With the launch of 3DS in March, the Wii U's unveiling at E3 and a Christmas period that included new Zelda, Mario and Mario Kart games, we rather think 2011 was a pretty good year all in all.
But what were the very best stand-out games of the year? What moments will we think of when we reminisce about 2011? The Nintendo Life team filed their ballots for the biggest and best games of 2011.
How the results were calculated.
Each staff member ranked his or her top three games on each format. A first place vote was worth three points, second place two and third place a single point. In the event of a tie, the game with more higher place votes took precedence. Points were tallied, awards were designed, winners were crowned and corks were popped.
Mario's first 3DS platformer is a blend of nostalgia — flagpole! Tanooki suit! — and innovative use of the 3D screen. Your first taste of one of its Escher-like rooms is a moment to savour, and while it drew some criticism for being too short or too easy, it crams a lot of enjoyment into that little cartridge.
Second place: Mario Kart 7.
Fresh online features and some quality course design — except you, Wuhu Loop — got Mario's racing spirit up to second place. A surefire crowd pleaser.
Third place: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.
An enhanced version of one of the all-time greats pushed to third place in our Game of the Year votes. Mario must be thrilled, but we have a feeling Link will have his day in the sun.
There could really only be one contender for this year's Wii game of the year. Five years in the making, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the pinnacle of what's possible on Wii: phenomenal music, art design and some of the best motion controls we've ever used combine to make one of Link's best adventures yet.
Second place: Xenoblade Chronicles.
Monolithsoft's Wii RPG finally made it to Europe — North America, you get your chance in April — and wowed us with its epic scale, intricate battle and relationship system and some truly superb music.
Third place: Rayman Origins.
Rayman's long-awaited return to 2D platforming was a joy to look at, a riot to play and a wonderful celebration of play from Ubisoft's talented Montpellier studio.
A tremendously imaginative action RPG set in a world where anthropomorphised animals and giant robots live above the clouds. The kind of game we love to see released in the West, and well worth picking up if you're after a quirky Japanese RPG.
Second place: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
With its cast of delightful characters, hilarious script, top-notch animation and noggin-scratcher puzzles, Ghost Trick set the bar for DS in 2011 early and sky high. Shu Takumi may be best known for the Ace Attorney series, but Ghost Trick goes in exciting new directions that we can only hope he continues to pursue in some fashion.
Third place: Kirby Mass Attack.
Working on the principle that more is more, Mass Attack gives you ten Kirbys and lets you loose on a typically imaginative and enjoyable romp.
Intelligent Systems turned its experts' eye to puzzle games with this simply excellent block-pusher. Tonnes of built-in puzzles are bolstered by the ability to create your own and share them online via the wonder of QR codes. One of the best 3DS games this year by far.
Second place: Mighty Switch Force.
It may have been a late entry into the 3DS eShop ring but considering we were expecting it in 2012 we're not complaining. A characteristically classy puzzle platformer from WayForward, this one is well deserving of your eShop credit.
Third place: Zen Pinball 3D.
Admittedly hampered by the fact it's not available in North America until next year, Zen Studios' bumper bash still pulled in enough votes to land it third in our 3DS download rankings. One to watch in the New Year, North Americans.
Even if Nintendo hadn't given away this multiplayer marvel for free we still think it'd have secured enough votes to rank as number one. An improved version of the GBA original with new levels and local wireless multiplayer, there's really no excuse not to own this. Remember it's only available until February, so if you haven't picked it up yet, time is running out.
Second place: Mighty Milky Way.
The second Mighty game to make our end-of-year rundown, Milky Way is another digital slice of delight from the WayForward team and a worthy silver medallist.
Third place: Go! Go! Kokopolo.
A rarity on DSiWare: a unique game made just for the service, with a superb graphical style and plenty to do. A must-download, especially if you like cats and Pac-Man.
A physics-based racer from kings of the genre RedLynx, with fantastic multiplayer and stacks to do online or offline, with an innovative DLC system that offers up new time attack challenges every day. One of the all-time WiiWare highlights and well worth its 1,500 Nintendo Points price tag.
Second place: BIT.TRIP FLUX.
The final instalment in the phenomenal BIT.TRIP series, FLUX takes us back to where it started with a clever riff on series-opener BIT.TRIP BEAT but still manages to show just how far Gaijin's beloved series has come.
Third place: escapeVektor: Chapter 1.
Nnooo's triumphant return to gaming after a series of DSiWare applications, escapeVektor: Chapter 1 is a retro-themed action game that practically defies description but is all the better for it. Its longevity and wealth of things to do will cost you a mere 500 Points. Well worth a download.
Click through to page two to find out what were our biggest surprises and disappointments of the year, as well as what titles pleased our eyes and ears more than any other.
Comments (73)
Congrats to all the winning games and the runner-ups. It's been a great year NintendoLife. Here's to another year of great Nintendo gaming!!!!!
Rayman Origins is quite over-rated. I've been playing through it and the new Wii Kirby and where Kirby is pure fun, Rayman is flaky contols w/beauty. It's your typical style over substance game, doing well in end of year awards everywhere, but at my work, where NSMBWii was devoured for weeks until we got every possible thing, getting people to play Rayman has been hard. People like watching it, but they don't want to play it. That really says it all, it isn't a great game.
Notably, the aforementioned Kirby is, as is the very deserving Moto Heroz, which got 2 months of daily play . There are some great Wii games this year, and Rayman is good, but not ddeserving to be so far up the list.
The DS section is incorrect. There is no Radiant Historia.
@Radixxs Yet it did get a nomination for overall Game of the Year, which is pretty cool!
Looks like a good list of winners to me! I definitely want to try out Pushmo once I have finished all the current games I'm working on.
I blame the furries on the DS section.
Top picks as expected from the writers of NL, all winners in my book. Yet I am still so divided between "Xenoblade Chronicles" and "Zelda SS" for Wii's GOTY. I think both games will be with me for a long, long time to come (and this comes from a guy who still revisits SNES "Secret of Many" every odd year or so).
I am a little sad not to see "FAST League Racing" up there, tough... go buy that game, people, I want Shin'en to make sequels!
PS: "Jon — Another year, another complete lack of new F-Zero" <- Right there with you.
@James Ah, that is cool. I didn't see it in its own category, so I just assumed it wouldn't be considered anywhere else. Truly a very enjoyable game though!
Solatorobo surprised me, but other than that, it was mostly what I expected. I still think all the Honorable Mentions deserved more, but whatever. It's a good list as is.
Zelda: 4 swords....????
Real gamers know that Play with Birds was GOTY.
The biggest surprise to me was the generous donation Nintendo gave during the tsunami earlier this year. That was wonderful...
@Shiryu: Our Sad Panda Party has been going since 2003 with no end in sight
@Radixxs: for what it's worth, I think you had it right the first time. RH beat the pants off of Solatorobo IMO, hands down :3
that reminds me, though, i still need to pick up escapeVektor D:
Those are some fantastic choices all around. Most of these are games that I would have chosen in those categories such as Skyward Sword, Super Mario 3D Land, Pushmo and MotoHeroz. It is nice to see Solatorobo get some love but I thought that Radiant Historia or Ghost Trick deserved best DS game. Anyway, great article. It was really nice reading the staff's take on other happenings in 2011.
Also, did @theblackdragon not have a "fangirl" moment this year?
I was waiting for Kirby Return to Dreamland, what a great game
everyone seems to forget Okamiden
@WolfRam: ever have one of those days where you try to think of something and come up absolutely blank? that happened to me when i was filling out the ballot. still can't really think of any one thing that drove me into a squealing frenzy or anything, lol :3
@MaikoRULES - Probably for the best, it didn't really do much to improve on its predecessor.
It's been a great year. I'm just hoping the 3DS keeps up its pace. I have a bad feeling that after we get the major games (LM2, KIU, PM, AC etc) stuff'll go silent. If you couldn't guess the games I mentioned then try harder! I cant be bothered to write em all out. >:3
I played Solotarobo, and it is not deserving of a top 3 nomination, let alone a win for best DS game. The two other nominees, Professor Layton, Radiant Historia, Pokemon; the games keep going.
Congratulations to Super Mario 3D Land, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Pushmo, and BIT.TRIP FLUX for their extremely well-deserved honors.
I'm pretty sure Ron cheated by putting two disappointments instead of a fanboy moment and a disappointment, unless crying over a gold Wiimote made him go all gooey inside.
A lot of the staff called my birthday their most surprising day of the year (in relation to Nintendo news), because that was when the price drop/Ambassador program were announced.
Thanks for the classy awards presentation, Nintendo Life.
EDIT: Kirby was good, imo, but really not Game of the Year material--if it gets any honors from other sites, it will be because nothing much came out this year for the Wii.
@Kaiser: i just caught your comment — remember, these are the staff picks, not the general GotY vote from our userbase. to the best of my knowledge, none of us are furries, so for once they're not to blame :3
@theblackdragon
No, no of course not.
Looks at your profile pic
You look great in that picture btw >.>
Haha :3
Wait so I can still vote?!?! YES BRB!!!!!!
I think I agree with most of this. DS had a weak year, DSiware actually got some good titles, Wiiware didn't have much but what was there was really good, I suppose SM3DL has to get best 3DS title because MK7 has the Wuhu Island glitch (without that, I would put MK7 above SM3DL) but 3DS still had a very weak year, Pushmo has to get 3DSware, 3DSware had a weak year but it is starting to look up, Wii had a slow year but Skyward Sword makes up for it and Skyward Sword takes gold. I probably will pick up Xenoblade but I don't think I will like it more then Skyward Sword.
Biggest Fanboy Moment for me, SSB3D/WiiU being announced. I screamed. I don't normally do that. However, my excitement has died down after finding out that I will probably be in college before it is released and we may be looking at the successor to the 3DS if it actually takes 5 years and one version might be canceled if it takes too much time and it probably would be the 3DS version when I've wanted a handheld SSB for forever.
Biggest Disappointment: Pilotwings Resort. They managed to take a great game from Wii Sports Resort which has a lot of great games, package it for about the same price as WSR and make it worse. By a lot. The slow Superman 64 style gameplay, the horrid camera, the way all the textures are flat (looks fine on wii, horrid in 3D) when you spend a lot of time looking at them, your free flight is still timed and you can't shoot balloons like in WSR (one of my favorite things that still brings me back to that minigame after a couple years). I could go on and on.
However, I could just sum it up with one statement. The game is boring. I found everything except one hangglider ring and then sold it, got my $20 and put it towards Super Street Fighter 4 3D. Left a really sour taste in my mouth about a new system because there wasn't anything better to get.
A very slow year for Nintendo. No games during the summer worth getting. A lot of huge mistakes. Releasing the 3DS and then giving it no games all summer. Letting the Wii die when they aren't releasing a new system until next Christmas, most likely. However, there were a lot of really great moments too. The Ambassador games, Skyward Sword, Four Swords, Etc. They gave us a lot of free stuff this year. My menu can't take it.
WHAT? I like wuhu loop!
I agree with them all but DERP! Pokemon Black/White should at least have been second at best DS game.
Nice to see Radiant Historia get a little nod at the end. It was my GOTY until I played Skyward Sword. :3
I would have to say my most surprising moment was playing skylanders and finding out it is actually pretty good.
@Geonjaha: well-played, sir
@ChaosTheChao: Me too — both Wuhu tracks are really nice. At this point I've played the game so much, though, that I don't think there's a track in it that i don't like, lol :3
Yes ,
Radiant Historia is worth any price ya find it at, if not more.
U know nintendo just should come out and say it once and for all "yes the VC on the wii is going dead, and we are moving on". Then i would not mind them as much, hey maybe there working on a better VC for the Wii U.
Just flat out and say it instead of releasing no VC for X months.
Sry had to get the frustration out about that, before 2011 ends.
I like Wuhu Loop too but the glitch is rather cheap. Still like MK7 more then every demo I've tried of SM3DL and I've tried a lot of levels from SM3DL.
MK7 got 2nd.....2nd is the first loser.
WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I demand a recount, ohhh this is the staff nevermind=) Only kidding I know this was staff from the start. By the way, how bad is the wuhu loop glitch, and is it likely to be fixed through. I know they said no game dlc til 2012 but i see the glass half full, not empty. Also I'll be getting the game on by birthday in a few months.
Flux didn't win best WiiWare? Wow.
I would've gave you guys extreme mad props for giving Bit. Trip Complete the Game of the Year award. It's what it deserves.
It isn't the end of the world. From what I understand, if you drive off in the right place then Lakitu puts you right in front of the finish line. Still, it shaves a good amount of time off of your lap and people who use it have a serious advantage.
I still love MK7. Much better then MK Wii and it stands up to MKDS, my favorite MK game. The course design is great (Rosalina's Ice World, Neo Bowser City, Shy Guy Bazaar) and the retro course choices are some of the best yet. They didn't add SNES and GBA courses just because they felt they had to. They added the best of SNES and GBA and then stuck to DS, N64 and Wii. I do wish that Cheese Land (GBA) and Tick Tock Clock (DS) were in there but the fact that Daisy Cruiser is there makes up for it. I loved that course when I used to play MKDD at McDonalds when I was little. Plus the online is great. It pretty much combines everything I like about Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS.
Though I haven't played any DSiware so far besides Four swords anniversary, I hardly would call it the best! Certainly it is fun and I guess even better if you play it with others. But it's extremely short. You can barely call it a proper Zelda. There is some extra content, but it is still a very small game. Luckily it is free!
@Shiryu If my memory serves me correctly, FAST League Racing was pretty dang close to making it on the list, but when narrowed down to such a few it just didn't quite have enough to make it. It's still a great game nonetheless!
Good to see Xenoblade being acknowledged as one of the best games this year despite not being released in America yet.
For me, Xenoblade and Skyward Sword are about equal. It's too hard to choose between them.
How the heck did Pokémon Black/White not even finish in the Top 3 of DS games?!
Ron, I'm with you on Kirby's Return to Dreamland. I haven't played it yet, but from everything I've seen and read, it should be right up there with Xenoblade and Rayman. It should at least make up for the disappointment of Epic Yarn once I get my hands on it.
By the way, the version of the glitch in Wuhu Loop isn't that bad. It's the one in Maka Wuhu that's truly course-breaking.
Zelda getting game of e year is definitely deserved. If any game truly deserved it, it was that one. Really like the list overall. I would only disagree with DS game of the year. It should have been Black/White.
Zelda GOTY, agreed. It's a shame we haven't even gotten our hands on Xenoblade here yet before the jury is out. It looks great, but I'm not an import guy so I'll just have to wait.
I've been on the fence about getting either FAST or Motoheroz. I know both are great but I need to try one at a time.
How did SM3 DL make # 1 for 3DS it was a major dissapointment to me but all the other games in 1st congrats
I'm so glad that Go Go Kokopolo made the list. It's a great game! So is Pushmo and Super Mario 3-D Land. All the Zelda games, too. Such an awesome list and I totally agree 110% It's been a great year for the 3DS!
I'm glad Rayman Origins got a few nods. I have been enjoying the game thoroughly, and I can easily say it's a better game than one of its inspirations: NSMB.
The reason Pokémon didn't make the list is I'm the only staffer who plays it
You guys do realize Radiant Historia came out last year right? So please stop b*tching about it not being on any other website's GOTY list...
Makes you look silly.
Er, released in February 2011, according to my data
Great. Very glad that Xenoblade made it to the second position!
Pokemon Black is still on my list of games to find the time to get to at some point!
Cool article. But Kirby is better than Solatorobo.
Come Back when You can put up a fight!!!
Pokemon White was still my favorite game of the year, shame it wasn't mentioned once.
@Paperclip Heck yeah. Maybe it will win in the BIT.TRIP Facebook page awards.
@James
I'm jealous of your job.
Surprised Solatorobo came out first ^^' Loved it to bits ! Along with Ghost Trick, they are my two faves of the year ^^
Mario Kart 7 deserves 1st place.
I've only really played 4 of the winning games yet so i better keep my mouth shut here. But Kirby Mass Attack, Mario Kart 7 and Pullblox are really great. Zelda OoT was nice too but i can't really get excited about a remake of a game i played before.
One to Watch in 2012: Looking forward to Luigi's Mansion 2 the most. Of course i hope Kid Icarus: Uprising turns out great but i don't wanna get my hopes up too high for this one.
Fanboy moment: The update that contained video recording. Especially being able to pay for just one eShop game was something i never thought i'd see. Along with the very Nintendo-like updates to StreetPass this makes me more optimistic that Nintendo really grasps online now.
Biggest surprise: DS going out in style / Ghost Recon Shadow Wars
Disappointement: Capcoms's cancellation of MML3 and how they communicated it. PES2011 (3DS) and Bust-A-Move Universe
Ah, Ghost Trick. I almost forgot that released this year. It's easily in competition to be my favorite DS game of all time, incidentally.
WTG MARIO CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS
Happy new year!!! Long live the VC
A year filled with more disappointments from Nintendo than I can ever remember, January right up until the release of Kirby's Return to Dreamland was absolutely putrid for Wii. If not for that game and Zelda (despite it being a little bit of a letdown), this would've been a worse year than 2008 for the system. The 3DS was a complete joke early on but to be fair, I have to give Nintendo credit for turning it around. They dropped the price to something much more reasonable and compensated early adopters very well. OoT 3D and Star Fox 64 3D were nice remasterings of classics and they closed out the year in grand fashion with the spectacular Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. Those two games are 'gamer's games' just pure fun and embody everything Nintendo was once about.
Now looking ahead, hopefully 2012 will be a better year all the way around. 3DS appears to have a good lineup but we'll see if a lot of the games scheduled to release actually do or not. They need to send the Wii (which overall has been a great console and in my opinion Nintendo's best since SNES) out on the high note it deserves, which means The Last Story as well as Xenoblade, and they have to have something big day one for Wii U (2D or 3D Super Mario at launch and I'll rush out to pre-order a Wii U). A revival of Virtual Console would be nice but I don't count on it.
Thank you for at least mentioning Radiant Historia. That game is amazing.
it is pritty cool i have mario kart 7 but the problem with it is there are only 16 and 8 u unlock so yea but nintendo is doing great
LoZ #1. Lol didn't expect that (sarcazm extremly detected).
Whats wrong with Wuhu Loop
Super Mario 3D Land is what gaming is all about! ^_^
This was a good year for Nintendo games, even if it took them forever to come out. Every game on this list is deserving of praise!
@2. Rayman's controls are fantastic. Once you get in the groove of hopping and bopping on enemies, you can move more fluently than you could in any platformer-- save super meatboy. Have you seen the par time clears? The way everything just flows together perfectly? The game is an underrated gem. The points you make are that of brand recognition. Man, I sure like Kirby. Man, co-workers sure do like Mario more than Rayman.
Rayman is a roaring good time with friends, the level design is something to marvel at and the aesthetic is simply wonderful. I'd rather drive innovation with something so lovingly crafted than to play it safe like Kirby did.
Say Rayman didn't make 3rd on this list, I doubt kirby would have been next up. I liked Kirby, I 100%'d it, but it isn't anything spectacular.
@44. "It should at least make up for the disappointment of Epic Yarn once I get my hands on it."
"once I get my hands on it."
^So it deserves a spot in your opinion having not played it?
i think call of duty modern warfare 3 defiance should have made first on the ds.
The 3DS only really took off with AAA titles at the end of the year, hope its the shape of things to come in 2012
RAYMAN ORIGINS IS AWESOME!!! Its even better co-op and the character animations are hilarious!
Rayman Origins was the best game in 2011. Also the best 2-D platformer after 16-bit era.
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