The ZippyGamer staff gives you our picks for the best games of 2005.

Lewis – Resident Evil 4

Hell. Yes. OK, I’m going to be honest here, I haven’t actually played the GameCube original, but I did play (beat, love, cherished) the Wii remake. So really, this should be a 2007 game, but I honestly had difficulty finding another game from this year to put here. No doubt I’ll find it later, but for now, we’re going to talk about the most startling reboot in video game history. Now, back in the day, Resident Evil was a respected but generally difficult to play and slow franchise renowned for its amazingly cheesy but engrossing plot. Then along came Resident Evil 4… and it not only re-invented the series, it redefined it’s genre. Suddenly, survival horror was allowed to be fast paced, tense and full of guns. Great guns. With lots of firepower. From the now iconic village opening to the final boss fight, Resident Evil 4 delivers set-piece after set-piece of beautifully crafted action. While Resident Evil 4 was great on GameCube, I found that the Wii-make was astounding, giving the player fast aiming and greater immersion in the (now industry standard) quick time events. If you’re going out to play in Eastern Europe, bring a shotgun with you, because Leon ain’t coming to save your ass too.

Kelsey – Resident Evil 4

I’m not a big fan of the Resident Evil series. Despite my love of horror movies and zombies, I never could get past the annoying save system and the awkward camera angles. Resident Evil 4 was an impulse buy, I had heard a lot of good things about it and how it was radically different from the other games in the series. I expected a “scary” game with shooting; what I got was just a fun action game. This is definitely my favourite game of the past generation. The “horror” of the series is gone, but, in RE4’s defence, the series was never scary to begin with. The game still looks good, when familiar areas are revisited they never feel the same, and there is a lot of satisfaction is seeing the heads of the evil Spanish monsters explode!

Liam – Mario Kart DS

This was another hard year to decide a favourite on. We had the awesome Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2, the pretty slick, Timesplitters: Future Perfect and the underrated Yakuza. But which game did I have the most fun with? Mario Kart DS.

This game stayed in my DS for about 2 – 3 years, I mastered snaking, learnt the maps, and was ready for online. I had a great win – lose ratio, and I enjoyed playing against the other members of Zippy Gamer, Apart from Jon, who is a Mario Kart god.

This is and most likely will forever be my favourite Mario Kart game. It gets a lot of hate due to snaking. But it’s a great game if we push that debate aside, and look at how great the course’s were, and the music was just superb. It included the best of the last Mario Kart’s course’s and I couldn’t have agreed more with the choices Nintendo chose.

Honorable Mentions: Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy (PC, Xbox, PS2), Chibi – Robo (Gamecube) Yakuza (PS2)

Joe – Guitar Hero

Back in 2004 I took a year off from gaming. The only game I even played between late 2004 and late 2005 was The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Even though I no longer considered myself a gamer, I couldn’t ignore a new Zelda game. Anyway, 2005 was the year that got me back into gaming. The Nintendo DS was busting out some very impressive titles like Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Sonic Rush, and so many more that I just had to get one. For the first time, I stepped into the world of online gaming with the DS. Playing a video game against a friend you met online was such an immersive experience. It really brings people closer together. After being left in the dust by Jon, Liam, and many other e-buddies in Mario Kart DS and visiting their towns in Animal Crossing, I found myself being pushed right back into hardcore gamer status. Because of my year-long gaming hiatus, I missed out on a lot of great titles. One of those titles was Resident Evil 4.

I almost chose RE4 as my pick for 2005 but then I remembered another game that was released that year, Guitar Hero.

Guitar Hero gave birth to a new era of gaming; the era of the casual gamer. Men, women and children of all ages found themselves rockin’ out to their favorite songs on a plastic toy guitar. With a controller that resembles an actual guitar, players felt like they were actually performing on stage. This is what made the game so popular. People who never had any interest in video games before were buying Playstation 2s just for Guitar Hero. I think that seeing how Guitar Hero captured the casual market helped inspire Nintendo to create the Wii.

This series has been great for music as well. Young kids are now appreciating classic rock and even discovering new bands they’ve never heard of before. I think Guitar Hero has also motivated some bands to make new music as well. Death Magnetic was Metallica’s most guitar-driven album to date. This was no doubt inspired by the success of the Guitar Hero franchise.

Five years and countless rhythm games later, the Guitar Hero fad is beginning to fizzle out. But as a fan of music and video games, I still enjoy playing Guitar Hero and its many sequels.

Honorable Mentions: Resident Evil 4 (GCN), Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World (NDS)

Jonathan – Mario Kart DS

I have a sad story to tell. Back in 2005 I was somewhat serious about weightlifting and I became really consistent with my good eating and exercise habits. Within months I was growing stronger than I’ve ever been. And then what happened? Mario Kart DS came out.

Suddenly the spare time that I devoted to my health is eaten up by playing Mario Kart DS online instead. My real muscles faded, but hey, I was dominating online. When I finally ended my online career, I had an impressive 310-11 win/loss record. My most challenging match was against Azen, who is one of the best Super Smash Bros. Melee players in the world. Well, he was damn good at Mario Kart too, let me tell you. I lost. Azen knew about a tactic known as “snaking” before most Mario Kart players did, including me.

Mario Kart DS became Nintendo’s most successful title with online play on Nintendo’s WFC network. It had very strong sales when it released and now continues to sell with over 3 million sales. The game featured over 30 courses, 8-player offline play and some of the best Mario Kart gameplay we could hope for.

Honorable mentions: God of War (PS2), Jade Empire (Xbox), Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)