Top 100 Games of the Noughties: 80-71

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 third part of VideoGamer.com’s mammoth Top 100 Games of the Noughties list, we tell you, counting down from 80 to 71. 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 90-81

Games 100-91

80. Peggle – PC, 2007

At first glance, Peggle doesn’t look all that special: there’s a largely static screen, lots of coloured blocks and pegs, and the occasional appearance from a cartoon beaver or one of its chums. When someone describes the gameplay to you, it doesn’t sound like much, either – a sort of updated version of Bagatelle with power-ups and lots of flashy lights. And yet when you actually play the damn thing, you suddenly realise you’re in the presence of gaming greatness. All you’re really doing is launching a small ball so that it bounces off coloured target pegs, and yet somehow there’s immense satisfaction to be had from a well-aimed shot – so much so that you’ll find yourself whooping and pumping your first in the air. When you finish a stage, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy blasts out of your speakers; this neat little touch says it all, really.

79. Psychonauts – Xbox, PS2 and PC, 2006

Have you ever wondered what’s really going on inside your head? If so, Psychonauts may be the game for you. Another charming creation from the fertile imagination of Double Fine’s Tim Schafer, Psychonauts is an unusual platform game in which the player solves people’s mental problems by climbing through their subconscious. Despite rave reviews, the game sold about four copies on release – a crying shame that probably caused Schafer to do a spot of deep thinking of his own. Thankfully the game was saved from total obscurity by a fan-driven support campaign, and it can now be bought via Xbox LIVE’s Marketplace. If you’ve never sampled its oddball pleasures, it’s well worth a look – because it’s rare to see a game so full of great ideas.

78. ÅŒkami – PS2, 2007

Japanese developer Clover might not have lasted long, but its games are remembered with an unrivalled fondness. Perhaps the studio’s greatest release was ÅŒkami, a beautiful adventure game that showed us all just how affecting video games could be. The game’s stunning cel-shaded watercolour art style gave it a look and feel quite unlike anything that had gone before. Perhaps that’s why it sold less then your mate’s first album. Or it could be the fact that it’s all a bit, well, mental (you play a wolf and can draw onto the game world via a summoned canvas). But its power hasn’t dulled with time. We await its DS sequel, ÅŒkamiden, with baited breath.

77. Dead Rising – Xbox 360, 2006

While the Resident Evil series clearly did a great service to horror fans around the world, it wasn’t until 2006 that Capcom gave zombie lovers the game they’d always dreamed of – by giving them what essentially amounts to a playable version of Dawn of the Dead. At its heart, the game adhered to a simple but winning formula: give the player lots of toys and weapons, gathered from the stores of an abandoned shopping mall, and an endless supply of zombies to use them on. Fine, so the save system was punishing – and the other human survivors were almost as brain-dead as the shuffling zombies. It didn’t matter. Dead Rising offered a unique spin on the survival horror genre, and there are still few games that can offer the same feeling of being utterly overwhelmed by hundreds of foes at once.

76. Soulcalibur II – GameCube, PS2 and Xbox, 2003

Still the best SoulCalibur game, II’s graphics, gameplay and weapon-based fighting system made it the go-to scrapper during the early part of the decade. Each of the three home console versions included a different bonus character. GameCube owners got Link, PS2 fans got Tekken’s Heihachi Mishima, and Xboxers got, oddly, comic book superhero Spawn. The decision annoyed fans who wanted access to all three characters, but it did nothing to dull the game’s success. Its roster of fighters is one of the most balanced in the history of the genre, ensuring its popularity on the tournament scene endures to this very day. More than one of the games of the Noughties, SoulCalibur is one of the greatest fighting games ever made.

75. Mario Kart DS – Nintendo DS, 2005

Quite possibly the DS’ best game, Mario Kart DS is a handheld wonder. Its single-card multi-play makes it an easy choice for when like-minded DS owners are within wireless distance. Even if they’re not like-minded, Mario Kart DS is sure to please, as Nintendo’s racer has always done. It’s effortlessly playable, fast, easy to learn and hard to master. It’s also got solid online play, which, on the DS, isn’t something we’re used to. It is all-encompassing, hardcore and casual-pleasing games like Mario Kart DS that have helped transform the Noughties from the decade of the PS2 into the decade of Nintendo.

74. Rome: Total War – PC, 2004

The ancient Romans knew a thing or two about war, and the same can certainly be said for Creative Assembly. The first two Total Wars were great games in their own right, but it was with this third entry that the franchise really blossomed into something beautiful. Whether you’re overseeing a massive, real-time scrap, or despatching your favourite assassin to snuff out a rival general, Rome is rarely anything less than an utter joy to play. The time period is a perfect match for the series’ mix of real-time strategy and Risk-like gameplay, and Creative Assembly’s attention to detail is second to none. Plus it’s got killer elephants in it. We like.

73. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 – Xbox, PS2 and GameCube, 2003

If you’ve seen the Michael Bay movie “The Rock” and loved it as much as every man should, it’s hard to believe you wouldn’t enjoy Rainbow Six 3. The Xbox game that featured Xbox LIVE support for four-player cooperative play had some of the best maps of any shooter we’ve ever played. Entering the shower on Alcatraz after moving through the sewer system below always sent shivers down our spines. We knew the enemy would be taking the high ground around the enclosed concrete wash area, and that more often than not we’d be dead within seconds, but it was damn good fun anyway. Get it right and you felt like a right hard bastard. Get shot in the head by a team-mate over and over again and, well, hilarity ensued.

72. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – GameCube, 2004

Mario’s platforming antics grab the headlines, but his role-playing adventures are just as superb. There are loads to pick from, but perhaps the best is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, a game that hasn’t aged a day with time. The cartoon graphics are just as impressive today as they were five years ago, and the light RPG mechanics are accessible enough for most to understand and enjoy. Nintendo’s ill-fated GameCube might have been a dead console walking by the time Paper Mario was released, but the game still stole the hearts of enough gamers to justify its place alongside the Noughties’ elite.

71. Ninja Gaiden Black – Xbox, 2004

Ninja Gaiden Black is the very definition of hardcore gaming. Give this to your non-gaming girlfriend, sibling or parent and they’ll feel as if the controller itself is repeatedly spiking their hands. This is a game that will punish you for even the slightest mistake, making you feel as small as a mouse over and over again until you get it right. The reward and sense of accomplishment is incredible, more than making up for the pain endured during the hours previous, but it doesn’t come easily. Black improved on the original Xbox game, with better camera control functionality among other things. Ryu Hayabusa is a ninja you don’t want to mess with: he’s violent, tough and devastating, just like Ninja Gaiden.

Check back to tomorrow as VideoGamer.com’s Top 100 Games of the Noughties countdown continues with 70 to 61.