Welcome back to our Best Year in Gaming March Madness bracket competition! Yesterday we polished off the first two matchups in round 2 for the Southeast Conference, and today we’re finishing the conference off with another pair of big matchups. Yesterday saw 1994 absolutely crush 1986, but we had a surprise upset – 1997 beat 2008, claiming one of our rare victories over a higher-seeded year. 2008 was a powerhouse year for tabletop games but nostalgia over the video games of 1997 gave it the edge.
Results: 1994 and 1997 win
Today we’re finishing off the southeast conference, introducing another pair of powerhouses to the mix.
VS.
VS.
Speaking of tough calls, this is another doozy – 2002 is coming in hot to the competition with some massive years for Nintendo and Microsoft, as well as a big year for PC gaming. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Kingdom Hearts were some of the PS2’s biggest titles, while on the Xbox we had Jet Set Radio Future spearheading a number of Sega titles on the console, plus the start of the Splinter Cell franchise. And Nintendo had a major year with Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, and The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker. And on PC we had Morrowind, WarCraft III, Neverwinter Nights, and Magic the Gathering finally took the act online. That said, it’s likely to be a close matchup with 2018, a year which included the God of War reboot, Return of the Obra Dinn, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Monster Hunter World, and was just a phenomenal year for board and tabletop games in a way that 2002 can’t quite match.
This article is part of a larger series on the best year in gaming. For more years, click this link. Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
