GasBandit
Staff member
If Valheim hadn't come out in 2021, Inscryption would have been my pick, too.
Select One Favourite Game Per Year Since Birth
- Thread starter ThatNickGuy
- Start date
2017 Breath of the Wild - Yes, I know I had Torment in here when I did this list last. I hadn't played BotW at that point yet.
2018 Subnautica - Actually how are we treating early access releases for this list? If we're going by official release date this goes here, if we're going by early access release then...eh, I'll keep Alien Isolation for 2014 but put Far: Lone Sails here.
2019 Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Can't remember what my easiest pick was for my original list, but this was the easiest pick for post 2017.
2020 Hades - Although this was almost as easy a pick.
2021 Metroid Dread - Honestly, I don't seem to have played a lot of 2021 video games. There's certainly a few that I intend to play at some point & I fully expect this to change once that happens.
2022 Vampire Survivors - Unless we're going by early access release dates in which case this definitely replaces Metroid Dread & Shredders Revenge goes here instead.
2023 N/A - Haven't played anything from this year yet.
2018 Subnautica - Actually how are we treating early access releases for this list? If we're going by official release date this goes here, if we're going by early access release then...eh, I'll keep Alien Isolation for 2014 but put Far: Lone Sails here.
2019 Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Can't remember what my easiest pick was for my original list, but this was the easiest pick for post 2017.
2020 Hades - Although this was almost as easy a pick.
2021 Metroid Dread - Honestly, I don't seem to have played a lot of 2021 video games. There's certainly a few that I intend to play at some point & I fully expect this to change once that happens.
2022 Vampire Survivors - Unless we're going by early access release dates in which case this definitely replaces Metroid Dread & Shredders Revenge goes here instead.
2023 N/A - Haven't played anything from this year yet.
This came real close to making my list if not for Endwalker. Such a good game, and also really explains to people unfamiliar with them why card games are so good.
1969: Lunar Lander
1970: Pong
1971: Oregon Trail
1972: Hunt the Wumpus
1973: Lemonade Stand
1974: Tank
1975: Colossal Cave Adventure
1976: Breakout
1977: Flipper (pinball)
1978: Space Invaders
1979: Galaxian
1980: Zork
1981: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
1982: Dig Dug
1983: Spy Hunter
1984: Karate Champ
1985: Choplifter
1986: Castlevania
1987: Street Fighter
1988: Altered Beast
1989: Golden Axe
1990: Railroad Tycoon
1991: Lemmings
1992: Mortal Kombat
1993: Virtua Fighter
1994: The Elder Scrolls: Arena
1995: Command & Conquer
1996: Duke Nukem
1997: Fallout
1998: Half-Life
1999: Homeworld
2000: The Sims
2001: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
2002: Neverwinter Nights
2003: Master of Orion III
2004: City of Heroes (yes, I liked it better than WoW)
2005: Civilization IV
2006: Battlefield 2142
2007: Tabula Rasa
2008: Sins of a Solar Empire
2009: Dragon Age: Origins
2010: Worms Reloaded
2011: Minecraft
2012: Diablo 3
2013: Rimworld
2014: Goat Simulator
2015: Kerbal Space Program
2016: Gnomoria
2017: nothing came out this year that I cared about
2018: Vampyr
2019: The Outer Worlds
2020: Animal Crossing New Horizons
2021: Wildermyth
2022: Grounded
1970: Pong
1971: Oregon Trail
1972: Hunt the Wumpus
1973: Lemonade Stand
1974: Tank
1975: Colossal Cave Adventure
1976: Breakout
1977: Flipper (pinball)
1978: Space Invaders
1979: Galaxian
1980: Zork
1981: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
1982: Dig Dug
1983: Spy Hunter
1984: Karate Champ
1985: Choplifter
1986: Castlevania
1987: Street Fighter
1988: Altered Beast
1989: Golden Axe
1990: Railroad Tycoon
1991: Lemmings
1992: Mortal Kombat
1993: Virtua Fighter
1994: The Elder Scrolls: Arena
1995: Command & Conquer
1996: Duke Nukem
1997: Fallout
1998: Half-Life
1999: Homeworld
2000: The Sims
2001: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
2002: Neverwinter Nights
2003: Master of Orion III
2004: City of Heroes (yes, I liked it better than WoW)
2005: Civilization IV
2006: Battlefield 2142
2007: Tabula Rasa
2008: Sins of a Solar Empire
2009: Dragon Age: Origins
2010: Worms Reloaded
2011: Minecraft
2012: Diablo 3
2013: Rimworld
2014: Goat Simulator
2015: Kerbal Space Program
2016: Gnomoria
2017: nothing came out this year that I cared about
2018: Vampyr
2019: The Outer Worlds
2020: Animal Crossing New Horizons
2021: Wildermyth
2022: Grounded
Personally, I'd go with its 1.0 release, like Grounded in 2022. But if people want to go with its first playable release? Sure, why not.
And yeah, @GasBandit, the way listing is supposed to work is picking one game from that year it released. Not the year you played it. There are some games, like Chrono Trigger, that I didn't play until much later in life. I never had the pleasure of playing Chrono Trigger on SNES, only on emulators.
Like the movies one, I find the most interesting part of this exercise is choosing just one game, especially when there is some SERIOUS competition. Because goddamn there are some years where picking just one is HARD.
1988 - Super Mario Bros. 3 - Still fire it up to this day, still can't beat world 8.
1989 - Fester's Quest - Weird and goofy(creepy and kooky?) and not actually that good, I have a lot of great memories of playing this with my Mom.
1990 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game(NES PORT) - I was big into the turtles when I was younger, still bad at this.
1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog - Same as Mario above, still occasionally will fire this up, still can't beat it.
1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - There might be others but this is the first game I can recall beating.
1993 - Kirby's Adventure - This is the first game I recall specifically asking for myself. Gameplay is tight.
1994 - Donkey Kong Country - Some games prior to this definitely have great sound but this has got to be one of the first that I really took notice of. Graphics seemed impossible at the time, all capped by amazing, frustrating at times, gameplay. Definitely one of the great classics.
1995 - Comix Zone - Definitely struggled here, Comix Zone was a decent side scroller beat em up that had a really cool art direction and concept. I don't think I ever made it passed level 3.
1996 - Pokemon Red - Has to take it by default. So many hours and dollars gone and this is where it all started.
1997 - I actually don't have a clear winner here. It likely would have been Final Fantasy 7 but I never played it in it's original form, nor Tactics. I guess I'd have to give it to Golden Eye for what it was but even that I didn't have myself so just got slaughtered any time I played it vs people that did.
1998 - Jade Cocoon: Story of Tamamayu - Likely spurned on by Pokemon, I fell into monster collection games hard and loved the way you could merge in this.
1999 - Monster Rancher 2 - Gameplay is a little meh but using other CD's or games to generate monsters was a really neat gimmick. Digimon World could easily sit here as well.
2000 - Half-Life: Counter-Strike - Though I know I didn't play this at release it was the first shooter I really got into myself. My preferred servers though were the weird modded ones that gave you XP per kill and on level up you got to pick from a range of superpowers.
2001 - Final Fantasy X - This is the first one I played and will always hold a special spot for that.
2002 - Dark Cloud 2 - Lots of dull fetch quest stuff but man did I sink HOURS into this. Easily could go to Vice City or Morrowind as well.
2003 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Putting Bioware on my radar and cementing them as a favorite for almost a decade.
2004 - City of Heroes - For being the first, and really only, MMO I got into. Such dull missions in hindsight but it didn't matter. Costume contests were the real game. Tough year though as Half-Life 2, San Andreas, Spider-Man 2, Kotor 2 and a few others made this a tough choice.
2005 - Psychonauts - Nothing else really comes close this year. Not to diminish Psychonauts, it firmly belongs in the top spot here. Maybe Guitar Hero just for the cultural impact it'd have for the next few years though I always liked Rock Band better for that genre myself.
2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Incredible
2007 - Mass Effect - Despite never quite living up to the original's promise and some missteps overall later, Mass Effect remains one of my favourite series to this day. Dumb fuck Mako missions almost push this down though...
2008 - Fallout 3 - I was sick the week this came out and basically lived in front of it.
2009 - League of Legends -This should go to Borderlands for being incredibly satisfying and just plain fun to play but time played overall says I need to give it to League even if I didn't start playing it myself until 2013.
2010 - Mass Effect 2 - Best of the 3(there is only 3), Mako missions are replaced by tedious scanning though and that's almost worse. New Vegas holds high honors here as well.
2011 - Skyrim - It just wins here. Culturally, gameplay-wise, number of rereleases since. Hands down.
2012 - Borderlands 2 - Improves on everything from the first and gives us one of the best villains in gaming. Mass Effect 3 would be here if not for the end.
2013 - The Last of Us - Maybe GTA5, both for very different reasons.
2014 - Shadow of Mordor - I wish they'd allow the nemesis system into more games. Such a cool feature.
2015 - The Witcher 3 - Open world at its best
2016 - Stardew Valley - The reason Harvest Moon didn't show up earlier in the list was that Stardew does it better. Firewatch is a close one here.
2017 - Breath of the Wild - The best Ubisoft game they never made.
2018 - Red Dead Redemption - It's slow and hand holdy throughout it's entire run but the scope of interactions and amount of activities you can do, on top of a stellar story push past its foibles. Hades is probably the more correct choice but I'm comfortable putting it at 2nd to Red Dead.
2019 - Outer Wilds - Not what should have been The Outer Worlds, had it actually been good.
2020 - The Last of Us: Part II - My favourite game I've only played once. Story is HEAVY.
2021 - Guardians of the Galaxy - Pretty weak year but I guess the fallout of a global pandemic might do that. Struggled to find anything here that I actually had played. this wins mostly by being the only thing that stood out.
2022 - Elden Ring - It's just chef's kiss great. And I hated the other souls types games. Marvel Snap is gunning for it's spot though I only started this year.
2023 - Nothing so far. I expect Tears of the Kingdom to take this. Maybe Spider-Man 2, maybe Jedi Survivor, maybe
1989 - Fester's Quest - Weird and goofy(creepy and kooky?) and not actually that good, I have a lot of great memories of playing this with my Mom.
1990 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game(NES PORT) - I was big into the turtles when I was younger, still bad at this.
1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog - Same as Mario above, still occasionally will fire this up, still can't beat it.
1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - There might be others but this is the first game I can recall beating.
1993 - Kirby's Adventure - This is the first game I recall specifically asking for myself. Gameplay is tight.
1994 - Donkey Kong Country - Some games prior to this definitely have great sound but this has got to be one of the first that I really took notice of. Graphics seemed impossible at the time, all capped by amazing, frustrating at times, gameplay. Definitely one of the great classics.
1995 - Comix Zone - Definitely struggled here, Comix Zone was a decent side scroller beat em up that had a really cool art direction and concept. I don't think I ever made it passed level 3.
1996 - Pokemon Red - Has to take it by default. So many hours and dollars gone and this is where it all started.
1997 - I actually don't have a clear winner here. It likely would have been Final Fantasy 7 but I never played it in it's original form, nor Tactics. I guess I'd have to give it to Golden Eye for what it was but even that I didn't have myself so just got slaughtered any time I played it vs people that did.
1998 - Jade Cocoon: Story of Tamamayu - Likely spurned on by Pokemon, I fell into monster collection games hard and loved the way you could merge in this.
1999 - Monster Rancher 2 - Gameplay is a little meh but using other CD's or games to generate monsters was a really neat gimmick. Digimon World could easily sit here as well.
2000 - Half-Life: Counter-Strike - Though I know I didn't play this at release it was the first shooter I really got into myself. My preferred servers though were the weird modded ones that gave you XP per kill and on level up you got to pick from a range of superpowers.
2001 - Final Fantasy X - This is the first one I played and will always hold a special spot for that.
2002 - Dark Cloud 2 - Lots of dull fetch quest stuff but man did I sink HOURS into this. Easily could go to Vice City or Morrowind as well.
2003 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Putting Bioware on my radar and cementing them as a favorite for almost a decade.
2004 - City of Heroes - For being the first, and really only, MMO I got into. Such dull missions in hindsight but it didn't matter. Costume contests were the real game. Tough year though as Half-Life 2, San Andreas, Spider-Man 2, Kotor 2 and a few others made this a tough choice.
2005 - Psychonauts - Nothing else really comes close this year. Not to diminish Psychonauts, it firmly belongs in the top spot here. Maybe Guitar Hero just for the cultural impact it'd have for the next few years though I always liked Rock Band better for that genre myself.
2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Incredible
2007 - Mass Effect - Despite never quite living up to the original's promise and some missteps overall later, Mass Effect remains one of my favourite series to this day. Dumb fuck Mako missions almost push this down though...
2008 - Fallout 3 - I was sick the week this came out and basically lived in front of it.
2009 - League of Legends -This should go to Borderlands for being incredibly satisfying and just plain fun to play but time played overall says I need to give it to League even if I didn't start playing it myself until 2013.
2010 - Mass Effect 2 - Best of the 3(there is only 3), Mako missions are replaced by tedious scanning though and that's almost worse. New Vegas holds high honors here as well.
2011 - Skyrim - It just wins here. Culturally, gameplay-wise, number of rereleases since. Hands down.
2012 - Borderlands 2 - Improves on everything from the first and gives us one of the best villains in gaming. Mass Effect 3 would be here if not for the end.
2013 - The Last of Us - Maybe GTA5, both for very different reasons.
2014 - Shadow of Mordor - I wish they'd allow the nemesis system into more games. Such a cool feature.
2015 - The Witcher 3 - Open world at its best
2016 - Stardew Valley - The reason Harvest Moon didn't show up earlier in the list was that Stardew does it better. Firewatch is a close one here.
2017 - Breath of the Wild - The best Ubisoft game they never made.
2018 - Red Dead Redemption - It's slow and hand holdy throughout it's entire run but the scope of interactions and amount of activities you can do, on top of a stellar story push past its foibles. Hades is probably the more correct choice but I'm comfortable putting it at 2nd to Red Dead.
2019 - Outer Wilds - Not what should have been The Outer Worlds, had it actually been good.
2020 - The Last of Us: Part II - My favourite game I've only played once. Story is HEAVY.
2021 - Guardians of the Galaxy - Pretty weak year but I guess the fallout of a global pandemic might do that. Struggled to find anything here that I actually had played. this wins mostly by being the only thing that stood out.
2022 - Elden Ring - It's just chef's kiss great. And I hated the other souls types games. Marvel Snap is gunning for it's spot though I only started this year.
2023 - Nothing so far. I expect Tears of the Kingdom to take this. Maybe Spider-Man 2, maybe Jedi Survivor, maybe
Last edited:
GasBandit
Staff member
Just a heads up, Rimworld 1.0 was a 2017 release. So now you get a free 2013 pick!
I just realized I want to change some of my previous choices because I've now played more games.
2015: (Originally Prison Architect) I now choose Fallout 4. Sure, it watered down the gameplay and it's just as glitchy and janky as any other Bethesda game, but given the sheer number of hours I've put in it, there can be no other choice.
2017: (Originally Subnautica) I now choose Divinity: Original Sin 2. A lovingly crafted ode to classic fantasy RPGs. It's very well written, and the gameplay rewards innovative thinking, being unabashedly unbalanced.
2015: (Originally Prison Architect) I now choose Fallout 4. Sure, it watered down the gameplay and it's just as glitchy and janky as any other Bethesda game, but given the sheer number of hours I've put in it, there can be no other choice.
2017: (Originally Subnautica) I now choose Divinity: Original Sin 2. A lovingly crafted ode to classic fantasy RPGs. It's very well written, and the gameplay rewards innovative thinking, being unabashedly unbalanced.