The 2008 Sleepers

No, this isn’t an award to honour Nintendo’s ‘core games’ development staff for their work ethic during the latter half of this year – it’s a journey into the videogames that surprised us in some way during 2008. Whether we’re talking about great games that seemingly came out of nowhere, excellence that was cruelly ignored, or releases that turned out nothing like we expected, this year threw up a stream of unpredictability. Here are some of our favourite shockers.


Braid (Xbox 360):

The game that sent more reviewers rushing for their thesauruses than any other in recent memory, all falling over themselves to dust off their long-dead GCSE English essay skills (I recommend using semicolons for extra marks), Braid swiftly established itself as a modern indie gaming classic. Whether the story really is a warning about obsessive love, an allegory of the Manhattan Project, or just simply pretentious waffle, Jonathan Blow’s Live Arcade project won players over with its charming blend of beautiful art styling, classical music and fiendishly brain teasing time puzzles. An original, stunning game.


Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360 / Playstation 3):

Grand Theft Auto IV launched to such an avalanche of gushing reviews and crazy sales figures that you would be forgiven for thinking it would bury any other free-roaming sandbox games that happened to feature sprawling cities, nicking cars and drive-bys. But while GTAIV positioned itself as being more serious and ‘important’ than the others in the series, Volition’s Saints Row 2 upped the fun factor. Mixing crude humour with customisation, comedy physics and seemingly endlessly inventive ways to spend time in the game world, SR2 overcame the technical deficiencies of its second-best game engine to become the darling of many a gamer with its brilliant online co-op mode. In the hands of the right players, the funniest game of the year, and a surprisingly superb alternative to Rockstar’s opus.


Boom Blox (Nintendo Wii):

When we thought about what Steven Spielberg could bring to the videogames industry, we didn’t picture a cutesy puzzle game, but that’s what he came up with in conjunction with Electronic Arts. Even more surprisingly, Boom Blox was hands-down one of the best Wii games of the year, with arguably the most compelling use of the Wii Remote outside of Nintendo’s own output. With activities ranging from flinging baseballs to dismantle a level of blocks within a certain number of throws, to playing the videogaming equivalent of Giant Jenga, EA managed to deliver not only a compelling single player game for all ages, but a comprehensive multiplayer mode that proved itself to be perfect for parties. It may have bombed at retail, but this gem is well worth picking up.


Call of Duty: World At War (Xbox 360 / Playstation 3 / Nintendo Wii):

What’s this? One of the best selling games of the year… a sleeper? Yes indeed. We’ll be honest: we didn’t expect much from this one. Developer Treyarch has been seen as a poor man’s Infinity Ward ever since the buggy, rushed Call of Duty 3, but COD:WAW surprised us with its level of polish and excitement, and particularly its edgy feel. Pulling few punches in its depiction of the Far East and Russian conflicts in World War II, the intense single player campaign impressed, and the online co-op and multiplayer versus modes were equally well realised. Being ordered around by Kiefer Sutherland in full-on Jack Bauer mode was the icing on the cake. Vindication for Treyarch, victory for gamers.