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[Speevy]

Every year, a handful of games offers a gaming experience like none you've experienced before. Whether through repackaging an existing gameplay mechanic or creating all new ones, I love playing something new. I recently bought last year's favorite, Katamari Damacy, which is so good that they made a sequel appropriately titled for the level of praise it received.

Here are the GAF picks for titles which offer new and/or unique gameplay.

1) Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
2) Nintendogs
3) Perhaps We Love Katamari, there's still nothing exactly like it
4) Pheonix Wright
5) Trauma Center
6) Lumines
7) Mercury
8) Killer 7
9) Phantom Dust (really, third person combat based on flying into the air and slinging beam projectiles at each other across huge stages, all online. Nothing like it on consoles to my knowledge)
10) Shadow of the Collossus
11) Meteos
12) Quendan
13) Wario Ware Twisted
14) Indigo Prophecy
15) Kirby's Canvas Curse
16) Pac Pix
17) Psychonauts (for its presentation if nothing else)
18) Electroplankton
19) Far Cry Instincts (for the Feral & Trap System)
20) Lost in Blue

 

[Borys]

SotC

 

[bitwise]

Trauma Center

 

[Speevy]

SotC

Crap, how did I forget that?

*hangs head in shame*

 

[siege]

The Movies, if it lives up to it's promise.

 

[Borys]

Crap, how did I forget that?

*hangs head in shame*

Happens to everyone, no biggie.

Very nice list. I wonder did all those games together crack 500 000 units sold (EXCLUDING Nintendogs).

Probably not, we should all hang our heads in shame.

 

[Wario64]

Wario Ware Twisted

 

[JavyOO7]

Ouendan.

 

[Speevy]

While I don't expect SotC to sell, I think We Love Katamari will outsell its predecessor.

 

[Suikoguy]

I think you pretty much covered them all, i'd like to add Indigo Phophecy, but i'm not sure it qualifies

 

[King Jippo]

killer 7 - by far the most "unique", being the most "fun" is another story

 

[The_lascar]

1/ Jungle Beat
2/ Wario Ware Twisted
3/ Kirby DS

 

[Speevy]

I think you pretty much covered them all, i'd like to add Indigo Phophecy, but i'm not sure it qualifies

If the game provides an experience unlike 99.9% of other games out there, it qualifies.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Just going with what is laying on my desk but Kirby Canvas Curse or Pac Pix?

 

[polg]

Ouendaaaaaaaan!

 

[Speevy]

I wonder what will win the AIAS award for innovation. My guess is either Nintendogs or DKJB.

 

[daemonic]

I love your Nemo avatars Speevy. One of my fav games on the NES.

 

[Ranger X]

Okami?

 

[Speevy]

Okami?

2006, unless it releases in Japan this year.

 

[Ranger X]

christ i was sure it was 2005 *cries

 

[Ruzbeh]

Kirby should be way higher on that list. It's incredibly innovative, IMO.

 

[Speevy]

This is not a ranking of uniqueness/innovation. It's merely the order I typed everyone's choices.

 

[distantmantra]

Odama?

 

[Speevy]

Odama?

Neither it nor Chibi Robo will make it this year, sadly.

 

[Shiggy]

DKJB for me.

 

[cvxfreak]

Electroplankton? Wario Ware Twisted (although that's 2004 in Japan)?

 

[Speevy]

This list is looking like a Japanese hardware chart.

 

[daemonic]

Electroplankton
Phoenix Wright
Trauma Center
DK:JB

For me JB stands out the most though.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat. Not only innovative, but plays amazingly well.

 

[crunker99]

was katamari this year in the US?

 

[Tarazet]

Killer7 definitely, mainly because of the way it deals with the generation-old problem of camera control. Great example of looking to the past in order to pave the future.

Geist is innovative, from what I've read, but you'll have to stay awake through the drab presentation and mundane shooter parts to appreciate it. I couldn't even last through the demo, and neither could most people from the looks of it.

Lumines had some pretty damn cool innovations. The time bar is a masterstroke.

I think most of the best games this year weren't really very innovative at all. Ninja Gaiden Black, GTA San Andreas, Burnout Revenge, Psychonauts, God of War, Resident Evil 4.. there's really not a terrible amount of originality anywhere in that crop.

 

[Speevy]

Psychonauts successfully marries adventure gaming and platforming, so presentation-wise, it's very innovative. Also in terms of level/art design.

 

[Ark-AMN]

I'd add Lost in Blue to that list

 

[Mikazuki]

I'd call DKJB gimmicky, not innovative. Maybe if you had to play a specific beat to cause an action, that would be something, but there's no specific gameplay feature that could only be done with the bongos. I love the game, but to me it's simply a platformer with an unorthodox controller.

 

[Suburban Cowboy]

re4

 

[drohne]

i see a lot of standard genre titles with superficial control gimmicks on that list. games with genuinely new(ish) designs? only indigo prophecy and shadow of the colossus come to mind.

 

[Yoshi]

My vote goes to DK Jungle Beat =).

 

[Dragmire]

I thought Yoshi's Touch and Go, despite its shortness, was brilliant. It would have been fun with an adventure mode, but I'd say it has the most clever gameplay of any score focused game I know of. It was the first game with drawing-controlled platforming. I really like how you circle enemies and objects and then you can throw them to Yoshi or Mario. I like the way the score in the first part affects the Yoshi type and egg count in the second part. The levels are randomly generated, but still beautifully designed. The graphics are gorgeous as it changes from day to night (pretty unique for a 2D platformer).

The only problem with the game, IMO, is that there aren't really any goals other than high scores. If you could open up a lot more stuff through accomplishing goals, like mini-games and credits (similar to Meteos, which would also be pretty short-lived without it), it would have been the best early DS game for me.

 

[Speevy]

i see a lot of standard genre titles with superficial control gimmicks on that list. games with genuinely new(ish) designs? only indigo prophecy and shadow of the colossus come to mind.

Every single gameplay mechanic in Shadow of the Collossus has been experienced, from climbing to slashing to riding a horse.

You could call the presentation of these things in such a way superficial, but I say that having the elements presented as they are makes gaming better.

To me, it's all about the experience that the player derives from the game.

If hitting a bongo or drawing a character's path makes the game unique, then that uniqueness is no less valid than if Team Ninja decided to give the X360 controller-operated Ryu Hyabusa a surfboard.

 

[drohne]

i've only played a demo, but the process of fighting a colossus is unlike anything i've seen in any other game. i'm not saying that it's completely new: break a game down into actions as broad as "climbing" and "fighting" and nothing is new. i'm saying that rather than overlaying an existing genre with funny controls (as kirby does), it innovates on deeper design strata. which i find more meaningful.

it's also visually and narratively stark in ways that games rarely are.

 

[Dragmire]

I'd call DKJB gimmicky, not innovative. Maybe if you had to play a specific beat to cause an action, that would be something, but there's no specific gameplay feature that could only be done with the bongos. I love the game, but to me it's simply a platformer with an unorthodox controller.

Well, it also has an awesome combo system that I thought was pretty innovative. But I don't think the controls are at all suited for the normal controller. Movement is based on timing drum beats. That especially goes for swimming and flying. That's all possible on a normal controller, but who wants to play it that way? The clapping could be substituted with a button, but when you actually clap with drums, you've kind of got a physical dynamic going on with the game. Really, Dance Dance Revolution could also be played with a controller, but that would be stupid. DKJB really is a platformer designed for the physical action of using a drum.

 

[Speevy]

I guess we'll just agree to disagree, drohne. I believe controls are the most important thing any developer can do right. Once you have fluid, responsive controls and actions which are well-mapped to that end, anything is possible. Next is designing an entertaining use for the controls, which I believe DKJB for one does (I don't own a DS).

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Why aren't gimmicks innovative? Sure they may be throw-away one use mechanisms but they are still innovative.

 

[Speevy]

This thread was about uniqueness as well.

I don't suspect we'll see many games about rolling random objects into a giant ball next generation, but it's sure as heck fun.

 

[thorns]

Darwinia.

 

[Mikazuki]

Well, it also has an awesome combo system that I thought was pretty innovative. But I don't think the controls are at all suited for the normal controller. Movement is based on timing drum beats. That especially goes for swimming and flying. That's all possible on a normal controller, but who wants to play it that way? The clapping could be substituted with a button, but when you actually clap with drums, you've kind of got a physical dynamic going on with the game. Really, Dance Dance Revolution could also be played with a controller, but that would be stupid. DKJB really is a platformer designed for the physical action of using a drum.

Valid points. Some of the elements work better with the bongos, although I don't understand what you mean by "timing the drum beats". There's never a need to maintain a beat or "time" an action any different than with a pad.

Why aren't gimmicks innovative? Sure they may be throw-away one use mechanisms but they are still innovative.

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat makes excellent use of the bongos, but nothing with the game itself is innovative because of the bongos. It's a regular game with a new controller, not an innovative game making use of a new controller.

 

[tahrikmili]

I had to second "The Movies"

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat makes excellent use of the bongos, but nothing with the game itself is innovative because of the bongos. It's a regular game with a new controller, not an innovative game making use of a new controller.

I was speaking in a general sense. But since it was brought up, the bongo controller is basically three buttons (left, right, clap). The innovation in the game is the wide variety of actions you can do with those three buttons, including the movement. Granted a lot of it is context sensitive but there is a pretty decent range to just your normal movements which then leads into the combo and scoring system. I'd say the core gameplay/control is the main innovation in the game, much like I would with Halo.

 

[IJoel]

Unique? Psychonauts, Phantom Dust, Indigo Prophecy
Innovative? Not so sure about that, but I think Indigo Prophecy deserves a mention here as well.