Topic: What was the best year for gaming?

[NWR_insanolord]

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?

[Khushrenada]

1983. E.T. was on the market and videogame revenue was at an all time high.

[Fatty The Hutt]

1982


oh sorry, I meant for movies..

[Adrock]

1994 - Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI. Earthbound as well if we're going by the Japanese release.

[S-U-P-E-R]

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.    (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.

[Ian Sane]

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...

[Ceric]

'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.

[ShyGuy]

2000 was best for PC. had Deus Ex, Hitman Codename 47, American McGee's Alice, No One Lives Forever...

[pokepal148]

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.    (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

[Shaymin]

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.

[TJ Spyke]

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.

[Stogi]

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.

[ejamer]

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...

[RABicle]

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.

[S-U-P-E-R]

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'

[oohhboy]

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.

[alegoicoe]

1998 hands down.

[BranDonk Kong]

1993 - Mortal Kombat 2.

[Fjurbanski]

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

[LABcrab]

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.

[azeke]

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.

[Do_What]

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.

[Morari]

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.

[bustin98]

1977. When I first played the Atari VCS. Without it, many a gamer would not have been born.

[ThePerm]

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.