yeah Spore, I still remember that
It was hyped until it exploded, and everything that remained was a game, made for 8 year olds
The Spore communities are still full of ppl whining about the childish caracter of Spore xD
Here's my top 5
#5
New Super Mario bros. DS
You might think, it's childish crap, but some levels are GODDAMN HARDCORE!
It took me some months to finally get to play all levels, and I'm still working on my 100% run.
In addition this game's graphic's are quite handsome, and there are some minigames, you can play with a friend.
#4
Spring Engine
It's not a game, but it's a gaming-engine. It's still under heavy developement as we speak, but it managed to make me addicted for half a year
It originally started as an engine to emulate a game from 1997 called "Total Annihilation". Total Annihiation (or TA) was one of the first RTS that used 3-dimensional terrain (Some RTS still don't have REAL 3-d Landscapes, StarcraftII for example) TA had one of the most detailed aircraft physics of all times. There are cases of airplanes doing complex dogfight maneuvers, although they are rare finds.
To play games with it, you have to download the engine first, and install some games (they're called Mods)
Multiplayer is really cool.
#3
Toribash
You all know what that game is about xD
#2
StarcraftII
Despite the flaws I've pointed out earlier, SCII is probably the best RTS currently available. It's got good singleplayer and a nearly perfect multiplayer balance.
There's a huge fan-base, organising tournaments, championships and programming tons of mods.
#1
Supreme Commander (with Expansion Pack Forged Alliance)
It's not that well known, but I think, that SupCom was THE BEST RTS released in 2007. It was developed by the same guys, that developed Total Annihilation, and most ppl regarded it as TA2.
SupCom had HUGE maps (up to 81*81 km) REALISTIC sizes (a submarines is 4 times larger than a tank, and a battleship is 4 times larger than a submarine, and the spiderbot is half as large as a battleship but damn, that thing PWNS!).
You had to use scout planes, radar arrays, and sonar, but they could be counterd by stealth, active cloaking, and radar jamming.
But all that was nothing compared to the EPIC battles that took place on a regular basis, and if you chose to do some nuclear warfare, you could do it. Nukes looked FUCKING AWESOME in that game (But lagged like hell)
The story was a bit well, bad.
But the mission design itself was ABSOLUTELY COOL!
Especially the last mission for one of the three factions will always stay in my memory: You have to guard a special facility (I don't want to give away spoilers here) and the enemies are throwing EVERYTHING they have at you. Nukes are launching all over the place, the air is full of lasers, and your battleships are all being ripped apart by the enemy's fleet. And then the EPIC soundtrack (Jeremy Soule made it) starts playing, and you are being overrun.....
Man, that still gives me chills xD