Favorite Game for every year?

[SkyPikachu]

So I’m curious to know what’s everyones favourite game released in each year. Doesn’t have to be the best game but the game you enjoyed the most.

Edit: In light of what Kong did I decided to remove special mentions I also cleaned up the formatting a bit.

Before I was born
1985 - Super Mario Bros.
1986 - Pass (Havent played any)
1987 - Pass (Haven’t played any)
1988 - Super Mario Bros. 2
1989 - Mega Man 2
1990 - Super Mario Bros. 3 - (Second favourite 2D mario)
1991 - Super Mario World - (My first mario and my favorite mario)
1992 - Super Mario Kart - (Haven't played Alttp, Alttp would probably beat SMK)

90's/From when I was born
1993 - Mega Man X - (One of my top 10)
1994 - Super Metroid - (First tough choice)
1995 - Donkey Kong Country 2 - (The best DKC game ever and one of my favourite games ever)
1996 - Donkey Kong Country 3 - (Not my fav DKC but still a great one the speedboats were a really neat idea)
1997 - Mario Kart 64 - (Pretty close to the only 97 game I’ve played)
1998 - Banjo Kazooie - (A pretty easy year for me actually considering how stacked it is)
1999 - Pokémon Yellow - (Quiet year)

Gen 6/Primary School
2000 - Pokémon Silver - (My first Pokémon game)
2001 - Runescape - (There's another game that nearly beat this but runescape is the game I've played the most in my life it was what Wow was to a lot of people for me)
2002 - Kingdom Hearts (Oh boy is this story alone amazing then the games just pure fun with all the worlds disney is just perfect)
2003 - Wind Waker (Technically it’s Pokemon Sapphire however I picked Emerald for 2005 which was a weaker year. Wind Waker deserves a spot as it’s breath taking)
2004 - Pokémon Firered (Actually surprised this is the only game. Havent played Metroid Prime 2)

Gen 7/High School
2005 - Pokémon Emerald (More so Sapphire however I’m cheating so I can pick Wind Waker for 2003)
2006 - Wii Sports (The more I think about it the more this makes sense. I haven’t played Twilight Princess or Kingdom Hearts II and this game was played a ton and was just amazing with the motion controls)
2007 - Portal (This game just something about it is adorable and perfect.)
2008 - NHL 09 (This game got me into hockey/NHL enough said really. Weak year)
2009 - Skate 2 (Easily my favorite skateboarding game and easily my favorite 2009 game I 100%’d this and loved it to bits)
2010 - Red Dead Redemption (Literally the hardest year so far. Red Dead was just an amazing adventure that I still remember to this day and that ending was just wow.)

Back end of Gen 7/Post School
2011 - Portal 2 (Nothing can beat this)
2012 - Pass (Nothing of a high standard that I played)
2013 - Animal Crossing New Leaf (This game was my life in 2013 I played around 500 hours of this I swear it saved my life.)
2014 - South Park: The Stick of Truth (I 100%'d this and can't wait to play the 2nd one when I get the chance. Another weak year surprisingly.)

Current Gen
2015 - Ori and the Blind Forest (It's actually funny that 2011-2015 have been just such easy picks for me. There's been a lot more game releases but not as many fantastic games unlike the naughties.)
2016 - Overwatch (I played this so much over christmas and earl 2017 Jan-Mar it's just so so fun.)
2017 Nominees that I've played - Super Mario Odyssey | Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
2017 Nominees that I've yet to play - Horizon Zero Dawn | Metroid: Samus Returns | Xenoblade Chronicles 2

[Kong Wen]

I'm going to start with 1980 arbitrarily, even though there are some good games from the '70s. If I get back into the '70s then I'm going to have a hard time deciding exactly how far back to go.

Also, I am FORCING myself not to allow ties or to mention runners-up. Those are just cheap ways for me to equivocate, and the fun of this thread is not being able to do that.

1980s

1980 - Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I (Infocom, PC)
1981 - Frogger (Konami, Arcade)
1982 - Ms. Pac-Man (Midway, Arcade)
1983 - M.U.L.E. (Electronic Arts, Commodore 64)
1984 - Elite (Acornsoft, PC)
1985 - Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, NES)
1986 - The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, NES)
1987 - Final Fantasy (Square, NES)
1988 - Mega Man 2 (Capcom, NES)
1989 - Destiny of an Emperor (Capcom, NES)

Top Publishers: Capcom (2) and Nintendo (2)
Top Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System (5)

[SkyPikachu]

I'm going to start with 1980 arbitrarily, even though there are some good games from the '70s. If I get back into the '70s then I'm going to have a hard time deciding exactly how far back to go.

Luckly SMB is about the oldest game I've played other than Space Invaders/Pong so it was a no brainer to start at 85

[VictorViper]

Zork is a good choice for 1980, but no way I could pick anything other than Berzerk. Even Pac-Man couldn't compete. Anyway, I'll go with Kong's plan and do 10 year chunks because, you know... old guy.

The 80s

1980 - Berzerk (Arcade, USA)
1981(!!!) - Centipede (Arcade, USA)
1982(!) - Robotron 2084 (Arcade, USA)
1983(!) - Juno First (Arcade, Japan)
1984 - 1942 (Arcade, Japan)
1985(!!) - Teddy Boy Blues (Arcade, Japan)
1986(!) - Outrun (Arcade, Japan)
1987(!!!!!!!) - Maniac Mansion (PC, USA)
1988(!) - Mega Man 2 (NES, Japan)
1989(!!!!!) - Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (SMS, Japan)


Cutting through the piles of games from this point forward is going to get hairy, but I'm going to bet the 80s have my most painful cuts. I mean, yikes. The exclamation points at certain years can be used to gauge just how painful.

Oh, and arcade dominance is going to cut off hard, real fast.

[Claytone]

I'll start with the 80s as well. I'll steal Kong's rule and not do any honorable mentions, much as I may want to. However, I'll also steal Vic's metric and rank each year with *s as an indication of how hard it was to pick.

I'm using North American release years.

1980s

1980 - Berzerk (Arcade) - *
1981 - Galaga (Arcade) - **
1982 - Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade) - **
1983 - Atic Atac (ZX Spectrum) - ***
1984 - Marble Madness (Arcade) - *
1985 - Super Mario Bros. (NES) - *
1986 - Ghosts'n Goblins (NES) - **
1987 - Castlevania (NES) - **
1988 - Mega Man 2 (NES) - *****
1989 - Batman: The Video Game (NES) - ****

[Kong Wen]

I am FORCING myself not to allow ties or to mention runners-up. Those are just cheap ways for me to equivocate, and the fun of this thread is not being able to do that.

1980s

1980 - Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I (Infocom, PC)
1981 - Frogger (Konami, Arcade)
1982 - Ms. Pac-Man (Midway, Arcade)
1983 - M.U.L.E. (Electronic Arts, Commodore 64)
1984 - Elite (Acornsoft, PC)
1985 - Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, NES)
1986 - The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, NES)
1987 - Final Fantasy (Square, NES)
1988 - Mega Man 2 (Capcom, NES)
1989 - Destiny of an Emperor (Capcom, NES)

Top Publishers: Capcom (2) and Nintendo (2)
Top Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System (5)

1990s

1990 - Super Mario World (Nintendo, SNES)
1991 - Romance of the Three Kingdoms II (Koei, SNES)
1992 - Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention (Sega, Genesis)
1993 - Secret of Mana (Square, SNES)
1994 - Final Fantasy VI (Square, SNES)
1995 - Chrono Trigger (Square, SNES)
1996 - Diablo (Blizzard, PC)
1997 - Final Fantasy Tactics (Square, PS1)
1998 - Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Working Designs, PS1)
1999 - Front Mission 3 (Square, PS1)

Top Publisher: Square (5)
Top Platform: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (5)

[Kong Wen]

Also, I am FORCING myself not to allow ties or to mention runners-up.

Just another side-note on this. While I love what you guys are doing by indicating the years that gave you a hard time, I'm also forcing myself not to do that, simply because every single year is a hard decision between at least a few games. Especially 1982-1983, 1984, 1985-1990, 1991-1995, 1996, and 1997-1999.

Please don't take this as a condemnation of how any of you want to make your lists. I'm just keeping mine as (brutal and cutthroat) trim as possible.

[VictorViper]

The 90s

1990(!) - Smash TV (Arcade, USA)
1991(!!) - Scorched Earth (DOS Shareware, USA)
1992(!!!) - Wolfenstein 3D (DOS Shareware, USA)
1993(!!!!!) - Gunstar Heroes (Genesis, Japan)
1994(!!!!!) - Doom II (DOS, USA)
1995(!) - Command & Conquer (PC, USA)
1996(!) - Wip3out XL (PS1, UK)
1997(!!!) - Final Fantasy VII (PS1, Japan)
1998(!!!) - Gran Turismo (PS1, Japan)
1999(!!!) - Bangai-O! (DC, Japan)

[Claytone]

The 90s

1990(!) - Smash TV (Arcade, USA)

Man oh man, Smash TV is awesome. Thanks for adding to my headache re: choosing 1990.

[SkyPikachu]

Also, I am FORCING myself not to allow ties or to mention runners-up.

Just another side-note on this. While I love what you guys are doing by indicating the years that gave you a hard time, I'm also forcing myself not to do that, simply because every single year is a hard decision between at least a few games. Especially 1982-1983, 1984, 1985-1990, 1991-1995, 1996, and 1997-1999.

Please don't take this as a condemnation of how any of you want to make your lists. I'm just keeping mine as (brutal and cutthroat) trim as possible.

I removed any special mentions from mine and surprisingly there weren’t many hard years for me any other games I mention is to mention I’ve yet to play a game and that I believe it could possibly top the current game I picked. (And Pokémon Sapphire as technically it’s 2003’s but because of Emerald I was able to cheat the system.

However what it did do was show me how good of a year 2010 was.