I haven’t played Stephen Totilo’s 2007 favorite, “Desktop Tower Defense,” but I have played variations of it. Most recently, WiiWare’s “Defend Your Castle.”

I like the concept. But I’ve always thought: what if there were ninjas? Thankfully, I wasn’t alone there, leading to SouthPeak collaborating with plush toy artist Shawn Smith (a former EGM editor) to create “Ninjatown” for the DS.

“Ninjatown” is based on universe Smith already created with his plush toys. And while it’s also based on the “Desktop Tower Defense” concept, it has a life all its own.

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This is the second in a series of posts about the games I played and/or finished for fun for the first time in 2007. For comparisons’ sake, see my 2006 list. The previous post in the series was about my Xbox 360 games.

I love video games. There, I said it. I was never very good at hiding that, was I? I love games, and I try to play them as often as I can. I will try any video game that at least one person tells me is worth playing. I’ll play anything.

And I get angry (no exaggeration) with people who won’t try games I push on them.

So who am I to report that in 2007, across the spectrum of computer games, cell phone games and games on the iPod, the number of games I played for fun was… six.

Six. Only three of them were computer games.

Where did I go wrong?

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It is over. Another Vs. Mode. Well, unofficially a Vs. Mode. Throughout the week Slate.com posted an exchange between four gaming reporters, myself included, about the year in video games.

And they posted a 20-minute podcast, which I’m really happy with.

Participants of the 12-part written exchange and the podcast were:

Slate’s Chris Suellentrop:

I hope that “Wii Play” does not become an Important Game that other companies copy. It’s a fun enough little game, but its minigames don’t have the exhilarating “virtual reality” feel of “Wii Sports,” a game in which you actually feel like you’re playing tennis, golf, and bowling. I haven’t touched a Wii title that’s lived up to the promise of “Wii Sports.”

The New York Times‘ Seth Schiesel:

For pure adrenaline, nothing this year compared to my first solo battle against another player in “Eve Online.” So there I was, minding my own business, flying my Rupture-class cruiser in a low-security star system called Klogori. All of a sudden, a Thorax blastership flown by a pilot from the then-powerful RISE alliance appears on my heads-up display. His railguns rip into my shields as I fumble to launch my attack drones and target my autocannons. We circle one another, dodging the asteroids tumbling about, as my ship’s Nosferatu modules relentlessly suck away the energy stored in his ship’s batteries and add it to mine. Soon, he can no longer power his repair systems, and I blow the Thorax to high-tech splinters. And none too soon. A few more seconds and it would have been me waking up in a cloning station.

Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal (who?):

We agreed that it was difficult because of the amount of time that it takes to play a game as compared with watching a movie, not to mention the fact that games also require a certain amount of skill to progress. That’s why the DS and the PSP have been a godsend for us New Yorkers. I would probably never have made it through all but the last level of Rockstar’s disappointing “Manhunt 2“—sheepishly tilting the screen away from underage subway seatmates, of course—if there hadn’t been a PSP version.

And me, Multiplayer’s Stephen Something-or-other:

So, how odd am I for spending 18 hours playing through “BioShock” this year? For going through “Metroid Prime 3” in 15? For spending far more than four hours each finishing “Ratchet & Clank Future,” “God of War II,” “Heavenly Sword,” “Call of Duty 4,” “Lair,” “Super Paper Mario“? How far into the frontier am I? And are the people who got turned on to games this year by quick-play champs such as “Wii Sports,” “Guitar Hero,” and, yes, “Desktop Tower Defense” ever going to get to these hinterlands with me?

All of the above is excerpted from the full Slate exchange. Plus, there’s the podcast, which will auto play at the link or can be downloaded through this one.

Wow, do these guys ever shut up?

Since Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal is altogether incapable of defeating me in our Vs. Mode exchanges, he is now bringing along some friends: Chris Suellentrop of Slate and Seth Schiesel of the New York Times.

Well, kind of.

He and I are taking a month off from Vs. Mode in order to accept the flattering offer to participate in Slate.com’s first-ever end-of-year Gaming Club. Over at Slate you can read the beginnings of a weeklong debate/discussion about the year’s best video games (and “God Hand“). In year’s past they’ve done this for movies, inviting the biggest names of movie reviewing to talk about the year in film. Now they’re doing the same for games.

Suellentrop kicks off, declaring that “BioShock is not just the best game I played in 2007. I think it’s the best game I’ve ever played.” He cites developer Clint Hocking, stating that the game might not be the medium’s Citizen Kane, but at least a good step toward it.

Then there’s me, once again touting the virtues of “Desktop Tower Defense“:

My critics would be right to point out that there isn’t much of a story in “Desktop Tower Defense.” There is no grandeur. And there is no apparent philosophical critique. “Desktop Tower Defense” does nothing to propel the medium toward a video game Citizen Kane. It simply presents sport. Let’s find room to praise games like that. Has the medium produced a Citizen Kane or a Schindler’s List or even a Jaws? Maybe not. Maybe never. But it sure has created its own basketballs, footballs, and baseballs.

Plenty more where that came from, today and throughout the week, over at Slate.

Enjoy! Count the number of references to Jonathan Blow. And cheer for me to win. That’s the point of a critical exchange, right?

UPDATE: For those interested in comparing scores, I’ve started a new group called on the Desktop Tower Defense” leaderboards called “GOTY” I’ll post any new scores there. 

“Desktop Tower Defense.” It’s free. It’s a web-browser game.

And I just named it as my Game of the Year, over the likes of “Super Mario Galaxy,” “BioShock,” and “Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash.”

How can I convince you that I’m right?

I can get you to play it for free in your web browser.

I can mention that, according to the game’s stat page, 5706 sessions of the game were played in the hour that concluded as I wrote this post.

Or I can submit to you a conversation I had yesterday that testifies to this gaming’s allure. This conversation was between me and the man who has become my premiere “Desktop Tower Defense” leaderboard nemesis, the one and only Wedbush Morgan Securities video game stock analyst Michael Pachter.

Read on for the full exchange, but first, a sampling:

Mulitplayer: Now have you proselytized this game out to other people? Are you continuing to sow the seeds here?

Pachter: I haven’t yet because I want to get a score on there that no one will ever top. Before I invite somebody foolishly like you and N’Gai provoked me into beating your scores. I don’t want to do that until I’m certain I have a score that my friends can’t beat.

… I’m N’Gai’s worst nightmare. He’s ruing the day he invited me to that leaderboard.

The rest of this exchange, including what Pachter thinks companies like EA and Activision could learn from “Desktop Tower Defense,” is after the jump.
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UPDATE: For those interested in comparing scores, I’ve started a new group called on the Desktop Tower Defense” leaderboards called “GOTY” I’ll post any new scores there.

What are the top 10 games of 2007, as determined by one Stephen Totilo? (That’s me).

Over at MTVNews.com, we’re letting my opinion be known.

Yeah, I left “Assassin’s Creed” off. Sadly, I had to leave my beloved “Picross DS” off too.

My 10?

My number one is the free, browser-based “Desktop Tower Defense.” Seriously. Play it for free in your web browser right now.

You tell me why I’m wrong. But the fact is, I’m not.

Also charting are: “Crackdown,” “Halo 3,” “Rock Band” (ka-ching!), “Geometry Wars Galaxies” on the Wii and more.

Full list here.

(And for the record, this list does not reflect the judgment of MTV Games, the MTV Multiplayer blog, TRL or Tila Tequila)

This is the final round. The week-long short-session Vs. Mode between me and Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal draws to a conclusion in rather segue-ready fashion.

In this last round, N’Gai and I dissect “Nucleus,” “Pac-Man Championship Edition” and “Diner Dash,” among others.

And then your favorite Multiplayer blogger brings it home with the discovery of a short-session, itty-bitty game that might be better than “BioShock” at the very aspect of gameplay that “BioShock” is best at.

Say it ain’t so! Or say it is so! Or… say what? The surprise game is revealed in the last letter of this exchange, after the jump.

And guess what game we’ll be tackling in our next Vs. Mode? Get ready, Ken Levine.

(As always, Vs Mode is co-published on N’Gai’s “Level Up” blog.)

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