I’ve completed my months-long task of painstakingly recreating all of my lost GOTY lists over the course of my professional career as a writer. The links to that are at the bottom of the article.
But what I have yet to ever do (quite the impossible task to people nostalgic for a certain era of games) is make a game of the year top ten list for when I was in high school, and work my way backwards. The goal is writing my GOTY lists now for years when I wasn’t a professional in the field. The field of wordsmithing. I good at the words.
And who knows? Maybe I’ll go past the year of my birth! That’s only a few more articles after this (fuck, I am old). But I will be limiting myself to only one sentence per game, as both a challenge to myself and a relief to my editor. He needs another vacation very soon; I put him through so much.
2001
Honorable Mentions: “Serious Sam,” “Mario Party 3,” “Castlevania: Circle of the Moon,” “Max Payne,” “Pokemon Crystal,” “Pikmin,” “007: Agent Under Fire,” and “Final Fantasy X”
10. “Arctic Thunder” — The arcade machine for this blew cool air at you while you played. A godsend in the summer time.
9. “Super Monkey Ball” — Only the sequel can top a brilliant game like SMB.
8. “Silent Hill 2” — A much different experience than the remake.
7. “Luigi’s Mansion” — This game holds up! And is still the best in the series.
6. “Super Smash Bros. Melee” — The way this game feels is all the explanation you need when wondering why it’s still played competitively after all this time.
5. “Advance Wars” — I am so mad that the remaster didn’t sell better because now we aren’t getting anymore of this series. It’s so much better than Fire Emblem!
4. “Halo: Combat Evolved” — The remake of this game in Unreal Engine 5 proves how perfect Bungie got the original right. An all-time first in any series.
3. “Grand Theft Auto III” — Eye opening for me, and the entire industry. Pantheon-level game design.
2. “Paper Mario” — Is this the greatest JRPG of all time? No. But it is the game that holds up the best from any N64 game to this very day (both graphics and gameplay).
- “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3” — Everyday I sing “AMOEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” or “TONY HAAAAAAAAAAAAAWK.” No sports game has ever been this good, or ever will be. Masterpiece.
2000
Honorable Mentions: “Hitman,” “Deus Ex,” “Mario Tennis,” “Skies of Arcadia,” “MediEvil 2,” and “The Typing of the Dead”
10. “Pokemon Stadium” — It was pretty cool playing my copy of Pokemon Red through this on my TV. And playing the mini-games with my siblings.
9. “Mario Party 2” — The best one of these. And not just because of the cowboy and astronaut outfits.
8. “Spider-Man” — Stan Lee did V.O. for this game, and that rules.
7. “Diablo 2” — Click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click.
6. “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2” — The soundtracks would get better, and the gameplay would improve, but this was a revelatory sequel to the original’s ideas.
5. “Pokemon: Gold and Silver” — You got two Pokemon games for the price of one! But the new ones were not as good as the old 151.
4. “Marvel vs. Capcom 2” — The amount of playable characters in this makes it infinitely replayable. The music makes it infinitely replayable. And we’ve been obsessed with it for 25+ years for a reason.
3. “Counter-Strike” — I’m a “Source” man myself, but this is where all of the maps and sound effects came from!
2. “Spyro: Year of the Dragon” — One of my favorite platformers of all time. A favorite of mine, and you could SKATEBOARD IN IT.
- “The Grid” — The most underrated, unsung, and most hidden of gems from the end of the arcade era. Midway cooked with this mix of a game show, “Robotron,” and shooting. Plus they snuck Mortal Kombat easter eggs in it. Read more about it with this article below!
Editor’s note: Jared is WILDING with this one. “The Sims,” “Jet Set Radio,” “Majora’s Mask,”Baldur’s Gate II,” “Perfect Dark,” “Vagrant Story,” “SSX,” and many more games came out in the year 2000.
Image Credit: “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 Remastered”
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