To celebrate the new year, Ani-Gamers will be counting down an unranked Top 14 list of sorts. Every day for a week, starting on Christmas and ending on December 31st, one of our bloggers will post their two favorite titles of the year, whether they are anime, manga, or video games. We now present the choices from reviewer Elliot Page.
Detroit Metal City (manga): Detroit Metal City doesn’t care what kind of music you like; it’s going to mock it mercilessly and make you laugh yourself silly at the same time. Not just metal (my personal love when I was younger), but all other genres and elements of music fall under its gaze. The series focuses on Negishi, a truly contemptible wuss who, come nighttime, dons a set of KISS-style makeup and becomes “Lord Johannes Krauser II,” frontman of the titular band Detroit Metal City. He doesn’t want to front a death metal band, but you have to pay the bills somehow. The manga is a rousing success not only because of the obvious absurdity of the main characters situation, but also because of the inherent craziness of the music industry, so rich for lampooning. Even better is that it looks not only at the bands themselves, but the managers and especially the fans, who make up my favorite characters in the series. From being one myself I know first hand the craziness of metal fandom and I find myself groaning though the laughter whenever something particularly mad happens.
Red Faction – Guerrilla: To be honest, this is not the best game of the last year. But more importantly, it has been the one that I have found the most entertaining. The premise is simple: You are a rebel (on Mars, bonus points for a cool setting) on the run from fascist oppressors. Smash the state! What follows is a glorious orgy of violence and explosions as you take down The Man in a world with fully destructible buildings and crazy weapons to get the job done with. There is a rifle that melts people for goodness sake! The missions are varied, well designed and, most of all, fun. Even better, there is a very well made set of both local and online multiplayer modes to have fun with, and thankfully the playerbase for the online mode is still active to this day. Have a go, and you’ll discover the joy of slapping soldiers with a sledgehammer for yourself.
Check out previous 2009 Staff Picks after the break.
Day 1: Sean Kim
Day 2: Ink
Day 3: Uncle Yo
Day 4: Kit
