While our Top 10 Games of 2009 deserve attention for their overall excellence, we can’t neglect this year’s other fantastic games — titles that just missed the final cut. Be it their charm or presentation, our Honorable Mentions were simply hard to forget. We’re arrive at the final installment in our five-part series with Nick’s list of honorable mentions.

There’s been an ongoing joke about how I was the only person here who played every single game on our top ten list. While it’s a testament to my superhuman persuasive abilities, it also raises some questions about how I spend my time and money. In my defense, this was probably the single best year ever for high-quality games in both the mainstream and the independent scenes.

Below is a list of the few games that couldn’t make the list, either because nobody else at Silicon Sasquatch had played them — or because the poor fools didn’t know what they were missing.

Machinarium

October — Windows, Mac

2009 was the best year for adventure games in a very long time. With Telltale dishing out five episodes of a brand-new Monkey Island series and LucasArts providing a lovingly crafted remake of the classic Secret of Monkey Island, those of us who dream in dialog trees were pleased as punch with the selection on offer this year. The only downside was that most of the games were mere iterations on old franchises and design principles.

Except for Machinarium.

The first full-length game from Czech developer Amanita Design, Machinarium is the story of a little robot and his journey to be reunited with his metallic sweetheart. The game stands out from its peers for a number of reasons — such as the beautiful, stylish artwork and great soundtrack — but what’s most notable is that it manages to tell a story without a single word. Characters communicate with wild gesticulation and cartoon thought bubbles, adding an immense amount of personality to an already charming world. It’s the best adventure game released this year, and it comes with my highest recommendation.

Street Fighter IV

February — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows

Sakura leaps over a bewildered Ken while a fat child rejoices

I’m what you might call a casual fighting game fan. I know and love the classics like Street Fighter II Turbo, Soul Calibur and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but I’ve never invested in the time or hardware to rise to a true competitive level. The amount of manual dexterity, patience and practice required to learn how to use a character’s moves wisely is part of a fighting game’s enduring value, but for whatever reason it never clicked with me as a fun way to spend my time.

Street Fighter IV converted me to the world of the hardcore fighter with its fine-tuned roster of exaggerated personalities and remarkably well-paced learning curve. I started out just playing a few versus rounds with friends and playing a few games against the computer, but over time I began to see hints of just how deeply strategic the game could be. Before I knew it, I was spending hours grinding out the challenge modes to master a few of my favorite fighters. As of this writing, I’ve played more than 200 online matches and logged a grand total of 43 hours — and that’s in a game where a round takes just a few seconds!

DJ Hero

October — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2

I’m a pretty fierce critic of Guitar Hero, and with good reason: Ever since Harmonix and RedOctane/Activision split ways after Guitar Hero 2, the series has failed to even come within reach of its former quality. Iteration after iteration and band-specific spinoff after spinoff, Guitar Hero has all but rendered itself irrelevant.

So you can imagine my surprise when a brand-new Hero game showed up this October and it wound up being excellent. FreeStyleGames managed to launch a new music franchise with all the right ingredients: an excellent soundtrack, a solid and rewarding learning curve and a sturdy, enjoyable turntable controller. The only thing lacking was a more robust interface to help organize gigs and add some weight to the single-player experience. But with a sequel almost certainly on the way, I’m certain FreeStyleGames has great things in the works.

The only downside? Having “Poison” by Bell Biv Devoe permanently lodged in my brain. Actually, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Assassin’s Creed 2

November — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

A presto, Ezio

It’s a shame we couldn’t squeeze Assassin’s Creed II into our top ten list. Although I was a huge fan of the original Assassin’s Creed, its repetitive mechanics and somewhat stunted narrative didn’t appeal to everyone. Fortunately, Ubisoft Montreal did the impossible by addressing just about every complaint that was leveled against its predecessor and producing a sequel that appealed both to fans and detractors of the original game.

I rarely take the time to complete 100% of the tasks available in a game anymore, but with its breathtaking, living cities and excellent pacing — a rarity in games with open worlds — I was compelled to find every last feather and treasure box within Renaissance Italy. Fortunately, with more downloadable content on the way, I won’t have to hang up my white cloak and daggers just yet.

Rock Band 2

September…of 2008 — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2

Just so we’re clear: Rock Band 2 came out in September of 2008. As in, it’s not a game from this year, and it technically has no business being on this list. But thanks to exceptional downloadable song support throughout the year and a patch that offered a number of significant improvements to the core experience, Rock Band 2 was the rare game that only got better with age. And with Rock Band Network launching in just a few weeks, the floodgates show no signs of closing. Based on my experiences participating in the closed Rock Band Network beta, there are a lot of interesting songs in the pipeline that are being peer reviewed and polished to the point where most are indistinguishable in quality from the weekly releases Harmonix has been putting out. It was easily my most-played game of 2009, and it’s all but guaranteed to dominate my living room in 2010.

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And to round out the list, I’ve included a few games that may not have much enduring value but stand out for providing some truly exceptional moments:

• Windosill – discovering just how much fun a game can be when the player is encouraged to stop and smell the roses
• Bejeweled Blitz — competing in weekly tournaments against friends in sixty-second bursts makes it easily the most addictive experience of the year
• Red Faction: Guerrilla — demolishing an entire military-industrial institution with a single sledgehammer

While our Top 10 Games of 2009 deserve attention for their overall excellence, we can’t neglect this year’s remaining deluge of fantastic games — titles that just missed the final cut. Be it their charm, gameplay or presentation, our Honorable Mentions were simply hard to forget. We now present part four of a five-part series of Honorable Mentions articles, one from each member of the Silicon Sasquatch staff. Here are Doug’s picks.

Retro Game Challenge

February — Nintendo DS

Retro Game Challenge, which I reviewed for the site back in the spring, is a wonderful, nostalgic trip that brings back old-school furnishings and game design with eight complete games in one package. Want a Japanese RPG featuring the familiar and painful difficulty of the 8-bit classics? You got it. Desire a classic shooter with 64-plus levels? Oh, you can have it — frustrating trappings and all. The title’s presentation stands out with its inclusion of a number of issues from a fictional video game magazine that chronicle the development and releases of the included games, as well as providing cheats and tips (some of which are absolutely essential). It’s pure fan service for hardcore Electronic Gaming Monthly enthusiasts of old.

NCAA Football 10 and Madden NFL 10

July — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 | August — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Left: NCAA Football 10; Right: Madden NFL 10

The EA Sports football twins, Madden NFL 10 and NCAA Football 10, play well, look great and have all the yearly updates that football gaming fans want, including features like the debut of an online franchise for Madden and the incredibly deep Team Builder for NCAA. But that’s about it. While there are game engine improvements to strengthen the on-field action — especially in regards to playbooks — there’s nothing groundbreaking here, folks. However, it’s still my preferred kind of gaming candy.

Peggle and Flight Control

May — iPhone | April — iPhone

Left: Peggle; Right: Flight Control

Peggle and Flight Control for the iPhone have saved me from boredom countless times, and both are brilliant examples of how to do gaming on the iPhone. I look forward to heeding Nick’s (and others’) advice by hunting the App Store for more bite-sized games during the course of 2010.

Brütal Legend

Rocktober — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

The last of my honorable mentions is a game best described as a beautiful catastrophe. Brütal Legend has probably the best intro video I’ve seen in a game, in addition to one of the best main menus, and the brilliant metal aesthetic keeps delivering throughout the whole experience. With great atmosphere, a well-designed world, a funny script, strong voice acting, an amazing soundtrack and awesome rock-tacular cameos…the game that Tim Schafer built seems to have it all. Unfortunately, Brütal Legend falls on its face when it relies on just one gameplay wrinkle way too much. The on-the-ground gameplay is fine, as are the driving and open-world exploration aspects, but the stage battles try to foster an RTS element that simply doesn’t work well enough as-is. The game is unique and ambitious, but it flew just a little too close to the sun.

While our Top 10 Games of 2009 deserve attention for their overall excellence, we can’t neglect this year’s remaining deluge of fantastic games — titles that just missed the final cut. Be it their charm, gameplay or presentation, our Honorable Mentions were simply hard to forget. We now present part two of a five-part series of Honorable Mentions articles, one from each member of the Silicon Sasquatch staff. Here are Spencer’s picks.

Though our top ten is a sturdy list of the year’s finest titles, we each had some favorites fall through the cracks. Here, then, are my preferred runners-up.

Red Faction: Guerrilla and Brütal Legend

June — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows | Rocktober — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Alec Mason (left) wields an ostrich as a sledgehammer while Eddie Riggs holds his beloved guitar, Clementine

Brütal Legend and Red Faction: Guerrilla are shoo-ins, the former being a flawed but ultimately fun strategy/adventure title, the latter a shallow but supremely enjoyable shooter with great physics and solid multiplayer. Both are worth playing, especially considering they’ll probably hit the $20-30 price range soon.

Gratuitous Space Battles

November — Windows

The name really does say it all.

While Left 4 Dead and its sequel were setting the standard for zombie apocalypse simulations, Tripwire was busy ignoring them both while releasing Killing Floor. Where the former titles are teamwork-oriented and story-driven in their portrayal of the infection, the latter is a gore-filled zombstomp – less about getting from point A to point B and more about taking down as many zeds as possible in post-apocalypse Britain.  Freaky English voodoo-thrash-electronica accompanies the action flawlessly.

Team Fortress 2

October 2007 — Windows (also available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as part of The Orange Box — but unfortunately without the Windows version’s updates)

The latest update pits the Blue Soldier against his best pal, the Red Demoman

Team Fortress 2 nets my final spot; yes, I’m quite aware it came out two years ago, but Valve’s regular updates are packed full with something for everyone; maps, hats, weapons, and even achievements for the recovering gamerscore-junkie. Valve’s commitment to TF2 makes it the best team multiplayer experience on the PC, as it has been for two years running.

While our Top 10 Games of 2009 deserve attention for their overall excellence, we can’t neglect this year’s remaining deluge of fantastic games — titles that just missed the final cut. Be it their charm, gameplay or presentation, our Honorable Mentions were simply hard to forget. We now present part one of a five-part series of Honorable Mentions articles, one from each member of the Silicon Sasquatch staff. Here are Tyler’s picks.

Killzone 2

February — PlayStation 3

First-quarter releases — even high-quality ones — often end up forgotten when it comes time for game-of-the-year discussions.  While Killzone 2 wasn’t necessarily the best first-person shooter released in 2009, it did a lot to make up for the disappointments of Killzone 1. It also proved to the games industry that Guerrilla Games is the powerhouse developer it had long been claimed to be.

The Dutch studio had a lot to live up to from the time when the stunning Killzone 2 target video was premiered at E3 in 2005, and the amazing feat is that they by-and-large did it.  If 2009 is remembered as the true “Year of the PS3,” Killzone 2 will be recognized as the title that kicked it off with a bang.

Half-Minute Hero

October — PlayStation Portable

PlayStation 3 wasn’t the only Sony platform with a dramatically improved catalog in 2009 — the PlayStation Portable also saw a resurgence of quality titles.  Half-Minute Hero understands the limitations of being a portable title by offering bite-sized, addictive chunks of entertainment while turning the  Japanese role-playing game genre on its head.  Fast yet entertaining design and well written, humorous dialogue are what make this the must-have portable experience of 2009…

Doodle Jump & Drop7

iPhone & iPod Touch

Left: Doodle Jump; Right: Drop7

…unless you count the App Store.  Apple was dragged into the gaming space kicking and screaming, but it didn’t take long for the iTunes App Store to become flooded with games for the iPhone & iPod Touch. However, 2009 saw the emergence of a new style of games that perfectly understood the limitations of the platform.

Doodle Jump and Drop7, my two most played iPhone games of 2009, represent my favorite style of games for the platform:  They’re easy to learn yet highly enjoyable games that can be played whenever you’ve got a few minutes to spare.  Nothing makes waiting in line more bearable like trying to beat your friend’s high score on Doodle Jump — and tweeting about it when you do.

Assassin’s Creed II

November — Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

I finished the latest branch in Desmond’s family tree relatively recently but it made a big impact on me.  Easily one of the most dramatically improved sequels of the year (and that’s coming from a fan of Altaïr), Assassin’s Creed II packed in excellent missions, more freedom for the player and an overall increase in content.

The title also boasted some of the best voice acting of the year and one of the most memorable open world environments ever seen in games with its brilliant realization of 15th Century Venice.  Despite how well put together the campaign was, what I find myself thinking about the most is the absolute trip of an ending that trumps its predecessor’s conclusion in nearly every possible way.  The third chapter of Ubisoft’s war of assassins & templars has leapt to the top of my list of most anticipated unannounced (yet inevitable) sequels.  A presto, Ezio.