1998 vs 1993

Ulti's Analysis
I'm saving the 1998 retrospective for the final, sorry guys. It wouldn't do this beast of a year justice to waste all my love in round one. We all knew 1998 was winning this contest, and it definitely performed like the contest favorite in its opening match. 1993 could probably annihilate any year outside the 1990-2001 range, but it got stuck against 1998 in its first match and was made to look like an absolute jobber.

Granted, 1993 is kind of an oddball year. Star Fox is just "decent". Same for Gunstar Heroes, Shining Force, Secret of Mana, Kirby's Adventure, Ecco, and a few arcade games. When you think of 1993, there's the awkward feeling that the year is best represented by Lunar 1 and Link's Awakening, and Link's Awakening ended up getting absorbed by 1998 later in the contest because LOL.

Lunar 1 for me is the pinnacle of that series. My best friend cracked a sealed PS1 copy to let me play it, and man did I fall in love. Those characters and that combat and that plot was just so charming. Lunar 2 was good, but it just didn't feel quite the same.

Link's Awakening speaks for itself. Best handheld Zelda by a mile until Link Between Worlds came out, and I still think Awakening is better than Worlds. Worlds was a Link to the Past clone, albeit a good one. Link's Awakening deviated from the norm and struck gold anyway, which is not easy for such a formulaic series. I might replay it and actually buy the bow legit this time instead of being called Thief for the entire game :D