APRIL FOOLS – 2008 Badger Game of the Year

April 1st, 2009 by

gameoftheyear2008Well, another year has gone by (a couple of months ago) and it is now time for the very first official Game Badger Game of The Year!  We played a ton of games over the last year, but there is one that particularly stuck in the minds of all of the staff here as simply the best game to come out this year and perhaps the last decade.

I know that a lot of you probably saw this coming, but it was:

imaginewedding1

Imagine Wedding Designer takes our prestigious award this year.  The following is a refresh of our old review for the game that emphasizes why this is a must have for everyone and how it can change your very life:

Developer: SouthLogic Studios
Publisher: Ubisoft
Players: 1
Genre: Simulation
Hours Played: ?
Progress: Had the PERFECT wedding : D

Graphics

An easy shoe-in for the best graphics available on the DS.  The DS’ powers were used to their absolute fullest to make this more like a lucid dream than a game.  Who knew that such powerful emotions, vivid landscapes, and awe-inspiring effects could be conveyed on the DS’ two screens?  Playing this game is like actually getting married to Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom mixed together.  This game proves that things like aliasing and 2D sprites are defunct, and only ultra realistic graphics are acceptable on the DS.  Sometimes the graphics may be hard to view as you wipe the tears of joy mixed fittingly with blood from your eyes, but the sheer joy of playing the game makes up for this in spades.  Even when you see this game your brain will be unable to comprehend how something computer generated can look even more real than life itself.

imaginereality

Sound

This game’s soundtrack is an easy shoe-in for anyone’s iPod or MP3 player especially at the criminally low price of $49.95.  Once I purchased this soundtrack, I have been unable to stop listening to it for a moment.  In the shower, on the bus, while playing the game, and even when getting my ears checked by my doctor; I absolutely must leave the headphones in.  The joy that this superbly orchestrated soundtrack brings into my every day life cannot be expressed in mere human language.  Every moment I experience feelings that I could never understand or ever think possible just by the melodiousness of these beautiful songs.  You have not known true beauty until you have listened to this game’s soundtrack for at least a week straight.

Controls

The controls in this game are not even noticeable.  The interface is designed with such complexity and perfection that it is more like an extension of your very soul than an interface for a game.  The game seems to bend to your mere will as you design the perfect wedding and experience the emotional roller-coaster associated with it.  Sometimes even when I think that I have put down the game and have moved on, I realize that I’m actually still playing it.  Never has there been a game in which anything is truly possible through the control methods until Imagine Wedding Designer.  I am still playing the game as I write this, it is that spectacular.

Gameplay

If there was ever a game with an epic story perfectly conveying the hopes and dreams of an entire history of humanity into one incredible narrative, it is this game.  All of the triumphs and failures of humanity come coursing through your very soul as you progress through this unimaginably joyous game.  As you pick the perfect bouquet and the perfect man, there is absolutely no detail spared or option left out.  Not only do you pointedly feel the every emotion of every character in the game, but they seem to become part of your very self and extensions of all that you know.  I found myself bawling with uncontrollable depression and sorrow when [SPOILER] my bride’s maid caught a minor cold a day before the wedding.  I had to quit my actual job and live in a hovel with no bathroom or air just so that nothing would distract me from finishing this epic tale, the three hundred and seventy-eighth time.  There is no better way to convey love, despair, and everything in between than through this game.  I felt more pain when [SPOILER] my altar flowers arrived in a different shade of yellow and then my legs were repossessed by the bank.  There is no word in any language for it, but this game is the concentrated equivalent of pure entertainment.

Summary

Pros:

+ ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING EVER ASSOCIATED WITH THIS GAME

Cons:

– Perhaps too ridiculously awesome.

INFINITY / 10

Sell whatever you have to, your family, your house, your self, or your dignity just to play this game.  Every other so-called game ever invented pales so much in comparison to this magnum opus of humanity that I hardly dare even call it a game.   This experience is not to be missed for anything.