With games like Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok already proving once in a lifetime experiences and more titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Starfield on the way, the 2020s are suddenly shaping up to be a fantastic era for gaming. One thing that seems unlikely, however, is that it will live up to the 2000s for the sheer amount of change and evolution that took place across it.
A decade that started with fully 3D games barely leaving their infancy but ended with the likes of Super Mario Galaxy and Fallout 3, the 2000s was a time when gaming changed a lot. It wasn't just those changes that made the 2000s the best era of gaming though. That's also because it produced a ton of the best games ever made.
The Sims (2000)
Some video game franchises are so iconic that it's hard to believe they haven't been around forever and The Sims certainly fits into that category. However, the truth is that a lot of those iconic series were established in the 2000s, which was also when the first ever Sims game appeared.
The Sims wasn't just a great game, it was also a hugely important one. With its interactive social simulation formula and its unique marketing, the game crucially managed to make games appealing to an entirely new market of more casual gamers.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000)
Gaming hasn't always been a cool pastime, with many older gamers likely able to remember a time when being an avid gamer came with a certain social stigma but the 2000s was when gaming truly became cool. That was due in no small part to games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
Having the name of perhaps the most famous skateboarder ever on the front helped legitimize it but, even more than the first Pro Skater, it was immensely fun to play. It gave players a reason to sit down and try to pull off awesome tricks in the greatest skateboarding game ever made.
Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
The FPS genre had already existed for a while, but it was the 2000s that showed why the genre would be a world-beater for decades to come. Games like Call of Duty played their part, but few were more important than the very first game in the soon-to-be massive Halo franchise.
Beginning with one of the best openings in video games, Halo: Combat Evolved proved just how good a sci-fi FPS could be thanks to fantastic gameplay, an ambitious story, and an unforgettable soundtrack. More than just one of the best games of the decade, it helped define an entire genre.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
Whilst Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto 4 all help make the case for the 2000s as a great decade for gaming, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas proves why it's the best. Then again, the fact fans got so many GTA titles in the span of a single decade compared to the sparse 2010s may place it above any other decade alone for GTA fans.
San Andreas deserves particular praise for its groundbreaking open world that helped inspire the direction of GTA 4 and, eventually, Grand Theft Auto 5 as well. Along with an amazing story and the typically irreverent style, San Andreas is a quintessential GTA game that dominated an era.
Half-Life 2 (2004)
Few games have countless fans that consider it the greatest of all time and even fewer have inspired cultural phenomenons that still get referenced to this day but Half-Life 2 has both accolades to its name. Whether it's the physics, the visuals, the atmosphere, or the storytelling, Half-Life 2 took them all to a new level.
Nearly two decades on from when it was originally released, there's a reason why Half-Life 2 holds up better than a lot of far more recent games. Half-Life 2 was a game built to stand the test of time but it's hard to imagine it having as much of an impact if it hadn't been released at the perfect time to change gaming forever.
Wii Sports (2006)
It's hard to think of the last time a video game transcended that label and became a kind of cultural experience that it seemed like almost everyone of all ages and demographics was getting involved in. In the 2000s, however, it wasn't such an outlandish idea as Wii Sports achieved exactly that.
What's particularly amazing about it is that it's as much a tech demo for what the brand new Nintendo Wii could do as much as a great sports game, introducing the world to how motion controls were here to stay as a new way of interacting with games. Bundled with the Wii, Wii Sports achieved a popularity matched by only a few other games.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)
Since it lacks Breath of the Wild and Ocarina of Time, the two titles that are often debated as being the best Legend of Zelda games of all time, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking the 2000s wasn't a great decade for Zelda games. With fan-favorite mainline titles like Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker and underrated spin-offs like The Minish Cap, nothing could be further from the truth.
The crowning Zelda experience of the 2000s was Twilight Princess. Although it might seem weird for Zelda to take such a dark and almost angsty turn now, it was a bold choice that set apart this era of Zelda from any other and the unique shapeshifting gameplay only added to that.
BioShock (2007)
Though the 2010s may play host to two-thirds of the BioShock trilogy of games, it's still a series that feels inexorably linked with the 2000s thanks to a debut title that once again re-wrote the rule book on what video games could achieve. As an attractive, atmospheric FPS game, BioShock certainly looks the part.
However, what makes it the perfect example of how fantastic of an era the 2000s was for gaming is simply how thought-provoking and emotional it managed to be within a format that's too often written off as dumb, mindless entertainment.
Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
It's hard to think of a mainline Mario Bros. game that hasn't been considered the best made at some point or another but, whilst Super Mario Odyssey might be a more ambitious and polished game overall, there are so many amazing ideas at the heart of Super Mario Galaxy that make it stand out on its own.
Mario 64 might have proved that 3D physics could make for great platforming in the 90s but Super Mario Galaxy explored them in ways that few games have managed to achieve even in the time since it was released. Along with being barrels of fun, the game perfectly encapsulates an era of endless creativity.
Fallout 3 (2008)
Fallout fans may have had to wait nearly the entire decade to finally receive a new mainline Fallout game, but it was more than worth it when it did finally come. That's because Fallout 3 was a statement game from Bethesda that told the world the series still provided the premiere western RPG experience.
2008 may seem relatively recent but Fallout 3 is one of the few games from the era that still seems genuinely ambitious now, with its open-ended gameplay and engrossing character leveling going on to influence the genre ever since.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
Not to be confused with the 2022 title of the same name, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 demonstrated just how far the series had come in an unbelievably short 6 years since the first title came out. Polished and containing everything that defines the Call of Duty series to this day, Modern Warfare 2 is one of the decade's most iconic FPS games.
Though the series continues to be popular, Modern Warfare 2 was one of the last truly universally acclaimed titles in the series when it still constantly sought to improve in both technical aspects and all-out multiplayer fun and that's why the 2000s title still feels special.
Source:gamerant.com