The end of 2009 is almost upon us, and what a great year it was for gaming! Some incredible indie titles made their way into homes this year, and it looks like 2010 is going to continue to roll with that momentum.

Though we love indie games at IGR (dur), we still have a soft spot for games no matter what platform they happen to land on, or even how big the publisher. While I enjoy games on the PC and Xbox 360, you’re most often going to find me planted in front of the TV with a SIXAXIS in my hands while I try to trounce a PS3 title. Xbox LIVE may be the king of the online experience, but the PSN is no slouch, and has tons of great games to enjoy.  So I present to you: 

Callabrantus’ 2009 PSN List!

Picking faves is never easy, and it gets tougher when you love a mix of action titles, puzzlers and casual titles. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, these are the games that kept me most busy in 2009.

Super Stardust HD

Although it wasn’t released in 2009, I still find myself itching to play this frantic shoot-em-up from time to time. In a nutshell, you pilot a craft flying around global meteor defense grids, eliminating gigantic hunks of rock in a fashion akin to Asteroids, but with a control scheme similar to Smash TV. Large rocks break into kinda big rocks, which break into smaller rocks, etc, ultimately presenting you with point tokens or weapon upgrades.  Different weapons suit different types of meteors (rock, gold or ice).  But the rocks keep on a-comin’, and with literally thousands of comet fragments on screen at a time, you need to be on your toes to avoid destruction. Throw in a few enemy spacecraft with your destruction in mind, and you’d better hope that your toes are on their toes.

It took me months to play through it successfully, only to realize that there is so much more to this game. A successful completion starts the game again, with your score intact, and a higher difficulty level to tackle. A check of the leaderboard will make it clear that those interested in racking up top score had better be prepared to play through a few times.

That’s the Sound of the Man…Workin’ on the Chain… (Oh Don’t You Know?)

My advice is this: Get used to using your boost attack to chain point tokens. Picking up point tokens while in a boost will attach a multiplier value for each token you manage to grab in that state. This is the best (and really, the only) way to get a super high score. With this in mind, and the possibility of attaining a 10X multiplier by staying alive long enough (I still can’t top 9X), you can see how the points will rack up. If racking up a score gets dull, take on time trials, or even Survival mode, and see how long you can stay alive amidst a constantly increasing difficulty level.

Super Stardust HD by Sony Computer Entertainment America is available on the PLAYSTATION Network Price – $9.99 USD. Solo pack/Co-op Pack add-on price: $4.99 each, or $7.99 bundled.

If you want a completely different spin on the same theme, give Everyday Shooter a try.

Zen Pinball

I spent more time playing pinball in college than I should have in front of the pinball machine at the student pub (especially when it was Star Trek: TNG). I’ve always found that the video game adaptations of the pinball experience have been somewhat lackluster.

Enter Zen Pinball, the self-named PSN excusive version of the engine Zen Studios brought to the Xbox 360 with Pinball FX.  It comes with 4 tables, with one downloadable table and a Ninja Gaiden 2 table to appear…uh…two months ago…so I suppose it will be here soon.

Pinball physics have never been so tight and responsive in a video game. You need to find the sweet spots on the tables if you hope to excel.  Learn to “nudge” the table at just the right moment, and even a gutter ball can be saved.  Stay focused though, because every once in a while, your ball will nudge ever so slightly off course by “imperfections” in the table. Sometimes it will save you; other times, it will ruin your day. My personal favorite tables are Tesla, Shaman and the Street Fighter 2 Tribute table.

Be the Ball (nananananana….)

Into modding your cabinet? You can tweak all the settings and angles to make your game as tough or as easy as you would like. Take an online challenge and see you fare against the reigning pinball wizards.

Zen Pinball by Zen Studios is available on the PLAYSTATION Network. Price: $9.99 USD. SF2 table add-on price: $2.49 USD

Want to see some of the greatest pinball cabinets of all time? Check out The William’s Collection for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PS2.

Fl0wer

Jenova Chen (of Fl0w fame) is back, with Fl0wer. With this title, he proves that while SIXAXIS motion-control scheme was poorly thought out, there are still a few games that can make it work in ways conventional game designers may have overlooked.

I Am a Leaf on the Wind!

Flower is a far more colorful experience than its predecessor, and it takes the motion control scheme into the third dimension. And the concept is simplicity itself: You are the wind. You start with a single flower petal in your gentle embrace, and by moving the SIXAXIS, you control where the breeze will travel, carrying the flower petal with it. By connecting with flowers in your path, they will give up additional petals.

Different petals release different musical notes, and eventually you not only control a breeze, but a swirling, heaving orchestra of sounds. Move your petals across a dingy, mechanical landscape to bring beauty and colour back to the world. It all leads to a finale that has to be seen and heard to be believed.

Fl0wer by Sony Computer Enetertainment America – PSN Network – $9.99 USD
Check out Fl0w on the PSN to see the game that started it all.

2009 was good to us gamer-types, and 2010 is shaping up to give us all kinds of new game experiences to sink our hooks into. With Natal and…whatever Sony plans to name its motion control device both scheduled to hit shelves, there’s no telling what directions new games on the PSN will follow.  One way of the next, Indie Game Reviewer will be here, bringing you the highlights and the low points.

See you in 2010! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from adam@indiegamereviewer.com!

By Adam Fimio for IndieGameReviewer.com

In 2007, Naughty Dog, makers of Crash Bandicoot (PS) and Jak and Daxter (PS2) released their first title for the Playstation 3 in the way of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and it quickly became recognized as one of the best games that the system had to offer. The game combined the acrobatics and puzzle solving of Tomb Raider with the run-and-gun third person shooter aspects of Gears of War. Many reviews declared that it was the first “killer app” for the console. Two years later, Naughty Dog has released a sequel, even adding a multi-player component (which, admittedly, I haven’t spent any time with). Does this new chapter measure up to its ancestor?

I’d call Uncharted 2: Among Thieves a roller-coaster ride, but I’d be doing the game a grave disservice. Uncharted 2 is more like trying to infiltrate, and then escape a twisted amusement park. It starts as a roller-coaster ride, but at the crest of the first steep hill, heavily armed mercenaries open fire on you. You dispatch most of them, but one gets off a lucky shot, knocking loose one of the bolts holding the wheels on the coaster, forcing you to leap from the car hundreds of feet above the ground. On the way down you barely manage to grasp the railing of the Ferris wheel, thwarting death for a few precious moments. And then the railing gives way. This game makes the giant coasters at Six Flags look like the wheelchair ramps in a retirement community.

Good Lookin’ Out

Without hyperbole, the graphics in Uncharted 2 are among the best on any current generation console. While there is no actual amusement park in the game, the locales are nothing shy of stunning. You will be clambering your way through lush, organic jungles rich in vibrantly colored reactive flora, scaling the sides of immaculately detailed ancient ruins, and ducking for cover in the decimated building edifices amongst the war-torn streets of Nepal.

Drake’s clothing will get wet in accordance with what parts of him touch water (like in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune), but Naughty Dog has added some highly effective little touches that only help to hammer home the experience of a wild treasure-hunt-gone-wrong. Rotate the camera in on Drake when he’s standing on the top of a building, and you can see his hair blowing in the breeze. Stay standing out in a blizzard and the character model will amass snow that will continue to build up until you can get to cover, and which point the snow will slowly start to melt. Walk up too close to a fire, and Drake will raise his arms to shield his eyes from the heat and the glare.

The game is rife with cinematic sequences, and though some of the transitions aren’t seamless, they are minimal enough to not significantly break up the action. In many instances, you be running to a point in the distance only to be knocked backwards by an explosion or to find a helicopter rising menacingly about the rooftops. These sequences occur with absolutely no break in the flow to speak of.

The story itself is nothing revolutionary: This time around, Nathan Drake has set his sights on the famed Cintamani Stone, which he’s convinced he can find with the help of the ancient writings of Marco Polo, and a couple of stealthy ne’er-do-wells to back him up. Stories say that the stone has mysterious powers, but Drake only cares about its power to make him filthy rich (at first). And as anyone who has ever watched a heist movie knows, any job that looks easy seldom is.

At the same time, another powerful figure is seeking the fabled abilities of the stone for his twisted ideals. So let’s do the rundown:

• Dashing thieves/treasure-hunters.
• Mythical gem worth millions that also houses awesome power.
• Crazed ideologue hoping to use the stone to bolster his savage, expansionist methodology.
• Our hero MUST get to the stone before the villain!!

Tobey Maguire Need Not Apply

Laid out like that, it might seem like the idea has been done to death, but the writers and actors manage to breathe new life into the idiom in Uncharted 2. The dialogue throughout the game is inspired, and there isn’t a single weak link in the vocal cast. Drake, (brilliantly voiced once again by Nolan North) is ever more winsome than in his last adventure. Elena re-appears, and new characters Chloe and Flynn are equally charming and vile, depending on the situation. Sully also returns, and his banter with Nate is nothing shy of uproariously funny.

Sully: “How much you want to bet we’ll find the camp if we follow this hose?”
Drake: “You’re all about following the hose, aren’t you Sully? Remember Montreal?”
Sully: “You’re never gonna let me forget that, are ya?”

Gone are the days when voice actors treat a script for a video game as a second-billing contractual obligation (I’m looking at you, Tobey MacGuire). This is a fantastic cast that helps to create a truly gripping tale of adventure, bravery, romance, deception and even heartache. You won’t know when to gasp and when to laugh. By the end of the game, you’ll be doing both simultaneously (don’t worry…it only hurts at first). Wrap all of this up in a positively inspired musical score, and you’ll be hard pressed to keep yourself from welling up as the end credits roll.

Gameplay

The gameplay is fluid and satisfying. Climbing is remarkably fast-paced and it both looks and feels incredibly natural to see Nate scampering up walls and leaping from roof to roof. The tacked-on Sixaxis balance beam technique from UDF has been nixed, and will not be missed at all. Taking cover behind objects is still highly intuitive, and the ability to upend tables to hide behind when enemies open fire was a nice addition.

There aren’t a great deal of puzzles to solve in Among Thieves, and the ones that are there didn’t hold me up all that long. Marco Polo’s notebook is sort of rammed down your throat when faced with a puzzle, and opening the book goes right to the page containing the cipher required to solve it. The puzzles still look amazing as they’re being solved, but I doubt most players will lose any sleep over solving them.

The companion AI is solid as ever. If you have a partner in tow, they won’t let you do all the dirty work, and you’ll be happy to have them along for some of the larger gun battles. They shoot to kill, and will bring down a few enemy characters, leaving the ammo for you to collect (awwww!) Not that your targets are pushovers by any means! Even in my play-through on medium difficulty, the enemies proved to be resourceful and responsive. I’d find myself focusing in on a cluster of peons I’d pinned down, only to be flanked by an elite mercenary that I didn’t see until it was too late. Later enemies prove to be bullet sponges at times, but at least Naughty Dog has them sporting mercenary armor, making the concept less hard to swallow. Trying to take them out while on the back of a moving train is just plain wicked, but it’s wicked good fun. Oh, and bring a wig, because the final confrontation will likely have you pulling out your hair.

Multiplays and Multiplayer

Uncharted 2 is definitely worthy of multiple replays. It is stacked with a ton of trophies to attain. The treasure hunt is back on again, and there are 100 of them hidden throughout the landscape (101 if you count the Strange Relic, which I TOTALLY stumbled upon by accident). Each one nets you a monetary bonus, and each fifth one nets you a new trophy. After the game is completed once, you can use your bonuses to purchase single-player character skins, specialized weapons, tweaks, cheats, and visual filters. Beating the game on Hard difficulty will unlock Crushing difficulty. I’ve not tried it myself, but considering I only completed the single player campaign on medium, I can only imagine it is not a trek for the faint of heart.

Did I mention that this game has multi-player? Again, it’s not something I’ve yet tried myself, but some have said that the multi-player on its own would have been worthy of a retail release. Once I dive in and tackle this part of the game, I’ll be writing a separate review.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves builds upon an already amazing title. Everything that made the prequel great is here, and has been expanded upon. I don’t know how Naughty Dog made it possible to better a game like Drake’s Fortune, but they did, and they did so quite handily. My theory is that they used the space reserved by the crappy jet-ski level in the first title. They have created a title that every PS3 owner should pay attention to, because it displays what the guts of the console is capable of. It also gets a tip of the hat from me for being the first game in a LONG time to cause me to utter the words “just one more level” over and over until exhaustion finally got the better of me.

If for whatever reason, you have been on the fence about Uncharted 2, my recommendation is to hop over that fence on the side nearest your local video game store and secure a copy, pronto. If you’ve never played the original, give it a go. It still holds its own as a wonderful adventure game, and will make the backstory in Among Thieves a lot less jarring. If you have played and enjoyed Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, chances are you have your copy already. For everyone else: this title should not be missed!

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is available now for the Playstation 3 console