The Game of the Year Tournament 2008 is now underway. Voting has begun on the Game Freaks 365 homepage to select this year’s Game of the Year as 64 games face off against each other across every platform. Voting will take place daily with a new match every midnight on the homepage until we have a user-selected Game of the Year. Unlike some other sites, we aren’t stuck on our own opinions. We let you, the viewer, decide your own Game of the Year in an NCAA-style tournament, complete with a bracket and seedings based on a game’s strength.
This tradition is in its sixth year and dates back to when Game Freaks 365 started. In 2003, the best games from the GCN, PS2 and Xbox fought each other in a tournament of 32 games. Super Mario Sunshine came out victorious over Metroid Prime to win the first Game of the Year Tournament. In 2004, we expanded to 64 games with a Semi-Finals showdown between #1 seeds Pandora Tomorrow, Burnout 3, and Half-Life 2, along with #4 seeded Need for Speed Underground 2. The result was a resounding 3-to-1 victory for Half-Life 2 over Pandora Tomorrow.
Resident Evil 4 proved unstoppable in 2005 as it only dropped below 70% against an opponent twice: the Semi-Finals and Finals. #1 seeded Resident Evil 4 cruised to a 62% to 38% Game of the Year win over a #4 seeded Mario Kart DS in the Championship. In 2006, #1 Twilight Princess defeated #2 Elder Scrolls IV with over 60% of the vote in the Semi-Finals. #2 New Super Mario Bros. joined Zelda in the Finals with a win over #2 Guitar Hero II 57% to 43%. The Finals were not even close, though, with Zelda: Twilight Princess landing the Wii it’s first Game of the Year with a 77% to 23% trouncing over New Super Mario Bros.
2007 saw one of the strongest holiday release schedules in video game history. While games like Halo 3, Metroid Prime 2 and God of War II would have been serious contenders in any other year, 2007 was not particularly hospitable to these games. The Semi-Finals saw The Orange Box trounce Uncharted 71% to 29%, while Super Mario Galaxy suffered a similar fate against BioShock (40% to 60%). BioShock was the uncontested choice for Game of the Year against The Orange Box, winning 64% of the vote to Orange Box’s 36%.
