Every year we do GotYs, but I'm curious to see what your personal picks would have been for each year you've been gaming?

This could get dicey with all the region release dates, so for the sake of clarity it's based on when it was released in your country. Go as far back as you want to.

1996 - Kirby's Fun Pack
1997 - Super Mario 64
1998 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
1999 - WWF Wrestlemania 2000
2000 - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
2001 - Grand Theft Auto III
2002 - Final Fantasy X
2003 - Metroid Prime
2004 - Half Life 2
2005 - Resident Evil 4
2006 - Shadows of the Colossus
2007 - Team Fortress 2
2008 - Grand Theft Auto IV
2009 - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
2010 - Pokemon Heart Gold
2011 - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
2012 - Halo IV
2013 - Grand Theft Auto V
2014 - Mario Kart 8
2015 - Splatoon
2016 - The Last Guardian
2017 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I haven't played too many early PS1 or Saturn games, so I've got to stick solid with Kirby's Fun Pack which was an excellent game to play with casuals. The launch of the N64 in March of '97 was a landmark moment and Mario 64 left an indelible impression. I'm struggling for '99, so I'll stick with Wrestlemania 2000 which surpassed the WCW games thanks purely to it's CAW mode. So many hours were spent creating crazy characters with silly taunts and death defying moves. I'm also drawing a blank on 2000, so Majora's Mask takes it by default. 2001 was a stacked year, but GTA 3 was a game changer and was the first game since Mario 64 to wow me.

2002 was also stacked but I was so enamoured with FFX I bought merch which I haven't done for any other game. It and Prime's rankings are a gentle reminder that PAL regions got stiffed big time when it came to releases and created something of a divide between different holiday experiences. 2007-12 is basically the missing years where I would be lucky to play one or two new releases each year. 2010 was probably the worst off as that's the only game from the year I recall even playing. I almost felt like nominating something else for '13, but GTA V is a huge game and my favourite since Vice City. The last few years have mostly been Nintendo years with the exception of '16 where the Last Guardian served as my return to the Sony console line-up.

Curious to see ya'lls lists.

I'll start in '88, there's a chance it was '89 or '90, but I'm just gonna go with the earliest possible date.

1988-Super Mario Bros. 3(This definitely makes me think '88, pretty sure I hit SMB3 fresh out; so that makes me 3 when I started, maybe less, can't remember when I first touched Grandma's Atari)
1989-Duck Tales (Whoo-ooo!)
1990-Super Mario World (Still stands as one of my very favorite games PERIOD)
1991-Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Sorry: Sonic, Battletoads, and Super Castlevania 4...no contest)
1992-TMNT Turtles in Time (not counting arcade releases, while I have played at arcades, I was born unto the console)
1993-Doom(Disney's Aladdin is a close second)
1994-Super Metroid(I didn't even need to know any other games released in '94)
1995-Yoshi's Island (Mario sure does appear a lot)
1996-Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain(Tough to vote against SM64 and Crash Bandicoot, but LoK stared maybe my very favorite gaming mythology)
1997-Castlevania: Symphony of the Night(Year, decade, lifetime)
1998-Resident Evil 2(This was a tough ass year, but as much as I love Ocarina, I've re-played RE2 more than maybe any other game. Metal Gear Solid, while I love, the first had a few issues that I think age it worse than RE2)
1999-Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (Just a few short years after Blood Omen, they change the entire format, and the mythos just get deeper)
2000-Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (>Ocarina of Time)
2001-GTA III (Just a league of it's own on the year, and there were some great offerings)
2002-GTA Vice City (And then, just a year later, they improve it in every possible way)
2003-Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Shout out to Here Comes the Pain for being the best wrestling game ever)
2004-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (I loves me some San Andreas, the last purely great GTA soundtrack, but Snake Eater is the pinnacle of MGS)
2005-God of War(Another tough year with DMC3, Chaos Theory, Shadow of the Colossus, and the underrated Jade Empire...Kratos takes it).
2006-Yakuza 2 (the best/antagonist in the franchise, was the very best for me until Yakuza 0)
2007-Bioshock (One of my fondest "Holy shit" realizations in gaming, narrowly beating out God of War 2)
2008-GTA IV (Slightly different direction, same great product)
2009-Batman: Arham Asylum (I'M BATMAN!)
2010-Red Dead Redemption (AKA the single greatest western game ever created, bar none)
2011-Batman: Arkham City (Everything that was great about the first, and more)
2012-Sleeping Dogs (Kind of a down year for game, if Yakuza 5 didn't have my least favorite story of the series, mighta had a better chance)
2013-The Last ofUs (an unforgettable masterpiece, sorry GTA V, you were better than GTAIV, but not TLoU)
2014-Shadow of Mordor (the nemesis system did well to set it out in front of the pack)
2015-Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (so close to being a masterpiece, just one dangling plot thread away)
2016-Uncharted 4 (positively gorgeous, and a perfect send off for Nate)
2017-Nioh (Never did get to play Breath of the Wild, but Nioh has one of the best action combat systems in gaming)
2018(so far)-God of War (Red Dead Redemption 2 pending, God of War reinvented itself, while still staying true to its core in spectacular fashion)

1990 - Super Mario World

1991 - Street Fighter II

1992 - Wolfenstein 3D

1993 - Doom

1994 - Donkey Kong Country

1995 - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

1996 - Super Mario 64

1997 - Gran Turismo

1998 - Tekken 3

1999 - WWF Wrestlemania 2000

2000 - Counter-Strike

2001 - Grand Theft Auto III

2002 - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

2003 - WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain - Yep.

2004 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

2005 - Guitar Hero

2006 - Wii Sports

2007 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

2008 - Grand Theft Auto IV

2009 - Call of Duty: World at War

2010 - Red Dead Redemption

2011 - Batman: Arkham City

2012 - WWE '13 - WWE modern remake of the Attitude Era, come on!

2013 - Grand Theft Auto V

2014 - I got nothing.

2015 - Yeah... I must have been busy through 2014 & 2015.

2016 - Battlefield 1 - October '16 release.

2017 - Battlefield 1

2018 - I'll bet, it's Red Dead Redemption II

1994: Donkey Kong Country
1995: Donkey Kong Country 2
1996: Donkey Kong Country 3
1997: Diddy Kong Racing
1998: Banjo-Kazooie
1999: Final Fantasy VIII
2000: Star Wars Episode I: Racer
2001: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
2002: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
2003: XIII
2004: World of Warcraft
2005: Killer7
2006: Hitman: Blood Money
2007: Mortal Kombat Armageddon
2008: No More Heroes
2009: MadWorld
2010: Super Street Fighter IV
2011: Dark Souls
2012: Lollipop Chainsaw
2013: Call of Duty: Ghosts
2014: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
2015: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
2016: Dark Souls 3
2017: Call of Duty WWII
2018: Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

A couple of amendments.

2010: Civilization V
2012: Kid Icarus: Uprising

PC gaming has always been like the wild west to me. Anything goes and I can't really keep up with timeframes all that well. With that said, Civ V was a quality follow-up to my favourite strategy series of all-time. I'm still waiting for a Civ VI discount so I can really sink some time into it.

Kid Icarus Uprising is a polarising game that I happen to be in the positive camp for. Once you get a hold of the controls, what you're left with is a quality shoot em up with some of the best dialogue in gaming. It's my favourite original game on the 3DS (the LoZ remakes take top billing) and one I'll occasionally sink some time into. Sakurai clearly treasured the game as well, since Smash 4 borrowed a lot of ideas from it.

2012 - WWE '13

I made the mistake of buying this when I got my replacement PS3. Rookie mistake - the only mode I enjoyed was season and I could never bring myself to playing through exhibition like I would with past wrestling games. The mistake I made is that I had just returned to the series the year prior. I didn't give the series enough time to breathe and while the Attitude Era content appealed to me, the broad strokes roster left me unsatisfied. It was an unrealistic expectation, but I would have enjoyed it if they had made an effort to make it a 97/98 roster, covering the years prior to the initial SmackDown launch. It didn't help that some of the models looked worse than some of the PS2 designs.

The game also did a lot of tiny things that would annoy me. CAWs all being confined to their one slot, forcing you to scroll through the same 50 names over and over again was frustrating as was the absence of a default arena.

How do you guys compile these lists? Is there an easy way to look up games by year? I tried but then I have to sift through hundreds of garbage games nobody has ever heard of and I'm not doing that for 30 years. My knowledge of what year games are released is pretty bad so I can't really do it by memory.

Ordinarily I would go through GameFaqs Advanced Search, pick a year and sort it via User Ratings, but in this case I just considered my personal collection and went from the year where I received my first console. Despite owning 'older' games, I didn't consider them because I wasn't around the scene in that time.

I'll take a stab at your list:

Right now I'm predicting

1997: Final Fantasy VII
2002: Onimusha 2
2015: Undertale

I'm drawing a blank elsewhere.

1993: Mega Man X
1994: Final Fantasy VI
1995: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
1996: Kirby Super Star
1997: Star Fox 64
1998: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
1999: Super Smash Bros.
2000: Banjo-Tooie
2001: Pikmin
2002: Golden Sun: The Lost Age
2003: Kirby Air Ride
2004: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
2005: Killer 7
2006: Mega Man Battle Network 6
2007: Super Mario Galaxy
2008: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
2009: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
2010: Donkey Kong Country Returns
2011: Kirby's Return to Dreamland
2012: Kid Icarus Uprising
2013: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
2014: Shovel Knight
2015: Splatoon
2016: Kirby Planet Robobot
2017: Hollow Knight
2018: Kirby Star Allies/Octopath Traveler tie so far

GameFAQs Advanced Search is pretty handy although the different regions are giving me the same games in different years. I'm just going for the earliest Western release.

1996: Pokemon Red
1997: Final Fantasy VII (my favourite game ever, of course it's going to top the year it was released)
1998: Spyro The Dragon
1999: Quake III Arena (FFVIII is a close second, but I put more hours into Quake III and it started my love for fast-paced arena FPS games)
2000: Final Fantasy IX
2001: Final Fantasy X
2002: Onimusha 2
2003: Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
2004: Half-Life 2 (GTA: San Andreas a very close second)
2005: Shadow of the Colossus
2006: Final Fantasy XII (one of my least favourite games on this list, but 2006 had little else to offer)
2007: Persona 3
2008: Dead Space (narrowly beating out Persona 4)
2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum
2010: Rock Band 3
2011: The Binding of Isaac
2012: Mark of the Ninja (cool indie stealth/action game, maybe the only game from 2012 I have played)
2013: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
2014: Shovel Knight
2015: Undertale
2016: Civilization VI
2017: Cuphead

Could go further back but my video gaming life started around 1996 and that's that. Final Fantasy VI can take the best pre-96 game award. As a whole, I know I like RPGs, but I didn't expect them to dominate the rankings quite so heavily.

1991: Super Mario World
1992: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
1993: Mortal Kombat II
1994: Final Fantasy VI
1995: Suikoden
1996: Super Mario 64
1997: Final Fantasy VII
1998: Suikoden 2
1999: Chrono Cross
2000: WWF No Mercy
2001: Final Fantasy X
2002: Grand Theft Auto III
2003: Soul Calibur II
2004: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
2005: Devil May 3
2006: Gears of War
2007: BioShock
2008: Sacred 2
2009: Dragon Age: Origins
2010: Halo: Reach
2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2012: Borderlands 2
2013: The Last of Us
2014: Divinity: Original Sin
2015: Yakuza 0
2016: Tales of Berseria
2017: Horizon Zero Dawn

Jul 18, 2018 13:55:30 GMT Emperor said:

How do you guys compile these lists? Is there an easy way to look up games by year? I tried but then I have to sift through hundreds of garbage games nobody has ever heard of and I'm not doing that for 30 years. My knowledge of what year games are released is pretty bad so I can't really do it by memory.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_considered_the_best

Then maybe click on each year, for each year in gaming.

I just googled "Video games" and the year, then went through lists of games from the year.

Recently started playing Half-Life 2, I’m only a few hours into it but I’m definitely not seeing at as GOTY worthy let alone enjoyable.

Does it pick up?

FF7 was a very close second for 1997.

What I enjoyed about Half Life 2 is how varied the campaign is. One moment it can be a tense corridor shooter, the next it will be vehicle based, then it could be a puzzle solver or just a straight up action co-op game. The game keeps everything fresh and doesn't bog you down with cut-scenes.

It's tough to know whether you'll come around to it System. I'm not exactly sure where you're up to or what's really bothering you. One issue people seem to have with the game is that it doesn't hold up to modern shooters, but this game helped inspire a lot of the gameplay you'd see in those games. I still think it's an expertly paced game that handles story narration as well as any modern game.

The storytelling is a huge part of what makes Half-Life 2 my favourite FPS. That's the main thing that sets it apart from its peers (at the time). Also the huge variety and near flawless gameplay experience. Basically everything is wonderfully crafted and it plays so well.

Jul 22, 2018 23:56:04 GMT Big Pete said:

What I enjoyed about Half Life 2 is how varied the campaign is. One moment it can be a tense corridor shooter, the next it will be vehicle based, then it could be a puzzle solver or just a straight up action co-op game. The game keeps everything fresh and doesn't bog you down with cut-scenes.

It's tough to know whether you'll come around to it System. I'm not exactly sure where you're up to or what's really bothering you. One issue people seem to have with the game is that it doesn't hold up to modern shooters, but this game helped inspire a lot of the gameplay you'd see in those games. I still think it's an expertly paced game that handles story narration as well as any modern game.

It just seems I’m spending most of my time lost just moving around boxes. I’m up to to the first time you use a hovercraft from memory.

Ahhh, still early days then, you haven't even gotten to the signature gameplay mechanic. Stick with it, I reckon you might get a kick out of the Ravenholme section.

Also was I just imagining things, or didn't you share your partners GotY list in here as well? I was going to praise it for including Saints Row 2 because I had completely forgotten that it was the game for GTA fans who couldn't stand the gritty approach IV took.

1994 - Theme Park
1995 - Earthworm Jim
1996 - Mario Kart 64
1997 - Goldeneye 007
1998 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
1999 - Disney’s Tarzan
2000 - The Sims
2001 - Grand Theft Auto 3
2002 - WWF Raw
2003 - The Simpson’s: Hit & Run
2004 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2005 - Jade Empire
2006 - Mortal Kombat Armageddon
2007 - Uncharted Drake’s Fortune
2008 - Saints Row 2
2009 - Uncharted 2 Among Thieves
2010 - Heavy Rain
2011 - Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
2012 - Diablo 3
2013 - The Last of Us
2014 - This War of Mine
2015 - Fallout 4
2016 - Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
2017 - For Honor
2018 - Detroit Become Human

1988 - Bionic Commando
1989 - SimCity
1990 - Super Mario Bros 3
1991 - Tecmo Super Bowl/Super Mario World
1992 - A Link To The Past
1993 - Sonic CD
1994 - Final Fantasy 6
1995 - Yoshi's Island
1996 - Super Mario 64
1997 - Symphony of the Night
1998 - Resident Evil 2
1999 - Chrono Cross
2000 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2/Paper Mario
2001 - Final Fantasy 10
2002 - Morrowind
2003 - Knights of the Old Republic
2004 - Metal Gear Solid 3
2005 - Resident Evil 4
2006 - Oblivion
2007 - Bioshock
2008 - Grand Theft Auto 4
2009 - Uncharted 2
2010 - Mass Effect 2
2011 - Skyrim
2012 - Dishonored
2013 - Grand Theft Auto V
2014 - Dragon Age: Inquisition
2015 - Metal Gear Solid 5
2016 - DOOM
2017 - Breath of the Wild