Wait, already? Yeah we are doing the year-end review early. I am going to call it a year on reviews in the first week of December because I have something planned for the next few weeks.
Why? Well, this is my five-year anniversary and I want to do something to honor all of the great games I've reviewed since I started writing GOTBP as a New-Year's Resolution in 2019. What? Well, stick around to find out. In the meantime, there's the matter of handing out my awards for this year. Remember, we do best game, worst game, most surprising, most disappointing and most deserving of a modern update/remake. So, here's a reminder of the games we've looked at this year and their scores. As is customary, 10's games are not considered for these.
Sweet Home - 9.25/10
Grim Fandango - 9.25/10
Street Fighter III: New Generation 9.25/10
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 9/10
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - 9/10
Banjo-Kazooie - 9/10
Super Double Dragon - 9/10
Virtua Fighter 2 - 8.75/10
Chained Echoes - 8.75/10
8.75/10 - Black
Mega Man 10 - 8.5/10
Sea of Stars - 8.25/10
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - 8.25/10
Illusion of Gaia - 8/10
Blast Corps - 8/10
Digger T. Rock: Legend of the Lost City - 8/10
Soul Blazer - 7.5/10
Bad News Baseball - 7.5/10
Vectorman - 7.25/10
Doom 64 - 7.25/10
Vanguard Bandits - 7/10
Real Heroes: Firefighter - 7/10
Total Carnage - 7/10
Niceklodeon All-Star Brawl - 7/10
Die Hard - 6.75/10
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle - 5.5/10
Predator - 5.25/10
X-Men-Mutant Apocalypse - 5/10
Rambo - 5/10
Triple Play Baseball - 4/10
Terminator 2 - 3.5/10
Wild Metal - 3/10
Overall, this has been a really strong year. The highs haven't been as high as we have seen in the past, but there have been very few true stinkers and a lot of really good games concentrated around the middle. For score adjustments, I think I have to bump Mutant Apocalypse up a point, it's way better than the two games above it. Other than that, I'm not sure what else I would change, so now it's time to pick a game of the year.
We have a three-way tie at the top of our list with three very, very different games. First, we have the proto-Resident Evil RPG for the Famicom, Sweet Home. That this game was still as amazing and playable as it was in 2023 is truly impressive. You can really see why the people that worked on it wanted to create what would become RE so badly. Next, you have a shock game of the year winner from one of the medium's best years in Grim Fandango. It's a truly unique and inventive title with a memorable story and fascinating art style. Finally, we had the first of man titles in the Street Fighter III series with New Generation. That this is considered largely inferior to its succesors and it's still so highly rated should tell you all you need to know about it and SF III as a whole. I will say, if this were SF III: Third Strike we were talking about it isn't even a question. But it's not, so it is. Anyway, when it comes down to it, I think I have to go with Sweet Home. New Generation is more accessible, but it's not even the best version of itself. Both Grim Fandango and Sweet Home are deliberately paced and not for everyone. But Sweet Home just has more to offer in terms of gameplay, even if Grim Fandango might have more style. All of these are must play games and honestly, most of the games that finished just behind them are fairly essential as well.
Worst game was much easier. It's not just because I want to stay in the governator's good graces, Wild Metal was an atrocious slog and I actually considered lowering its score. Terminator 2 was more "playable but not good" while Wild Metal was more "so bad it's unplayable." At least T2 tried to follow the movie and playing it makes you at least think of doing something awesome (that being watching the movie Terminator 2). Wild Metal looks like someone barfed macaroni and cheese onto your screen and feels like pushing a boulder up a hill while you play it.
Most surprising has to be Total Carnage. Yeah it wasn't the greatest game I've ever played, but like...what the hell is this? I mean that in a good way, it's a profoundly weird game I wish I had known about earlier. I had a lot more fun than I would have ever thought with Digger T. Rock and Real Heroes: Firefighter was ways better than it had any right being, but I just couldn't make up the events of Total Carnage if I tried. Oh, the gameplay is also fun and addictive.
Most disappointing was probably Alex Kidd, though that was partly my fault. I kind of have some biases when it comes to Sega games and when I hear about one I instantly think of the Genesis. I had heard so much about AK and I was extremely disappointed when I played it for the first time. Of course, I came to find out that most of the positivity around the franchise came from its Master System releases, not it's only Genesis title. I am really looking forward to playing those older titles but even still, Enchanted Castle was disappointing. Rock, Paper Scissors for boss battles? Are you serious?
As for most need for a modern update or remake, I am going to go in a bit of a weird direction. Even though it's modern already, I would really like to see a big budget version of Real Heroes: Firefighter. I always felt like firefighting could make for a great game and I would love to see what a top end developer could do. Real Heroes had some really fun gameplay and some great pacing and atmosphere, but it was really rough around the edges and lacked a lot of things that prevented it from being great.
So, that's it for 2023. But before we look forward it's time to take a look back in time. Because in honor of five years of GOTBP (and one of the GOTBP Podcast) I am going to put the best games against each other in a bracket to see which comes out on top. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at theses tough matchups between the highest scoring games, ending the year with the finals. There are going to be 11 games in the bracket with the five game of the year winners receiving byes. The eight highest scoring games will receive wildcard bids. Without further adieu, the Seeds will be as follows:
1. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
2. Suikoden II
3. StarFox 64
4. Sonic Mania
5. Sweet Home
6. F-Zero GX
7. Final Fantasy VII Remake
8. Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millenium
9. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
10. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
11. Grim Fandango
I will build out a bracket for next week, but the first round will consist of three matchups. The Sonic Mania and Sweet Home will both receive byes into the quarters, where they will be paired against each other. That's not how I wanted this to work out, but the uneven number of byes kind of necessitates it. I guess I could have done some bracket gymnastics, but I really don't want to. Anyone that has ever created a seeded bracket before (or sat at a wrestling tournament for two extra hours while someone else attempted to create one) knows it's easier said than done. SMT, Suikoden II and Star Fox 64 also receive byes. So that means our matchups are:
(6) F-Zero GX vs. (11) Grim Fandango
(7) Final Fantasy VII Remake vs. (10) Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
(8) Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millenium vs. (9) Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
One last piece of housekeeping, it's time to check on our progress with the 10s:
Borderlands 2
Breath of Fire 2
Civilization 2
Deus Ex: The Conspiracy
Doom
Earthbound
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8
Goldeneye: 007
Half Life 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
The Last of Us
Legend of Legia
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Lunar II: Eternal Blue
Madden 04, 08, 09
Mega Man 3
Mega Man X
Metal Gear Solid
Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven
Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow
Resident Evil (REmake)
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil: Code: Veronica
Soul Caliber
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Street Fighter II Turbo/Champion Edition
Super Mario 64
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the 7 Stars
Super Mario World
Twisted Metal 2
Valkyria Chronicles
WCW Vs. NWO: World Tour
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