(bold) = position is higher than in 2004
(normal) = no change
(red) = position is lower than in 2004
Original Results from 2004:
2004’s GOTY Awards
Previous retro threads:
2008 (2012 edition) GOTY Awards
And so Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap... will be the leap home.
Out of 122 games...
Game of the Year (1): Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Playstation 2)
2. (3)
Half-Life 2 (PC)
3. (4)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Playstation 2)
4. (9)
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Gamecube)
5. (6)
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube)
6. (10)
Burnout 3: Takedown (Playstation 2, Xbox)
7. (15)
Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)
8. (5)
Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
9. (7)
Katamari Damacy (PlayStation 2)
10. (2)
Halo 2 (Xbox)
RPG of the Year (1): Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
2. (2) Tales of Symphonia (Gamecube)
3. (5) Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Playstation 2)
4. (3) World of Warcraft (PC)
5. (13) Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)
(2) FPS of the Year: Half-Life 2 (PC)
2. (3) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube)
3. (1) Halo 2 (Xbox)
4. (4) Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC, Xbox)
5. (5) Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
Racing Game of the Year: (1) Burnout 3: Takedown (Playstation 2, Xbox)
2. (3) Outrun 2 (Xbox)
3. (4) Need for Speed: Underground 2 (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox)
4. (2) Rallisport Challenge 2 (Xbox)
5. (did not list) Trackmania (PC)
Sports Game of the Year: (3) ESPN NFL 2K5 (Playstation 2, Xbox)
2. (4) Madden NFL 2005
Fighting Game of the Year: TIE (5) Def Jam: Fight for NY (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox) AND (did not list) Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (Playstation 2)
2. (2) Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (Arcade)
5. (1) Dead or Alive Ultimate (Xbox)
4. (1) Street Fighter Anniversary Edition (Playstation 2)
Platforming Game of the Year: (1) Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Playstation 2)
2. (2) Jak 3 (Playstation 2)
3. (3) Sly 2: Band of Thieves (Playstation 2)
4. (4) Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo DS)
5. (5) Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (Game Boy Advance)
Stealth Game of the Year: (1) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Playstation 2)
2. (2) -TIE- Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Gamecube)
3. (4) -TIE- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC, Xbox)
4. (3 Hitman: Contracts (Playstation 2, Xbox)
5. (3) Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Playstation 2, Xbox)
Strategy Game of the Year: (1) Pikmin 2 (Gamecube)
2. (2) Rome: Total War (PC)
3. (5) Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (PC)
4. (7) Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth (PC)
5. (did not list) Rise of Nations: Throne & Patriots (PC)
Action-Adventure Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Playstation 2)
2. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Game Boy Advance)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure (Gamecube)
4. Beyond Good & Evil -Europe- (PC, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox)
5. Cave Story (PC)
Action Game of the Year: Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)
2. Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
3. Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Game Boy Advance)
4. Alien Hominid (Gamecube, Playstation 2)
5. Maximo vs. the Army of Zin (Playstation 2)
Music/Rhythm Game of the Year: (4) Pop'n Music 10 (Playstation 2)
2. (1) Donkey Konga (Gamecube)
(normal) = no change
(red) = position is lower than in 2004
Original Results from 2004:
2004’s GOTY Awards
Previous retro threads:
2008 (2012 edition) GOTY Awards
And so Doctor Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap... will be the leap home.
Out of 122 games...
Game of the Year (1): Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Playstation 2)
When this game came out, I completely avoided it. Metal Gear Solid 2 left such a bad taste in my mouth that I completely swore off the series. Then, around 4 months before MGS4 came out I decided I needed to play this game. In retrospect, that was a horrible decision, because this game is so damn good it tainted my opinion of MGS4. Aside from it taking way to long to get used to the camera (I played an original copy) I loved every single minute of it. It is tied with MGS1 as my favorite in the series (and may just beat it out.... stupid nostalgia glasses!)
I only sort of like the other Metal Gear Solid games, but this one stands out in the series as being fantastic. The jungle was a drastic improvement for sneaking over bland concrete and metallic corridors, and although the story is long and slightly melodramatic, it manages to, unlike the other metal gear games, to find a sweet spot in between ridiculous plot developments and interesting, genuine emotional moments between characters. Get it Kojima? Don't throw an incredible amount of crazy shit into your games. Just make them slightly longer, more mystical/surreal bond movies. High point in the game (and I'm barely kidding): that ladder.
it's an awkward jankfest like all MGS games, but it has so much chutzpah and charm, it's sheer goofy genius and bursting with creativity. Kojima and crew just make such damn interesting games... I spent countless hours just listening to the weird radio conversations, and there's an easter egg/secrets FAQ as lengthy as any standard FAQ for an action/adventure game.
2. (3)
City17 was a superbly-realised dystopian Eastern Europe setting, Ravenholm was fantastic for its palpable brooding atmosphere and offering saw blades with which to slice zombies in half, and using the gravity gun to play fetch with Dog never got old. My most vivid memory of the game, though? The nightmare-inducing sound and subsequent pouncing of those bloody toxic headcrabs..
3. (4)
The best open world game of all time (non RPGs at least). A ridiculous amount of fun things to do and it had the best mission design of any GTA game by far. Breaking into Area 51 and escaping via jetpack, planning a casino heist that spanned several missions including a helicopter with a magnet on it, chasing some fake-ass rapper in a hoverboat and many more. Rockstar will probably never make a game as good as this again judging from their output this generation.
4. (9)
5. (6)
It’s funny seeing the different directions Prime’s sequels would take, while MP3 would be more of a Metroid aimed to ensnare the non Metroid fan offering more guidance, adding dialogue and segmenting the maps MP2 was basically a special delivery for the fans with greater difficulty, more getting lost and I love the game for it. MP2 pulls no punches, progress halting bosses, environments that start killing you for simply walking through them and far more complex map layouts that span two planes. As such people can easily be deterred, I know a few people who loved Prime 1 but couldn’t even breach the halfway point of this game, for those of us who carried on you were rewarded with quite possibly Retro’s most detailed creation yet and one of the best games on the Cube. Now let us not speak of that multiplayer mode.
6. (10)
Fun and challenging. It had the type of gameplay that made you come back to it again and again. Crash, mess up in a race, restart, try again. You can play this game for a few minutes or a few hours but you can always feel you got something done. It had the perfect difficulty, hard but it always left you with confidence that if you make a sharper turn, or crash into one more truch that you could succeed.
7. (15)
Another remake that radically changes the original, Crateria now looks awe-inspiring, Brinstar looks more alien and Norfair suddenly looks like hell. Who knows if the sprites can be any better on the Game Boy Advance, unlike the original it’s certain that this game won’t age. Kraid is now a giant which says all you need to know about how the GBA took the design of the original NES game and magnified it, with influence from the SNES game too. What’s great about this remake is not just that it’s faithful but that it offers surprises even after you think it’s over with the defeat of Mother Brain.
8. (5)
Part of my Holy Trinity of actions games along with DMC3 and Bayonetta. Extremely challenging but extremely rewarding combat and amazing visuals that still stand up well today.
9. (7)
Iconic; a masterpiece of game design. Absolutely fresh, heartwarming, upbeat and fun, something games still struggle with.
10. (2)
There's a reason there are so few games on this list. Halo 2 stole an incredible amount of time from me, and it's not an experience that I'd trade for anything in the world at this point. Even though fewer of them play Halo with each subsequent title, I still regularly talk to several people I met and bonded with through this game. It, along with its predecessor, was the catalyst for my love of thinking critically about game design. The added elements to the universe, the exquisite map design and multiplayer action, and a forward thinking online setup that some games to this day cannot match in form or function all contribute to this being at the top of my list.
RPG of the Year (1): Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
2. (2) Tales of Symphonia (Gamecube)
3. (5) Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Playstation 2)
4. (3) World of Warcraft (PC)
5. (13) Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)
(2) FPS of the Year: Half-Life 2 (PC)
2. (3) Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube)
3. (1) Halo 2 (Xbox)
4. (4) Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC, Xbox)
5. (5) Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
Racing Game of the Year: (1) Burnout 3: Takedown (Playstation 2, Xbox)
2. (3) Outrun 2 (Xbox)
3. (4) Need for Speed: Underground 2 (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox)
4. (2) Rallisport Challenge 2 (Xbox)
5. (did not list) Trackmania (PC)
Sports Game of the Year: (3) ESPN NFL 2K5 (Playstation 2, Xbox)
2. (4) Madden NFL 2005
Fighting Game of the Year: TIE (5) Def Jam: Fight for NY (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox) AND (did not list) Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (Playstation 2)
2. (2) Guilty Gear X2 #Reload (Arcade)
5. (1) Dead or Alive Ultimate (Xbox)
4. (1) Street Fighter Anniversary Edition (Playstation 2)
Platforming Game of the Year: (1) Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Playstation 2)
2. (2) Jak 3 (Playstation 2)
3. (3) Sly 2: Band of Thieves (Playstation 2)
4. (4) Super Mario 64 DS (Nintendo DS)
5. (5) Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (Game Boy Advance)
Stealth Game of the Year: (1) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Playstation 2)
2. (2) -TIE- Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (Gamecube)
3. (4) -TIE- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC, Xbox)
4. (3 Hitman: Contracts (Playstation 2, Xbox)
5. (3) Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Playstation 2, Xbox)
Strategy Game of the Year: (1) Pikmin 2 (Gamecube)
2. (2) Rome: Total War (PC)
3. (5) Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (PC)
4. (7) Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth (PC)
5. (did not list) Rise of Nations: Throne & Patriots (PC)
Action-Adventure Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Playstation 2)
2. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Game Boy Advance)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure (Gamecube)
4. Beyond Good & Evil -Europe- (PC, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox)
5. Cave Story (PC)
Action Game of the Year: Metroid: Zero Mission (Game Boy Advance)
2. Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
3. Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Game Boy Advance)
4. Alien Hominid (Gamecube, Playstation 2)
5. Maximo vs. the Army of Zin (Playstation 2)
Music/Rhythm Game of the Year: (4) Pop'n Music 10 (Playstation 2)
2. (1) Donkey Konga (Gamecube)