Board 8 > Games by year, ranked and explained - part II, 2005-2016

(+) Yeah! (+)

for those who haven't been following, this is my attempt to write about each year of video games from 1987-2016, ranking them as I go along with other accolades. we've done 87-04 so far. it only gets better from here? depends on your opinion!

people seem to enjoy the lists of games, so here goes!

1987:

Castlevania
Double Dragon (arcade)
Kid Icarus
Leisure Suit Larry
Mega Man
Metal Gear (MSX)
Metroid
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Nethack
Street Fighter (arcade)
The Legend of Zelda
Track & Field

1988:

1943
Bionic Commando
Blades of Steel
Blaster Master
Contra
Double Dragon (NES/SMS)
King's Quest 4
Life Force
Metal Gear (NES)
Phantasy Star
RC Pro Am
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Super Dodge Ball
Super Mario Bros. 2
Zelda 2: Adventure of Link

1989:

Altered Beast
Dragon Warrior
Duck Tales
Final Fight (arcade)
Ghouls and Ghosts
Golden Axe
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones
Mega Man 2
Minesweeper
Mother (Japan) Ninja Gaiden
Phantasy Star 2
Populous
Prince of Persia
Shadowgate (NES)
Simcity
Strider (NES)
Super Mario Land
Tecmo Bowl
Tetris (NES/GB)
The Guardian Legend
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (arcade)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

1990:

Bonk's Adventure
Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse
Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers
Commander Keen
Crystalis
Double Dragon 2
Dr. Mario
Dragon Warrior 2
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Legend
M.U.L.E. (NES)
Maniac Mansion (NES)
Mega Man 3
Minesweeper
Ninja Gaiden 2
Phantasy Star 3
River City Ransom
Secret of Monkey Island
Star Tropics
Strider (GEN)
Super C
Super Mario Bros. 3
Ys 1 & 2


1991:

Actraiser
Battletoads
Civilization
Double Dragon 3
F-Zero
Final Fantasy IV
Lemmings
Metal Storm
Metroid 2
Ninja Gaiden 3
Scorched Earth
Sonic the Hedgehog
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (ARC)
Streets of Rage
Super Castlevania 4
Super Ghouls and Ghosts
Super Mario World
Tecmo Super Bowl
The Simpsons (ARC)
Toejam and Earl
ZZT

1992:

Alone in the Dark
Contra 3
Dune II
Dragon Warrior 3
Dragon Warrior 4
Dragon Quest 5 (jp)
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
Final Fantasy V (jp)
King's Quest 6
Kirby's Dream Land
Mario Paint
Mega Man 4
Mega Man 5
Mortal Kombat (ARC)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Soul Blazer
Street Fighter II (SNES/Gen)
Streets of Rage 2
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Land 2
TMNT IV: Turtles in Time
Wolfenstein 3D
Zelda: Link to the Past

1993:

The 7th Guest
Doom
Gunstar Heroes
Kirby's Adventure
Mortal Kombat (SNES/GEN)
Mortal Kombat II
Myst (Mac)
NBA Jam
Phantasy Star 4
Return to Zork
Samurai Showdown
Secret of Mana
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Shining Force
Star Fox
Virtua Fighter
Zelda: Link's Awakening
Day of the Tentacle

1994:

Blackthorne
Breath of Fire
Contra: Hard Corps
Darkstalkers
Descent
Donkey Kong Country
Doom 2
Earthworm Jim
Final Fantasy VI
Illusion of Gaia
King of Fighters
Killer Instinct
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns
Marathon
Mega Man X
Shining Force 2
Simcity 2000
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Streets of Rage 3
Super Metroid
Super Punch-Out
Tekken
Uniracers
Warcraft
Wario Land
Wario's Woods
X-Com
---

1995:

Battle Arena Toshinden
Breath of Fire 2
Chrono Trigger
Command & Conquer
Descent
Donkey Kong Country 2
Dragon Quest VI (jp)
Earthbound
Earthworm Jim 2
Full Throttle
Heroes of Might and Magic
Mega Man X2
Mortal Kombat 3
Ridge Racer
Rise of the Triad
Secret of Evermore
Seiken Densetsu 3 (jp)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (jp)
Twisted Metal
Warcraft 2
Wipeout
Worms
Yoshi's Island
Zoop

1996:

Civilization 2
Crash Bandicoot
Dead or Alive
Diablo
Donkey Kong Country 3
Duke Nukem 3d
Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall
Guardian Heroes
Kirby Super Star
Lufia 2
Mega Man X3
Metal Slug
Nights Into Dreams
Persona
Quake
Resident Evil
Suikoden
Super Mario 64
Super Mario RPG
Terranigma
Tetris Attack
Tomb Raider

1997:

Bushido Blade
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Crash Bandicoot 2
Diddy Kong Racing
Fallout
Final Fantasy VII
Goldeneye 007
Grand Theft Auto
Mario Kart 64
Mortal Kombat 4
NFL Blitz
Parappa the Rapper
Quake 2
Saga Frontier
Star Fox 64
Tomb Raider 2
Vandal Hearts
Wild Arms

1998:

Baldur's Gate
Banjo Kazooie
Brave Fencer Musashi
Breath of Fire 3
Dance Dance Revolution
Einhander
F-Zero X
Fallout 2
Final Fantasy Tactics
Gran Turismo
Grim Fandango
Guilty Gear
Half-Life
King of Fighters '98
Mario Party
Mega Man Legends
Parasite Eve
Pokemon Red/Blue
Resident Evil 2
Spyro
Starcraft
Tekken 3 (PS1)
Thief
Xenogears
Zelda: Ocarina of Time

1999:

Donkey Kong 64
Everquest
Final Fantasy 8
Gran Turismo 2
Koudelka
Legend of Dragoon
Lunar: Silver Star Story
Ogre Battle 64
Planescape: Torment
Quake 3
Resident Evil 3
Sonic Adventure
Soul Calibur
Star Ocean 2
Suikoden 2
Super Smash Bros.
System Shock 2
The Next Tetris
Tony Hawk Pro Skater
Unreal Tournament
Vandal Hearts 2

2000:

Baldur's Gate 2
Chrono Cross
Counter-Strike
Deus Ex
Diablo 2
Dragon Warrior 1 & 2 (GBC)
Dragon Warrior Monsters
Final Fantasy IX
Front Mission 3
Hitman: Codename 47
Icewind Dale
Legend of Mana
Lunar: Eternal Blue
Parasite Eve 2
Perfect Dark
Pokemon Gold/Silver
Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Skies of Arcadia
Strider 2
The Sims
Threads of Fate
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Vagrant Story
Wild Arms 2
WWF No Mercy
Shenmue
SSX
Zelda: Majora's Mask


2001:

Advance Wars
Black and White
Burnout
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Dark Cloud
Devil May Cry
Dragon Warrior 7
Dragon Warrior Monsters 2
Final Fantasy X
Golden Sun
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec
Grand Theft Auto III
Halo
Ico
Luigi's Mansion
Max Payne
Metal Gear Solid 2
Paper Mario
Pikmin
Phantasy Star Online
Shadow Hearts
Silent Hill 2
Sonic Adventure 2
Tales of Eternia
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
Wario Land 4
Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons
Zone of the Enders

2002:

Animal Crossing
Battlefield 1942
Eternal Darkness
Grandia 2
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Kingdom Hearts
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Prime
Morrowind
Neverwinter nights
Ratchet and Clank
REmake
Rez
Splinter Cell
Suikoden 3
Super Mario Sunshine
Warcraft 3
Wild Arms 3
Shenmue 2
Unreal Tournament 2003
---

2003:

.hack
Amplitude
Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits
Beyond Good and Evil
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Call of Duty
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
Dark Cloud 2
Devil May Cry 2
Disgaea
Eve Online
F-Zero GX
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XI
Fire Emblem (7)
Ikaruga
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
Mario Kart: Double Dash
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Silent Hill 3
Soul Calibur 2
Viewtiful Joe
Warioware, Inc.: Mega Microgames!
Xenosaga 1
Zelda: Wind Waker

2004:

Cave Story
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Everquest 2
Fable
GTA: San Andreas
Half-Life 2
Halo 2
Jumper
Katamari Damacy
Lumines
Metal Gear Solid 3
Metroid Prime 2
Metroid: Zero Mission
Ninja Gaiden
Paper Mario 2
Pikmin 2
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Silent Hill 4
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Star Ocean 3
Star Wars: battlefront
Tales of Symphonia
World of Warcraft

and here are my rankings so far:

1987: 21st
1988: 25th
1989: 19th
1990: 11th
1991: 17th
1992: 10th
1993: 24th
1994: 4th
1995: 16th
1996: 26th
1997: 29th
1998: 6th
1999: 30th
2000: 13th
2001: 14th
2002: 28th
2003: 9th
2004: 5th
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can you archive the first one i'm not gonna get done reading it before it goes
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I feel like we just peaked.
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Some big drama that was left out from your 2004-analysis was the matter of NFL licensing. Madden was big dog for a long time, but as the 2k-series built momentum they came out with their best game to date: ESPN NFL 2k5.

It had the ability to record your playstyle so you could play against your own personal self (or a celebrity's, like Carmen Electra's), play in first person view on the field, play historic moments from the past, and upload your own music (I had Chappelle going SKEET SKEET SKEET anytime the home team got an interception). It was a fantastic game through and through, and it came at twenty dollars. EA was rightfully scared.

And then the NFL suddenly decided they only needed one series to use their license to avoid confusion, and EA just had too much money to lose that bid. The 2k series had to stop at its peak when Madden was finally challenged, and the world was robbed of how football games should really play as ever since.
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I remember that well. we all feigned outrage. it was the first and last time we collectively cared about football video games after 1998 or so.
---

transience posted...

1999: 30th

Ouch
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I never played 2K games and I stopped playing Madden in the '90s so that didn't bother me too much!
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Tag
---

I'm pretty certain WoW is the game into which I've sunken the most time. I love it to death, but even if you avoid it taking over your life it still ends up pretty much cannibalizing all of your gaming time.

I wasn't there for the launch unfortunately (I started in 2006 I think? Definitely sometime during Burning Crusade) which I feel would have probably been a somewhat different experience. I got back into it around the middle of Warlords of Draenor (maybe like August-December 2015?) after skipping Pandaria, and then came back again for Legion launch. I'd love to have the time again to play regularly, but it's just such a commitment.
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I lost a roommate to WOW. I hate that game
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Tag
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1999 at 30th is just sad, but we discussed my qualms with you there.

2004 was the last of the great era.
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Vanilla WoW was awesome. It advertised itself as a game that you could accomplish stuff in 20 minutes, and it was true. I remember a lot of people my age or slightly older that got into it and had kids or wives and would have to go after a short while. And then that amount of time got longer, and longer, and longer...

Also there were tons of people who threw away high school years and college semesters and wasted their summers.

like I said it was awesome
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there's a good reason why people maintain vanilla WOW servers and why shutting them down is a big deal
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2007 hype

2004 is an insane year, jeeze. Definitely deserves as much recognition as 1998!
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The last day of the WoW beta was probably my favorite moment in WoW with all the infernals and what not.

2007 sucks
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tag
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tag
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2005


Notable Games:

Animal Crossing: Wild World
Atelier Iris
Brain Age
Call of Duty 2
Civilization IV
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Devil May Cry 3
Dragon Quest 8
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
God of War
Gran Turismo 4
Guitar Hero
Killer7
Kirby: Canvas Curse
Mario Kart DS
Nintendogs
Phoenix Wright
Resident Evil 4
Shadow of the Colossus
Soul Calibur 3
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Star Wars: Battlefront 2
Suikoden 4
Warioware Twisted
We Love Katamari
Xenosaga 2

transience's take:

1 - Dragon Quest 8
2 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
3 - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
4 - We Love Katamari
5 - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

Overall: 7th

Gamerankings top 5:

1 - Resident Evil 4
2 - Ninja Gaiden Black
3 - Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
4 - God of War
5 - Civilization 4

GOTY Media Picks:

1 - Resident Evil 4
2 - Shadow of the Colossus
3 - God of War

GameFAQs:

1 - Resident Evil 4
2 - Mario Kart DS
3 - God of War

2005 is a sneaky good year. On the surface, it doesn't really have that many big games. The biggest game by far was Resident Evil 4 and that hit in early January. It's closer to the 2004 juggernauts than the holiday 2005 games. If RE4 came out two weeks earlier, holiday 2004 would have been just unfair.

Resident Evil 4 was a rare game. It was huge critically, huge with fans and made a massive impact on the games industry. There are only 3 or 4 games that came out this decade that had universal praise on all sides like RE4 did. Resident Evil 4 completely changed the survival horror genre. It was still terrifying, but a lot more empowering. There was more action than before. You weren't hiding in closets with limited ammo quite like the originals. The control scheme was different; not quite modern but not as tank-y as before. But RE4's impact was bigger than just that genre. It popularized QTE. Its over the shoulder camera was a huge shift and something that other games would soon steal. Gears of War would take it and run, defining the third person shooter for the next decade. It was a huge get for the Gamecube - part of the "Capcom Five", the world's best survival horror game landed on a Nintendo platform. The Capcom Five is funny in retrospect because none of them stayed exclusive to the Gamecube. Even RE4 had a PS2 port announced before release.

The rest of the year couldn't compare to RE4. Nobody even debated game of the year. The only other big blockbuster was God of War, a character action kind of game with a decidedly American tilt. It was the Mortal Kombat of action games. God of War was gaudy, lewd, violent, excessive and a lot of fun. Its use of the camera and the setpiece moments that it set up were next-level type stuff. God of War would become the premiere visual series until Uncharted one-upped it a few years later (using RE4's camera techniques, of course). Like it or hate it, God of War pushed AAA video game development to a new place. For people who liked their character action a little more pure, Devil May Cry 3 came out in 2005 and is still held up as one of the pinnacles of the genre today.
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Instead, 2005 is a time of great transition. A lot of new stuff hit this year. Shadow of the Colossus came out in 2005. SOTC was like God of War but with way more art and grace. Both games had huge scale but God of War was pure button mashy action while Shadow was an art house game with a huge budget. The game was a technical mess but it offered something beautiful and decidedly next-gen. It's still held up today as a master class in game design, mostly for the way it makes the player feel without ever saying a single word. SOTC felt both big budget and 'indie' at the same time and players loved it for that.

Guitar Hero hit in 2005 and with it the wave of plastic instruments and a five year boom of rhythm games. I don't feel like Guitar Hero really took off until 2006. It wasn't a fad yet. Games were still a little bit too niche. Katamari 2 came out and everyone agreed that it was better than the first in every way but music. This was the highlight of the series for sure - it felt bigger and more interesting, controlled better and let you roll up the King. I loved the hell out of We Love Katamari. The series would never have another notable entry.

The Final Fantasy 12 demo was packaged with Dragon Quest VIII and that was an eye-opener. Dragon Quest actually moved into the third dimension and it was amazing. The world was huge. The graphics were beautiful. The monster designs were the best yet in a series that has been praised for its monster designs for 20 years. Dragon Quest felt like a massive step forward in the JRPG world. We were getting used to the linear FFX model being the way forward - FFX, FFX-2, Xenosaga, Shadow Hearts - and then DQ8 just drops this gigantic world and tells you go wander. DQ8 is a fantastic game, just as good today as it was in 2005. It's been 12 years and we still haven't had a game as big or as beautiful as DQ8 since (DQX notwithstanding). Hopefully DQ11 gets out here in 2017 because it's just been too damn long.

But the big movement in 2005 was on DS. It started with Kirby. Kirby Canvas Curse showed many Nintendo fans what you could do with a touch screen interface. It was kind of the proof of concept for the system that didn't exist at launch.

From there, developers went in three directions. There were traditional games like Mario Kart DS and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow that validated that you could have real-ass video games on a dual screen device. Mario Kart DS was a step up from the garbage Super Circuit and Dawn of Sorrow showed how goddamn valuable a second screen could be with the map and menu laid out conveniently on the bottom screen. It also had really gimmicky touch screen features but we like to ignore those in favor of the good stuff. Dawn of Sorrow was REALLY good.

Another direction was more narrative focused games. The highlight here was Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It started out quiet because no one knew what the hell this was. If anyone was talking about it in late 2005, it was through the use of objection memes and silly catchphrases. By the end of the year, Phoenix Wright was THE "you HAVE to play this game" of the year and just blew the hell up, especially here. A lot of similarly focused games would come out on its heels - the Hotel Dusks and 999s of the world. Phoenix Wright was the progenitor though. It wasn't new - this game is 2001 in Japan - but it felt super fresh to English speaking audiences.
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The third direction is what made the DS sell like hot cakes: weird gimmicks that explored with casual fans. Animal Crossing was one the Gamecube but probably made more sense on a portable with a clock. Nintendogs was a stupid tamagatchi thing. It was barely even a game. But man did it blow up. Brain Age took the DS and turned it sideways like a book. It became one of the hottest piece of edutainment that we've seen, especially on a handheld. Both Brain Age and Nintendogs had many sequels in a short amount of time. Each sold something crazy like 10 million copies on the system. The PSP had.. hang on, I'm looking it up because it had to have something. Yeah, it had Ridge Racer and Wipeout and GTA: Liberty City Stories but it was all smaller versions of games that were better on the PS2. There weren't really any interesting titles that felt new and fresh. The DS kind of trashed it by simply having interesting software. games and experiences that you couldn't have anywhere else. The PSP would right the ship eventually (I love that system) but 2005 is where it went from being an interesting console race to being a clear DS win.

The other big thing that hit in 2005 was the Xbox 360. It was HD. It launched with a headset. It had achievements and achievement points. It had multiple SKUs which was a new and weird thing. There were shooters galore. The big game was Perfect Dark Zero which was the classic launch dud. PGR3 and Call of Duty 2 also came out with it and were apparently pretty good.

I don't think any of those games are super memorable though, not today. The big game changer was Xbox Live Arcade, a service for getting classic arcade games on the cheap. There was one game that stood out above all others: Geometry Wars. Geometry Wars was eye-opening because of how much fun it was and how it was priced ($5). On XBLA, every game had a demo, every game had a size restriction (I think it was 50mb at first), and every game had achievements. XBLA wasn't a big deal yet but we'll be coming back to this in future years.

Holiday 2005 is one of the weakest holiday seasons in my memory. The big games are like.. Shadow the Hedgehog, Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Mario Kart DS and the 360 launch. If you liked the smaller titles that came out throughout the year, though, 2005 was pretty great.
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I remember the guy at GameStop asking me if I was buying DQ8 for the FFXII demo and being sad that that was probably true for most people
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2005: Phoenix Wright >> Shadow of the Colossus > Partners in Time > Xenosaga Episode II > Wild World > Mario Kart DS

Totally forgot about Ratchet & Clank UYA being a 2004 game until I looked it up, wondering when it came out. Add that to the loaded list of 2004 games.
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Devil May Cry 3, Path of Radiance, Resident Evil 4, Killer7, DQ8, and Shadow of the Colossus makes 2005 a pretty big year for me. Definitely bigger than 2004.
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not much to say about 05, eh? 06 will probably bring out the house
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literally only ever played two games from 2005 - both in 2007 - but they were amazing.
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transience posted...

there's a good reason why people maintain vanilla WOW servers and why shutting them down is a big deal

The first year or two of PVP in WoW was fun and I'd say fairly unique. If you were on a PVP server, anything beyond the first 20 levels (or so) was fair game. So you might bump into a hostile faction and decide to fight it out, leave each other alone, whatever. You might get ganked all afternoon. You might just go to one of the hotspots that everyone went to just to constantly fight, back and forth as reinforcements came and went. Of if your guild wanted to stir up some drama, just get everyone together and take over a small opposing faction town until they could chase you out.

At times is was a blast, at times it was frustrating, at times it could be somewhat peaceful. I felt like the PvP server was always good for *something*. We all changed each other's gaming experience.

Vanilla was a good cross between old school slog and new school casual streamlining. I'm can see why people don't want that to die, those are great memories and good history. At the same time I don't know why anyone would want to keep playing that endgame content.
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I dont understand the appeal of vanilla WoW servers tbh, and this is coming from a guy who thought WoW peaked in late 06/early 07 (most seem to say WotLK though). To me WoW was about a new world to explore, and once it gets mapped out it becomes pretty boring tbh.
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As someone who just got back into WoW for the past few months after having not played it since about 2008... it's still just as good, if not better. If you liked it then, you'll like it now.
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I actually ended up liking 2005 more than 2004. Look at that. Definitely feels like an "intermission" year and doesn't really have big AAA games, but there's just a solid set of games.

2006...I don't really remember much, other than I bought Final Fantasy XII and decided to buy Okami and Tales of the Abyss for the heck of it. I hated FFXII and ended up really liking Okami and TotA. How about that.
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The year I stayed here past the contest for the first time

2005 GOAT
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I finally caught up! This Has been a wild ride down memory lane! I was all about the DS in 2005. Mario Kart DS was a huge deal. It had ONLINE on a Nintendo game! And on a handheld at that!
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2005 Top SHINE 5

Dragon Quest 8 - I finally bought a PS2 for this game. Bonus points because it came with a FFXII demo! Dragon Quest 8 was everything I was hoping for at the time. A game that looked and sounded great but played like the old DQ games. Thank you DQ for hardly ever changing

Killer7 - Secretly the best game of 2005. If you didn't play this game, you're fucked!

Resident Evil 4 - Pretty sure when this game came out I thought graphics could never get better (I think I said this about REmake too). My boy Leon (and his partner Mike) returns for a complete reinvention of the series and 3rd person action games in general. If you didn't play this game...you're small time.

Phoenix Wright - OBJECTION

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Aria but better. Just see what I said about Aria.
---

2006


Notable Games:

Bully
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Contra 4
Dirge of Cerberus
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Final Fantasy XII
Gears of War
Guitar Hero 2
Hitman: Blood Money
Kingdom Hearts 2
Knytt
Marble Blast Ultra
Mother 3 (jp)
New Super Mario Bros.
Okami
Saints Row
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Suikoden 5
Tales of the Abyss
Wii Sports
Xenosaga 3
Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Zelda: Twilight Princess

transience's take:

1 - Xenosaga 3
2 - Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
3 - Shadow Hearts: From the New World
4 - Contra 4
5 - Knytt

Overall: 15th

Gamerankings:

1 - Zelda: Twilight Princess
2 - Gears of War
3 - Company of Heroes
4 - Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
5 - Okami

GOTY:

1 - Oblivion (40)
2 - Gears of War (34)
3 - Twilight Princess (26)
4 - Okami (3)
5 - Wii Sports (3)

GameFAQs:

1 - Twilight Princess
2 - FFXII
3 - Gears of War

2006 was huge in a different kind of way. Yeah, there were big games, but it was the fate of the big three companies that were altered by 2006. The Xbox 360 came out in 2005 but it was really positioning itself to get out in front of the Playstation 3. And then there was the 'Revolution' which no one knew how to read.

The best place to start is probably E3 2006, right? I haven't talked about E3 at all, and for somewhat good reason. There were absolutely huge E3 moments before 2006 -- I could write posts about them -- but 2006 is when everything aligned. Youtube hit in 2005 and live streaming press conferences was just beginning to be a Thing. E3 2006 is the E3 to end all E3s. You had a 15 minute Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer. You had Final Fantasy XIII -- no, you had the FABULA NOVA CRYSTALLIS and Versus which became 15 and Agito which became Type-0 and fkjrgjjherifh. You had Twilight Princess which had been hyped to the moon in 2004 (BLADES WILL BLEED) and hadn't let up since.

More importantly, you had hardware. Actually, let's back up a quick sec. The Playstation 2 was the most dominant home console since the NES. It sold something like triple or quadruple its competitors. The Gamecube was cute and the Xbox had the Xbox Live stuff but the PS2 had just about every video game worth a damn. The Xbox 360 had launched, and it was promising, but everyone knew that it was just a matter of time until Sony showed its next-gen system.

And whoa. Sony's press conference was an instant joke thanks to the power of streaming and the internet. There were so many one minute supercut videos that it became the story. 599 US dollars, ridge racer, giant enemy crab, massive damage, etc. There were games far in the future that were going to be amazing and that FF7 demo was a horrible tease but they sold the platform in the worst possible way and the price was a noose around their neck. All they had to do was make a normal, boring HD console and it would have been fine. They had all the market share and brand recognition in the world. Whoops.
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Sony's gaffe left the door wide open for the other two hardware manufacturers. The Xbox 360 looked pretty good but it was really selling the same kinds of things that the Xbox had. Gears of War was shockingly next gen in look and feel but it was still a guy with a gun shooting other guys with guns. It wasn't going to turn heads from people who weren't already turned by Halo. Out of options, people turned to Nintendo. The Gamecube was long since dead but Twilight Princess was sold as a return to form. Wind Waker was fine but people wanted some mature Zelda, something like Ocarina. Twilight Princess was the great Hylian hope. It was announced at E3 that it would not only come to Gamecube, but also Wii. First to Wii, actually. Oh, and $250. OH, AND BRAWL. The internet lost its collective mind when a random trailer snuck out the door in the evening hours after the press conferences. It was pure crystal hype directly into your veins. Snake, Pit, Meta Knight -- for two straight years, Super Smash Bros. Brawl drove the internet conversation. You had Zelda and Smash on one side and 599 us dollars on the other. In truth, Smash wouldn't hit until a couple of months before MGS4, but it didn't feel that way at the time. Nintendo had surged back.

But yet, neither Zelda nor Smash was a sign of what was to come. Instead, it was this silly little tech demo that got packaged with the system. Wii Sports took gaming to a new place. It was a place for grandmothers and young children. Millions of people united under the concept of simple controls and created characters called Miis. Wii Sports is really easy to throw under the bus but you won't get it from me. I had a blast playing the five dumb minigames that it came with. It was a competent multiplayer game that worked oh so well with literally anybody you could think of. It unified people all around -- except for serious-ass gamers, of course. We scoffed at it with pure disdain as we played our Zeldas and our Gears. 2006 was the time for the real gamers. 2007 is when the Wii Sports fad really took off and soared.

Coming back to Zelda for a second, that game was good. It was basically what people wanted.. until people realized that they actually wanted the magic that Ocarina brought to them, not necesarily another version of Ocarina. The Zelda fanbase united behind it hard -- that 8.8 score from Gamespot is the defining moment of its release -- but years down the line, when people were able to look at it with a little more rationality, it probably was in that 8.8 range. It just didn't do anything spectacularly new. But it was Zelda, it was on a new console and there wasn't much else to play on new consoles if you didn't like to shoot stuff.

The better game, certainly from a historical perspective, was Gears of War. The world was watching Gears and took notes. There were scores of third person cover shooters that came out in the model of Gears of War. In truth, Gears wasn't doing anything unique or fresh - RE4 had done the over-the-shoulder camera almost two years prior and it's not like we were hurting for shooters - but Gears just did it better than predecessors and it was in high definition. The weapons felt good and competitive modes were really fun. For a lot of gamers who skipped the Xbox, Gears felt like a major step.

I've written a lot and barely talked about some of 2006's huge games. Oblivion was a major force for the Xbox 360. It was a PC game through and through but this was the first time Elder Scrolls was exposed to console players. Oblivion wasn't always graceful, but it had scope and player control. It was the first WRPG for a lot of console gamers and thus had a huge impact. The Xbox 360 didn't have too many really big games at the time so this was a big get. You weren't playing this kind of thing on a PS2.
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Kingdom Hearts 2, aka the last real mainline KH game ever made, also came out in 2006. It was a bit more streamlined than the original, easier to play but also the start of some truly stupid story stuff. It rubbed some people the wrong way but most fans really loved it. Final Fantasy finally returned in 2006 after what is basically a five year absence with.. a game without a lot of panache. It was very medieval and orchestral and well not very fantasy-like when compared to previous entries in the series. It had its strong points - the open exploration was welcome - but the battle system felt a little too MMO-ish and the characters and setting were subpar. It certainly has its fans but nothing like you would see from a game in the 6-10 era. The days of FF releases being a huge deal were kind of in the past.

A bunch of good japanese RPGs hit in 2006. My favorite of the bunch was Xenosaga 3. I kept a close eye on the Xenosaga series waiting for it to actually do what I wanted it to do - all the scope but none of the tedium. Xenosaga 3 accomplished that with a simplified battle system, FFX-like skill system and a narrative that finally paid off after two games of build. It's easy to mock Xenosaga for any number of reasons but I loved the atmosphere of the game. It's probably my favorite PS2 game, or close to it. Shadow Hearts released its last entry in 2006, a weird spin-off that's reminiscent of FFX-2 if FFX-2 wasn't totally embarrassing. Suikoden 5 and Tales of the Abyss also hit in 2006 which had its fair share of fans.

The DS didn't have any huge fad games but it had a Mario and Zelda combo. 2d Mario returned with New Super Mario Bros. which was a HUGE game all across the world, probably in the top 10 sales of all time. Phantom Hourglass was a weird touch screen Zelda but people didn't hate it like I would have expected. There was also the usual push of NIntendogs and Brain Age versions for people who liked that kind of thing.

Finally, there were four other games that certainly warrant mentioning. Okami came out on PS2, a Capcom/Clover game that had a lot of Zelda in its bones and was probably more beloved than Twilight Princess in many ways. Guitar Hero 2 set off the rhythm boom that was about to come for the next couple of years. The first Saints Row game came out and was silly open world mayhem, but not quite the silly that we think of today. And finally, Mother 3 hit the GBA in 2006. Mother 3 has one of the most fervent fan followings that I can think of and people are still crying for it to come here even though it's been easily playable for almost a decade now.

2006 is a huge year not for releases - though it had those - but for how the next generation of consoles would take shape. These consoles lasted for about 8 years so 2006 really got the ball rolling on trends that would be hard to move away from for a long time.
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2006: Kingdom Hearts II > Tales of the Abyss > Twilight Princess > Xenosaga Episode III up to the final act > Final Fantasy XII > Wii Sports > New Super Mario Bros. >> Xenosaga Episode III final act
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contra 4 is awesome. i picked it back up a few weeks ago and it kicked my ass.

my case says '07, though
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yeah I thought it was 07 too. oh well, I can top 5 it for another year!
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KH2!!!!i
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FFXII is a top 5 FF...!
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Hmmm how much Gears did you play
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minutes, not hours
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I don't think people had issues with FF12's setting. There's a reason Square keeps bringing back Ivalice! FF12's environments were dripping with atmosphere and the more political-oriented style is nice.

I think FF12 failed (in the eyes of the fans) in three ways:

1. No Nobuo Uematsu. He brought the series to life more than people realize and there's something about the FF12 soundtrack that's missing without him.
2. The story is muddled and the characters are underdeveloped. This gets progressively worse as the game goes on to the point where you can't care anymore. Doesn't help that Vaan is the main character and he really sucks.
3. This is the biggest reason I think - the gambit system. Square shot themselves in the foot with this. The funny thing about FF12's battle system is that if you remove the gambit system, it's basically just an ATB battle system that lets you move around for funsies. Square realized that in most of those battles you're just mashing Attack, so they tried to streamline things and let your characters do simple actions automatically. This was a big mistake. People LIKE mashing attack. The big running joke of FF12 is that it plays itself, and that stigma has never gone away.
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Man 2006 was a pretty crappy year. At least there was Suikoden V & the superior GC version of Twilight Princess.
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I don't think Uematsu had a lot to do with FF12 not feeling like a Final Fantasy. I mean, FF10 is only partially him (mostly not him) and that is a Final Fantasy-ass Final Fantasy game. I think the easiest thing to say is that Sakimoto is decided not a traditional FF kind of guy. yeah, he did FFT but FFT's weakest spots are where it steps away from the political and into the fantastical. FF12 tries to do this but without a compelling story or characters.

and to be clear, I'm fine with FF12. it's just not up to par with late 90s/early 00s FF which, after a five year gap, was really telling.
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I think the biggest problem with 12 was the characters. They're just so boring. Why wasn't Ashe the main character? I liked her.
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