1985, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

The 1985 game of the year is Super Mario Bros.
The runner up is Tetris.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

What do you believe to be the "Game of the Year" for 1985 and why?  Also, vote on "Game of the Year" for 1985. 

 

Gauntlet (Arcade)
Atari makes another hit arcade game with Gauntlet.  It should be noted that at this point in time, Atari, creator of the video game industry, takes on a different type of role in gaming history.  In 1984 Atari split into two companies: Atari Corporation, focusing on computer games and future Atari consoles like the Jaguar and Lynx, and Atari Games, maker of hit arcade games like Gauntlet.  Whenever Atari Games (maker of Gauntlet) wanted to make a console game, then they went by the name Tengen.  Gauntlet was one of only three licensed games that Tengen made for the NES.  Then they went rogue and made a whole bunch of unlicensed games.

 

Gradius (Arcade)
This first game in Konami’s long running series was an arcade hit.  The port to the NES also did well selling over 1 million copies.  While developing the NES port of Gradius, one of the developers found the game to be too hard and so put a secret code in the game so that they could start with all power ups and options.  This code was up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, START.  

 

Paperboy (Arcade)
Atari Games has another arcade hit in 1985 with Paperboy.  Paperboy was also ported to many, many computer and console systems.

 

Space Harrier (Arcade)
Sega developed an arcade hit with this 3D on-rails shooter.  It was ported to the Sega Master System in 1986 and eventually to many other systems including the Famicom.

 

Tetris (Electronika 60)
This history of Tetris has so many twists and turns that they could make a movie about it (and they did).  However, the first version was made by Alexey Pajitnov in 1985.  One story probably not mentioned in the movie is that Atari Games made the arcade version of Tetris in 1988 and therefore Tengen ported it to the NES (unlicensed) in 1989.  Shortly thereafter Nintendo secured the home console rights to Tetris from the USSR government, and Tengen had to remove it’s version of Tetris from store shelves.  Only about 100,000 copies of the Tengen Tetris were sold (and it is often considered the superior version).  However, the Nintendo published version sold over 8 million copies on the NES.  Tetris was also commonly bundled with the Gameboy and was considered key to the Gameboy’s success.  This version sold over 35 million copies.  Counting all versions, across all platforms, Tetris has sold over 520 million copies.

 

The Bard’s Tale (Home Computers)
The Bard’s Tale was the most successful computer RPG of the 80’s.  By 1993 over 1 million copies of the game had been sold.

 

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (Apple II/C64)
While Ultima III resembles almost every JRPG, Ultima IV is one of a kind.  Instead of trying to save the world, the quest is to perfect yourself and become the Avatar, the pinnacle of virtue.  Often considered the best CRPG of the 80’s and also commonly lands on “Best computer games of all time” lists.  Ultima IV was also commercially successful selling over 400,000 copies by 1989.

 

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiago? (Home Computers)
Carmen Sandiago was designed to be edutainment, but it ended up being treated that way, since it taught players a whole lot about geography.  Carmen Sandiago became a hugely popular computer game by 80’s era standards, selling over 4 million copies by 1995.  It also became a cultural phenomenon spawning multiple different TV shows.

TV Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToWuQSpROw0
Game Show Intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TL5-u3ey-c

 

Super Mario Bros.  (NES)
This hidden gem was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto.  Koji Kondo composed the music and Takashi Tezuka was a co-designer.  Super Mario Bros was the main killer app for the NES, the system that started home console gaming in Japan and revived the console market in North America.  Super Mario Bros was commonly bundled with the system, selling over 40 million copies on the NES alone.

TV Show Intro:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv6uqCjggMA

 

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 Saturday, Sept 16 at 11:59 EST.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 17 September 2023