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GDC 2009: The 11 Best Video Games

• By Patrick Shaw
• March 27, 2009 18:59 PM PST
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THE BEST OF GDC: We reveal our favorite games shown at this year's GDC.

The Game Developers Conference 2009 has come to an end, which means it's time to recap the best things we saw at this year's event. Read on to find out what we thought were the eleven best games of GDC 2009.

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#11: Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

For: PSP
The action-RPG series Monster Hunter might not be huge here in The States, but it's actually the biggest selling PSP franchise in Japan, and for good reasons. I'll admit that I'm new to the Monster Hunter games, so Freedom Unite, an expansion to 2007's Monster Hunter Freedom 2, was my first foray into its compelling, beast-filled universe.

The game is more or less Pokemon for adults, and in addition to its impressively fast-paced and straightforward combat, the level of detail on characters and environments was also quite remarkable. I mean, for a PSP game, Freedom Unite looks damn good.

For gamers who don't care for the over complicated leveling-up systems in a lot of RPGs, they may find Monster Hunter refreshing because it replaces your typical leveling up system with building your character up by collecting items and equipment as you go along, becoming sort of a living trophy of your adventures and conquests.

#10: inFamous

For: PlayStation 3
When you hear the term "open world game," you may immediately think of games like Grand Theft Auto. But there are other games that fit in that genre that are quite a bit different from the GTA series like the upcoming inFamous and 2007's Crackdown, which inFamous happens to resemble in certain ways, like the way you're able to leap from rooftop to rooftop with ease and even crawl up the sides of buildings using fire escapes and window ledges to hoist yourself up.

Mirror's Edge appears to be another game that has influenced inFamous' free-running/parkour-laced gameplay. Another thing worth mentioning from our GDC demo of the game is the boss battle shown to us where Cole McGrath took out a female adversary, using button combinations a la God of War to defeat her. From what we were shown of the game, inFamous is quickly coming together as the next must-play PS3-exclusive.

#9: Punch-Out!!

For: Wii
Little Mac's return is less than two months away and those who attended GDC 2009 were fortunate enough to be among the first to get their hands on Punch-Out!! for the Wii. The demo allowed you to duke it out with four enemy boxers from the upcoming fighting game: Von Kaiser, King Hippo, Glass Joe, and series newcomer, the flamboyant dance-music lovin' Disco Kid.

Ultimately, Punch-Out!! is faithful to the classic formula, but the cell-shaded-like new graphics and more fluid fighting animations are enough for fans to salivate over. It feels good to be able to jump back into more Punch-Out!!. Something that I noticed while playing the game was that it felt more like a remake than a brand-new experience, which is okay with me because they're introducing enough new features to keep things interesting like motion controls and new opponents (though I was a bit bummed that the alleged "multiplayer" mode wasn't available for GDC 2009).

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