1980's, Game of the Decade

[The_Liquid_Laser]

psychicscubadiver said:

Jaicee said:

If we're picking a Game of the Decade based on which title had the most cultural impact, I think the only honest answer is the original Super Mario Bros. Wouldn't have been a Super Mario Bros. 3 (the candidate currently leading in our poll) without it, and for that matter console gaming itself may never have recovered from the doldrums of the early '80s either for that matter without it. It also sold more than twice as many copies as Super Mario Bros. 3.

But if instead we're just picking our favorite game from the '80s -- which is what it looks like people are actually doing (i.e. picking Super Mario Bros. 3 because it was more fun to play) -- then in that case I have a definite three '80s faves. They are:

1) The Guardian Legend
2) A Mind Forever Voyaging
3) Leather Goddesses of Phobos

None are nominated and there is no "other" option in this poll.

I considered choosing 'most impactful' then realized if the question was 'game of the decade for 2010's' I wouldn't care about how 'impactful' something was, I'd just choose the game I thought was the best. So that's what I did.

Also, the nominees were all selected by the previous 'game of the year' threads which is why I assume there's no 'other'.

That's correct.  That's how I plan to do every "Game of the Decade" thread other than the 1970's.  The winners for each year will be the candidates in the respective "Game of the Decade" thread.

Jumpin said:

alabtrosMyster said:

I think Super Mario Bros. 3 is the answer, however it would not exist without Super Mario Bros.

Pac-Man is hard to beat as well! Too bad it did not make the move to side scroller well. It could have been exactly like Mario (collect the dots instead of coins, the big dots give you power ups).

Personally, I was much more into adventure games, so titles like Metroid, Zelda and Phantasy Star were much more impactful.

I see Super Mario Bros 3 as a bit of a blend of adventure and 2D platforming. Particularly when considering how games were in the 1980s where adventure elements weren’t as pronounced as they became during the 16-bit or the 32/64-bit generations. For me, it was the fact that Super Mario Bros 3 felt like such a huge adventure that really attracted me to the game.

Although, where Metroid and Zelda appealed to me was their open worldness—basically, the freedom of how to progress. At first, building on these games always felt like a trade off against that freedom, and I found it peaked with Link to the Past… until Breath of the Wild blew that theory out of the water.

For me, NES Zelda and Metroid are the peak of these two franchises because I love the amount of freedom/autonomy they have to offer.  However, I realize that is a preference and most other people are willing to trade a little freedom to improve other aspects like graphics, game size, and QoL features.  Breath of the Wild is my second favorite Zelda because it returns to freedom/autonomy heavy gameplay.  It actually does have more freedom than Zelda 1, but I prefer the combat, challenge and items more in Zelda 1.