Yes, there have been other Mario console games in that interim, particularly Super Mario 64, the franchise's move to 3D, the disappointing Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy, which finished third in our 2008 voting (behind Halo 3 and Bioshock). None of those titles moved us the way that Super Mario Bros. 3 did way back when. The ability to re-live some of our favorite gameplay moments from our youth enticed almost all of our staff members to throw a vote Mario's way. This is true even those of us stupid enough to play in co-op mode, or as the guys at Penny-Arcade.com have appropriately described it, Divorce Mode. It is quite possibly the most difficult gameplay experience of the year as well as the most satisfying once you and your partner begin to learn to work together successfully. Once you have mastered the skill of Mushroom World cohabitation, only then may you truly join the fraternity of Mario Brothers. The satisaction of such developed skill is total. New Mario Bros. for the Wii offers one of the most rewarding multi-player game experiences in the history of the industry and had it not been for Batman finally done right, this would be a worthy choice as the best videogame of the year.

The rest of our top five consists of three games that are as dissimilar as humanly possible. Third place goes to Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to last year's number four videogame of the year, Left 4 Dead. While a couple of members of our staff initially shared many of the same concerns as the Valve protest group, who maintained a sequel this soon could not be evolved enough from the original, the studio proved us wrong in offering significant upgrades in terms of weapons, combat excitement, and enhanced enemies. It's also as good an online experience as the videogame community offers. Fourth place goes to Modern Warfare 2, the top selling game of 2009 whose predecessor joined Super Mario Galaxy on our 2008 list. Some members of our staff were drinking the Kool-Aid on MW2 months before its release but those of us who were on the fence about it prior to release stayed that way after it came out. The game offers tremendous online gameplay but the campaign mode...could be better. You can beat it in roughly the time it takes to microwave a burrito and that lackluster single player experience is what prevents it from finishing higher on the list.

Rounding out the top five is Scribblenauts, a game that I consider to be the logical successor to the 1980s Infocom series of games starting with Zork. Scribblenauts is a user experience that has to be played to be appreciated fully. Let's just say that when my wife was working her way through the game, it was not the least bit unusual for her to come running into the room espousing odd remarks such as "I just threw a Yeti at a child and it worked!" or "My robot electrified the piranha, but it died before I could steal the honey from the bees." If you have no idea what any of that means, don't worry. Neither did I at the time. Scribblenauts is a game that fundamentally requires the player to mine the depths of their imagination in order to come up with the most creative solutions possible to unravel puzzles. Sure, you could use bug spray to get rid of some pesky bees, but what is fun is that when you could try to drop a volcano on them instead? Boxing a lexicon of several thousand words and a game mantra of "Write Anything, Solve Anything", Scribblenauts provided the most novel gameplay of 2009. BOP proudly caters to a more intellectual crowd and that makes you all the perfect target audience for this game. Give it a shot and I guarantee you will love it. Our staff liked it roughly as much as Modern Warfare 2 and it cost only half as much to boot.

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