By Joshua Cornelius

Opinion on current topics of interest isn’t exactly our bag here at TFL.  If you’ve found your way to this site, it’s likely that you’re an obsessive film fanatic (like we are) or Google Images sent you here for a picture of The Warriors or Natalie Portman.  Whatevs.  We’re cool with it.  However you found your way here, we’re happy to have you.  Now bear with us as we recount our favorite and not so favorite things of 2011.  We’ll be back to discussing and dissecting classic cinema in a hot minute.

Also, since TFL isn’t a topical media site, we aren’t afforded the influx of swag that every other media site is.  We aren’t sent reviewers copies of DVD’s, music or games and we don’t have anyone pushing us to promote their products.  These are just our opinions, culled from a year of media exposure.  If your own favorite music, game or movie doesn’t make this list, it’s probably just because we didn’t see it.

Best of 2011: Games

It was a huge year for yours truly in terms of gaming.  I finally left behind the trappings of the Wii and embraced traditional console gameplay once more.  With a gently used Xbox 360 in tow, I’ve been slogging through a staggering number of next generation games, searching for gold amongst the detritus.  It may have been a trade-in happy year, but it was a productive one, and I feel more in tune with current game design than I have since the NES days (did we mention we’re old school gamers?).  I’d once owned an original XBox, and was afforded a treasure trove of the latest free games to play at my whim, (Yes, free.  By way of employment.  It was kind of amazing.) though the system just didn’t grab me.  I wound up selling off the system and the games to purchase an Apple computer.  The rest is history, as the staff here at TFL are predominantly Mac based.  As such, my MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and XBox 360 enjoy an uneasy relationship vying for my media attention.

All of that is to make the point that I’m primarily gaming on the Microsoft platform while the lovely Alexandra has spent the year gaming on PlayStation 3.  These opinions are formed by reviewers who own all three consoles, Apple computers and a half dozen iOS based devices.  The games we’re ranking here weren’t the only ones we played, just the ones that attracted us enough to purchase and love them.

Okay, let’s dig into the games.

Best iOS games of 2011: Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 & Sword and Sworcery

The two games Alexandra and I chose for iOS GOTY simply had no damn business being as good as they were.  Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 didn’t need to offer a rich, console worthy experience that also completely re-imagined the aesthetics and gameplay of said console versions.  The result is a game that stands along with it’s console brethren as a companion experience with no less depth and complexity.  Lego HP is the result of a team of developers recognizing the true potential of a handheld platform for a rich, deep gaming experience.  It stands out as a shining achievement amongst a myriad of licensed games attempting to cash-in by offering frustratingly brief endeavors to recreate a cinematic experience.  I think we also have a legion of discerning Harry Potter fans to also thank for raising the bar on their own expectations of how the young wizards should be handled.  We can’t wait to play Years 5-7!

Sword & Sworcery oozes indie charm.  It might also be the title that defines the iPad as a gaming device.  Sure, on paper the game is a fairly straight-forward looking retro, side-scrolling action RPG in the vein of Legend of Zelda II.  Spend even a few minutes with the game and you’ll find a rich, audio sensory experience that rewards exploratory gameplay and invites gamers to not simply rush through the experience.  Certain gameplay mechanics hinge directly on real world time and lunar cycles to be completed.  You might need to wait days for the moon and stars to literally align so that you can move forward in your adventure.  Sure, not every game will have you checking the lunar cycles while you’re at work, but this isn’t every game.  Sword & Sworcery revels in its weirdness, but never at the cost of gameplay.  The developers of the game, Superbrothers, have created a tough act to follow.  If you have an iPhone or iPad and haven’t played S&W, you’re doing something wrong.

Runners-Up: Battleheart and Jetpack Joyride

Both titles feature deceptively simple gameplay, can be played for a few minutes (or several hours) at a time, and will keep you coming back again and again.  Both titles have also wisely dumped the notion of in-app purchases as a necessary means of extending the experience of gameplay, something that’s becoming increasingly rare in the iOS marketplace.

The best games we played in 2011 that weren’t released in 2011:
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and Red Dead Redemption

Yeah, we know, this isn’t really part of the formula.  So what.  Since truly next generation gaming came to me late in the console cycle, I spent a good portion of the year playing pre-owned games from 2010 and earlier.  The result is that I had an incredibly journey through the life of the 360 as a console.  Verdict?  The games have certainly become much prettier, but really only in the last two years did developers begin to think up new ways to evolve gameplay beyond graphics.  Maybe it’s the influence of the Wii?  Regardless, having sampled the history of this current console cycle, I can clearly say that things improved ten-fold beginning in 2010.  Yay us, yay game developers… yay everybody.  Whatever is going on, it has me interested in gaming again.

Alexandra’s pick for best game not released in 2011 is Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4.  I am not in disagreement on this.  Having played many of Travelers Tales Lego themed games in the past, I can firmly say that Lego HP is a vast improvement on the formula that made Lego Star Wars such a success.  Games like Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones borrowed the aesthetic and the gameplay, but made very little effort to improve upon it or add gameplay mechanics that would favor their respective properties.  Lego HP by contrast features a clever wand system that adds a layer of complexity that might not even exist in some of the officially licensed photo-realistic games.  Sure, we’re fans of both Harry Potter and Lego, but that doesn’t stop Lego HP from being immensely playable and fun for people of all ages.

As for my pick, Red Dead Redemption, I believe I said more than enough about the game in my sprawling exploration of the title this past summer.  Suffice to say, Red Dead Redemption is one of the greatest sandbox games ever produced by Rockstar, or anyone for that matter.  If you own a next gen system and haven’t played it, that’s a crying shame.

Runners-Up: Batman: Arkham Asylum

We’re comic book fans, so picking up this game was a foregone conclusion.  What I wasn’t expecting was to find a game that fully put me in the shoes of Batman.  While I don’t necessarily jibe with the games overly muscled, excessively shiny aesthetic, I do appreciate that so much went into making this game another licensed property that outshines all others.

To be continued in Part 2 – Game of the Year!