Our next award is for Best Old Game; a game released before 2024 which we couldn’t stop playing. Our editors may have different reasons for playing these games but many of them hold a timeless appeal.
Winner: Racing Lagoon
When we were brainstorming categories, we needed at least one that fell outside of the expected set. This one was chosen as a way to recognize older games we’ve played that were meaningful to us in some way outside of just putting them on our personal lists occasionally. With how much videogames are always focused on what’s next, forever looking forward in perpetuity, taking a bit of time out of our end of the year wrap-ups to recognize older works is the least we can do.
It’s fitting then that the first game to win this category would be Racing Lagoon. Developed by Squaresoft and released in 1999, when Square was at the top of their game, Racing Lagoon is a street racing role-playing game that is, like Live a Live before it and the many works from the RPG Maker scene that followed, a prime example of what the RPG form is capable of.
It’s a straightforward idea on paper: customizing and tuning your car easily maps to building a character; random encounters exist via other racers flagging you down for a race should you cross their path, victory awarding you experience and currency. The mechanics translate easily. But this is an RPG. It’s got a wild story that takes plenty of unexpected twists and turns, evolving from the day-to-day friendships and rivalries of street racing into the exact kind of greater sinister plot befitting a Squaresoft RPG.
This was released in a time where games were constantly experimenting with form, before mechanics and best practices had decided. It can be felt clearly in how the cars feel to drive. They don’t feel like how you’d expect from a racing game, carrying a weight that makes turns feel weird, but also light enough that you can easily spin out if you drift too far. This was not a team with extensive experience with designing driving games and it shows. But that’s part of the charm. Racing Lagoon was trying something: of course it would be a bit rough around the edges.
Like so many other classics that have gotten their due thanks to the tireless work of fan translators, Racing Lagoon is no longer relegated to some obscure game you hear whispers about to something that people can properly experience for themselves. And what a thing it is.
– Callum Rakestraw
Runner up:
Suzerain
Suzerain is an incredible “choose your own adventure” where you play the newly elected President of a middle power country in the 1950s. It’s set in a fake world which is similar to our own but all the countries are different, although there are clear stand ins for the United States (Arcasia) and the Soviet Union (United Contana). There is such a wide range of topics covered and political choices to make and you can alter the plot in radical ways, from choosing the country’s education policy, to trying to avert (or start) a war.
Despite there being no voice acting you do feel incredibly drawn into the world, with the various members of your cabinet, your wife and your family. I need to do another playthrough because during my first time around, I got de-selected as the presidential candidate for the next election because I was too left-wing, but successfully amending the regressive constitution to be far more democratic honestly was the single most satisfying experience I had playing a game this year.
– Gareth Brading
