1994, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

The 1994 Game of the Year is Super Metroid.
The runner up is Final Fantasy VI.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

Please comment on what you believe to be the Game of the Year for 1994.  You might even want to discuss/argue with other posters first before you vote.  Or maybe you just want to argue with yourself first?  Whatever.  Please vote for Game of the Year for 1994 and post why.  Without further ado, here is the list of games.

Tekken (Arcade)
Tekken was originally Namco’s 3D answer to Sega’s fighting game Virtua Fighter.  However, once these games were ported to home systems.  Tekken (and the series of games that followed) became far more popular than Virtua Fighter.  Tekken was ported to Playstation a year later and became the first Playstation game to sell over 1 million units.

 

Doom II: Hell on Earth (PC)
Doom puts out a sequel a year after the release of the first game.  Unlike the first game, Doom II could actually be sold in stores.  Doom II would go on to sell over 1.8 million copies.

 

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (PC)
Blizzard Entertainment decided to make a RTS game on the PC after releasing a couple of SNES games first.  This RTS game would be Warcraft.  Warcraft would begin Blizzard’s path both as a PC development studio and also the #1 developer of RTS games.  This first Warcraft game would go on to sell over 300,000 copies.

 

X-Com: UFO Defense (Amiga/PC)
Defend against alien invaders in this strategy game from Microprose.  X-Com sold over 600,000 units on the PC alone and was later ported to other computer systems and the Playstation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OdbkcR1ByE

 

Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Sonic and Knuckles (Genesis)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles were originally developed as one game, but eventually they decided to separate them into two games.  However, the cartridges were designed so that they could be combined together again.  Michael Jackson is said to have contributed to the OST to this game but was uncredited.  The two games ended up selling over 4 million units combined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhExIWa0R-4

 

Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
The SNES had been losing to the Genesis in North America, because Sega was pumping out Sonic games nearly every year, while the SNES hadn’t had a major platformer since launch.  That all changed with the release of Donkey Kong Country.  Featuring a killer OST and graphics that didn’t seem possible on the SNES, DKC went on to sell over 9.3 million units.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXHDSA35_2k

 

Earthbound (SNES)
This second entry in the Mother series was in development hell until programmer, Satoru Iwata, came along and recoded the game from scratch.  Earthbound was the only entry in the quirky Mother series to leave Japan, and it wasn’t terribly successful.  In North America, the marketing campaign was confusing, and the oversized box was often placed in a different spot from the other games.  However, the game gained a cult following and gradually people began to realize that Earthbound is actually a fantastic and unique RPG (well unique outside of Japan).  Nintendo has, in more recent years, made Earthbound easily available on platforms such as the SNES classic.  However, an original SNES cartridge remains rare and valuable.  On EBay in the US, for example, the cheapest cartridge of Earthbound currently sells for $290 USD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGMbd4h3ao&list=PLJQZtsZNm8a6uZAzvu81-CULPRf3V6JVK

 

Final Fantasy VI (SNES)
Just a few years earlier, Squaresoft showed us the type of storytelling that was possible on a console RPG with Final Fantasy IV.  But with Final Fantasy VI, they simply bring us one of the finest stories ever told in a video game.  FF6 would also mark the beginning of a several year period where Squaresoft would produce some of the most amazing RPGs ever (and not just Final Fantasy ones either).  FF6 would sell over 3.4 million copies on the SNES and another 750k on the Playstation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGNskqYu2_0

 

Super Metroid (SNES)
This SNES entry in the Metroid series is most often considered the favorite among 2D Metroid fans.  Super Metroid would sell over 1.4 million copies on the SNES.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBj_CkoK0Nc

Other (please specify)
If you think another game 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 Sunday, Oct 8 at 11:59 EST.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 09 October 2023