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Number two:
From age eleven, if you asked me what one arcade machine I would own if offered the choice, I would have said "Virtual Wing War." That's a dog-fighting airplane game by Sega. This year at E3, quite suddenly and savagely, the first time I laid eyes on it, I fell in love with the Sega Amusement Vision F-Zero AX cabinet, and it became the one I wanted to own above all others.
Now, after writing a review of the home version, I'm going to go ahead and declare the arcade game F-Zero AX as my game of the year, 2003. I'm doing this because I've spent so much time -- on so many other peoples' money (sorry Chuck; sorry, Marco) -- playing the game for 100 yen a race at the Ikebukuro Sega GiGo, and by the sheer "experience" factor alone, it edges out the home version.
I can play the home version to perpetuity on free-run mode, using my custom machine and tooling with the number of rival racers on the track. I can then just sit back, and relax.
Sitting back and relaxing is the important part of the arcade experience -- if you don't sit back, what with how the chair moves and rocks, you're going to find yourself leaning toward the screen, and that's no good for your playing. Games often make people bob and weave in their chairs; never so much as F-Zero AX, where even though your chair is tilting frantically from side-to-side, you yourself are leaning forward. This has more to do with the nature of the game than the nature of people, however, I assure you.
I'll be a little more specific.
2003 is a year that awakened me to factors outside the game. Much as I didn't get to play Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles as Squaresoft intended it because I didn't have three friends with Gameboys, or even three friends who I'd bother playing videogames with, I was not quite l33t enough to carry a Nintendo memory card with me to the Sega GiGo so as to race in a tricked-out machine. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the game immensely enough to call it the best game of the year. And I can say that, as a person who's played with a custom racer before, it's more than just a neat gimmick -- it's a synergy of the home version and the arcade version, the key between the two of them being you. It's like Sega Rosso's Initial D in a way, in that it inspires people who don't know one another to race, and that's groovy. Never say Sega isn't working on bringing people together.
See my review for more information on what exactly makes the game so great. In the meantime, let's talk about racing games. As in, what a hell of a year for them. After Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, I'd say that OutRun2 would make my list of games of the year, without a doubt. This is the ultimate show-off game, as well as the ultimate relaxation game. To think, it's a race, where the only opponent is time! No rivals! Make it to the goal in time, and win -- it's that simple. The variations are simple, too -- in Heart Attack mode, pull off drifts to gain hearts, impressing your girlfriend in the passenger's seat. In all modes, observe highway signs to choose your route as you proceed; different routes provoke different scenery and harder corners. I can't wait for the Xbox version (please?), which may let me turn off the pesky time-limit (in place, yes, I understand, so that arcades can earn some actual money) and race at my pace.
Also pretty damned high on my list is Project Gotham Racing 2, a game that makes me wish I owned an Xbox. I asked myself, in the middle of writing a review of Gran Turismo 4 Prologue for a certain esteemed magazine, what's better -- Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, or Project Gotham Racing 2 when you don't own an Xbox? Project Gotham Racing 2 when you don't own an Xbox came out a nose ahead.
Boo to R: Racing Evolution, though, for killing Ridge Racer and turning out a more-than-competent Gran Turismo clone. Don't get me wrong -- the game looks, feels, and plays great. It's just that they cut out all that Ridge Racer personality. We're no longer racing Age Solos and Lizards -- they're Dodge Vipers and Toyota Celicas. Sure, they look shiny -- still. I want my Ridge Racer back. All the tracks in R look so flat -- race tracks built in the prairies, rendered so that you can almost smell the tobacco being chewed in the crowd. I don't want that hickish American backdrop, true as it may be to the sport of racing. I want my pulsing electric-blue-techno music over glistening dark city streets.
Game of the year that actually didn't come out yet WHY THE HELL NOT goes to Zelda: Four Swords for Game Cube. I will review this game in great anger when it is released. Hell, I'm almost feeling bold enough to call it the game of the year, 2003, when all I played was that demo.
I won't do that, though.
Shame of the year goes to the four-player Pac-Man for Nintendo Gamecube, at E3 hinted to be a full game, and later packed in on several Namco titles. I say -- I don't need that shit. I played it at E3 with three people I totally don't hate, and while it uses the GBA-GC connectivity like Nintendo is forcing all game-developers (even themselves!) to do . . . no. It's just not great. It's not fun. It's a sub-Famicom-Bomberman level of enjoyment, and that damned thing was only one-player.
Odd game of the year is Game Dragon's Young Gatt. It's a Taiwanese MMORPG that I graciously was given a free copy and two years of internet access for, which was cool from the start; what great much cooler is that, upon playing the game, I realized it was a piece of art. I can't wait; three years from now, someone is going to tell me to get on the Young Gatt bandwagon, like they did with Ragnarok this year, and I'm going to be like, BAM and link them to this.
BAM!
Honorable mention: Usagi, by Warashi. It's a mahjongg-digital-comic, and one so cleanly produced that I played it for nine hours in an internet café and didn't even know the time had gone. I have promised Brandon a review at some point in the near future. So be on the lookout for it. In the meantime, I really want to buy this game. I probably should.
Best game to play in a Japanese internet café goes to Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball. I honestly wouldn't suggest you play it anywhere else, and that's not an insult. For what it is, it's solid.
And that's good enough for me.
Racing games -- there's always a racing game when a system launches, and there's always a great racing game when a system dies. This is because racing games -- games about going fast, usually in one direction, are pretty much as simple as games get, simpler even than Pong. Not only are they simple -- they're simply attractive. People love to see things going fast. It sucks in their eyes. They like making things go fast. This is why race games will always work.
F-Zero AX is that great racing game of this era. Unless you're busy complaining that it's too hard.
[last: number one: from california to you]
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