Many commentators noted that 2007 had been one of the finest years for gaming in recent memory, and perhaps one of the finest of all time. A quick glance at some of that year’s key titles makes it hard to disagree: Super Mario Galaxy; The Orange Box; Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune; BioShock; Call of Duty 4; God of War 2; Mass Effect; Halo 3; Lair (just kidding). These, and several others I could’ve listed, weren’t just great games, they were in many cases landmark releases which offered significant layers of innovation or polish to their respective genres. Compiling the end of year list was an incredibly difficult proposition. For what it’s worth, Portal was my pick for best game of 2007, just edging out Uncharted.

After such obviously lofty highs, 2008 could’ve been forgiven for letting the standard slip slightly, but in many ways 2008 has been just as good. It began pretty shakily with the bruising disappointment of Grand Theft Auto 4 which, although solid, rode on a tidal wave of hype that couldn’t hide the fact that very little had been done to improve the series’ increasingly irritating flaws. There followed a remarkably barren plateau of tedium punctuated only by the horrific low of Haze and the bombastic high of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The consistent stream of quality that 2007 offered seemed a long way away.

Lucky for us then that the end of the year has been absolutely storming, with great titles dropping in at a wallet-worrying rate, whatever system you own (unless you own a Wii, whose desperate search for a must-have title to match Galaxy is getting worryingly bleak). Fable 2, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 have all arrived and are all pretty fantastic. In the form of Siren: Blood Curse and WipEout HD Sony’s PSN has also ushered in an exciting new era (for console gamers, you PC guys have been enjoying it for years) where downloadable titles can offer production values that match or exceed that of full-price boxed games. Good times.

With all this in mind I’m going to now attempt to recommend the ONE game you should have on your Christmas list for your system of choice (plus one honorable mention). I know I’ll be leaving off a lot of corkers, so don’t shout at me in any form of “WHT TEH F***?!/! LOLZ” fashion.

Xbox 360: Left 4 Dead. I’m going out on limb here as it’s not yet released, but given that Valve (Half-Life, Team Fortress, Portal) appear to be genetically incapable of disappointing, I’d say it’s a safe limb. Plus this looks like a truly brilliant concept guaranteed to entertain. The idea is you and three mates (online or split-screen) team up and work together to survive a series of assaults from hoards of zombies. It may sound simple, but you normally rely on Valve to inject so much personality and atmosphere into proceedings that this virtually has “classic” stamped on it already. Get it on the list.

Honorable mention: Gears of War 2.

PS3: LittleBigPlanet. This one may already be on shelves but if you haven’t already picked it up it can’t be recommended highly enough. The platformer with the potential to last forever is so revolutionary that’s it’s almost too much to take in. But rest assured, once everyone starts getting the hang of creating their own twisted levels, this will take off. The best value £40 you’ll ever spend. Or won’t spend, because you’re going to get someone else to buy it for you. Aren’t you?

Honorable mention: Resistance 2.

Wii: Animal Crossing: City Folk. I have to be honest, but it’s a tragic truth that the Wii is sorely lacking in games that’ll appeal to any sort of proper gamer, instead preferring to mine the “Philip Schofield’s Cookalong Cookbook” type affairs that reduce most of us to tears. Nevertheless, Animal Crossing is normally still charming enough to be worth a look, even more so if you’ve played and enjoyed previous games in the series.

Honorable mention: £40 worth of points to spend in the Wii Shop. Seriously, if you haven’t yet picked up LostWinds do it now, it’s excellent.

PC: Left 4 Dead. For the exact same reasons as the Xbox. Although if you’re a PC-only gamer you’ve probably already put Grand Theft Auto 4 on your list. If I can attempt to persuade you otherwise, don’t bother with it, if you played Vice City or San Andreas it’s really not that much different. Go zombie killing instead!

Honorable mention: Fallout 3.

Phew. Happy Christmas everyone!

Looking back, the bus journeys I used to take home from school were, in many ways, some of the most definitive moments of my youth. Friendships were made, rivalries were formed, middle-aged passengers carrying bags full of mushrooms were offended and just about everyone was irritated by my insistence on always playing charades.

But, for about a year, one bus pastime trumped all others and it arrived in a Nokia 3210-shaped box. Snake was, I thought at the time, a real watershed moment for mobile phones. The game had a genius simplicity in common with some of the greatest games – not up to Tetris’ standards, obviously, but at a similar level to Pac-Man. And miles better than freakin’ Solitaire.

As I sat playing every day, compelled to keep going in search of a higher and higher score, I could see the future and knew that soon I’d be holding a single device that was both phone and Game Boy in one. A glorious synergy of communication and entertainment that would represent two-points on the triangle of hand-held perfection (and bolting on a hard drive with a few MP3s wouldn’t exactly be too tough). Soon, I thought, soon.

Some bright sparks at a phone company that shall not be named obviously had the same vision. Almost. Our two dreams differed - I had pictured a delicately crafted piece of tech-perfection. What they pictured was evidently a Kinder Surprise toy assembled by quadriplegic chimpanzees.

Still, although the hand-held dream machine in question was fatally flawed in its execution, it remains to me a work of conceptual brilliance. And it surprises me that no one has attempted anything similar since, especially considering the all-conquering popularity of the Nintendo DS amongst everyone with thumbs. What should have been a great stride has instead been a drunken stumble.

So, while we’re still blessed with occasional mobile gaming gem (the genius FotoQuest Fishing leaps to mind), most offerings are limited to rubbish, obviously inappropriate versions of otherwise popular games. Like The Sims – which actually managed to get all the way from the drawing board to your handset without anyone having the cojones to say, “This is unlikely to work.”

Submitted left, for your approval, is a simple example of how one man with a copy of Photoshop and 15 minutes to spare, can conjure up a world-beating mobile gaming phone. Admittedly it’s a touch chunky, but then it’s smaller than a DS and that’s hardly a brick. And feature-wise, it has a nice big screen on top for games/texts/stuff, a smaller touch-screen for writing the numbers in when playing those Carol Vorderman-endorsed brain games, and some space for your hands to sit so you don’t accidentally send texts when gaming.

It also, optionally, comes with a flux capacitor for going back in time and stopping the device-that-shall-not-be-named from ever being produced.