My game of the year for every year since I was born.
For the most part I tried to go with the release date of the version I played. Also I couldn't find something for 1984 despite my best efforts, and there is no way I could ever choose between FF4 and Mario World.
Games that I painfully had to cut out: Dragon Quest III, Zelda III, Lufia 1 & 2, GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Final Fantasy X, Grand Theft Auto III, and pretty much every game that came out in 1998 and wasn't Final Fantasy Tactics.
When possible, I've added excerpts from my past Game of the Year posts.
Update: In order to better round out the list, I'm adding blurbs for each game. Thanks for reading!