The ten greatest years in videogame history

We calculated the best 120 months in gaming - you won't believe the results

Words: GamesRadar_ US on July 27, 2006

2001

So, the whole "2001: A Space Odyssey " thing didn't actually happen. No problem: we had some great games to keep things interesting.

Survival horror got a triple shot on PS2, as foggy psychodrama Silent Hill 2 got weird, samurai-vs-demons slasher Onimusha: Warlords got medieval, and Dante, the white-haired, gunslinging swordsman of Devil May Cry made it all look cool as hell. Those who preferred their guns mounted onto car hoods thrilled over Twisted Metal Black, and the fledgling Xbox turned the key on a supercar franchise called Project Gotham Racing.

Speaking of beginning franchises, Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy touched off a new platform action franchise, and speaking of racing, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec jumpstarted an old one. Skillz-drenched b-balla NBA Street helped us soar through the air, and the irresistibly cute strategy game Pikmin had us watching the ground closely. We were flattened by 2D RPG Paper Mario, chose Pikachu in Pokemon Stadium 2, and jetted clear across the galaxy for mech shooter Zone of the Enders, where we stayed when the team-based sci-fi RPG Phantasy Star Online glued us to our Dreamcasts.

But those aren't even the big hitters. Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty brought the premiere RPG and stealth action series onto PS2, and the Xbox roared out of the gate with mega-shooter Halo and big-chested brawler Dead or Alive 3. Nintendo kept up as well, releasing Super Smash Bros. Melee, which became legendary and went on to inspire countless superplay videos.

Then the gaming landscape changed forever when Grand Theft Auto III exploded onto the PS2.

In arcades, Virtua Fighter 4 quietly established itself as the best 3D fighter ever, and on the portable side, offerings like turn-based strategy masterpiece Advance Wars, kart racer Mario Kart Super Circuit, and the awesome RPG Golden Sun were showing the freshly-launched Game Boy Advance could make you miss your stop on the train. PC gaming had a good year as well, with empire-builder Civilization III, god game Black & White, and adrenalized first-person shooter Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

...

Platforms:

Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PC, Wii, DS, PSP, GameCube, Xbox

11 comments

View as:
Newest first
Oldest first

aar2697 - January 1, 2013 4 a.m.

1996 should have included Crash Bandicoot.
- Reply
- Report
Dadyo238 - March 19, 2012 6:09 p.m.

1998 was THE year. OoT,MGS,Fallout 2, Half Life, Diablo, and, last but not least, me. Yup, I was born in 1998.
- Reply
- Report
Solid_Gabriel - October 19, 2010 2:49 p.m.

How could you guys not mention Fallout 2 on the entry about 1998!
- Reply
- Report
D0CCON - August 25, 2010 12:02 a.m.

2007 ftw. Halo 3, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, COD4, The Orange Box, Bioshock, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy, God of War 2 (for those who like it), Forza 2, Uncharted, Crysis, Metroid Prime 3, and Ratchet and Clank Future Tools of Destruction helped make that year incredible (among other smaller games that I still love, like Peggle, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, and Puzzle Quest).
- Reply
- Report
Wolf007 - December 29, 2008 11:24 p.m.

How about you just put the greatest year of gaming. 1997! You talked about FFVII, is has there ever been a greater game. I think not! By the way, why doesn't it get ported to PS3 and the 360. It would sell like 300 million copies!
- Reply
- Report
CoD_22 - December 28, 2008 5:33 p.m.

i realise i may have contradicted myself slightly. its easy because you can run up to people to kill them without losing any health or you can get in tanks and become invincible. and they have no snipers because they have all given up trying as well. and that makes it really boring.
- Reply
- Report
rbrent - July 20, 2009 5:16 p.m.

This would be perfect for a timeline of the history of video games that I've been putting together at http://timelines.com/topics/video-games. It's on a website called http://timelines.com. Anyone is free to contribute to it and enhance it with images, videos, or commentary. Our idea is to create an interactive historical record of anything and everything, based on specific events that combine to form timelines. We're trying to achieve a sort of user-created multimedia encyclopedia, in which no event is too big and no event is too small, and where each event can contain various types of resources, such as video, images, maps, etc. It's also a good way to direct traffic to your blog because your events will pop up along with anything else that's thematically related. We're also planning on creating an embeddable version of our timelines in the near future.
- Reply
- Report
mjmont92 - January 17, 2009 11:11 p.m.

woo for 1997! dark forces II is one of my all time favorite shooters. (much better than Halo 3 imo)
- Reply
- Report
CoD_22 - December 28, 2008 5:27 p.m.

How can they like star wars battlefront? touch the right analog stick and your crosshair thingy will shoot off a metre or so. its impossible to snipe and its just too easy. the only thing that makes it hard is your teammates because they die and you lose your reinforcements. if it was just you on your own you would own them!
- Reply
- Report
Wazoox2 - December 26, 2008 10:36 p.m.

2nd last paragraph, it says Incredible Hulk: Maximum Destruction.. is it not Ultimate Destruction?
- Reply
- Report
babo_u_da - December 26, 2008 6:12 p.m.

im gonna be gay and just do this FIRST! (sry people who hate playing first)
- Reply
- Report