Being young and unemployed, I missed out on a lot of great stuff at the turn of the millenium. In fact, the year 2000 had so many good things it could only mean games were going to bigger and better places.

While bigger is certainly correct, the “better” part is still debatable.

Still, the year 2001 marked the year I had become a wage slave to FuncoLand. Just in time for them to switch their name to GameStop, in fact! It was an interesting time, but most of all I could afford to play as many games as I desired. Sort of. Thus, while the year 2000 was meager of new titles I could play, the year 2001 was corpulent with them. Especially since three new game platforms released and the Playstation 2 had finally hit the ground running.

Release of the GameCube and Xbox

About roughly the same time the GameCube and Xbox systems released. Interesting to see that the top dogs at the end of the decade were struggling to compete with each other, let alone the gargantuan Playstation 2, at the start of it.

The GameCube marks the end of Nintendo trying to compete in a traditional manner. For the second generation in a row they were playing second fiddle and unable to get third parties to hop aboard their train. While they made a profit, as they always do, the GameCube shall mostly be remembered as the system that came before the Wii. Oh, and the one that ruined StarFox forever.

The Xbox, meanwhile, was almost doomed to failure. With the exception of a single major title, there was little reason to purchase it. The system was massive, the controller was gargantuan, and the launch line-up was vomitable. With the exception of an internal hard drive, raw horse power and the promise of online play, there was little going for it. Everyone was certain, the big box that could was doomed.

Release of the GameBoy Advance

Finally, after years of modifying the original black-and-white GameBoy, Nintendo had released a brand new model capable of crisp graphics and gameplay. Too bad they forgot the back light.

Even so, I remember getting one on launch day. While everyone else had been lining up at GameStop, BestBuy and other such stores, I instead went to K-Mart. Yes, K-Mart. As I approached the doors five minutes before opening I looked around to the other early and eager shoppers. No more than five or six mothers and grandmothers were there, awaiting the store to open so they could get this handheld device their (grand)children wanted so desperately.

When the doors open no force of consumer fury had been unleashed, just a small group steadily walking to the electronics center. There the employees emerged with an entire shopping cart full of systems, no risk of shortage for the very few that had arrived so early. I was able to carefully consider which model and game I wanted to buy with no rush.

To this day if I ever need something of hot demand around launch, the first place I look is K-Mart.

Halo: Combat Evolved

While he may not be a household name, the Master Chief has become a household and recognizable image. He’s “that Halo guy”. Would the game have been such a success if it was released alongside more competent games? Perhaps not, but that isn’t to say the title was lacking.

Halo has been exclaimed as bringing nothing new to the table for anyone but console gamers. In some ways, this is true. However, just because pizza has already been invented doesn’t mean a good chef can’t combine other pre-existing culinary knowledge to make a fantastic pie.

Environments and battlefields were completely massive. The story was important, suggesting that even the hero was vulnerable and in danger at all times (a big change compared to the typical machismo of first-person shooters not based in World War II). Foes were designed to be taken out with different strategies. Weapons weren’t just fancy looking recreations of modern weaponry, but actually imaginative and balanced. Despite being limited to just two at a time, each player was able to find a combination that matched their needs. Vehicles played a major role and were intuitive to control (well, maybe not the tank so much). The constant dialogue of friend and foe on the battlefield brought personality to the universe, turning characters into something more than mobile cardboard cut-outs. The musical score was varied and often of an epic Hollywood scale.

Bungie took tried and true concepts, evolved them with a little bit of creativity and a proper mixture, and placed them in such a large scale most had never seen. While many still argue of Half-Life‘s superiority, the truth is the two cannot be compared. The only similarity is that they are first-person shooters with a serious story. Aside from that, they are different and pushed the genre forward in completely separate ways.

Yet the true success of Halo wasn’t the single player. What would become the franchise’s detriment was the multiplayer. Despite poorly constructed and overall uninspired maps, the ability for console players to connect via LAN blew players away. Just as Goldeneye 64 had introduced little to PC gamers of the time, the very concept of friends gathering in one room to shoot each other up was enough to push it towards success. Previously limited to just four players on one television, they could now expand to quadruple that number.

For better or worse, Halo helped push the games industry into what it is today.

Grand Theft Auto III

Of course, it’s not like the one solid title on the Xbox was enough to influence the entire industry. Grand Theft Auto III took an obscure franchise from the PC and brought it to the wider audience of the Playstation 2. Despite poorly constructed and designed game mechanics, the game nailed its success on the simple fact that players could do anything. Especially illegal and outright dastardly anythings.

High speed car chases would later transform into confrontations with the SWAT team. Clever players could drive their car off tall buildings and into a busy highway. You could even pay a prostitute to help you rock the back of a Taxi Cab, then kill her to get your money back. This is nothing to say of plugging in the Riot cheat code in over and over to the point that you’re lucky to survive walking down a city block.

Of course, as the media would have it, the only reason anyone would have to play the franchise would be to do evil things. Grand Theft Auto came under heavy fire from critics such as Jack Thompson, being used as the latest scapegoat of our children communing with His Dark Lord of the Taint. Yet oddly enough, many players go back not only so they can do whatever they want in a large city, but for the stories as well. Good writing and a decent plot switches the game from a crime spree buffet into a Hollywood comparable narrative.

While in many ways Grand Theft Auto III gained its popularity in the same manner as Mortal Kombat, the former at least does some things right. The latter was, well, a bad game with a lot of blood. Whether the audience will grow tired of Grand Theft Auto like they did the Mortal Kombat series remains to be seen.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

After the monstrous success of the first Super Smash Bros., Nintendo pushed a sequel as a launch title for their box-shaped console of joy. Despite its cute and fluffy exterior, the heart of a warrior beats within. At least, that’s what some gamers would have you believe.

For most the Smash Bros. franchise is a fun party game that is easy to pick up and play. The chaos is something to laugh at and after about a half an hour everyone has had their fill.

Yet when I entered College a couple years later I discovered a deeper, darker group of Smashers. The best way I can describe these folks is completely insane. Often enough they’re jerks, too. These are the people that manipulate the smallest glitches in order to win, yet to make use of built-in item drops is “unfair”. Remember, exploits allegedly require skill, not just an obsession to play the game for hours on end while forgetting any other title exists at all. All that time the developers spent building interesting and fun stages? Throw them out the window. Only Final Destination separates the boys from the bigger boys that can’t get laid.

I liked Super Smash Bros., but when I entered College I found such a crowd of fanatics that the love turned to hatred. I have since recovered, but to look back on this series brings no cheerful nostalgia. Only pain and sorrow.

Silent Hill 2

As stated in the foreword, I am currently playing this title (sort of), so I cannot speak much from personal experience. The one thing I can say for certain is, no matter how much you’ve heard of this title, it won’t ruin the atmosphere of horror. In fact, knowing about Pyramid Head and his infamous sword of gargantuan proportions drove my heart to beat a bit more swiftly as I heard metal scraping against pavement in the distance.

To this day survival horror games fail to truly scare me. Sure, they make me jump at times, but they rarely put the fear of death in me. Yet Silent Hill 2, despite being almost a decade old, managed to coat me in sticky cold dread. I had no weapons, and even if I did the combat sucked. My best option truly was to run, though with such a thick fog who knew what you were running toward.

Hand in hand with the frightening atmosphere goes the game’s legendary story, intended to mess with your mind as much as the lead character’s. There is something Lovecraftian within Silent Hill drawing mad folk even deeper into madness. And the whole time they pull you right in with them.

Unfortunately, the success of Silent Hill 2 has also brought about the current franchise decline. Despite Pyramid Head and the nurses being specific to that game’s protagonist, they’ve been used as icons for the entire series. They no longer have the deeper meaning they once did, but are merely “big bad ass evil things”.

Yet if word on the street is correct, Shattered Memories may have brought the series back to where it belongs. Puzzles and terror as opposed to transforming it into Resident Evil.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

The long-awaited sequel to the Playstation epic had finally released. The cinematic nature of the first title and stealth gameplay had absorbed players like moist brownie mix. Stepping back into Solid Snake’s boots in New York City was a highly anticipated experience.

Too bad you played as Raiden instead.

Granted, Raiden wasn’t a bad character, but he wasn’t what people had expected. This is the problem when you try to surprise gamers. They react about as well as chickens in a coop when you toss a fox in with them. Theoretically keeping such a twist a secret, thus making the majority of the game a complete mystery, sounds great. Yet players don’t like change despite demanding it all the time. They like the illusion of change while giving them something familiar and comfortable.

So ultimately Metal Gear Solid 2 isn’t infamous for being incredibly verbose, giving Olga armpit hair or proving how insanely nuts Hideo Kojima actually is. I’m pretty sure there’s a Minotaur hidden somewhere within that labyrinth of a plot.

No, Metal Gear Solid 2 is remembered because Raiden was a whiny pussy who ran around naked.

Aliens vs. Predator 2

Was it one of the major games of the decade that still buzzes across forums to this day? No, but Aliens vs. Predator 2 was my dream come true. I got to play as the elusive and lethal Alien, the resourceful Predator or the unfortunate and shit out of luck marine in perhaps the greatest mash-up ever.

Most memorable of all was playing as an Alien, my preferred species of lethality. Beginning as a facehugger, sneaking amongst the ducts and pipes until a lone victim could be found, only to begin the next level bursting from his chest felt like nothing I’ve played in a game before.

Yet ultimately the game’s single player captured a variety of different atmospheres and gave each creature a completely different style of play. The Alien was much more stealth based, the marine more horror and the Predator a complete powerhouse of destruction. There is no doubt that Monolith had captured the feeling of each creature appropriately, and in the end developed one Hell of a game.

The multiplayer had also proven to be quite the beast itself. While there were some issues mechanically (the smart gun being completely broken if you’re trying to play as an Alien), each race provided a different set of creature types in a three way deathmatch. Maps were built so that each creature could carefully make use of their abilities and gain an upperhand. Foolish players died swiftly and often, but smart ones were able to take down that massive Alien Queen, or even become one.

It’s about time a new one was being made, and by the looks of it all of Hollywood shall be put to shame that they couldn’t do the cross-over such justice.

Other noteworthy titles of 2001:

Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Phantasy Star Online, Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Black & White, Red Faction, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Final Fantasy X, Max Payne, Ico, Devil May Cry, Golden Sun, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball, FreQuency, Pikmin, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

2001 in Video Gaming on Wikipedia

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Onward to 2002

What do you remember from the year 2001?