Since the days of games like Pitfall on the Atari 2600, every console released has some kind of new feature—a giant leap in graphical power, analog sticks, controller haptics, and so on.
Along with those features come games that take full advantage of them.
Super Mario 64 wasn’t the first game to use an analog stick, but it announced to the world that analog sticks are here and gave the Nintendo 64 a firm place in video game history.
Sonic the Hedgehog showed us that Sega could—at least for a few years—stand shoulder to shoulder with the 800-pound Donkey Kong in the room, Nintendo.
We’re diving back into the console generations we grew up with to spotlight the games that defined them, whether by pushing the hardware, shifting the genre, or just being impossible to put down. This is hardly an exhaustive list, but they’re among the games that we still can’t quite shake all these years later.
PlayStation – Final Fantasy VII (1997)
We’re in the middle of a trilogy that remakes this classic game in ultra-high fidelity.
However, when it was released on the PlayStation in 1997, it was a huge moment. Square—before it was Square Enix—had been a mainstay of Nintendo systems, providing players with classic games for the Nintendo, Game Boy, and Super Nintendo.
Simply releasing on PlayStation was a significant shift for gamers in the know. But it was also a showcase for what we could start to expect from games on systems with optical drives.
Limited by the small cartridge size of the upcoming Nintendo 64, Square made the decision to move to the PlayStation, which gave it room to create a much more expansive game, complete with CGI-animated cut-scenes.
Games suddenly felt bigger and more cinematic—something that would make another significant jump with Metal Gear Solid a year later.
Dreamcast – Shenmue (2000)
These days, Shenmue is primarily a source of ancient memes—do you know where to find sailors?
But at the time, it felt like something entirely new. It was a proto-open-world game. The places to explore were relatively small, but they were jam-packed with detail and surprises, as well as plenty of things to do and jumps to kick.
As Ryo Hazuki, you had to learn martial arts like kung fu and karate, take care of responsibilities, and help out friends in the city, all while trying to solve the mystery of who killed your father and why.
The whole world worked on a day-to-day schedule, and you couldn’t just go talk to a shopkeeper in the middle of the night.
Having all of this complexity rendered in detailed 3D environments for its time felt like the beginning of something.
Nintendo GameCube – Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)
The Super Smash Bros. series debuted on Nintendo 64, but the next entry, Super Smash Bros. Melee for the GameCube, perfected the formula.
It did it so well that it continues to outshine subsequent entries, such as Brawl and Ultimate, and remains a staple in fighting game tournaments thanks to its sharp, precise gameplay and well-balanced variety of characters.
It was also a standout for making use of the GameCube’s four controller ports, making it a favorite party game; Smash Bros. was the true Mario Party, if you ask us.
Xbox – Splinter Cell (2002)
The original Xbox was a graphical powerhouse at the time of release.
Halo and Halo 2 are undoubtedly the most popular games to hit the system, but Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell series is a defining part of the console’s library.
Splinter Cell dares to ask the question: What if the only colors used in a game were green and black? As Sam Fisher, you’re awash in shadows from the first moments of the game, and those shadows are often your only friend. Staying in the darkness is the only way to survive.
This all worked because the game featured absolutely stellar lighting. The green light on Fisher’s back always let you know where you were, but you were constantly changing up the lighting of your surroundings, shooting out bulbs or making them flicker to blind and distract your enemies. It acted as an early showcase of something the Xbox could do that the other systems just couldn’t.
The two Xbox sequels, Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, quickly followed, upping the ante visually while introducing the fan-favorite Spies vs. Mercs asymmetrical multiplayer mode; however, the original was the defining game.
PlayStation 2 – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
The Grand Theft Auto series began as a two-dimensional overhead game, evolved into a 3D experience with GTA3, and then advanced to a new level of visual fidelity and expansive world size with GTA 4.
San Andreas, released on PlayStation 2, is our pick for the standout in the series, though. It was the seed of everything that would follow.
It had three big cities to explore and make trouble in, a memorable protagonist in CJ, and a killer soundtrack thanks to the radio stations filled with classic rock and period-appropriate West Coast rap and hip-hop.
It was the first game where you could change your character’s clothes to any look you wanted. It was also the first game where you could change your body through workouts and diet, although there are hints that this may also be present in the upcoming GTA 6.
Wii – Wii Sports (2006)
Never has a video game company made such a powerful decision as Nintendo when it decided to include Wii Sports with the original Wii when it was released in 2006.
Without the help of a memorable mascot like Mario, the console launch could’ve fallen by the wayside as a curiosity. Instead, it sparked a gold rush for motion controls everywhere, with Microsoft and Sony scrambling to replicate Nintendo’s success but never coming close to it.
All of a sudden, Wii Sports was in every household, and it defined exactly what the Wii could do.
For a while, we were all boxing, playing golf, rolling turkeys, and scoring eagles in the various events of Wii Sports. Very few games define their systems so perfectly and simply as Wii Sports did for the Wii.
Xbox 360 – The Elder Scrolls V: Oblivion (2006)
There was a time, long ago, when Bethesda was able to release more than one game per decade, when a new Elder Scrolls game wasn’t a “once in a lifetime” event.
Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim were all released within a nine-year period. Morrowind is a favorite of old-school fans, and Skyrim sent the series’ popularity into the stratosphere—but Oblivion was one of the first true “next-gen” games on the Xbox 360, a system that was about to explode in popularity.
It feels primitive now, with its bustling metropolises resembling ghost towns, but at the time, it was an absolute stunner of a game with an expansive open world, and it made the Xbox 360 a must-have system.
Edited by Sebastian Sinclair
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