2009 wasn’t the best year for games. I blame the economy, and possibly Facebook and their shitty games. But it wasn’t a total bust. There were actually quite a few great games to play, so many in fact that I didn’t get to nearly all of them (I try to have a social life, however sad it may be). But of the ones I did play, Here are a few of the standout titles.

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Get it, cause it’s Batman? Ok shut up, whatever. Point is Arkham Asylum is a really fun action game, and one of the best superhero games around. You get to kick ass as the Dark Knight, and yet it still stays true to the source material, something nearly every other game in the genre (especially Batman ones) fail to do. If you like anything about superheroes, you’ll love this game.

Dragon Age: Origins
Developer: BioWare
Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Furries and RPGs go together like, well, furries and porn. And when it comes to RPGs you don’t get a better one this year than Dragon Age: Origins. Yes it has dragons, so that’s a plus, but more importantly it’s long, deep, and has legitimate replay value. It’s BioWare, they make some good-ass RPGs.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Developer: Naughty Dog
PS3

I really cannot stress to you enough the need to buy this game. Everything about it is incredible. The action is intense, the story is interesting, Nathan Drake is super hot, and even the multiplayer is surprisingly fun. This is like a major Hollywood blockbuster that you play and it’s so fucking rad.

Critter Crunch
Developer: Capybara Games
PS3 (Downloadable)

It’s a puzzle game where you play an adorable little puffball thing that eats little critters, then makes other critters each other until they pop. And sometimes he barfs rainbows. Critter Crunch combines addictive puzzle gameplay with a weird as hell premise and a great animated style.

Rabbids Go Home
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Wii

The Rabbids are great characters, but their waggle fest mini-game collections are not. Luckily Ubisoft gave them a legitimate game this time around, a mixture of plat forming, racing, and item collecting. It’s got a cool art deco style, and it’s totally hilarious.

New Super Mario Bros Wii
Developer: Nintendo
Wii

As a single player game, New Super Mario Bros Wii is an awesome, side scrolling very old school plat former that brings back warm fuzzy memories of raccoon suits and fire flowers. Through in the four person multiplayer and it becomes one of those games you wanna punch your friends in the face over.

Klonoa
Developer: Namco
Wii

Hey kids, Klonoa is back, and he’s awesome! Klonoa Wii is a remake of the original PSX game, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun. It’s a stylish, colorful 2D plat former, and that bunny or whatever the hell is pretty cute.

Spectrobes Origins
Developer: Genki
Wii

You kids still like Pokemon right? Well Spectrobes is like 3D badass Pokemon. Yeah it’s published by Disney, but it’s created by the guys that did The World Ends With You. For those of you that are into the monster collecting RPG thing, get in on this before all the Spectrobes fursonas pop up.

Dead Space Extraction
Developer: Eurocom and Visceral Games
Wii

I was skeptical about Extraction, but it turned out to be a fun, and scary rail shooter. The Wii specific stuff isn’t all gimmicky and the game manages to stay frightening and intense. Plus it’s a great game to tide you over until the Dead Space sequel.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
Developer: Nintendo
DS

As I said before, Bowser’s Inside Story is the kinkiest game I’ve ever seen. Macro, paws, inflation, vore, this game is nuts. But on top of that it’s a really fun (and funny) RPG that finally let’s Bowser be the star of the show.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Developer: Nintendo
DS

Professor Layton is one of the most charming video game characters ever. I have a huge crush on him. And his game is full of awesome brain teasing puzzles, and a great story with super cool animated cut scenes. Did I mention I have a crush on him?

Tekken 6
Developer: Namco
Xbox 360, PS3, PSP

Ok so Tekken 6 isn’t an incredible fighting game, but it’s pretty good. Its character roster features a kangaroo, a grizzly, a panda, and a dude that wears a jaguar head and tail, so it’s pretty much the furriest fighting game around.

Rock Band: Unplugged/LEGO Rock Band (DS)
Developer: Backbone Entertainment and Harmonix
PSP/DS

For the portable renditions of Rock Band, Backbone and Harmonix went back to their roots. The games play like Harmonix’s early rhythm games, Amplitude and Frequency, but have the music and World Tour mode of Rock Band.

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Developer: Insomniac Games
PS3

Sure, the Ratchet and Clank series has gotten a little stale, but it’s still a solid platformer with tons of fun weapons. More importantly Ratchet is awesome. He’s way hotter than any Pokemon out there, and possibly hotter than Star Fox (blasphemy, I know).

Granted, these aren’t all the good games that came out this year, but in the interest of keeping the article somewhat brief I’ll have to leave them out. Obviously games like Beatles: Rock Band and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks are awesome games too. I’m sure you’ve got your favorites as well, and I love to hear from you, so fucking comment for once and let me know what they are!