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F Top 21 in 2010 - 1) Bayonetta

Rhody Tobin Profile _ Twitter _ E-mail _ Homepage

2010 was a busy year and it saw the release of a bunch of great games. Staff and regular freelance contributors at Gameroni had the opportunity to play a wide variety of titles over the past 12 months and together we've compiled a list of 21 of our favorite games from the period. The list represents the titles that had the biggest impact on us, not necessarily the industry as a whole. Today we present you with our number one selection. ----- 1. Bayonetta (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) Often, releasing a game early in the year is a great way to make sure it gets ignored once award season rolls around. This isn’t only true for games, either. There’s a reason so many great movies come out in the fall, just in time to be nominated for Oscars. The fact that Bayonetta is still getting so much love a full year after its release is a testament to its quality. Bayonetta is the kind of game that stays with you. How can you forget a woman with guns on her feet and hair that summons demons? How can you forget two witches fighting each other while flying through the sky, jumping from missile to missile before they crash into buildings and explode? How can you forget riding a motorcycle into space and punching God into the sun? Of course, that’s not to say flash and flair are the only things Bayonetta has going for it. Hideki Kamiya defined this type of action game with Devil May Cry in 2001 and Bayonetta is a more than worthy successor to his work with that series. There are plenty of weapons available, many of which can be equipped to Bayonettas feet, as well as her hands. This leads to dozens of weapon combinations and hundreds of possible fighting combos. The combat in Bayonetta flows beautifully, thanks to a focus on dodging attacks rather than blocking them. You never have to stop moving. Precision dodging is rewarded with Witch Time, which slows enemies down (or, rather, speeds Bayonetta up) allowing for a few free hits before the action gets crazy again. Powerful Wicked Weave attacks are your reward for successfully pulling off longer combos, a task assisted by more advanced techniques like the Dodge Offset, which allows you to avoid attacks without breaking your combo. This makes Bayonetta a game that is more fun as you play more and improve. In the hands of an experienced player, this game is a nonstop infinite climax action ballet, a beautiful thing to watch and an even more beautiful thing to experience. A perfect mix of insanity and depth, Bayonetta is action gaming at its finest. ----- Each of the posts that we make as we reveal our list of the Top 21 games of 2010 is written by one of the people on our staff and freelance team who advocated most aggressively for an individual title's inclusion. A lot of us really liked Bayonetta, as evidenced by its first-place finish. Now that we've revealed our top picks, here's a list of nine other great games that didn't quite make our Top 21: Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Pac-Man Championship Edition DX The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces Alan Wake Fallout: New Vegas Leadlight Resonance of Fate Valkyria Chronicles 2 Thanks for checking in each day to see our latest picks. Now it's time to look forward to the fantastic year of game releases that has already begun but mostly still lies ahead of us. Be sure to keep checking in for our coverage of those titles as they release, and maybe we'll see you at the end of the year with a list of the Top 21 in 2011!

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