1999

How often can you point to a year when entire genres were defined? You can in 1999, as it's the breeding ground for at least three: EverQuest was the first successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game; Tony Hawk's Pro Skater launched a thousand "extreme sports" clones; and Dance Dance Revolution gave people an excuse to play games with their ears, legs and boo-tays.

Other titles took existing concepts and refined or expanded them. Super Smash Bros. added more (and cuter) participants to the traditional fighting formula and came up with an N64 classic. Homeworld captivated us with its Battlestar Galactica -like quest and 3D space battles, and by giving gamers control over both an amusement park and the rides inside, Rollercoaster Tycoon sent traditional world-building sims for a loop (followed by a corkscrew turn and a 50-foot drop).

With the long-awaited American release of Sega Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure took platformers for a 3D spin, and jaw-dropping fighter Soul Calibur proved that console ports could look as good if not better than their arcade inspirations. In the darker corners of the PC, Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament and the totally homebrew Counter-Strike mod for Half-Life rewrote the rules of deathmatch, while shooter/RPG hybrid System Shock 2 simply scared the bejeezus out of anyone who found themselves sucked into it.

Pure escapist fun still had its place. Sony's PaRappa passed the mic to six-string slinger UmJammer Lammy, and on Nintendo 64, Donkey Kong 64 and Mario Golf put cute spins on classic gameplay. And make no mistake - WWF Wrestlemania 2000 set the standard by which all grappling games are still judged.

And while most PS2 fans agree that the detailed, branching Suikoden II is the last brilliant 2D RPG (the $200 eBay price tags for still-wrapped copies bear this out), Final Fantasy VIII still polarizes people. The slow pacing struck many as a disappointment after FFVII's action-packed cinematic splendor, but FFVIII was far more polished and many (us included) feel it's even more emotionally affecting than part seven. Either way, it makes our list.