Nick's Game of the Year Roundup

Prior to the recording of our 2008 award show, Brad posted a comprehensive list of his "Game of the Year" winners over the past 2 decades or so. In response, I thought it would be interesting to go back and post a list of mine as well. It's gonna be difficult because I didn't start thinking about what my game of the year would be each year until I started working on this site but I have gone through the lists and made my decisions. I will start with 1996...

1996: Super Mario 64 - A game that revolutionized 3D platformed and opened my eyes to a more light hearted gaming experience.
1997: Final Fantasy VII - The obvious choice but I had to do it. Without this game, who knows if I would still be playing games today. This was the first game to show me just how complex and mature a video game can truly be. (Honorable Mention: Goldeneye 007; Turok Dinosaur Hunter)
1998: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Despite my less than stellar performance on this year's project M marathon, OoT remains my number one game of all time. The memories I have of playing this game over and over each weekend are endless. I'm beginning to wonder if any game will ever dethrone it. (Honorable Mention: Metal Gear Solid; Resident Evil 2)
1999: Final Fantasy VIII - This may be the ugly duckling in the series since it made the jump to 3D but the game was still a polished, memorable experience that surpassed every other game that year.
2000: Final Fantasy IX - I hate to put yet another FF on this list but Square was definitely on top of s*** back in the day. FFIX remains one of my favorite games of all time to this day. It is a continuous battle with FFVII for best in the series as well. If you haven't played IX, do yourself a favor and stop reading this list... go now. (Honorable Mention: Chrono Cross; Legend of Dragoon; Resident Evil: Code Veronica)
2001: Final Fantasy X - This really does demonstrate my love for the series. I'm definitely not alone either when I say that the last "Squaresoft" Final Fantasy was one of the best. Doing away with the traditional leveling up system was a brilliant design choice and made this FF feel significantly different from previous entries. (Honorable Mentions: Grand Theft Auto III; Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty; Ico; Silent Hill 2)
2002: Fatal Frame - It's hard to believe I have gone this long without realizing that Fatal Frame was actually a GOTY for me. I stumbled across this title in the year of its release and was blown away by its atmosphere and jaw dropping scare tactics. It was definitely not a perfect game but that shouldn't hold it back from being recognized for excellence. (Honorable Mentions: Grand Theft Auto Vice City; Resident Evil Remake (GC))
2003: