The 10 greatest years in video games

by Blake Snow { Jun 27th 2006 at 8:00PM }

Next-Gen has compiled what they dub the 10 best years in video games. The list spans the 30+ years of the medium's existence. So where were you during the following: '72, '77, '82, '86, '89, '91, '93, '96, '01, '05? And what was your most exciting year as a video game player?

[via Slashdot]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Maximus @ Jun 27th 2006 8:14PM

1995 and 1998 because in '95 i got my first handheld the gameboy, and in '98 i got my first system, the nintendo 64. Mario kart 64 is the best game ever i used to oplay it for hours

Panadero @ Jun 27th 2006 8:15PM

Any year with Winnie in it would be an excellent year.

T-Man @ Jun 27th 2006 8:16PM

for me? 86, 87, 92, 98 all good years.

Rabish12 @ Jun 27th 2006 8:25PM

The most exciting year I've seen for gaming so far is definitely this one. We've got three companies competing for the largest share of the market (each with radically different strategies for gaining it), we've got massive variety in terms of games on their way as developers and publishers seem to finally be taking note of the fact that the gaming community is tiring or repetitive and similar games that lack originality and partially thanks to those diversified strategies, and we've got games that are more impressive and creative than those I've seen for years on their way. Add to that a increasingly fast rise in digital distribution for both PCs and consoles, allowing a higher and higher number of independent developers to get their works out there, and you've certainly got quite a year.

vaylen @ Jun 27th 2006 8:27PM

How could you leave off the two years that brought us:

Battlezone
Bezerk
Centipede
Defender
Missile Command
Pac Man
Phoenix
Star Castle
Tempest
Warlords
Donkey Kong
Frogger
Galaga
Gorf
Ms. Pac Man
Qix
Scramble
Stargate

Yes, 1980 & 1981 were HUGE years for video games!

the_game_master @ Jun 27th 2006 8:28PM

1985-1995. Gaming sites please get it right '85-'95 were the best years in gaming. Look at the list. Need I say more.

NES (1985)
Sega Master System (1986)
7800 Atari (1986)
Turbo Graphx 16 (1988)
Nintendo Gameboy (handheld)(1989)
Sega Genesis (1989)
Atari Lynx (handheld)(1990)
Turbo Express (handheld)(1990)
Sega Game Gear (handheld)(1991)
Super NES (1991)
Neo-Geo (1991)
Turbo Graphx CD(1991)
Sega CD (1992)
CD-i (1992)
3DO (1993)
Atari Jaguar (1993)
32X (1994)
Nintendo Virtual Boy (handheld)(1995)
Sega Saturn (1995)
Sony PlayStation (1995)
Neo Geo CD (1995)

the_game_master @ Jun 27th 2006 8:29PM

oh and I forgot

Jaguar CD (1995)

Mark D. @ Jun 27th 2006 8:33PM

'98 definitely. Such a huge year in all respects.

Patrick @ Jun 27th 2006 8:37PM

1999 to 2000. In the lead up to the PS2 launch there was so many good games being released on PSOne.

Lynx34 @ Jun 27th 2006 8:46PM

Yeah let's forget about '98, the year that the best game of all-time was released (a little title called Ocarina of Time) which only performed the tiny little feat of becoming the first game ever to sell over a million copies before it was even released.

T-Bag @ Jun 27th 2006 8:46PM

I'd have to say 1985 to the death of Dreamcast. After that and we're just looking at corporate money making schemes.

SickNic @ Jun 27th 2006 8:47PM

I can trace the happiest days of my life back to '89, before my parents divorced, me brother and I used to play Doubel Dragon and Contra Co-Op for hours on end all summer long. Those were the good old days, when I still had my innocence...

jc @ Jun 27th 2006 8:55PM

1982... my friends had Atari 2600 and I had ColecoVision (oh yeah, and then there was that Intellivision guy). Life was good, Starwars Empire Strikes Back and pockets filled with quarters for the Arcade.
1985... Apple //c and the introduction to Wizardry (D&D RPG).
1996... Pentium120 and Quake Team Fortress.
2006... joystiq, X360, HiDef GrandWega, Oblivion and soon to be GoW.

KrazyIan @ Jun 27th 2006 9:02PM

2004 was a huge year especially in the action genre. You could say it was nothing but sequel-itis, but many of those games delivered in spades and are arguably the best in their respective franchises.

Big hitter action games:
--Half Life 2
--Halo 2
--Ninja Gaiden
--Metroid Prime 2
--The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
--GTA: San Andreas
--Metal Gear Solid 3
--Unreal Tournament 2004

Other great games:
--World of Warcraft
--Sid Meier's Pirates
--Paper Mario
--Katamari Damacy
--Burnout 3
--City of Heroes
--Rome: Total War

Frankly other than the DS in 2005, I thought 2005 was rather underwhelming compared to 2004.

KrazyIan @ Jun 27th 2006 9:05PM

Hmm, now that I think about it 2005 had some great games as well, Mario Kart DS, RE4, Guitar Hero, Civ 4, God of War etc... Still, 2004 was a banner year for me.

GSI @ Jun 27th 2006 9:12PM

For me, the peak would be the from when the NES shipped to the end of the SNES lifesycle. Though I did have the Intellivision and the Atari 2600, things got serious for me the year I opened up a christmas gift as a 6 year old and got a NES with a crap load of games...and the rest was history.

PodMonkeys @ Jun 27th 2006 9:16PM

1997 was a good year for me. September 23 1997 to be exact was a great day. It was a day with a grand experience, yet left me saddened at an end. That was the day the Ultima Online Beta Test ended, and boy was it a glorious end.

The time beta testing UO was a fun time. It was my first experience with an online game with graphics. I often tell people that the Beta test phase was the best period in all of UO's history.

The 80's was a great time with the arcades. I spent many a quarter on Tempest, Gauntlet, PacMan, and Battlezone. The arcades today just don't have the same feel as those days did.

J.T. Mill @ Jun 27th 2006 9:21PM

I can't believe how much of a Sega slant this thing had. Who in the world thinks the six button genises controller was anything but a SNES copy off. "The original Metal Gear Solid was already kind of silly." !?!?! It broke the fourth wall yes, but the game itself was great. Not only was the plot far from absurd, but it even gave a mountain of technical (sounding) support in the form off all those codec calls.

Did anyone ever consider the Genises a winner? Have I missed out on some big huge conspiracy? And I'm sorry, but wasn't the Saturn and Dreamcast's failure what lead to Sega getting out of the console wars in the first place? And I don't know anyone who was ever amazed by Lora's boobies, ever.

Mario 64 and Nights failed because of BOOBIES! Give me a break.

Markster @ Jun 27th 2006 9:23PM

I don't think I showed up in those years.

My years were:
'94 - Got my Genesis
'98 - Got an N64
'99 - Got a Dreamcast, and HL1
'02 - Got a GC (and Metroid Prime)

zhonghuarising @ Jun 27th 2006 9:24PM

The original article over at Next Generation was pretty good. Personally, I don't have too many all-time favorite games that I gush about. But I'd have to say the introduction of the Madden franchise ranks up there on my list.

kkg @ Jun 27th 2006 9:33PM

How could they leave 1998 out? It was the year for many the most influential games ever: Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Half Life, Starcraft, Gran Turismo,Tekken 3, Grim Fandango, Unreal, Pokemon (for americans it came in '98)... even GTA, which was not that great back then.

Zanch @ Jun 27th 2006 9:34PM

Man, what about 98? Starcraft and Half Life, the 2 greatest games ever!

Hugh Jass @ Jun 27th 2006 9:47PM

1998. F-Zero X, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, all on the Nintendo 64. I haven't had a 3-peat like that since:

1995. Sega Rally, Virtua Cop, and Virtua Fighter 2. All on the Sega Saturn.

2005 wasn't so bad, either. Wipeout Pure on the PSP, Star Wars Battlefront II on the XBOX, and Geometry Wars on the 360.

1998 is probably the tops, though. The early 80's don't count since every trip to the arcade was something special back then.

Zarox @ Jun 27th 2006 9:52PM

'95 - Father got Gameboy, which I used alot :) I was like 4.
'96 - I got a Gameboy Poker
'98 - I got a Gameboy Color and Nintendo 64
'01 - I got a Gameboy Advance and Gamecube
'04 - I finally got a Xbox and then Halo 2 later in the year.
'06 - I got a bunch of PC games inclusing almost every valve game. I just need DoD:Source and HL2: Episode 1

Vince @ Jun 27th 2006 9:55PM

My personal favourite - 1984, when i finally got my own ZX Spectrum.

Knight Lore
Sabre Wulf
Underwurlde
Jet Set Willy
Technician Ted
Tir Na Nog
Avalon
Match Point
Chuckie Egg!

I lived on that thing.

Colonel @ Jun 27th 2006 10:29PM

wow wow...how can the list NOT include 2004? prolly one of the best years since 98..

World of warcraft
Half-Life 2
Halo 2
Unreal Tournament 2004
Far Cry
NFL 2K5
Ninja Gaiden

wow such a great year for games...i think 2005 was a meh year...the hype over the Xbox 360 and God of War are the only things that come to mind about that year. (Proud proud owner of a 360, btw...hasn't let me down yet)

Capt. Castellanos @ Jun 27th 2006 11:09PM

to #19

oh my god!
GRIM FANDANGO!!

i TOTALLY forogt about that game!!!
that was my all time favorite.
so much fun.
really hard though..
well, i was young.

Ninegauger @ Jun 27th 2006 11:13PM

1998 isn't even on that list which makes it wrong. Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Starcraft and Halflife... there's probably more too.

Bonecrusher @ Jun 27th 2006 11:23PM

Console games? I didn't like console games much. I was a pc gamer usually. But after seeing X-Box 360 and PS3 and their games, may be I will buy them.

For PC, I'd say 97 and 98.

Age Of Empires
Carmageddon
Curse Of Monkey Island
Dungeon Keeper
Fallout
Myth: The Fallen Lords
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Outlaws
Quake II
Theme Hospital

Baldur's Gate
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
Descent: Freespace
Fallout 2
Final Fantasy VII
Grim Fandango
Half-Life
Mech Commander
Myth II: Soulblighter
Police Quest: SWAT 2
Sanitarium
StarCraft
Thief: The Dark Project
Warhammer: Dark Omen

These were really great games.

Rak @ Jun 27th 2006 11:28PM

Ya i think 2 best years for video games is 1998 and 2004, 1998 had StarCraft, Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life. 2004 had Metroid Prime 2, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft, Doom 3. 2003 only had Soul Calibur 2 which i think is the best fighting game ever made.

32_footsteps @ Jun 27th 2006 11:33PM

Hmm... seems most of the credit for 2005 is because the DS came out in 2005.

Too bad it came out in 2004. I had one on launch, which made it the first system I ever got at launch. 2004 Also gave us Katamari Damacy, also mentioned on their 2005 page.

Of course, that's ignoring the parts where they give 2005 credit for the Revolution/Wii (given that they call it the Revolution, I assume the article's a bit old). Interesting, as I don't remember anyone playing even a demo of the system in 2005.

Also, 2005 gave us the Hot Coffee incident, along with tons of unwanted governmental attention. Pardon me for thinking that 2005 was perhaps one of the lesser years in video gaming history. Though to its credit, it did give us Guitar Hero, so the year wasn't a total write-off.

My personal favorite year was probably some time during the 16-bit era... now that was a time in which you couldn't help but trip across an awesome game almost by accident. Even the knockoffs managed to be fun.

Ian @ Jun 28th 2006 12:21AM

I can't really say much about 72 through 96 (or even 01 maybe) because I wasn't a "serious" hardcore gamer until 2003 or 2004. I have a Sega genesis and its still probably my favorite console so I agree with most of the 90's years and I had a PS1, too. But I didn't really start to get into gaming until, like I said, 03 or 04. But honestly I have no idea why they put 05 on that list. 05 didn't offer nearly as much as 04. 04 was the PS2, GC, and Xbox gen at its prime. With stuff like Halo 2, GTA, Metroid Prime 2, and so much more. Not to mention Half-Life 2 (possibly the best game ever), WoW, Far Cry, among others.

Eric @ Jun 28th 2006 1:04AM

At this point for me it seems like '05 is less of a year of impact on gaming and more of a lull, gasp of hushed anticipation, or quiet before the storm, of what the next gen will bring in '06 and '07...It feels to me much like '99 was to the release of the next gen of 2000 (the exception--- Dreamcast of course being released in 99)

The year of greatest impact for me was ‘98. That’s when I really started paying attention to my Playstation. I had finally forgiven Sony for destroying the Sega fanboy in me, and I was ready to play some games…first up was Tomb Raider II. It took me some time to get used to 3D controls, but once it clicked Lara’s beautiful polygons instantly became a favorite. Then came FFVII.(Yes, my FIRST two games were arguably two of the best games ever made for the PS1) Like many, FFVII was my first RPG, and I was sure I wasn’t going to like it---what with turn based battles and magic and fairies and all that crap. But FFVII drew me in like no other story has. I cared about the characters, and I was touched when Aeris was killed. So FFVII also quickly became a favorite, and I still play it to this day (thus backwards compatibility is very important to me)…I’ve been a Sony fan ever since…sorry…

GSI @ Jun 28th 2006 4:38AM

Wow...Next-gen.biz being biased about Nintendo and skewing the facts...like thats never happened before.

/rolls eyes

If Tomb Raider was a "more high brow" game design then they should explain why years later (and even to this day) why SM64 is looked at as an EXCELLENT example of how to make a 3D platformer.

Oh and yea...2005 wasn't exactly a "fantastic" year for games.