I’ll start with 1989, because that’s the first year I can specifically remember the release of a game thing. The Gameboy, which I got for Christmas that year. I was 3.
And I guess I’ll go ahead and say Super Mario Land as game of the year 1989. Its a fully featured platformer which seems light years ahead of Super Mario Bros. And its portable. And its a little bit weird.
98 was an insanely good year for video-games.
Grim Fandango
Guilty Gear
Half-Life
The House of the Dead 2
The King of Fighters '98
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
LSD: Dream Emulator
Metal Gear Solid
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Radiant Silvergun
StarCraft
Suikoden II
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Thief: The Dark Project
Uo Poko
and more…
Unreal
1990 is probably Super Mario Bros 3. The game is just so full of different features and things to do. And its all good. And it naturally lends itself to experimentation and different playstyles.
1991 Super Mario World. Same ideas here, as SMB3. And you get to ride a Dinosaur.
1992 Super Mario Kart. Its just a better playing racer than most other racers ever before it. And Its also Mario Kart at the same time.
1993 **The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. One of the very best Zelda games. and its portable.
1994 I can’t choose between Super Metroid or Super/Street Fighter II: Turbo.
1995 Man 1995 is when things get serious. Lots of great stuff here. I’m gonna say Chrono Trigger. Because, its an early entry in a core era of JRPG and its one of the very best.
1996 Its Super Mario 64. There’s some other killers that year. But SM64 is such a singularly interactive experience and it constantly rewards experimentation. And the stars system, makes progression very modular and personal. I can’t say another game that year is more game.
1997 Tons of quality games this year. But for me, Goldeneye stands above them. Like SM64, its a very interactive experience and also rewards experimentation. And the level design and various systems come together to create an authentic and immerisve experience. And those levels stand out. To this day, I find myself wishing any current FPS I might be playing, would have levels designed with such identity as Goldeneye. But also, with so many ways to approach them. Meaningful in-game goals which gave you unlockables which meaningfully changed the way the game played. and crucially, made it even more fun. And then that multiplayer was as good or better than anyting at the time. PC space, included. And that’s the thing. Goldeneye was arguably better than the PC FPS games, too. Quake II certainly has great multiplayer and mods really elevated it. But, I have a hard time saying its an objectively better experience than Goldeneye. Albeit Goldeneye isn’t expandable via mods. And I would say that for me, Goldeney was absolutely a better singleplayer experience.
The discussion around Papers, Please was/is? great! When I have time, I’m going to type up my suggestions for how the conversation could continue, but for now I’m happy that people are picking out the years they’re most interested in. I would like this to be more of a living, changing reference rather than something time-sensitive and set in stone.
going to echo the notion of only listing this decade, as a newblood or as lists being dumb or whatever, for this thread to continue such a notion of being Alive. the world and the self from ten years ago should not and are not remotely recognizable to the such of now, and vice versa.
The universalism is part of my problem with it. To make the bureaucracies of border control a universal fact of existence belies the ways in which what the game presented is institutionally constructed; that totalitarian nightmares aren’t a remote scenario “that wouldn’t happen here” but the reality we live in.
I really think you all missed the part of being snobs where you don’t have to constantly limit your appreciation of art by the worst imaginable way it could be co-opted by dummies
I also just genuinely didn’t appreciate it as a game to play, and for a while I gave it a pass because it was an ambitious/creative project but it ultimately festered in my subconscious until I figured out what about the theming bothered me.
yeah, I think if you didn’t appreciate the fumbling nature of the mechanics then the setting doesn’t do anything to carry it
video games this decade SUCKED… or did they???
I still believe this decade is a massive step in the right direction after how abominable the late 00s were
or maybe it’s cuz I didn’t like the game actually
1998 was another packed year of really great games. And by now, its getting more difficult to easily identify and briefly quantify a clear winner. But, which of them deserves game of the year honors?
I narrowed it down to 3. Now lets see what they have to offer
Metal Gear Solid: A game which seems to do everything really well. Good amount of complexity But inputs and execution from the player, are also fairly simple. Gameplay stays tight and deliberate, due to the constraints of the camera view and the game being expertly designed around it. In many ways, Metal Gear Solid borrows from years of 2D gaming and only augments it with the possibilities of a 3D engine.
You are near constantly moving forward in progression through the game world and are also always being presented with new scenarios to stretch the gameplay or utilize your equipment. There is basically no point in the game where you feel like you’ve had to rely on something for far too long or otherwise haven’t had an opportunity for something fresh. And the one time you do backtrack, you are under some pressure via the story and are still presented with some new stuff along the way.
The story is very well layed out, such that you feel like you are always finding out new stuff and aren’t waiting for the next good part. Or having to grind through some boring side stuff in order to get back to the core. Everything you do in the game is directly connected to the narrative and you feel like you could find out something new, at every turn. And you often do.
At the time, the cinematic presentation was absolutely above everything else. and only served to make the well layed story feel even more compelling. The way the codec is used remains novel. And they managed to make some characters you never actually meet, feel relevant to what’s going on. The characters have character and the voice acting is an all time benchmark (which is probably a happy combination of: good casting, good directing, but also the fact that due to budget and early days on how to do voiceacting, the actors were basically on an open stage and could play off eachother).
The animation is well above most games of that generation. The game breaks the 4th wall in legendary ways. The sound FX and soundtrack are perfect. The graphics managed some insane balance between realism, stylization, and timelessness.
About the only negatives I can come up with are that some of the boss monologues could feel a little overlong. And I imagine some people may not have liked the codec stuff?
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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: In retrospect, I kinda view OoT as melding Zelda with what The Elder Scrolls and/or Might and Magic were doing and focus it down into a more coherent adventure. While maybe not truly timeless, the graphics are colorful and did as good a job as anything, at rendering the larger scale of the world. And remains one of the more visually immersive N64 games. Hyrule in OoT has well defined areas which all feel very different from eachother and also feel like practical, lived in or useable spaces. Something not easy to do, considering the meager capabilities of the N64. And those spaces are populated with different races and characters which offer a continuous feeling of discovery and adventure.
The sense of adventure in this game is huge. However, it can bog down a bit (or even a lot) in fetch quests and some backtracking. And there isn’t a whole lot of narrative or guiding presentation giving you a good sense of your progression through the game. So, if you aren’t absolutely compelled with what you are currently doing in the game; it can at times feel like your aren’t really doing something which is important to finishing the game.
Some of the dungeoning and puzzles are pretty interesting. But for me, the overall gameplay wasn’t the most engaging. And story is barebones. I found myself being pulled into the game more for general exploration and also the discovery of Hyrule’s inhabitants and the fun/funny/weird little sidequests they’d recruit me for. There are some other 1998 games which I personally enjoyed more, which weren’t necessarily as ground breaking and might be thought of as more interesting choices. But, There’s a lot to do here. And much of it was injected with some character and whimsy. And the combo of scale and variety is unparalleled for the time.
+++
Starsiege Tribes: Can a multiplayer game be game of the year?----absolutely.
Way ahead of its time. This is pretty much the grandfather of modern, large scale multiplayer shooters. And most of what it was doing, it did well. Overall complaints about the game where few.
Squad based. Class based. A handful of game modes. Lots of maps. Excellent netcode. Great interface. Jet packs. A different feel compared to some of the popular, twitchy shooters. All the elements came together into somethng absolutely unique, compared to all other multiplayer experiences of the time. At the time, you could only draw basic comparisons to most other shooters. Like it has the sprawling feel of Delta Force. But Delta Force is nothing like this. It has game modes similar to Quake. But Quake is nothing like this. There were other Sci-Fi shooters. But none of them put the elements together into something like Tribes.
In the end, its something which really just has to be played, to fully understand why its so good and worthy. Being a multiplayer game, it can be more difficult to quantify the experience for a comparison with single player games. But in a lot of respects, Tribes feels more like games of today, than games of 1998.
Its kinda weird for me to look at my picks so far and see so much N64. Because, I was primarily a Playstation gamer. And nearly all of my runners up and/or personal faves, would be Playstation games.
Except for 1996, though. Nintendo had a bunch of great stuff that year. If it weren’t for SM64, I’d probably have said Wave Race 64.
oh wow, in addition to all the games Geoff mentioned, Starsiege Tribes! What a brilliant game
tell me about Uo Poko, I know nothing about it
Personally, 1997 is the last year for a fair stretch, whewre I can only name one objective GOTY candidate. And that’s still leaving tons of great games going unmentioned.
So I’m now going to restart with 1997 and mention a few games which I think are at the least, very noteable.
1997again
Blast Corps If you’ve never played this, do it. I’m real surprised we don’t have a recent indie game doing a copy and paste of this gameplay (or maybe we do???). Apparently, you can even play this on Xbone via the Rare Replay collection. Here’s a copy and paste from the wiki:
Blast Corps is a single-player action video game. The player controls vehicles to destroy buildings, farms, and other structures in the path of a runaway nuclear missile carrier. The player fails if the carrier collides with an object. The eight demolition vehicles vary in the way they clear structures: the bulldozer rams, the dump truck drifts, the lightweight buggy crashes from higher ground, the tricycle shoots missiles, another truck presses outwards from its sides, and robot mechs tumble and stomp from the land and the air. The player must transfer between vehicles and other machinery to solve puzzles. Objectives include transporting timed explosive crates and bridging gaps. The game’s puzzles increase in difficulty[2] as the player progresses through its 57 levels.[3]
The world is portrayed from a three-quarters overhead view. The player can adjust the game’s viewable perspective with zoom and horizontal panning functions.[2] Pop-up hints will guide the player in the early stages of the game,[3] and other characters audibly encourage the player as each level wears on. The cheery soundtrack increases in tempo as the level’s timer runs low.[2] After completing a level, the player can return to explore without a time limit.[4] By finding secrets and activating lights throughout the level, the player raises their score and final medal ranking. There are also secret levels hidden throughout the game, where the player completes objectives against the clock. The player can compete against a ghost copy of their previous path through a level. There are no settings to change the game’s difficulty
the ability to later explore levels without a time limit, meant that my brother and I did a whole lot of experimentation and roleplay.
Tekken 3 This is when things really started to click, for Tekken. Tekken 2 isn’t actually that much worse, in terms of base parts. But, 3 adds a layer of smoothness to the animation, has noticeably better graphics than the arcade version, has cool side modes, has a better roster, has a lot better presentation, has dualshock vibration, and has some really great quality CGI cinematics for each character’s ending. This all comes together to mark the moment Namco had a real option for the Fighting Game scene. Also, my first ever PSone game.
Final Fantasy VII DUH! Everybody knows what this is. But I’ll try to mention a couple of less obvious things. First thing, is its simultaneous regional release. And first FF game ever to release in Europe. JRPGS had already hit some very high levels of quality, by this point. Despite the huge technology upgrades and large dev team, and sometimes spotty translation: they managed to maintain something really right, along the way. And this game remains very playable. Infinitely playable. Its long and I’ve beaten it 3 times.
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee I feel like right now is a great time to re-visit these games. What with the craze for 2D games. It takes the puzzle platformer genre to new and strange ground. With amazing and grotesque art direction. And a unique and excellent system of audio/language commands and telepathy, as a central part of the gameplay.
Total Annihilation is the only RTS which has ever held my interest longer than trying it out for a couple of hours. You can build a giant robot which wrecks everything in fantastically feverish way.
Riven Riven is Riven
Diddy Kong Racing Overall, i don’t actually think this is super good. But, very ambitious and innovative. A part of it has always stuck with me. I always thought a sequel could have really developed the base ideas into something special. And it has hovercrafts.
WCW vs. nWo: World Tour Jesus christ this game. This is a very strong start to something real special. I played so much of this with my brother. And he had a couple of pals who would often come over for 4 player matches. And we would roleplay the hell out of our time with it. I’ve never even been a big fan of watching wrestling. But I always liked Hulk Hogan and this game is tons of fun. One of the few N64 games where I truly thought “you can’t do this on a playstation”. And indeed, even the much later, quite decent PSone Wrestling games developed by Yukes, were never able to size up to this series by AKI. and the key is their grappling system. And N64 just seemed to better be able to handle a wrestling game. Despite lacking video files for entrances. Some years later, WWF No Mercy would be the final AKI wrestler and is an all time killer game.
Mega Man Legends Dang I forgot this was 1997 and even missed it in the wiki list, when I made my first 1997 post. I like this game better than Ocarina of Time. Its a real treat from start to finish. Ocarina of Time certainly has all the stuff I said earlier and is a massive technical achievement. But, this game has a fair amount of similar qualities. And 400% more character. Due to a much more integrated storyline: you never really feel the drag which you can feel, in OoT. Also, who woulda thought a 3D Mega Man would be THIS good, on the first try? Mega Man was always one of my fave game series as a young boy. I rented all of the NES games multiple times. And that foundation has always stuck with me. I also watched the cartoon and had some of the really awesome toys. I didn’t own a PSone until mid-97. Mega Man legends was one of the first PSX games which I hotly anticipated, as a system owner. And I traveled to a mall in the Seattle area, to buy it.
Gran Turismo Gran Turismo is about loving cars. It drives like nothing else did. It has way more cars. It has real tracks. It has awesome fictional tracks, which are arguably better than real tracks. It has a very inviting presentation and game-ifies car collecting and upgrading just enough----that if you didn’t love cars before, you probably will soon enough. and it starts you off in everyday street cars. Making you re-appreciate the Toyota Celica in your driveway. I spent A LOT of time with this game. It creates a culture between you and your Playstation.
+++
Also, I’m not gonna re-do 1996 like this but, hello Diablo.
I’ve started formatting a very basic list at the top of the thread. I’ve yet to insert comments or links, but I will in time!