Inspired by the likes of NeonNinja and hart704 (a.k.a. HartKnight), I am in the process of playing catch-up with a GOTY series of my very own. Since my hobby of playing video games began in 1994, that is where I began, even though a few games I own were released prior to that year. My goal is to reach 2010 by the end of the year, so that my own GOTY 2010 post can sit right alongside many of yours'.
Here's how I've chosen to make this work: I will display a list of up to five nominees and then choose the GOTY and two runner-ups from that list. The nominees must be games that I have played. The games are categorized by release year, not by the year in which I first played them. All decisions are final. The judgment calls were made not by how the games have lingered nostalgically in my mind at my current age, but by how I believe I would have voted at the end of each year.
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NOMINEES
- Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
- Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
- Brave Fencer Musashi (PS1)
- Riven: The Sequel to Myst (PC)
And the winner is...
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1998 Game of the Year - Banjo-Kazooie
Back before Banjo-Kazooie was released, it was one of those games that I just knew was destined for greatness. It's one of the few games that required me to satiate my hunger for the game with repeated gawking at screenshots printed in my Nintendo Power, reading and re-reading and re-re-reading of any bit of news presented in said magazine, and repeated viewing of the promo casette tape that had arrived in the mail. Heck, I remember being over at a friend's house (the same friend who made the DKC soundtrack tape for me, if you remember that story) and looking through his issue of NP just to get another fix.
An interesting story, lots of exploring and collectables to gather and/or use, thematic worlds that riveled those found in Super Mario 64, an AWESOME hub world, and an incorporation of the game's music into everything in such a way that has never been duplicated since. You can lose yourself in this game, just because of all the exploring and other things you'll want to do.
Banjo-Kazooie was also the first platformer, I believe, to feature backtracking. In other words, skills and abilities acquired later on in the game would need to be used in earlier worlds to uncover and access more items, Jinjos, notes, Jiggys, etc. It's something that is so commonplace now, but it was quite new and exciting back in 1998.
To this day, Banjo-Kazooie still stands up very well in terms of visual presentation and quality of gameplay. I myself have played through the game a few times and it never grows old. It's always an adventure through Gruntilda's tall and mysterious castle. And who can forget the infamous sand castle and the colored eggs?
Runner-up - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
I honestly don't know what possessed me to become interested in this game. If I had to speculate, I'd probably say it was the fact that it was a new Zelda game that was coming out and because I'd missed out on all the hype surrounding A Link to the Past and had played a little of the original game for the NES, I was excited to join in with everyone else for this one. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
Yes, this was my first LoZ game, and I really don't think I've played any other one since that's been better. The way it begins so innocently, almost like you're in a fairy tale of sorts, and quickly escalates from a children's hero tale to a story about saving the entire world of Hyrule was truly something to behold for me. NeonNinja had mentioned in his GOTY 1998 post that "all it took was to run across Hyrule Field for the first time...and suddenly, it became clear. Nintendo had created a world in which any gamer could become enamored with, enchanted by, a world that seemed more vivid than any we had ever seen." Hyrule Field wasn't as striking a grand occasion for me as it seems to have been for NeonNinja, but I do recall there being a moment when it really struck me how large the world of Hyrule was. It was a diverse world, with plenty to see and explore. I'm sure I'm not the only one swam down the stream into Lake Hylia or swam upstream into Gerudo territory, or just stopped to admire the scenery in a temple while the atmospheric soundtrack played in the background. Things like shooting an arrow into the sun to get Fire Arrows just plain stunned me. Sure, this is usually how things go in LoZ games, but it was all new to me. Swords, magic, maps and compasses, a new, functional present from everywhere you go, heaping doses of lore. It was astounding. It was a masterpiece right out of the box. It is timeless.
I cannot wait to play through it all over again on the 3DS.
Runner-up - Riven
Now if only Riven would be released as a PSOne cl@ssic on the PSN so I could download it onto my PSP. Riven took everything that was great about Myst and blew it all over the top and out of the park. The story was much more palpable and present this time around. If there's one thing I remember about the game, it was that no matter where I was, I always felt as though if I turned around, Gehn would be standing right behind me. Needless to say, if there was a door to lock or close behind me, I made sure to lock or close it.
What I absolutely love about Riven, more so than its beauty and the musical score, is how subtle Cyan was in incorporating puzzle elements into the world they'd created. Things were more or less staring you in the face all through Myst; you knew it all served some purpose, you just needed to figure out what to do with it all. In Riven, little clues appear here and there for both local puzzles and the major puzzles that must be solved towards the very end of the game, but nothing's as surreal as it was in Myst and so most times, you'll encounter things that seem there just for decoration or to serve purposes that you couldn't possibly need to be concerned with as the lowly visitor to the world. And yet it isn't just decoration and you do need to be concerned about what everything does (My mind recalls the little insignificant Hangman game in the schoolhouse on Jungle Island. It turns out that's how the player is supposed to learn how to read D'ni numbers, a skill that is critical to solving the endgame puzzles.). It is entirely possible to miss certain very significant things if you just wander through, taking everything in with casual glances. Everything exists as it does for a very specific reason and once you realize that, you'll be more prepared for what lies before you in the endgame. Even though I was still quite young when this game came out and thus chose to use the Journal portion of the strategy guide to help me through the game, I still experienced a "holy mother of OMG" moment when it all clicked inside my head how everything had come together. It really does blow your mind.