This year, just like all those before it, is coming to an end. As we look back at Decembers past then, we will also offer up our suggestions for Game of That Year.

10 Years Ago This Month: December 2005

After the XBox 360 saw the next generation of hardware come out of the blocks, December saw Microsoft’s dream machine stumble. The Japanese hardware launch had an underwhelming lineup with only the abysmal Every Party, Tetris the Grand Master Ace and the middling Wrestle Kingdom being catered specifically to the market. Sales were slow to start and would never really take off over the next nine years.

More worrying were reports that early adopters were starting to have troubles with their systems. Overheating would see solder on the machine’s GPU crack and a failed unit signified by flashing red lights on the system’s power button – the infamous red ring of death. Rumblings were already beginning of class action lawsuits against Microsoft, and while MS claimed failure rates were within normal limits, those words would have to be eaten soon enough.

Most big releases were out at this point, but a significant title made it onto Japanese PS2s this month. Ryu ga Gotoku started the prolific series known in the west as Yakuza, and while a big budget western localization would tank, Sega’s newest sold boatloads domestically. The game drew from years of real life drama and cinematic influences to produce a gritty crime saga of Kiryu Kazuma as he takes the hit for a crime he didn’t commit and emerges from prison with enemies on all sides. The gritty and often convoluted story would blend with lighter moments, and the kind of slice-of-life material that pervaded in Shenmue, arcade games, gambling and hostess clubs being among the extracurricular activities available.

Game of That Year: Shadow of the Colossus

There could be no other option for 2005 than arguably the greatest game of all time. Fumito Ueda’s spellbinding adventure, a struggle of one man against nature, was profoundly touching, tear jerking my beautiful and mechanically hugely satisfying. Early balance issues and the odd bit of aimless wandering perhaps stopped the game shy of being completely above criticism, but this was a landmark and a triumph.

20 Years Ago This Month: December 1995

What’s surprising about the December 1995 release slate given the Black Friday cutoff for new releases that exists today is just how busy things were, with a huge array of significant titles rounding out the year at home and in the arcades, on 16 and 32 bit.

If you braved the winter weather to get into the local game centre, Namco rewarded you with a pretty great fighter. Soul Edge (the significantly less cool Soul Blade in the west) had a significantly different feel to stablemate Tekken, trading out the latter’s considered pace and relatively realistic feel for a much faster experience, and a focus on armed combat. While the story’s maguffin was the titular Soul Blade itself, every character had their own weapon, with reach and damage a key thing to balance. The game received a favorable reception in the arcades, and later on PlayStation, but things didn’t really kick off for the series until 1998’s sequel Soul Calibur.

You also had Namco fun on Japanese PlayStations this month. Ridge Racer Revolution was effectively a conversion of Ridge 2 from the arcades, though with that new arcade can not really being a significant enough change to warrant a numbered sequel, this new game was sold as more of an expansion. Added material here included night races, predicting the shiny neon look of later releases, a two player link up mode, and the first signs of the series really leaning into its twitchy handling, with a special drift mode that awarded points for big slides. It was decent enough in a vacuum, but not a huge amount different to the PS launch title.

Worms sold boatloads, despite being a pretty limited and frustrating experience.

If you wanted something with a little more meat, Konami had Suikoden on offer this month. A traditional JRPG, the game won fans over with a sweeping narrative concerning itself with a broad political conflict, its grand nature leading the player to form a huge party of more than 100 characters over the course of the game. Its sequel would be more fondly remembered, but this was comfortably the best RPG for the system up to this point.

The Saturn also enjoyed a great mix of arcade action and more substantial role playing this month. The arcadey fun, of course came from Sega itself, and in fighting and racing flavours. Virtua Fighter 2 was a revelation compared to the horrendous initial home port of the arcade original. Gloriously rendered characters that made use of Saturn’s odd rendering techniques (the system generated 3D models from squares rather than triangles, putting double the strain on the hardware) seemed far more rounded and more realistic than even the competing Tekken 2, and this was a stunning technical display for the Saturn that became one of the system’s biggest hits.

Sega Rally would also be included in scores of grab packs of used Saturn games due to its high attach rate. Like Ridge Racer, it was drift heavy, but much more realistic than Namco’s game, presenting a convincing feeling of sliding on gravel or mud. Its licensed cars could also be modified and set up depending on your handling preferences, presenting a sensation of depth that its slim selection of four tracks didn’t really follow through on. Still, after Daytona USA was a VF1 like disappointment of a home conversion, this was an excellent port, and probably the best racer ever released on the system.

Atlus brought us something far more in depth meanwhile, with Shin Megami Tensei spinoff Devil Summoner. The story of demons invading modern day Tokyo featured a strong combat system, and the ability to build a party of devils, merging their abilities to create new ones to, er, summon.

Dragon Quest fever struck Japan once more at the end of ’95

This was the last Christmas where 16 bit releases were still commonplace, and while most was quiet on the western front, Team 17 were putting out a tiny monolith. Worms would serve the company well for the next couple of decades though to those outside of its bubble of fans, it would be hard to figure out how. An extension of the old Tank/Scorched Earth games that stretched back to Atari 2600, it was a turn based strategy game involving crews of worms armed with heavy artillery and squeaky voices quips. The game would be ported to every format under the sun from Amiga to Game Boy and four generations of Playstation, but it was still slow and awkward to play.

If you had a Super Famicom and liked RPGs though, all your Christmasses came at once this month- just in time for Christmas. Tales of Phantasia was the first in a long running RPG series for Namco, who would eventually port Phantasia up to PS1, PSP and GBA further down the line. Phantasia’s calling card was a nod to action role playing, with the player only directly controlling one character in combat and AI handling your party.

It would take 11 years for Phantasia to make its way to the west, but Dragon Quest 6 wouldn’t be playable to English speakers officially until a 2011 DS release, 16 years on. DQ6 hit Japan at the RPG series’ peak, as clearly evidenced by the fact it became the best selling game in the country all year at 2.5 million units, despite launching on December 9. A likable story, and a FF5 like class system were highlights.

Game of That Year: Wipeout

OK, this might seem like a bit of an odd choice. As seen above, Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally were spectacular home ports of arcade games, and Chrono Trigger set the watermark for JRPGs in 1995 with its branching storytelling. Wipeout, though has a lasting significance that is easily forgotten today, especially since Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool’s closure.

While Ridge Racer was an exceptional port that showed the Playstation’s ability to handle 3D racing, Wipeout turned that up by a factor of 50, adding speed and verticality to roller coaster like circuits. Created specifically for Sony’s new console, it made a statement on the western launch of the system that while Saturn made valiant attempts at arcade perfection, PlayStation could offer even more than the arcades.

Yes it was gorgeous, yes its tricky delicate handling (mastering separate right and left airbrakes was key to good lap times) offered a sense of depth and mastery. More importantly, it exuded cool. Soon Wipeout would attract the future aesthetic of Designer’s Republic. Soon, Chemical Brothers at their peak would provide soundtracks. This was the clear statement of intent for Sony to move away from the post school crowd and instead draw in the post club one. For playing such a big part in setting the tone of the next 20 years of the medium, Wipeout must not be ignored.

30 Years Ago This Month: December 1985

The Famicom rounded out 1985 with some titles that could each lay claim to trivia footnotes in gaming history, despite not being great in and of themselves. Star Luster was a Namco shooter notable for being the publisher’s first home specific title, after years of arcade ports. In fact the arcade did see a Star Luster release later on, that was actually a port of the FC version. Nothing remarkable was to be found though.

Bomberman made its way to Famicom from MSX courtesy of Hudson this month, a game notable for presenting the helmeted Bomberman characters as we know them, with the familiar view of the top down action. It was a big visual change from the MSX original, where you played a behatted multicolored guy, and offered up a gaming icon. The problem here was that the series was yet to gain the multiplayer it would become famous for, instead being a solely single player action puzzle affair. You’d run around trying to trap baddies behind your upgradable bombs, blowing them to oblivion before revealing a key that got you to the next level.

A Train offered the accessibility and depth of sim city, with a Japan friendly train theme.

Then there was Squaresoft’s first Famicom game, 3D World Runner. A clear clone of Sega’s Space Harrier from earlier in the year, this was an unremarkable shooter, that while presenting a decent technical achievement (even playable in red/green 3D if you wanted for some reason) couldn’t pull of the scaling that gave Sega’s game a vital perception of depth to be playable.

A more significant Japanese release this month was Artdink’s A Train de Ikou (Let’s Take the A-Train) on NEC PCs. The railroad infrastructure management game never took off to any great degree in the west, with a DOS port in the 16 bit era followed by localizations of various PS1 and DS versions only attracting a niche audience. A Train was a significantly bigger and more durable franchise in Japan though, 18 games appearing for various platforms in the series over the next three decades in the train obsessed nation.

Sabouteur wasn’t perfect, but was pretty influential.

Finally, an ambitious and often overlooked Spectrum favourite in Saboteur this month. Definitely inspired by action movies of the era, Clive Townsend and Durell’s game had you play a ninja infiltrating a high security base to retrieve information on a shady criminal organization. Players would be drawn in by the game’s giant sprites that moved surprisingly smoothly, but what really was of note was stealth action gameplay, hand to hand combat mixed with sneaking past security cameras and avoiding guards by sneaking silently. Its ambition made for an awkwardly handling experience, but this and its sequel were overlooked stealth progenitors.

Game of That Year: Super Mario Bros.

Is there anything that hasn’t been said about Mario? A technical marvel, producing scrolling scenery on a system that strictly shouldn’t have handled it. A masterpiece of level design guiding players through a more complicated rule set than many had ever encountered. A sense of wonder and discovery. Moreover a redefinition of what videogames were to many. While horizons were steadily being expanded by everything from Ultima to Pitfall 2, it was Mario that changed the layman’s view of videogame worlds from single screen mazes or destruction of impending space doom to persistent places to run through, poke at, explore and enjoy.