Awards for Best Games
John Leo
Winter 1990 anyway, I thought it might be interesting to list the
picks of Famicom Tsushin, my favorite game magazine, for best games
made from 1983-1989.
This is from Famicom Tsushin's 1989 "All Soft Catalog", a remarkable
reference book which lists (almost) all games ever made for the
Famicom, Gameboy, PC Engine and Megadrive up to July 1989 (the US
equivalents of these machines are respectively NES, Gameboy, TG-16 and
Genesis). The 1990 edition should have come out last month and
hopefully a friend will be bringing one for me in a couple weeks.
The main sections of the book list games alphabetically within genres
and give a screen shot, the maker's name, release date, list price,
format, and a 1-5 star rating (which I've found to be usually very
accurate). There is also a short description and a list of good and
bad things about the game. There are also indexes by machine
(chronologically), by maker, and so forth, so it is really convenient.
In between each section is an interesting chart with best-selling
games, or reader's picks, or favorite companies. I can post some of
these later, but this time I'll stick to their awards for best games,
voted on by the staff. Apparently the awards were open to games for
any system, but Famicom games ended up winning every award, so who
knows. As they say, this is just their opinion and yours may differ.
I'll give some of my own opinions here (which include games that came
out too late to be considered).
Remember this is only up to July 1989 and there were many excellent
games released after then. Especially important are role-playing
games such as DragonQuest IV (Enix), Final Fantasy III (Square) and
MOTHER (Nintendo). Note that the DragonQuest series is called Dragon
Warrior in the US. And now the envelope....
GRAND PRIZE: DragonQuest III (Enix)
No surprise here, as this game has a fanatical following in Japan,
but they say Super Mario Bros. 3 was also a close contender.
I haven't played this yet, but I doubt it would be quite as good for
my taste as my two favorites SMB3 and MOTHER. But who knows....
DQIV doesn't seem to be quite as highly regarded, but it is still
thought to be excellent.
AWARDS BY GENRE
ACTION: Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo)
No argument here. This game is incredible.
RPG: DragonQuest (Enix)
Here I wonder, although this game was important for really starting
the RPG craze in Japan (and now the US it seems). Still there are
certainly better games now. I'd pick MOTHER here.
SIMULATION: Famicom Wars (Nintendo)
Perhaps surprisingly, this game won over the Koei games such as
Nobunaga's Ambition (5 stars for all 3), Super Daisenryaku
(Megadrive, 5 stars), and Nectarious (Military Madness for TG-16, 4
stars). Yet it was never released in the US. Well, I have it and
it's great. But I actually like the recent Fire Emblem (also
Nintendo) even better, as it incorporates RPG elements.
PUZZLE GAME: Tetris (BPS/Alexy Pazhitnov)
Another obvious choice. I guess this one could also refer to
the Gameboy version; it doesn't say.
EDUCATIONAL: Popeye's English Fun (Nintendo)
The sad state of educational software is demonstrated by the fact
that this award goes to a game that got two stars. It's no wonder
that Nintendo recently donated $3 million to MIT with this in mind.
SHOOTING: Zanac (Pony Canyon)
I haven't played this yet since I tend not to like this kind of
vertical shooting game, but it's impressive that an old (1986) and
small (one-sided disc system) game would win. I'd pick either
R-TYPE (Irem, PC Engine) or Gradius II (Konami) (both of which got 5
stars, by the way) here, although my favorite shooting game is now
the arcade "Parodius da!" (Konami), the latest in the Gradius series.
ADVENTURE: Shin onigashima [New demon island] (Nintendo)
The classic adventure game, although the recent "Yuuyuuki" (using
the same system) may be even better. I played "Yuuyuuki" a bit over
the summer but didn't really try "Shinonigashima" until last night;
it is indeed fantastic. I'll have to write more about these games
later, but they are based heavily on Japanese children's stories,
have wonderful stories of their own, and use graphics, sound and
timing to create very dramatic effects.
SPORTS: Pro Baseball: Family Stadium (Namco)
Another classic. This may be "RBI Baseball" in the US and has
several sequels in Japan. I'm not a big sports game fan but my
favorites would be "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!" (Nintendo) and "Golf"
(Nintendo for Gameboy).
TABLE GAME: Side Pocket (Namco)
Billiards; I've never played it. I'm surprised one of the PC Engine
mah jong games didn't win this. Unfortunately the Famicom mah jong
games are all rather mediocre.
ETC: Otocky (ASCII)
I'll just quote the description: "A musical tool in which you
collect notes in a side-scrolling shooting game, and once you've
cleared 6 screens you can enjoy a simple composition, which can
be saved on the disk." Obviously unavailable in the US.
CATEGORY AWARDS
BEST SCENARIO: Final Fantasy II (Square)
Having played Square's Final Fantasy Legend (for Gameboy) I don't
doubt this. Recent strong contenders would be MOTHER and of course
Final Fantasy III (the prolog alone is great!).
BEST GRAPHICS: Gradius II (Konami)
My award would go to MOTHER, but for this kind of graphics Gradius
II is pretty amazing. Apparently Konami was using a special chip
for this game, and with Nintendo of America's recent decision to
let companies make their own cartridges maybe this game will finally
come out in the US.
MOST TALK: DragonQuest IV (Enix)
Endless articles about this one before and after it came out.
BEST DIRECTION: Ninja Ryuukenden [Ninja Gaiden] (Tecmo)
No doubt for those great cinematic interludes.
BEST CHARACTER DESIGN: DragonQuest (Enix)
I'd probably pick SMB3 here.
BEST BGM [BACKGROUND MUSIC]: Legend of Zelda (Nintendo)
I love Zelda but can't remember what the music was right now.
MOTHER would definitely get my vote for this category.
BEST TRANSLATION: Wizardry (ASCII)
No comment here; I haven't played either the computer or Famicom version.
BEST CM [COMMERCIAL]: Famicom Wars (Nintendo)
I've seen only a shot from this commercial and it doesn't look like
one I would like. On the other hand Nintendo's recent commercial
for Doctor Mario is excellent; SMB3 was pretty good also.
LONGSELLER AWARD: Super Mario Brothers (Nintendo)
Without a doubt.
There were also four special awards; the only game available in the US
which won one was "Metroid" (Nintendo) for "a perfect match between
graphics and BGM."
It's a quiet little life with no problems between | John Leo
the stove that smokes and the ever-open window that | l...@theory.lcs.mit.edu
looks out on a landscape becomming daily less |
coherent...But what am I saying? And to whom?...
All questions not worth asking from now on. (Alain Robbe-Grillet)