Top Five Games of 2009

...and the circle should be complete. List your five favorite games released in 2009 for any platform or system.

I mean, we could do '79...

1. Assassin's Creed 2
2. Uncharted 2 - the list stops getting easy after this
3. God of War Collection - given it was upgraded for PS3, I'm counting it since it was my first experience with GOW
4. Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum

There could have been something I forgot. At this point of my life I was playing FFXI every day so I didn't get to some of these until much later.

Oops, should have listed mine.

5. Assassin's Creed 2 -Fixed a promising but lackluster first title and proved it could be a smash hit franchise before burnout kicked in around AC3 or 4...

4. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 - A neat if a bit underwhelming side story about fan favorite Organization XIII. Great plot, underrated gameplay, should have been a PSP title.

3. Dissidia Final Fantasy - It's a fighting game with Final Fantasy characters and more fan service than numbered entry. While not the greatest fighter ever made, the game did a great job of merging the smash RPG franchise into the lucrative world of fighting games.

2. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - An awesome remake of the beloved 16obit darling. More options, more monsters, and graphics that don't look like complete ass. DQV is already one of the better entries in the franchise and the DS remake just seals the deal.

1. Demon's Souls - Granddaddy of the strangely popular Dark Souls franchise, DS proved that gamers were up for a challenge and the game introduced a really awesome online component that is still copied today. While the game is far less refined than it's superior spiritual successor, it still showed how strong the idea of it all really is.

Not entirely sure on the order after number 1 since the rest is honestly closely packed together, but eh

1. Ar Tonelico 2 - Easy first spot for this late PS2 RPG that I absolutely love
2. Uncharted 2 - Loved this game not just for its campaign, but also the co-op and even the surprisingly enjoyable competitive multiplayer modes.
3. Resident Evil 5 - I know this game gets a lot of flak from the RE fanbase, but to me it was a really fun game, especially the co-op
4. Halo ODST - Would be my favorite Halo game if it wasn't for all the time i spent in Combat Evolved's multiplayer. My favorite Halo campaign.
5. Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - This game and its predecessor (Escape from Butcher Bay) have sadly kind of vanished from the face of the earth, but they were great first-person stealth action games.

1. Dragon Age: Origins - The cast and the worldbuilding are some of the best of any video game I've played. I also love the way your stats can influence dialogue, but you often don't know which ones will be useful until it's too late. So your character build ends up shaping the story, but in a way you don't always have tons of control over, which I think is cool.

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - I love everything Naughty Dog does. Third person shooters aren't really my cup of tea, generally, but they somehow find a way to make any genre they work in thoroughly engaging.

3. Final Fantasy XIII - Will always be my favorite Final Fantasy game.

4. Yakuza 3 - Probably the weakest Yakuza game, but still incredible. Very few series have the thematic range that Yakuza does, yet at the same time, the gameplay is stubbornly static (or it was until Like A Dragon, anyway). But it works. I laughed, I cried, and I enjoyed beating the crap out of everyone that wanted to pick on, dishonor, kill, or otherwise bother Kiryu's family.

5. Trine - A gem of a platformer. Not too punishing, which I like. But has enough depth to keep you interested to the end.

I was thinking Persona 4, but it turns out it was late 2008 in NA. I probably played most of it in 2009 and it's most likely the only nearly 2009 game that I actually played in 2009, because I didn't have a PS3 or any current gen console at the time. I did play some of them later though. Such as Yakuza 3. I played the remastered version of that last year. I also played Arkham Asylum at some point, but that was after playing Arkham City and I just didn't like it as much. Oh 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors was from that year. That was pretty good, which is probably good enough to qualify it as top 5 for a single year. I also like SMT Devil Survivor, despite what other fans of the series seem to think (I'm not actually a huge SMT fan anyway, as I don't generally care much for the mainline series, but like some of the spinoffs, especially Persona).