Best Video Game of Each Year Since 1980

Navigate Pac-Man through a maze escaping ghosts and eating Pac-Dots.

Arcade video game and the first in the "Donkey Kong" series in which Jumpman (later retconned to be Mario) runs and jumps on platforms and climbs ladders to ascend a construction site and rescue Pauline from a giant gorilla, Donkey Kong.

Arcade platform game and the sequel to "Donkey Kong", but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (formerly named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying to save his kidnapped father.

A valiant knight, Dirk the Daring is on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon.

Light gun shooter video game in which the player must hit a minimum number of targets (either ducks or clay pigeons) to advance to the next round or else get a game over. If the player loses, a dog appears to mock the player.

A plumber named Mario and his brother Luigi travel through the Mushroom Kingdom to save the princess from the evil Bowser.

Differently shaped blocks descend into a 2D container. The blocks can be moved and rotated, and must be sorted into the rest of the blocks on the fly.

Little Mac, a 17-year-old fighter from the Bronx, ranked number three in the minor circuit, works his way up through the rankings so that he can challenge Mike Tyson, Kid Dynamite, in a dream fight.

King Koopa has kidnapped Princess Toadstool, taken over all seven kingdoms in the Mushroom World, and put his seven kids in charge of all of them. It's the Mario Brothers to the rescue.

In ancient Persia, the sultan's vizier, Jaffar, seizes power. With his only obstacle to the throne being the sultan's daughter, he locks her up. In order to free her, you must escape dungeons, get to the palace tower and defeat Jaffar.

While Mario and Luigi are vacationing in Dinosaur Land, Bowser kidnaps the Princess. Mario and his new dino friend Yoshi go on a mission to save her.

The wizard Agahnim has abducted seven maidens, intent on using their power to open a portal to the Dark World. Armed with a trusty sword and shield, Link begins a great and treacherous journey.

An American P.O.W. is trying desperately to escape from the Nazi prison Wolfenstein during World War II.

In the future, an unnamed marine fights for survival on a space station on Mars where the Union Aerospace Corporation accidentally opened up a physical portal to Hell.

Samus Aran returns to the brooding planet Zebes to recover the last metroid from the Space Pirates.

Crono, a young boy, is thrust to adventure by destiny to destroy an oncoming threat that will destroy the world in 1999.

When the evil Bowser steals 120 power stars and traps Princess Peach within the walls of her own castle, it's up to Mario to save her once again.

After being sent by the overseer of his vault to search for a new water purifying chip, the player discovers the horrors of post apocalyptic America, and the threat of the Master's Army.

Dr. Gordon Freeman must fight his way out of a secret research facility after a teleportation experiment goes disastrously wrong.

In the city of Sigil, the only place from which all realities of the Planescape universe can be reached, an immortal amnesiac, the Nameless One, must uncover his past, the mystery of his immortality as well as who's trying to kill him.

After becoming the hero of Hyrule, Link stumbles into the enchanted land of Termina, where a falling moon will crush the world in three days.

A young bank robber escapes from police custody and works his way up through the mafia ladder of crime-ridden Liberty City, USA.

The protagonist travels by Morrowind, eastern province of the Septim Empire in Tamriel. He/she can save it from enslavement or explore for personal purposes.

A republic soldier, training to become a Jedi Knight, is given the task of halting the conquest of Darth Malak by discovering the location of a weapon known as the Star Forge.

Dr. Freeman is taken out of stasis by his "employer" to help rid the planet of invading aliens forces known as the Combine that entered through the portals he helped create.