by: Michael Barnes

Yes, it’s that time again when everyone seeks closure for the year that was by compiling “best of” lists. But this year, while I was putting together Gameshark’s Tabletop Game of the Year awards, I realized that I wanted to change the format that we’ve used in previous years. This year, instead of having categories like “Best Card Game”, “Best Game Most Likely to be Played Exclusively by Fat, Bearded Men”, or whatever, I wanted to honor all of what I feel were the very best games of the year. Now, this isn’t a fluffy “everybody is a winner” cop out, because there is still a mandated Game of the Year. Consider the following five games, each accompanied by an imaginary musical number.

Runners up:

1) HIGH FRONTIER (Phil Eklund, Sierra Madre Games)

Phil Eklund’s HIGH FRONTIER is a stunningly dense, esoteric game packed with scientific rigor and real-life rocket science. It could have been a coldly analytical exercise in tedium. But it isn’t—it’s a dramatic, thrilling and utterly compelling game of human adventure as players attempt to transport equipment and materiel into space in order to develop off-world manufacturing facilities. The white papers-style presentation and the poor information organization are definitely barriers to entry, but for those willing to learn and experience the game something truly special awaits. No other game in 2010 had as nail-biting a die roll as trying to aerobrake onto Mars, with a roll of a one representing years of work culminating in failure. Arcane, idiosyncratic, and totally nerdy, HIGH FRONTIER is the very embodiment of what hobby gaming means.