1992, Game of the Year (Runoff)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

SvennoJ said:

Vinther1991 said:

Totally agree, the Nintendo bias here is really through the roof. The original Mario Kart is incredibly clunky. Not even the best kart racer on the market at the time. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the best 2D platformer of the 4th generation and Streets of Rage 2 was the best brawler, those are imo the best games of 1992. Wolfenstein 3D is also a good choice, though it is harder for me to pick, as I feel ID software exceeded it in every possible way, already the next year.
Contra 3 also deserves consideration.

Looking ahead at 1993, PC literally exploded in great games, Doom, Myst, Day of the Tentacle, Star Wars X-Wing, Master of Orion and so many others, heavy hitters in all genres. But it will probably go to Links Awakening by default, if not Super Mario all stars.

FYI, I am not including Super Mario All-Stars in the poll for 93, and I'm vetoing anyone who votes for it as an "Other" option.  All of those games were already released.  Besides Mario 3 already won an entire decade.  Does it really need to keep on winning?

Mnementh said:

Dreamcaster999 said:

If 1992 goes to Mario Kart and 1993 goes to Link's Awakening or Mario All-Stars we should just change the name of these threads from "Game of the Year" to "Nintendo Game of the Year"

It will get also more PS-titles, once historically PS starts gearing up. The truth is this site is heavily console-biased, so PC, phone or arcade games come with an disadvantage at these polls. Insofar it is more surprising how well some PC games hold up in comparison in some of these year polls.

I agree with everything you are saying.  I would even go further to add 

1) Handheld games are also at a disadvantage compared to home console games.  Super Mario Land hardly got any votes in spite of being a Mario title that sold 18 million units.  (I am starting to wonder how Pokemon will do.)

2) If the game is a mainline, home console Mario or Zelda game then it has a gigantic advantage.  SMB 2 lost in it's year, but most people would put it in the bottom third for home console Mario games.  I think if a home console Mario or Zelda game is in the top two thirds for their respective series then it almost seems like an autowin regardless of what other games it's up against.  In fact the poll for 1991 will close soon and prove this point exactly.

Jpcc86 said:

No doubt the SNES had the best library, these have been the hardest polls IMO. Imma say Mario Kart,

I think the Genesis has a solid library, and the SNES has a better one overall.  However, once you go by release years, then you see that the SNES had a couple of week years, '92 and '93 (by original release date).  There were very good reasons why the Genesis surpassed the SNES in sales for a couple of years in North America.  This year '92, only has two SNES games in the poll and one never left Japan.  However '91, '94, '95 are all great years for SNES releases with several heavy hitters per year.

SvennoJ said:

Mnementh said:

It will get also more PS-titles, once historically PS starts gearing up. The truth is this site is heavily console-biased, so PC, phone or arcade games come with an disadvantage at these polls. Insofar it is more surprising how well some PC games hold up in comparison in some of these year polls.

Many early PC games had cross ports with Amiga 500, NES and SNES. Sim City managed to win the 1989 poll, yet likely because it had Mario and Bowser appear in the 1991 SNES version...

The game of the decade polls are a bit one sided, Mario vs Zelda, although FF7 can take it with the votes split between all the Mario and Zelda titles lol.
Game of the 90s is Half-Life for me, it changed the FPS genre, set the bar for many years to come, AI that still feels fresh today, great campaign chock full of movie references, in game cut scenes that don't lock the player down, and HL led to launch of Steam with HL2. We'll see if it stands a chance :)
(Nope OOT came out that year as well lol)

Anyway these threads are an awesome trip down memory lane :) It's hard to believe how many great games came out year after year. I keep thinking this or that came out much later. And also a decade where humor still played a prominent part in games thanks to all the amazing point and click adventures. Today's games feel so dry and grindy in comparison. Humor doesn't really work for 100+ hour games...

I agree.  Going through these threads is a reminder that there innovative, mind-blowing and genre defining games coming out almost every year in the '80s and '90s.  Some years, like 1991, had mind-blowing games on almost every platform.  Contrast that today where the big games are still Minecraft, GTA5 and Mario Kart 8.  All of those games released roughly a decade ago.  If there were a ton of great releases today, then collectively as gamers we would mostly forget about games from a decade ago to play the new stuff.