 TNL Editor's Choice Awards 2002 - Best and Worst of 2002 |
01/10/03 |
| What were TNL's picks for 2002? Find out here! |
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Honorable Mention: Virtua Fighter 4  Nothing better symbolizes what the year 2002 was like than our game of the year, Metroid Prime. After a significant hiatus with a couple of appearances in Nintendo's Smash Bros. series, the first lady of video games made her return in Metroid Prime for the GameCube. Combining the traditional exploration that is the hallmark of the Metroid series with a first-person perspective, Nintendo proved once again how to update a beloved franchise without losing any of its appeal, as well as adding to the mystique of the series with an involving storyline and ramped-up difficulty.
Another series to make its return was our runner up, Virtua Fighter 4. While it hadn't been gone for as long as Metroid was, the five-year span between the arcade releases of Virtua Fighter 3tb and Virtua Fighter 4 was certainly long enough for most fans. However, unlike previous VF games, VF4 was the first to debut on a system not produced by Sega. Despite this, Sega's AM2 did a superb job of bringing the technically impressive fighter to the PS2 and were rewarded for their efforts by selling 1.4 copies of the game worldwide. Congratulations to both series for making successful returns and allowing new gamers to experience what we seasoned veterans have known for years.
Honorable Mention: Jet Set Radio Future  Ubi Soft's Splinter Cell was to be Microsoft's trump card during the holiday season, a game to rival Metroid Prime during the holidays - and boy, it accomplished everything Microsoft could have hoped for and then some. Featuring some of the most advanced graphics on any platform and gameplay revolving heavily around stealth and extensive use of lighting, Splinter Cell is not only the best Xbox game this year, but it will be considered one of the best ever on the platform for years to come. Featuring some inventive gadgets at your disposal such as the sticky shocker, the fiber-optic camera for peeking behind doors, and your handy-dandy heat vision and night vision visors, Splinter Cell definitely lives up to the Tom Clancy name. In fact, Konami's own Hideo Kojima said that he would have loved to have used Splinter Cell as the next Metal Gear title, which is high praise indeed. It's too bad that good ol' Sam Fisher is locked up with Ubi Soft and Microsoft. And that's probably a good thing for Konami, since I've heard rumours that Splinter Cell is what Metal Gear Solid wants to be when it grows up. In fact, I heard it was so bad that Solid Snake dresses up as Sam Fisher for Halloween every year, in order to capture some of the magic that makes Sam Fisher the true badass that he is. Yeah, I heard it was that bad.
Honorable Mention: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City  It's been a bittersweet year for Sega fans around the world. Sega's NFL2K series got trounced by EA's Madden series on the sales charts, and the company isn't lighting up the industry like it promised it would when it announced the end of the Dreamcast last year because of some lackluster titles. However, fans of the company can still rejoice that the Virtua Fighter series has finally landed in the laps of PS2 owners everywhere. After years of having to settle with Tekken and its brethern, the rest of the gaming community can finally get involved in a game that plays just as well as it looks. For new players, this means a chance to cozy up to the most technically complex fighting game series ever created, and for seasoned veterans of the series, it means a lot more players to square off with. With an engaging fighting system, not to mention the very addicting Kumite mode, it's no wonder this game sold as many copies as it did. With the release of Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution in 2003, perhaps Sega might strike lightning twice in the new year.
Honorable Mention: Super Mario Sunshine  It's only fitting that our game of the year would also be our GameCube game of the year, right? While the GC is barely one year old, it's already had a slew of first-class titles such as last year's Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Mario Sunshine during the summer of 2002. With Prime, Nintendo has capped off an incredible year that can rival just about anything that they have done in the past. In fact, when was the last time you could remember that not one, not two, but three major Nintendo franchises (StarFox, Mario, Metroid) were all released in the same year? Let's not forget Nintendo's original efforts such as Eternal Darkness and Animal Crossing as well as mainstays like their Mario Party series and and the classic Mario games on the Game Boy Advance. Could 2002 be Nintendo's best year ever? Well, we don't know about that. We'll have to wait and see if Nintendo brings the pain to Sony and Microsoft in 2003 and beyond.
Honorable Mention: Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island  Thus the reign of what has been dubbed by some as Metroidvania continues, while Konami continues to shun the original Castlevania setup for this exploration/RPG method. Frankly, it seems to be working as this near-clone of Symphony of the Night usurps all other platformers on the GBA to show off a whole mess of solid gameplay wrapped around a single castle. It is certainly layered with visual effects on a larger scale then any other game on the system, providing a sight for strained eyes despite the music not living up to the visual splendor. But honestly, with a formula as good as this and replay value that equals its console spawn-point, why quibble?
Honorable Mention: Unreal Tournament 2K3//  It brings to mind an odd clash of wantings. From Blizzard's last RTS endeavor was born a strategy game that thrived almost solely on the online aspect as time went on. Yet when their latest game of similar yet smaller nature came out, people complained about the single-player. Warcraft III was born and bred for rush-tactic online battles, something that can be argued it does to a higher and more refined degree then any other. It may not have much in the way of playing alone thanks to its focused design on multiplayer, but the Heroes are just so damn cool and useful it's amazing this was not thought of before. Although now that I think about it, Battle Realms did have an attempt to beat Blizzard to the punch for all the good it did them. But as usual, the continuous delays this company is known for paid off in the end as they delivered an insanely well-made product, par for the course. Lead on, general, for the horde!
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