1981, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Official voting has now ended (but people can still vote unofficially if they like).

The 1981 game of the year is Donkey Kong.
The runner up is Galaga.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

What do you believe to be the "Game of the Year" for 1981 and why?  Also, vote on "Game of the Year" for 1981. 

Defender (Arcade)
This Shmup was obviously much more complex than the other arcade games of this era.  In spite of this, it still became one of the top sellers in the Golden Era of Arcades.  As of 2020, Defender has sold 70,000 arcade units and grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide.  The port to the Atari 2600 sold over 3 million units putting in the top 10 selling games on that platform.

Donkey Kong (Arcade)
Nintendo gets their first major hit with the first appearance of Mario in a game.  Mario was originally called "Jumpman", because this is the first significant game to feature a jump button.  It is also the first major game to have an opening cutscene before the game begins (although Pac-Man did have cutscenes after beating certain stages), and Donkey Kong also has a complete story arc which finishes when you complete the "Rivets" stage.  Donkey Kong has sold over 132 million arcade cabinets making it the fourth best selling arcade game of all time.  It also had several high selling console ports: Atari 2600 (4 million), Colecovision (2 million), NES (1 million), Game & Watch (8 million).  Donkey Kong was also one of the games featured in the cartoon Saturday Supercade from this era.  "It's on like Donkey Kong!"

TV Show Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ks97n8x8M

Frogger (Arcade)
Developed by Konami and published by Sega/Gremlin, Frogger is one of the best selling arcade games of the early 80's.  The Atari 2600 port also sold over 4 million copies, making it comparable to Donkey Kong.  Frogger was also one of the games feature in Saturday Supercade.

TV Show Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiNqfyER5Ro

Galaga (Arcade)
This sequel to Galaxian is considered to be superior in nearly every way.  Galaga has sold over 42,000 machines making it one of the best selling arcade games of all time.  It also seems to be the early 1980's shmup that has aged the best.  Whenever there is a "best games of all time" list, Galaga is usually listed as the top shooter of the early 80's.  

Ms Pac-Man (Arcade)
This sequel to Pac-Man is considered by many to be superior to Pac-Man in every way.  Also, while Pac-Man was developed by Namco, Ms Pac-Man was developed by General Computer Corporation, a team of American developers.  Originally this was simply a mod to Pac-Man, but it soon became clear that this would be a popular game in its own right.  As of 1987, Ms Pac Man has sold over 125 million arcade units making it the 5th best selling arcade game of all time and barely being beaten by Donkey Kong's total.  (Also, since data on these arcade machines is hard to find it is debatable which of the two games actually sold more.)

Tempest (Arcade)
Atari introduces this 3D shooter using vector graphics.  Tempest has sold over 29,000 arcade cabinets total.

Castle Wolfenstein (Apple II)
Before there was Metal Gear, there was Castle Wolfenstein.  Use a combination of wits, stealth and guns to make your way out of a Nazi stronghold, a procedurally generated maze of over 60 rooms.  Although it was developed by Muse Software, it has been stated by id Software that when they made Wolfenstein 3D, they were simply trying to make a 3D version of Castle Wolfenstein.

Ultima I (Apple II)
Dungeons and Dragons comes to PC in two major ways in 1981.  This computer RPG features a single character exploring both an overworld and dungeons, a style copied by countless games such Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda.  The Ultima series, in general, is arguably the most influential RPG series of all time with Ultima 3 being a huge inspiration for JRPGs, Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld being a huge inspiration for Western RPGs, and Ultima Online being a huge inspiration for MMORPGs.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Apple II)
Wizardry was the other approach to adapting Dungeons and Dragons to computers, and it ended up being the Apple II's best selling game of 1981.  Major features of Wizardry include a 3D maze and the ability to make up a party of 6 characters using a variety of different classes.  Wizardry also uses essentially prestige classes, better classes that can be accessed later in the game if you want to switch the class of your characters.  Wizardry went on to sell over 500,000 copies as of 1989 and it became a major influence on JRPGs such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

Other (please specify)
If you think another games deserves to be "Game of the Year" other than one of the 9 I listed above, then please vote “Other” and say your game in the comments.  If the "Other" category takes at least 2nd place and no other game gets at least 50% of the vote, then I will do a runoff vote including the most mentioned game(s) from the comments.

The winner of this vote will be decided Friday, Sept 8 at 11:59 EST.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 09 September 2023