I am compelled to disagree that Banjo Kazooie holds up better than The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time for 1998. That’s crazy talk.

I am interested in doing this but do not have the time currently. Ill come back to this later.

EDIT: Here is my own list, limited to games I have actually played. I guess this would be my “Game of the Year” list for the following years, again, from games I have played. Although I tried hard to limit it down to just one game.for each year, sime year were more stacked than others (and this really hurt sometimes). If multiple games are listed, they are considered close to equal in the order they are listed, with first being the highest and each subsequent being like half a point below its previous.If its not on this list, either I didn’t play it, or I don’t consider it to be equal to or better than what I put here:

• 1981 - Defender
• 1982 - Q*bert
• 1983 - Fortress of Narzod
• 1984 - Knight Lore
• 1985 - Super Mario Brothers
• 1986 - The Legend of Zelda
• 1987 - Dungeon Master
• 1988 - Snatcher (the later SEGA CD version is objectively better in nearly every way)
• 1989 - Tetris
• 1990 - Super Mario World
• 1991 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• 1992 - Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf
• 1993 - Brandish 2: The Planet Buster
• 1994 - Super Metroid, Policenauts
• 1995 - Panzer Dragoon
• 1996 - Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of This World
• 1997 - GoldenEye 007, Quake II, Mega Man Legends
• 1998 - The Ledeng of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Panzer Dragoon Saga
• 1999 - Silent Hill, Shenmue, System Shock 2, Age of Empires II, Dino Crisis
• 2000 - The Operative: No One Lives Forever, Vagrant Story
• 2001 - Halo Combat Evolved, Silent Hill 2, Shenmue II, Super Smash Brothers Melee
• 2002 - Metroid Prime, Resident Evil (Gamecube remake), The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Steel Battalion, Panzer Dragoon Orta, MechAssault, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell
• 2003 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy, F-Zero GX, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 (yeah, it released in 2003)
• 2004 - Halo 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II, Need for Speed Underground 2
• 2005 - TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (unironically a peak game in 2005), Star Wars Republic Commando,
• 2006 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Battlefield 2142, Metroid Prime Hunters
• 2007 - Halo 3, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Project Gotham Racing 4
• 2008 - Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Rock Band 2, Mirror’s Edge
• 2009 - Demon’s Souls
• 2010 - Halo Reach, NieR (Gestalt), Battlefield Bad Company 2, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker, Infinity Blade (yes, the mobile game)
• 2011 - Dark Souls, Minecraft, Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon
• 2012 - Forza Horizon
• 2013 - Battlefield 4
• 2014 - Dark Souls II, Halo 2 Anniversary (Campaign, as part of Master Chief Collection), Destiny, Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2 Goodbye Despair,
• 2015 - Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain, Yakuza 0, Life is Strange
• 2016 - Dark Souls III, Factorio, Divinity Original Sin II, Stellaris (its very different now, in a better way IMO)
• 2017 - NieR Automata, Doki Doki Literature Club!, The Coma: Recut,
• 2018 - Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Forza Horizon 4, Deep Rock Galactic, Kingdom Come Deliverance
• 2019 - Risk of Rain 2, Code Vein, Death Stranding
• 2020 - Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate III, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, Genshin Impact (it was fun for a while)
• 2021 - Valheim
• 2022 - Elden Ring, Goddess of Victory NIKKE (I am completely serious with this pick)
• 2023 - Metroid Prime Remastered, System Shock Remake (I actually backed this game on Kickstarter at one of their higher tiers)
• 2024 - Helldivers 2
• 2025 - Elden Ring Nightreign
• 2026 - (I haven’t played any games that released this year that were good enough to be in this list)

You know, writing this all out, gaming really does suck these days. The 90s-10s were absolutely STACKED with bangers.