1999 - My birth year and wow what a great year of games this was. Soulcalibur and Street Fighter 3rd Strike were real close seconds but RE3 Nemesis is just exceptional and my fav of the original trilogy of resident evil. Great year to be born into for video games.

2000 - Another great year for video games, though I prefer 1999 a little more since I played more from that year than 2000. Therefore choosing a favorite wasn't hard and the first paper mario was it. Not the best of the series but there's so much charm with the writing, music and even the graphics on the n64.

2001 - Crazy ass year for games and even more stacked year than the last, along with this being the first full year of my favorite generation of consoles overall (and start of one of my fav actions series). Choosing was hard given Devil May Cry, Smash Melee, Animal Crossing and some others, but choosing SA2B wasn't too hard. Played the shit out of this in my childhood and got me into the Sonic series, for better or worse. Yeah, the game has flaws but it's still so much fun to come back to, play through the campaigns, and raise chao and do minigames.

2002 - The year of the worst 3D mario game that isn't 3D land or 3D world. Pretty good year overall with Resident Evil Remake, Wind Waker, and Panzer Dragoon, and this hidden gem called Metroid Prime that Nintendo dropped randomly out of nowhere. Anyways, Prime is amazing and the wait for Prime 4 only makes me even more feral as the years go on because I would kill for more Prime games.

2003 - Another strong year where Soulcalibur is beaten again by a non-fighting game for me. Playing F-Zero GX as a kid was wild and now as an adult my love for this has grown even more. Nintendo could re-release this if they weren't so stubborn.

2004 - The stacked year before the next stacked year before the-. My pick for this is Paper Mario unsurprisingly. Better than the original in almost every single way except for the story pacing. being insufferable in some parts. Still an excellent game through and through.

2005 - Capcom ruled this entire year with two games and that only scratches the surface of what all came out this year. Obviously RE4 is my pick because of how nuts this game is as a survival horror and third person action game (with tank controls). Also fits as a pretty strong swan song to the 6th gen era of games.

2006 - Horrible year for Sonic fans for years to come and an overall fine year for games. Only competition for me was just Twilight Princess, DMC 3 Special Edition, and Okami, which won out. Easily Platinum's best "game" that's not the first Bayonetta, and just a jaw dropping beautiful game that's so unique as an action adventure entry. Def want to peek in the universe where this game got at least two sequels instead of dying on the ps2 until finally recognized many years later.

2007 - Anotha crazy year of video games and I ended up choosing Super Mario Galaxy though God of War II was another choice for my favorite. A mainline Mario game with a suprisingly good story attached to it? That's crazy. This game might also have my favorite set of Mario levels in a 3D Mario game, though I haven't played Galaxy 2 since release.

2008 - This year was alright. If I played Dead Space or many of the other high profile games that came out, I would have chose it as a favorite. Pokemon Platinum gets the pick in fundamentally improving on the problems of Gen 4 in Diamond and Pearl, but the game still is very slow. Giratina is an amazing legendary and the distortion world is so impressive on the DS.

2009 - A more interesting year than the last with a good chunk of great and fun releases such as the underrated PlatinumGames gem called Bayonetta. Got me into the character action genre and I haven't looked back since. The game has some little quirks that I don't like, but fighting angels as a bad ass lesbian witch with an amazing soundtrack is pretty awesome. Hope there's a bright future ahead of it.

2010 - This year ate down after the last two lesser years. God of War III was an easy favorite for that year for me. Wrote in detail in my review about why I love this game, but it generally feels like the culmination of all elements in the og series into the best game in the franchise overall, even over Ragnarök. Best action, puzzles, story, and everything else of God Of War in one game.

2011 - The year of Dark Souls eating up most of the releases that year. While I do like the game, it feels like something I would have loved if I played it at the time and I just like other entries (Bloodborne, Sekiro, Demon's Souls) more than it. Sonic Generations also came out, but my favorite was easily Rayman Origins. Incredible platformer with a good amount of challenge too. Legends would build on it but idk why Origins just felt a tiny bit better for me than Legends.

2012 - Another solid year after 2011 where I didn't have much competition with my favorite release outside of Animal Crossing New Leaf. Fire Emblem Awakening was my first taste of the series and I loved the shit out of it when it came out. Story kinda falls apart near the end but everything else was so much fun, though the Tellius games were a little better.

2013 - I wasn't too crazy for this year, though it was a little entertaining with the high profile embarrassment of the Xbox One's reveal and release. My pick for this year isn't exactly a favorite of mine overall either. 3D World is incredible when playing with friends or family and being a menace, but it becomes real boring when going around just yourself. The re-release with Bowser's Fury is way better.

2014 - Pretty meh year overall outside of the indie games. My favorite hidden gem Bayonetta got an amazing sequel that was my favorite for the year. I know people hate this game with how much easier it is compared to Bayo 1, among other things, but it's still so much fun and makes improvements on the first one in good ways. Still has my favorite style of Bayo in a game and her being revealed as a Smash character was lit.

2015 - The year where people finally got serious again, still getting there though. Nothing high profile came out, no Bloodborne, Yakuza 0, Undertale, Gravity Rush. Definitely not super packed. With that said, Yakuza 0 was my pick for this year though Bloodborne was a close second. 0 got me into the series, for better or worse, and it still holds up as possibly the best mainline Yakuza game. Like GoW III, it feels like the culmination of every single aspect of the series and just executes it in the best possible way. Also helps that this game is very charming and funny while still having many serious moments that hit hard. Pretty great game and not surprised this was the one that got popular here in the west.

2016 - A pretty good year as well that is overshadowed by the next year. My fav persona 5 released but Stardew Valley took over my entire life and for years to come when it came out that year. So much has been said about this game and I can't add much more besides it being an exceptional life farm sim that you can fight creatures in and also be gay in lol. Anyone that hates this game is lying.

2017 - Speaking of an overshadowing year, 2017 was nuts for video games. Nintendo finally got serious again with the Switch and released two of my favorite games in recent memory, and Samus Returns came out. Capcom took off the clown makeup and released a decently good Resident Evil game before going on to rule the next few years to this day. Nier Automata and Cuphead released. Life was pretty good. Obviously Breath of the Wild was my pick for this year and while my love for it has dampened over the years, this game was phenomenal to experience back in 2017 and it captured a feeling in me that very few games have done before and after it. Here's hoping Tears of the Kingdom recaptures that because Elden Ring was the last to do that.

2018 - Another banger of a year, though to a less degree of 2017. More favorites of mine came out like Soulcalibur VI, Sonic Mania Plus, Celeste, Smash Ultimate, and my pick Judgment. The story in this game is amazing and one of the best in the entire RGG catalogue. Great characters, especially antagonists. Pretty good action combat that is weighed down a bit by the other gameplay styles. RGG really nailed this one and Lost Judgment.

2019 - Didn't even realize how stacked this year was until I went back and looked at what released...and it was difficult as hell to choose just one. Capcom running circles around folks with Resident Evil 2 Remake and Devil May Cry 5, From Soft running circles around people with Sekiro, Nintendo dropping great games like Fire Emblem Three Houses and Link's Awakening Remake, Atlus on fire with 13 Sentinels and the initial release of P5 Royal. Of course DMC V is my favorite here. The combat is amazing and sets a bar for the character action genre, the story is suprisingly decent with a nice passing of the torch to Nero, and just everything else in this game is incredible. One of my goats for a reason.

2020 - A pretty good year as well despite the pandemic. Not as crazy as the past two years but 2020 was pretty well with Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Streets of Rage 4, Ghost of Tsushima, Crash 4, FFVII Remake, and Pikmin 3 Deluxe. The favorite is obvious though with the western release of Persona 5 Royal right when the pandemic hit. I played this all throughout the spring and summer while inside and it got me through so much happening at the time and gave me another series to check out and fall in love with. P5R is a special game to me and while it is not a perfect one, it's close to near perfection for me. Love those wacky kids and the incredible style and gameplay of this game.

2021 - This year was pretty cool, though a little spotty with releases. My favorite Nier game got an excellent remaster/remake with Nier Replicant, Resident Evil Village came out and took over my life for a month, Lost Judgment released and shocked me again with how amazing it was, SMT 5 finally released and was fun but a little disappointing, one of the most boring Sonic games got a terrible remaster to no one's surprise, and Metroid Dread rose from the ashes and became one of my top favorite 2D Metroid games and my favorite release of that year. Dread existing is still insane and the fact it still stands tall in an era of Metroidvanias influenced by its past entries is also incredible. Exploration, boss fights, narrative, and other aspects are firing at the top of their game here. A wonderful game.

2022 - The year of Elden Ring and no one else of note, definitely no one else. Also the year of absolute surprises for me with Pokemon Legends Arceus, Stranger of Paradise, Sonic Frontiers and Bayonetta 3 and Soul Hackers 2. The first three were shockingly great to amazing entries that I did not expect to have as much fun with while the last two were bitter disappointments but Soul Hackers 2 to a much less degree of disappointment. I won't talk about Bayo 3 but Sonic Frontiers deserved the attention and was my game of the year for 2022. Yeah yeah this game has problems, but the fact that a modern Sonic game comes close to touching the adventure games in terms of gameplay, story, character writing, and other things is shocking. I did not expect to fall in love with this game when it came out, but I did and I really cannot wait for what Sonic Team has in store for the DLC later this year and the next Sonic entries. Sonic Team can hold their heads high with this one.

2023 - This year is still ongoing so can't talk too much about it. As it stands right now, Resident Evil 4 Remake is my favorite release of this year though this could change with Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, and other releases dropping this year. While I wasn't a huge fan of RE4 in some parts, it was an excellent experience and gave way to tons of replays for me in completing the game. RE4 Remake improves on some aspects of the original and honestly is my favorite RE game that Capcom has released up to this day. The gameplay is streamlined to the best it has felt in an RE game, Ashley is an actual character, replaying is just as fun as the original, the island isn't the absolute worst here, and many other things. Of course there are things I didn't really like in the remake, but this game is fire through and through and this might be another amazing year for Capcom if Street Fighter 6 and Exoprimal are also excellent games when they come out.