1990:
My family had an NES before I was born and my sister gave me a controller as soon as I could hold it, but I was too young too still have those memories, only memories of watching home VHS of me playing it. My oldest true gaming memory I have is, with the help of my elder sister, beating Super Mario World and seeing the credits. First video game I ever beat, and it's a fun one.

1991:
Not my first Final Fantasy, not my favorite FF, didn't play it until long after it's original release, on a different platform, but its still a pretty good one.

1992:
Such a massive improvement over the first game, endlessly replayable and fun

1993:
Link's Awakening is my favorite 2D Zelda. Music that still lives in my head, some pretty decent dungeons, a fun and sometimes confusing overworld to navigate, some fun characters and best girl Marin, fun glitches, and an unmatched atmosphere. I first played the DX version I borrowed from a friend and it wasn't until much later I had the game myself

1994:
In contention with VII and X for the title of my favorite (single player) Final Fantasy, tho I didn't play it until after both of those, on GBA. The start of a stretch FF stories resonating with me strongly, a cast I love, fantastic score, trains, society, etc

Notable runnerups: Sonic 3 was my actual obsession around this time as a kid and S3&K almost made this spot. DKC is also really good.

1995:
Probably my favorite 2D platformer of all of the time, probably played a not insignificant role in developing my pirate fetish, music responsible for helping kickstart some friendships even into the 2020s, monkey

Notable runner up: holy fuck goddamn Yoshi's Island good af too tho

1996:
you already know. The speedrunning and meme cultures that have developed for this game have only made me appreciate it more.

1997:
you already know. It's story is still one of the most poignant of the industry, its ending might be my favorite, and its cast of characters were my obsession through past my high school years.

1998:
you already know. The environmental storytelling you can extract from the adult era temples pulled me in long before I was introduced to the term

1999:
You can practically see the soul leaking out of the catridge

2000:
Great collectathon and a rare 3D Metroidvania with its large, interconnected world fit together naturally, funny dialogue and characters

2001:
you already know. ain't nobody do me like Melee

Notable runnerups: This could have just as easily gone to Final Fantasy X, or Sonic Advanture 2 whose Chao Garden fueled my childhood autism

2002:
When I saw the commercials for this on TV, I thought this shit looked dumb as fuck. My best friend insisted it was sick as fuck tho, and forced me to borrow his copy and damn he was right. Shits sick as fuck, still my favorite action RPG series. This first game has a vibe to it none of the sequels ever replicate. I have Ansem's endgame speech memorized forever

2003:
year doesn't really have a solid standout game for me, between this and FFX-2 for me probablly. Jak 2 is still really good though, radical shift in tone for the series, but not in gameplay. It does not ditch any of the 3D platforming, it keeps the collectathon element even if its not the main focus anymore, the guns act as an extention of Jak's platforming moveset and the first game's eco powers, and the vehicle stuff is following off the first game's airbike sections too. The skateboarding mechanic fun too. I was actually really into the new story and lore diretion

2004:
One of the top "I listen to this in everyday life" OSTs of all time, I listened to the OST a lot long before I even actually played the game. The game itself though, there's just nothing like Katamari, it's such a simple concept but so satisfying

2005:
holy fuck

2006:
best 3D Zelda game pre-BotW. Great dungeons, unique and fun abilities, Clover studio combat neat, great music, gorgeous water color artstyle, and the game is massive. Think you beat the game three damn times but it keeps going and it keeps being baller

2007:
this was a triumph

noteable runnerups: The World Ends With You, No More Heroes, Super Mario Galaxy

2008:
weakest year on the list, but Dissidia was a ton of fun. Came out at the peak of my Final Fantasy fandom, fun and unique but competitive fighting game that my friend circle at the time all played together a lot. Duodecim was even better, but not everyone in the circle picked it up so it didn't go off like this first entry.

2009:
it was DMC but even more so. Perfect dodge system, better feeling imo combo system, and takes escalating threats to comedic levels with a very fun lead character

2010:
My first Yoko Taro experience. The world and characters so engrossing, the story unlike anything I had played before. The music oh god. Ending A's endgame made me cry, revelations in route B change the way you view everything you had just done and actually made me feel it, unlike other games that attempted similar twists. And they make you do it all again, and again. "You want me to STOP?"

I got this game on a whim, walking into a game store looking for something new to play, knew nothing about it but saw Square's logo on the box and said "sure why not." I got something new to play alright, and a new obsession. I never finished the other two games I bought that day.

Notable Runnerup: This entry was original Xenoblade when I first published the list. One of those extremely rare situations where the internet hypes the living fuck out of something to you for years, and then when you finally play it, it actually lives up.

2011:
Portal but even more so. Some really neat new mechanics for the puzzles to play with, a full co-op campaign separate entirely from the single player one, cave Johnson. I nut just thinking of this game.

2012:
I wrote up a full review on the DX version, but this is the game that introduced me to what became one of my favorite series very quickly. Future entries further improved the crafting and combat both, but there is nothing like the atmosphere set by Ayesha and I don't think there ever will be. Also has the best opening song

2013:
Really this should be FFXIV: A Realm Reborn, but I wnated to limit XIV entries to one and Heavensward made more sense. After the Sequel though is an incredible fan project, I like it more than most official Sonic games, probably above Mania even

2014:
this vs DKC:Tropical Freeze was the hardest decision on the list, but DKCTF I don't have much to say beyond "platformer good, music good." Subnautica gave me and experience and feelings currently nothing else has. The thrill of exploring the unknown, the dread that comes with going deeper, climbing the tech tree to overcome those fears only to go deeper into new unknowns. Never before this have I played a game where the underwater controls are leagues better than on land. Customizing your Cyclops into your mobile home. Reapers.

2015:
Final Fantasy XIV is one of my favorite video games, created friendships that lasted a decade and still going, and pushed me harder than any other game ever has. Beating Living Liquid the day before it was nerfed is my crowning feat in gaming, nothing will ever compare to that high again. While I started playing in A Realm Reborn, and the beginnings of our static group were forming in the last months of ARR in the Coils, it was forming for Heavensward and it is in Heavensward our group was solidified and we began our raiding careers for real

2016:
Persona 5 is a good game with good music, ya'll know. I'm not as head over heels with this game as the internet seemed to be, but its still p'good

2017:
Breath of the Wild hit me with a sense of awe and discovery exploring it for the first time in a way no other game did, even its sequel. The open ended puzzles are great, the physics system is really fun to play around with (and break), and Hyrule Castle is the best dungeon in the series. The divine beasts are lame, but they make up such a small amount of my playtime, it's still my favorite Zelda game.

Notable Runner Ups: 2017 was fucking nuts. It annoys me a little how easy it is for me to pick BotW cause NieR Automata, Gravity Rush 2, Hollow Knight, Sonic Mania, Xenoblade 2 all could've topped any less stacked of a year

2018:
Rare's greatest game, the best pirate game to grace the market, incredible PvP at its peak, fun interactions, the best looking water in the industry. Updates for a while focused on system updates instead of content, but II still play very regularly

2019:
I'm not sure yet how I want to try to articulate my feelings on this experience

2020:
half vanillaware-esque action platformer, half in depth rice-farming simulator, both halves very good. Focusing only on a single crop allows for a much more in depth sim of growing that crop than any farming sims I've ever played, and the combat is not even remotely a slouch either. Absolutely lovable cast and I game I'm ready to get back into again sometime soon:tm:

2021:
awkward year for this, should be Endwalker but I set my rule on FFXIV. I haven't finish New TWEWY yet because I have it on Switch, and I don't wanna play it there anymore. But HOLY SHIT they made a TWEWY sequel! Never thought I'd see the day, and it's really good too. Unique combat different from the DS game but keeps the feeling and energy and still does it's own thing, and it still works. A stellar cast just like the first game, a stellar soundtrack just like the first game. I need to get back into it, or start over on PC

2022:
what an incredible game and story. logically, I find more issues with the story's pacing in the back portion and can poke a few more holes than the other entries, but emotionally and thematically this one hit me way harder than the others. I can't even count how many times this shit made me cry, not just for sad moments, but from really touching moments too. Noah is probably my favorite JRPG lead, and Mio's pretty good too

notable runnerup: Atelier Sophie 2 is the best Atelier I've played so far, and will get its review eventually

2023:
I never got super into CRPGs before, gave a couple a try here and there but never got hooked by any, but damn did BG3 hook me. They've polished the genre to a level never seen before, the sheer amount of freedom given on how to approach and solve situations is probably getting as close as a video game can to the freedom of actual tabletop roleplaying, and I can play multiplayer campaigns with friends across the country with whom I haven't played D&D with in over a decade. The scale of Act 3 is kind nuts, though it did also lead to some performance issues. The modding scene for custom campaigns is going to be wild

2024 is not over yet:
This is a game I have wanted for so long, finally made real. Monster catcher but as a large, open explorable world, some really great monster designs, more interactivity with your Pals than I've seen from others in the genre. Palworld kind of just takes ideas that worked from other games (monster catchers, survival games like Ark, has elements of Zelda BotW, Fornite, Minecraft type stuff, for examples) but it combines all those elements together in a way no one else has before. It's an early access game right now, doesn't have an ending, had a good number of bugs and frustrations when it first dropped and I played it, but present is already better than it was and future still looking bright on it. I already got more enjoyment out of this than many "finished" games