Portal 2
I could go on about Portal 2’s clever and funny story about the politics of a crazy make-shift society of robots, or how Portal 2 takes possibly head-numbing puzzles and makes them both accessible and fun, or how Valve (makers of Portal 2) have been able to create a beautiful and full world without having to have a super computer to run it, but I want to focus on the sound design. Sound and music in most video games is usually something so far in the background of most games that people will barely consciously notice them. People only seem to notice when something is off, like when a gun fires and it makes no noise, or if an explosion happens and there is no bang. Portal 2 takes the objects and a movement usually marked with some sort of generic sound of a laser or machine clank and replaces those with effects that both are noticeable and beautiful. Take the light bridge; most other games would just give a bridge like that a little hum, barely noticable, but Portal 2 gives the light such musicality that I found myself surrounding myself with light bridges and just listening to the music they emit. Lasers, when they hit their intended target, let out an instrument in a minimalist symphony that, when all targets are hit, fill the puzzle room with music. It is that sound design that gives the game world a weight that makes every minute you are spending playing the game a joy.
Layer on the sound design with the good atmospheric music playing in the background, some crazy recording and/or robot reacting to your progress through the puzzles, and possibly the finest musical moment in a game in the finale (it even has a great song my the National! Listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Vg2YS-sFE) and you have what I think is the greatest game of the year, and one of the greatest games of all time. Everything about Portal 2 is polished to a fine shine, and putting portals to get from one place to another in order to solve puzzles is both fun and fresh. The story of powers vying for supremacy in a lab abandoned long ago is both funny and even a little heartbreaking in the end. The way the game made me care about these crazy robots still surprises me (though I do love robots). Portal 2 is my new standard of how great games can be and how far they have come.
Runner Up: Minna no Rhythm Tengoku
Minna no Rhythm Tengoku is possibly the most fun I have ever had with a rhythm game. It is not just because it is incredibly charming, filled with catchy music, and is so fun that I found myself playing a segment over and over again because it never ceased being fun, but it is because unlike most rhythm games, Rhythm Tengoku is about teaching the real skills and joys of music. Rhythm Tengoku takes the basics of music, keeping in time, playing with the group around you, when to stop a note short and when to extend it, and frames them so well that it doesn’t even feel like you are being taught anything. Rhythm Tengoku is the most pure attempt of taking the joys of music and trying to give them to both people who know that feeling and people who are unfamiliar. Only reason why this is not my favorite game this year is because previous entries in the Rhythm Tengoku series have done similiar things, and despite having “minna” in the title (“minna” means “everyone”) the multiplayer options are lacking. I would recommend picking it up now, but the US release is actually early 2012 so people might went to check that out too (it will be called Rhythm Heaven Fever, which I am sure will still be great, but unfortunately they will most probably strip out all the Japanese voice and replace it with a dub, which has never been as good in the past).
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