- Joined
- Sep 26, 2019
So when I was on my way home after a productive day of harassing and mocking all the fat people at the ice cream parlor, I started thinking about how great old video games are.
All things considered, if I had to pick the best five-year block for video games, I think it'd be 1997-2001. Konami and Squaresoft were on fire at the time, and so many games that'd end up considered the magnum opus of their genres, inspiring game developers to this very day were released around then. Konami alone released Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Metal Gear Solid, Dance Dance Revolution, Silent Hill, and Suikoden 2 all within a couple of years of one another (MGS, DDR, and Suikoden 2 all within 4 months of each other). Rare was on top of their game at the time, single handedly making the N64 worthwhile with Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye, Blast Corps, Perfect Dark, and Diddy Kong Racing. Capcom was also hitting their stride with fighting games, launching Marvel vs. Capcom and Street Fighter 3 around then, and also releasing Resident Evil 2. Even Activision and EA started up their hugely successful Tony Hawk and The Sims franchises, respectively.
Pokémon and Half-Life also came out at that time, and, you know, those games are kinda big. Shit, a lot of the games I mentioned came out in 1998 alone. What was it with that year? Like, what made specifically 1998 such a golden age for video games? I guess 3D was really hitting its stride, finally getting away from looking just horrendous, but even by '98 it was still pretty damn ugly. The entire 5th generation wasn't easy on the eyes. I've considered Chrono Cross to be the best looking game on the PS1, and, well, the game looks like this:

Chrono Cross was released in 2000.
But that didn't seem to matter much. Timeless games came out of that era, and mostly seemed to culminate in 1998. Did everything just hit a perfect equilibrium at the time? Developers finally getting comfortable with how to work around low-end 3D graphics tech? The state of the world being at a peacetime, with Clown World still well over a decade off and the end of the cold war happening in '91? I'm just spitballing thoughts here.
Regardless, all those fat people I was hassling earlier need to play Dance Dance Revolution, a 1998 game that can help you lose weight if you git gud at it. Also, they need to go on a diet. Don't be greedy, put down that fettuccine.
All things considered, if I had to pick the best five-year block for video games, I think it'd be 1997-2001. Konami and Squaresoft were on fire at the time, and so many games that'd end up considered the magnum opus of their genres, inspiring game developers to this very day were released around then. Konami alone released Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Metal Gear Solid, Dance Dance Revolution, Silent Hill, and Suikoden 2 all within a couple of years of one another (MGS, DDR, and Suikoden 2 all within 4 months of each other). Rare was on top of their game at the time, single handedly making the N64 worthwhile with Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye, Blast Corps, Perfect Dark, and Diddy Kong Racing. Capcom was also hitting their stride with fighting games, launching Marvel vs. Capcom and Street Fighter 3 around then, and also releasing Resident Evil 2. Even Activision and EA started up their hugely successful Tony Hawk and The Sims franchises, respectively.
Pokémon and Half-Life also came out at that time, and, you know, those games are kinda big. Shit, a lot of the games I mentioned came out in 1998 alone. What was it with that year? Like, what made specifically 1998 such a golden age for video games? I guess 3D was really hitting its stride, finally getting away from looking just horrendous, but even by '98 it was still pretty damn ugly. The entire 5th generation wasn't easy on the eyes. I've considered Chrono Cross to be the best looking game on the PS1, and, well, the game looks like this:

Chrono Cross was released in 2000.
But that didn't seem to matter much. Timeless games came out of that era, and mostly seemed to culminate in 1998. Did everything just hit a perfect equilibrium at the time? Developers finally getting comfortable with how to work around low-end 3D graphics tech? The state of the world being at a peacetime, with Clown World still well over a decade off and the end of the cold war happening in '91? I'm just spitballing thoughts here.
Regardless, all those fat people I was hassling earlier need to play Dance Dance Revolution, a 1998 game that can help you lose weight if you git gud at it. Also, they need to go on a diet. Don't be greedy, put down that fettuccine.