DoFuss’s 2008 Top Handheld Game of the Year

My thinking when it comes to handheld titles is simple. The game should fill the gaps in my life when I have no other choice than to sit and wait. It is a very rare occurrence for me to play a handheld at home, thus my gaming is limited to the train and occasionally coffee shops as I kill time between shifts. For the most part I want quick games. Old arcade style jump in and die games which I can play for fifteen minutes between house and work, such as Space Invaders Extreme or Bangai-O Spirits. But there are occasions where I want something more substantial. Something which holds my attention for hours a time. In short I want Civilization Revolutions.

Civilization is a game with so many layers that in honesty I was amazed to see it compressed down into something that functioned effectively on a handheld. Though some of the complexities are removed it is none the less involving. Indeed the concessions made serve to ensure that even on the DS your civilization is never unmanageable.

It is with some irony that the title of my favorite handheld goes to a series which has been around for seventeen years. After all in every other section I have attempted to reward innovation. That is not to downplay the shear accomplishment of putting a game that just a few years ago I couldn’t imagine working on anything other than a PC into the palm of my hand while retaining the overall feel of the experience that I lost so many hours to at university.

In the interest of full disclosure I should state that I didn’t play many handheld titles this year. I suspect if I had the funds available I would have picked up Patapon 2 and LocoRoco 2 both of which are franchises I love and could have bumped Civilization from the top spot. But I didn’t.