The one genre you can depend on for innovation, from year to year, is the hyper-competitive world of sports. Every year we get the trivial improvements like roster updates and a new set of animations, but it’s always pleasing when instead of churning out the same game, they make worthwhile and noticeable changes. Recently, EA Sports have been at the forefront of that, something we couldn’t have said at the beginning of the decade.
In 2007 Black Box and EA released Skate, a contender to the somewhat unchallenged Tony Hawk series. Introducing a revolutionary control system that primarily uses the sticks to control the board, it quickly cemented itself as the next step in the evolution of the niche genre. What made the experience so addictive was the continuing feeling of reward it granted the player – from landing their first ollie to manual transferring a 360 hardflip. Even after six months of playing there was still things to do.
Little over a year later Black Box released Skate 2, boasting new tricks and a bolstered online mode. The single player experience offers more challenges to overcome, some of which took me four pain-staking hours to complete. There is something for everyone: races, trick challenges, competitions, gap challenges and the ridiculous hall of meat. Even when you complete all the challenges there is still spots set around New San Van for you to own. Beat them all? Then go download some user-created spots, or even create your own.
The online play in Skate 2 is easily the most impressive thing about the game. From simple freeskating with friends, to a hardcore ranked mode, you should be kept busy for some time. Freeskating is great fun with surprising depth, this is thanks to the 149 challenges that range from fun and simple to pad destroyingly evil. The ranked mode has one of the most hardcore followings I have ever seen. If you play it for a few weeks then you will slowly begin to recognise gamertags and know who to avoid. I got to 208th in the world on Own The Spot, one of my greatest gaming achievements. I don’t even want to think how many hours I have wasted getting there.
What surprises me about it is how engaging it can be for new players. I know of four friends who went and picked it up – mostly due to the incessant nagging I was giving them – and loved it, some of them had never even played a skating game. While I was kicking myself for crashing a 540 Airwalk frontflip they were ecstatic over landing a perfect double kickflip. Whatever your skill level, whatever your ambitions, there is fun to be had out of this game.
Skate 2
FIFA 10
Every year, you wonder will this be the year that constant yearly releases will come back to bite EA? If it is, it’s not evident when it comes to FIFA’s next entry, FIFA 10, which was a pleasingly refined edition of the now confirmed king of the beautiful game’s game.
UFC Unleashed
2009 has been a brilliant year for UFC, it’s clearly a company that’s on the rise. Unfortunately previous attempts at a UFC game have fallen flat on their face, that is, until THQ released the surprisingly polished and intensely brutal UFC Unleashed 2009.
NHL 10
NHL 09 was easily our favourite sports release of last year and NHL 10 is just as good. Granted, only the hardcore will notice all the little tweaks but, as they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Football Manager 2010
Let’s not be accused of being bias but it’s easily the best management game around, bar none. Ridiculously addictive, stunningly real and as good as it’s always been. When do we get our cheque?
Stay tuned to Nidzumi all week for more Best of 2009 Awards as we celebrate the past 12 months in gaming
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