It's that time in the New Year again! The mince pies, decorations and hangovers may be nothing but a faded memory, but our love for gaming goes on. In this special feature, we look back at the most popular games of 2006 as voted for by the staff. Next week (or whenever Iun has time) we will take a gander at the reader games of 2006. For now, relax, sit back and enjoy the nostalgia.

Few games are so divisive in the opinion of casual and hardcore gamers alike: we have known as many of the elitist crowd to dismiss Animal Crossing as we have seen those who are not normally gamers to love it forever. Whether you love it or hate it, Animal Crossing has carved a place for itself in the general gaming consciousness -and that is feat hard to achieve with only two games released in a series. As for the DS version, new features include more villager interaction, more furniture, a greater number of visitors and more frequent events in the town calendar. There's a reason for everyone to love Wild World, and a hundred reasons to lose hours of every day in wonder at the beautiful world Nintendo have created.

New Super Mario Bros.: Mario, Mario, Mario. What to do about Mario? Basically a licence to print money for Nintendo, Mario has not appeared in his own dedicated platform game since the divisive Super Mario Sunshine. So when New Super Mario Bros hit the shelves, it was an unavoidable truth that the game would be a best seller �and deservedly so. New Super Mario Bros is a welcome return to his roots for the titular plumber, but the formula is just different enough to excite more jaded old-timers, while remaining accessible to new devotees to the franchise.

Metroid Prime: Hunters: When the untested Retro Studios demoed Metroid Prime, it was rightly hailed as a worthy and essential reinvigoration of a franchise that had been notable by its absence for far too long. Metroid Hunters on the DS continues in its winning ways by providing some of the very best 3D visuals that the diminutive handheld can supply, along with one of the most enjoyable Multiplayer experiences on any system. The sublime and natural control method puts many other clunky styli based games to shame and near-perfectly recreates the PC first-person shooter system on the tiny screens. Longevity in the single player game may be an issue, but it is undoubtedly the multiplayer death matches that will have you coming back time after time.

Wii Sports: As far as freebies go, they really don't get much better than this sublime collection of multiplayer-geared sports titles. Party? Get out Wii Sports and you are guaranteed to fill the living room floor with flailing limbs and giggles in a way that no dance-off ever could. Though basic in presentation and lacking in depth of options, Wii Sports will be a title that sees as much time in your Wii as any of the triple-A titles that will be released over the next few years. All doubt about the abilities and functionality of the new console are dispelled with the first strike in bowling, the first knock out in boxing and the first perfect ace served in tennis. We genuinely hope there will be a sequel... please?

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: It was inevitable, wasn't it? This game, long hailed as the "true" sequel to Ocarina of Time has been on top of the "Must Have" lists since time immemorial, and thankfully those boys and girls at Nintendo have come up trumps again! Though some are perhaps prematurely dubbing this as the new "Greatest Game of All Time" the splendour of visuals, depth of characters and the variety of quests and things to do cannot be overstated. This is not simply a swansong for the Cube, nor a fanfare for the Wii: This is THE game that will be the benchmark for all RPG games on the home consoles for the next few years at the very least �if not from now and well into the new generation.

Iun Hockley
[email protected]

Agree? Disagree? Let us know in your comments! We'll be throwing open voting on the boards tomorrow for you guys to choose your games of the year as well.