As 2009 draws to a close, we here at Northwest Gamer wanted to reflect on the amazing year this has been for gaming. We carefully deliberated over our choices for the top 5 games of 2009, and Zack and Jeff have each selected their picks. We will reveal one set of picks each day leading up to the new year, so check back often for updates! Do you agree with our picks? Disagree? Leave a comment!

We start the countdown at #5, check out our picks after the break!

Jeff: Red Faction: Guerilla

Get your ass to mars, Arnold Schwarzenegger once told me. I first did eight years ago, and gladly returned to the red planet this past spring. Perfectly fine with being typecast as “that game where you can blow everything up”, Red Faction: Guerrilla has recognized its competitive advantage over other action games, and fully capitalized on it. Environmental damage is the central theme here, and while the first game relied on damage exclusively to organic material, RF:G focuses exclusively on finding cool ways of leveling man made structures.

Bringing down a building with a few well placed demolition charges just never gets old, especially when concrete and steel chunks proceed to rain on the martian rush hour traffic below. Hundreds of collectibles, a sizeable arsenal of weaponry, and an open, GTA-style world all make Red Faction: Guerrilla a recipe for success. Perhaps one of  the biggest sleeper hits of the year, RF:G wowed gamers and critics alike, and though not without flaws, I still find myself replaying the game even amidst a shelf full of  of the stellar Q4 releases.

Zack: Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time

As I said in my “Second Opinion” on Cassi’s review of Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time, “No matter what was happening in the game, I always had a smile on my face.” And I have to tell you that this is still quite true. I have now gotten almost all the way through my second playthrough, and I have yet to stop grinning. This game has everything that any casual or hardcore gamer could want. Great dialogue, a hilarious cast of characters, awesome weapons, and diverse gameplay. RaC: ACiT is, I feel, the coup de grace of Insomniac Games’ work on the Ratchet series over the past 7 years.

This game really does fit into so many different niches; it’s really hard to tell people exactly what “genre” it falls into. It’s also pretty difficult to tell people exactly what makes this game, above so many others this year, so damn spectacular. And I think that’s really what makes this game deserve my number 5 spot. Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time has left me, as so many others I’ve discusses it with, utterly speechless.