Select One Favourite Game Per Year Since Birth

[ThatNickGuy]

All right, folks, just like the movie thread, we're gonna do the Pick One Game For Each Year starting with your year of birth. Given that video games have only been around for about 40 years, you older folk (DAVE) can start later.

Again, this is picking ONE game as your favourite to represent each year. I imagine this will be easy early on and get harder as the video game industry grew.

EDIT: Now that I'm done, this list wasn't too hard for me. It got easier for me, honestly, as time progressed because I played less and less AAA games and more indie games. Hardest was definitely around the 90s and early 2000s. It was a bit difficult to find release dates for some games. Adventure games didn't always get listed when I googled "games in 199x," so I had to double check release dates for individual favourite games.

Also, I'll put all this behind a spoiler tag for easier scrolling for when (or if) others post. You can do the same, if you'd like.

Spoiler

1978 Space Invaders. Not a lot to choose from yet. I played a bit of the arcade game for this. But like the movie thread, I thought it was hilarious that the Superman game on Atari also released this year.
1979 Asteroids. I played the hell out of this on a black & white TV on my Atari.
1980 Missile Command. Pac-Man debuted this year, but I didn't play it nearly as much as Missile Command.
1981 Donkey Kong. I had one of those little mini-arcade case games and played this a lot.
1982 E.T. I know. I KNOW. But when I was a kid, I played the hell out of this largely because E.T. was my favourite movie.
1983 Jumpman. I never owned it, but my cousin did and I obsessively played this every time I visited.
1984 King's Quest I. And thus, my love for adventures games began. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Duck Hunt are close second and third.
1985 Super Mario Bros. Nothing comes close to what launched Nintendo into households.
1986 Rampage. Some iconic classics here, but I wasn't a big fan of them growing up. Rampage, though, I played many times in the arcade. Bubble Bobble and Space Quest I come close here.
1987 Final Fantasy. No contest. I was excited to play this the second I read about it in Nintendo Power.
1988 Super Mario 2.
1989 Friday the 13th. I put way more hours into this than I probably realize.
1990 Secret of Monkey Island. And thus my love for LucasArts games began. Actraiser and King's Quest V get honourable mentions.
1991 Final Fantasy IV. Even super-strong contenders like Civilization, Battletoads, Turtles in Time, and Zelda: A Link to the Past can't beat out one of my all time favourite games.
1992 Dagger of Amon Ra. King's Quest VI is a very close second, but the KQ series already got some love on this list. So I'm giving it to Laura Bow (phrasing!).
1993 Gabriel Knight Sins of the Father. No contest for another of my all-time favourites. Honourable mentions to Day of the Tentacle and The 7th Guest.
1994 Earthbound. Geez, Earthbound AND Final Fantasy VI. But Final Fantasy already got two spots and VI isn't even my favourite of them. While I didn't play Earthbound until many years later, I still loved it.
1995 Chrono Trigger. REALLY tough choice between this and Full Throttle. But adventure games are getting a lot of love, already.
1996 Leisure Suit Larry 7. Larry deserves some love, so we'll give him this spot for the best game in his series. Duke Nukem 3D deserves some credit here, too. Mario 64 debuted, but I've honestly never played it.
1997 Curse of Monkey Island. Adventure games started dying off at this point. Sierra's heydays were already gone. Final Fantasy VII debuted this year, but I'm not as big on it as previous entries.
1998 Metal Gear Solid. The PS1 had some great titles, but this is one of my favourites. REALLY tough competition in Half-Life and Grim Fandango. I ALMOST gave it to Grim Fandango.
1999 Alien vs Predator. Nothing really solid jumping out here for me, so we'll give it to a fun FPS game.
2000 WWE No Mercy. I was late into playing the N64, largely for this and Conker's Bad Fur Day. I honestly didn't play any other games on it aside from these.
2001 Shadow of Destiny. Conker could have this spot, but No Mercy fills the "favourite N64 games" spot. Grand Theft Auto III came close, but I liked later entries in the series more. Ditto for Metal Gear Solid 2 (MGS1 is better). Honourable mention to Max Payne.
2002 Grand Theft Auto Vice City. One of the best in the series, in my opinion. If only for the soundtrack. Honourable mention to Age of Mythology.
2003 Ghost Master. Yeah, a weird choice, but there wasn't much else here jumping out at me. And this is a hidden gem, in my opinion. I still bust this out on Steam once in awhile.
2004 City of Heroes. Oof, some hard choices here. Half-Life 2, Spider-Man 2, and GTA San Andreas all could've had this. But City of Heroes gave me too many memories, especially with Doug the Troll.
2005 Psychonauts. Civilization IV also launched this year, but its expansions made it more memorable for me. Honourable mention to The Movies, another underrated gem.
2006 Civilization IV: Warlords. Really, Beyond the Sword was the best expansion, but I'll put Warlords here since 2007 already has something. Bully is another notable one here. Honestly, at this point, City of Heroes took up most of my gaming time.
2007 Half-Life 2 Episode 2. I almost just put The Orange Box as the whole entry, but that'd be cheating. The Half-Life 2 series deserved some love. Portal and Team Fortress 2 are also great, though.
2008 World of Goo. I was living in Toronto at this point with only my laptop and no access (or money) for consoles. Thankfully, this is when indie games like World of Goo started appearing on Steam. Fantastic timing.
2009 Batman Arkham Asylum. And then I lived with a roommate who had a PS3 and a big screen TV. No contest here for the Dark Knight, though solid competition from Prototype and Infamous.
2010 Red Dead Redemption. Honourable mentions to Dead Rising 2 and Super Meat Boy.
2011 Batman Arkham City. Not a lot of competition here. I've never been big on Skyrim. I liked Portal 2, but not as much as Arkham City. LA Noir is an honourable mention because I enjoyed it at the time.
2012 The Walking Dead. Tough choice between this and FTL. But FTL didn't leave me a blubbering mess. Journey gets a respectable mention here, too.
2013 Saints Row IV. No question the best of the series. Don't Starve and Papers Please were close, too.
2014 Blackwell Epiphany. No AAA games really jumping out here. Broken Age almost took this until I checked when the Blackwell games released. So a great indie adventure game series brings us back full circle as we near the end.
2015 The Witcher 3. Sorry Undertale. REALLY sorry Life is Strange. But The Witcher 3 was one of the few AAA games in years to really grab me by the balls and refuse to let go.
2016 Stardew Valley. Honestly, if I could list The Witcher 3 twice, I would. But Stardew Valley was greatly enjoyable.
2017 (so far). Eh, nothing yet, really. I don't think I've played anything that's released this year. Played a bit of Horizon: Zero Dawn at a friends house, but not enough to even put it on here.

 

[Frank]

Ok.

1983 - Dungeons of Daggorath. Amazing FPS dungeon crawler with some of the most tense atmosphere of any game I had ever played.
I'm just going to go by the list that Google brings up for ease sake. I know most of these didn't come out here until later since the NES didn't come out here until late 1985 and most folk didn't own one until the end of 86 and later.
1984 - Tetris. Fuck you that's why. It's one of the greatest games ever made that puzzle games have been hoping to emulate since.
1985 - Super Mario Brothers. It's basically THE game.
1986 - The Legend of Zelda. I remember renting this (much later than 86, didn't get a Nintendo until 89) and skipping out on my Cubs meeting by pretending to be sick so I could play it. Awesome.
1987 - Blades of Steel. BRAYDES URV STEHRL.
1988 - Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2. Mega Man 2.
1989 - Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse. I got this for Christmas. It was awesome as fuck. It's still probably the hardest game I've ever beaten. Over and over and over and over again. This game is so hard that the AVGN gave up on it. He beat Contra without the 30 life code. Castlevania 3 was Dark Souls hard before there was a Dark Souls.
1990 - Mega Man 3. Because it's awesome too.
1991 - Super Mario World. The greatest 2D platformer ever made. Remember the Sega commercials showing off that Sonic was faster than Mario. Sonic sucked. Mario World is better than literally every Sonic game combined.
1992 - Star Control 2. The best game ever made in my opinion. I don't think I can ever love another game like I love Star Control 2.
1993 - Mega Man X. I like Mega Man games too, don't know if you noticed.
1994 - Final Fantasy 3/6. Magitek, Espers, Gods, oh my!
1995 - Command and Conquer. FMV plus rad RTS. In.
1996 - Command and Conquer Red Alert. You might see a sharp right turn into PC gaming at this point. I'm sure there will be some console road side turnouts along the way.
1997 - Fallout. THE post apocalyptic RPG.
1998 - Fallout 2. THE second post apocalyptic RPG.
1999 - Planescape Torment. Black Isle, I love you.
2000 - Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. Jesus Christ what an epic 4 years for RPGs. Fucking glory days right here.
2001 - Grand Theft Auto 3. Who didn't play too much of this?
2002 - Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Still the best Elder Scrolls game. Atmosphere and lack of fast travel made you explore so much. Cliff racers can fuck off forever though.
2003 - Freelancer. Wonderful huge space adventure that places you in control of a freewheeling anything you want to be in space Ian Zeiling. I've never played a game that captured the same feeling as when you go beyond the borders of explored space into what felt like the lonely unknown.
2004 - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I knew I'd be back into console territory eventually.
2005 - Shadow of the Colossus. I guess. This year isn't great for me. (Remember I only just played through Res 4 for the first time this year 2017).
2006 - Fight Night Round 3. I loved, loved, loved this game and this is the last time I would even like a Fight Night game. The boxing felt wonderful and the controls were spot on. Later incarnations would look and feel like flailing idiots.
2007 - Mass Effect. I loved everything (almost) about this damn game. The atmosphere, the shlocky sci-fi story, the sweet synth soundtrack.
2008 - Fallout 3, the greatest post apocalyptic RPG EVER. Ha ha ha ha, no. Fuck that game and you. I'd be a liar if Wrath of the Lich King wasn't my choice here. This was my peak WoW game time.
2009 - Dragon Age Origins I guess, this year kind of wasn't great.
2010 - Pac Man Championship Edition DX. True story, I was once in the top 10 scores in the world in the base 5 minute score attack mode. Now I'm like 1500th. Everyone but me got better. Heads up, this game is fucking rad.
2011 - Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I guess. I dunno. Fuck games have gotten samey in the last 8 years.
2012 - Witcher 2. Flawed but rad.
2013 - The Last of Us I guess. Jeez. Lists of best games for these last few years are really boring.
2014 - Shovel Knight. Breath of fresh air.
2015 - The Witcher 3. Still the best open world RPG.
2016 - Tyranny. YESHHHHH.
2017 - Zelda Breath of the Wild.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Nick, you're nuts.

I feel like this will be harder to search for because there's no video game equivalent to IMDB.

Also because 2011 was a good year.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Nick, you're nuts.

I feel like this will be harder to search for because there's no video game equivalent to IMDB.

Also because 2011 was a good year.

Well, I did the same thing as last time: googled "Games in [year]" which gave me a handy scrolling list of the most well-known titles. Which wasn't handy because it missed many smaller games.

The only thing that made it harder for me was adventure games weren't often listed with the big NES/Sega games. Or later on, indie games. So I had two different tabs open: one for games in general for that year, another for indie games. Or a list of Sierra and LucasArts games.

...yeah, I'm sure there was an easier way to do that.

 

[Dave]

I was 7 before video games were even a thing and that was pong.

 

[jwhouk]

I was 7 before video games were even a thing and that was pong.

Me too. 1967-1977 would be basically, "Uh, nothing?"

 

[bhamv3]

Hm, this is hard because I haven't played many older games, but I'll have a go:

1981: Donkey Kong, by virtue of being the only game I've played from this year.
1982: Dig Dug, same reason.
1983: Bomberman, though I never played it in its original systems when it was released this year.
1984: Paperboy. Notably, this beats out Tetris and Duck Hunt.
1985: Super Mario Bros. No brainer given how much of a classic this game is.
1986: ... I have literally never played a game from this year. No, not even the first Zelda.
1987: It's gotta be Contra, if nothing else but for how widespread it made the classic code.
1988: Altered Beast. One of the first games I played on Genesis.
1989: Golden Axe.
1990: Quest for Glory 2. This is actually the only QfG game I've played.
1991: Street Fighter 2. I was so bad at it, but I loved it. Golden Axe 2 is a narrow runner up.
1992: Might and Magic: Clouds of Xeen. This narrowly beats out Lucky and Wild, which I contend is the funnest arcade game ever.
1993: Might and Magic: Darkside of Xeen. Could be combined with Clouds to make one game. That's right, Xeen was the original Tale of Two Wastelands.
1994: Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Shut up, this counts as one game.
1995: Virtua Fighter 2. This game was basically the reason I got a Saturn. Warcraft 2 was also good.
1996: Aw man. This is a tough year. Ok, I gotta go with Fighters Megamix. This was the other reason I got a Saturn. However, I also enjoyed Quake, Pokemon R/B, Tomb Raider, Master of Orion 2, and probably a few others I'm forgetting.
1997: I suppose I'd have to pick Quake 2, although Tomb Raider 2 was good as well.
1998: Half-Life. It basically revolutionized the FPS genre with its storytelling innovations. Thief, Resident Evil 2, and Pokemon Yellow were also games I enjoyed from this year.
1999: Final Fantasy 8. Shut up, I like Squall and Rinoa. Pokemon G/S was also good, as was Half-Life: Opposing Force.
2000: Red Alert 2. Had tons of fun in it even if I never played multiplayer (played one match, got owned, decided never to play again). Thief 2 and Deus Ex were also good games this year.
2001: Black and White. Flawed game, to be sure, but going full evil deity has rarely felt so hands-on and fun. (Toss ALL the villagers!) Golden Sun was also released this year, and I liked it. Championship Manager 01/02 was also a strong contender for this year, based on sheer number of hours played.
2002: GTA: Vice City. This was basically my first introduction to open-world gaming, and I haven't looked back since.
2003: Hmm, this looks like another rather barren year in terms of games I've played. I guess I'd have to pick Deus Ex: Invisible War, by virtue of it being one of the few games I've tried from this year.
2004: Half-Life 2. Another classic. Doom 3 was also released this year, which was a flawed game but also quite enjoyable. Oh, and Garry's Mod was first released in 2004, I've had a lot of fun in it over the years, though I suppose you may not be able to call it a game.
2005: Quake 4. That stroggification sequence...
2006: Oooh, tough one here. I'm torn between Oblivion and Hitman: Blood Money. I suppose I'll go with Oblivion, given how I have so many more hours in it than Hitman. Blood Money is definitely the best Hitman game though.
2007: This was a good year. I suppose I'd have to pick Portal, though there was also HL2: Ep2, TF2, Bioshock, COD4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect...
2008: Fallout 3 (*ducks*). The 0.28.181.40d version of Dwarf Fortress was also released this year, and that's when I started playing with dorfs.
2009: Another great year. I think I'll go for Assassin's Creed 2. This year also contained Borderlands, Arkham Asylum, L4D2, Dragon Age: Origins, Prototype...
2010: New Vegas beats out Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Just Cause 2, Civ 5, Darksiders, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Metro 2033...
2011: Aw man, this was a ridiculous year... okay, going with Skyrim here, although Portal 2, Arkham City, Human Revolution, Bulletstorm, Saints Row 3, Dead Space 2, AC: Revelations, etc were all very enjoyable too. Also I just realized I have never played Minecraft.
2012: XCOM: Enemy Unknown, although Dishonored comes a close second. Spec Ops: the Line, Torchlight 2, and Assassin's Creed 3 were also decently fun experiences.
2013: GTA5 beats out Bioshock Infinite, AC: Black Flag, Injustice, Tomb Raider, and Saints Row 4, though this might be because I've been on a major GTA5 binge lately.
2014: We're now getting into games I haven't played because I've been waiting for them to go on sale on Steam. Among the 2014 games, though, I think I'd pick Shadows ofs Mordors.
2015: Prison Architect. Lots of fun if you like building stuff, though it's also a bit glitchy.
2016: Pokemon Sun/Moon, narrowly beating out Stardew Valley and DOOM.
2017: Does early access count if it's projected to be released this year? If so, Subnautica.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

I was 7 before video games were even a thing and that was pong.

Me too. 1967-1977 would be basically, "Uh, nothing?"

Given that video games have only been around for about 40 years, you older folk (DAVE) can start later.

I'm sure you guys gamed once the whole rigamarole started. Just go from there.

 

[Dave]

This was incredibly difficult for me as there are several I don't know the year for, some I know the approximate year but not the name of the game, etc. This thing has taken me hours as I keep going back and editing as I remember years and games.

1965 - 1971 - Nothing.
1972 - Pong
1973 - 1976 Nothing. There were really no new consoles or even stand-up video games. These came later.
1977 - Space Wars. Mother fucking Space Wars. A console game where two people set the parameters up ahead of time like gravity, etc. and then you tried to blow the other one up. Man did we spend a lot of quarters on this one. But we also played a game called Empire that was the first real strategy game. There were several days I played it only to stop playing it to go to work THE NEXT DAY'S SHIFT!
1978 - Space Invaders. I wasn't very good at it, but it was popular so I played it.
1979 - Asteroids. Same as above. I wasn't very good but it was popular.
1980 - Pac-Man. There can be only one.
1981 - Wizardry. The first computer RPG and the one that sucked me in to the genre for good. Donkey Kong gets second place, although there are several that made the short list like Galaga, Tempest, Qix, & Wizard of Wor.
1982 - Joust, but holy shit are there a lot of them on this list I played a lot. Q-Bert & Pole Position, especially. I also played a lot of Pengu, believe it or not. At one time it was the only video game in my town. I got really good at it.
1983 - This one might surprise you. Archon. A chess game where you make your moves but the pieces actually had to fight over the space. Yeah the "queen" was stupidly powerful compared to the "pawn" (these weren't what they were called) but you could beat the Queen if you were good enough. It was the first of it's kind and pretty amazing. No, I didn't get in to Dragon's Lair. It was nothing more that a cheap way of sucking quarters from you. I mean, they all were but DL was especially egregious about it. Second place would probably be "I AM SINISTAR!!" "RUN, COWARD, RUN!!"
1984 - Impossible Mission. Man was this a hard game. But I loved it. And I beat it, too. Honorable mention to Kung Fu Master. Played the shit out of that game as well.
1985 - Another really tough choice because I loved two games equally. Bard's Tale and Racing Destruction Set. I think I'll give the nod to Bard's Tale, but I think I had more fun playing RDS as it was a racing game where you could build your own tracks, set gravity, etc. It was a shitload of fun to set gravity to moon and take your dragster on a ramp and watch it fly into the atmosphere before crashing down to earth. I also played a game called Wizard's Crown a lot. Like a whole bunch.
1986 - I didn't game a lot in 1986, probably because I was in the Marines and didn't have a computer yet. I did play Bard's Tale II on a friend's so I guess I'll pick that. I did get my own soon, though.
1987 - The Eternal Dagger. It was a sequel to Wizard's Crown and while not nearly as good was still fun. And it was by SSI, which was a company I bought every time they published something.
1988 - Pool of Radiance. D&D come to computer? Holy shit! Made by SSI? HOLY SHIT!
1989 - Curse of the Azure Bonds. Sequel to Pool of Radiance.
1990 - Secret of the Silver Blades. Sequel to Curse of the Azure Bonds. Sensing a trend here?
1991 - Eye of the Beholder. Has to be. An RPG by SSI? I really wanted to put Civilization first, but Eye was a better fit for me. (You thought I was going to say Pools of Darkness - sequel to Secret of the Silver Blades, didn't you? Well, that comes in at #3.)
1992 - The Dark Queen of Krynn. I wasn't a big Dragonlance guy, but it was a D&D adventure by SSI. Say no more.
1993 - Dungeon Hack. By SSI. An RPG like Eye of the Beholder. This had Dave written all over it.
1994 - Earthworm Jim. My son was three and my daughter had just been born. Wasn't able to game very much as I was working two jobs and raising two small kids.
1995 - Earthworm Jim 2. It sucked compared to the first one, but it was one of the few games I was able to get and play.
1996 - Diablo. Holy shit, Diablo. A procedurally generated isometric clickfest of loot and darkness. I was hooked immediately. When the kids and wife were asleep I'd be killing demons. A very, VERY close second would be Daggerfall. Holy fucknuts this wa s a huge game world! I loved the open world feel, not knowing what it would bring in the future.
1997 - A very hard year for me. There's Carmageddon and Fallout. Fuck it. Carmageddon. My friend and I would get together and play this game. It was my first experience with LAN gaming and I fucking loved it. Yeah, Fallout was a post-apocalyptic RPG that I loved, but for sheer fun and laugh until you can't breath fuckery, Carmageddon.
1998 - Half-Life wins a close one over Fallout 2, Baldur's Gate, and Thief. This was really the first first-person shooter to keep my attention. I'd played others, but I really enjoyed HL.
1999 - This must be the year I started back to school because nothing jumps out at me. I was in college, raising a family, and working two jobs. Video games weren't exactly on my radar. I still played them when I had a chance, but I had 0 money to buy new ones.
2000 - Diablo 2. No question. First game I bought in a long time and it was worth every penny.
2001 - Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. Yes, I rate this over Wolfenstein and Civ III. Why? It took one of my favorite games of all time and basically made it anew. It was like buying the game again for the first time.
2002 - Morrowwind. Yes, better than Neverwinter Nights. Morrowind took the open world feel and scope of Daggerfall and made a better gaming interface around it.
2003 - Deus Ex. It was okay. Again, I was starting my Master's program so money was scarce.
2004 - Oh fuck. World of Warcraft, Half Life 2, Doom 3, City of Heroes, KotOR. Oh shit. Uh...Half Life 2. Not for any reason, but just because I have to pick one.
2005 - CIv IV or F.E.A.R. Hmm. I still occasionally play Civ IV, but I loved F.E.A.R.
2006 - Oblivion. No contest. And I graduated college.
2007 - Mass Effect. Portal was too short and I almost never played Rock Band unless there were people around (which was almost never). Bioshock was excellent, too. But still, Mass Effect.
2008 - Fallout 3. Easily the best on my list.
2009 - Borderlands. I wanted to like F.E.A.R. 2, but it just wasn't to be.
2010 - Fallout 3: New Vegas. Nothing more needs to be said.
2011 - Skyrim. And my 800+ hours prove it. With all its problems I still think it's one of the best games ever made.
2012 - Borderlands 2. WAY fun to play and I fucking LOVE the opening number and listen to it every time. I rated it above Diablo 3 even though I still play D3 a lot, because when it was released D3 sucked. The real money auction house and other stupid decisions almost tanked the game.
2013 - Bioshock Infinite. And not because I had a think for Elizabeth.
2014 - South Park: The Stick of Truth. Don't judge me. It is a good game.
2015 - The Witcher 3 beats Fallout 4 thanks to Preston "hey there's a settlement that needs help" Garvey.
2016 - X-COM 2. It pains me to say that because I only kinda liked it. I wasn't that excited for anything in 2016 and 2017 is shaping up the same way.

So that's it. I've forgotten a lot that I'm going to remember later. Like there was a game in the early 80's where you could steal and fight cars. Like you'd have a bunch of people, get a big rig, and fight other vehicles by going broadsides and having everyone open up. It was amazing but I can't remember the name.[DOUBLEPOST=1491791617,1491791089][/DOUBLEPOST]And I have the first revision. The first of many. X-COM in 1994 beats out Earthworm Jim.

 

[Hailey Knight]

1985: Super Mario Bros being an easy choice. Don't enjoy it as much as I used to, but I played the hell out of for years and years as a kid.
1986: The Legend of Zelda partly by being the only game from that year that I played, but also I was pretty impressed once I got around to playing it. It's complex for a game of that era.
1987: Mega Man. Another highly impressive game, especially when it's only competition for games I've played is Zelda II.
1988: Tough year. Super Mario Bros 3, Altered Beast, but I'll have to go with Mega Man 2 for just overall fun. I played a lot of Super Mario 3, but a lot of that was arguing with my sister or frustration at the game's nonsense.
1989: Godzilla: Monster of Monsters. This game sucks. But I also haven't played anything else from this year that shows up in the search, and I played it way more than it deserved as a kid. In fact, it was the first game I ever beat. But it was also repetitive, poorly-functioning, and terrible overall.
1990: Super Mario World
1991: Sonic the Hedgehog
1992: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (list is starting to get a little milquetoast)
1993: Doom feels like a no-brainer.
1994: Strong year. Though I don't desire to really re-play any of these, Final Fantasy VI was a real beast from that year.
1995: Chrono Trigger; I don't even need to search for what else came out that year. I'm in the middle of a replay now, and I can't count how many times I've played it already in the past 20 years. It's one of those rare JRPGs that genuinely feels like the big deal they're all supposed to be.
1996: Geez, what a year. Resident Evil, Mario 64, Super Mario RPG, Terranigma ... however, I gotta go with the game that totally absorbed me back in the late 90s, Pokemon Red.
1997: Final Fantasy Tactics, no-brainer.
1998: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, also easy, but I want to note that it sucks having to pass over excellent games like Parasite Eve and the original Metal Gear Solid.
1999: For many this was a big year, but for me it was a lot of letdowns like Donkey Kong 64, Chrono Cross, FFVIII. So, Half-Life it is without much opposition.
2000: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask both for personal reasons and because I haven't play the other acclaimed games of that year.
2001: Super Smash Bros MeleXe
2002: Resident Evil Remake on Gamecube.
2003: Anything I list for this year would be default. Yeah, I played Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and Silent Hill 3 and Mario Kart: Double Dash, but I really have no strong feelings about them or anything else I played that year. I'm just gonna call this for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne since I actually played through all of that one.
2004: This was a big year, but Half-Life 2 was the real deal. Doesn't matter that I put more hours into WoW.
2005: Shadow of the Colossus. This game just mesmerizes me.
2006: Okami is beautiful, fun, endearing, and sadly overlooked, but I love the hell out of it.
2007: Without contest, Bioshock. I still get chills at its most pivotal scene, even 10 years later.
2008: I'll always love you, original Left 4 Dead, even if your sequel is technically superior.
2009: Dragon Age: Origins
2010: Persona 3: Portable which is the only version I've played, so I feel the only one I can credit, because it is a bit different from the original.
2011: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Skyrim, dear Skyrim, I love you so much ... which is why it kills me to have to choose Dark Souls. Baby, don't hate me, but I gotta be real to myself.
2012: XCOM: Enemy Unknown
2013: This was my big year on the 3DS, so it's a tough call with stuff like Fire Emblem: Awakening and Bioshock Infinite, and while the latter is easily my favorite story of that year, likely my favorite game was Shin Megami Tensei IV.
2014: Shovel Knight is an easy choice. Love it. It's in my top 10 favorite games.
2015: Something in my head says I should hem and haw with this, but why pretend? "It was always you, Bloodborne."
2016: Not a great gaming year for me, really. With only three months done, 2017 is already a much stronger gaming year. I played very few games from 2016 and liked even less of them. My favorite was certainly Dark Souls 3, but that feels less because it triumphed over other great games and more because I just didn't care about a lot of 2016's releases. Tyranny is great, but I still haven't finished it.
2017: I can tell that this will be a difficult choice by year's end.

 

[GasBandit]

1979 - The Temple of Apshai. Pretty much all later computer roguelikes owe their development to the Temple of Apshai trilogy.
1980 - Rogue. A step backwards perhaps in graphics, but a leap forward in procedural generation and accessibility. Without Apshai's manual, you were lost, but anyone could pick up and play Rogue immediately.
1981 - Crush, Crumble and Chomp! Though the version I played was the C64 version released in 83. Design a monster, wreck the city, count the box office grosses.
1982 - Bump 'n Jump. Still can't resist playing it whenever I see it today. I still hum the soundtrack sometimes.
1983 - M.U.L.E. The first space economy multiplayer game! And an awesome lesson in capitalism for a 4 year old.
1984 - Space Taxi. The game that, a decade after its release, got me to fall back in love with the C64 all over again.
1985 - Gauntlet. Despite all the nintendo stuff starting this year, this is the game my Dad always played with me when we went to the arcade, so it wins.
1986 - Starflight. Zelda was a close second. But if you liked Star Control, or Mass Effect, or FTL, thank Starflight.
1987 - Despite being an awesome year for Nintendo games I loved, I gotta go with Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards for setting me down the filthy path that led me to where I am now.
1988 - EGH. IT'S SOPHIE'S CHOICE. Bionic Commando BARELY edges out Mega Man 2.
1989 - SO TOUGH. But gotta go with Phantasy Star 2 for showing me that Sega could do RPGs just as good as Nintendo, if not better in some ways.
1990 - The Secret of Monkey Island. I'm Guybrush Threepwood, and I wanna be a mother fucking pirate.
1991 - Sorry, Street Fighter 2, Civilization was the first game to keep me up an entire night without sleep.
1992 - MORE HARD CHOICES. Star Control 2 regrettably pushes aside Mortal Kombat, Ultima Underworld, and Wolfenstein 3D.
1993 - SUCH a good year. It started with X-Wing and ended with DOOM. The latter of which wins by a nose.
1994 - TIE Fighter improved on X-wing in every conceivable way. Better graphics, deeper plot, ohmagawd that soundtrack.
1995 - I loved Mechwarrior 2, but Warcraft 2 set the gold standard for RTS games (until Supreme Commander came along)
1996 - So many great games, but none could compare with Duke Nukem 3d.
1997 - Much love for Jedi Knight and Carmageddon, but the crown's gotta go to the game that gave me my name: Interstate '76.
1998 - My favorite fighting game and the reason I got a Dreamcast - SoulCalibur. Even the sequels didn't really compare to the dreamcast port of the original.
1999 - A pivotal year in my life. I met Pauline during the beta test of Everquest. It doesn't hold up today, but because of this game, MMOs dominated most of the next decade for me. Unreal Tournament is a close second place, though, as it became my go-to FPS.
2000 - What little time I got away from Everquest generally got Dead or Alive 2, though MVC2 kept trying to TAKE ME FOR A RI-I-IDE....
2001 - All my time started getting eaten up by Dark Age of Camelot, the PVP MMO other games are still trying to emulate.
2002 - Competition was fierce, but I gotta go with Battlefield 1942 - the only game both my woman and my father liked to play with me. And I kept playing it for over 10 years.
2003 - Much as I enjoyed the nudehacked DOA:Xtreme Beach Volleyball, this was the year Call of Duty set the new bar for cinematic first person experiences.
2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004. With the vast amount of maps and modwork done by the community, it might be the best FPS ever. Close second: World of Warcraft.
2005 - City of Villains vastly improved City of Heroes and got comicbook villainry done right, MMO style. Oh god that character generator.
2006 - Hitman: Blood Money. Another best of the series, IMO.
2007 - Supreme Commander, especially when paired with its Forged Alliance addon, is hands down the best Real Time Strategy game of all time.
2008 - Warhammer Online became my new MMO this year, and it was great until EA dissolved Mythic and gave the game to Bioware, who ruined it and pretty much ended my MMO career. Close second: L4D.
2009 - Borderlands. Gearbox may be a shitshow now, but I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the co-op experiences I had on Pandora.
2010 - A lot of really good games came out this year, but for me, the most enduring has been Just Cause 2. Though I did love New Vegas.
2011 - Though Skyrim was truly epic, the world was changed by Minecraft, and mine along with it.
2012 - Gotta go back to Borderlands 2 again. A bit bittersweet though, as it was one of the last games I played with Pauline. Orcs Must Die 2 comes close for similar reasons. But we were still playing through the BL2 expansions when we got her diagnosis in 2013.
2013 - Saints Row 4. The ultimate evolution of the game that ruined all GTA clones for me because nothing will ever compare again.
2014 - Divinity: Original Sin - the RPG so nice I played it twice.
2015 - Cities: Skylines, the game that was everything Sim City should have been, barely edges out Warhammer:Vermintide.
2016 - This will probably surprise some people, but Stardew Valley barely edges out Killing Floor 2 and Doom. There's a dichotomy for ya. What, did you think I'd say Overwatch? Heh.
2017 - I have yet to play a game released this year.

 

[drawn_inward]

1981-2017 Leisure Suit Larry or King's Quest IV.

 

[Terrik]

1985- Gradius- Ok this one was tough, because, Mario Bros., but when I really think about it, I probably played way more hours of Gradius than a lot of other things.

Spoiler

1986- Bubble Bobble- Who knew two stupid dinosaurs that could spit bubbles could be so much fun?

Spoiler

1987- The Legend of Zelda- The game that started it all deserves a place on this list

Spoiler

1988- Mega Man 2- My introduction to the mega man series and still one of the best. Who can't remember Metal Man's theme?

Spoiler

1989- Gradius III- I played this one even more than the first one. E. Laser for the win.

Spoiler

1990- Super Mario Bros 3- Boy was this game great. This probably cemented my love for Mario games.

Spoiler

1991- Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe- Alright, yeah, so this year is full of awesome games, but if I'm honest, this game is what got me my interest in WWII, and especially WWII aviation. This game had everything. You could fly the U.S. or German forces, including the B-17 (including manning the guns), the P-51, P-47, P-38 (Plus variants), among others, along with your familiar German aircraft, including experimental ones like the Go-220, Me-262 and Me-163. You could create custom missions, use a flight recorder to rewatch your missions, bomb ball bearing factories, attack airfields with defense emplacements, drop bombs (ground and aerial attack bombs), fire rockets, choose ammunition types, bomb sizes, fuel tanks, have realistic battle damage, command wingmen, and so forth. This game had EVERYTHING. Also it was made by LucasArts in its heyday, so I'm not surprised.

Spoiler

1992- Super Mario Kart- The first game my brother and I worked together to save up money for--mostly in quarters. I still remember the evening where my mom took my brother to the bank to exchange sixty dollars of quarters for cash, and then go and buy the game. Start of a great series.

Spoiler

1993- Secret of Mana- Oh man, this one was hard. Between this, Doom, and Star Wars: X-wing, this was a hard pick. However, Secret of Mana is where I started to get into RPGs, and as a surprising bonus, I could play with my brother (my sister was still too young to be playing games at this point). This is a game that I could probably see myself playing through again. An absolute classic with a good story and excellent soundtrack.

Spoiler

1994- TIE Fighter- I really liked X-Wing, but I loved TIE Fighter. One of the best stories and portrayals of the Empire in any Star Wars story full stop. Also Grand Admiral Thrawn. Seriously probably the best Star Wars game ever created.

Spoiler

1995- Command and Conquer- I was going to put Warcraft, but in reality, in '95 Warcraft wasn't even on my radar. However, along with the first Rebel Assault, C&C was my first foray into CD gaming and RTS gaming in general.

Spoiler

1996 -Super Mario 64- This was a tough one between this and Super Mario RPG (also a great game), but I remember my little kid mind being literally blown away by seeing Mario running around in 3D at my local Blockbuster video store. One of the greatest launch titles to ship with any console and one of the few times where I felt like I reached a new level of gaming. But seriously Peach, a cake?

Spoiler

1997- Goldeneye 007- I can almost hear @GasBandit now. For me, this was a gaming masterpiece. I remember when we rented it the first time and tried multiplayer. Everyone loved it. Hell, my dad ended renting it several times just so we could play MP until he eventually bought it. We got serious too. We recorded our games, and even divided the TV screen with a news paper to prevent screen-watching. I also got paid a few times to help people get cheats for their games ( a lot of people had problems with the invisibility and invincibility cheat requirements). The game also got me into James Bond as a franchise.

Spoiler

1998- Half Life- I thought I might go with something else, but after thinking about it, what the hell can compare to Half Life?

Spoiler

1999- Asheron's Call- My intro to MMORPGs and probably the best I've ever played. Massive open world. No I mean, seriously, HUGE and without zones to load into. Thousands of places to explore, creatures to kill, and brutal to boot. Your level was more of an estimation of your strength, rather than an absolute measure of strength like in other games. Skill level played a more important role here, as well as individual skill. I played on Darktide (The PVP server). Anyone can kill anyone, and you drop your stuff on death which people can loot off your corpse. An excellent Patron/Vassal system that made being part of a guild actually mean something. Books could be written about the "storylines" that were made by the very people who populated the server. The giant "evil" Player-killer guild Blood who's rule that everyone was an enemy. Hell, they had a rule that even if you were a member of Blood, if you were under level 20, you were still fair game. Anti-Player killer guilds that wafted between fighting against people in Blood or infighting with each other. Guild raids on towns "owned" by other guilds, griefing people out of dungeons, and a development team that I felt was second to none. Constant updates, constant story additions, and a philosophy that kept the game world alive. The only MMO that got even close to giving me similar (but not quite as good) magic was Dark Age of Camelot

Spoiler

2000- Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn- This was tough. I was highly tempted to put the first Deus Ex, but its hard to compete with one of the greatest RPGs of all time. I played through this and the Throne of Baal a couple years ago and it still held up. Anyone who hasn't played through this is seriously missing out.

Spoiler

2001- Dark Age of Camelot - Another tough choice, but credit where credit is due, DAoC kicked all sorts of ass. It was my first traditional MMORPG (I never played EQ) and it was quite the adventure. I really enjoyed the realm system, which each of the 3 factions having their own entire world to explore (Albion / Hibernia / Midgard) and then duke it out at high level in the PVP zones. Eventually PVP servers opened up, and you can imagine where I started playing. Too many hours to count were sunk into this game.

Spoiler

2002- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos - Going to be honest, I never played Warcraft I and barely played any of Warcraft II. WC III made me regret that choice. This was a tough year, but the game that got me into Warcraft, and allowed me to continue to indulge in my love for all things Ork Orc deserves a spot.

Spoiler

2003- Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy - Ill admit, I remember nothing about the single-player aspect of this game, but that fact that I still play this with friends in MP on occasion speaks volumes. A close second for this year would be Freelancer.

Spoiler

2004- Dawn of War- Haha wow, this year. Still, nothing cemented my love for the 40K universe like this gem of a game. In the grim darkness of the future, there is only WAAAAGGGGHHHHH

Spoiler

2005- Jade Empire- An excellent RPG set in mythical China. Man, if you thought playing as a Sith could give you evil choices... Please Bioware, bring this franchise back

Spoiler

2006- Neverwinter Nights 2 - This game hit my RPG itch right when I needed it. Some of the expansions were pretty good too (Mask of the Betrayer, anyone?).

Spoiler

2007- Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations- The third game in the original trilogy and my personal favorite. The AA series is one of my all time favorite series and this game doesn't disappoint. Hopefully no Objections! to this one.

Spoiler

2008- Dead Space- This game scared the hell out of me when I played it. None of the sequels ever got back to this level of horror.

Spoiler

2009- Dragon Age Origins- An excellent RPG. I played through this one several times, and there were so many different little outcomes you could affect. Close second is LF4D 2, for uh, obvious reasons.

Spoiler

2010- Star Craft II: Wings of Liberty- I liked the main story well enough, but this was the first time I got serious in competitive Starcraft. Tears of joy were shed when I finally got my 1,000 win Zerg icon.

Spoiler

2011- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Look, I loved Skyrim like everyone else, but no one crafts a good story like CD Projekt Red.

Spoiler

2012- FTL: Faster Than Light- What a great little game. I didn't think I'd like it initially, but I ended up pouring tons of hours into it. Fun gameplay and great soundtrack. Highly recommended.

Spoiler

2013- Fire Emblem Awakening- First introduction to Fire Emblem and boy did it hook me.

Spoiler

2014: The Last of Us: Remastered: Finally got a PS4 and it was the first game I bought. Incredible game.

Spoiler

2015- The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt - I didn't even have to look this up. Hell, even my father plays this now. One of the best games I've ever played and one of the biggest reasons I don't enjoy a lot of sandbox RPGs. The amount of depth, interaction, story, and though that goes into each quest is unparalleled.

Spoiler

2016- Overwatch- He who controls the salt, controls the universe. Justice rains from the sky, Bitches.

Spoiler

2017- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild- I wasn't sure that this game was going to be worth the price of the Nintendo Switch, but my fears were overblown. It is worth the price of admission and one of the best video games I've ever played. This game does almost everything an open-world game should do right. Give me more like this, Nintendo.

Spoiler

[/spoilers]

 

[GasBandit]

1997- Goldeneye 007- I can almost hear @GasBandit now.

PEASANT

2001- Dark Age of Camelot - Another tough choice, but credit where credit is due, DAoC kicked all sorts of ass. It was my first traditional MMORPG (I never played EQ) and it was quite the adventure. I really enjoyed the realm system, which each of the 3 factions having their own entire world to explore (Albion / Hibernia / Midgard) and then duke it out at high level in the PVP zones. Eventually PVP servers opened up, and you can imagine where I started playing. Too many hours to count were sunk into this game.

Ok, I forgive you.

 

[Gruebeard]

. . .
1988: Altered Beast. One of the first games I played on Genesis.
. . .
2010: New Vegas beats out Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Just Cause 2, Civ 5, Darksiders, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Metro 2033...

You know what beats out New Vegas for me? F1 2010. I have played that game more than anything, ever (and I still suck at Monaco).

My memories of Altered Beast are playing its arcade box at a convenience store while on lunch break in seventh grade.

 

[Bubble181]

1996 - Diablo. Holy shit, Diablo. A procedurally generated isometric clickfest of loot and darkness. I was hooked immediately. When the kids and wife were asleep I'd be killing demons. A very, VERY close second would be Daggerfall. Holy fucknuts this wa s a huge game world! I loved the open world feel, not knowing what it would bring in the future.

That these two released the same year pretty much means I'd have to cheat if I wre to make a list for myself. These are literally my #1 and #2 games of all times, and with the exception of Diablo II, I'm fairly sure I've sunk more into these two than all other games combined.

 

[Gared]

Well, if nothing else this should be an interesting exercise in discovering what year various games were released. I'm still running on computer savings time though, and probably always will be, so we'll see how many years have blank spots.

1981: Donkey Kong. It's the only game on the list that I've actually played.
1982: Pitfall. Yeah, it was that or Q*Bert, and I hated that obnoxious little bastard.
1983: Apparently I've never played anything made in 1983. Might have something to do with that video game crash of 83-84.
1984: Tetris. I don't even actually care what other games were released in '84... which is good, because I never played any of the others.
1985: This one is actually a really tough choice between Super Mario Bros and the original Oregon Trail for the Apple II. I'm gonna go with Oregon Trail.
1986: This year should be really difficult to choose from - Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Adventure Island, Castlevania? All great games, all games I've put hours and hours into. But this was the year that New World Computing released Might & Magic: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum, and I've put thousands of hours into this one.
1987: Contra. Even though Final Fantasy came out this year, as much as I have loved Final Fantasy, Contra was the first "shoot-em-up and collect their upgrades" game that I routinely played, and that may actually be my favorite genre of games.
1988: Super Mario Bros. 3. It was this or Battle Chess, and while I like chess, eh.
1989: Duck Tales
1990: Mega Man 3. This was the first Mega Man game that I really delved into.
1991: Adventure Island II. It was either that or Sid Meier's Civilization, and I'm actually not sure that I've played the original.
1992: Another tough year, what with Mortal Kombat, Dune II, Wolfenstein 3D, Ultima Underworld (the first Ultima game I played), and Mega Man 5 coming out, but I'm gonna have to go with Ecco The Dolphin.
1993: Doom.
1994: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. This one started a lifetime love of the RTS genre.
1995: Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. It's a good thing I love this game... it's the only major release from '95 that I've played.
1996: Civ 2. I played the hell out of this one.
1997: Final Fantasy VII. This one may be my favorite of the series, though FFX is a very close second.
1998: StarCraft. It's a good game... I guess. It's also the only one I played from '98, apparently.
1999: Age of Empires II.
2000: Diablo II. My first actual introduction to the Diablo franchise.
2001: Hmm... Civ 3, or Final Fantasy X? FFX, I suppose.
2002: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
2003: Command & Conquer: Generals. I suppose I could go with The Frozen Throne, but whatever.
2004: World of Warcraft, obviously.
2005: Age of Empires III was the only game I really played out of 2005.
2006: I've definitely played some of the games released in '06... didn't especially like any of them, though.
2007: Lord of the Rings Online. It was only good for a few months, but they were a very good few months.
2008: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I loved everything about this game.
2009: The Sims 3 was a really crappy game. Dragon Age: Origins, on the other hand...
2010: Mass Effect 2. SC2: Wings of Liberty was the first time I really felt ripped off by Blizzard.
2011: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Does it need an explanation? I'm still playing it.
2012: I really liked Torchlight II, and Diablo III, but I love Borderlands 2, even though I kinda suck at it.
2013: I didn't expect this decade to be an issue, what with Steam and all, but apparently my favorite game of 2013 is Rogue Legacy.
2014: Civilization: Beyond Earth. Of the 7 games from 2014 that I remember playing, it's the least obnoxious - which is saying a lot for a Civ game.
2015: Huh. Apparently my choices for 2015 come down to Hand of Fate and Cities: Skylines. And, since Hand of Fate currently has the Steam category "Boring" set for it, and C:S is merely waiting to be reinstalled since the last time I had to wipe my hard drive, I guess I'll go with Cities: Skyline.
2016: Stardew Valley, I guess.
2017:

 

[Dave]

Oh man. Might & Magic: Clouds of Xeen and Darksides of Xeen. This game. I might have to revise 1992 & 1993. I have many fond memories of this game. These games. As stated, they were combined to make one big game out of them. It was unforgivingly open world. There was this cave in a fairly low/medium level area. I went into it and AAAAAAUGH! MOTHER FUCKING CYCLOPS! Tore my shit up. They were tens of levels above mine. TPK.

I roamed the world until I was a good enough level, then went back and gave them one-eyed bastards what for. Great games.

 

[Adam]

1980 - Missile Command. Simply played more of this than its main competitor Pac Man.
1981 - Galaga. Conceptually still sound.
1982 - Pitfall. Played a lot of this on my C64 in the 80s, well after its release.
1983 - Mario Bros. Better known as the mini-game.
1984 - Impossible Mission. Stay a while...stay FOREEEEEVER. Runner up - Marble Madness.
1985 - Super Mario Bros. No contest.
1986 - Castlevania. Never played Legend of Zelda until the SNES.
1987 - Mega Man. Rented this repeatedly.
1988 - Super Contra. Love both SMB2 and SMB3, but if I had to choose, probably played more Super Contra as cooperative.
1989 - Sim City. Created my love of Sim games. 1989 appears to be the heyday in gaming nostalgia. DuckTales, Castlevania 3, Prince of Persia, TMNT, Minesweeper,Batman.
1990 - SNES released so we get the classics like Super Mario World. However, I played more Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers. no idea why.
1991 - Street Fighter 2. I still remember buying the damn thing in Calgary for $80.
1992 - Super Mario Kart.
1993 - Link to the Past. Doom. MK2. Gunstar Heroes. Hard to choose just one as I have memories of all of these for different reasons. LTTP is obviously amazing. But my dad took me into his office to show me Doom and I was hooked. MK2 is a classic, but the game I still have on emulator is Gunstar Heroes.
1994 - Enemy Unknown. Pre-cursor to X-Com.
1995 - Chrono Trigger. Currently playing this on my PS3 - that's how impactful it was.
1996 - Civilization 2. Probably the best iteration of Civ ever.
1997 - Final Fantasy 7. Probably the most played game by my family, ever. My comatose sister woke up to its battle theme so it'll always be a little bittersweet to me.
1998 - Tough year but probably Starcraft. If only because I can't keep putting Zelda games on here.
1999 - Unreal Tournament. Enjoyed this game more than I should have.
2000- Perfect Dark. Fucking laptop guns. Runner-up: The Sims
2001 - Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I distinctly remember watching my ex-wifes bf of the time playing this on his laptop in her apartment. And he was German so it was pretty fun watching him kill his ancestors.
2002 - Freedom Force. One of the first good 'superhero' games.
2003 - Prince of Persia - Sands of Time. Gaming is getting a little unimportant as I enter my prime sexy times years.
2004 - World of Warcraft.
2005 - X-men Legends 2. really enjoyed the first one. This one was even better.
2006 - Neverwinter Nights 2. Still have this on my laptop.
2007 - World of Warcraft. Burning Crusades burnt up a lot of time.
2008 - World of Warcraft. Wrath of the Lich King. During which point my wife spent her time cheating on me with an online suitor.
2009 - COD: MW2. Much time spent trying to make myself feel better by making other people feel worse.
2010 - Transformers: War for Cybertron. The only game I came close to finishing that year.
2011 - Minecraft. Built the Death Star on our halforums minecraft server.
2012 - Diablo 3.
2013 - Injustice: Gods Among Us. Single Adam played this a lot.
2014 - Diablo 3. Dating Adam didn't play a lot.
2015 - Borderlands 2. I think this is the only game I played. And with @Jay to boot.
2016 - Pokemon Go. The year I went mobile.
2017 - Battlejack (iPhone). Staying mobile.

 

[Eriol]

OK, here's mine

1982 - Q-bert. Not a lot here I "played" to any significant degree later.
1983 - Spy Hunter - Though on NES later, not that year.
1984 - Tetris - I had the original PC version. It came out later, but this dominates anything else POSSIBLE in this year. I'm also freakishly good at it. In my life I've only met two other people who are as good or better. One person was virtually the same skill level, one guy was freakishly better at it. I don't play it at parties anymore because I basically never lose and frustrate others who play. Not a way to make/keep friends. One time I played a version where 4 were on the screen at once, and you can "direct" your garbage to whomever you choose (not random). Even 3 on 1 (they were all dumping on me) I still usually won. Now I'm no Thor, but I'm damned good at this game. And my #2 game of all time.
1985 - Super Mario Bros. - There's just no other choice here.
1986 - The Legend of Zelda - damned tough year here, but there's no denying I have played and STILL will play this one over the other contenders for the year, like Metroid, Dragon Warrior (Quest), Bubble Bobble, Arkanoid (pumped WAY too many quarters into that machine), and King's Quest III. Zelda just wins. The game still holds up TODAY as fully playable and fun.
1987 - Final Fantasy - I'll admit that I like the remakes better because they took off the rough grindy corners of it for the most part, but I still love the game. Honorable mention to Contra, though that doesn't hold up as well anymore.
1988 - Super Mario Bros. 3 - Still a classic, and holds up very very well.
1989 - Minesweeper - You all have no idea of both the time I've put into this game, and the times I've gotten out of it. I've looked up numbers before and apparently I'm a world-class player. That was weird to see, but also shows how fast I click the mouse. Honorable mention this year to SimCity.
1990 - Super Mario World - Still holds up. In many ways better than ANY of the 2D Marios to follow, though the New Super Mario Bros. games are very good, and by no means bad. Probably partial nostalgia goggles here, but it's still great IMO.
1991 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - There's some other titans here, like Civilization, Street Fighter 2, and especially Final Fantasy IV (2 in USA), but there's no getting past Zelda. And again, a game that absolutely holds up today. Everybody else for 2D adventure games is trying to catch the magic that this game has, and I have yet to see one that succeeds.
1992 - Super Mario Kart - Not as good as some later releases, but still fantastic. Way too much time put into that game, but had a blast. For long-term awesomeness though, Star Control 2 is the shit, and it's free now.
1993 - Doom - Played it a lot, still a classic. Not a LOT from this year to choose from. Mega Man X was awesome too, but Doom sticks in my mind more.
1994 - Final Fantasy VI (3) - Clash of the titans here. FF6 vs Super Metroid. It's Sophie's Choice! There's probably certain days in which I'll respond with Super Metroid higher, but 9/10 times it's FF6. Still IMO the peak of the Final Fantasy series. You gave a damn about the characters in it. And there were few (if any) characters you WANTED to die (this is not the case in later entries... for all of the cast in some cases). #3 game of all time here for me. Super Metroid is #4.
1995 - Chrono Trigger - I will come and physically assault you if you say anything different. Still #1 game of all time for me. Just get this game. Virtual console for the Wii, Ebay for your SNES that still works, or a ROM, just play this game. Honorable mention for Warcraft 2: The Tides of Darkness for this year, but it's a 2-story building next to the Burj Khalifa. Great characters, tight story, humour, and great gameplay. Yes there are a time or two where you might be tempted to grind, but you don't have to. And great replayability too.
1996 - Super Mario 64 - Clash of the titans again with Civ 2, Super Mario RPG, Daggerfall, and C&C: Red Alert all in this year, but it would be difficult to argue that this game didn't have more influence than ALL of those games combined, and it still holds up really well (except for the camera, damn is that crap!).
1997 - Quake 2 - Played so much of this that again my friends didn't want to play it with me because I pwned them way too hard. One of them had an older brother that he claimed would pwn me at a LAN party. At said party at the end of the round I had 42 kills, his brother had 41 (we were going back and forth a lot), the next guy had 5-6, and the other 3 people were negative. We basically hunted the n00bs. His brother was a good player. They were not.
1998 - The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time - this is the closest that Zelda has had to being toppled, but Ocarina is just so fantastic, and re-set how 3D adventure games can be "perfect." The game that almost toppled it? Starcraft. Again, played WAY too much. By way too much I mean that my brother and I played co-op a LOT and played against the people who WON the very first year of ladder battles, before there were co-op categories. My skills are nothing now compared to then. But it remains an amazing game. Zelda just remains more raw FUN though. Tough choice between the two I'll admit. F-Zero-X gets an honorable mention, but not in the same league as those other two.
1999 - EverQuest - Yes I DID almost ruin my grades in both High School and University (they definitely took hits) because of this game, why do you ask? Honorable mention to Quake 3: Arena, though this is when the "holy crap they're good" players started REALLY playing, and it wasn't as much fun when I was getting headshotted by railguns with annoying frequency. And/or aim bots.
2000 - None - I was apparently playing a lot of EverQuest. Like... WAY too much. Moving on...
2001 - Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001) - It was just a hell of a lot of fun... whenever I wasn't playing EQ. I had a real problem. I'm serious.
2002 - Metroid Prime - It was going to be Morrowind... and then this game came out. I bought the GameCube because of the number of perfect 10.0/10.0 reviews this thing got. And I have never regretted it. I've specifically mentioned to people since that if I bought that console and had ONLY that game to play, it would have been money well spent. Still holds up, even graphically (for the most part). Morrowind is still awesome as well, especially with how much you can upgrade the graphics via mods. It can still look almost-entirely like a modern game with such things.
2003 - Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - This is kind of a split with the previous year for the original game, but I had a blast with this game.
2004 -Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Others have said all that needs to be said about Half Life 2. Amazing game that everything except the faces/models still holds up today, but Metroid Prime's sequel was "the shit" for me for this year. Yes it's not as revolutionary as it's predecessor, but it was NICE to play. Polished to a mirror shine.
2005 - Everquest 2: Desert of Flames - This dominated my MMO playing until 2011. It actually started out "meh" in 2004 and I left it to play WoW for 8 months, then came back the next year (2005) at expansion time and it dominated. I'm still friends with people that I met in this game originally. Went to fan conventions, etc. It didn't get "bad" it just wasn't as fun after a long time. I figured out how to moderate my life vs playing as well prior to playing it, so that helped too.
2006 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - I just about got kicked out of my EQ2 guild because I disappeared for 2 months to play this game. Has its flaws, but amazingly fun.
2007 - Super Mario Galaxy - Tough year. Rock Band, Portal, TF2, Metroid Prime 3. But of these I STILL will pick up Galaxy now and then. And Rock band a bit (RB2, as it imports all the songs), and while Portal was amazing, I don't need to play through it again, nor MP3. SMG was just so amazing, and remains so. As good as, and possibly better than SM64.
2008 - Rock Band 2 - Kind of a "gets credit from its predecessor" here, but the only reason it's over Valkyria Chronicles is because I'm still playing RB2. DLC and expansions were great. Just an awesome game I played a lot with my GF (now wife) @Dirona.
2009 - Minecraft - This is when it was available to the public, not 1.0. I don't need to explain Minecraft.
2010 - Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty - Amazing game, WAY too long for the sequel, though I like how they make fun of that in-game.
2011 - Skyrim - It's still an amazing game. I think The Elder Scrolls lost something between Morrowind and Skyrim with regards to the stupid number of quests Morrowind had, but it gained a lot in polish and pure fun. There's a reason why it's still marketable as a console-seller for the Switch 6 years post-release. The only reason that Rift (the MMO) isn't here is because Skyrim was so f'n amazing for so long.
2012 - Was I just playing a lot of Rift? I also moved in that year. I dunno. Sorry. Apparently I need to find a cheap copy of X-Com according to everybody else here.
2013 - Tomb Raider - the remake/reboot is awesome. I really enjoyed this game. Space Engineers was available then too.
2014 - Mario Kart 8 - A really amazing game. They did pretty much everything right with this one.
2015 - Fallout 4 - A great game, worth playing 3 (4?) times over.
2016 - I was unemployed for a large part of the year and thus played games I'd already bought, so nothing. Sorry.
2017 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I'm not done with this one yet, and it blows many old things out of the water. It'll be interesting to see where this ranks a few years down the road, but for now, amazing.

So that's my list. A few gaps, but that's how it goes.

And I was never as bad as the guys in this video (even the milder case) but Game Compulsion is a "thing" I can definitely see how it can happen. Not a short video, but really shocking if you aren't familiar with addiction/compulsions and how they can hold on to you, especially if your life isn't great for whatever reason at the time:

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_qlumZ5K4I

 

[GasBandit]

And I was never as bad as the guys in this video (even the milder case) but Game Compulsion is a "thing" I can definitely see how it can happen. Not a short video, but really shocking if you aren't familiar with addiction/compulsions and how they can hold on to you, especially if your life isn't great for whatever reason at the time:

The late 90s/early 2000s had a great term for super duper uber game-addicted people. Catass. It came from this article about Ultima Online. "I had no choice but to return to Tyson's den of Cat Ass and Murdered Time."

 

[mikerc]

1979 Asteroids
1980 Pac-Man
1981 Donkey Kong
1982 Football Manager
1983 Hover Bovver (Oh man - I'd completely forgotten this game even existed!)
1984 Tetris
1985 Super Mario Bros. (Most important game ever?)
1986 Arkanoid
1987 IK+ (1 vs 1 vs 1 fighting game. Pressing T made everyone's trousers fall down.)
1988 Super Mario Bros. 3
1989 SimCity
1990 The Secret of Monkey Island (I am Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate!)
1991 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
1992 Super Mario Kart
1993 Doom ("Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon..." - Terry Pratchett)
1994 Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
1995 Chrono Trigger (I bought a DS in 2009 just to finally own a legal copy of this. 14 years I'd been waiting for a UK release. Thank fuck for ROMs.)
1996 Super Mario 64
1997 GoldenEye 007 (I was a console peasant at the time & by the standards of other console FPS's this was jaw dropping.)
1998 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
1999 Planescape: Torment
2000 Deus Ex (Yes everyone who's making one of these lists is giving their personal opinions. But if you don't have DX as the best game of 2000 you are objectively wrong.)
2001 Conker's Bad Fur Day (The Great Mighty Poo boss fight just gets this the nod over Shenmue II.)
2002 GTA: Vice Cuty
2003 Primal (How this game never launched a franchise I have no idea. Gameplay was every bit as good as anything Tomb Raider was doing at the time. Interesting setting. And the VO work! Oh, the voice over work! Lemme put it this way - the main characters were voiced by Hudson Leick & Andreas fucking Katsulas!)
2004 Thief: Deadly Shadows (Make like a doomie & steal all the shinies!)
2005 Resident Evil 4
2006 Bully
2007 Portal
2008 Fallout 3
2009 Batman: Arkham Asylum
2010 Fallout: New Vegas
2011 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (So many good games this year - but this is where I spent most of my time.)
2012 New Super Mario Bros. 2
2013 Tomb Raider
2014 Alien: Isolation (Stick of Truth was so much fun - but Alien: Isolation made the Xenomorph scary again.)
2015 Plague Inc: Evolved
2016 DOOM
2017 Torment: Tides of Numenera

 

[jwhouk]

Okay, I think I got it:

1967 baseba.gam
1968 Hamurabi
1969 Space Travel
1970 <None>
1971 Computer Space
1972 Pong
1973 Lunar Lander
1974 Racer
1975 Dungeon
1976 Breakout
1977 Space Wars
1978 Space Invaders
1979 Asteroids
1980 (wakwakwakwakwakwakwak) (< M M M
1981 Donkey Kong
1982 Pole Position
1983 World Series Baseball
1984 Tetris
1985 Super Mario Bros. (Gauntlet #2)
1986 Out Run
1987 Leisure Suit Larry! (Actually, no: Earl Weaver Baseball)
1988 John Madden Football
1989 Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (Solitaire for Windows 3)
1990 Dr. Mario
1991 Tecmo Super Bowl
1992 Wolfenstein 3D
1993 Daytona USA
1994 Need For Speed
1995 Flight Unlimited (Win95)
1996 Triple Play 97

... after this, it's kinda difficult, because I didn't get into video games much since.

 

[Reverent-one]

1988 - Hard to find a game I've actually played from this year, so Super Mario Brothers 2 wins by default.
1989 - While there are still not a lot of contenders, Super Mario Land legitmately wins this one. One of the first video games I played and I still remeber working my way through those levels, scouring the maps in a Game Boy guidebook we had for the best ways to go, and eventually
succeeding.
1990 - ...Super Mario World. Geeze, we'll get to years I've actually played games from soon I hope.
1991 - Ah, here we go. Metriod II. Another of my one of my first video games, and the one that introduced me to the Metriod series.
1992 - Kirby's Dream Land. Have you picked up on the fact that the Game Boy was the first gaming system I had yet?
1993 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, my introduction to the Zelda series. A bigger, deeper game than most of the other early games I had, so this one stands out to me.
1994 - First non-nintendo game to make it, Tie Fighter, this game was the bomb back then. I was already a Star Wars nerd and this game definitely encouraged me to remain one.
1995 - After several years with some actual competition, this is another bare one. There was an obscure semi-educational game I remember playing a lot of though, Odell Down Under. The best thing about it was the ability to make a custom fish, earning more points to upgrade it like an early, non-disappointing version of Spore.
1996 - Wow, the first really tough year. Pokemon Red, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, and Civ II? Mario Kart 64 wins on the basis of being my favorite Mario Kart game ever (why do none of the newer ones have battle modes comparable to the fun of sneaking around your opponents on Double Decker or desperately trying not to kill yourself on the Skyscraper maps?), but man, any of those deserve it.
1997 - Lots of games I liked, but only played a little of, this year, so it's a bit of a dart throw. Going with Final Fantasy Tactics, since it one I definitely wanted to play more of.
1998 - So Ocarina of Time or Half-life it is (Rouge Squadron gets an honorable mention though). The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time wins for being the definative Zelda for me for quite some time (see later in this list).
1999 - Apparently this is the single year all of the smaller name games that I love from this decade came out. The Longest Journey, Homeworld, and Jet Force Gemini, all very different, but all very good. Super Smash Bros and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri also came out, providing some big name competition though. With Dreamfall: Chapters bringing the series actually to a close last year (nearly 20 years later!) and the emotional connection my wife and I have with this game, I'll pick the The Longest Journey.
2000 - Another year with no front-runners, as I've never actually played Majora's Mask. Star Trek: Armada, while not Homeworld, was a fun space RTS game though. Had I played more FFIX, that might have taken it, but it's another PS game I was barely able to play.
2001 - I thought CIV III was going to win this year easily, but then saw the Mechcommander 2 came out this year, so I had to change my mind.
2002 - While there's something about the Kingdom Hearts series I love, even though I never beat the first game, Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries wins during this giant robot heavy period of my life.
2003 - I started this list by looking at when Tron 2.0 (for PC) came out and locking it into this year. It's one of my favorite games of all-time, so there's no question. It looked amazing, improving on the aesthetic of the computer world in Tron, gives a fun variety of weapons, and blends in RPG elements most other FPS games lack. Also, who can forget Light Cycle racing? I need to dig out my copy and play it again.
2004 - Lots of games I loved here, City of Heroes was my first and only real MMO love, but Half Life 2 earns it, for reasons everyone else has listed. Halo 2 and Star Wars Battlefront provided some great multiplayer experiences too.
2005 - This is rough. Psychonauts is one of the best adventure games out there, Star Wars: Republic Commando is another favorite of mine, but then City of Villains came out as well. Going to go with City of Villains, because it brought so much to the City of Heroes experience.
2006 - Half Life 2: EP 1, not a lot of completion this time, though Blackwell Legacy gets an honorable mention for being the first of a fun adventure game series.
2007- While Portal and Mass Effect were both great games, Bioshock is the right call here. I was enthralled from the demo on, which I played at least 3 or 4 times before the game came out, showing it to basically anyone I had an excuse to. That setting, that atmosphere... it's on my all-time list as well.
2008 - Super Smarsh Bros Brawl, not sure if I like it more than I did the original back in the day, but this year had much less competition, since I haven't played a number of the big games from this year.
2009 - Batman: Arkham Asylum. The start of one my favorite recent game series, there's no question. The combat system was great, actually enjoyable stealth levels was a much appreciated surprise, and just being Batman is hard to top.
2010 - There is no way a Transformers nerd like me can't pick Transformers: War for Cyberton. Alan Wake was surprisingly good and might have made it if not for the fanboy in me for giant robots.
2011 - Well, this is rough. All of Portal 2, Arkham City, Bastion, and AC: Revelations (a series that hasn't made it on the list in past years even though I enjoyed the previous games) came out this year, so yeah. Arkham City wins for being the best game in the series though and being just too addictingly enjoyable.
2012 - While I didn't like Transformers: Fall of Cybertron as much as the original, and The Walking Dead provides some serious competition, the tendency Telltale started with TWD to make a big deal out of choices that don't have all that much impact on the story means Transformers still holds the title.
2013 - Bioshock: Infinite, the much more satisfying sequel to Bioshock. Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds was one of the best handheld zelda games in years though.
2014 - Shadowrun: Dragonfall continued and improved upon one of the kickstarter series I'm most pleased with, but Dreamfall: Chapters started their episodic release in this year, and while not perfect, having a satisfying conclusion to this series feels so good.
2015 - The love letter to those of us who are Gen 1 Transformers fans, Transformers: Devestation. Other kickstarter projects like Shadowrun: Hong Kong and Pillars of Eternity continued to entertain, and are probably better objectively, but the fanboy satisfaction is hard to beat.
2016 - I've played a lot of Overwatch (though that's only been in the past few months) and very little of anything else from this year.
2017 - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild so far, and it'll be hard to top. This is the new Zelda that dethrones Ocarina I mentioned earlier.

I wonder how much different this list would be if I had played the 100+ games I've bought during steam sales or have gotten as gifts but not played yet.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

I was thinking about this thread recently and thought it might be fun to revisit since it's been a a few years and we can list off the last 6 years.

2018 - Damn, this was a good year. Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Celeste, Return of the Obra Dinn. But Spider-Man came out that year. It was the game that finally convinced me to get a PS4 and it was totally worth it.

2019 - Another good year with some standouts like Control, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Plague Tale: Innocence, and Disco Elysium. But I giggle every time I think about Untitled Goose Game. Was it better than Plague Tale or Disco Elysium? No, but it was fun as heck.

2020 - Oof, again, some strong competition. Half-Life: Alyx, Spiritfarer, Astro's Playroom, Bugsnax. Spider-Man: Miles Morales almost takes this, but Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout released that year and I played that obsessively when it first came out.

2021 - Not as much jumping out at me here. Inscryption was solid, but I never finished it. I quite enjoyed Unpacking. But I held onto my Game Pass subscription specifically to play Psychonauts 2 and it was well worth the long wait for that sequel.

2022 - Could give it to the Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, but that was basically "What if Stanley Parable added a bucket?" Stray was fine, but largely disappointing. So I'll give it to TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. Which I really need to get back to playing with @Cheesy1 sometime.

2023 - Nothing really standing out yet. I'm excited to play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Alan Wake 2. I have Season: A Letter to the Future on my wishlist and waiting for it to go down in price. But yeah, it's too early in the year to pick anything here.

 

[Ravenpoe]

2018 - Spider-Man

I don't complete games. I don't even finish games. I completed this game 3 full times, including the dlc. I repurchased this game the moment it came to PC and completed it all again, getting all trophies. This is easily one of my top games of all time.

2019 - Disco Elysium

This is such a hard year. I'm one of the few people that really loved Death Stranding, and the Resident Evil 2 remake is what made me love resident evil. But Disco Elysium is something that will stay with me forever. This is a beautiful, weird, flawed game, just like the people in it. It made me start listening to musical artists from Estonia (go check out Tommy Ca$h) and touched me on a deeply emotional level. I have a hard time recommending this game to people because I feel a lot of so called "normal" people won't get it, but I found it beautiful.

2020 - Final Fantasy VII Remake

This fucking game. This is another I have a hard time recommending because it requires that you have played and loved final fantasy 7, and if you never have you shouldn't start here. The sequel that fooled everyone (spoilers, I guess) this game caught me by surprise and blew my mind.

2021 - Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

Ok, this is kind of cheating being an expansion, but being the game I still put the most time into to this day I couldn't leave it out. Endwalker is the closing chapter to a story ten years in the making, and its message about hope in the face of despair and the power of friendship, coupled with the amazing in game community, hit me during a particular time when I really needed it. The best video game story ever made.

2022 - Marvel Snap

Look, I just don't like souls games, ok? Elden Ring is fine, it just doesn't hold my attention, don't @ me

Also I just like card games, and I can't put Endwalker again even though that's what I played the most in this year

2023 - Uhhh... Maybe Jedi Survivor or Resident Evil 4 remake? Hard to say, can I just put Endwalker again? It probably won't be suicide squad, I can say that much

 

[bhamv3]

2018: Super Smash Bros Ultimate. I am not very good at it, but damn I love playing it.

2019: Pokemon Sword, I guess, by virtue of this being the only game from this year that I've played.

2020: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, again because this is the only game from this year that I've played. Genuinely fun and relaxing game though.

2021: Hitman 3, no contest.

2022 and 2023: Haven't played any games from these two years yet.

 

[GasBandit]

Edit: 2017 since I left that off my first list: Rimworld. It has eaten SO much of my time. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a close second though.

2018: Vermintide 2. Hands down, probably one of my favoritest games ever.

2019: Wildermyth. Probably one of the best procedurally generated RPG engines ever, and an incredibly engaging RPG experience.

2020: Doom Eternal. While I still like Doom 2016 better, this was really good.

2021: Valheim. The way it balanced action, survival, and crafting is astonishingly good.

2022: This was actually a harder choice than I thought it would be to make, but I'm going to have to go with Raft, barely edging out over Warhammer: Darktide because Darktide really wasn't done cooking at release and needed until 2023. But Raft is a really novel, engaging, polished, simple-yet-deep survival crafter game with an interesting bent and has eaten up SO much of my time, with 3 complete playthroughs - one solo, and two more with other friends. Also honorable mention to Vampire Survivors.

Bit early to call 2023 yet, but I've got my eye on Sons of the Forest and Space Marine 2.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Shit, speaking of survival games, I forgot that Grounded 1.0 released last year. That's probably my pick for 2022, now that I think about it.

 

[GasBandit]

Shit, speaking of survival games, I forgot that Grounded 1.0 released last year. That's probably my pick for 2022, now that I think about it.

That's a good one too. 2022 was a surprisingly good year for gaming. It's really hard to choose just one.

 

[Adam]

1980: Pacman
1981: Galaga
1982: Typo Attack
1983: Math Blaster!
1984: Impossible Mission (karateka never worked properly on my C64)
1985: Super Mario Bros
1986: Rambo: First Blood Part 2
1987: Mega Man
1988: Super Mario Bros 3
1989: Castlevania 3
1990: Super Mario World
1991: Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
1992: Super Mario Kart
1993: Doom (Honorable mention to Gunstar Heroes)
1994: Donkey Kong Country
1995: Chrono Trigger
1996: Mario 64 and Civ2 and Quake
1997: Goldeneye
1998: Half Life
1999: Unreal Tournament
2000: Perfect Dark
2001: Return to Castle Wolfenstein
2002: Jedi Knight 2
2003: Prince of Persia - Sands of Time
2004: World of Warcraft
2005: Civilization 4 and Call of Duty 2
2006: World of Warcraft
2007: Rock Band
2008: World of Warcraft
2009: Sims 3
2010: Starcraft 2
2011: Minecraft
2012: Xcom: Enemy unknown
2013: Space Engineers
2014: Hearthstone
2015: Cities: Skylines
2016: XCom 2
2017: Legend of Zelda: breath of the wild
2018: Spider-man
2019: Control
2020: Space Engineers, Cities: Skylines, XCom 2
2021: Space Engineers, Spider-man, Cities: Skylines, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild
2022: Space Engineers, Cities: Skylines

 

[GasBandit]

2020: Space Engineers, Cities: Skylines, XCom 2
2021: Space Engineers, Spider-man, Cities: Skylines, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the wild
2022: Space Engineers, Cities: Skylines

We're supposed to pick 1 per year... and correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought we were also supposed to pick them by release year, not year we played them. I didn't start playing Wildermyth until 2022, for example... but it came out in 2019.

Also damn, how's space engineers going? I haven't really touched it since 2014.

 

[Bubble181]

I don't think I've played any game released after 2018, going by your lists.
I started Disco Elysium, but with bad timing - had to put it aside after playing maybe an hour of it and haven't picked it back up.

 

[Adam]

We're supposed to pick 1 per year... and correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought we were also supposed to pick them by release year, not year we played them. I didn't start playing Wildermyth until 2022, for example... but it came out in 2019.

Also damn, how's space engineers going? I haven't really touched it since 2014.

I can't stop touching it.


(And if I went by release year, 2020-2023 would be empty)

 

[Frank]

I'm doing this from scratch and seeing if my opinions have changed from before.

1983: Dungeons of Daggorath on the TRS-80, I had this before I had a NES
1984: Montezuma's Revenge. Played it all the time on our shitty school computer much later.
1985: Super Mario Bros. I feel the next few years will be dominated by Nintendo.
1986: Legend of Zelda. Yup.
1987: Final Fantasy, sure.
1988: Mega Man 2, 100%
1989: Castlevania 3, still one of the hardest games I've ever beaten and I was 6 (got it for Christmas of 1989).
1990: Wing Commander
1991: Street Fighter 2
1992: Star Control 2, the best game ever made by humans.
1993: Star Trek Judgment Rites, the best Star Trek game.
1994: Wing Commander 3, Mark Hamill, a 7 foot furry sidekick! Biff as Maniac? A porn star as the love interest? What a game!
1995: Chrono Trigger. Funny story. All I wanted for Christmas was Chrono Trigger. I saw the SNES sized box under the tree. I was ready. It turned out to be Kirby's Dream Course. The Nintendo store was out of Chrono Trigger and the clerk sold my mom this instead because it was really good. SURE PRICK, BUT IT WASN'T CHRONO TRIGGER. To this day I resent that game and the disappointment it caused. I've gold starred every single course in that game. I hate it.
1996: Command and Conquer Red Alert.
1997: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
1998: Fallout 2
1999: Planescape Torment
2000: Baldur's Gate 2
2001: Grand Theft Auto 3
2002: Morrowind
2003: Freelancer
2004: Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines
2005: Guitar Hero ruled this year. My friends and I would literally have Guitar Hero parties and get absolutely smashed playing it all night.
2006: Fight Night Round 3. One of the only sports games to actually take a hold of me.
2007: Mass Effect. I wish any of the rest of the series had lived up to the potential of the first game.
2008: Hard year, but I guess I was playing a ton of Warcraft this year and didn't play much else. Wrath of the Lich King.
2009: Dragon Age Origins. I wish any of the rest of the series had lived up to the potential of the first game.
2010: Fallout New Vegas
2011: Dark Souls (it wasn't in 2011, it took many years for me to come around)
2012: Dishonored, I've replayed the series multiple times and it's still top tier if not best in class for sneaky immersive sim gameplay.
2013: I feel nothing for most of the games of this year. Just a blank.
2014: Shovel Knight
2015: Witcher 3, good fucking game. Big fucking game.
2016: Tyranny
2017: Nier Automata
2018: Red Dead Redemption 2, this is a current favourite and it took me 5 years to come around to it.
2019: Disco Elysium and it ain't close, this was the last normal (""NORMAL"") year...
2020: Hades. I can't wait for the follow-up. This game was phenomenal.
2021: Inscryption. It got me, hook, line and sinker.
2022: Elden Ring I guess. I dunno, hard to pick since it's all so recent.
2023: I haven't played a single game released this year yet.