1980
Pre-NES year choices are usually very hard for me to be confident in because I haven’t truly explored them but like it’s fucking Pac-Man

2015
So called free thinking Backloggd users when asked what their pick for the best game of 2015 is

2004
My literal favorite game

1989
Nice ratio of game quality to games I’d imagine being better around the time it came out.

2006
If you come back to this later and see it replaced with Persona 3, put me down like Old Yeller.

1983
Toshiyuki’s raw swag can not be contained by the arcade/Atari era

1994
Being the earliest of the small handful of games I'd give a 10/10 to and a game that would be in my top 5 games had I not have restricted it to one per series means I'm still pretty confident in it in a year as stacked as 1994

2001
Quite possibly the most stacked year in all of gaming but MGS2 is just such a high bar to clear

2003
Talking about beating Drakengard in the same way powerscalers talk about beating Goku

2011
I've never played Dark Souls but Ornstein and Smough can't be that hard when I've had to face that one RandBats Tropius set

2000
Video essayists better thank this year

1990
Don’t fuck with us FE1 lovers, there’s a single digit list of us and I have beef with most of the other people on it.

1986
Castlevania 4 preferrers DNI.

2008
Interesting to me how between this, Pokémon Platinum, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, three of the most formative games to my tastes all released in the same year

1997
To the friends who've begged me to play Moon, you're singlehandedly responsible for moving this down a couple spots

1991
George Bush and Dick Cheney have good taste in Metroid games.

1982
Feels weird to put an alternate version of a game already on the list but I just fucking love copyright infringement

2014
I hope we all agree to never stop laughing at this site for kicking off the rewind GOTY event with a year almost unanimously agreed by the userbase to have barely anything worth playing

2017
Everyone point and laugh at the Hollow Knight liker

1999
The third place spot of my favorite games list is a neverending war between two unconventional and polarizing RPGs released in 1999 and there's always the possibility that Chrono Cross shows up with a steel chair when I get around to it

1988
Cool artistic statements but I’d imagine there’s games by now that could make said statements without that dungeon design.

1993
First year where I have to seriously consider which of two choices is better (the other game is Phantasy Star IV btw)

2020
Criminally overlooked but its competition from the games I've played are Omori, two botched releases, and that one VN that annoying people seem to love having as a pfp so I can't be too sure about its placement

1998
Didn't realize just how stocked of a year 1998 was until making this, goddamn

1996
Landmark title and fascinating cultural object but a year where both SNES and PS1 RPGs were being made at the same means your days are numbered

Bite of 87
Neat little oddity in the context of the behemoth of a series it spawned but nowhere near my favorite Final Fantasy so I’d imagine there’s at least one game from the same year I’d prefer.

2013
I've been cooling on this ever since I've played it and expect to do so even more as I ascend deeper into the weirder and more experimental titles of MegaTen hell but this year's notable releases do not seem to be offering much in the way of competition

2016
Every long running game series I have some semblance of investment in was destined to take an L this year

1995
Cool game and all but very much one that doesn't personally resonate with me in the same way my absolute favorites do so there's room for something to beat it.

1992
I imagine Sonic hearing the drowning theme as I get play more and more SNES RPGs until eventually I find one that happened to come out in 1992 that beats his ass

2002
If you came out in a year where my two favorite console libraries were still outputting games and you're not a perfect ten, your days are numbered

2018
Strange game for me in the way that it's nearly perfect mechanically but I just don't resonate with its story for reasons I can't describe without sounding like I'm powerscaling mental illness and ultimately being too mean to something made for children

1981
George Costanza didn't risk his life for a Donkey Kong cabinet now, did he?

2012
I’m counting this for 2012 despite being listed as 2013 because that’s when the main story was completed. With that out of the way, you may now laugh at the Sonic 06 midi hack being my pick for this year.

2022
Only year this decade where I engaged with the releases enough to find one I'd list among my absolute favorites, even if it's a remake

2005
Second verse to the Metroid Fusion entry

2009
Tbh I haven't touched most of the stuff I've played that came out this year since I was a child

2024
https://tenor.com/view/arzette-peak-fiction-cdi-youtube-poop-game-of-the-year-gif-13988414969943080549

2010
Wow look at all those notable titles released in 2010 that I just haven't played

2007
Surprisingly uneventful choice for a year talked about as highly as 2007 is

2023
Must have been so hard facing off against the extremely tough competition of FE Engage and Garten of Banban

2019
King of Cards is unhinged (complimentary) and clears Specter of Tormid but I can't exactly be confident about it as my pick for the year Disco Elysium came out

2021
Look at all the well regarded games that came out this year that I played an FE shitpost hack instead of

Literally 1984
When the game of the year choice is something I played for a couple minutes in a Genesis game collection and then forgot about

1985
2D Marios are fucking dripless and I look forward to the day I play Ultima IV or something and kick this off the list