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Game of the Year ; pt. I (1985-1995, The Retro Era)

Iridescence

Emancipated Wind Fish
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Hello, my friends. This is a new series of discussions I'm going to start off. Where each of us vote for a game of the year for every year. We're going to start with the retro era, right when game consoles started to shine up to the 3D era. 1985 to 1995.

Some things I tried to keep in mind with my choices. Japanese releases count. I try to encourage variety where ever I can, because I don't want to see Mario and Zelda in every year. For example, in 1993, I loved both Link's Awakening and Doom but (despite being a Zelda fan) I gave it to Doom because it innovated more.

1985 - Super Mario Bros

Runner Ups: Gauntlet, Gradius
Super Mario revived the gaming industry after the market crash. It invented the platforming genre, was full of color, diverse enemies, boss fights, some light puzzle elements. Well varied overall. Plenty of shortcuts and secrets gave the game depth, as well. Gauntlet and Gradius were other good games that year.

1986 - Legend of Zelda
Runner Ups: Castlevania, Metroid (grandfathers of the sidescroller genre)
Zelda invented the adventure genre, open world, dungeons, puzzles, most of the tropes from the Zelda series and save states by itself. All of these things were unprecedented in gaming. There's so much to explore and discover here.

1987 - Punch-Out!!
Runner Ups: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (was a good sizable adventure for its time)
Punch-Out!! was great. Cool story, Nintendo bought Mike Tyson's likeness just before the fight that made him champion. It was hard as nails, but also the first game to portray a sport like this, and do so well. The controls were simple but it was a meticulous game.

1988 - Mega Man 2
Runner Ups: Super Mario Bros. 3
This one was a coin toss. I know Mario is the more popular choice, but I enjoyed Mega Man 2 much more.

1989 - Tetris
Runner Ups: Super Mario Land, Sim City
Released for the Gameboy, this defining spatial puzzle game was now available on the go, definitely making a big case for portable gaming. Not a very eventful year, so I had to give it to a remake.

1990 - Super Mario World
Runner Ups: F-Zero, Final Fantasy III, Mega Man 3
Mario has a way of reinventing himself with each iteration. In this game, there's a sense of color and atmosphere Mario never had before, amongst new art and totally new enemies, and a variety of levels. With action, some puzzles and a number of hidden secrets. And Yoshi.

1991 - A Link to the Past
Runner Ups: Sonic the Hedgehog (totally changed the look, feel and atmosphere of platforming)
This iteration of Zelda took the principles of the original and expanded it in every way possible. A seamless overworld interwoven into a strong narrative, with plenty of exciting combats, a wide variety of items and creative puzzles. ALTTP was as perfect of a game as it ever could've been on release.

1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog II
Runner Ups: Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, Wolfenstein 3D
Sonic 2 was a big improvement over the first one, featuring a variety of different locations, plenty of new platforming elements, Tails and a creative debug mode. Definitely one of my favorites in the Sonic series.

1993 - Doom
Runner Ups: Link's Awakening, Myst, Secrets of Mana
Doom practically invented the first person shooter in 3D, with fast-paced action, eerie but personality filled environments based on metal music and other hobbies the practically-indie college kids who worked on it had. It's rare to see shooters today that are as expressive.

1994 - Super Metroid
Runner Ups: Donkey Kong Country, System Shock, Earthbound
The original Metroid was a classic in a loose sense of the word, but this game really added personality to it. It kept its side-scrolling action elements, but it actually felt like a full adventure rather than a pure abstraction of pixels. It's maze-like depth added challenge and made it unique from many other games out there.

1995 - Donkey Kong Country 2
Runner Ups: Chrono Trigger, Yoshi's Island, Warcraft II, Rayman
The first DK Country game was great, but this one just blew the original out of the park. With Dixie and Diddy teamed up together, rescuing DK was an interesting twist on things. The rich, life-like (at the time) color and atmosphere was enhanced even further. There was a wide variety of different levels, including the fun mine cart levels, improved water levels, and the new concepts introduced by allowing animals to tag along with you.

So, a recap.

1985 - Super Mario Bros
1986 - Legend of Zelda
1987 - Punch-Out!!
1988 - Mega Man 2
1989 - Tetris
1990 - Super Mario World
1991 - A Link to the Past
1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog II
1993 - Doom
1994 - Super Metroid
1995 - Donkey Kong Country 2
 

selicyc

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An excellent list, although I personally would have given 1991's honor of being game of the year to Final Fantasy IV.

Final Fantasy IV is the game that redefined and set the tone for all future RPGs. It was among one of the first games of its genre where the story was was no longer driven by a shoestring plot line (get the orbs to save the princess or find the crystals to save the world), and was driven by the characters instead. We watched Cecil and companions journey their way through the plot, whilst experiencing real human emotions, such as anger, jealously and love. Everyone had their motivations for joining and leaving, and one goes as far as betraying you.

This is also the game that introduced a new method of battle, the Active Time Battle (or AT:cool: system, where enemies didn't wait on you to make a move and rewarded quick decisions. Battles were fast paced and could get frantic.

It also featured a critically acclaimed score by Nobuo Uematsu, featuring songs like "The Main Theme of Final Fantasy IV," "Battle 2," "Within the Giant," and the most famous of them all, "Theme of Love," which would eventually be taught to Japanese school students as part of their music curriculum.

Really, A Link to the Past, Sonic the Hedgehog and Final Fantasy IV all have their good points and each had their innovations, but Final Fantasy IV is the most groundbreaking of them all. But this is merely my opinion, of course.
 
Pretty good list, though I would have SMB3 over Mega Man, and Sim City over Tetris.

Just minor things, but Zelda may have revolutionized the Adventure genre, but it did not invent it. Likewise Doom didn't invent FPS shooters, but it and Wolfenstein 3D which came out a year earlier did thrust it into the lime light and are largely responsible for it's popularity today.
 

Iridescence

Emancipated Wind Fish
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SMB3 and Mega Man 2 is a tossup. SMB3 is probably the better one, objectively speaking, but I personally didn't like it.

Sim City over Tetris is possible since Tetris itself was a remake. Plus, I can put Tetris in 84' if I ever do a really retro GOTY list.

And yes, I agree with your statement of revolutionizing vs inventing.
 

Iridescence

Emancipated Wind Fish
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With these games, I can't really judge which years were the best and worst. Since the mid-90's to now, even some of our worst years had a lot of good (but not great) games. But this era was the shovelware period where only 2-3 good games were released per year.
 

Hanyou

didn't build that
Guess this will complete my list. These threads are really making me think.

1985: Super Mario Bros.
1986: The Legend of Zelda
1987: Phantasy Star
1988: Super Mario Bros. 3
1989: Phantasy Star II
1990: Super Mario World
1991: Final Fantasy IV
1992: Ecco the Dolphin
1993: Myst
1994: Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles
1995: Donkey Kong Country 2

I want to mention that the Phantasy Star series is VERY important, as it invented many of the JRPG conventions we take for granted today. It was released almost alongside the original Final Fantasy, but in my book it's a far superior game. I first played it in 2008 and everything about it, from its graphics to its music and world, blew me away like few games ever have.
 
Last edited:
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My turn I guess.

1985: Super Mario Bros.
1986: The Legend of Zelda
1987: Phantasy Star
1988: Super Mario Bros. 3
1989: Mega Man 2 / Price of Persia (both were amazing)
1990: Super Mario World
1991: Zelda 3
1992: Ecco the Dolphin
1993: Myst
1994: Super Metroid / Marathon (both were amazing)
1995: Donkey Kong Country 2

The entire Marathon trilogy was really amazing. But I'll just list the one here.
 
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Princess Niki

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85: Super Mario Bros
86: The Legend of Zelda
87: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
88: Super Mario Bros 3
89: Super Mario Land
90: Super Mario World
91: The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
92: Super Mario Kart
93: The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening
94: Donkey Kong Country
95: Comix Zone

This list is going by what I have played and could change once I have tried more Retro games.
 

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