2015 "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Nomination Thread

[This Old Neon]

Welcome to the 2015 "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Project

The “BEST GAME EVER!!!” Project is not intended to champion any particular objective quality. The best game can be the best for any of a number of reasons: its earnings or critical reception, its influence and impact, the emotional resonance of its art or music, the playability of its mechanics or the thoughtfulness of its design, the immersiveness of its world, the quality of its writing and characterization, or the memories and nostalgia it invokes. All participants are invited to engage in their own ways, and nominate and vote according to their own criteria, however arbitrary and however personal.

Feel free to explain the rationale behind your nominations! That’s the heart of this Project.

The flexible structure of the Project ensures that there will be disagreements, whether about the rationale behind a nomination or about the personal criteria by which a game is being evaluated. Debate and discussion is encouraged, but please be alert and sensitive to the experiences and preferences of your fellow community of gamers. Something that's not important to you may be incredibly meaningful for someone else.

Rules

You can nominate games according to your own criteria. They can be the games that you think are objectively the best, or your favourites, or games you feel are influential. It is important that your nominations at least mean something to you. If you’ve simply read second-hand critical sources that claim a particular game is good, maybe that's a nomination you can leave to the judgment of others. But if you stayed up several long nights watching your sister play a compelling game, that could be a legitimate nomination, even if you never played yourself.

This nomination process includes all video games, past and present, on any platform (including various personal computer platforms, home and handheld consoles, arcade cabinets, mobile devices, etc.). Please don't nominate compilations of games that were also released as stand-alone titles. Nominate the individual games instead! Be sure to mention which platform your game is on, or we'll have to make assumptions for you.

You can nominate as many or as few games as you want. This is not a ranked list, so the order of your nominations doesn’t matter. You don't have to wait until you have a full final list before you post. You can submit your nominations in chunks. You can keep adding new nominations up until the deadline.

The nomination period will close on Thursday, 10 September 2015. After this first phase has ended, nominated games will be seeded into brackets and the voting rounds will begin.

Weighted Nominations

For the purposes of seeding into brackets for the voting rounds that follow the nomination period, nominations will be weighted. The value of every individual's nominations will add up to 1. If you only nominate 1 game, it will get 1 point towards its seed rank; if you nominate 100 games, they will each get 0.01 points, and so on.

This weighting system introduces a dynamic of risk that forces you to consider how many games you want to nominate. It also provides a balance, ensuring that people who only nominate a few games have as much impact on the Project as people who nominate many. Finally, it provides a disincentive to simply nominating as many games as possible without necessarily caring about the rationale.

At the end of the nomination phase, the weighted nominations will be totalled and the resulting values will determine each game's position in the voting brackets.

Prizes

Everyone who submits a list of nominations will be entered in a random draw to win a copy of N++ (PS4), Rogue Legacy (Xbox One), or a $20 Steam card. This Old Neon staff and their family members are not eligible to win.

For more information about the "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Project, feel free to read the launch article at This Old Neon.

[Kong Wen]

This Old Neon's 2015 "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Project is officially open for nominations.

Have a glance at the rules, invite your friends, and let us know if you have any questions!

I'll edit in a list of participants and some nomination stats, so we can keep track as the project grows!

Participants

Audio Ace - 41 nominations
Claytone - 24 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
DoctorAllosaurus - 100 nominations
Drauks - 5 nominations
evildevil97 - 92 nominations
Forscyvus - 7 nominations
Humphries90 - 27 nominations
IMessYouUp - 3 nominations
Jelly - 18 nominations
Jordan - 3 nominations
Kanti3000 - 47 nominations
kitroplious - 3 nominations
Kiwi the Tortoise - 20 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
Kong Wen - 10 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
Kreegs - 30 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
link64 - 7 nominations
Magic Hat - 19 nominations
MerlinDrazziw - 1 nomination
Mrs. Kong - 5 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
Niahak - 9 nominations
Ouenben - 30 nominations
pdSlooper - 21 nominations
Pluvius - 10 nominations
PoisonRamune - 100 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
Sarbet - 7 nominations
Sharecrow - 14 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
slangman - 20 nominations
Slurmee - 17 nominations
Spore - 169 nominations
squishy - 127 nominations
Tassie6 - 12 nominations
The Shoemaker - 62 nominations
TheGreatNads - 22 nominations
Trapster - 22 nominations
Turai - 1 nomination
VictorViper - 11 nominations - not eligible for prize draw
WeiWenDi - 18 nominations
White Rider - 5 nominations
WindFish91 - 88 nominations
Yasume - 72 nominations
ZAJ573 - 10 nominations


Factoids

Oldest game nominated: 1978
Newest game nominated: 2015
Most common year: 2012 - Wow, that's recent! Where my retro gamers at?
Average/Mean year: 2002

Total participants: 41
Total nominations: 1309
Individual/unique games nominated: 755

[The Shoemaker]

I'll start with these:

Super Smash Bros for Wii U
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3)
Heavy Rain (PS3)
Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS)
Shadow of the Collossus (PS2)
Animal Crossing New Leaf
Xenoblade Chronicles
Shovel Knight
Metroid Prime
Fire Emblem Awakening
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn
Pokemon Omega Ruby (3DS)
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS)
Banjo Kazooie (N64)
Pikmin 3
Bayonetta 2
Splatoon
Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD (Wii U)
Zelda II The adventure of Link (NES)
Super Metroid
Super Mario World
Breath of Fire II (SNES)
Mega Man 9 (Wii)
Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door (GCN)
Mario Luigi Superstar Saga (GBA)
Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
Mario Kart Double Dash (GCN)
Little King's Story (Wii)
Luigi's Mansion (GCN)
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U/3DS)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (genisis)
Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Wii U).
Star Fox 64 (N64)

[pdSlooper]

This is going to be a Nintendo-heavy list, because I mostly play Nintendo handhelds...and mostly full of games of personal significance to me...

-- Final Fantasy IV (DS) -- The 3d remake/slight expansion of the game that made me a gamer. This has to be on the list.
-- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) -- My favorite Castlevania game. It has a very satisfying difficulty level and some excellent music.
-- Chrono Trigger (SNES) -- I still haven't gotten around to playing the DS remake of this, but it's still one of my favorite RPGs of all time. The soundtrack is amazing, and lurking on my iTunes wishlist.
-- Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS) -- I never played the original NES game, so this game was entirely new to me. I liked the chapter layout, and especially enjoyed Torneko's short chapter. I played through it in English and Spanish, experiencing the dialects and puns in both languages.
-- Dungeons of Dredmor (Steam) -- This is my most played Steam game, with a little over 300 hours of play. It's a funny and highly moddable graphical rogue-like with a good interface (for the genre). While I was playing it, it received regular updates, and it has received updates since then. And of course, it's still getting mods.
-- Final Fantasy Legend III (GB) -- I bought this game from a used game store because it had Final Fantasy in the name, yet it played nothing like the Final Fantasy game I knew! Yes yes, I know, it's a SaGa game. Not that FF games play like each other, anyway, I'd soon find out. Anyway, this soon became a favorite of mine, and my brother and I kept separate saves and played through the game together. It was fun.
-- Frog Fractions (Browser) -- I...don't know what to say about this game. It makes me joyous. I bought the soundtrack just for the track about boxing.
-- Junk Jack X (iOS) -- Like Minecraft, but 2d, and with a bunch of different worlds. On iOS. I love this game.
-- Katamari Damacy (PS2) -- I don't know what to say about this, either. It's Katamari Damacy. Of course it's on my list.
-- Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA) -- This is my favorite Kirby game.
-- LocoRoco 2 (PSP) -- Better than the original, mostly due to more interesting level design. Still one of the most unique platformers I've played on any platform, and certainly on the PSP. The aesthetic is bright and whimsical, which certainly suits my tastes. I only wish they had forgone the blackface LocoRoco.
-- Rune Factory 4 (3DS) -- I guess I have something for the 4th entries in a series. My first 3DS game, and so far my favorite game on the platform. It's not necessarily the best game out there -there's typos and a few graphical bugs, and a few things that could have been better implemented- but it's super charming, and oh my god, you guys...you have so many lists you can 100%. I spent so much time collecting and doing all the things.
-- Suikoden III (PS2) -- But wait, this is the 3rd entry in the series! Well. I once had about a 2 year break in gaming, due to depression. It was depressing. Suikoden III was the first game I played when I started to feel better. I put 80 hours into the game, after watching a friend play it for nearly as long, and it was amazing. Yes, I got all 108 of the stars. Including the dogs. One of the dogs is the best mage in the game, true story.
-- Terraria (Steam) -- My 2nd most played Steam game. I built such a sweet house and the best greenhouse.
-- Trainyard (iOS/Android) -- A fun logic puzzle that works great on iOS. One of the earliest games I played on the platform and still one of the best. Has a fantastic feature which allows users to create and share levels. I'm a Nintendo gamer so I'm not used to that kind of thing.
-- Wario Land 4 (GBA) -- There is an entire book dedicated to the awesome design of this game.
-- Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (GBA) -- I didn't get to play this when it was released for SNES, so I grabbed it for GBA. It's amazeballs. It's so pretty and actually kind of hard when you want to 100% it. One of my favourite Mario/Yoshi platformers.

[pdSlooper]

-- Pokemon Black (DS) -- I don't think any list of "best games" is complete without a pokemon entry, and I think if I have to choose a favorite pokemon game, it'd be Pokemon Black. I like the Unova region, and I loved that you can only catch newly-made pokemon until the plot is finished. I liked the new pokemon, a lot, and the car-dragon legendaries are super-cool. I didn't care for the plot, but I didn't think it was worse than the plot in previous games (though I haven't played the 3rd gen games). Also, rotation battles were cool, even if they weren't used enough.

[Kong Wen]

Here are some nominations SO FAR:

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Starbreeze Studios & 505 Games, 2013)

I'm nominating this because it proved (for me, for the first time) the impact of gaming's unique narrative feature. It somehow manages to make the controls themselves evoke an emotional response. It does this well enough to warrant a place on my list of nominations. (Incidentally, it just came out today on PS4. Pick it up if you have the opportunity.)

Dark Souls (FromSoftware & Namco Bandai Games, 2011)

I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say about this game as the BGE Project continues. For now I'll just say that this is one of my favourite overall games of all time. The controls are wonderfully tuned, the world is engrossing, and the atmosphere is terrifying. I had a lot of fun with this one.

Destiny (Bungie & Activision, 2014)

I've sunk a LOT of time into this game. I've spent most of my time playing with close real-life friends, but I've also spent a good amount of time playing with new friends I've met in the game. It's an online shooter, but it's also a great platform for bonding. Besides that, it has some of the best feeling gunplay I've experienced in a shooter. Not to mention it's simply overflowing with content. I'm nominating this one for the sheer volume of entertainment I've milked out of it.

Dragon Warrior (Chunsoft/Enix/Nintendo, 1986)

This was a seminal game for me. It was the game that first sparked my interest in RPGs. I remember drawing my own maps, making up adventures in my head, and acting out our dragon questing with friends in the woods near our houses. This led to a lifelong fascination with the genre. It still holds up to this day.

I'll post some more this evening.

[Sharecrow]

Okay, I'm going to do these by console (or small groups of consoles) to space things out So, here's my first two...

I'm pleased to nominate Berzerk! for the mighty Atari 2600. This is a pretty high-pressure game that is designed simply, as it had to be given the tools available to developers at the time, but executed perfectly. It's a suicide mission, basically. You go into it knowing that you have essentially no hope of succeeding. I'm not even sure if this game has a kill screen, but, even if there is one, the number of mazes you'd have to clear to get to it would be effectively insurmountable. And you have a nemesis, too, in Evil Otto, that keeps the pressure on to clear rooms or escape them as quickly as you can. I didn't play this game nearly as much as my liking it would normally encourage me to just because this tension is applied so effectively - it stresses me out!

Next, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the NES is also getting one of my nominations. I think this game is the best Castlevania game out there, even compared to Super Castlevania IV, which is astounding, or the 'metroidvania' style games. It offered multiple paths, multiple playable companions, many enemies and bosses and environmental challenges. The music is beautiful and the graphics hold together really well even today. And the game is tough as nails, too, which I appreciate - but it is quite fair. I never was able to manage to beat it solo without picking up any companions (was kind of intimidated to try), but taking out Dracula should be and, in this case, is a hefty challenge. For those with lots of nerve and patience, it has a second loop, too, that raises the bar even more.

[The Shoemaker]

A few more to add:

Silent Hill 4 (PS2)
Gears of War 3 (360)
Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Bravely Default (3DS)
Yoshi's Island (SNES)
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)

[pdSlooper]

Kirby's Epic Yarn is great. My wife and I recently finished up the last level, and now we're going through and getting gold medals on all the levels. I don't know if I would have liked playing it alone, but it is a superb 2 player experience.

[The Shoemaker]

Kirby's Epic Yarn is great. My wife and I recently finished up the last level, and now we're going through and getting gold medals on all the levels. I don't know if I would have liked playing it alone, but it is a superb 2 player experience.

Glad to see other people enjoyed it. It's definitely a better 2 player game, lots of things to collect and it's great to play casually or with an inexperienced gamer because you can't die.