The 2009 Boysie Awards

It’s time for The Boysies, Boys’ Life’s yearly video game awards! After way too much game playing and some hard thinking, here are the winners.

BEST PS3 GAME

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (Sony)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
Battle in space. Explore pretty much everywhere in the game—even the sky, with your Hoverboots. The graphics are as ingenious as those in almost any animated movie. And since this concludes the Ratchet & Clank trilogy, the game makers have outdone themselves by adding surprises everywhere.

BEST XBOX 360 GAME—TIE

Mini Ninjas (Warner Bros.)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
Mini Ninjas is one of those games that lets you escape into its ultra-cool world. Once in that vivid adventure, you just don’t want to leave. In addition, the idea of changing enemies into animals to fix the balance of nature never gets old.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (LucasArts)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
There’s a lot here. You get the classic, silent LEGO humor and the trilogy of movies plus “The Crystal Skull.” There are tons of new levels, and you’ve got to love the way the whip tosses an enemy over LEGO Indy’s shoulder. “Adventure” is right!

BEST WII GAME

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo)
Mario creator Mr. Miyamoto puts his Nintendo team’s best stuff into the Mario and Zelda games. In this latest Mario, you get a very fine game that offers multiplayer in the always-charming Mushroom Kingdom. You have to love that helicopter thing that the characters can do. Plus, it’s one challenging game to beat.

BEST PSP GAME

Hammerin’ Hero (Atlus)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
Hammerin’ Hero is a quirky platform game that never lets up as far as challenge and thrills go. It may be a side scroller, but some of the artwork is so intense, it feels 3D. And in what other game can you be a deep-sea diver, a baseball player and a sushi chef?

Runner Up: LittleBigPlanet PSP (Sony)

BEST DS GAME

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
Link’s return is triumphant and so is his relationship with The Phantom, the ghostly and helpful knight he pals around with. Plus, there are the sweet game mechanics like the Whirlwind and the whip. Finally, who doesn’t like to ride a steam-engine train and defeat enemies while you do it?

Runner Up: Big Bang Mini (Southpeak)

BEST PC GAME

Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
Who knew a real-time strategy game could be so much fun and so full of laughs? The cute undead characters look like they’re out of a comic book. And there are so many weird weapons the zombies use, like catapults and even a Zamboni machine, you have endless fun trying to choose the right plants to counter them. Don’t let ’em get in the living room!

BEST NEW PLATFORM

iPod Touch and iPhone
There are more than 20,000 games for these platforms. While a lot of them stink, the iPod Touch and iPhone are giving the makers of the PSP and DS a serious run for their money. Plus, the price is right—even at this time of year. Until January 2010, Konami has a sale on its games for just 99 cents each at the iTunes store. Some of the other, independently made games are free to download, too.

BEST MUSIC GAME

Band Hero (Activision)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
Sure, LEGO Rock Band is good, but Band Hero wins: With 65 tunes from so many eras of rock, the replay value is immense. And you can play with up to eight people on Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and even the Wii.

BEST OVERALL SPORTS GAME

FIFA Soccer 10 (EA Sports)
Even if you’re not a soccer fan, you have to appreciate all the upgrades that went into this latest version of FIFA. If you are a soccer fan, it’s pure heaven. FIFA 10 plays like the real thing because the controls and graphics have been mightily improved upon. Plus, there’s so much to do when you really get into it, you’ll find it difficult to find time to play any other sports game.

Runner Up: MLB The Show 09 (Sony for PS3)

BEST RACING GAME

MX Vs. ATV Reflex (THQ)
There are tons of vehicles to drive, and you can customize them your way. The dirt tracks take real-time damage, which you can use to your advantage if you know the right moves. The upshot is that Reflex feels real, and that’s why it’s an exciting game.

BEST MOVIE ADAPTATION

Disney’s A Christmas Carol (Disney for DS)
Boy, did this come out of nowhere! Even though A Christmas Carol has a great variety of games, it’s no mere mini-game collection. You play the games when the time is right and to move the classic Dickens’ story along. They even included the book for you.

Runner Up: A Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (Majesco for Xbox 360)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older

BEST NOD TO OLD-SCHOOL GAMING

A Boy and His Blob (Majesco for Wii)
Not only is A Boy and His Blob touching and beautifully animated, it’s a remake of one of the hardest-to-find Nintendo games. Then, there are all the fun things you can do with the blob, like making him into a ladder and a parachute.

BEST MINI GAMES COLLECTION

Medieval Games (Vir2L for Wii)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
Just when you think there’s nothing more that can be done with mini games for the Wii, out comes Medieval Games. On three ingenious game boards in 30 games, you can play as a wizard, jester or knight. Jousting is challenging, and so is fighting that dragon!

Runner Up: Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)

BEST OVERALL SERIES

Petz (Ubisoft for DS)
The Petz series takes the virtual pet idea and spreads it across a variety of games that include hamsters, monkeys, horses and dolphins. Some of the games even work with the other games. In Hamsterz Superstarz, you get to bowl and parachute, and in Dolphinz Encounter, you meet 50 underwater species. Very impressive.

GAME OF THE YEAR

Band Hero (Activision)
Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older
It’s about time kids got a family-friendly music-based rhythm game. In addition to the cool stuff mentioned above, Band Hero has most of the features in the T-rated Guitar Hero 5. In addition to the many modes of play, you can even create your own songs.

Runner Up: FIFA Soccer 10 (EA Sports)