VotYA

Introduction

As a long-time videogame enthusiast, I have an annual tradition of looking back at the end of each year and thinking about which of the games that I played were the best. Sometimes these games are the most state-of-the-art, and sometimes they were just the game that I personally enjoyed the most during that year. Sometimes, a winner was a game that came out years before but only recently had ended up in my posession.

Normally, I pick one winner and up to three runners-up. Some years there were less than three runners-up, though, for various reasons. I started doing this in 1981, when I got my first system, the Magnavox Odyssey 2, and have kept the tradition alive over the last quarter century. Looking back, these awards are an interesting way of seeing my own journey through the evolution of the hobby. These awards reflect my own personal taste in games, as well as my financial ability at the time to keep up with the state of the art. There is also an award, when applicable, for the best hardware purchased in that year.

1981
Winner: Alien Invaders Plus (Odyssey 2)
This Space Invaders clone was the only other game I got at Christmas for the Odyssey 2 other than the pack-in game. I mastered it almost immediately, and since it did not keep score the replay value was not high. Ten rounds and you won, that was it. Still, it was a playable and exciting game with a few funny quirks that kept it entertaining.

Runner-Up : Speedway / Spinout / Crypto - Logic (Odyssey 2)
The only other game I had in 1981. Say what you will, it at least had a few different things to do in it.

Best New Hardware : Magnavox Odyssey 2 System

1982
Winner: Pick Axe Pete(Odyssey 2)
One of the best titles ever released for the Odyssey 2, Pick Axe Pete was a game of jumping and climbing which offered intense action and precision control. It also had multiple levels to advance through, giving it the feeling of more depth than previous Odyssey releases. The strategy of the developers at Magnavox was to release their own versions of arcade hits that were being licensed by their competitors. Sometimes they made games far superior to their arcade counterparts (UFO, K.C. Munchkin) and sometimes not (Freedom Fighters), but Pick Axe Pete was one of the better ones.

Runner-Up : K.C. Munchkin (Odyssey 2)
Odyssey's answer to Pac-Man was a blast, plus it had its own level design option. This game was pulled off the shelves by a court order because it was too similar to Pac-Man, so I was glad I got one when I did.

Runner - Up : Attack of the Timelord (Odyssey 2)
The best shooting game for the Odyssey 2, this title had a lot of variety in terms of the winding, snaking enemy formations and enemy weapons, and a great villain who, through use of the Voice module, came out to taunt players between rounds.

Best New Hardware : The Voice speech synthesis unit for the Magnavox Odyssey 2 System

1983
Winner: Crush, Crumble, & Chomp (Commodore VIC 20)
The first really in-depth game I ever purchased, Crush, Crumble, & Chomp gave players 6 monsters, 6 cities, and several playing options which lead to many hours of mayhem. The cassette drive load times were hell, but oh so worth the fun the game offered. This was the reason I was hooked on computer gaming for the rest of the 1980s.

Runner-Up : Killer Bees (Odyssey 2)
The last swan song for the dying Odyssey 2, Killer Bees was original, challenging, and an absolute blast to play. Plus, it had its own title screen instead of the usual "Select Game", and a slew of hidden "Easter eggs", programmed into it by its designer.

Runner - Up : Gorf (Commodore VIC 20)
A great translation of one of my personal arcade favorites.

Best New Hardware : Commodore VIC 20 Computer

1984
Winner: Miner 2049er (Commodore VIC 20)
The Commodore VIC 20 really shined as an arcade game computer, and this translation of the classic Miner 2049er was one of the best examples of that. Multiple levels of increasing complexity made this climbing and jumping game one that I could play again and again, but I never beat it.

Runner-Up : Dragonfire (Commodore VIC 20)
An intense game of running, ducking, and dodging that got insanely hard as levels progressed. Clear, crisp, and colorful graphics also made for a great gaming experience.

Runner - Up : Adventureland (Commodore VIC 20)
The first text adventure I ever played and finished, Adventureland offered exploration, puzzles, and humor, all to a level I had yet to experience in a videogame.

1985
Winner: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Commodore 64)
With the purchase of my Commodore 64, I was at last caught up to state-of-the-art, and could pick and choose from the latest releases. My choice of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was an odd one, though, as it was a text adventure. But what an adventure it was, offering the zaniest humor and the most mind-boggling puzzles I had yet encountered.

Runner-Up : Adventure Construction Set (Commodore 64)
Perhaps one of the greatest game design tools ever made, Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set was easy to use and versatile beyond imagining, at the time. Huge worlds could be created and filled with whatever items, quests, text signs, and monsters one could imagine. It also came with a few pre-made adventures. The program was so vast and all-encompassing that I never actually got around to finishing any of the adventure games I had started to make, but I sure had fun with just the construction part anyway.

Runner - Up : Nine Princes In Amber (Commodore 64)
A text adventure with graphics, this one took a unique route, having the player carefully dealing with a lot of dangerous and backstabbing brothers and sisters. There were also mini-games of swordfighting and walking the pattern. Playing this game got me into the amazing books that the game was based upon.

Runner - Up : Forbidden Forest (Commodore 64)
An amazing game of archery and running with a stunning musical score that ranks as one of my favorites to this day, Forbidden Forest was a blast to play. It had great graphics and seven levels of different monsters to fight. You haven't lived until you've made the forest phantom shriek with an arrow to the face.

Best New Hardware : Commodore 64 Computer

1986
Winner: The Bard's Tale (Commodore 64)
Adventure games took a whole new turn for me on March 28, 1986, as I decided to pick up the most sophisticated and complex adventure game I could find at the time - Tales of the Unknown Volume 1 - The Bard's Tale. Moving beyond the text adventure, this game offered a huge city full of dungeons to explore, with hundreds of different monsters (some animated) to fight. The standard role - playing experience of party and item management was new to me, so it took awhile to get used to. I spent hours on each dungeon level exploring every nook and cranny, writing pages and pages of notes, and making detailed maps on graph paper. This game was the first to create a real sense of danger for me, as I would often stay in dungeons long after I should have left to resupply.

Runner - Up : Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar (Commodore 64)
Looking for more adventure after getting my feet wet with the Bard's Tale, I picked up this amazing game and found a virtual world more sophisticated and alive than any other I'd ever seen. So much to do - fighting, exploration, talking to many NPCs, and most importantly living up to the game's virtues. Again, I made pages of notes and maps and had the time of my life.

Runner - Up : The Bard's Tale II - The Destiny Knight (Commodore 64)
Coming at the end of the year, I immediately picked up this sequel on release day and dove right in, finding an even bigger world than its predecessor and some new and more challenging elements. There were better graphics, too.

Runner - Up : Satan's Hollow (Commodore 64)
!986 wasn't just about high-end RPGs, there were still lots of arcade shooters around, and this perfect translation of the arcade classic was top-notch.

1987
Winner: Ultima II - Revenge of the Enchantress (Commodore 64)
After playing Ultima IV in 1986, I went back and played through the previous releases in the series, picking up Ultima I and II in 1987. Ultima II - Revenge of the Enchantress, while nowhere near as sophisticated as IV, still offered a vast world to explore and many strange characters to chat with along the way. Ultima II took place across a time - shattered world where players had to visit different eras, and even travel into space and visit other planets. Combat was simpler and more straightforward, and even though Ultima II was a few years old, it was still the most fun I had with a game in 1987.

Runner - Up : Accolade's Comics (Commodore 64)
This was a hilarious choose-your-path adventure through an on-screen comic book with a smattering of arcade-style mini games thrown in. While it was slow to load, it sure was a lot of fun.

Runner - Up : Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker (Commodore 64)
Another great game making program with versatile art and music tools that I played around with quite a bit, but I never created a finished product with it.

Runner - Up : Marble Madness (Commodore 64)
A perfect translation of the unique arcade game of the same name, Marble Madness had me rolling a marble through a series of courses of increasing difficulty. Using an Atari-made trakball controller with this game was the icing on the cake.

1988
Winner: The Bard's Tale III - Thief of Fate (Commodore 64)
The third and final Bard's Tale game was by far the greatest in scope and playability. Set across seven dimensions, each with a unique theme, this game was almost overwhelming in its size and sheer amount of ground to cover. 1988 for me was the last hurrah of these detailed computer roleplaying games and what a way to end that era.

Runner - Up : Ultima V - Warriors of Destiny (Commodore 64)
The Ultima series continued to evolve with this release, presenting another huge and highly detailed world, with the NPCs having regular schedules based on the day-night cycle. Although in both 1986 and 1988 I choose a Bard's Tale over an Ultima as a game of the year, this decision should in no way diminish the incredible achievements made in both Ultima games.

Runner - Up : Maniac Mansion (Commodore 64)
This completely new style of graphic adventure, where the action on the top 3/4 of the screen is controlled by a simple choose-from-an-action-list on the bottom of the screen, worked incredibly well and launched a genre that lasted for over a decade. It was fun, easy to play, yet deep enough to keep me engaged for many months.

Runner - Up : The Movie Monster Game (Commodore 64)
A smooth-running and fast playing update to the classic Crush, Crumble, and Chomp that brought me endless hours of fun.

Best New Hardware : Seikosha SP-180VC Matrix Printer for the Commodore 64

1989
Winner: The Adventure of Link (NES)
This amazingly hard action adventure and sequel to The Legend of Zelda combined exploration, puzzle solving, and intense action-based combat for a great gaming experience. 1989 for me was all about the action-adventure, and this one was a doozy. The final boss took me weeks to beat after trying again and again.

Runner - Up : Times of Lore (Commodore 64)
This action-adventure for the Commodore 64 offered a top-down view of a vast open land to explore. Walking from city to city was a long, hard slog through endless hordes of monsters.

Runner - Up : The Legend of Zelda (NES)
This game was the reason I purchased an NES. It took the theme and presentation of the Atari classic Adventure way beyond its original design, with an overhead view of a short hero venturing across land, over mountains, and into dungeons. The game mechanics created here set an industry standard that is still being used to create great spin-offs to this day.

Runner - Up : Castlevania (NES)
This was my first taste of the new console, over at a friend's house, and I was instantly hooked. Amazing graphics and intense gameplay over vast and sprawling levels with big boss battles - it was a formula repeated again and again during this era, but few did it as well as Castlevania.

Best New Hardware : Nintendo Entertainment System

1990
Winner: Bonk's Adventure (Turbografx 16)
As a Mario-style mascot goes, Bonk the caveman certainly had the style and attitude to represent the third-place Turbografx 16 system. But, all that aside, the game itself was addicting and highly playable, with bright and colorful prehistoric vistas to explore and unique game mechanics and hilarious enemies.

Runner - Up : Abadox (NES)
A great shooter with stunning and creepy graphics. I wasn't really a shooter fan, but this title kept me playing.

Runner - Up : Lords of Conquest (Commodore 64)
One of the greatest strategy games I've ever played. Simple enough to get into quickly but deep enough to offer endless challenges, this game also had a random map maker and a custom map editor. I enjoyed endless sessions against the computer and against human opponents as well for many years.

Runner - Up : Super Mario Brothers 2 (NES)
This sequel to the classic NES pack-in game offered better graphics and new play mechanics, with a huge emphasis on exploration and secret things to discover.

Best New Hardware : NEC Turbografx 16 System

1991
Winner: Military Madness(Turbografx 16)
This slick science fiction strategy game totally pulled me in with, once again, easy to learn gameplay coupled with detailed strategic sophistication. Players move units across a hexagonal grid map and when units come into conflict the screen shows the battle. Towards the end, it got very hard, but I eventually beat the game. For me, this game set the standard for playable strategy games, as the more detailed ones with too much micro-management never could hold my interest.

Runner - Up : Final Fantasy Legend (Game Boy)
The first portable adventure game with a save feature, this highly engrossing and long - lasting RPG was a dream come true. Even though the first Game Boy was a clunky unit, I carried it everywhere with this game, taking it to college and playing it between classes.

Runner - Up : Crystalis (NES)
A great action RPG game that took the Legend of Zelda genre and expanded on it greatly

Runner - Up : Dungeon Explorer (Turbografx 16)
This game took gameplay from the classic arcade game Gauntlet and put it into a full RPG, with great results. Endless hordes of monsters in the dungeons and towns full of people to talk to as the story unfolds. It was a lot of fun.

Best New Hardware : Nintendo GameBoy Handheld System

Runner - Up : Dead Space (Microsoft XBox 360)
Survival-horror games have, ironically, been done to death, so it takes a new approach to really stand out in the crowd. Dead Space puts the player in the role of an engineer on a derelict spaceship full of horrific creatures, and the game's innovations work well to refresh the genre. The undead "necromorphs" require the player to shoot off their limbs to stop them, instead of headshots. The game's weapons are for the most part innovative and fun to enhance, and the zero-gravity sections of the ship work amazingly well. Dead Space was a blast to play, was graphically impressive, and offered many scares along the way.

Runner - Up : Bully : Scholarship Edition (Nintendo Wii)
Another one of Rockstar Games' "sandbox" titles, Bully puts the player in the role of tough kid Jimmy, dumped by his parents at a strict boarding school divided into factions of nerds, jocks, preppies, greasers, and townies. Jimmy not only has to survive all of that, but he has to actually attend school as well, with the Wii's motion controls being utilized to their fullest to do things like dissect frogs in Biology class. Exploring the school and the local community was as much fun as exploring the game's social aspects, like juggling girlfriends and learning fighting moves from the local hobo. There was a lot to do in Bully, and the game's hilarious sense of humor made it all worth the time.

Best New Hardware : Microsoft XBox 360 Pro System

1992
Winner: Super Mario Kart (SNES)
While I had never been much into racing games in the past, Super Mario Kart changed all that as soon as I started playing. Combining fast-paced racing with combat across some insane courses, this game became an instant classic for myself and a few friends that would stop by my apartment to play it. The power-ups picked up along the track made racing and combat strategic, and the daredevil shortcuts that some tracks had kept the races exciting. This game was pure programming genius from Nintendo.

Runner - Up : Super Star Wars (SNES)
A beautifully designed action - platformer at heart with a few other types of challenges thrown in for good measure, this was at the time the perfect Star Wars videogame translation that we'd all been hoping for.

Runner - Up : Ecco The Dolphin (Sega Genesis)
Refreshingly original in its design and gorgeous to behold, Ecco the Dolphin was a very difficult but totally engaging game where one controls a dolphin who is trying to rescue other dolphins. It was really one of the few Sega Genesis games that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Runner - Up : Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly (GameBoy)
While really just another simple action platformer game, something about it drew me in and I played it non-stop for a few weeks. The enjoyable characters, the varied levels, the humor - everything just clicked with this game.

Best New Hardware : Super Nintendo Entertainment System

1993
Winner: Super Star Wars : The Empire Strakes Back (SNES)
This platforming game, like its predecessor, had a few flying levels thrown in, and was just awesome to play. But hard. Cited to this day as incredibly hard by even its own fans, I can proudly say that I beat it in a few weeks. I just had to see how the lightsaber battle with Vader in the Cloud City played out.

Runner - Up : X-Men (Sega Genesis)
Another of this generation's platformer games, this one offered quite a few playable X-Men characters to try out, and translated their powers quite well for the game. Being a comic book geek at the time, I was hooked.

Runner - Up : Starfox (SNES)
This rail shooter with cute animal characters offered multiple paths and fantastic graphics along with intense action. It launched another one of Nintendo's franchises that has endured ever since. Lots of hidden things in this one, too, which kept me coming back for more.

Runner - Up : SimAnt (Amiga 2000)
The first sim game I ever played, this one had me managing an ant hill, leading raids on a human home and tinkering around with all aspects of ant society. Realistic and fun, and my first foray into modern PC era gaming.

Best New Hardware : GCE Vectrex System (purchased used through a friend, of course)

1994
Winner: Doom (Atari Jaguar)
Although it had come out in the previous year as a smash PC hit, I had only gotten to play it a few times on a computer at work, and the PC market at that time was well out of my financial reach. The Atari Jaguar system, however, was within my grasp and I got to fight my way through this excellent port of the game that they made for it. Level after level of first-person violence and terror heralded a new genre and a new age for gaming that still dominates all of gaming to this day. Few have gotten it as right as Doom did, though.

Runner - Up : Alien Vs. Predator (Atari Jaguar)
Another incredible first-person shooter for the Jaguar, this one allowed the player to play as the Alien, the Predator, or as the Colonial Marine across a huge space station with endless corridors, the Alien nest, and the docked Predator's ship. Each of these characters was a game unto itself and mapping out the game was an immense challenge, and a blast. I'll never forget the sheer terror of confronting the Alien queen in her nest, or the slick coolness of using the Predator's infrared viewer and weapons.

Runner - Up : Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
No one could believe how amazing the rendered characters in this game looked when it came out. Combine that with fun and very challenging gameplay and this game became an instant classic.

1995
Winner: Wipeout (Sony Playstation)
This slick futuristic racer heralded the Playstation generation with sharp graphics, a cool techno soundtrack, and unbelievably fast motion. How good was Wipeout? I only had the demo that came with the Playstation console, which had perhaps 3 levels on it, until early 1996, and it still won best game of the year. I played those three levels again and again until I could finally afford to pick up the whole thing.

Runner - Up : BC Racers (Sega Genesis CD)
After Super Mario Kart in 1992, I searched far and wide for a game that came close to its high standard for fun racing games. It wasn't until this obscure Sega CD release that I found one. Racing in little caveman bikes with sidecars and using clubs to beat on other racers was quite amusing. This game had style and really good gameplay.

Runner - Up : Destruction Derby (Sony Playstation)
Another of the Playstation launch titles, Demolition Derby raised the bar on racing mayhem with realistic damage and a lot of different courses and ways to play. Multiplayer was also quite fun.

Runner - Up : Panzer Dragoon (Sega Saturn)
This amazing rail shooter for the Sega Saturn was a launch title and remained one of the best games for the system. Stunning graphics and amazing effects accompanied the wild ride through this alien world, rendered so well with the Saturn's awesome power.

Best New Hardware : Sony Playstation System

Runner - Up : Batman : Arkham Asylum (Microsoft XBox 360)
There have been many superhero games over the years, but this is by far the best. Batman finds himself trapped in the Arkham Asylum as part of the Joker's schemes in this third-person game of smooth combat, clever gadgets, and challenging exploration. Great moves like swooping down on henchmen and hitting them with remote-controlled Batarangs make the gameplay varied and fun. Fantastic characters, cut-scenes, and those mind-altering Scarecrow sequences help take the interesting story to a level better than any of the Batman movies, and in-game collection quests provide the player with plenty of Batman lore to enjoy. The bar for superhero games has been raised to a very high place thanks to Batman : Arkham Asylum.

Runner - Up : Borderlands (Microsoft XBox 360)
Borderlands is an amazingly polished and playable hybrid of frantic first-person shooter action and character/equipment developing role-playing that works far better than it should. With a visually stunning cel-shaded art style and loads of content stretched over a vast group of playable areas, I found myself shooting and looting for several weeks, refusing to leave any quest undone for fear of finishing the game too soon. There are lots of wacky characters and funny pop culture references all over the desolate planet of Pandora, and downloadable additions to the game (The Island of Dr.Ned and Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot) have added more. Borderlands is proof that a first-person shooter can have all sorts of depth and still play like one should.

Runner - Up : Assassin's Creed 2 (Microsoft XBox 360)
I finally caught up with the first Assassin's Creed game (released in 2007) this year, and while enjoyable, the repetitiveness and baffling story left me a little nonplussed. The sequel fixed all of that and established Assassin's Creed as one of the premiere storrytelling epics of this generation of games. Third-person free-running and combat across the gorgeously realized cities of Renaissance Italy reveal a story of revenge and conspiracy set against a wider historical backdrop that invites many questions about the nature of humanity. Intense puzzles, breathtaking vistas, and plenty of combat options make Assassin's Creed 2 one of the more unique and interesting games I've ever enjoyed.

Best New Hardware : Sony Playstation 3

Runner - Up : Resident Evil (Sony Playstation)
1996 was a hell of a year for gaming, wasn't it? Resident Evil was yet another groundbreaking game, starting the survival horror genre, and offering more mood and edge-of-your-seat thrills than any other game before it. No game had yet made me literally jump out of my comfy gaming chair until those damn dogs came busting through those windows. Adding to the tension was the scarce ammunition, the eerie soundtrack full of creaking wood and distant howls, and some very challenging puzzles. The last journal entry of the lab assistant about to turn into a zombie perhaps summed up the game best : Itchy. Tasty.

Runner - Up : King's Field (Sony Playstation)
While I very much enjoyed first person shooters, I was begining to wonder when the genre would offer something a little more in depth than running and shooting. I wanted a full RPG combined with a first-person view, and I got it in spades with King's Field. This game, with simple graphics and oftimes sluggish movement, offered a deep, rich, and spooky world to explore full of monsters, NPCs, shops, weapons, magic, and armor. It had a style and presentation all its own, and while many gamers hated it, the few like me that embraced it found a long and enjoyable gaming experience.

Best New Hardware : Nintendo 64 System

1996
Winner: Tomb Raider (Sony Playstation)
A drastic leap ahead of all other games in terms of graphics, controls, mood, and challenge, Tomb Raider was an explorer's dream, filled with vast 3D environments, occasional combat, and confounding puzzles. Exploring those ancient ruins with Lara became a daily obsession, and I played little else until this game was beaten. At one point, I was stuck for well over a week because I couldn't figure out a simple jump that was right in front of me. Frustrating at times, but way too good to walk away from, that was Tomb Raider.

Runner - Up : Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
Nintendo's flagship launch title for the Nintendo 64 was a close second to Tomb Raider, translating the classic Mario platforming gameplay to 3D so well that it is still hailed as one of the greatest games of all time. Exploration and jumping were a huge part of this game, too, and while I never found all those damn stars, I still had a lot of fun with Mario in his brave new 3D world.

1997
Winner: Goldeneye 007(Nintendo 64)
First person shooters got a whole hell of a lot better the day this game arrived. On the very first level, the player finds a sniper rifle, and when they zoom in for the first time on an unsuspecting enemy, they're hooked. Offering lots of weapons and all sorts of secret agent side challenges, Goldeneye raised the bar on the genre with level after level of intense action and suspense. Add to that the now legendary four player splitscreen mode, where friends were able to battle it out for hours on end, and this title ranks as one of the most fun ever had on the Nintendo 64. Probably one of the best movie-to-game translations ever made.

Runner - Up : Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64)
A truly worthy successor to the SNES hit, Mario Kart 64 offered an insane variety of fully-3D tracks, more of those wacky power-ups (some of which one could argue were overpowered), and addicting four-player splitscreen fun. The same friends that would later come over for Goldeneye were hanging out all the time for some Kart, forcing me to get four controllers. Every race was close, every victory savored, every last-minute turnaround defeat anguished. Certainly the most fun I've ever had with a racing game.

Runner - Up : Tomb Raider 2 (Sony Playstation)
More moves, more tombs, and more save points. I clearly wasn't burnt out on Tomb Raider yet, as I played this game almost non-stop for weeks until I finished it.

Runner - Up : Final Fantasy VII (Sony Playstation)
The last of the great turn-based RPGs, Final Fantasy VII offered a wild ride through a vast world of intense combat, intriguing characters, and heartfelt moments that felt more like living another life than any adventure game before it. It really created an emotional connection between the player and the story, and though I played through the whole thing in two weeks, I think it aged me ten years from the sheer amount of ground I covered in that time.

1998
Winner: Ultima Online (PC Online)
What can I possibly write here that can capture the life-chaging impact that this game has had on me since the first day I logged onto this amazing virtual world? How can words describe that, in essence, this was the game I had been searching for my whole life, at least since I first played adventure games on those old systems?

All I can say is that the release of Ultima Online impacted me unlike any other gaming product before or since. It was the first massively-multiplayer online game, supporting thousands of players simultaneously in a huge virtual world - fighting, trading, surviving, developing close friendships and bitter rivalries, building huge communities and small bands of heroes, and chugging along day after day in spite of the game's endless bugs, horrid latency issues, and incomprehensible development decisions.

In that first year, UO was a wild, uncontrolled wilderness full of gangs of players that logged in for the sole purpose of killing and looting other players. At first, I hated it, then I adapted and fought back, and eventually turned to the dark side myself, becoming a plundering pirate in the high seas of the game.

The best testament I can give to the game's appeal is that, although I quit a few times, I've always come back - the last time, perhaps, to stay until the day they shut down the servers once and for all.

Runner - Up : The Legend of Zelda - The Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)
What Mario 64 did to update the 2D platformer to 3D, this Zelda did for adventure games, translating perfectly all that was great about the 2D Zelda games into a breathtaking world. Keeping the gameplay, music, and themes from previous Zeldas intact while adding new elements such as horseback riding and musical minigames, no adventure game has come close to the level of perfection that Ocarina of Time offered.

Runner - Up : Metal Gear Solid (Sony Playstation)
Having been hyped for years before finally being released, this slick game of stealth and combat arrived and launched a whole genre of stealth games. Fun to play at times, then suddenly frustrating, this game took me a long time to really get into, but when I did I had a lot of fun with it.

Runner - Up : Tomb Raider 3 (Sony Playstation)
More fun with Lara Croft, with new moves and much harder levels. In fact, I never beat this one, having gotten stuck in a very hard place.

Best New Hardware : Compaq Presario Computer

1999
Winner: Everquest (PC Online)
Following on the massive success of Ultima Online came Everquest, offering state-of-the-art 3D graphics and no trace of the non-consentual player combat that had marred the UO experience for many players. Everquest had gorgeous 3D vistas and environments, a slick user interface, and lots of skills and equipment to level up as the player fought monsters and completed quests.

It was decidely different from UO in that it wasn't as much of a virtual world as UO was - there was no player housing, not much customization of one's attire, and the levels in EQ were all that there was to the game. In fact, that's all that the players cared about, so when I tried to actually roleplay my bard, I was met with varying degrees of indifference from the other players.

I finally tired of the boring, pointless level grind after about nine months. The penalty of dying - loss of experience and even levels - was so harsh that it became very hard for me to risk fighting anything. Still, my time in the land of Norrath, exploring those amazing zones, was time well spent.

2000
Winner: Ultima Online : Renaissance (PC Online)
After getting sidetracked by Everquest for most of 1999, I was back in Britannia playing Ultima Online again, just in time for the release of Ultima Online : Renaissance, an expansion which doubled the size of the world, making half of it free of the danger of playerkilling.
Highlights of this expansion included new housing lands, which lead to an amazing and unprecedented land rush the night they finally flicked the switch allowing players to place houses there.

While controversial, and no doubt ending forever the thrill of the old UO, Renaissance was a shot in the arm to the game which had been losing players to Everquest since its release. My seafaring characters, particularly my pirate, had plenty of new things to do this year with the fishing skill being revamped and more players setting sail to take advantage of the skill.

At this point I was fully hooked on UO and planning on staying for the long haul. During this time, I also started my own UO fansite which over the next five years became an honored part of the bigger, out-of-game community that followed UO.

Best New Hardware : ASUS Motherboard with Pentium 3 450Mhz Processor

Runner - Up : Medal of Honor (Sony Playstation)
An awesome World War 2 based first person shooter, Medal of Honor got everything right, and had such an accurate era-feel to it that I was hooked right away. It was a fresh take on the genre and highly playable.

Runner - Up : Tomb Raider - The Last Revelation (Sony Playstation)
Although I never finished Tomb Raider 3, I picked up the fourth game in the series and had a lot of fun with it, too. Once again it offered some new moves and challenges, enough to keep me playing for a short while anyway. After this one, though, I pretty much had Tomb Raider out of my system.

Runner - Up : Solar Quest (GCE Vectrex)
A chance mention of the system to a co-worker during this year lead to him digging his old Vectrex games out of his basement and selling them to me, including this fantastic translation of the obscure arcade hit Solar Quest. This game represented what the Vectrex did best - straight up early 1980's vector graphics shooters that were so prominent in that era.

Best New Hardware : RoadRunner Cable Modem Service (Motorola CyberSURFR Wave Modem)

2001
Winner : World War II Online : Blitzkrieg (PC Online)
It was a terrible launch of a laggy game, but I was there, and I had an absolute blast. World War II Online : Blitzkrieg was the first massively multiplayer FPS and vehicle game, allowing players to play as an infantry soldier, or drive a tank, a truck, man a gun - even later serve on some boats. It was a game huge in scope and size, encompassing and actual scale map of the European theater.

I had a blast running around, participating in battles in different ways. One day I had a tank hidden behind some crates next to a building and was blasting wave after wave of invading players coming over a hill, unable to find me before they met their doom. Another day I just drove a truck, ferrying foot soldier players from one town to another during a six-hour offensive.

After about a month, I grew tired of the game's issues and put it away. It was a commercial flop, sadly, but that first month was a gaming experience unlike any other I'd ever had.

2002
Winner : Ultima Online : Lord Blackthorn's Revenge (PC Online)
This year's expansion to UO offered players of the 2D client access to the new lands of Ilshenar, and was really just an excuse to patch a bunch of new art to the game that was later added in bits and pieces as part of an ongoing new content team's work. That's not a bad thing, as the weeks the content team were adding their new items and monsters to the game were really a lot of fun.

Oddly enough, the steampunk monsters lead by Lord Blackthorn were all discarded designs from the doomed Ultima Online 2 project designed by legendary, untalented comic book creator Todd McFarlane. They were very out of place in UO, but fun to fight nonetheless.

Runner - Up : Medal of Honor Underground (Sony Playstation)
A fantastic sequel to Medal of Honor, which again captured the feel of the World War 2 era so well.

Runner - Up : Sea Dogs (PC)
A single-player pirate adventure which offered gorgeous 3D environments, Sea Dogs was everything I wanted from a pirate game. Fighting in town, incredible ship battles at sea, trading, and quests all awaited my character. Sadly, there was a crash bug at a certain point in the game that prevented me from finishing it, but up to that point I was having a great time.

Runner - Up : Ultima Online : Third Dawn (PC Online)
The first attempt at a client upgrade for UO, Third Dawn had updated fully 3D player and monster graphics, but sadly put them on the same old 2D environments, making a terrible-looking mishmash. On top of that, the client moved sluggishly, ran poorly on most computers, and had a memory leak. The saving grace was Ilshenar, the new land that was at the time of release only available to those players using the Third Dawn client. It was so well designed and a joy to explore that I put up with the new client just to travel there.

Best New Hardware : Western Digital 30 Gigabyte Hard Drive for PC

2003
Winner : Advance Wars 2 : Black Hole Rising (GameBoy Advance)
An unbelievably challenging and endlessly fun portable game, Advance Wars 2 took everything that was great about Military Madness, added some modern features, threw in a dash of style, and came out with one of the greatest strategy games I'd ever played. Long campaigns across varied terrains, and C.O. characters that had specialized attacks to use made this game very hard to put down until the battle was won.

Runner - Up : Ultima Online : Age of Shadows (PC Online)
This year's expansion shook up everything about the game by changing all the item attributes and adding dozens of new properties, character traits, and elemental resistances, forcing everyone to basically start over with their character's attributes and equipment. All was not bad, though, as Age of Shadows also introduced customizable player housing, allowing players to rebuild their homes using any combination of the game's existing tile sets, with some amazing results. There was also a new land opened up which meant a new housing rush.

Runner - Up : Mario Kart Double Dash (Nintendo GameCube)
I finally took the plunge into this generation's consoles and bought a Nintendo Gamecube when this game came out, offering a new twist - karts with two characters riding them, one steering and the other using the power-ups. It offered the usual selection of amazing tracks and was just as exciting and intense as its predecessors.

Runner - Up : The Simpsons Hit and Run (Nintendo GameCube)
A mission-based "sandbox" game in the style of the Grand Theft Auto series, only with the Simpsons. It offered a spectacular and large 3D Springfield to explore, dozens of vehicles to race and crash, and varied missions with all sorts of Simpsons characters involved. One of the funniest games ever made.

Runner - Up Honorable Mention : Ultima X : Odyssey (PC Online, Demonstration at press event)
EA unveiled Ultima X : Odyssey, their newest MMORPG, at a press event in San Francisco that I was lucky enough to get invited to attend. While I only got my hands on the game for ten minutes, I knew it was going to be something great. Unfortunately, less than a year later the project was cancelled and the gaming public never even got a chance to enjoy it as I had.

Best New Hardware : GameBoy Advance SP

2004
Winner : City of Heroes (PC Online)
A stunning, absolutely perfect massive multiplayer superhero world, City of Heroes launched smoothly with a huge 3D city to battle in, unprecendented character customization options, and great gameplay. The powers were cool, the enhancements system a great way to level up, and the penalty for death, well, nowhere near as harsh as Everquest.

I fought henchmen, monsters, and supervillains all over its many zones for months until the old Everquest feeling crept in. In essence, even though they did everything right in City of Heroes, it was still the same old level grind that was by now predominant in almost every MMORPG. My interest faded and I cancelled my account, but returned later in 2005 for the release of its sister product, City of Villains.

Runner - Up : Planetside (PC Online)
A slick, modern massive multiplayer shooter that featured huge battles across detailed terrain. It was easy to get into, fun to play, but it lacked the depth to keep me playing for more than a few weeks, much like World War II Online had in the past. Once again, though, those few weeks were a lot of fun and had offered gaming experiences that I had never encountered before.

Runner - Up : The Legend of Zelda : The Windwaker (Nintendo GameCube)
This generation's Zelda took the controls of the previous Nintendo 64 iterations and put them in a refreshingly unique cel-shaded graphical presentation. Adding to the play was a huge nautical aspect - sailing around, fishing up treasure, fighting pirates at sea - that greatly enhanced the whole experience.

Runner - Up : Kill The Attacking Aliens (Odyssey 2)
The first new game I had picked up for the Odyssey 2 since 1983, Kill The Attacking Aliens (or KTAA) was an unprecedented homebrew game, made by one brilliant enthusiast and sold by a small company. The fact that there were now homebrew game cartridges being made for the Odyssey 2 was not the only reason for this game being a runner-up. No, the game was simply amazing, achieving things that no other Odyssey 2 game had ever done. It was a shooter with multiple types of enemies, a shield bar, power-ups, and seven different screens. Had this game been released back in 1982, it would have been heralded as the flagship title for the system.

Best New Hardware : Hewlett Packard Pavillion a450n PC

2005
Winner : Phoenix Wright : Ace Attorney (Nintendo DS)
Proof that an original concept, coupled with great characters and a fantastic storyline can still be a winner in modern gaming times, Phoenix Wright is a game where the player assumes the role of a defense attorney, raising objections and finding flawed testimony in the courtroom as well as investigating the cases. Highlights include shoting "Objection!" into the DS microphone, a witness that throws his toupee' at Phoenix, and putting a parrot on the stand.

Runner - Up : The Bard's Tale (Microsoft X-Box)
A modern-day revival of an old favorite franchise, this action - RPG is to videogame RPGs as Monty Python and the Holy Grail is to movies about King Arthur. Never in a game have I laughed so much, as the Bard adventures through seedy taverns and gloomy dungeons, encountering all sorts of shady but funny characters, listens to musical numbers performed at various intervals, and has a great time poking fun at all the conventional RPG plot devices.

Runner - Up : City of Villains (PC Online)
Once again, Cryptic Studios does everything perfectly, expanding their City of Heroes game with City of Villains, a game that can stand alone, or be played alongside City of Heroes for the same low monthly subscription fee. Taking place on the Rogue Isles, players develop their villainous characters much the way heroes are developed, except these missions involve robbing banks and fighting snake guys. A few crossover zones allow the heroes and villains to fight it out in various innovative ways. Ah, if I had no job and no life, the time I would have spent in this game.

Runner - Up : Tramua Center : Under The Knife (Nintendo DS)
Another innovative Nintendo DS title, this one has players acting as a surgeon, using the stylus to perform intricate operations with a hospital drama story unfolding between surgeries. Brilliant, but just too hard, as I couldn't get past the 5th or 6th operation after dozens of tries. Still, a lot of fun up to that point.

Best New Hardware : Nintendo DS Handheld System

2006
Winner : Resident Evil 4 (Nintendo GameCube)
2006 was a year in which I caught up on the most recent generation's best games, while the next generation was just starting up, and Resident Evil 4 for the GameCube was one hell of a ride. One of the most playable, polished, and intense adventures I had ever seen, the game was so good that upon finishing it, I immediately began a second run through it. No other game has ever made me do that. Zombies in a rustic European setting will all sorts of surprises, weapon upgrades, and the President's hot daughter that needs rescued made for an absolute A-List game.

Runner - Up : King's Field : The Ancient City (Sony Playstation 2)
Taking all that was great about the PS1 King's Field games and adding modern graphics made for weeks of adventure, exploration, and combat, all in the same gloomy and creepy environments the series has always been known for. While the ending was a little too easy, getting there was rewarding enough for an old fan of the series like myself.

Runner - Up : Beyond Good and Evil (Sony Playstation 2)
This adventure game came as a total surprise to me, offering a refreshingly unique world filled with stunning graphics, great characters, and amazing gameplay. Why this game has had no sequel is beyond me.

Runner - Up : Paper Mario : The Thousand Year Door (Nintendo GameCube)
I swore off of most turn-based RPGs after Final Fantasy VII, mostly because I felt that they were no longer necessary with the power available in modern consoles. This game, however, changed my mind about the genre, offering action elements along with the turn-based combat and putting it all in a colorful yet challenging world. Like a good book, this game was hard to put down until I finished it. Another innovation - after beating the game you can still walk around the world and interact with everyone you just saved, finishing up collection quests and other unfinished business.

Best New Hardware : Sony Playstation 2 System

Runner - Up : The Legend of Zelda : Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo DS)
Taking place after the events in the GameCube Windwaker Zelda, Phantom Hourglass once again has Link sailing the seas searching for treasure and battling monsters. What's so refreshingly unique about this one though is the perfect stylus - touch screen controls, used in a variety of ways. Throwing the boomerang, for example, is done by drawing its route on the touchscreen and letting it go. Add to this unique control graphics that are among the best ever seen on the DS and the game is yet another Zelda masterpiece.

Best New Hardware : Nintendo Wii System

2007
Winner : Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii)
Like Mario 64 did over a decade earlier, Super Mario Galaxy took the action - platforming genre to unprecedented levels, featuring mind-bending, gravity-twisting gameplay across a vast array of planets. Each new world reached offers some new twist, some new "wow" factor that keeps the game refreshing and exciting. Use of the unique Wii controllers is absolutely perfect, offering only some awkwardness in underwater levels and with that wacky spring power-up. Hidden secrets abound, offering long-term exploration and more intense challenges. Glorious.

Runner - Up : Wii Sports (Nintendo Wii)
The pack-in game that comes with the Wii console is to this day one of the best games available for it. Offering Bowling, Baseball, Boxing, Golf, and Tennis, Wii Sports makes absolute perfect use of the amazing Wii remote controller, used in baseball as a bat, tennis as a racket, golf as a club, and so forth.

Runner - Up : Super Paper Mario (NIntendo Wii)
Taking the style and graphics from the Paper Mario series, and tossing out the turn-based combat in favor of straight-up action, Super Paper Mario revives 2D platforming by allowing the player to suddenly flip the 2D view into 3D, offering a dizzying depth to the game unseen in any other title.

2008
Winner : Grand Theft Auto IV (Microsoft XBox 360)
2008 was the year of the open-world "sandbox" type of game for me, and GTA IV was the biggest and baddest of them all. No one has ever made a larger, more detailed virtual world (much less a sprawling metropolis) that can come close to what Rockstar Games achieved with this title. But it's not just the size - the sheer number of things that your character can do in this game also adds to the value of this package.

And if all that weren't enough, the story and the characters are well produced, eliciting sympathy for the lead character and his friends, even though their in-game actions could certainly be considered sociopathic. Grand Theft Auto IV is really the whole enchilada, and the four months it took to beat it are a testament to its polish, playability, and sheer fun.

Runner - Up : The Orange Box (Microsoft XBox 360)
Not since Speedway/Spinout/Crypto-Logic for the Odyssey 2 has a three-pack of games so completely defined my first days with a new videogame system. Included in The Orange Box are Half-Life 2 (plus its expansion episodes), Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Portal itself was the most amazingly innovative game I played in 2009, a first-person puzzle and action game that challenged my brain in ways no other game ever has, and offered one of the best endings in game history. Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2 were stunning first-person shooting bliss of the highest order. And the class-based Team Fortress 2 provided a lot of online multiplayer fun.

2009
Winner : Demon's Souls (Sony Playstation 3)
Touted as the "spiritual successor" to the King's Field series, this unique RPG by From Software certainly recreated the dark, moody and desperate medieval fantasy environments of those games, this time in a third-person view. While reviewers and players alike often cited the game as punishingly difficult, as a veteran of those King's Field games, I knew the truth. Demon's Souls is no arcade hack-and-slash, but rather a dangerous adventure that requires careful and considered exploration, measured combat moves, and clever use of the environment to survive.

Innovations in Demon's Souls include the unique use of an online server to allow players to play co-op, or even invade other player's games and attempt to playerkill them for extra challenge. Not since Ultima Online have I felt such a sense of heart-pounding dread as multiplayer PvP spilled over into my single-player game, and I loved every minute of it. Other interesting online features included the abliity to leave messages to other players playing in the same area and seeing ghost images of how they died. Demon's Souls was a refresingly different and truly engaging masterpiece that once again proved that no one can do dark and moody environments like From Software.