Choosing the game of the year from 1981 - 2023 and beyond...

LukeTbk said:
I experienced such different game than looking videos of them now, 4 shade of green CGA monitor, pc speaker, etc..

This is more the memory of gaming on a PC in the 80s... thjat really not how I remember say test drive or King Quest1

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It was more like this:
View attachment 656286, but all shade of greens.

There something I imagine nice but also an developer nightmare, how vastly different everyone system playing those games were....
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So, CGA was 4 colors if you used an RGB monitor but could actually output 16 colors if you used a composite monitor via artifacting. (It could really get beyond that. There are demos of CGA outputting 1024 colors).

King's Quest on actual hardware (an original IBM PC & Monitor).


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km7UB9CRMyE&t=37s

The Apple 2 did the same thing. Actual graphics were just an on/off bit. Depending on the previous bit, it would change the output frequency. On an RGB monitor, you'd only see certain colors. On composite, you'd see more.

I made a simple program for editing Ultima 5 Apple 2 tiles here:

https://github.com/BehindTimes/U5Lzw/tree/master/U5Apple2TileEditor

and you can experiment with changing the bits to get the desired output color. I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but I personally find it somewhat confusing. (Even emulators aren't perfect. The real hardware, the lines above, depending on the color, could influence the lines below to add even more colors.)

But this is also why King's Quest's resolution is 160x200, whereas the actual monitor resolution is 320x200. It uses dual bits to create the artifact color.
 

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Konami - Nintendo Entertainment System) / 1988​

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1988 ultimately came down to two games again, with the candidates being this and the NES version of Bubble Bobble (simpler and easier than the arcade version). Like Ghostbusters, Bubble Bobble holds a lot of positive memories for me as I played it with my sister a lot, but Castlevania II has to take the crown for it being the overall better game. CV2 was a divisive release, as it eschewed the linear platforming gameplay of the original for a non-linear open world with action-adventure gameplay elements. Little did we know at the time of release that its structure would inspire the "vania" part of the genre known as Metroidvania today.

The game is a direct sequel to the first game in which Simon Belmont must race against the clock to undo the curse put upon him by Dracula when he was vanquished in the first game. Simon must gather the strewn body parts of Dracula and reassemble them in a ritual to undo the curse in 7 game days or less (45 real world minutes or less, minus time spent indoors). You get a neutral ending for 8-14 days and the worst ending if you take more than 14 days. The body parts are found in several mansions that are accessed by acquiring items through purchase, speaking to NPCs, or finishing other mansions. The player must deduce badly localized riddles from speaking to NPCs to figure out in which direction they should travel next. Other than those mechanics, platforming and attacking is very similar to the first game.

I've played the NES version a lot over the years and have loved it since I was a kid. It seems that overall opinions on the game have become more positive in recent years compared to release. As an adult I've explored playing the original FDS version through emulation and am impressed by how much better the game looks and sound, but the loading time is pain since every time the day changes to night and vice versa it needs to cache different sprite and tile data from the painfully slow bespoke 112 KB Quick Disk and adherence to accurate emulation.
 
1988, I was really young so many title was about watching my big brother and friend play complicated games (twitch ancestor), did not speak english either at the time.

Manhunter New York
Police quest 2
Pool of Radiance

Hard to beat Mario Bros 3 in term of game of the year, but mine would maybe be GrandPrix Circuit or the Double Dragon of that year.
 
Comixbooks said:
Metroid 1987 I was going to say Contra the same year in the Arcade which was visually better by Metroid was hella fun if you owned a NES.
It says 1986 on the title screen but that was for the Super Famicon.


View: https://youtu.be/v1sTdewueiY?si=ImPAXJWUJmFnJvEN
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Metroid is my jam, yo!
It was for the Famicom Disk System; the SF didn't release until 1990 in Japan.

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It's a game I've played so much I can 100% it in my sleep lol
 
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Armenius said:

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Konami - Nintendo Entertainment System) / 1988​

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View attachment 656415

1988 ultimately came down to two games again, with the candidates being this and the NES version of Bubble Bobble (simpler and easier than the arcade version). Like Ghostbusters, Bubble Bobble holds a lot of positive memories for me as I played it with my sister a lot, but Castlevania II has to take the crown for it being the overall better game. CV2 was a divisive release, as it eschewed the linear platforming gameplay of the original for a non-linear open world with action-adventure gameplay elements. Little did we know at the time of release that its structure would inspire the "vania" part of the genre known as Metroidvania today.

The game is a direct sequel to the first game in which Simon Belmont must race against the clock to undo the curse put upon him by Dracula when he was vanquished in the first game. Simon must gather the strewn body parts of Dracula and reassemble them in a ritual to undo the curse in 7 game days or less (45 real world minutes or less, minus time spent indoors). You get a neutral ending for 8-14 days and the worst ending if you take more than 14 days. The body parts are found in several mansions that are accessed by acquiring items through purchase, speaking to NPCs, or finishing other mansions. The player must deduce badly localized riddles from speaking to NPCs to figure out in which direction they should travel next. Other than those mechanics, platforming and attacking is very similar to the first game.

I've played the NES version a lot over the years and have loved it since I was a kid. It seems that overall opinions on the game have become more positive in recent years compared to release. As an adult I've explored playing the original FDS version through emulation and am impressed by how much better the game looks and sound, but the loading time is pain since every time the day changes to night and vice versa it needs to cache different sprite and tile data from the painfully slow bespoke 112 KB Quick Disk and adherence to accurate emulation.
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Eh there are many better games that came out in 1988. Zelda 2, Megaman 2, DQ3 evem Mario 2 for example. I really didn't like Simon's quest back then.
 
vegeta535 said:
Eh there are many better games that came out in 1988. Zelda 2, Megaman 2, DQ3 even Mario 2 for example. I really didn't like Simon's quest back then.
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We each have our own taste. A lot of people don't like Zelda 2, but it's my favorite Zelda game.

For some reason, I never cared for the first Zelda. But Zelda 2 was a very mature Zelda game, which I loved. I don't care if the manual says he's 16. The game overall is very dark, unlike the other Zelda games. Honestly, many of the late 80s Nintendo games tended to be more mature in theme as well.
 
vegeta535 said:
Eh there are many better games that came out in 1988. Zelda 2, Megaman 2, DQ3 evem Mario 2 for example. I really didn't like Simon's quest back then.
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I'm going by US release date. Zelda II and SMB2 came out in 1988, but Mega Man 2 came out in 1989 and Dragon Warrior III came out in 1992 in the US. My GOTY opinions for this thread are what they are as of now.
 
Armenius said:
I'm going by US release date. Zelda II and SMB2 came out in 1988, but Mega Man 2 came out in 1989 and Dragon Warrior III came out in 1992 in the US. My GOTY opinions for this thread are what they are as of now.
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Sorry your are right. I got my dates mixed up for MM2 and DQ3.
Nytegard said:
We each have our own taste. A lot of people don't like Zelda 2, but it's my favorite Zelda game.

For some reason, I never cared for the first Zelda. But Zelda 2 was a very mature Zelda game, which I loved. I don't care if the manual says he's 16. The game overall is very dark, unlike the other Zelda games. Honestly, many of the late 80s Nintendo games tended to be more mature in theme as well.
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I believe Zelda 2 gets a lot more appreciation nowadays compared to when it was released. I loved it when it came out.
 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Konami - Arcade/Motorola 68000) / 1989​


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As I get into the '90s it's going to get harder to pick a single game as the best of the year. I had to go with the TMNT arcade game for 1989. It was the first arcade game I ever played and the start of regular visits to local arcades with my dad and sister. We sunk a lot of quarters into this one, and my sister and I played the NES version at home every chance we could get. The game is your typical side-scrolling beat 'em up. My first experience with the game was in an arcade that was part of a locally-owned "Chuck E Cheese" type place during my sister's eighth birthday party. Being a huge TMNT fan at the time I was attracted to its branding, while the smooth graphics were a bonus. At Christmas that same year our parents gifted us the NES version The NES version has some extra content and is a little more forgiving with its difficulty, along with the toned-down graphics that comes from a downgrade to 8-bit, but the game largely played the same as the arcade version.

Dragon Warrior was the runner-up. I didn't really play the game until adulthood, though, but I really enjoy the simplistic grindy nature of a single character against a large world to explore. It also pretty much set the standard for home console RPGs going forward and its influence can still be seen in some ways to this day.
 
Armenius said:
It also pretty much set the standard for home console RPGs going forward and its influence can still be seen in some ways to this day.
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in FF (and I think Dragon Warrior) back in those days, went you went back to the early part of the game and were overpowered, enemy would try to flee you, trying to think about modern days RPG thats not something I remember seeing in modern time much, that was a nice way to make you feel you got powerful over time.
 
LukeTbk said:
in FF (and I think Dragon Warrior) back in those days, went you went back to the early part of the game and were overpowered, enemy would try to flee you, trying to think about modern days RPG thats not something I remember seeing in modern time much, that was a nice way to make you feel you got powerful over time.
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Modern games introduced level scaling as a way to artificially increase play time. It also makes it easier to design encounters when you don't need to curate them. You can just say this type of monster or faction lives here and not worry about scaling it to player progression.
 
So, if I had to choose my games of the year:

1981: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
1982: Ms. Pac Man
1983: Dragon's Lair
1984: King's Quest: Quest for the Crown
1985: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
1986: Castlevania
1987: Double Dragon
1988: Wasteland
1989: Tetris
1990: Super Mario Bros. 3
1991: Street Fighter 2
1992: Mortal Kombat
1993: Doom
1994: System Shock
1995: Chrono Trigger
1996: Quake
1997: Ultima Online
1998: Resident Evil 2
1999: Unreal Tournament

Yes, not all of these games came out exactly at this year, but I'm looking at mainly the USA marketplace, and it's relevance of when it gained the most popularity.
 

Final Fantasy (Square - Nintendo Entertainment System) / 1990​

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1990 came down to three US releases, but I ultimately had to go with Final Fantasy. The other two were Super Mario Bros. 3 and Ninja Gaiden II. I have kept on returning to this game the most over the years than I have the other two and still enjoy it, while I don't find as much joy in platforming games anymore. Final Fantasy took everything Dragon Quest did originally in 1986 (a year before FF's original Japanese release in 1987) and added much more depth and story to the game. The grindy nature is still here, although it is more for money than it is experience, as the early game has your party highly reliant on gear breakpoints as you progress through the game. The game has a lot of balance issues and bugs, but I still enjoy playing the original despite the many fantastic remakes that have come out over the years. Oddly, my focus drifted away from RPGs in general after the release of this game and I didn't really come back to them until the late '90s.

I have to give runner up to Super Mario Bros. 3. While I think boy Armenius liked the aesthetic and gameplay of Ninja Gaiden II I have to ultimately consider play time as a metric in the mix. As with so many other games during my childhood, I played this game a lot with my sister, including the SNES remaster in Super Mario All-Stars. Conversely, I only played through Ninja Gaiden II for a few months after getting it and only played the release in the SNES anthology once when we rented it.

I feel like I have to explain why I have so many fond memories of playing games with my sister. Around the time of her high school graduation she started to develop symptoms of scleroderma. It went misdiagnosed as eosinophilic fasciitis for years due to a specialist who thought they could make their career out of her case due to how rare that disease is. I recall having tried to tell my parents that she needed to get a second opinion because it always looked like scleroderma to me... Anyway, as the disease progressed she lost the use of her fingers, which is a common issue for those who suffer with it. As a result she was no longer to play all the same games we used to, and I do dearly miss those times.
 
There are just too many good ones in each year to choose one. Like how to a choose between Street Fighter 2 and A Link to the Past?!
 
Blackstone said:
There are just too many good ones in each year to choose one. Like how to a choose between Street Fighter 2 and A Link to the Past?!
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Come up with your own metric that pushes one over the edge. In cases where I have trouble picking one I mention the runner up and why. For me it is usually coming down to those games that I come back to often if I have trouble.
 
Blackstone said:
There are just too many good ones in each year to choose one. Like how to a choose between Street Fighter 2 and A Link to the Past?!
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For me, I didn't choose the game I enjoyed the most. I chose the game I felt had the overall biggest impact of the year.

And here's the thing. The biggest impact doesn't necessarily mean the biggest seller, or the most popular, or the innovator.

My 1981 choice was Wizardry 1. Not the biggest selling game of that year, though it sold incredibly well for a 1981 computer game, roughly 50k copies. And it certainly wasn't the game that created Dungeon Crawlers. Wizardry itself is nothing but a single player clone of an earlier PLATO game called Oubilette (1977). Oubliette was an online multiplayer dungeon crawler, which can show you how many things we take as innovative were around decades before.

That's one of the things for me. Many games we consider innovative, actually aren't.

Let's look at Wayout (1982) for the Atari 8 bit computer:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4OLnrwLcJA

This was a decade before Wolfenstein 3D. And it later came out for the Apple 2 and C64.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frFvZwa_5bo

You're talking ray casting on a machine from 1977 here.

Sure, it wasn't a first person shooter, but the point is, someone had an idea a decade earlier of this style of graphics and actually implemented it, and barely anyone remembers it.

And if you want to look at First Person Shooters, MIDI Maze (1987).


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0g6b-22tNs

Multiplayer and has regenerating health.

The book I'm currently reading, Service Games, brings up this point. The thing about innovation, is that the innovators are usually the first to fail, because they have no predecessors to learn from their mistakes.

Unlike Oubliette, Wizardry is directly responsible for the JRPG genre, and that can't be played down.

So, I look at Zelda LttP vs Street Fighter 2. Zelda was popular, but really didn't do anything for video games, especially compared to Street Fighter 2. There's no denying Street Fighter 2's impact on the video game industry, the arcade industry, etc.

But then, why didn't I choose something like Super Mario Bros. on the NES? Was that popular? Yes. But I personally believe the NES was going to be popular with or without Mario. SMB was the right game at the right time, but it didn't change video game paradigms.

Now, 1998 I had RE2, and there's Starcraft. Yet Starcraft came out in December, so I really can't say it had the biggest impact of 1998 and would have to go more into 1999. But, for good or bad, what Unreal Tournament did, was release an online only game. (Sure, you could play offline vs bots, but that was boring, and only once per map).

And sure, there's always going to be contention as far as the most influential.
 
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Not sure exactly when I started gaming but it was with the Master system and I may have played some of these out of order then switched to megadrive and later PC but here is my list untill 99

87 Alex kidd in miracle world
88 Wonder boy in monster land
89 Psycho fox
90 aerial assault
91 Popoulos
92 Desert strike
93 Mortal Kombat
94 Mortal Kombat 2 / Dune II
95 Mortal Kombat 3
96 Duke nukem 3d
97 Qiake 2
98 Half life
99 Planescape torment
 
1991... was a great year for video games. This is the first year where I am really going to have difficulty picking a single game. Among the candidates are Battletoads, The Little Mermaid, Metroid II, The Simpsons, Sunset Riders, Street Fighter II, Super Mario World, and TMNT Turtles in Time. And the winner is:

Battletoads (Rare - Nintendo Entertainment System) / 1991​

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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game really got me into beat 'em ups going into the '90s, and we would rent many of them just going by the box. Battletoads attracted our attention due to its similarity in art and style to TMNT, from which the game was largely inspired. Bringing it home and playing the game immediately had my sister and I glued to the screen with its unique for the time combination of platforming and beat 'em up gameplay. Rare was also able to make magic happen on the NES by bringing whimsically designed sprites on the screen without running into the many issues other games commonly had during the era aside from occasional frame time hiccups. Rare reverse engineered the console to push it to its limit, which is how they became a premiere developer for Nintendo through the Gamecube era.

Everybody remembers the turbo tunnel and the overall difficulty of the game in comparison to others in the market, but after we recognized the pattern in the tunnel it was pretty much smooth sailing from there until the last level. Always a challenge but never frustratingly so, I think we wore out the console with how many hours we put into this game. It is still one of the classics that I revisit for a playthrough every year.

Super Mario World was being seriously considered. It is probably still the most polished game in the series today, with its platforming and movement perfected to the point where when you're playing it you're not thinking about it: You just do. Progression through the world with its many secrets to unlock made it addicting to keep playing to break it wide open. When it comes down to it, though, it was just another Mario platformer, with mechanics introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3, but honed to a razor's edge.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior introduced me to fighting games, but when it comes down to GOTY material the game's final incarnation of Super Street Fighter II Turbo is the best and the one I played most. I consider it different enough from the previous iterations that it is an exception to the "remaster" rule with new mechanics running on new hardware. We'll see how it fares against the competitive releases of 1994!
 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (Konami - Nintendo Entertainment System) / 1992​

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1992 was another great year for video games, and you pick yet another TMNT game in the year of A Link to the Past? Blasphemy!

This one is the pinnacle of TMNT games, in my opinion, and is another game that I played a lot with my sister. The gameplay, graphics, boss and level design, and progression are all just perfection. I really can't say much more about it.

Runners Up​


The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Nintendo EAD - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
It seems like the perfect 2D Zelda, but fact of the matter is I have never completed a single playthrough of the game despite many attempts to do so. The dungeon designs are fun and creative, and I like the idea of transitioning between two worlds in order to make progress (a mechanic brought forward to more games in the series). The issue is I tend to get bored maybe around halfway through and drop the game.

Mortal Kombat (Midway - Arcade/Midway Y Unit)
Played both the arcade and SNES versions a lot. First played it on a cabinet at a local laundromat that got it before other arcades in the area. The game itself is slow and simple, though, and was sometimes a pain to play (especially that early revision at the aforementioned laundromat).

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Nintendo R&D1 - Nintendo Game Boy)
The best Mario game on the Game Boy, it ultimately didn't have the longevity for GOTY.

WarpSpeed (Accolade - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
Simple and fun gameplay mechanics of traveling across the galaxy and protecting space stations while upgrading your ship. The game feels like a slog to play through these days.

Wolfenstein 3D (id Software - MS-DOS)
The game that started the FPS craze. The original version is clunky to play. It's more fun to play these days with ECWolf, but I honestly get kind of tired of the game after episode 2.
 
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Slightly off topic, but did anyone else enjoy Shadowgate (1987) for the NES as much as I did?
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DOOM (id Software - MS-DOS) / 1993​

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Seriously, what else could it be for 1993? Actually, a lot since there were a lot of bangers released this year, especially on consoles. DOOM is the game that defined the FPS genre going forward, with the term "DOOM clone" being used for several years until "first-person shooter" entered the mainstream dialect. The box art above is the original box you received when you ordered the full game directly from id, as they were following the shareware model started by Apogee at the time. I played the shareware episode "Knee Deep in the Dead" constantly until "retail" DOOM (The Ultimate DOOM) was released in 1995 with Thy Flesh Consumed. I've put more hours into the original DOOM and the numerous mods fans made for it than any other game in my lifetime.

Runners Up​

I'm not going to go into summarizing all of them this time since there are too many.
  • 悪魔城ドラキュラX 血の輪廻ロンド | Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (Konami - PC Engine Super CD-ROM²)
  • DinoPark Tycoon (Manley & Associates - Apple System 7)
  • Jurassic Park (Ocean of America - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Mortal Kombat II (Midway - Arcade/Midway T Unit)
  • NBA Jam (Midway - Arcade/Midway T Unit)
  • Rock n' Roll Racing (Silicon & Synapse - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • SimCity 2000 (Maxis - Apple System 7)
  • Star Fox (Nintendo EAD & Argonaut Software - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Super Strike Eagle (MicroProse - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Konami - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! (Konami - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Top Gear 2 (Gremlin Interactive - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
 
LukeTbk said:
Never heard of it, but that would have been quite the phenomenom if it was one of the game passed around in my village.

And in my child mind that very small world (less than 24 different very small location in the whole game ?):
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=File:Shadowgate_-_NES_-_All_Rooms.png

Would have felt so much bigger.
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There is a remake for PC and gen 8 consoles made by the original game designers.


View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/294440/Shadowgate/

They're also working on an official sequel in the style of the original game.


View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2332240/Beyond_Shadowgate/


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5LSE2kKvAo


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_TAZvoa4wQ
 

Super Metroid (Nintendo R&D1 & Intelligent Systems - Super Nintendo Entertainment System) / 1994​

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1994 was another great year for releases, but the choice was easy this time. I have never replayed a game as much over the years as Super Metroid. I was introduced to the game by one of my cousins shortly after the game came out and I was quite taken by all aspects of how the game looked, sounded, and played. It was the first game in the Metroid series I played, and I just had to play all of them after that. My sister and I competed to see who could get the best ending first by beating the game in under 2.5 hours in-game time with 100% items. I beat her to that goal, but she beat me to sub-2 hours. I can do it casually in around 1:40 these days. This wasn't the first game we started speedrunning. The first was actually recording to VHS our runs through Kirby's Adventure on NES a year prior and noting the amount of real time it took. Was speedrunning a widespread thing back in 1993? Hard to know without the internet.

Trying to play the game these days unfortunately is a bit of a chore due to how much latency has been introduced into the input pipeline (no, I have not tried an ASIC system). The movement tech in the game is so precise and direct that it is punishing to the player if you cannot react to what you tell the game to do when it takes a few milliseconds to show it on screen. One really needs to play it on original hardware with a CRT to get the most out of it. Still, one of the greatest games ever made.

Runners Up​

  • Alien vs. Predator (Capcom - Arcade/CP System II)
  • Cyberia (Xatrix Entertainment - MS-DOS)
  • Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (Capcom - Arcade/CP System II)
  • Donkey Kong Country (Rare - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • DOOM II: Hell on Earth (id Software - MS-DOS)
  • Earthworm Jim (Shiny Entertainment - Sega Genesis)
  • Final Fantasy III (Squaresoft - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Heretic (Raven Software - MS-DOS)
  • Killer Instinct (Rare - Arcade/Unique Midway Hardware)
  • Mega Man X (Capcom - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Road & Track Presents The Need For Speed (Pioneer Productions - 3DO Interactive Multiplayer)
  • Super Street Fighter II Turbo (Capcom - Arcade/CP System II)
  • X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (Capcom - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
 
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Tekken 2 (Namco - Arcade/Namco System 11) / 1995​

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1995 was the toughest year yet to pick my GOTY from so far. I have so many good memories with releases from this year that I had to go with one that has emotional attachment. I first played Tekken 2 on an arcade machine at a movie theater to see Toy Story, of all movies. It was frustrating at first, but the more I played it the more I enjoyed the methodical fighting mechanics compared to other fighting games at the time. We purchased the PlayStation version that came out a year later and it is, by far, the fighting game I've played the most. My sister got irked at me when I would play the game for hours late at knight to practice moves, and yet she was still able to beat me half the time. For single player I really enjoyed the FMV endings that told everyone's story and how it unlocked more characters to play with. I actually think the sequel, Tekken 3, is the best fighting game of all time, but it doesn't hold as many memories as this one does.

Runners Up​

  • Chrono Trigger (Squaresoft - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • D (Warp - 3DO Interactive Multiplayer)
  • Descent (Parallax Software - MS-DOS)
  • DOOM (Williams Entertainment - Sony PlayStation)
  • Earthworm Jim 2 (Shiny Entertainment - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • HeXen: Beyond Heretic (Raven Software - MS-DOS)
  • IndyCar Racing II (Papyrus Design Group - MS-DOS)
  • Kirby's Dream Course (HAL Laboratory - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (Activision - MS-DOS)
  • Mega Man X2 (Capcom - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Screamer (Graffiti - MS-DOS)
  • Star Wars: Dark Forces (LucasArts - MS-DOS)
  • Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (Capcom - Arcade/CP System II)
  • Twisted Metal (SingleTrac - Sony PlayStation)
  • Warhawk: The Red Mercury Missions (SingleTrac - Sony PlayStation)
  • Wipeout (Psygnosis - Sony PlayStation)
  • X-Men: Children of the Atom (Capcom - Arcade/CP System II)
 
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Resident Evil (Capcom - Sony PlayStation) / 1996​

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Not as many candidates in 1996, but it was still a difficult choice. I spent a lot of time in most of the games listed below, especially Grand Prix 2 and NASCAR Racing 2. It was the year I really started getting into racing sims as they started to get closer to representing the actual sport compared to games from previous years. I ultimately had to give it to Resident Evil because it has longevity and is another game in my library that I go back and play regularly. It defined the survival horror genre moving forward by combining the best elements of its predecessor, Haunted House, and Alone in the Dark. The atmosphere, presentation, and sound were all top-notch for the time and provided a very immersive experience. If you played the game on a CRT TV the game actually also has its scary moments, though it doesn't hit as hard playing on a modern screen anymore.

The original NA release didn't have the snap auto aiming that people associate with the classic games, which made it more of a challenge to play. Also typical of NA releases, the difficulty was a lot harder than the JP release. I spent most of my time with the Director's Cut release, which added the snap aiming and Arrange mode, but I do own a copy of the original "long box" release. Like most games we went on to buy we rented a copy to play first. Both my dad and I were instantly hooked during that paltry 3-day checkout Blockbuster had back then. It wasn't the type of game for my sister, but she did enjoy watching us play it. I think the transition to 3D is really when my taste in games started to deviate from my sister's and we didn't play together as much anymore.

Runners Up​

  • Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (Tamsoft - Arcade/Sony ZN-1)
  • Descent II (Parallax Software - MS-DOS)
  • Diablo (Blizzard North - Windows 95)
  • Duke Nukem 3D (3D Realms - MS-DOS)
  • Final DOOM (TeamTNT - MS-DOS)
  • Grand Prix 2 (MicroProse - MS-DOS)
  • NASCAR Racing 2 (Papyrus Design Group - MS-DOS)
  • Quake (id Software - MS-DOS)
  • Ridge Racer Revolution (Namco - Sony PlayStation)
  • Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (LucasArts - Nintendo 64)
  • Super Mario 64 (Nintendo EAD - Nintendo 64)
  • Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Squaresoft - Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
  • Tomb Raider (Core Design - Sony PlayStation)
 
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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo - Sony PlayStation) / 1997​

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Man, the mid-'90s were full of excellent releases. Despite the titles being considered for 1997 I think this is the easiest pick yet since 1994. The gameplay loop is one of the most addictive out there, and the genre the game spawned has endured for nearly 30 years. Gameplay elements of rewarding the player for exploration have also made their way into other genres, including FPS of all things (PowerSlave, anyone?). This was the last 2D Castlevania game for a number of years, and the artwork is absolutely fantastic. The way it's presented and animated is even superior to most of the 2D games coming out these days, in my opinion. The cheesy English translation and the way the voice actors hammed it up adds to the charm. It's a shame they got rid of that in the Requiem release for the PlayStation 4.

Shout out to Goldeneye 007, Mario Kart 64, and Star Fox 64 for all the fun times had in multiplayer sessions with my dad and sister.

Runners Up​

  • Blood (Monolith Productions - MS-DOS)
  • CART World Series (Sony Interactive Studios America - Sony PlayStation)
  • DOOM 64 (Midway Studios San Diego - Nintendo 64)
  • Final Fantasy VII (Squaresoft - Sony PlayStation)
  • G-Police (Psygnosis - Sony PlayStation)
  • Goldeneye 007 (Rare - Nintendo 64)
  • Incubation: Time Is Running Out (Blue Byte - Windows 95)
  • Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo EAD - Nintendo 64)
  • Mortal Kombat 4 (Midway Games - Arcade/Midway Zeus)
  • Need for Speed II (EA Seattle - Windows 95)
  • Quake II (id Software - Windows 95)
  • Soul Blade (Namco - Sony PlayStation)
  • Star Fox 64 (Nintendo EAD - Nintendo 64)
  • Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (Totally Games - Windows 95)
  • Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Iguana Entertainment - Nintendo 64)
 
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Grand Prix Legends (Papyrus Design Group - Windows 95/98) / 1998​

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What a year 1998 was for video games, but Grand Prix Legends takes the GOTY crown for me. It was the first racing sim I purchased a steering wheel for and the first I raced online competitively. My GPLRank account still exists and you can find my times on there. It is considered to be the first true "3D" racing simulation, and unfortunately some of its admittedly wonky physics calculations with tires can be seen in racing sims to this day. For the time, though, the game was revolutionary. Being able to drive the late 1967 F1 season cars on the historical tracks was something else. It was Papyrus' worst-selling game, unfortunately, so Sierra wouldn't allow them to bring the physics engine forward into their next NASCAR Racing title (we had to wait 3 years for that to happen).

Despite the poor sales the game has a dedicated community that has lasted to this day. Modders have broken the game wide open and have made some amazing mods for the game, including everything from 1950s F1 to 1960s Can-Am and even 1970s sports cars. The game when fully modded looks absolutely stunning these days, with modders going to painstaking lengths to make the tracks and cars as accurate as can be with the historical record and surviving elements we have access to today. The game is still a blast to play and is one of my top 10 games of all time. One of the magic touches Papyrus had in their games was the AI and is why it's still fun to play by yourself. For some reason modern developers still can't match it.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTsW2uXgYY4

Runners Up​

  • F-1 World Grand Prix (Paradigm Entertainment - Nintendo 64)
  • Final Fantasy Tactics (Squaresoft - Sony PlayStation)
  • Gex: Enter the Gecko (Crystal Dynamics - Sony PlayStation)
  • Gran Turismo (Polyphony Digital - Sony PlayStation)
  • Half-Life (Valve - Windows 95/98)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD - Nintendo 64)
  • Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (EA Seattle - Windows 95)
  • Parasite Eve (Squaresoft - Sony PlayStation)
  • Pokémon Red & Blue (Game Freak - Nintendo Game Boy)
  • Resident Evil 2 (Capcom - Sony PlayStation)
  • Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Factor 5 - Nintendo 64)
  • Tekken 3 (Namco - Sony PlayStation)
  • Thief: The Dark Project (Looking Glass Studios - Windows 95/98)
  • Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (Iguana Entertainment - Nintendo 64)
  • Unreal (Digital Extremes - Windows 95/98)
 
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Your lists seem a bit console heavy. Are you not considering PC at all? I see a few in there, I guess we like different play styles. The late 90's were the golden age of computer RPGs from my perspective.

1996 - Civilization II
1997 - Fallout
1998 - Baldur's Gate and Starcraft
 
Hawkwing74 said:
Your lists seem a bit console heavy. Are you not considering PC at all? I see a few in there, I guess we like different play styles. The late 90's were the golden age of computer RPGs from my perspective.

1996 - Civilization II
1997 - Fallout
1998 - Baldur's Gate and Starcraft
Click to expand...
I was primarily a console gamer until the early-'00s. I built my first gaming PC in 2001. My first PC was a pre-built gifted to me in 1998. Up to that point I gamed on my father's work PC. It's why the number of PC games in my list has been steadily rising.
 
Armenius said:
It was Papyrus' worst-selling game, unfortunately, so Sierra wouldn't allow them to bring the physics engine forward into their next NASCAR Racing title (we had to wait 3 years for that to happen).
Click to expand...
So that's why later Nascar games had such crap physics. I thought it was simply developed by some other company. Wasn't paying much attention to the who's who details back then.

I used to love Indycar (1993) and Nascar (1994) and GP Legends. Fun factoid that you could mod indycar tracks into nascar by simply swapping the track data files, only issue was that on some tracks you'd spawn out of bounds, but it was still fun. Which is a great segue into why I can't help but think of papyrus with a sour taste in my mouth nowadays. Somewhere between going out of business and rebranding as iracing the founder declared war on modders, it was so long ago I don't remember the exact details, only that I was so outraged that I swore never to touch anything they do after that.
 

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (Crystal Dynamics - Sony PlayStation) / 1999​

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1999 came down ultimately to 3 titles: Soul Reaver, Castlevania, and Spyro 2. Castlevania made the leap to 3D and did an excellent job doing so in its first outing. The dark storyline with multiple endings is what pushed it over the top for me. Spyro 2 scratched the itch of the completionist in me for the first time, more so than even Symphony of the Night. The tight gameplay, number of collectibles, and fun story got a lot of playtime out of me. Soul Reaver gets pushed to the top with the best story, written by legend Amy Hennig, and the vocal performance of the lead character Raziel by legend Michael Bell.

I was immediately pulled in by the amazing opening FMV, which blew me away at the time. The game admittedly has some issues when it comes to gameplay since as was a common theme back then it was pushed out the door too early, having a lot of content cut out from the final product. Still, the platforming, exploration, and puzzle solving were some of the best on a console game despite the warpy textures sometimes making it difficult to discern where you need to go. It's also the first game I can recall that incorporated the idea of shifting between two planes of existence in order to solve the game's puzzles. With the titular Soul Reaver feeding on your corporeal essence, you also need to balance using it or the conventional weapons strewn around in the environment as you deal with enemies and bosses.

Shouts out to Gran Turismo 2 for all the time I played multiplayer with my father and Mario Golf with my sister.

Runners Up​

  • Castlevania (Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe - Nintendo 64)
  • Final Fantasy VIII (Square EA - Sony PlayStation)
  • Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko (Crystal Dynamics - Sony PlayStation)
  • Gran Turismo 2 (Polyphony Digital - Sony PlayStation)
  • Mario Golf (Camelot Software Planning - Nintendo 64)
  • MechWarrior 3 (Zipper Interactive - Windows 95/98)
  • NASCAR Racing 3 (Papyrus Design Group - Windows 95/98)
  • Need for Speed: High Stakes (EA Seattle - Windows 95/98)
  • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Capcom - Sony PlayStation)
  • Silent Hill (Team Silent - Sony PlayStation)
  • Sports Car GT (Image Space Incorporated - Windows 95/98)
  • Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (Insomniac Games - Sony PlayStation)
  • Syphon Filter (Eidetic - Sony PlayStation)
  • Wipeout 3 (Psygnosis Leeds - Sony PlayStation)
 
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So where are we with retail mods that completely change the game it is based on? Thinking ahead to 2000, the first time I played Counter-Strike was after buying the retail version when Valve and Sierra distributed it that year rather than when it was released as a free mod the year prior, and it's a serious contender for my GOTY.
 
Armenius said:
So where are we with retail mods that completely change the game it is based on? Thinking ahead to 2000, the first time I played Counter-Strike was after buying the retail version when Valve and Sierra distributed it that year rather than when it was released as a free mod the year prior, and it's a serious contender for my GOTY.
Click to expand...
I feel it's essentially a different game when it's a total conversion like that.
 
1984 - Space Taxi


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEcxgPvmQqU

Space taxi is a fun physics based game, where you have to navigate obstacles to land your rocket powered taxi on various landing pads to pick up and drop off passengers. It is basically a more advanced Jupiter Lander.
The levels are highly varied and often themed, and get exponentially more difficult as you progress.

Gameplay is simple: Gravity is accelerating you constantly towards the bottom, and you have to counteract it with thrusters. But you also have to be mindful of fuel consumption, so you can't just keep maintaining speed, that's wasteful. The best method is a short burst just in time to slow you down for landing. Basically how SpaceX is landing rockets.

Honorable mention:

Catastrophes

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1985 - Action Biker

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Might not be the first ever open world game, but certainly the first I've played. Before this one, every game I played was on rails, or at least very restrictive with freedom of movement. Here you can freely explore the 3D, yes there is even verticality, like ramps and elevated roads. So being able to freely explore just blew me away. I just drove around aimlessly for minutes, which seems like hours when you're a kid.

The world is completely devoid of life, you're all alone like it's after the end of the world, but that didn't even occur to me.
 
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