Gaming Forums => General Gaming => Topic started by: NWR_insanolord on April 12, 2013, 11:03:35 AM
Title: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on April 12, 2013, 11:03:35 AM
Gaming as we know it has been around for a while now, but it's plain to see that some years are better than others. Our own Connectivity podcast has been doing a recurring feature chronicling a year in Nintendo's history, and it seems like a fascinating topic.
So I'd like to hear your rationale for what you think the best year in gaming history is. Was there a particular hardware launch that you think was important, or an extremely impressive lineup of games that you think just can't be beaten?
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Khushrenada on April 12, 2013, 11:46:42 AM
1983. E.T. was on the market and videogame revenue was at an all time high.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Fatty The Hutt on April 12, 2013, 11:46:54 AM
1982
oh sorry, I meant for movies..
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Adrock on April 12, 2013, 12:01:16 PM
1994 - Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI. Earthbound as well if we're going by the Japanese release.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on April 12, 2013, 12:02:19 PM
It was 1998. So many genres were coming into their prime this year, both 2D and 3D games were popular and viable, and I doubt budget was ever the issue it was today.
You could get StarCraft and Brood Wars later in the year on PC; the best strategy game of all time. It would later go on to become the official sport of a nation. Half-Life came out, which was, well, a big deal, especially as far as mods go (Counter-Strike!). Fallout 2 came out, which I think is the best RPG ever made, eartern or western.
DDR made its debut in arcades; probably the best music game of all time. Arcades were pretty sweet at the time, actually. Marvel vs Capcom 1 and SF3:2 came out this year. I'd like to think King of Fighters '98 did too. :faust: (edit: and Soul Calibur!)
Pokemon Red and Blue came out in North America. Probably the best portable game of all time.
Metal Gear Solid came out, a pretty legendary game in its own right, popularizing stealth gameplay pretty much by itself.
Ocarina of Time came out. I think it's lame but I'm sure pretty much everyone else likes it. I almost wanted to say 1997 was the best year for all the godlike N64 games that came out that year. But, still, Banjo-Kazooie, Rush2 and F-Zero X were pretty awesome.
Dreamcast, a good console for cool dudes, came out in Japan!
I think some other cool things happened that are slipping my mind, but, yeah, '98 is still the best.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Ian Sane on April 12, 2013, 12:08:06 PM
As I typing my response Ty beat me to my year! D'oh!
1998
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Metal Gear Solid Pokemon Red/Blue Starcraft Half-Life
The best N64 and Playstation games were both released in the same year!
Adrock's suggestion of 1994 is a good one. Aside from those he mentioned we also got Donkey Kong Country, Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Warcraft...
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Ceric on April 12, 2013, 03:04:01 PM
'94 and '98 are excellent and I have to say 98 though. Pokemon, Zelda, Starcraft. I mean their ya go. Also the first Monster Rancher had just become available in November of the previous year.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: ShyGuy on April 12, 2013, 05:29:14 PM
2000 was best for PC. had Deus Ex, Hitman Codename 47, American McGee's Alice, No One Lives Forever...
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: pokepal148 on April 12, 2013, 06:34:01 PM
It was 1998. So many genres were coming into their prime this year, both 2D and 3D games were popular and viable, and I doubt budget was ever the issue it was today.
You could get StarCraft and Brood Wars later in the year on PC; the best strategy game of all time. It would later go on to become the official sport of a nation. Half-Life came out, which was, well, a big deal, especially as far as mods go (Counter-Strike!). Fallout 2 came out, which I think is the best RPG ever made, eartern or western.
DDR made its debut in arcades; probably the best music game of all time. Arcades were pretty sweet at the time, actually. Marvel vs Capcom 1 and SF3:2 came out this year. I'd like to think King of Fighters '98 did too. :faust: (edit: and Soul Calibur!)
Pokemon Red and Blue came out in North America. Probably the best portable game of all time.
Metal Gear Solid came out, a pretty legendary game in its own right, popularizing stealth gameplay pretty much by itself.
Ocarina of Time came out. I think it's lame but I'm sure pretty much everyone else likes it. I almost wanted to say 1997 was the best year for all the godlike N64 games that came out that year. But, still, Banjo-Kazooie, Rush2 and F-Zero X were pretty awesome.
Dreamcast, a good console for cool dudes, came out in Japan!
I think some other cool things happened that are slipping my mind, but, yeah, '98 is still the best.
the PS1 recieved the beginning of the vastly underrated Spyro the Dragon series
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Shaymin on April 12, 2013, 10:17:55 PM
Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country 2, Crusader: No Remorse, Virtual On, Defcon 5, The Dig, Full Throttle, Earthworm Jim 2, Fighting Vipers, Front Mission, KOF '95, Kirby's Avalanche, Lufia II, Lady Stalker, Mario's Picross, Mega Man X3, Darkstalkers 2, Phantasmagoria, D, Rayman, Tekken II, Phantasy Star IV, Warcraft II, Tales of Phantasia, Secret of Evermore, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Street Fighter Alpha, Suikoden, Tactics Ogre, Terranigma, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Vectorman, Warhawk, XCOM, You Don't Know Jack aaaaaaaaaaaaand Kolibri, the finest hummingbird-based shooter on the 32X...
Basically, that sound you hear is 1995 shitting on your selection from the height of a transcontinental flight.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 12, 2013, 10:21:48 PM
Shaymin, are you picking and choosing regions? Getting really technically, but like EarthBound was 1994 in Japan (1995 in North America), but you cant say u went by North American dates because Mega Man X3 was 1996 in North America.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Stogi on April 13, 2013, 05:24:16 AM
Best year of gaming is this year and the next and so forth because I can play all the games you all mentioned right now.
But if I had to play by the rules, I'd say whenever mariokart 64 came out and slumber parties consisted of no slumber whatsoever.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: ejamer on April 13, 2013, 09:59:38 AM
Pshaw! "Real gamers" know that next year is always the best year for gaming. C'mon guys, get on the hype train already and keep those eyes focused forward...
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: RABicle on April 13, 2013, 10:20:51 AM
2007 gave us Mario Galaxy, CoD4, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Metroid Corruption, Halo 3, Rockband, Uncharted, Crysis, The Witcher, Portal, Pokémon Diamond/Pearl and of course Hotel Dusk. Unfortunately a lot of those great games have now been tarnished by endless derivative sequels and it could be argued that 2007 was maybe the worst year in gaming as a result but I'll always cherish it.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on April 13, 2013, 11:01:49 AM
Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong Country 2, Crusader: No Remorse, Virtual On, Defcon 5, The Dig, Full Throttle, Earthworm Jim 2, Fighting Vipers, Front Mission, KOF '95, Kirby's Avalanche, Lufia II, Lady Stalker, Mario's Picross, Mega Man X3, Darkstalkers 2, Phantasmagoria, D, Rayman, Tekken II, Phantasy Star IV, Warcraft II, Tales of Phantasia, Secret of Evermore, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Street Fighter Alpha, Suikoden, Tactics Ogre, Terranigma, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Vectorman, Warhawk, XCOM, You Don't Know Jack aaaaaaaaaaaaand Kolibri, the finest hummingbird-based shooter on the 32X...
Basically, that sound you hear is 1995 shitting on your selection from the height of a transcontinental flight.
A lot of those games land between average and terrible. Phantasmagoria? SFA1? You best be trollin'
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: oohhboy on April 13, 2013, 11:25:49 AM
Don't be a douche TJ. You're almost as bad as Ted from How I Met Your Mother.
I am far too indecisive to have a favorite year. While some years have great games, overall, there are too few of them. Then there are years with lots of games, but are too mediocre with too few classics. Then there is the mod factor, do you get the mods for classic games on PC or just the base game? I would go on, but it's making my brain hurt.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: alegoicoe on April 13, 2013, 07:32:58 PM
1998 hands down.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: BranDonk Kong on April 13, 2013, 10:01:29 PM
1993 - Mortal Kombat 2.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Fjurbanski on April 14, 2013, 02:08:53 AM
2013, obviously. The Wii U and Vita couldn't sell jack. Rayman Legends got delayed 6/7 months. THQ went out of business. Both EA's and Square's CEOs were canned. And of course you all remember the Sim City fiasco... 2013 was one crazy year.
Oh, wait. Best year in gaming? Never mind, then. '98
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: LABcrab on April 15, 2013, 07:55:16 PM
2006:
The Wii (best selling Nintendo home console yet)
Twilight Princess launch title
DS Lite (best selling Nintendo handheld yet)1
Multiple great DS games (Brain Age, Metroid, Pokémon, MVSDK2, NSMB, Star Fox, Yoshi's Island, etc…)
PlayStation 3 (helped Blu-Ray win the HD movie disc wars)
1 Based on this article (http://www.allgame.com/platform.php?id=17662), at least 60 million monochrome Game Boys were sold. For me, it's safe to say that such sales haven't surpassed the 93.42 million DS Lites sold.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: azeke on April 15, 2013, 11:35:08 PM
Best years were 2011, 2012 because then when i more or less started gaming on consoles and handhelds.
I know this year will be even better because with my literally decades old backlog i will play even more great games.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Do_What on April 16, 2013, 10:35:41 AM
Personally for me it's 2002
Metroid Fusion Megaman Zero Mario Sunshine Metroid Prime Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee Jedi Outkast Bounty Hunter harmony of dissonance robotech battlecry Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis
okay, so maybe there are better years. But The amount of hours I put into tactics ogre and metroid prime alone make this a great year for me. Did link to the past come out on gba that year with four swords? Cause that was a big deal in my life.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: Morari on April 16, 2013, 06:46:41 PM
1999: Dreamcast was released in America. It continues to be the most impressive console ever created.
Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament were both released for the PC. So many modern classics owe their very existence to the technology behind those two titles, that we might as well not even mention how great they actually played. It still doesn't get any better than Quake III Arena for competitive shooters to this day.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: bustin98 on April 17, 2013, 01:11:19 AM
1977. When I first played the Atari VCS. Without it, many a gamer would not have been born.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: ThePerm on April 17, 2013, 02:09:20 AM
Im going to say the same year as Ian: 1998
1997 games were also out that year too and had a lot of replay value. So if you are playing those games and the 1998 games you're going to have a lot of fun.
In 1998 I probably had as good of a time as I'm going to have.
Title: Re: What was the best year for gaming?
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on April 17, 2013, 04:14:16 AM
1997 games were also out that year too and had a lot of replay value. So if you are playing those games and the 1998 games you're going to have a lot of fun.
In 1998 I probably had as good of a time as I'm going to have.
Was my post invisible? I crave attention! :faust:
I kind of feel like '97 and '99 were pretty awesome as well. Just that three year stretch of excellent gaming. Off the top of my head, shoutouts to Mario Kart 64, Blast Corps, GoldenEye and Quake III.
Although, I think my next choice would be 2004. It has a lot of the best games ever made and a large number of my personal favorites.
- Metal Gear Solid 3 was pretty godlike (the best in the series!) - Halo 2 probably has a lot of haters here, but it's a great game, deal with it. It set an amazing new benchmark for console online play, really. And sexy LAN play too! - Naruto GNT3 came out, an amazing 4 player fighting game with a ton of characters, good design, and all-round awesomeness! Although GNT4 came out the next year was an improvement in most ways... - Astro Boy: Omega Factor on GBA. Developed by Treasure iirc. Easy to miss, but one of the absolute best games to come out for GBA. Seriously, like top 5. - Half Life 2 and CS:Source. All hail the Source engine. - Nintendo DS, the best portable system ever, released! The best 2004 games were Sprung and Band Brothers. :faust: - World of Warcraft holy ****
