Flik's game of the year, 1980-2007

Saturday, March 15, 2008 » gaming list thought

This is a guest post by the esteemed Flik Sandhu, current Webmaster of flik.com.

I just want to thank my buddy "Tom Hanks" for letting me have a guest spot on his most excellent of webpages. Below you'll find MY game of the year for every year since I was born.

1980 - Pac-Man: Apparently my parents owned an arcade when I was 3 years old (this explains my lifelong addiction to gaming, THANKS MOM AND DAD) and from what I hear, I spent many an hour standing atop a milk crate playing this game. I somehow doubt I knew what I was doing at such a young age, but this game is a classic.

1981 - Galaga: This was another one of those classic arcade games that I spent a lot of time playing as a kid. My brain is pretty fried...

1982 - Pitfall!

1983 - Dig Dug: I vaguely remember spending a lot of time trying to spell my name in this game... I could be wrong though.

1984 - KARATE CHAMP: This game was THE BOMB. I loved doing face kicks!

1985 - Super Mario Bros.

1986 - Bubble Bobble: I was completely in love with this game as a kid. ORANGE CANDY PLZ.

1987 - The Legend of Zelda: This game needs absolutely no introduction. Did you know that Dodongo dislikes smoke? It's true!!!

1988 - Contra: I prefer being Mad Dog.

1989 - River City Ransom: Javelin Man? Acro Circus? Naked man-ass in the sauna? BATTLE WITH DOUBLE DRAGONS???? BARF!!!

1990 - Super Mario Bros 3: If it wasn't for the visionary masterpiece "The Wizard" I never would have liked this game!!@!@!#$!@

1991 - Street Fighter II: It was a toss up between this and Super Mario World, but this game has had a much greater impact on my life. I'm a hardcore Ryu player TO THIS DAY. Man it was fun getting beat up by guys 6 years older than me because I whupped their ass.

1992 - Super Mario Kart: My brother and I basically spent our entire free time with this game.

1993 - Secret of Mana: To this day, the glorious 3 player SoM games I played rank among my favorite memories in gaming.

1994 - Final Fantasy 6 (III): This is the first RPG I've ever played. And I've been hooked ever since! Quite possibly one of the greatest games ever made in any generation. Sheer perfection.

1995 - Chrono Trigger: Thanks to FFVI I got to enjoy this masterpiece too! I think I ended up playing through it about 50 times. Frog vs Magus still gives me chills...

1996 - Suikoden: I skipped school for a few days so I could stay home and play this game. I'm not kidding. I rented it for a week and beat it 2 or 3 times (I forget which) because I simply could not put it down. Since that fateful rental, I've been a huge fan of Suikoden games, and have even used the online avatar of Flik since 1996.

1997 - Castlevania Symphony of the Night: Oh MAN. Worst voice acting ever has somehow found its way into BEST PLATFORMING ACTION ADVENTURE RPG THING EVER.

1998 - Xenogears: This was quite possibly the best year for gaming ever. I won't list every single amazing title from 1998 but here's a few: Final Fantasy Tactics, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3 (for PSX), Half-Life, and of course, Catz 3. When the dust had settled, Xenogears came out on top. This horribly flawed rpg was my favorite game ever for many years. Maybe it is because the game is just SO DEEP AND PHILOSOPHICAL, I really don't know. But this game touched me in a way very few works of art ever have. (Games can be art, so shut up).

1999 - Suikoden II: Take one of my favorite games ever. Now make a sequel. Uh oh, the game is going to suck! Except Suikoden II is basically what I consider to be one of the best sequels ever. Why? Well there was the surprise return of two beloved characters from Suikoden I, a secret cameo by the silent hero from Suikoden I, and basically an improvement in almost all facets (not music...) of Suikoden I. This is what sequels should try to do, and Metal Gear Solid 2 is what sequels should NOT try to do. Thanks for the lessons Konami!

2000 - Deus Ex: This game came out of left field. Thanks to Alex and his insistence to play this game I finally caved and hooboy, Deus Ex was great. The plot was very engrossing and the balanced gameplay is something more designers need to take heed of. The fact that you can approach problems with completely different, viable solutions was something I still look for in games. Sadly, not many games have this level of complexity in their design so I am not sure when we'll see another title like this.

2001 - Final Fantasy X: This is my favorite Final Fantasy game. GTAIII was a close runner up for 2001 because it helped re-define gaming as we know it. But FFX was an epic, personal tale that I could not turn away from. This game is exactly what I want from an rpg. I would say this game is perfect... but the HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, scene proves that wrong.

2002 - Warcraft III: This was the first Warcraft game I ever put any real time into. Suikoden III was also released this year but the sheer amount of hours I put into War3 put it into the top. It is too bad that the wonderful "Pretty Lights" strategy my 3v3 team employed worked for only a short period of time. I sure loved me those lights.

2003 - Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: KOTOR is easily one of the best Star Wars games ever. I absolutely loved the fully developed cast and the satisfying REVEAL!@!$#!# was a nice plot device. The battles eventually got a bit boring, but the plot and characters were second to none. Great game!

2004 - Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: Man, this game was just plain awesome. Nothing beats hopping from rooftops on a BMX.

2005 - Civilization IV: Hello Sid Meier, please give me my soul back...

2006 - Valkyrie Profile 2: This was a tough one. Suikoden V came out in 2006; and it was a great game which thankfully returned Suikoden back to form after the train wreck that is Suikoden IV. But in the end, tri-Ace won me over. The original Valkyrie Profile was a somewhat obscure but very excellent action rpg. Valkyrie Profile 2 is basically a super improved version of the original with wonderful production values. VP2 is just so damn fun, great game!

2007 - Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations: Any game that has such sarcastic and witty dialogue like this is an instant classic. This is the first Phoenix Wright game I've played and wow, I've never laughed so hard when playing a game. I thought OBJECTION! and TAKE THAT! were just stupid internet memes, but they really are catchy.