Epic Default Productions

So it’s now 2009, and generally everyone has come up with their lists of best games for last year, but I noticed something. Neither of the Penny Arcade games are on there.

Now before you start calling me out on the fact that I practically suck the cock of PA Inc., on a regular basis, let me elaborate on this statement. It’s definitely not the best game to come out last year, it’s not even close. But it deserves mention because it is possibly the only game that came out last year that accomplished precisely what it set out to do.

It was fun, it wanted to be fun, and it was always fun.

So many games get caught up in their collective grittiness, their graphics, or trying to craft the most epic story on the planet, that they forget that they are called games. Last I checked, games are supposed to be fun, it’s practically a prerequisite.

Now when Hothead and Penny Arcade set out to make a game, first and foremost they wanted to make a game that was fun. The story’s there, the graphics can be described as “interesting,” but over all it kept it’s fun quotient at it’s highest point.

I can’t count how many times I had to pause the game because I was laughing too hard to continue. And I appreciate that. I like my fair share of “manly” games, but over all…when I want to play a game I want to have fun. So I applaud PA yet again for a wonderful job at what they set out to do.

It’s beginning to sound like a broken record coming from me, but maybe the game industry as a whole (developers, media, conventions) need to get their heads out of their asses and take a page out of these guys’ books. They seem to be enjoying rapt success with what they do without alienating their fan base.

Call Jonny a cocksucker in about one sentence by hitting the comments button, or call him a cocksucker with more eloquent language in the forums