/Infinity Ward trying to destroy PC gaming by taking away our dedicated servers. I didn't even care about MW2 itself, but it's clear that they knew they had a guaranteed massive hit on their hands no matter what they did, so they decided to start a precedent of removing dedicated servers in order to sell map packs and restrict the PC experience (and maybe curtail piracy). The end goal of this is to drive PC gamers over to consoles by removing every aspect of PC games that is better than console games, dedicated servers being a major one. Developers make much more profit if every gamer plays exclusively on consoles and the PC is out of the picture. Other developers will (and some have begun already to) copy MW2 and not include dedicated servers. The gamers have certainly had a negative reaction to MW2 and IWNET but it's STILL a top seller on Steam. We need to wait and see whether developers will actually begin to make a concerted effort to kill PC gaming. PC gaming has been "dead" since the PS2 came out, according to console gamers, but no one has been actually TRYING to kill it before (except maybe Microsoft). We'll see in the next few years what comes of this, but I hate to say it doesn't look good. /rant

[BulletMagnet]

360: The Cave ports and the localized RFA (and maybe Mamoru-kun) made for a great year on the shmup front, while Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue kept things moving in fighter-ville. Not a heck of a lot else on the system appealed to me in any other genre, though, at least not this year....and honestly, not much outside of those two genres has me hyped for next year either.

DS: My first year owning one - Henry Hatsworth, Atelier Annie, and Knights in the Nightmare made me happy I have it. Several other titles (Might + Magic Clash of Heroes, Scribblenauts, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga, Avalon Code) showed lots of promise but didn't live up to what might have been, however...still plenty hyped for SMT: Strange Journey.

PSP: A mixture of pleasant surprises (DJ Max Fever, Hammerin Hero, Half-Minute Hero, Persona) and deflating disappointments (Prinny, Patapon 2), as per usual.

PS2: I love late-era discount niche releases (KoF 98 Ultimate Match, SamSho Anthology, GGXXAC+, Ar Tonelico II, Devil Summoner 2), don't you? Too bad Sakura Taisen's been delayed about a dozen times now...hopefully it'll at least usher out the system on an up-note when it does get here.

Have a few PS3 and Wii titles on my shelf, but no system to play them on yet.

[CIT]

DS - Had a bunch of good games in 2008, but nothing at all of interest in 2009 = D

PSP - Didn't have much of interest either, BUT Darius Burst will be release, therefore: B-

PS3 - SF4, BlazBlue, RE5, Killzone 2, etc., make this my most played current gen system, so: B+

360 - Only used for Japanese shooter imports, but on that alone = B+


Generally the current gen kinda sucks tho...

[CMoon]

Wii - (D+) Muramasa was fun for a few hours. Apparently the new Silent Hill is magnificent but only 6 hours long. Will rent. Wii sports restort was exactly what it promised--a demo disc selling for full retail. Oh hell, at least some points for Metroid Chronicles, just in case you haven't played them.

PS2 - (C-) Ugh, I love this console but the new titles for this year were obviously lacking. Devil Summoner had a lot of gameplay but there's no part of me that wants to play it again (and many parts were annoying.) Short of the above mentioned SNK compilations, there just weren't enough new releases. That said, I put tons of hours into the PS2 this year playing older titles--and those titles still rock!

DS - (C-) Man, the DS goes long stretches without good games. The most recent was Devil Survivor, but I ended up liking it. Then there's a huge stretch of time where nothing was coming out on it. The beginning of the year however was pretty strong with Dragon Quest 5, Dark Spire and Castlevania. Note that there are only two developers keeping this console alive for me: Atlas and Squeenix. That said, 2010 has Strange Journey and Dragon Quest 9; so for a few months, the DS will become an A+ system again, then drift back down to its C/D status.

PS3 - (B+) My new baby. Not quite an A yet for me, but that may change soon. Plenty of titles coming out in March or so. Still a lot of great titles I have yet to purchase. Mostly playing Fall Out 3, Demon's Souls and Street Fighter 4. These three games already put it on the cusp of greatness for me!

Gamecube (F-) Included it here because I just threw mine in the garbage.

Edit: Sorry, I know fallout 3 is a 2008 game, but still...

[linko9]

Wii- C. Not much going for it this year, but Little King's Story was amazing; one of my favorite games this generation. Muramasa was decent, and I really enjoyed NSMBWii as well. I've still got a sizable stack of GC games I'm slowly getting through as well, so my Wii gets more use than it should.

DS- A-. Honestly, I can't even think of a list of games that came out this year, but it doesn't matter, because there are so many great games on the DS already that I'll always have a backlog of games to play. Not since the SNES has a console had so many games that I want to play. Unfortunately, most of those games are more in the "very good" category than the "amazing" category, so the SNES still wins out by far.

That's it for me; I've been tempted to pick up a 360, but until (or if) they stop RRODing every two weeks, I'm not going to bother.

[Rob]

That's it for me; I've been tempted to pick up a 360, but until (or if) they stop RRODing every two weeks, I'm not going to bother.

I wouldn't worry about it if you buy a new one.

[professor ganson]

DS - A+ (well over 20 titles, MANY from this year, that I currently want to play)
PSP - A (about 20 titles I want to play)
PS3 - B (about 5 titles I want to play)
360 - C (some nice import shooters)
Wii - D (currently nothing much of interest to me, one or two on the horizon)

[Square King]

DS - B. I really only use it for a handful of old school titles/RPGs and the homebrew music software.
360 - A for reasons mentioned previously.
PS3 - I'd give this an A 1) if I had one and 2) for Demon's Souls alone.
Wii - C. I'm a sucker for new Mario platformers, but not much else wowed me this year.

[system11]

360 - mostly this gets used for PSU, so I can't even tell you what most of the years major releases were. The new Forza is fun enough, Futari port fantastic.

DS - I'm not even sure I switched it on this year. Oh - a bit of Layton, do they still make DS games?

PS3 - Got stolen and I didn't like anything on it enough to buy another one when the insurance paid out. Kind of miss Elefunk.

[CMoon]

@some of the past few posts> Keep in mind that your rating the console for the games THIS YEAR. I'm only sayin' cuz I want to know what 2009 games I need to be playing for the DS to be an A!??

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Some people can't slam a F to their precious or something. Almost all console would get great marks from me if the back catalog is accounted too.

[professor ganson]

Honestly, I'm pretty shocked that people here don't keep up on DS/PSP releases from Japanese companies. There have been some truly excellent ones this year. Here's a brief reminder of some of the highlights:

Space Invaders Extreme 2
SMT: Devil Survivor
Mario & Luigi: Inside Story
Phantasy Star Zero
Persona
Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
Phantasy Star Portable (go Alfa System!)
Crimson Gem Saga (this is a real gem)
Dissidia
Knights in the Nightmare
Fire Emblem SD
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga
Tactics Layer
Pokemon Platinum
Suikoden Tierkreis
Star Ocean 2
Half-Minute Hero
Atelier Annie
DQ 5
Nostalgia
Black Sigil
Kingdom Hearts (if you like that kind of thing)
Laevatein Tactics
Shining Force Feather

[professor ganson]

DS -- F

Sold it. As much as I like the actual system, the games suck. Needs a lot more action games.

Provocative enough for me to take the bait. First, the games suck? Given that the DS is pretty much this gen's PS2, a blanket statement like this makes no sense at all. With such a huge library and so many highly rated titles, I can't really see any way of defending this claim. Even if all you mean by "the games suck" is I don't like them, even then I doubt your claim. I'm thinking that you didn't play enough titles.

As for the action games comment, I suppose there isn't really anything as popular as God of War or whatever, but the system isn't really suited for that sort of game, it seems to me. By the same token, I don't think the PS2 had any puzzle games at the level of Planet Puzzle League or Tetris DS (even if Bombastic was rather nice).

[honorless]

Space Invaders Extreme 2
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (best-written JRPG ever)
Crimson Gem Saga (hardly perfect, but I have a soft spot for it)
Knights in the Nightmare
Half-Minute Hero (err...not DS, but good)
DQ 5

I trimmed the fat, Professor.

Nah, there were a few more on your list that are probably worth a look (Devil Survivor, most notably) but a lot of those games are pretty meh, especially if your tolerance for anime bullshit is low.

...And WHERE is Rhythm Heaven? Art thou mad?!

I'd rate my systems but I buy too much stuff on sale and after price drops, so I have no idea what came out in 2009. Anyone got a convenient list?

[professor ganson]

Space Invaders Extreme 2
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (best-written JRPG ever)
Crimson Gem Saga (hardly perfect, but I have a soft spot for it)
Knights in the Nightmare
Half-Minute Hero (err...not DS, but good)
DQ 5

I trimmed the fat, Professor.

Nah, there were a few more on your list that are probably worth a look (Devil Survivor, most notably) but a lot of those games are pretty meh, especially if your tolerance for anime bullshit is low.

...And WHERE is Rhythm Heaven? Art thou mad?!

I can't agree with your editing, but I will say I haven't played Rhythm Heaven. Rock Band 2 pretty much made all other rhythm games obsolete for my purposes.

My list above includes, as I said, both DS and PSP titles.

[honorless]

My list above includes, as I said, both DS and PSP titles.

I wasn't sure why you included PSP games at all, as most people seem to be at least OK with this year's offerings. (at least compared to the litany of DS SUCKS AND HAD NO GAMES posts)