Runoff 2003, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

The 2003 Game of the Year is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
The runner up is Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

We need to do a runoff vote for 2003.  Four old games remain and four new games enter the poll.  First the four that made the cut:

Beyond Good and Evil (PC/PS2/GameCube/XBox)
Michel Ancel, creator of the Raymond series, brought us this cult classic from Ubisoft.

 

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (PC/PS2/GameCube/XBox/GBA)
This new take on the classic Prince of Persia series involves rewinding time to fix mistakes.  The console versions of this game all scored a 92 on Metacritic and sales have been over 14 million copies across all platforms.

 

Mario Kart Double Dash (GameCube)
A double pleasure is waiting for you in Mario Kart Double Dash including a kart with 2 characters and 2 power ups.  This 2 power-up mechanic would make a comeback in the ultra- popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe version.  Double Dash would sell over 6.9 million copies on the GameCube making it the system’s 2^nd best-selling game.

 

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (XBox/PC)
This game took us back long, long ago to a galaxy far, far away.  Then it took us back another 4000 years before “long, long ago”.  It scored a 94 on Metacritic and has sold over 3.2 million units as of 2007.  Since then it has also been released on mobile platforms and the Switch.

 

Here are the four new games based on "Other" votes:

Zone of Enders: The Second Runner (PS2)
Kill stuff with your mech and listen to the killer OST.

 

F-Zero GX (GameCube)
This arcade racer was actually published by Sega in the arcades but by Nintendo on the GameCube.  F-Zero GX scored an 89 on Metacritic and has sold over 1.5 million copies.

 

Tales of Symphonia (GameCube)
GameCube fans managed to get this game a year before PS2 fans, with some declaring this to be the best RPG on the GameCube.  Tales of Symphonia has sold over 2.4 million copies across all platforms making it the best-selling Tales game of all time.

 

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA)
Some Castlevania fans consider Aria of Sorrow to be the best in the series, even better than Symphony of the Night.  That is high praise indeed!  It also considered the best of the 3 fantastic Castlevania games on the Gameboy Advance, and it received a 91 on Metacritic which is rare for a handheld title.

 

 

Games that didn't make the cut:

Call of Duty (PC)
Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
Viewtiful Joe (GameCube)
Fire Emblem (GBA)

The Runoff voting for 2003 Game of the Year will end on Saturday, Nov 4 at 11:59 PM, EST.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 05 November 2023