best and worst of 2006

(tags review)

Gotta get this done before 2007. Whoops. Well, it feels stale already anyway. Anyway, I drop all pretenses of being worldly, so here's my year:

Best game (overall): Sudoku

What can I say, I still want to play it even after saying no more Sudoku forever, unlike Animal Crossing... which makes me feel guilty for skipping Autumn.

(runners up: Animal Crossing, Rhythm Tengoku, Final Fantasy XII)

Best anime into game: Kasimasi Girl Meets Girl: First summer Story (かしまし　～ガール・ミーツ・ガール～　「初めての夏物語。」)

Even though I had some fun with Rozen Maiden: Duellwalzer, and Princess Princess - Watashitachi no Abunai Houkago, Kasimasi takes the cake because its well rounded.

Best portable game: Sudoku

See above "Best game (overall)".

(runners up: Animal Crossing, Rhythm Tengoku)

Best console game: Final Fantasy XII

Enough to waste 150+ hours on. Enough to change my opinion of console RPGs. This is my final Final Fantasy.

(runners up: Kasimasi, Princess Princess)

Best PC game: Tobi Tsukihime

Reaffirmed my side scrolling shmup love, with a killer soundtrack.

(runners up: Titanion)

I wish I played this game I stacked: Ookami

I don't know why I don't just open the darn game.

(runners up: Under Defeat, Elite Beat Agents, a million others)

Best anime: Kasimasi Girl Meets Girl

Out of all the boy becomes/"dresses as" a girl animes this year, well, okay, this one takes the cake. With two endings, a super star voice cast, and great artwork, it's hard to put this one down.

(runners up: Fushigi Boshi no Futago Hime, Princess Princess)

Best voice actress: Yui Horie (堀江由衣)

Voice of Kasimasi's Yasuna, School Rumble Second Semester's Airi, Zero No Tsukaima's Siesta, Otome wa Boku Ni Koishiteru's Mizuho, and Doubutsu no Mori's (Animal Crossing) Ai, and a million more. (pictured: middle)

(runners up: Yuuko Goto (後藤邑子), Hitomi Nabatame (生田目仁美))

Best voice actor: Tomokazu Sugita (杉田智和)

Sugita as Mayama in Honey and Clover just makes me melt. Did I just say that?!?!

(runners up: Jun Fukuyama (福山潤))

Best music artist (vocal): Mao Yuu (ゆうまお)

Great voice, well deserved break for this veteran (anime) songwriter.

(runners up: Crocro, Kotoko, too many)

Best music artist (instrumental): Masashi Yano (矢野雅士）

Just when I start noticing him, he has to exit, stage right.

(runners up: dBu music)

Best movie: Toki o Kakeru Shojo (時をかける少女)

Well it beats out Doubutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing) and Brokeback Mountain. I guess I don't go to the movies much.

Best figure: Card Captor Sakura DVD-Box Omake Figure "Sakura"

Cuteness!

(runners up: "Inku Nijihara", "Lucy Maria Misora")

Best gadget: iPod 5.5 80GB

I use this everyday for play and hobby. I'd be lost without it.

(runners up: Microsoft Wireless Notebook Present Mouse 8000, Sony DSC-T9 Digital Camera)

Best programming language: Ruby

Gotta remember the programming spirit, and Ruby glues it together for me.

(runners up: Javascript, C)

Best blogger: The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen

It's one thing to be consistently interesting and insightful. It's another to click every single post just to find out more nuggets of gold in the comment thread. With this blog you learn just what "compatible" means in terms of the most complex commercial software available, Microsoft Windows. Any programmer who has to design an UI or API must read this.

(runners up: Coding Horror by Jeff Atwood, Game | Life by Wired's Chris Kohler and others)

Stuff I wish I didn't waste my time on: my blog

I'm at a loss for words.

(runners up: events in Tokyo, live concerts where no one claps, telephone cards I look at only once...)

(edit: added link to Tobi Tsukihime, added Best Blogger, runners up smaller, added picture for Best gadget)