1. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Multi): POP is and was completely perfect in every way. Every game should be half this good.

2. Max Payne 2 (Multi): Better dialogue, better physics, better levels, and a better story. Simply a better game than the first, and better than most every other game this year.

3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox/PC): I hate Star Wars, and I hate RPGs, but this game forced me to love it at blaster-point. Bioware puts Square-Enix to shame with the best RPG ever made.

4. Viewtiful Joe (GC): Capcom finally made a game that was as great as it could be. I’m not hung up on 2-D or being retro, but even I can appreciate this one.

5. Links 2004 (Xbox/PC): The game that soured me on Tiger Woods and made me realize what a real golf game could be like. A gorgeous game that will probably steal a lot of the next year away from me.

Best Games of 2003 by Genre
• Action/Adventure: Max Payne 2
• Fighting: Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
• Platformer: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• RPG: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Puzzle: Tetris on my cellphone
• Racing: Project Gotham Racing 2
• Strategy: Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne
• Sports: Links 2004
• Shooter: Call of Duty
• Online: Links 2004

Odds & Ends
• Best Dev: Bioware
• Worst Dev: Eidos
• Best Accessory: Game Boy Player
• Worst Accessory: Xbox Music Mixer/Sony Eye Toy
• Worst Game of the Year: Final Fantasy XI
• Best Media Campaign: Nintendo - Coming Soon To GameCube
• Worst Media Campaign: Every GTA commercial ever.
• Overhyped game of the year: Final Fantasy XI
• Best Box Art: Max Payne 2
• Worst Box Art: Microsoft’s sports games
• Best swag: N-Gage backpack from E3
• Biggest News: Hearing that all of EA’s games would be on Xbox Live next year meant a lot to me, until I found out that there’s an already better golf game on Xbox Live, and I don’t care about Madden all that much.
• Best use of a monkey: Penny Arcade
• Best new franchise: Viewtiful Joe
• Most Innovative: Microsoft; they’re still trying to push the boundaries, and I like it. Except the Music Mixer.
• Worst Gaming Trend of 2003: MMORPGs not made by Blizzard.

Off Topic
• Best game this year that is the Game of the Year version of my Game of the Year from last year: Morrowind: Game of the Year (PC)
• First game to let me walk on walls and not make me hate it: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• Best game to let me say "Bravo, proceed to Zulu": Socom II: US Navy Seals
• Breaking My Heart Award: Valve. Why did you think you had to lie to me? I thought we were close. Hacked source code my ass...

Hero's Top 5 Games of 2003

1. F-Zero GX (GC): The game that demands more than you’ll ever hope to give. It’s difficulty is a draw and a turn-off; I found myself yelling at the screen and blissfully burning down courses at 1300kmph. Even though everything is open, I still run through courses to match up against rivals, or take on Story Mode to eke out one more second on my lap records. Pure excellence.

2. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2): The RPG that is just too much RPG. I have a friend who has finished it 6 times - I haven’t even beat the game. Which just goes to show you two things; 1) Disgaea is horribly addicting and deep and 2) you’ll always have room for more ^^

3. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC): I’m still fond of Wind Waker because it’s a good idea. Nintendo made the world of Zelda into something entirely new from the ground up, for better or worse. The game is a bit on the simple side, but I can’t think of any other franchise game this year that went and created something that felt so fresh.

4. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA): I cannot think of any other game that has had gotten more laughs, or more play time on the bus, than this. It’s a brilliant piece of work, proving that the ability to poke fun at oneself and offer a RPG-platformer hybrid are good things to strive for.

5. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA): It’s the sequel to my favorite PSOne game and a foreshadowing of things to come in Final Fantasy 12. Though a bit bitter on some angles, such as the convoluted Law system, it provides a solid strategy game that any fan of the original can enjoy.

Best Games of 2003 by Genre
• Action/Adventure: Viewtiful Joe
• Fighter: Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
• Platformer: Super Mario Advance 4: SMB3
• RPG: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
• Racing: F-Zero GX
• Strategy: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
• Other: DDR Extreme

Odds & Ends
• Best Developer: Sega.
• Worst Developer: Atari
• Worst Accessory: Madcatz Wireless Xbox controller
• Worst Game of the Year: Enter the Matrix
• Best Media Campaign: Nintendo’s Japanese "who are you" commercial.
• Worst Media Campaign: The rest of Nintendo’s "who are you" campaign.
• Overhyped Game of the Year: Enter the Matrix
• Best Box Art: Disgaea
• Worst Box Art: Megaman: Network Transmission
• Biggest Gaming News Item: MEGATON! Bah.
• Best use of a monkey: To train as lethal monkey-assassins
• Best New Franchise: Viewtiful Joe
• Most Innovative: Nintendo, in their own, weird way
• Worst Gaming Trend of 2003: pessimism in gamers

· · · Next Page // Introduction