HF Retro Game of the Year - 1996 - Super Mario 64

[Osprey]

Yeah I'm wondering how long we'll keep going. I think through the start of the SNES years most posters around here can have a mostly informed opinion.

We're only just now getting into my gaming heyday. I'm good to go for another 10 years.

I used to love using the map editor to make completely absurd challenge maps like starting on a small island while the enemy gets the whole mainland with beach defenses.

I recently re-discovered a couple of maps that I made for the original C&C. They were included in a fan map pack. I managed to start a network game and load them. It was weird and thrilling to explore maps that I made 22 years ago.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Yeah I'm wondering how long we'll keep going. I think through the start of the SNES years most posters around here can have a mostly informed opinion.

But like the mid DOS years and games outside of the tentpole franchises on the NES I expect knowledge drops off pretty quick. And all the various smaller consoles and PC competitors like the IBM compatible competitors like the Commodore 64. Though there were a lot of ports between them.

By biggest blind spot is say 86 to 91. Though I have a reasonable amount of playtime on games before then since I only had an Atari through most of the 90's.

But if people keep voting I think we'll keep going.

I find it interesting that you frame it in terms of Nintendo systems, kinda shows the demographics in this forum and its Nintendo bias. 3 consecutive wins for the N64 now....

Anyway, I voted Civ2, but I could just as easily have gone with Tomb Raider.

 

[NyQuil]

My first gaming system was an Intellivision so I’m good to go until the early 80s.

 

[PK Cronin]

I'm really surprised by the amount of people who enjoyed Super Mario 64 that much. Maybe I'll have to revisit it...

 

[Commander Clueless]

I find it interesting that you frame it in terms of Nintendo systems, kinda shows the demographics in this forum and its Nintendo bias. 3 consecutive wins for the N64 now.....

I was (and still am) primarily a PC player, but so many of my friends' families owned an N64 back in the day. I bought one with money from my first job almost exclusively for hangouts, after renting before that. Almost nobody I knew owned a PlayStation.

I don't know if that's common, but N64 is almost synonymous with "childhood" in my circles.



...then again, I never played Super Mario 64.

 

[syz]

I'm really surprised by the amount of people who enjoyed Super Mario 64 that much. Maybe I'll have to revisit it...

Like everything else on the N64, it doesn't hold up.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

This should be an easy win for SM64. What a gem of a game, even today it plays very well; rather impressive considering how old it is!

Another good year but certainly not on the level of 97/98. I'm honestly at a loss as to what might make the list as a 95 release? I guess we'll be in SNES/Genesis(Mega Drive)/PC territory and only a few of us will be able to remember those days.

 

[Realgud]

1. Quake
2. Diablo
3. SM64
4. Red Alert
5. Civ2
6. Master of Orion 2
7. Daggerfall
8. Death Rally
9. MK Trilogy
10. Resident Evil

 

[God King Fudge]

SMRPG







Resident Evil
C&C: RA

 

[God King Fudge]

All the time myself and my buddies spent playing Twisted Metal 2, drinking Mountain Dew, and listening to the Spawn Soundtrack. Such a great time!

Bonus points to Tomb Raider, the PS1 was truly a great machine.

There were some good cuts on that soundtrack. Some real bad ones too. But some real good ones.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Just realizing that before this one, the only Japanese games to win one of these polls over a 20 year period were two Zelda games. My tastes definitely differ from you fine folks.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Like everything else on the N64, it doesn't hold up.

MK64 still holds up.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Like everything else on the N64, it doesn't hold up.

Wrong

 

[PK Cronin]

MK64 still holds up.

I didn't think it was particularly enjoyable at the time, though I thought the controls and graphics were really awesome. Wish there was a good emulator for N64 games online to replay them.

 

[SniperHF]

I find it interesting that you frame it in terms of Nintendo systems, kinda shows the demographics in this forum and its Nintendo bias. 3 consecutive wins for the N64 now....

Anyway, I voted Civ2, but I could just as easily have gone with Tomb Raider.

Over the range of time I was talking about, those two systems outsold everything else.
I never even owned an NES but it's pretty clearly the defining console of the 80's. Certainly post-crash.
Sega had its moments but was never the dominant console. The Playstation doesn't completely take over until the lateish 90's in terms of games sold outside of a few titles.

The PC side was always more distributed even when it had more overall market share.

 

[Pilky01]

Not really trying to make an argument but Nintendo now has 4 GOTY wins, 1996, 97, 98 and 2018.

I don't think it is bias so much as just a reflection of where the industry is at certain times. Nintendo dominating the late 80's and mid 90's makes perfect sense. Then GTA took over, then XBox and Playstation.

If the results show any bias it is towards 'open world' and RPG type games. If it doesn't have a hundreds of hours of content then it almost certainly aint winning this board's award.

 

[filip85]

Red Alert for me. I remember I have bought it in 1996. , platinum version of it, I got red-alert t-shirt in the game box

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

I think 1995 will actually be a better year. I did a cursory Google search of it and there are plenty of quality games that were released.

 

[Pilky01]

Looking at some online lists, I played basically nothing in 1995. I just wasnt playing videogames that year. The Gensis was dead and I didn't have a Super Ninetndo and I wasn't doing any PC gaming.

I literally can't vote for anything in 1995. I think I just played road hockey that whole year.

 

[NyQuil]

I think 1995 will actually be a better year. I did a cursory Google search of it and there are plenty of quality games that were released.

Some great stuff:
-Dark Forces
-Mech Warrior 2
-Warcraft II
-The Dig
-Worms
-Tekken 2
-Full Throttle
-Descent
-Tie Fighter Collector's Edition (probably doesn't count)

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Some great stuff:
-Dark Forces
-Mech Warrior 2
-Warcraft II
-The Dig
-Worms
-Tekken 2
-Full Throttle
-Descent
-Tie Fighter Collector's Edition (probably doesn't count)

And you're missing some of the biggest games like Chrono Trigger, DK Country 2, and Yoshi's Island.

 

[NyQuil]

And you're missing some of the biggest games like Chrono Trigger, DK Country 2, and Yoshi's Island.

Yeah, Chrono Trigger is pretty good.

I mainly played PC back then.

I'm not much of a JRPG fan but I have some friends who were.

 

[SniperHF]

I like the 96 list. I'd probably have 6-7 of them in my top 50.

Good call with Worms though. Also C&C of course.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Some great stuff:
-Dark Forces
-Mech Warrior 2
-Warcraft II
-The Dig
-Worms
-Tekken 2
-Full Throttle
-Descent
-Tie Fighter Collector's Edition (probably doesn't count)

Yep, for sure. I’d say Warcraft II is the most important game of the bunch - I bet it’s still a very enjoyable game to play.

My neighbor was really into Descent growing up. He told me it was the first game where you could move in any direction in full 3D (in other words, an X-Y-Z axis for movement). Not sure if that’s true, but I can’t think of any other games that would precede it.

 

[NyQuil]

My neighbor was really into Descent growing up. He told me it was the first game where you could move any direction in full 3D. Not sure if that’s true, but I can’t think of any other games that would precede it.

That was pretty much its selling point as the actual gameplay wasn't as gripping with these mining spaceships shooting lasers instead of the gibbing that happened with the other FPSs out there.

It could be very disorienting though which was fun - the map design definitely took advantage of that.