2005 afforded me a relatively large amount of money to buy games with. I played them all much more than you'd think. Due to this deluge of gaming goodness, making a list of the best ones of 2005 became a sort of arduous task compared to years past. But I knew I had to do it, if only to spread the word about the sheer awesomeness of the always pooped on Sigma Star Saga.

Note that while the fact that the Tawards for 2001 was dominated with a lot of off beat and silly inside jokes and references to things that had happened to me that year, this one is mostly just a list of all the games I liked, which I guess probably highlights how shallow I've become since attending college at UTSA.

Note also that this one also isn't funny either, not even a little bit. I can't really claim that the old one was "comedic" but at least it wasn't offensively dull. If you're not already crying and screaming "sell-out" at the top of your horse lungs at your computer screen, feel free to continue.

1. CAVE STORY Simple jump in shoot gameplay spiced up with endearing characters and an ingenous upgrade system which encourages frantic and smart gunplay throughout a long non-linear adventure. The low res graphics are drawn with some heart, and the music is catchy enough to get stuck in your head and worth listening to on its own. Part of the joy of Cave Story is simply discovering it, and discovering the rich world it's singular creator Pixel has made for it. Don't think I'm just giving this game props because its free, or because it's made by a hobbyist - its because it's really, really good, and definetly the most fun and memorable gameI played all year. Not only is it the best freeware game I've ever played, its also become my favorite PC game since Doom, making it my favorite PC game OF ALL TIME. Curly is also the best female co-star of any game ever.

PRO-TIP: Rotate the GBA to eat some sushi. Sushi is good. It's a shame Nintendo makes Warioware look so boring in all of the screen shots they take of it. 2. WARIO WARE TWISTED Spinning around the GBA to play a game is a lot of fun. Like the original Warioware before it, this game is great for short or long spurts as it requires no commitment to jump into yet is varied enough to be fun for hours. Despite the unorthodox control scheme, which requires you to spin the Gameboy Advance to activiate a built in gyrosensor, the game isn't that hard and most players will probably beat it in a day. But getting farther than two rounds in any of the stages takes a lot of practice. Much of the replay comes from a new incentive system, where completing rounds rewards you with capsules containing virtual toys, scratchable records, or even full (though still tiny) games. It makes playing the game feel worthwhile even for those who don't care about earning higher scores, and some of the unlockable minigames make you wish that the early rumors of the DS having its own built in motion sensor technology had come to fruition. The graphics and sound are also some of the highest-def ever seen and heard on a GBA system, and a few of the stages have lyrical songs in the background which are actually catchy. If you can still find this game, it's definetly worth purchasing.

I know the graphics don't seem that great, but this game is still really good. Recker likes his alien temptresses sassy and with genitilia that strongly resembles that of human females. 3. SIGMA STAR SAGA The shooter portions of the game initially appear to be uninspiring. And the story falls into some Star Trek like science fiction cliches (Earth is attacked by aliens who look almost exactly like us, and how a human being manages to flawless communicate with a hostiles species who Earth knows almost nothing about is never explained). But it doesn't matter, really. This is the first RPG I've played in years that I've enjoyed enough to not only want to beat it but feel compelled to play it again. A lot of it has to do with the fact that the traditional menu filled battles of RPG tradition (which I despise) have been stripped out of the game and replaced with more pleasing shooting game segments. The overworld also has a healthy dose of action, but isn't bogged down with the kind of loathsome, boring puzzles to make you hate yourself for getting the game. The story made me really care about all of the characters, to the extent where I began to detect small traces of actual anxiety towards the end of the game because I was concerned about how everything would be resolved. I can't remember the last time I felt so attached to video game characters, though Final Fantasy VI and Link's Awakening come to mind. Sigma Star Saga rekindled the affection I felt so strongly for text driven game stories throughout middle school, an affection that's been driven out of me over the years each time I've tried in vein to slog through some over-rated JRPG on some newer system. The music is also really, really good. I know it may seem strange, but I almost called this the game of the year, but I voted it down in my own list over technical issues and the fact that it is pretty short and I don't know if I can totally recommend such a controversial game over the always replayable Warioware Twisted. But don't be surprised if you check back here in a few months, once I've played through this puppy again and see that I've silent given it the #2 spot.

When Link is this small, even a mosquito can kick his ass. The Minish are so small they wear leaves for clothing! Talk about crazy! This game presents an imaginitive and colorful world! 4. ZELDA MINISH CAP This is the only Zelda in the last decade I've wanted to play and have beaten without some sense of obligation. Capcom for once has actually bothered to draw new 2D graphics, and this sense of Capcom actually giving a damn about what could have been (and initially, may seem like) an easy cash in seems to permeate the entire presentation. The music is really wonderful. While there's a lot of remixes, the original stuff is pretty powerful and engrossing. All the polish is more than superficial, though, as it goes a long way towards making this feel like a 2D Zelda game for the next generation, a true sequel to a Link to the Past (and Link's Awakening) in the tradition of Symphony of the Night and Gradius Gaiden. Many of the items in the game are also completely unique to the series. The gimick for this installment of Zelda - the ability to become the size of an insect with the help of a magic hat - allows Link to go to exciting new places without requiring you to traverse two slightly different versions of the exact same overworld (ala the light world/ dark world, future / past, etc). The game is a bit short, with only six dungeons, but at least the ones presented are worth your time.

Whoa... I just realized this is the only 3D game on this list. The picture of the bloated baby mini-boss has become iconic. It's too bad I couldn't show you any different pictures of Neo Contra, though I'd sort of hate to spoil any of it. 5. NEO CONTRA Neo Contra may have one of the greatest opening videos in the history of video games, possibly greater than even MGS2. From the moment you start playing the game, you know it's time to KICK ASS. Despite being an overhead shooter, Neo Contra easily beats the previous side-scrolling installment, Shattered Soldier, in my book as it fixes so many of the shortcomings of its predecessor. Transitory cinematics during the levels are now shorter and can be skipped, which sounds like a little thing but makes the game feel much more constant and relentless. There's also a great deal more running and gunning (compared to Shattered which was all about the bosses), and on this level particularly the game strikes a definitive balance, equal to Contra III in terms of it's enemy to boss ratio. Again, you start with three weapons, but the third one is a lock on meant mostly for arial attacks. Finally, if you ever feel really crazy you can fight enemies directly with super Samuri Jaguar's katana blade. The game also has an incredibly goofy story that seems to poke fun of all the philosophizing typically done in the Metal Gear Solid games. Like before, beating the games with different rankings produces two extra ending levels along with three endings, which makes the game replayable. Unlike before, the tolerance for getting the better rankings is high enough that average players might eventually be able to get to the true last boss (not that this somehow helped me, since I personally witnessed the glory of Shattered Soldier's Frog boss).

The best part of Four Swords is hurting your friends. While the game looks pretty slick on the TV, the action taking place on the GBA doesn't look too bad either. 6. FOUR SWORDS I have to preface this by saying something - you will almost never play this game if you don't have three friends who also own GBAs and are willing to play games with you. Even then, you'd have to either have to get them to buy their own link cables or just get them yourself (getting used link cables these days is cheaper than you'd think). That said, if you have the opportunity to do so, I highly recommend you drop the cash and get this game along with whatever equipment you need to play it, as Four Swords is the greatest multiplayer console game since Saturn Bomberman. The experience feels like some crazy Zelda arcade game, which blends cooperative and competitive aspects to make sure you and your friends will secretly conspire against one another while at the same time being forced to help each other out. Its a hell of a great time, and the great design forces you to communicate well with the people in the room. For years, adventure games like Zelda have mostly been one player affairs, and even when some elements of cooperative play have been added, they've basically just been single player adventures with two on screen avatars so your friend won't get bored watching you play. Somehow Four Swords spreads that joy around in a way that makes it feel like everyone's actively sharing it. Unfortunetly, while the game can be played alone, it loses much of it's charm, and while it is pretty large playing any of the levels by yourself feels like wasting great whine. The necessary element of willing human participants makes the game suffer from the Boktai dilema, meaning it may not be something you can play whenever you want. If it weren't for that, the game would've ranked much, much higher.

Somehow Astro Boy ends up being a more solid game than Treasure's other offerings. One of Astro Boy's primary attacks involves shooting bullets from guns mounted on his ass cheeks. Astro Boy Astroboy is an incredibly good game, but not better than the games above. It's actually one of the best GBA games of all time, and I recommend that you get it, but I didn't want to give seven games awards and wanted to write about Contra and Four Swords. I still recommend you get Astro Boy though, no matter what condition you find it in. The game is one of the reasons to own a Gameboy Player.

This game really makes the Gameboy Player feel like the Super Nintendo 2, especially if you ever enjoyed Mode 7 or Super Castlevania IV. Gunstar Super Heroes This game is good, exceptional in fact. It's just not good enough compared to all the other great things I played. Also, there's a few parts where you stop running n' gunning Contra style and instead fly around in dopey vehicles. Normally this is just boring, but on hardmode, one stage involving a really poor Tiger Heli rip off is designed so that it's literally impossible unless you play super cheezy. Even then its annoying as hell in a way I'd go so far as to call broken. It's a shame, too, because if Treasure had just put as much time into this game as they did with Astro Boy it could've really been something special.

Encounter strange and wonderful aliens, then kill them in order to solve environmental puzzles! Yeah, this game is pretty awesome. Looking at these screen shots makes me want to play it again. Shows how many great games I played this year. Metroid Zero Mission I always think to myself what a good game Metroid Zero Mission is. And it is, its a really good game. Then I go to play it and I stop after a few minutes. I don't know whats wrong with me, I must be dumb. I sort of wanted to give this a Taward, but couldn't think of anything heart felt to write about a game this short that I've only beaten once.

Silent Hill 4 - This game manages being really scary in a way that's uniquely different from the three Silent Hill games before it. I played this thing through with my friend Jon and yet parts of it still make me feel frightened. If you can get it for cheap, I say DO IT!!!

INELIGIBLE

Meta Gear Solid 3 - It's better than every game here, but I want to think of this as the 2004 Taward winner. Giving it the award this year would've only wasted words and removed the focus from the lesser knowns.

Super Smash Bros - I just got this game but have been playing other things. I only played it twice. I would like to consider it ineligible for 2005.

Killer 7 - I just got this and its friggin awesome. But I didn't have a chance to play more than two good sessions before the holiday rush came, and after that I never had time. Its kind of hard to settle into again, so since then I've been playing some of the newer stuff (like Sigma Star Saga, Warioware etc) and other stuff that doesn't require me to take the GB Player disc out of my Gamecube (like Sigma Star Saga). So I'd like to remove it from the 2005 pool and consider it as part of the 2006 Taward entries.