Second Runoff Round 2009, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Vodacixi said:

Considering HGSS are fundamentally different games than the original Gold and Silver, I think it's a bit unfair that they cannot get a vote here :(

Oh well... I will say Wii Fit Plus. Terrific game, no joke. I remember playing it with my family... and it was A BLAST. Even better than Wii Sports/Resort. So many games and exercices...

Also, during the pandemic it helped me loose 25kg! I went from 90kg to 65. All thanks to Wii Fit Plus and eating less. Forever grateful to this little game and the Balance Board ^^

I don't claim to be an expert on any Pokemon game.  Perhaps these games are more different than I thought.  Here is the type of difference that I'm looking for: If you were familiar with the original game and someone handed you a copy of the new game without telling you what it was, could you recognize that it is supposed to be the original game?

For example, I originally saw Super Mario All-Stars in a store with Super Mario 1 running on it.  Even though they had rebuilt the graphics engine from the ground up, I immediately recognized that it was Super Mario Bros 1.  Also there are differences between the home and arcade version of Super Mario Bros, but they are so similar that they still just look like variations of the same game.  I'm lumping all of these variations together as Super Mario Bros 1.  On the other hand, Metroid: Zero Mission is as different from original Metroid as Super Metroid is.  It isn't just the graphics that are different.  Level design, enemies, # of boss fights, controls, and power ups are different from Zero Mission and NES Metroid.  Because of that Zero Mission feels more like a new Metroid game rather than an updated version of the original.

So, I will ask you to make a judgement call if I am in error.  Is HeartGold/SoulSilver so different that you can't tell it's supposed to be an updated Gold/Silver?  I've had people swear to me that the PS4 version of Shadow of Colossus is totally different, but when I look at gameplay of it, I can tell that it's supposed to be Shadow of the Colossus and not Ico or The Last Guardian or a forth Team Ico game I've never heard of.  The "remake" has to be pretty different, more like a "reboot" really, for it to qualify as a new game.