6. The one that paved the way for Grand Theft Auto III.
The game: Body Harvest (N64)
Published by: Midway
You played it in: 1998
What's Cool: It was developed by DMA Design. Don't recognize the name? How about Rockstar North, the company's current moniker? Yep. It's the Grand Theft Auto team. The setting may be totally different (science fiction alien invasion stuff) but the proto-Grand Theft Auto gameplay is unmistakable.
Guide your armor-clad hero through a massive world packed with cars, boats, planes and more than 50 other usable vehicles while trying to fight off oversized insects. It's a classic monster scenario combined with the sandbox ideals of GTA. Only the game's blah graphics keep it down.
Controlling the various machines and even your own character is a little stiff, but the open-endedness of this world makes the trip completely worth it. You won't be cruising around, poppin' caps or jammin' to licensed music, but you do get to save the human race. That's gotta count for something, right?
Return of the bug-filled sandbox?Unless thealiens stage their own coup, count on it.