Video games have risen exponentially in popularity in the last few decades. It seems like almost everyone has a home console, and online gaming has brought people together in a way that no one could have predicted. It wasn’t always this way, however.
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Games were once a more niche hobby. In the 1970s and 80s, arcades ruled the world for those interested in video gaming. It was either that or playing on the PC. Home consoles weren’t massive until the 1990s, and they didn’t become a mainstream thing until the early 2000s. It is in this decade that most gamers first started their journey into this medium, and most of them share many of the same memories.
7 Grand Theft Auto 3
That First Rampage
The first two GTA games were successful, but the franchise didn’t become a household name until the third game was released in 2001. This entry took the series into a 3D space that lets anyone with a PS2 commit a variety of crimes in an open-world city. Almost everyone in the ’00s was desperate to experience this level of freedom in a video game, so GTA 3 quickly became a phenomenon.
It may have been gratuitous, but almost every gamer from this era remembers the first time they played this game. Also, everyone started by doing the same thing. That was picking up a weapon and causing as much chaos as possible in a crime-filled rampage.
6 Pokemon Continuing
The Long Awaited Pokemon Sequels Solidified The Franchise As A Mainstay
Pokemon Gold and Silver
- Released
- October 14, 2000
Most gamers associate the late 90s with Pokemania. The first games were released in the USA in 1997 and quickly spawned a card game, a TV show, toys, and a theatrical movie. However, once the dust settled, no one could really tell whether the Pokemon franchise would be just another flash in the pan. People were eagerly waiting for more content, but there was no way to tell if the next games in the series would have any impact.
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Luckily, Pokemon: Gold and Silver hit store shelves in 1999, and a new movie was released in 2000 to commemorate the new millennium. These new games improved upon everything the first games had done, and they are still remembered fondly by players from the 00s. This era of Pokemon may not have been as big as it once was, but it solidified the franchise as one that can continue on through the decades.
5
4 Discovering Halo
First-Person Shooters Became A Big Deal In 2000
When the first Xbox was released in 2000, many critics found it strange that a home video console would need a hard drive. Also, it was also odd that the console would launch with an FPS as its flagship title. This genre of games was normally linear point-and-click games that took place in repetitive tight corridors. As such, it seemed unlikely that mainstream audiences would queue up to play a new one called Halo.
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However, most critics were wrong, and Halo proved to be a massive success. Not only could the Xbox power a highly detailed game, but the control system in Halo: Combat Evolved made this FPS far more challenging and exciting than previous games on the PC. Most players still remember the first time they stepped out of the crashed lifeboat on the second level and found they could explore an entirely new planet.
3 Snake
The Signature Game Everyone Had On Their Phones
Although video game technology was making huge waves in the 2000s, so too were personal cell phones. These once-big phones have shrunk in size over the years, and many even include a screen as well as a dial pad. It has also become far more common for people to carry these devices.
To outsell the competition, cell phone companies felt it necessary to include more features in their models. As such, it has become increasingly more likely for new cell phones to contain video games. The most prevalent of these in the 2000s was Snake, and almost everyone remembers the frustration of dragging their long row of pixels around a phone screen.
2 Wii Sports
Family Game Time Became Huge
As it became clear that the key demographic for video games was young men, Nintendo sought out a way to include more people in the hobby. As such, they released the Nintendo Wii in the year 2006 to huge praise. This simple, motion-controlled device was easy enough for anyone to use and even promote healthy living.
Almost everyone remembers crowding around with their family to play the Wii, and one of the most popular games for the console was Wii Sports. This game contained a variety of sports challenges, so anyone could pick up a controller and play virtual golf, archery, and bowling whenever there was a large group of people in the house.
1 Online Gaming
Playing Co-Op Games Online Became Revolutionary
One of the biggest flaws of video games in the early 2000s was that they were mostly a solo activity. Some games did include a co-op mode, but these often diluted the gameplay or made people’s screens too small. That all changed, though, when Microsoft started experimenting with the concept of online gaming. The first Halo game came with the option for players to link up servers across the internet to play the game together from the comfort of their own homes.
This idea may have been revolutionary at the time, but the concept of online gaming didn’t become a mainstream thing until the release of Halo 2 in 2004. A lot of other co-op games have used this idea since, but everyone from the 2000s remembers the first time they plugged in and started an online gaming session.
