The 2009 Games of the Year Aggregator

Written by John Scalzo  on January 04, 2010

Special: We calculate the definitive games of the year for 2009

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As 2009 came to a close, we posted a weeklong look at our favorite games of 2009. However, those 40 titles (including the eight we ultimately chose to honor as "The Best of the Best") were far from the only good games released last year. And did our picks match up with the rest of the game industry? But most importantly, what we really wanted to know was which game was truly the best game of 2009.

So we put the endless parade of Game of the Year awards to the test and selected fifteen different sites to create a sort of meta-Games of the Year list. These sites include a variety of new outlets including the big two (IGN and GameSpot), several gaming blog, a few articles from the mainstream media and, of course, our own selections for the best games of 2009.

The sites we chose for this experiment included:

Gaming Target

Associated Press

Crispy Gamer

Destructoid (Game of the Year, Runner-Ups)

Eurogamer

GameSpot

GameSpy

IGN

Joystiq

Metacritic

Spike TV Video Game Awards

Time

VGChartz (Overall GOTY, Xbox 360 GOTY, PS3 GOTY, Wii GOTY, PSP GOTY, DS GOTY, PC GOTY)

Wired GameLife (Top 10 Games,
Best Xbox 360 Games, Best PS3 Games, Best Wii Games, Best Multi-Platform Games, Best Portable Games)

Yahoo! Games



The Game of the Year awards handed out by these sites were then plugged into a formula that gave each game a quantifiable score. From this score comes the definitive list of the ten best games released in 2009:

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The further adventures of Mr. Nathan Drake was far and away the best game of 2009. Not only did Uncharted 2: Among Thieves earn the highest score in our competition, it won convincingly, by tallying a score that was nearly 35% higher than the second game on the list. All told, only two games in the top ten earned nominations from all 15 sites and Uncharted 2 won major honors (either Game of the Year or PS3 Game of the Year) from an astounding 11 of them. Naughty Dog has truly outdone themselves and they have earned every accolade they've received from the press.

A full list of these accolades from the panel of sites includes:

Associated Press: Games of the Year (#1)

Crispy Gamer: Games of the Year (#6)

Destructoid: Game of the Year (Winner)

Eurogamer: Game of Year 2009 (Winner)

Eurogamer: Games of 2009 (Selection)

GameSpot: Best PS3 Game (Nominee)

GameSpot: Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpy: Overall Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpy: PS3 Game of the Year (Winner)

Gaming Target: The Best of the Best (Selection)

IGN: PS3 Game of the Year (Nominee)

Joystiq: Top 10 of 2009 (#1)

MetaCritic: Best PS3 Games (#1)

Spike TV Video Game Awards: Best PS3 Game (Winner)

Spike TV Video Game Awards: Game of the Year (Winner)

Time Magazine: Top 10 Video Games (#10)

VGChartz: Overall Game of the Year (Winner)

VGChartz: PS3 Game of the Year (Winner)

Wired GameLife: 10 Best Videogames of 2009 (#6)

Wired GameLife: Top 5 PS3 Games (#1)

Yahoo! Games: Best Overall Video Game (Winner)

2 (tie). Assassin's Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Assassin's Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum and New Super Mario Bros. Wii don't really have much in common, but they do show that after Uncharted 2, there was no other game that could be considered a consensus pick for "Best of 2009". However, all three games were highly decorated and in a different year, any of them could have taken the top spot.

Here are the awards each game won or was nominated for:

Assassin's Creed II

Associated Press: Games of the Year (#2)

Crispy Gamer: Games of the Year (#3)

Eurogamer: Games of 2009 (Selection)

GameSpot: Best Xbox 360 Game (Winner)

GameSpot: Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpy: Multiplatform Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpy: Overall Game of the Year (Nominee)

Gaming Target: Favorite Games of 2009 (Selection)

IGN: PS3 Game of the Year (Nominee)

IGN: Xbox 360 Game of the Year (Winner)

Joystiq: Top 10 of 2009 (#2)

MetaCritic: Best Xbox 360 Games (#5)

Spike TV Video Game Awards: Game of the Year (Nominee)

Time Magazine: Top 10 Video Games (#9)

Wired GameLife: 10 Best Videogames of 2009 (#2)

Wired GameLife: Top 5 Multi-Platform Games (#2)

Yahoo! Games: Best Overall Video Game (Nominee)

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Associated Press: Games of the Year (#4)

Crispy Gamer: Games of the Year (#1)

Destructoid: Game of the Year (Nominee)

Eurogamer: Games of 2009 (Selection)

GameSpot: Best PC Game (Nominee)

GameSpot: Best PS3 Game (Nominee)

GameSpot: Best Xbox 360 Game (Nominee)

GameSpot: Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpy: Multiplatform Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpy: Overall Game of the Year (Nominee)

Gaming Target: Favorite Games of 2009 (Selection)

IGN: PC Game of the Year (Nominee)

IGN: PS3 Game of the Year (Nominee)

IGN: Xbox 360 Game of the Year (Nominee)

Joystiq: Top 10 of 2009 (#3)

MetaCritic: Best PC Games (#2)

MetaCritic: Best Xbox 360 Games (#3)

Spike TV Video Game Awards: Best Xbox 360 Game (Nominee)

Spike TV Video Game Awards: Game of the Year (Nominee)

Time Magazine: Top 10 Video Games (#2)

VGChartz: PS3 Game of the Year (Runner-Up)

Wired GameLife: 10 Best Videogames of 2009 (#4)

Wired GameLife: Top 5 Multi-Platform Games (#3)

Yahoo! Games: Best Overall Video Game (Nominee)

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Crispy Gamer: Games of the Year (#9)

Destructoid: Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpot: Best Wii Game (Nominee)

GameSpy: Overall Game of the Year (Nominee)

GameSpy: Wii Game of the Year (Winner)

Gaming Target: The Best of the Best (Selection)

IGN: Wii Game of the Year (Winner)

MetaCritic: Best Wii Games (#5)

Spike TV Video Game Awards: Best Wii Game (Winner)

Time Magazine: Top 10 Video Games (#5)

VGChartz: Wii Game of the Year (Winner)

Wired GameLife: 10 Best Videogames of 2009 (#3)

Wired GameLife: Top 5 Wii Games (#1)

The top ten is continued on the next page.