This year was full of tons of great Flash games! It seems every year developers come out with better and better games. December is the time of the year when we look back on 2011 and remember all of the great things that have happened the past eleven months. I’m glad to say that a bunch of great games have come out, such as Wasted Youth, Rebuild, Villainous, The Last Stand Union City, RPG Shooter: Starwish, Tyrant, and many, many more. So let’s begin. In no particular order, here are what I think to be th best five games of the year!

Wasted Youth Part 1, snags first place for me because of it’s wonderful storyline and RPG elements that coem together to form one amazing game. Unfortunately, on Kongregate, it rated quite low (3.85) because of some initial bug that lagged the game when it first came out. Now it works fine and in my opinion deserves the first place for best game of the year. The characters were all so unique and had their own personalities. The game brings you on an adventure to St. Frost Academy, a school for troubled children and you soon find yourself in the wacky antics of the school, of which you don’t even have to go to the classes and instead you must quest around the school. With tons of awesome quests, and side quest and an overall awesome storyline that eventually ends in one epic cliffhanger, this makes for an amazing game. If you haven’t played the game yet, then get over to Kongregate right now and play it. The developer GPStuidos has been working on the sequel since then, but I wouldn’t say that you’ll be seeing the game in the near future. I’m really looking forward to the sequel and wish best of luck to the developer.

RPG Shooter Starwish is an amazing RPG game (as you probably guessed by the title) and it revolves around the future events of a space crew that is fighting a mysterious enemy. The gameplay alone, isn’t what really made the game. The gameplay is actually based off of the Kongregate Shootorials if I remember correctly, which is introduction to Flash teaching you how to make a simple shooter game. What really makes this game is the storyline. There is a ton of characters that as you advance through the game, you learn more and more about them and by the end of the game you feel as though you know the characters very well. It beautifully written and the plot is amazing. Accompanied with amazing art, Starwish makes it onto my list of best games of the year. If you love a good storyline then look no further than RPG Shooter Starwish. Check it out on Kongregate today!

The Last Stand Union City takes third place in my book. It’s a great sequel to the Last Stand 2. Unlike many sequels, this one is a fantastic improvement over the original Last Stand games and provides a new insight into the world of The Last Stand. Instead of just defending specific points and leveling up your hero, this time around you have to explore Union City and enter buildings filled with zombies! This is by far one of my favorite shooter games of the year and is easily the b est zombie-based game of the year as it provides wondrously both excellent gameplay and storyline. As you kill more zombies you’ll be able to earn new upgrades and skill points to power-up your hero. If you’re looking for a great shooter and missed The Last Stand Union City then you’ll want to head over to your favorite Flash portal and play it!

Sierra 7 is the first great first-person Flash shooter that I’ve ever seen. You play a lone soldier that must take down numerous enemies in each level is a style similar to the popular Call of Duty games. Your character will automatically move when the coast is clear and when it is not you’ll have to take out the enemy before he takes you out. Battles will continue in buildings and streets. There are several missions from hostage situations, sniping challenges and classic run and gun battles in the streets. There is several difficulty modes if you want to challenge yourself and even after you’ve completed the campaign you can try various challenges to complete. This might not be the longest game, but the campaign is fulfilling and exciting throughout. While this isn’t close to replacing your Call of Duty or Battlefield game, it is a good hour of fun that any shooter fan will enjoy!

Bullet Heaven is quite the opposite of its name. Bullet hell is a term that you may not be familiar with, but after playing this game you’ll know all about it. Your goal is kill enemies in a top-down shooter style as you fly above land, water and lava. Along the way you’ll get the chance to use different characters all with different attack styles. This game is actually closely connect to the Epic Battle Fantasy series, as all of the characters are usable in Bullet Heaven. At the end of each level there is a giant boss that’ll shoot tons of bullets. This is a very addictive game that’ll keep you hooked until you complete it. if you liked the original Epic Battle Fantasy game or if you’re a fan of bullet hell games, like the popular Frantic 1 and 2 then you’ll not want to spare a second before firing up this game!

More Honorable Mentions: