Top 100 Games of the Noughties: 70-61

What a decade it’s been for gaming. The Noughties saw the release of no less than six new consoles, the rise of Microsoft as a serious industry player and the re-emergence of Nintendo as the dominant force. Yeah, it’s been an incredible ten years of gaming goodness. But what lights have shined the brightest? What video games are destined to join the pantheon of the immortals? Here, in the fourth part of VideoGamer.com’s mammoth Top 100 Games of the Noughties list, we tell you, counting down from 70 to 61. Like the best rollercoasters, there are peaks and troughs, nerve-shredding twists and turns, and a bit where you’re really high up and wish you’d never got on the bloody thing in the first place. But hold on tight, weary video gamer, because by the time this ride ends, you’ll know just how good the Noughties have been.

Games 80-71

Games 90-81

Games 100-91

70. F-Zero GX – GameCube, 2003

There was a time when the thought of a SEGA-developed F-Zero game would have made some Nintendo fanboys physically sick. How times have changed. The Noughties saw SEGA’s demise as a console-manufacturer, but it also saw it emerge as one of the premier developers on Nintendo platforms. F-Zero GX, developed by SEGA’s Amusement Vision, was greeted with Nintendo fanboy scepticism when it was announced, scepticism that disappeared as quickly as one of F-Zero’s futuristic hovercrafts over the horizon when it was released. Its graphics were of particular note, and are still impressive today. But it was also rock hard, and so fast it made your eyeballs melt. One of the GameCube’s best arcade racers, if not the Noughties’ best arcade racer.

69. Beyond Good and Evil – PS2, 2003

Like Okami and most of the GameCube games on this list, Michel Ancel’s Beyond Good and Evil was a critical success but a commercial flop. Lead character Jade, for many one of the greatest videogame characters ever conceived, didn’t “do it” for millions of gamers. For the game’s fans, however, her investigative reporting and martial arts skills not only “did it”, but did it so well that Beyond Good and Evil figures highly in many gamers’ best games of all time list. Today, while the graphics haven’t aged well, the varied gameplay is still hugely enjoyable. Here’s hoping the sequel fans hope and pray will come to pass turns out to be the real deal.

68. TimeSplitters 2 – PS2, Cube and Xbox, 2002

There’s something to be said for playing multiplayer games while sat next to your opponents. Split-screen gaming has seen a decline with the advent of online functionality, but TimeSplitters 2 still ranks as one of the best multiplayer shooters available on any platform. Part of the fun comes from the distinctly GoldenEye feel to the controls and combat, something that shouldn’t be surprising given the development studio behind the game. Free Radical is no more, but with TimeSplitters it proved that it had the talent to create the kind of top quality shooter its many ex-Rare staff were known for. A series of let downs followed, but the UK studio will always be loved for the many hours of multiplayer gaming TimeSplitters 2 provided.

67. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem – GameCube, 2002

Talk about being scared; Eternal Darkness offered shocking jumps and real inside your head nastiness that few games have been able to pull off. If you played Silicon Knights’ GameCube exclusive survival horror you’ll know exactly what we’re referring to when we say “bathtub”, and raise a wry smile when you remember how the game made you think your TV or console was broken. The so called “Sanity” effects covered all bases, from throwing imaginary monsters at you and placing your character on the ceiling of a room, to playing disturbing sound effects and the aforementioned fourth wall-breaking game interference. Considering most survival horror games rely on cheap scares, Eternal Darkness deserves to be played due to its innovative gameplay and the developer’s willingness to stray from the path laid down by genre predecessors.

66. Virtua Tennis 2 – Dreamcast, 2001

Tennis games for some are a much of a muchness. You swing a racket to hit a yellow ball, your opponent does the same, and this is repeated until one person can’t hit the ball any more. Virtua Tennis 2 is the best example of this we’ve ever played and makes the sport about as entertaining as it’s ever going to be. It’s not realistic, with players moving around at inhuman speed, diving to reach impossible balls, and some of them look like zombies, but get four friends together and it’s impossible not to have a good time. More realistic games have tried to take Virtua Tennis’ crown, but none have been able to, such is the quality of SEGA’s arcade classic.

65. Virtua Fighter 4 – PS2, 2002

Yu Suzuki’s Virtua Fighter 4 is for fighting fans what Pro Evolution Soccer used to be for football fans. Its complex 3D fighting system is as rewarding as it is satisfying, but it’s hard to get into. For many loyal fans, however, this is exactly why it’s great. Watching high level Virtua Fighter players knock lumps out of each other is like watching brain surgeons perform…er… brain surgery. It is genius on an unparalleled level – unparalleled in the genre and, really, gaming. For many the Street Fighter, Tekken and SoulCalibur series are king. For those in the know, Virtua Fighter rules them all.

64. Rez – Dreamcast, 2002

Before Guitar Hero and Rock Band made music games popular, there was Rez. Part on-rails shooter, part electro Tron, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s unique game is as gloriously playable now as it was in 2002. The game itself is set in a computer “supernetwork” called the K-Project, where data is controlled by an AI that has decided it’s had enough and wants to shut down. The player is a hacker sent in to reboot the system, and destroy any viruses that get in the way. Rez’s genius is how it combines traditional shooting with music – sounds and melodies are created by the player with every targeted and downed enemy. Unique, entrancing, and glorious, Rez set in motion a genre that is now one of the biggest in gaming. If you missed out back in the day, be sure to check out last year’s HD release on Xbox 360.

63. Luigi’s Mansion – GameCube, 2002

GameCube launch title Luigi’s Mansion got a bum deal: no matter how Nintendo dressed it up, it simply wasn’t the proper Mario game fans wanted to be playing on their brand new console. That issue aside, Luigi’s Mansion must rank as one of the most fun and innovative launch titles in video game history. The premise of hunting ghosts was a simple one, but the implementation was wonderful, the presentation the perfect combination of cute and technically impressive, and the controls were spot on. The GameCube shipped with a fairly oddly-designed controller, and in some ways Luigi’s Mansion served as the game to introduce players to its unique shape. The GameCube didn’t set tills on fire like the Wii did, but it was home to some classic titles, of which Luigi’s Mansion is one.

62. Ikaruga – Dreamcast, 2002

The Dreamcast version of Treasure’s treasured (aren’t we funny?) “shmup” was never released outside of Japan, and yet thousands took it upon themselves to import it. The simple polarity mechanic-based shooting was easy to grasp but deep enough to satisfy the genre’s discerning fans, who fell over themselves to master it. Only bullets of an opposite polarity can kill the player – same polarity bullets are absorbed. In practice, this genius system meant smart polarity switching was key to success. Today, the Dreamcast version of Ikaruga is as wonderfully playable as it used to be, and better-looking than many of its more recent shmup rivals. It there’s one shmup to rule them all, it’s Ikaruga, for many the pinnacle of the genre, and a worthy entry in any greatest games of the Noughties list.

61. Advance Wars – Game Boy Advance, 2002

Intelligent Systems’ turn-based tactical war game is great for many reasons, but it is fantastic because it reached that zen-like game design goal of being easy to learn and hard to master. Units could be moved about a grid like system, fire and be fired upon, but there was so much depth to the destruction that fans fussed, eyes bleeding and sweat dripping, over epic battles that lasted hours on end. The rock, paper, scissors mechanic meant that every unit had a weakness that could be exploited by another unit’s strength – air vehicles firing on land vehicles, or infantry firing on air vehicles, for example. The anime art style and eye-popping CO Powers only added to the fun factor. A defining game, if ever there was one.

Check back to tomorrow as the Top 100 Games of the Noughties countdown continues with 60 to 51.