2002 in gaming: what'd you think?

[ThisThingIsUseful]

Previous threads

1997

Hey, all.

In celebration of gaming in general, I'm continuing a retrospective series looking at gaming year by year. This is as comprehensive a list as possible of games with at least decent reviews and notable games (even ones that were terrible), but games are likely to be missing, especially the further back in time I go. Try to bear with me if any of that happens.

Also, all games listed are by North American release dates, so there are likely to be at least a few games that released a year prior or a year after, say, in Europe. For example, GTA was released in Europe and Gran Turismo in Japan this year, even though the NA release dates are 1998. If you know there's a game which released in your region a certain year and that's the year you played it, by all means, talk about it!

This time, we're heading into 2002, the first full year for the Xbox and Gamecube.

IPs introduced include:

Animal Crossing, Eternal Darkness, Kingdom Hearts, Mafia, Metroid Prime, RalliSport Challenge, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, Steel Battalion, SOCOM, Splinter Cell, The Mark of Kri, Way of the Samurai

Series with sequels/spin-offs include:

Armored Core, Burnout, Contra, Dance Dance Revolution, Deus Ex, Grand Theft Auto, Hitman, Hot Shots Golf, Jet Set, Mario Party, Marvel vs. Capcom, Medal of Honor, Metroid, Mortal Kombat, Need for Speed, Onimusha, Red Faction, Resident Evil, Shenmue, Sonic, Star Fox, Suikoden, Super Mario, Tekken, The Elder Scrolls, The Legend of Zelda, TimeSplitters, Tom Clancy, Tom Clancy's, Tony Hawk, Unreal, Virtua Fighter, Warcraft, Wild Arms, Wipeout, WWF Smackdown!




I cheated a bit with Splinter Cell and Metroid Prime. Tom Clancy's was an ongoing series, but Splinter Cell just started, so I included that as a "series introduced" game as well as Tom Clancy's in general. Same with Fusion/Prime. It's part of the whole Metroid series, was Prime was its own thing.

As a PS2 owner, this was a very fun year, but it wasn't quite up to 2001. We had a GC as well, and of course, this was a much bigger year for it. Xbox didn't really have anything as big as Halo, but it was a fun year nonetheless.

My most anticipated game was seriously Contra, having not played a "real" Contra in ages. Kingdom Hearts was a delightful surprise, though, as was the map maker for Timesplitters, which was much better than the first one if I recall correctly.


2002 Games

Age of Mythology (PC)
Aggressive Inline (PS2)

Animal Crossing (GC)
Armored Core 3 (PS2)
Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings (PC)
ATV Offroad Fury 2 (PS2)
Battlefield 1942
Blinx: The Time Sweeper (Xbox)
Burnout 2: Point of Impact (PS2)

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA)
Contra: Shattered Soldier (PS2)
Crimson Sea (Xbox)
Dance Dance Revolution Konamix (PS1)
Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles (PC)
DDRMAX: Dance Dance Revolution (PS2)
Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (PS2)
Dropship: United Peace Force (PS2)
Dungeon Siege (PC)

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GC)
EverQuest: The Planes of Power (PC)
FIFA Soccer 2003 (PS2, GC, Xbox)
Freedom Force (PC)
Genma Onimusha (Xbox)

Gitaroo Man (PS2)
Grandia II (PS2, PC)
Grand Theft Auto III (PC)

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)
Gunvalkyrie (Xbox)
Headhunter (PS2)
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (PS2, Xbox, PC)
Hot Shots Golf 3 (PS2)

JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox)
Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
Madden NFL 2003 (PS2, Xbox, GC, PC)
Mafia (PC)
Mario Party 4 (GC)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (PS2)
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory (PS2)
MechAssault (Xbox)
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (PC)

Medal of Honor: Frontline (PS2, Xbox, GC)
Medieval: Total War (PC)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (Xbox)

Metroid Fusion (GBA)
Metroid Prime (GC)
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (PS2, Xbox, GC)
NBA 2K3 (PS2, Xbox, GC)
NBA Street (GC)
NCAA Football 2003 (PS2, Xbox, GC)
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PS2, Xbox)
Neverwinter Nights (PC)
NHL 2K3 (PS2, Xbox, GC)
NFL 2K3 (PS2, Xbox, GC)
No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (PC)

Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (PS2)
Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (GC)
Puyo Pop (GBA)

Quantum Redshift (Xbox)
RalliSport Challenge (Xbox, PC)
Ratchet and Clank (PS2)
Red Faction II (PS2)

Resident Evil (GC)
Resident Evil 0 (GC)
Rez (PS2)

Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (PS2)
Sega GT 2002 (Xbox)
Sega Sports Tennis (PS2)
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (PC)

Shenmue II (Xbox)
Shinobi (PS2)
Sid Meier's SimGolf (PC)
SkyGunner (PS2)

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PS2)
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS2)
Sonic Advance (GBA)

Sonic Mega Collection (GC)
Space Channel 5 Part 2 (PS2)
Spider-Man: The Movie (PS2, Xbox, GC, PC)
Star Fox Adventures (GC)
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (PC)

Steel Battalion (Xbox)
Stuntman (PS2)

Suikoden III (PS2)
Super Mario Sunshine (GC)
Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (GBA)
Super Monkey Ball 2 (GC)
Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (GBA)
Tekken 4 (PS2)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 (PS2, Xbox, GC, PC)

TimeSplitters 2 (PS2, Xbox, GC)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Xbox, PC)
The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal (PC)
The Italian Job (PS1)

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (GBA)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PS2, Xbox)
The Mark of Kri (PS2)
The Sims: Unleashed (PC)
The Thing (PS2, Xbox, PC)
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Desert Siege (PS2, PC)

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (Xbox)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA)
Twisted Metal: Black Online (PS2)
Unreal Championship (Xbox)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (PC)

Virtua Fighter 4 (PS2)
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (PC)
Way of the Samurai (PS2)
Wild Arms 3 (PS2)

Wipeout Fusion (PS2)
World Series Baseball (Xbox)
WWF Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth (PS2)
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (GBA)

Click to shrink...

 

[Casual]

Metroid Prime came out.

GOAT year.

 

[Dr. Feel Good]

Metroid Prime and Fushion launching next to each other is such a crazy thing we will never see again.

 

[Cybersai]

Metroid Prime and Super Mario Sunshine were great 2002 games.

Hell Resident Evil REMAKE and RE0 and Eternal Darkness came out. THE GOAT horror games.

 

[Wizzly]

Game studios was lot more creative and inventive.

 

[henlo_birb]

A very good year worth revisiting.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

2002 was a pretty amazing year. REmake, Eternal Darkness, and Metroid Prime are all among my favorites of that generation.

 

[Alanood]

Game studios was lot more creative and inventive.

Click to shrink...

Games were cheaper to make.

 

[EvoTech]

I loved that period, had a PC, GBA, GCN, and access to a PS2 and Xbox.

Prime era for gaming.

 

[Hayama Akito]

For those who still believe "fighting games died after Capcom vs. SNK 2", in 2002 we saw Guilty Gear XX, Virtua Fighter 4, Soul Calibur II and KOF 2002 in arcades. I love that year.

 

[Cybersai]

The Gamecube really had a strong couple of years from 2001-2004 at least. Nintendo supported the hell out of it.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Morrowind, one of the best games ever, was made that year. And Warcraft 3, one of the best RTS ever. So it was a good year.

 

[Rob2K19]

Kingdom Hearts, my favorite series, makes 2002 a great year.

In Japan, .hack started and Golden Sun's sequel came out in the same week. Rockman.EXE 3, best EXE game, came out. Great year indeed.

 

[Phil's Empty Chair]

Metroid Prime and Fushion launching next to each other is such a crazy thing we will never see again.

Click to shrink...

Wrong. They will do the same with Prime 4 and Mercury's new Metroid.

 

[2Blackcats]

Quantum Redshift and Morrowind are my two most played games from that year.

 

[Big G]

It's probably my favorite year of gaming ever; certainly the one that I have the most nostalgia for. 2 of my 3 favorite games ever (Metroid Prime and REmake) came out, and there were a bunch of other great games (Super Mario Sunshine, Timesplitters 2, Eternal Darkness).

I will say, though, that it wasn't a particularly great year for consoles outside of the GameCube. Sony just had a ridiculously-good 2001, and their 2002 lineup reflected that. And most of the Xbox lineup didn't do a whole lot for me back then, and still doesn't.

 

[HulkMansfield]

So many great games that year.
Some games that have stuck in my memory ever since. Ratchet, Metroid Fusion, The 2K sports series' non bball games starting to compete with EA before being manhandled out of existence. Vice City and its "And I run" ad. ATV Offroad Fury 2, the last great offroad, non-car racing game imo.
But I have to give a shout-out to stuntman. Horrible graphics, completely under the radar, but some of the most fun you can have in a videogame car.

 

[Richietto]

One of my personal favorite years.

 

[Strike]

I got a PS2 for Christmas that year. One of my best Christmases ever. Vice City is still my favorite GTA.

 

[Fatmanp]

Lots of first entries for good new IPs there. Still a step below 2001 though.

 

[ArmsofSleep]

Very lowkey tremendous year for series that are essentially forgotten now.

- SOCOM was insanely hot shit for a while, and a true novelty.

- Eternal Darkness was revered as a masterpiece at the time.

- Sly Cooper was basically the "next big thing" of platformers (and had a charm that Sucker Punch never replicated)

- Burnout 2 was a legitimate hit

- TimeSplitters was insane and great and seemed primed for big things

- Splinter Cell seemed poised to be the biggest stealth series ever

- Onimusha was huge


A list like that should tell you just how much the industry changes in 15 years. Series that seemed poised to go on for a long time basically flamed out (or had to be rebooted multiple times). Games that were one-offs or niche titles (like Morrowind or Animal Crossing) became massive series.

 

[Deleted member 7462]

I still think that JSRF is one of the three best 3D platformers ever made.

This is one of the years during Smile.Bit's run where they released JSRF, GunValkyrie, and Panzer Dragoon Orta, which has to be one of the great short development runs of any dev team ever.

Anyway, at this point, I was still on Dreamcast and, even though I mentioned 2003 as the year that I got my Xbox in another thread, I was actually wrong, as I got one in December of 2002. JSRF, GunValkyrie, SEGA GT, Spiderman: The Movie...whoo, I got a lot of time in on these games. OG Xbox is my favorite console of all time, and coming to it from the Dreamcast, my second-favorite console of all time, made me think that we were in the golden age for games, and for me, that time still was my personal golden age of games.

I got a GBA later, in maybe 2003/04, an SP version, and that was dope too.

 

[ClickyCal']

It has my favorite game ever

I loved that period, had a PC, GBA, GCN, and access to a PS2 and Xbox.

Prime era for gaming.

Click to shrink...

 

[EvoTech]

I got Metroid Prime and a WaveBird controller from the Nintendo Power deal, was such an awesome gift to recieve!

 

[CopperPuppy]

It was an incredible year: Animal Crossing, Kingdom Hearts, Prime, Fusion, R&C, SOCOM, Vice City, REmake, Sunshine. Shit the Sonic collection was dope too. I was first getting into DDR so it was a huge year for me in that regard as well. Just a great, great year for gaming.

 

[MadJakeChurchill]

I remember distinctly going through the 2002 editions and circling games going "that one and that one and that one".

Gooooooood year.

 

[Indelible]

Great year in gaming, the GBA and Gamecube released some classic games and the PS2 really hit its stride.

 

[Anth0ny]

Metroid Prime
Metroid Fusion
Sunshine
REmake
Vice City

Fucking legendary. And all this coming off possibly the GOAT year 2001. Unreal.

 

[VCFL]

Vice City came out that year. That's all folks.

 

[MegaRockEXE]

It was a great year, for sure. What a time it was to be 10 years old.

 

[deftones r cool]

As an eleven year old, I could not have been more impressed with my Gamecube. Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race Blue Storm, and Super Monkey Ball were all huge hits with my friends and I. My spice orange controller was the coolest thing I owned. I couldn't wait for a sequel to Smash Bros, and the Donkey Kong Racing game which never actually released.

 

[ThisThingIsUseful]

Morrowind, one of the best games ever, was made that year. And Warcraft 3, one of the best RTS ever. So it was a good year.

Click to shrink...

What would be your top 5 RTS?

Very lowkey tremendous year for series that are essentially forgotten now.

- SOCOM was insanely hot shit for a while, and a true novelty.

- Eternal Darkness was revered as a masterpiece at the time.

- Sly Cooper was basically the "next big thing" of platformers (and had a charm that Sucker Punch never replicated)

- Burnout 2 was a legitimate hit

- TimeSplitters was insane and great and seemed primed for big things

- Splinter Cell seemed poised to be the biggest stealth series ever

- Onimusha was huge


A list like that should tell you just how much the industry changes in 15 years. Series that seemed poised to go on for a long time basically flamed out (or had to be rebooted multiple times). Games that were one-offs or niche titles (like Morrowind or Animal Crossing) became massive series.

Click to shrink...

Before my brother jumped on the Xbox bandwagon, SOCOM was his first online game; he used to play it a lot. I think I remember him also getting used to the voice commands for AI partners, which I hadn't seen at the time.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

I think it was a good year and it set in motion big trends in gaming after a monstrous 2001. Especially Nintendo's downward spiral with cube selling a lot lower than anticipated with two RE games, Sunshine and Metroid as exclusives.

This is the year people learned Xbox was a brand that matter after all their friends started talking about Halo and when they attitude that Cube would be second to PS2 started to dissipate.

I took a stupid and regrettable vacation from gaming during 2001-2004 so I missed out on a lot

 

[Gartooth]

This was such a good year for gaming. Kingdom Hearts, Sly Cooper, and Ratchet & Clank started some of my favorite Playstation 2 series. Kingdom Hearts was the first Square game I had ever played, and the Disney fanservice played a huge part in that. I loved seeing which movie would be the setting for the next world in that game.

Then there was Nintendo going wild on the Gamecube with Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, and Super Mario Sunshine. I remember at a young age being intrigued by Animal Crossing from the ads and teases in Melee, and was enthralled with the game. It was the first kind of life simulation game I had ever played and I would play with the Gamecube calendar just to experience the holidays in game.

 

[MrSaturn99]

Amazing year. GameCube had a bit of a drought during the first half, but the Sonic Adventure 2 port and the fall output hold some incredible nostalgia for me.

 

[Gartooth]

So I didn't get to play Prime back then on Gamecube, I had waited until the Prime Trilogy came to Wii.

I did play Fusion in 2002, and that was my first Metroid game. I was really confused with it at the time, and the SA-X freaked me out. Hahaha

I think I had gotten stuck so I later abandoned the game. I bought Zero Mission a few years later and that was when Metroid clicked with me and I fell in love with the series. I eventually did go back and finish Fusion, and it was a good game. But I looooove Zero Mission. lol

 

[chiraledge]

Sly Cooper and Shut Your Mouth were my jams in 2002.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

2002 was crazy in the UK.
A lot of the big 2001 releases in the US didn't make it over here until 2002. But at the same time we started to see more big games get worldwide releases.

So Xbox and Gamecube both launched in the early part of the year along with MGS2 on PS2.
The original Splinter Cell is a personal highlight along with the Sega multiplatform storm across all consoles.

Good year.

 

[ThisThingIsUseful]

Sly Cooper and Shut Your Mouth were my jams in 2002.

Click to shrink...

That story mode to Shut Your Mouth was pretty awesome. I've actually never seen a flowchart of how the story mode works since it seemed like there were a ton of choices you could make that would affect all the storylines.

 

[Reynolds Woodcock]

Excellent Year:

Metroid Prime
GTA: Vice City
Splinter Cell
Super Mario Sunshine
Animal Crossing
Eternal Darkness
The Mark of Kri
Ratchet and Clank
Sly Cooper
Socom
Jet Set Radio Future
Gunvalkyrie
Steel Battalion
Crazy Taxi 3
Burnout 2
Rez
Gitaroo Man
Morrowind
Hitman 2
Timesplitters 2
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4
Resident Evil Remake
Resident Evil 0
Kingdom Hearts
Virtual Fighter 4
Maximo
Arx Fatalis
Super Monkey Ball 2

 

[Enzo88]

Gamecube, one of my fav console ever, was slaying.

 

[dreamfall]

It was a hell of a year. I remember getting turned down for not showing ID for GTA: Vice City and having an older family friend have to buy the game for me. Mafia came out and it remains as one of my favorite games ever. So much time spent playing NBA Street, and I'm still playing Morrowind today so there's that. What an incredible time!

 

[Tweetsy]

Wow, this brings back so many memories, not only of playing many of these great games, but also how I used to obsess over the trailer dvds that came with magazines like Level, building up excitement for Metroid by watching the trailer over and over, and looking through the manuals on the ride home from the shop. Fun times.

 

[Cats]

Timesplitters 2 is the best game of all time, so this is automatically a great year. There literally could have been no other game released, and it still would have been an amazing year. Such an awesome, well polished, feature rich, amazing game. Just an absolutely blast to play.

Edit: Unreal 2003 came out too? With the matrix moves+RPG mods, it's also one of my top 5 favorite games of all time.

 

[Cutty]

Animal Crossing was the Nintendo game that really encapsulated all I love about gaming. Still find myself going back to it after all of these years, as it still evokes that heartwarming gaming nostalgia in me.

Metroid Prime was on another level and Age of Mythology was the most fun I've ever had with an RTS game.

I absolutely adored that generation of gaming and kinda forgot about how great that year (2002) really was.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

What would be your top 5 RTS?

Click to shrink...

Not in order:
Warcraft 3+TFT
C&C Generals
Starcraft
Dune2000/C&C Tiberian Dawn/C&CRed Alert (really, they're rather similar and i like all three, can't really list them separately)
(Yes, i am C&C and Blizzard fan, nothing else quite compares.)

Technically that is more than 5 already... really hard time figuring out the last one. There are good RTS games but i have hard time naming a favorite. Homeworld 2 (never played first one and i got technical issues with the remaster), Age of Empires 1/2, Starcraft 2, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, Warcraft 2, others whose names i can't summon up at the moment.

 

[EarthPainting]

Some decent stuff in there, but the 2002 game I played the most is probably Mega Man Zero.

 

[Cranster]

I was out of the loop that year. All I did was play Perfect Dark on my N64 that whole year.

 

[SuikerBrood]

Warcraft 3. My most favorite game ever.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

It was the birth year for one of my absolute dearest and loved franchises in the industry:

Also two of my favorite games of all time:

It was a very special year for me <3