Gaming in the oughts
Top Ten Games
1. Shadow of the Colossus. (HM: Ico)
2. Mother 3.
3. Metal Gear Solid 2. (HM: MGS3.)
4. Majora’s Mask. (HM: OoT: Master Quest, Wind Waker)
5. Final Fantasy XII.
6. Mega Man 9. (HM: Mega Man no Constancy)
7. Grand Theft Auto.
8. Metroid Prime.
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
10. Portal
Other honorable mentions: Cave Story, Braid, Pac Man Championship Edition, Resident Evil 4, Half-Life 2.
Top Five Things That Worked
1. New Games Journalism. Ten years ago, The GIA was the only site that came close to “doing” NGJ. When it closed, a bunch of “spritual successors” opened up, and most of them are terrible. (GamesAreFun is pretty good though). Insert Credit and its successors, selectbutton and ABDN are the vanguards of this new journalism. The fact that Kotaku, GameLife, Gamespite.net and to some extent 1UP and other “professional” sites are doing well in this regard means the entire paradigm has truly changed. Not to mention the editor of EGM’s crusade against corruption…
2. Nintendo. Like Sony before them, they won this console war by changing the rules of the game. No longer is it about graphics capability or appealing to the 16-24 year old male demographic. The new motion controls are beginning to really change videogaming, though not with the quickness people expected. While some of their serieses are going through serious midlife crises (Zelda), others are truly pushing the envolope, though not always in obvious ways (I still maintain Super Mario Galaxy is the best Mario since SMB3). Curiously, Nintendo is seeming to do better without the multitude of “second-party” developers it acquired in the dark years of the N64/Gamecube period.
3. Downloadable Content/Games. Talk about a revolutionary change. Mega Man 9 made the list above in large part because it really brought this to the forefront across the platforms. Braid and Portal: Still Alive proved that downloadable games aren’t just shovelware but allow for more creativity and experimentation in game design (something that is still sorely needed, despite the great advances this decade).
4. Gaming entering the mainstream. While this began with Sony’s huge PR push with the original Playstation, the last ten years truly saw gaming entering the mainstream in a phenomanal way.
5. The West. Ten years ago, the center of gaming gravity was squarely in Japan. Now its far more spread out. GTA revolutionized the concept of what a videogame can be. Metroid Prime is one of the greatest games of all time. Call of Duty 4 embraces modernity and challenges the player to confront death. Portal may very well have the best gaming concept in the entire decade. While these games make up the bottom half of my “Best Games” list, they may very well change more of what gaming is worldwide than any other games. Furthermore, it shows that videogame creation in the west has come of age and is quite different than its eastern counterparts.
Top Five Things That Failed
1. Sega. Hard to remember, but ten years ago they were the only ones with a 128-bit console (remember when we used to rate consoles by “bits”…weird). Now they are a (terrible) Third Party publisher.
2. Sony’c current consoles. The PlayStation 3: It’s Sony’s Nintendo 64, made all the worse by Nintendo’s unexpected resurgence and their successful change of the entire gaming market. The PSP: destroyed by the DS. The PSP Go relaunch effort is also a confusing, Sega-esque move that I’m fairly certain will go absolutely nowhere.
3. GC/GBA link gameplay. This has gone underreported, but Nintendo’s obession with this concept went absolutely nowhere. I’ve played only a limited number of games with this feature but this is Nintendo’s biggest creative mistake since the Virtual Boy. Similar concepts with the Dreamcast and the VMU and the PS3/PSP
4. ?
5. ?
