Personal Video Game of Each Year List

[WR91]

*Cackles manically* Oh, this subject is just perfect for me. Gimme an excuse to ramble on about games? Sweet! So, I’m gonna start at 1997 (when Star Fox 64 came out and gave me my first taste of gaming), and I’m gonna explain why I put my choices there. Also, my criteria is mainly going to be “most important”, as “best” is a little more nebulous. That being said, I will be keeping to games with high praise behind them. Oh, and initial releases only! None of this re-release on a new console crap or “Game of the Year” edition bulls***.


2002 – Grand Theft Auto 3

AS WAS THIS ONE! I had so many choices, but to narrow it to one, it has to be GTA. It cannot be understated how important the GTA series is, and GTA 3 is pretty much the game that defined the open-world sandbox we know and hate today. JESUS, this list is hard as hell!

Honorable Mentions: Kingdom Hearts, Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Metroid Prime

I like and enjoy your list but I hate to break it to you. GTA III was a 2001 title. Unless you're talking about the PC port.

[Mr EliteL]

Reading Maniak's list made me edit my 1999 as Rayman 2 was released in 2000 for PlayStation which was what I played it on, so had to change it to Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. I didn't bother to check the full dates of release for each platform. I also need to change something else...

[Maniakkid25]

I like and enjoy your list but I hate to break it to you. GTA III was a 2001 title. Unless you're talking about the PC port.

F***! I swear, when I was checking the lists on wikipedia, I didn't see GTA 3 in 2001. Holy hell, now I need to figure out what replaces it AND Halo vs GTA! I'll come back to it! Also, I just checkex, and the initial release for Rayman was 1999 as well, SON OF A BITCH!

[ShiraNoMai]

Loved reading everyone's lists. Mine will show absolute bias and personal meaning to me, not necessarily a reflection of how good the games are in reality.

1991 - Super Mario World (Super Nintendo)
1992 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super Nintendo)
1993 - Disney's Aladdin (Super Nintendo)
1994 - Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (Super Nintendo)
1995 - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Super Nintendo)
1996 - Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
1997 - Diddy Kong Racing (Nintendo 64)
1998 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)
1999 - Suikoden II (PlayStation)
2000 - Pokemon Gold and Silver (Gameboy Color)
2001 - Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)
2002 - Super Monkey Ball 2 (Nintendo Gamecube)
2003 - Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (Gameboy Advance)
2004 - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Gamecube)
2005 - Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (Nintendo Gamecube)
2006 - Ape Escape 3 (PlayStation 2)
2007 - Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii)
2008 - LittleBigPlanet (PlayStation 3)
2009 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PlayStation 3)
2010 - Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver (Nintendo DS)
2011 - Bastion (Microsoft Windows)
2012 - Xenoblade Chronicles (Nintendo Wii)
2013 - The Last of Us (PlayStation 3)
2014 - Rayman Legends (PlayStation 3)
2015 - Undertale (Microsoft Windows)
2016 - Doom (PlayStation 4)
2017 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)
2018 - God of War (PlayStation 4)
2019 - Luigi's Mansion 3 (Nintendo Switch)

I started with '91 since while I wasn't born until '93, I did eventually get to play those games and have come to retroactively appreciate them.

Obviously, my early years had me playing and enjoying games generally aimed at kids and with whatever my parent's exposed me to (as most). I have to say, the 1996-2002 period was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make for the whole list and really ultimately came down to what games left a real impression on me overall, so no judgement for choose Diddy Kong Racing over FF7
There are clearly some games here that were definitely thrown in because I never got exposed to games like RE4 (2005) and have loads of nostalgia for (2010).

The last three are games in my profile's bio under my top 10 personal GOTY list, so there's more there if anyone cares!

[WR91]

I was going to wait until the end of the year but screw it. I already have my 2020 Game of the Year picked out (and have for about 4 months now).

2020 - The Last of Us: Part II

[Moonface]

I was going to wait until the end of the year but screw it. I already have my 2020 Game of the Year picked out (and have for about 4 months now).

2020 - The Last of Us: Part II

I'm torn between what you picked and Hades as my GOTY, since I enjoy Hades more but TLoU2 has a lot of other amazing elements about it. Maybe my current replay of the latter will help me make my mind up. XD

[Maniakkid25]

Game of the Year 2020, huh? Hmm, well, by my own criteria, this is a little hard. What would be the most important release of 2020?

*Scrolls through list of major releases* ...Yeah, that has to be it, doesn't it...

2020: Half-Life: Alyx

I am a firm skeptic of VR gaming, just like I'm a staunch opponent to motion controls, 3D, and other cheap gimmicks that are all unnecessary, in my mind, to be able to just sit down and enjoy a freaking game! The Wii proved me wrong with motion controls, Avatar tried to prove me wrong with 3D, and Half-Life Alyx is trying to do that for VR.

And you know what? It just might work.

A strong showing from Valve showcasing that they still have it in them when they actually give a damn, if there was one important game from 2020, it's got to be the game that revived a franchise long thought dead.

[WR91]

I've been contemplating changing my 2006 game of the year from Bully to Gears of War but I'm not sure yet. I might have to play them both again to see which is my favorite.

[Moonface]

After reaching the credits today, I'm going to put Hades as my 2020 GotY. TLoU2 is good, but there are things about it that I think hinder the experience whereas Hades has next to nothing about it that I think is a hindrance to the game.

[WR91]

I plan to release my game of the year list for 2021 tomorrow. So stay tuned.

---

My 2021 Game of the Year is non other than Halo Infinite.

[WR91]

My 2022 GOTY goes to God of War: Ragnarök.

[Mr EliteL]

As the last two years I've played like barely two or three games, I have no actual 2021 or 2022 personal choice, or at least what was released in those two years, I'd give it to Genshin or if I actually played them 2021 would be Mario Party Superstars in '21, Mario Strikers Battle League, Horizon Forbidden West or if I had the game and played it, Triangle Strategy for 2022. Next year for 2023 I should have a definite choice. Oh right, I got Elden Ring this year and played it...!

So for now

2021: Genshin Impact (ongoing)
2022: Genshin Impact (ongoing)

[ShiraNoMai]

^ LMAO

I'm withholding my pick for a bit, but there's a lot to choose from this year: I wanna give Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West a chance (and Kirby And The Forgotten Lands), but between Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Stray, Splatoon 3... quite a bit of good came out this year.

[Moonface]

Next year for 2023 I should have a definite choice.

2021: Genshin Impact (ongoing)
2022: Genshin Impact (ongoing)

Gee I wonder what your 2023 pick could possibly be.

I'm withholding my pick for a bit, but there's a lot to choose from this year: I wanna give Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West a chance (and Kirby And The Forgotten Lands), but between Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Stray, Splatoon 3... quite a bit of good came out this year.

Yeah, there's a few games I want to play myself to decide which of them would be the one I like the most for 2022.
I also don't think I ever decided on my GotY for 2021 since I hadn't played every game I wanted to in that year at the time, but after playing through Kena, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and RE8, I think my GotY still goes to Metroid Dread. Kena was impressive for a first game by a new studio but it gets very repetitive in a lot of aspects, and R&C and RE8 were fun but I know I had issues with both of those too, whereas Dread didn't really do much that I wished were different.

[Mr EliteL]

Next year for 2023 I should have a definite choice.

2021: Genshin Impact (ongoing)
2022: Genshin Impact (ongoing)

Gee I wonder what your 2023 pick could possibly be.

Yeah that first part was basically alluding to Octopath 2 will likely be my pick for the year. I do prefer using a game releasing the year, but as Xenoblade Chronicles had a bigger...impact on me than Genshin did for 2020 so XC beat GI out, but Genshin was too prominent for me in 2021 and '22 that it takes those two. '22 still can change if I feel like any of the games I've yet to play I end up enjoying greatly and reach the bar worthy of taking that spot in my mind, but if none of them do then my choice will stay as is.