Aber

Perhaps because Ouendan 2 and Jump Super Stars didn't come out in 2008 (Ouendan 2 was released in '07, and the 2 iterations of Jump were released in '05 & '06). While Densetsu no Stafy Taiketsu! Daiiru Kaizokudan did come out in '08, it hasn't received nearly the attention of other import titles (i.e. Daigasso Band Brothers, Jump, Ouendan series, etc), and doesn't make sense for a top 10 list when very few readers of this blog (especially those who did NOT pirate the game) have actually played the game.

Common sense, really

Outside off the Apollo (Not a fan of the series myself...) & Ninja Gaiden (I'm 33 years old...action games with the stylus just feel wrong after so many years using the old trusty D-pad) picks, I can't argue much with the list. Here would be my choices for top 10. Great year of the DS, based on these 10 games alone...

10. N+
9. Dragon Quest IV
8. Legend of Kage 2
7. Bangai-O Spirits
6. Ninjatown
5. Kirby Super Star Ultra
4. Chrono Trigger DS
3. Speed Racer (Yes, you read right...)
2. Castlevania: Ecclesia
1. Space Invaders Extreme

Just missed: Metal Slug 7, Soul Bubbles, Lock's Quest, Professor Layton, Advance Wars: DOR, & Tecmo Bowl Kickoff

In the "real world" I'm thankful for my 2 daughters (11 & 2 years old), their excellent health, their humor and what they've taught me. I'm thankful for my wife who puts up with my long work hours followed by quite a bit of free time spent with the DS decompressing from those long work hours. I'm also thankful for my job and the company I work for, as I was promoted this year and received a healthy pay increase. I'm also thankful for being able to poke smot on a regular basis :>O

As far as gaming goes, I'm glad I finally gave the DS a shot this year, and am thankful for the lesson of never underestimating Nintendo. Ever again. I am thankful that I can share the experience of the DS and gaming with my oldest daughter, something I vowed to do as child, since my parents detested video games. I'm thankful for hours spent playing Dragon Quest IV, Space Invaders Extreme, Chrono Trigger, Bangai-O Spirits, N+, Metal Slug 7, Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, Kirby Super Star Ultra and Castlevania: Ecclesia among others. It's been a hell of the year for the DS. Funny, I considering all the talk recently that Nintendo has forgotten about "real" gamers...

1> Big Bang Mini
2> Tecmo Bowl Kickoff
3> Jagged Alliance DS
4> Retro Game Challenge
5> Dragon Quest V

Wow..Jagged Alliance? brings me back to the days of Civ II, Master of Orion, Master of Magic and X-Com. Jagged Alliance was a sleeper even back then, so to see is ported now, 14 years later is quite a (pleasant) suprise. Seriously good tactical strategy with personality coming our way. gotta love the DS.

To say that all licensed games are trash is simply ignorant. While the vast majority are, there have been bright spots. As many have mentioned, Astro Boy & TMNT stand out for the GBA (My kid also SWEARS by the Ham-Ham games for the GBA too). For the DS, Balls of Fury wasn't that bad, and neither was For the PS2, Peter Jackson's King Kong was good, as were the Lego Star Wars games (not to mention the Battleground games) and the recently released Wall-E is decent. My daughter played the absolute shite out of the PS2 NeoPets game as well. It's all a matter of picking the right game play genre to take the game in (very few licensed titles offer original game play) and how well they execute it.

Going back further, in the 8 & 16-bit days, there was actually a much higher percentage of quality licensed titles (Duck Tales, Goonies II, GI Joe 1 & 2, plus all the other titles already mentioned for just the NES alone for example). Unfortunately, garbage titles constantly over shadow the good games, which is nothing new if you remember Total Recall for the NES or even ET for the 2600 if you want to go back 25 years =)

Personally, I'll be waiting at least a year for the either the 360 or PS3. I've been burned by too many launch units in the past that simply go to sh!t after a short while, and this goes waaay back, with nearly every console manufactuer (except my TurboGrafx-16 by NEC, got it launch day & it plaed like a champ for years). Sony has been the worst, as both my launch day PSX & PS2 broke/malfunctioned not long after launch day. It's well known that most console launches usually have issues with first production machines.

I've also yet to see anything that really makes HAVE to go "Next-Gen" now. I'm 30 years old, and have seen every console launch since the early 80's, and the leap (in terms of graphics & sound) is simply not as far ahead of the current generation as it has been with previous jumps to the "Next-Gen".

I also notice gamepla takes a step back initially as developers rely on wowing folks with pretty graphics &don't fine tune the actual gameplay. I'll take a game for a 5 year old system by a developer that KNOWS that system inside & out & can squeeze every drop out of it over a rushed, pretty next-gen launch game any day.