In the last fortnight of each year, there is a tradition here in Japan called bounenkai: you go out drinking and eating with friends/colleagues in order to forget the bad things of that year and commemorate the good. Time, then, for a bounenkai of Japanese games in 2005. Here are my lists of the good, the bad, and the crazy-good from what was generally a great time for Japanese gamers.

The Good

3. Winning Eleven 9

Winning Eleven 9 proved yet again that Konami Tokyo is the Brazil of soccer sim development. After Winning Eleven 8 I really couldn't see room for improvement. But apparently there was, and Winning Eleven 9 moves right into it. Yet another beautiful game of The Beautiful Game from the master of the genre.

The night draws in on Akihabara.

2. Revolution

Nintendo's Revolution announcement at 2005's Tokyo Game Show has been at the front of my mind since mid-September. It was not expected, it was not disappointing. And, on a positive note, it seems to have made everyone inside the industry (and many gamers too) step back and question the direction that games were headed. The direction of games in 2006 only Nintendo really knows, but the excitement surrounding Revolution began in 2005.

1. Great DS Games

The DS has topped the hardware sales chart in Japan for virtually the whole of 2005. The console is cheap (Y14,000) and smart, but it's the software which has really given the DS such incredible momentum. Nintendogs looked like being a one-hit wonder, yet other titles have sold just as well -- Gentle Brain Exercises, Adult DS Training, Jump Superstars, Dobutsu no Mori and latterly Mario Kart DS have each gone to (or above) half a million sales. In Mario Kart's first week on sale, over 300,000 DS consoles were sold. There's still no sign of the DS being ousted from its tenure as Japan's number one console.