Electronic Gaming Monthly 1989 Buyer's Guide

Here are their awards for 1988.

Best Video Game of the Year - Double Dragon(NES)

Best Arcade-to-Home Translation - Rampage(SMS)

Best Original Game - Blaster Master(NES)

Best Graphics - Phantasy Star(SMS)

Best Action Game - Contra(NES)

Best Sports Game - Bases Loaded(NES)

Do you agree with the awards? I think either Super Mario Bros 2 or Phantasy Star should have got game of the year. And I would have given Shinobi some award but for the most part it's okay. They just don't have enough categories.

I might voice my opinion on their choices if I had even the slightest clue what other games came out in 1988 :)

(though I can tell you right now that Double Dragon would not be game of the year)

Hmm...same here.

Amazing what a little 20/20 hindsight will do to a list like this, eh?

I agree with you that SMB 2 (hah, finally an opportunity to use this acronym properly!) should have won Game of the Year, but you have to understand what a big deal Double Dragon was back then. I can remember people lining up to play that game in 1988, and the home port was equally earth-shattering.

Funny how that port doesn't even come close to holding up today.

Well, honestly, I think it was the unique fashion sense the characters of DD had back in the 80's.
For sure, this helped in the choice for game of the year.

Just for fun here are some other reviews from this issue.

Super Mario Bros 2(NES) - Hit!
Life Force(NES) - Direct Hit!
Tecmo Bowl(NES) - Direct Hit!
Xenophobe(NES) - Hit!
Seicross(NES) - Hit!
Double Dragon(SMS) - Hit!
Rambo 3(SMS) - Hit!
Golvellius(SMS) - Hit!
R-Type(SMS) - Direct Hit!
Bomber Raid(SMS) - Direct Hit!
Cyborg Hunter(SMS) - Hit!
Tower Toppler(7800) - Direct Hit!
Crossbow(7800) - Hit!
Into the Eagle's Nest(XE) - Hit!

Yeah, I thought Life Force came out that year. There's my retroactive choice for GOTY 1989 right there.

Ah, Tower Toppler...now there's a game worthy of its own thread.

Those reviews have a mix of 1988 and 1989 releases.

Bomber Raid does not deserve a Direct Hit! at all.

And even though the NES version of Double Dragon won GOTY, Ed Semrad argues that the SMS version is better because it has two-player.

Personally, I like the NES version more because it plays a bit better and has the one-on-one mode but Sega's one does have better graphics and two-player in the regular game. That's why I bought both versions.

Either way, it was definitely not my GOTY.

Quote:

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Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Personally, I like the NES version more because it plays a bit better and has the one-on-one mode but Sega's one does have better graphics and two-player in the regular game. That's why I bought both versions.

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I personally thought that the graphics in the SMS-version were not that good. While the SMS could display more colors per pixels than the NES, bur for some reason everything in the SMS looks like it's made out of cotton candy.

Oddly enough, the Famicom version of Super Mario Bros. 3 came out in 1988, two years before the NES release. But in Famitsu's All Soft Catalog from 1989, it lost to Dragon Quest III for Game of the Year.

Are you talking about the SMS in general or just Double Dragon?

Super Mario Bros 3 did see a NES release in 1989 if you lived in Canada. That's probably the reason The Wizard didn't have as big an effect up here.

Quote:

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Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Are you talking about the SMS in general or just Double Dragon?

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Just Double Dragon. ;)

If anyone wants to see more of Famitsu's 1989 awards, click on the following URL.

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...&output=gplain

Hit? Direct hit? So that's where Daily Radar got it I guess?

Quote:

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Super Mario Bros 3 did see a NES release in 1989 if you lived in Canada. That's probably the reason The Wizard didn't have as big an effect up here.

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Now that you mention that, Zelda 2 was also released in Canada before the US. It was during Nintendo's infamous "chip shortage". Did Nintendo of America published NES games in Canada or was it handled by another division?

The SMS version of DD does indeed have better graphics, and more accuratre level layout, but was flicker crazy. I would have to say SMB2 should have gotten GOTY. I was 5 in 1988 so the games I was exposed to would've been a lot less. I remember having DD and SMB2, and I liked SMB2 more, so there you go.

Nintendo of Canada publishes all Nintendo stuff here I believe unlike other companies like Sega. All Sega games here say Sega of America on them.

Eternal Darkness, for example, says "Developed in Canada" and has a maple leaf on it. I highly doubt the American one does.

That Famitsu list seems very Famicom-centric. Where are all the other systems? It says the catalog covers other systems.

I can't remember which games actually came out in which years..... but if Phantasy Star came out in 1988 then it was unquestionably the game of the year and nothing else was even close. :)

Speaking of Canada...I have long wondered why they don't sell European multi-language software here, or at least in Québec. As it stands now Nintendo first party games usually have an extra French instruction booklet (I think since they were sued).. but a lot of third party games don't. Sometimes these games are actually released in French (and German, Spanish, etc) in Europe though! Why don't they just release those games in Canada/Québec? My guess is because of US importers or something like that... but I think it's stupid.

Btw: Has there ever been a "SEGA of Canada"?

Quote:

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Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
That Famitsu list seems very Famicom-centric. Where are all the other systems? It says the catalog covers other systems.

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The Famicom was still very much the only game in town in 1988. The PC Engine was just getting off the ground, and I'm not even sure the Mega Drive had been released yet. And we all know just how successful the Mark III was in Japan.

Well, it says that they cover up to 1983 to July 1989 but still between the Mark III with Phantasy Star and the PC Engine with lots of great games by then like Gunhed, there was more than just the Famicom to the hardcore gamer.

sggg, I'm sure you know this but Quebec is practically a separate country with its French-speaking population. The rest of the country is completely English-speaking and knows about as much French as an American would. My parents and I moved to Western Canada from Quebec because English-only-speakers were no longer welcome there.

So, video game companies don't feel the need to make separate versions just for Quebec and importing the Euro-versions would be a pain since they are in PAL format.

The Famicom was the game console of choice in Japan, even when the Super Famicom was released. The Famicom only started to fade away when more companies decided to support the Super Famicom.