2001 will forever be remembered for reasons that are, in a word, tragic. But we will not dwell on those events here. 2001 was a pioneering year for video games. Nintendo released it’s GameCube console, and Microsoft entered the video game market with the Xbox. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 2 continued to dominate the market while Sega announced that they would be pulling out of the console business, killing support for the Dreamcast to focus on software. On the handheld front, Nintendo released their Game Boy Advance.

Before the Dreamcast went away, though, it did see a few milestones. 800,000 people found themselves connecting to Sega.net to play games like NFL2K online, and Phantasy Star Online saw some 300,000 users logging in at any one time. Lindsay Gall also won the second annual SEGA Dreamcast Championship, winning $15,000 and a trip to Jamaica.

Midway announced that they would be quitting the business of building and releasing arcade games, and Activision purchased Treyarch, the developer who would go on to release Call of Duty: World at War.

And in what could be argued as the weirdest lawsuit in the history of the video game industry, Hungarian magician Uri Geller sued Nintendo for copyright infringement. Geller argued that a character in Pokemon resembled him and that Nintendo did this intentionally. Thankfully, the case was thrown out.

As per usual, if you are new to this weekly feature, you can check out our previous lists dating back to 1990. And as always, feel free to tell JW, and for that matter the world, why these lists are wrong.

Top Ten Games of 2000
Top Ten Games of 1999
Top Ten Games of 1998
Top Ten Games of 1997
Top Ten Games of 1996
Top Ten Games of 1995
Top Ten Games of 1994
Top Ten Games of 1993
Top Ten Games of 1992
Top Ten Games of 1991
Top Ten Games of 1990

10.) Frequency

Freezepop – Science Genius Girl
Before they became famous for giving birth to Guitar Hero and later Rock Band, Harmonix released Frequency. It didn’t come with any peripherals, nor did it come with a ton of big name artists. However, it paved the way for Harmonix to find great success in the music/rhythm gaming market and allowed them to perfect their gameplay formula.

In FreQuency, you control what is called a “FreQ”, traveling down an octagonal tunnel where each wall contains a separate track. Each of these tracks represents a particular instrument (or vocals). Within these tracks, each instrument is broken up into a series of segments which you would have to switch between to keep your multiplier. If you were able to score a perfect on a particular segment, that music would continue to play while you moved on to the next segment, thus allowing players to hear the full song while they played.

As you can see in the video the game has a very vibrant, colorful, almost Tron-like look to it. When you consider that FreQuency was heavy on the techno music, the aesthetic choice was perfect.

FreQuency was one of the first games to be supported by the PlayStation 2 Network Adapter (in fact, a demo was featured on the setup disc), allowing players to go online and not just play each other, but actually trade their remixes amongst each other in what could be loosely considered the earliest case of console-based piracy.

And of course, how can you mention a Harmonix game without mentioning Freezepop. It’s widely known that Freezepop’s Duke of Pannekoeken, aka Kasson Crooker, is a Senior Producer at Harmonix. However, what some of you may not know is that the first game Freezepop ever appeared in was, in fact, FreQuency. The song that was featured is in the above video.

9.) Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

To hell with Luigi and his girly playhouse, this was the reason to buy a GameCube at launch. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader was everything that the original N64 game was, and so much more. It looked better, it sounded better, and most of all it played better.

While the technical limitations of the Nintendo 64 didn’t allow Factor 5 to recreate all the memorable battles from THE trilogy, the GameCube opened the doors for Factor 5 to go nuts. Of course, you also had levels that were taken from the novels and comic books, so in addition to being able to blow up both Death Stars and get your ass thoroughly kicked on Hoth, you also were tasked with stealing an Imperial shuttle from an Imperial Academy, and defend Cloud City from an Imperial attack.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader expanded on the number of vehicles you were able to pilot, allowing for an impressive thirteen. A few of these include an Imperial Shuttle, Cloud Car, Millennium Falcon and Boba Fett’s Slave I.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader was the most successful third-party game when the GameCube launched, and remained one of the most popular third-party games on the system from day one until the GameCube was discontinued. Also, since it’s a GameCube game you can play it on the Nintendo Wii – and I suggest you pick this one up form the bargain bin before Nintendo decides to ruin this one with Wii-Motion controls, too.

8.) Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry (In a Nutshell)
Devil May Cry, for all intents and purposes, could be considered a culmination of several happy accident. The first of these accidents is unquestionably the most famous: Devil May Cry was originally slated to be the original Resident Evil 4. Development on Devil May Cry began shortly after the release of Resident Evil 2 and the team did extensive research on where the game would be set. This even included a trip to Spain to study the architecture of the area. However, as those who have played DMC know, the gameplay for what was to be RE4 was a far departure from the actual RE franchise. So, thinking “well we’ve already done this much”, the guys at Capcom decided to go forward with it anyways, and the result was Devil May Cry.

Of course, this isn’t the only profitable error. Devil May Cry has always been known for being one of the most stylish, action-oriented games on the market. Hell, the ability to juggle enemies in the air with your pistols has become the trademark of the franchise. The idea for this was inspired by a glitch found in another Capcom monster fest, Onimusha: Warlords. You see, in Onimusha there was a glitch where if you kept slashing the enemies with your katana, you could keep them in the air and thus prevent them from ever striking back. Liking this idea, Hideki Kamiya adopted it for DMC.

What the Devil May Cry franchise has always been known for is the punishing, sometimes flat-out rude difficulty. The difficulty was obviously intentional, but the game was made so damn hard because Kamiya wanted to school the casual gaming crowd. This further proves JW Theory #71: Nothing makes an awesome game more awesome than vindictive-influenced design.

7.) Max Payne

Max knows Kung-Fu
What do you get when you combine crime drama, film noir and John Woo? You get Max Payne, the game that did more than provide gamers with a few hours of kickass gun battles on top of New York skyscrapers – it gave us bullet time.

Yes, you all know what bullet time is by now. First popularized (not first seen) in The Matrix, the effect of slowing time down and watching the bullets practically tear the air around them as they traveled became all the rage in Hollywood. Countless films were quick to imitate the effect, but this was the first game to really take advantage of the effect.

Max Payne was universally praised for it’s tight-handling third-person controls, it’s fast-paced gun battles and impressive (for 2001) graphics. However it was the plot and storytelling devices that truly made the game memorable. The whole game was told in the style of a 1940s Humphrey Bogart film noir. While there were some in-game cut-scenes that helped to advance the immediate story, the overall narrative was told with highly-stylized comic book panels. All the characters were well acted by their respective voice actors, and the story was extremely well written.

The original Max Payne wasn’t without it’s faults. Some complained that the plot was a bit heavy on metaphors and, at times, dripped of melodrama. Others complained that while the enemy AI was impressive the first time through, they often repeated their actions the second and third time you played through a level – this is because much of the enemy A.I. was scripted. When you entered into a room, it triggered the script and told the game to move the gangsters to behind the table or wall.

Max Payne spawned one sequel, a surprisingly impressive port to the Game Boy, and a forgettable feature film. A third entry in the franchise was announced in 2004, although there has not been a single nugget of news on the game since this initial announcement.

6.) Ico

Ico on the original PlayStation
Ico isn’t so much a video game as it is a work of interactive art, however it does hold enough video game aspects to technically qualify it as a game. A third-person platformer, Ico has you playing as a young boy, named Ico, as he explores the remains of a once great castle. Fairly early on you free Yorda, a young girl who was imprisoned inside the castle, and together you two must explore the castle, searching for a way to escape.

Several elements from platforming games make appearances in Ico. Throughout the game you have to climb onto or jump across ledges, push or pull objects and solve puzzles to advance, all the while trying to protect and aid Yorda. While trying to navigate through the castle, you must also protect Yorda from shadow monsters sent by The Queen that try to pull her into black vortexes.

Ico began development (conceptually) in 1997 and was originally a PlayStation title. As time went by and the games creators, Kenji Kaido and Fumito Ueda shifted their game to the PS2 when they realized that in order to release the game on the PlayStation they would have to either alter their game significantly, or just scrap the project entirely. Thankfully they decided against either option, and opted instead to utilize the PlayStation 2 Emotion Engine.

The memorable art style of Ico was a result of “subtracting design”, where they created a fantastical world, and then proceeded to remove all the fantasy elements from it. Ultimately this meant the use of a single enemy for the whole game (as opposed to enemies that increased in difficulty as the game progressed), the elimination of any sort of HUD, and the elimination of any secondary objectives. The effective use fo bloom lighting also gave a vibrance and fanciful feel to the game, as well as enhancing the impression that you are exploring an ancient site in which eons of dust clouded the air.

Out of the thousands of games released each and every year, a miniscule number of them are recognized as great games. Even fewer are considered all-time classics. However, Ico stands in a league of its own. Not as a video game, but as a work of modern art.

I guess the only question that remains is “is it pronounced Eye-co, or Eee-co?”

5.) Pikmin

Pikmin Day 1
Pikmin is one of those games that is loved by everybody who has ever played it. The problem is that only about thirty people actually played it.

A creation of Mario mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto (what out of Nintendo ISN’T his?), Pikmin has you playing as Captain Olimar. In Japan, Olimar was known simply as “Orima”, an anagram for “Mario”. Very clever. As Olimar, you were tasked with recovering the pieces of your crashed ship, which have been scattered across the game world. To help you on this quest are the inhabitants of the world, which Olimar names “Pikmin”.

The game plays much like a real-time strategy game, only with heavy puzzle-solving elements mixed in. Controlling an ever-increasing number of the Pikmin, you had to utilize each of their strengths to solve the many puzzles. If you needed to reach something on the other side of a raging fire, you could send in your red Pikmin. Something in a lake? Send in the blue Pikmin. Each colored Pikmin had their strengths in combat, as well. Off the top of my head I remember yellow Pikmin being bitches while the red Pikmin were little, leafy Chuck Norrises.

You had a time limit throughout the game. You needed to collect all the parts to your ship within 30 days or else you’d be stuck there forever. However, even with the time limit you were only able to get so much done at once, as at the end of every day you had to return to your ship with your Pikmin, lest they be eaten alive during the night. If that happened, you’d have to start finding Pikmin all over again. Each day ran roughly 13 minutes long, which doing my math means that the full 30 days in Pikmin comes out to about six and a half hours.

Pikmin has already seen one sequel, and will see another sequel for the Nintendo Wii sometime in the future. Also, Pikmin will soon be available for the Nintendo Wii as part of the Enjoy with Wii collection, and will feature new, Wii-specific controls.

4.) Super Smash Bros. Melee

Behold! Super Smash Bros. Melee!
You know why I hate sequels? Because sometimes you don’t have much to say other than “the first one was awesome, and this one improves on it in every way”. Hell, I think I’ve already said that twice on this list. But there is no game that better exemplifies this fact than Super Smash Bros. Melee, the epitome of multiplayer gaming on the Nintendo GameCube. Not only did the developer, HAL Laboratory, fine tune the core mechanics of the game, but they added so many new bells and whistles that fans of the original game didn’t know where to begin.

But what about some of the bells and whistles that didn’t make it into the game? As I’m sure we all know, Hideo Kojima is a huge fan of the series. So much so in fact that he had Metal Gear Solid star Solid Snake appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. However, that wasn’t the first time Kojima tried to get Snake into a SSB title. When Super Smash Bros. Melee was in development, Kojima requested that Snake be included as a playable character. Unfortunately, that request was denied because Masahiro Sakurai didn’t want to risk delaying the game. Another character that got the ax was Lucas, the main character from Mother 3, again for delay reasons.

If you were a fan of the first SSB, you loved SSBM without a doubt. However, some of you may have been wanting more from this sequel – so did some reviewers. The long mark against Super Smash Bros. Melee was that it felt too much like the N64 original. However, even with this one gripe against it the game still won countless awards, was nominated for at least a dozen “Game of the Year” honors, and has made numerous “best game ever” lists, once again proving that if something isn’t broken, leave it the hell alone.

3.) Final Fantasy X

Just because it has VO, doesn’t mean that the VO was good
You know, I am not a huge Final Fantasy fan, but even I have to admit that there is nothing quite like the hype that builds when a new entry in the series is released. Such was the case for Final Fantasy X, the first entry to see itself on the PlayStation 2. But Final Fantasy X was more than simply being the first “next gen” Final Fantasy. In fact, it was much more.

Final Fantasy X was the first game to be fully 3D. Yes, fully 3D. No pre-rendered backdrops here, everything was rendered in game, and in real time. Final Fantasy X was also the game that did away with the ridiculous world map system of world navigation, instead opting for a fluid, constant world that was connected by different regions. Of course after you got the airship option, you could fast travel just about anywhere, but that’s not the point.

Other gameplay elements were tweaked for FFX. Limit Breaks made their return under a new name (Overdrives), but the overall fighting system was switched over to what is known as Conditional Turn-Based Battle system, which as you could imagine by the name, focused more on turn-based combat. This gave players more time to plan their next move, but some of the more passionate Final Fantasy fans were displeased with the fact that it took away almost all the tenseness from previous battles.

The most important change to the game, story wise at least, was the inclusion of voice acting. For the first time in any FF game, all the characters were fully voiced. This allowed for the writer, Kazushige Nojima, to “stretch his legs” a bit and give the story more emotion than could previously be achieved in a Final Fantasy game.

If you want to know how successful Final Fantasy X was, consider this: It’s the only first game to see a direct sequel, that being 2003’s Final Fantasy X-2.

2.) Halo: Combat Evolved

Caboose’s Best Moments from Red vs. Blue
I know what a lot of you are thinking: “WTF?! Halo iz not dat gud!!1!” To that, I retort with this: Sit your ass down and shut the hell up, fanboy.

Halo was much more than your simple first-person shooter when it was released on the Xbox. It was a system seller. It was one of those must-own games that was able to put Microsoft on the map and make them a true player in the game that could hold their own with the likes of Sony and Nintendo. Halo gave gamers a reason to own an Xbox, and ultimately became the console’s flagship franchise. Hell, you could even argue that Halo, along with Counter-Strike, paved the way for what is modern day professional gaming.

But let’s remember that Halo wasn’t even supposed to be a FPS. As mentioned in our Top Ten Games of 1999 list, Halo originally debuted to the public by Steve Jobs at Macworld as a Real-Time Strategy game. By E3 2000 the game had been changed from a RTS to a third-person action game, and by E3 2001 had become the FPS that we all recognize. So to recap: Halo: Combat Evolved, the first-person shooter for Microsoft’s Xbox originally debuted at Macworld as a real-time strategy game for the Mac and PC. We all got that?

One of the key complaints about Halo after it was released was it’s lack of online multiplayer. While many gamers wrote this off as simply being circumstance of the game being a launch title with the Xbox, Bungie originally had plans for an online multiplayer component. These plans were scrapped when they were informed that Xbox LIVE wouldn’t be operational when the game was released. In fact, Xbox LIVE wouldn’t launch for nearly a full year after Halo’s release.

However, while Halo helped make Microsoft a serious contender in the console market, it still failed to do one thing: change the way we play games.

1.) Grand Theft Auto III

Chatterbox FM. Seven years later, it’s still freakin’ hilarious!
For better or worse, Grand Theft Auto III changed the way video games were made, played and perceived. Gamers were given a sprawling 3D metropolis that they could turn into their personal playground. They could get into third-person shootouts with the mafia, drive across town, enter a street race, and then cap their night off by simply running around the city acting like a complete idiot.

If the game engine were to run off its own merits, it would’ve probably crashed the PS2. However, thanks to the ingenious use of LOD, in which the game engine only applied high polygon counts to the immediate area surrounding the player, it allowed Rockstar to create a fully living, breathing city that required surprisingly little amounts of loading – the long exception being when you were crossing the bridge to the other island, to which you could take a few moments to use the bathroom or make a snack or love your woman or what have you. But considering the sheer scope of the game for its time, that would be a very minor nitpick.

After the attacks of September 11th, Rockstar Games delayed the release of Grand Theft Auto III so it could thoroughly review all the content in the game. The obvious change was in the design of the police cars, with their paint job changing from that of the pre-millennium NYPD squad cars to the modern day LAPD vehicles, however there were more changes made. A character from early previews, Darkel, was removed from the game. Darkel was a street urchin who had vowed to bring down the economy of Liberty City. Darkel, in addition to having his own series of objectives, would have been the one to assign you the rampage missions. For obvious reasons, he was taken out of the final game.

Grand Theft Auto III saw a ton of controversy. Wal-Mart began to check IDs because of GTA III’s violent content, and the game quickly became the favorite target for mainstream media to place blame whenever a child went on a rampage. But even worse than that, the game holds the dubious honor of being the title that brought [former] Florida Attorney Jack Thompson into the video game limelight. While he was known by the hardcore crowd for his crusade against Doom, it wasn’t until GTA III was released that he truly became a household name.

Something Rockstar has yet to apologize for, I might add.

There is a lot to be said about any game that tries something new, but when you get it so right on your first time out with it, you know you’re onto something special. Grand Theft Auto III created a new genre of game. One that has seen many intimidators, but nothing that could truly reach the staying power of GTA III.

Worst Game of 2001:
Kabuki Warriors

I remember playing this game when I first got my Xbox… I remember taking it back to GameStop and trading it in for Star Trek: Invasion. Everything about that game was horrendous garbage. The controls were absolutely atrocious and the combatant AI was abysmal. Game Informer editor Andy McNamara was famously quoted as saying that he was able to win a match by bashing the controller against his ass.

No word as to whether he was shouting “I’m a naughty boy!” while pretending to ride a horse… but that would add to it, wouldn’t it?

The graphics were a joke, with every texture looking muddy and each animation being stuff. However, I also remember that the game was in very high resolution. This made the final on-screen result the equivalent of taking a dump on glossy white construction paper.

Simply put: Fighting game fans should have avoided this game like the plague. People who liked playing fun games should have avoided this game like the plague.

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