CCIV: Game of the Year 1997 Round Six

[Neon Ignition]

Time for the sixiest round of the 1997 vote off. We slip into the second half of the years line up where more treasures will await your judgement.


Which of the above games are amongst the best of 1997 and why?

[Mr Ono]

Eeeek - 97 was a weird time for me. I never got an N64 at launch and had too much going on to play many games so none of those are fondly remembered.

[Atticus]

I went for Outlaws. Really fun wild west fps from LucasArts.

[QualityChimp]

Right, so I've voted for Overboard, which was this brilliant little pirate actioner, where you steered your cute ship through a variety of levels, plundering treasure and battling other ships.
In reality, this is one of those games where I rinsed the demo on the PlayStation Magazine cover disc.



However, in with a chance of being my GotY is Micro Machines V3.
What. A. Game!
From the lovely isometric menus:


To the brilliantly varied but imaginative levels:


Through to the amazing gameplay where the last player gets eliminated.
I once took this on a weekend away with friends with a Multitap and four pads, that let up to EIGHT players race simultaneously at the same time by sharing a pad. Whoever thought of that at Codemasters should have been given the rest of the day off!

[Cepp]

Had a lot of fun with Flight Simulator 98 at the time and I really enjoyed MegaMan Legends when I played it a few years ago, but its Moto Racer that wins the top spot for me. Classic arcade racer I've replayed over and over again.

[Neon Ignition]

None of these ones for me

[Asura]

Wow, none for me here.

I never liked Micro Machines V3. I remember once playing it 6/8 player and while it was great in theory, in practice, we found it usually involved 6 people dying quickly and 2 people racing for ages, reset, and continue. I honestly preferred the Megadrive originals in gameplay.

[phillv85]

Outlaws was a fun game, but the probably not very well known Panzer Bandit gets my vote.

[Tobal]

Monster Rancher and its cd reading nonsense making for barcode battler like addiction

[wakka]

I voted for Micro Machines V3 too. It’s one of the few on the list I’ve played and I did really enjoy it at the time, although I think it’s bested by the unbeatable Turbo Tournament and ‘96 versions on Mega Drive.

[dataDave]

None for me. The late 90s was complete dogger unless you were importing.

[Hirst]

Surprised that Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey isn't sweeping the board on this collection of fairly lukewarm titles. It's basically the perfect evolution of a Prince of Persia style title, The presentation is excellent and I love all the weird creatures, but it also does a great job of showing a consistent difficulty curve and drip-feeding enough new content as it goes along to keep it interesting.

I have to admit that it dips a little about two thirds in - the jungle area with the memory-based puzzles where you whistle tunes to progress is just a bit too arduous. Still like it though.