Trevor Burnham

I frivoled away most of my high school years on video games. For­tu­nately, I managed to overcome that par­tic­u­lar addic­tion and learn to do other things with my spare time—like read books and make websites for instance. Still, I’ve main­tained an interest in games for their remark­able ability to keep the atten­tion of even the most frazzled Gen Y-​​er. So when the oppor­tu­nity to take a graduate-​​level course entitled “Video Games and Learning” from the UMich Edu­ca­tion depart­ment came up, my first thought—after the req­ui­site bemoan­ing of the state of American edu­ca­tion today—was: How can I refuse?

I’ll talk more about that course later, but for now I want to name the best game of 2009: Machi­nar­ium. While the inno­v­a­tive mechan­ics of the indie darling plat­former Braid made it the best game of 2008, Machi­nar­ium rep­re­sents a delight­ful throw­back to the simple, story-​​driven adven­ture games of the ‘90s, combined with mind-​​bending puzzles that rise to the level of such classics as Myst. It’s kid-​​friendly, has a unique visual style, and offers a clever solution to the patience-​​trying ruts that sunk the adven­ture genre to second-​​tier status: a “walk­through book” built into the game, always avail­able in the upper-​​right corner, that requires you to complete a one-​​minute mini-​​game to open it, ensuring that you only consult it when really, truly stuck.

But what impressed me most about Machi­nar­ium, which was painstak­ingly devel­oped over the course of three years by a handful of Czech devel­op­ers, is the superb way it tells a rich, involv­ing story without words. In a world where video game stories are usually crafted by gluing clichés together into a long, tired strings, Machi­nar­ium is truly a breath of fresh air.

A close runner-​​up is Tales of Monkey Island. It not only revi­tal­izes the long-​​dormant Monkey Island fran­chise; it’s the best in the series, full of cute laughs and clever chal­lenges. Telltale Games has estab­lished itself as the Pixar of modern adven­ture games, creating one high-​​quality, whim­si­cal, family-​​oriented game after another. Tales of Monkey Island is avail­able as part of the Telltale Every­thing Pack on Steam, which is an unbe­liev­able value (in terms of $/​game-​​minute).

If there’s one thing my game addic­tion taught me, it’s that you should never waste time on having the same expe­ri­ence twice. Playing Bejew­eled yet again is point­less. Games, just like books and movies, are worth­while in pro­por­tion to the amount of sheer imag­i­na­tion that went into them. I’m glad to report that the simple, story-​​driven adven­ture game is alive and well. The best games of 2009 are triumphs of storytelling.

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