Vol.
2, Issue 7
December 21, 1999
From
the Mouth of Madness:
The Other Awards
by
Jason "loonyboi"
Bergman
o
another year has gone by here at loonygames. Whee! It's always
tough to decide
on the "best" game for each year, but this year was
especially difficult.
There
were a number of personal disappointments for me. Neither Messiah
or Daikatana actually made it out this year, and I
was (still am, in fact) looking forward to playing both of them.
In Daikatana's
case, I was genuinely expecting it to give Quake III Arena
a run for its money in the Deathmatch category...but sadly, it
was delayed one last time. Messiah probably would have
made a good challenger to Unreal Tournament's action category...oh
well.
But regardless,
there were some clear winners. The fun thing about this year's
awards, is that the games I voted for didn't necessarily take
the prize. Two glaring examples come to mind: the winner of our
Playstation Game of the Year Award was Silent Hill. I like
the game, no question. Heck, I think it's a great game. But better
than Final Fantasy VIII? Heck no. I blame Nick Ferguson
for that one...his vote toppled it over.
And then
there's the N64 category. I guess I was the only one that fell
for Rare's Donkey Kong 64 hook, line, and sinker, since
I was the only one to vote for it. Oh, well.
I was
personally torn between voting for Sonic's Pocket Adventures,
Bust-A-Move Pocket and Pokemon Yellow for my handheld
game of the year. Of course, it didn't matter anyway, since the
rest of the votes went for Pokemon Pinball, but still.
I ended voting for Pokemon Yellow, since it is by far the
largest game there (with almost 50 hours of gameplay in the normal
storyline - not including mini-games and collecting extras). And
heck, when all's said and done, it's just a fun game. I can't
argue with that. :)
But, there
were also some categories that didn't go into the regular loony
awards...which I happily present here for all to see:
The Other
Awards
Most
Insane Number of Logos on a Game Box: Unreal Tournament
Can you
believe they managed to cram fourteen logos onto the UT
box? Some of them, okay, I can understand. The company logos need
to be there. Fine. But the Linux Penguin? Yeesh.
Best
Packaging: Quake III Arena (limited tin box)
Damn,
that thing rules. I personally bought an extra copy just to keep
it unopened. :)
Worst
Freebie in a Box: Gabriel Knight: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of
the Damned
I tell
ya, that comic book that's included with the game is unbelievably
hideous. The writing is just awful, and the art, while interesting,
certainly doesn't make for easy reading.
I almost
wish they had forgone the whole thing and done a poorly shot live
action intro. Almost.
Most
Crap in a Box: Ultima IX: Ascension (Dragon Edition)
This uber-elite
version of the game came with all kinds of stuff, including: every
previous Ultima game (in the main series, anyway) including the
VII add-ons, a soundtrack CD, a little ankh, a cloth map, an imitation
leather journal, a stylin' spell book, and would you believe,
more? Cool stuff.
Best
By-line on a Web Site
-
Jason "loonyboi" Bergman is the editor in chief here
at loonygames. Boo yah!