Data for “Saling The World” comes courtesy of the public sales information on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.co.jp, with sales split out for each platform and territory, and pre-orders disregarded. This results in a true sense of what games are selling worldwide on the real-time updated service, as follows:

Xbox 360: North America: 1. Deadly Premonition (Ignition), 2. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA Games), 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision), 4. Mass Effect 2 (EA Games), 5. Left 4 Dead 2 (EA Games).”

Runner-up: Bayonetta

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Read the Podcast Transcript: http://www.gamecritics.com/tera-kirk/gamecritics-com-podcast-episode-47-transcript

The game has clumsy combat, PS2-level graphics, and maddeningly long sequences of driving from nowhere to another, slightly differently textured nowhere. But lift the curtain a bit, and you see a living, bizarre game world, where people go about their daily business regardless of player interaction. You’ll see a deeply bizarre story, with the main character (expertly voiced by Jeff Kramer) discussing necrophilia, drinking urine from skulls, and B-movie film errata in alternate breaths.

The game’s dialog is so perfectly imperfectly written that it feels as though it belongs in a category all its own. It also has one of the most intelligent narrative framing devices, allowing the main character’s multiple personality to take life in a way that other games have certainly attempted, but never succeeded (if I say more, I feel I may spoil something).

Once you get past the clunkiness of it, even the combat can become fun – but perhaps I have an odd perspective as someone who obtained every secret card, every weapon, and every automobile in the game. Subsequent fights through the game’s “dungeons” turn into speed runs once you get some all-powerful weapons, that allow you to revisit frustrating areas and simply mow through enemies and pick up collectibles that are laid out for you as though they were on a racetrack.

Reviews were perhaps the most amusingly polarizing external aspect to the game. IGN provided the first review, rating the game a dismal 2.0. Destructoid followed suit with a perfect 10 review of their own, and 1up followed with a solid “B” rating. While IGN couldn’t see past the clunky controls that they felt kicked them out of the experience, the others saw the ultimate cult classic of a game. The final laugh came when the game was released many months later in Europe – only to receive a 7.5 from IGN UK.

Deadly Premonition took 5 years and as many near-cancellations to put on shelves, and is the kind of game nobody makes anymore – and as the industry changes and shifts, who knows if they ever will again. For now though, the game has amassed a rabid following, so we can only cross our fingers and wait.

…And yes there are more than a few of us.

However, giving a title top honors (for me, anyway) is hardly about the best graphics or the most polish. I genuinely feel that Deadly Premonition is one of the most challenging, creative, brave and underappreciated titles to make it to domestic shores. The work of director Swery 65 more than makes up for the various technical shortcomings with an extremely intelligent and mature storyline, and some of the best-written characters I’ve ever seen—protagonist Francis York Morgan is someone I’ll never, ever forget. Supporting its cerebral side, the game also offers a brilliantly fresh take on the open-world genre that manages to avoid the usual “blow everything up” chaos and keeps razor-sharp focus on the riveting story.

There is no question that this game will be anathema to a certain segment of players out there, and that’s quite all right. However, for gamers of a certain bent (like me, and hopefully you) this title will be an absolutely unforgettable one.