It's important to take the rough with the smooth in life. For instance, we could say that 2001 was a bad year for gaming simply because of the release of The Simpsons Wrestling, which, hilarious as it could be, is one of the worst licensed games ever made. To do so, though, would be to discount some of the fantastic titles that arrived that year. More than you might remember, in fact, if you're old enough to have been gaming then.
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This year brought us more classics than we've even got room for in this rundown. The ingenious and innovative color-switching shooter Ikaruga and the first installment of strategy classic Pikmin are just two of many worthy titles we couldn't include. If you didn't play these titles at the time, you've probably heard of their excellent reputations and caught up with them since.
For this list, we'll be counting games as 2001 releases by their NA launch date.
10 Advance Wars
Legendary Strategy
The Japanese Wars series didn't arrive in the West until this Game Boy Advance installment. By then, the series' signature strategy had been refined to the point of near perfection. It would be easy to discount or underestimate Advance Wars because of its less-than-threatening visuals, but make no mistake: The later stages of the campaign in particular have humbled many players. An absolute strategy classic.
The story follows the efforts of the Commanding Officers of Orange Star, a nation that has been invaded by Blue Moon seemingly without rhyme or reason. As we lead Orange Star through the conflict, battle by battle, Green Earth and Yellow Comet also get embroiled in it, but we begin to learn who has really orchestrated it: the fiendish Black Hole army. It's a complex turn-based strategy title that sees the player gradually introduced to more units and features with each level, before the training wheels come off and they're left to balance mechanics like capturing bases, unit repair, the different CO's strengths and weaknesses, and simply managing a huge onslaught of enemy units by themselves. There are advanced tactics and strategic options aplenty in this turn-based gem, which spawned several further games and was recently reborn with Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp.
9 Final Fantasy 10
An All-Time Great In A Beloved Franchise
After the PlayStation trilogy of Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9, it was the shiny new PlayStation 2's turn to show off what it could do with the storied RPG series. The bar had been set incredibly high. In response, Square spun a tale that was its most beautiful and ambitious yet. Tidus and his steadily-growing roster of allies must accompany Summoner Yuna on her Pilgrimage and defeat the fearsome entity known as Sin, across the tragic, varied, and stunning realm of Spira.
There are many turn-based battle aficionados consider Final Fantasy 10 the last of the classic series entries. After this, Final Fantasy entered the realm of action RPGs and MMORPGs. A last hurrah of sorts, then, and a lengthy adventure that still holds up very well today. With a memorable cast, classic setpieces, and a sphere grid system that providees a new twist on powering up your party members, it's an emotional and unforgettable adventure.
8 Black & White
Moral Dilemmas: The Game
Cartoons often depict characters with two little entities on their shoulders, trying to guide them towards the good or bad choice of action respectively. Ultimately, though, who decides right and wrong? In Black & White, you do, and those decisions can have wide-ranging consequences. This Peter Molyneux strategy title sets the player as a deity with a creature of their choosing to represent them in the world. Interacting with the people of various settlements and obtaining their favor allows you to influence more of the world, but it's important to keep on top of their wants and needs too.
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It's not just standard 'expand your empire' gameplay, though. The overarching story deals with a range of gods alongside yourself, who have their own moral alignment. The antagonist is Nemesis, who must be defeated before he takes over the land and wipes out his peers. The game has a wicked sense of humor, a unique charm and just the right amount of depth to keep it engaging without becoming overwhelming. It would be a big influence on strategy titles to come.
7 Golden Sun
A Pocket-Sized Superstar Of An RPG
Even if you've never played Golden Sun, you've probably heard its many fans clamoring for its return. What begins in quite a generic way (the village is being attacked and the young hero now has amnesia) develops into one of the most beloved RPGs ever committed to a Game Boy Advance cartridge, as the scope of the adventure and its innovative additions to the genre unfold.
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Issac, Mia, Garet, and Ivan's quest is to defend the Lighthouses, dungeons that have sealed away the extraordinary power of Alchemy, from the villainous duo of Saturos and Menardi. It's a journey that will take them across land and sea, collecting the game's distinctive Djinni as they go. These little creatures are usually hidden away by a puzzle, and collecting them allows the player to 'equip' them to a party member. There are different elemental alignments, and the combination on a given character determines their class, stats, and the skills they can use. This ties into the magic, or Psynergy, system, which mixes things up by allowing for use outside of combat to solve puzzles. An atmospheric and well-paced adventure that's long enough to really get stuck into but not enough to outstay its welcome.
6 Devil May Cry
An Action Legend Is Born
Sometimes, we don't quite appreciate just how long the biggest franchises have been part of our lives. Devil May Cry began this year, a hack and slash action icon and Capcom classic that introduced the red-coated Dante. In this entry, he pursues the demon Mundus to Mallet Island, battling through an army of demonic minions to get to the big bad. This is something that Dante will spend a lot of his time doing throughout the series to come, so it's a very good thing that the combat was fast, stylish, and quite refined from the very first game.
The player's combat encounters are ranked based on how quickly they're completed, but also how stylishly you fought and how many hits you took (among other factors). As a result, the primary objective is to stay mobile and dish out damage, while avoiding enemy attacks or, even better, keeping them disrupted so that they don't have an opportunity to launch any. It's similar to a fighting game, in that reaction times and keeping foes in a helpless juggle state whenever possible is the key to victory. As with Bayonetta later, the player will also unlock a range of firearms on top of melee options, adding an element of strategy to choosing what to use and in which scenarios. The original game set the stage for the popular series to come by establishing its themes, unique style, and introducing some of the major players such as Dante's brother, Virgil.
5 Super Smash Bros. Melee
The GameCube's Greatest
There were some fantastic titles in the GameCube's library, both the underrated and the widely celebrated. Firmly in the latter category is Super Smash Bros. Melee, the title with which Smash Bros. Started its meteoric rise to the legendary series it would become. The N64 original, two years before, was an experiment with a new concept, with a roster of one dozen characters and quite a limited overall package. Still, it established the concept of building a foe's damage percentage and then launching them off the screen. Melee then expanded all of this to meteoric levels.
A huge range of characters, new arenas, and collectibles were added, as were a suite of options for solo players to enjoy. Even a quarter of a century later, this is still considered by some to be the most competitive entry, lacking some of the RNG and silliness that would be added with later games. It also has a more manageable roster, giving players more of a chance to learn what each individual character is really capable of. It's fast and responsive, with every strike having a considerable weight to it. An essential addition to every GameCube collection.
4 Max Payne
Classic Slow-Motion Firefights
Whenever the slow-motion effect comes into play in action games, we can't help but associate it with The Matrix movies. Max Payne was just one series that was inspired by the films that still make us question reality all these years later. With both franchises, it's not just about style: There's an awful lot of substance too.
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The first Max Payne game introduced players to the grizzled ex-detective, who is investigating the Punchinello crime family for the DEA at the time of the game's events. He finds himself pursued by both the police and Punchinello's men after being implicated in a killing, and spends the rest of the game seeking answers for the deaths of his family, determined to bring the criminals he hunts down. It's a dark and tragic tale, as befits its visuals and presentation, and boasts unique mechanics that set it apart from a typical TPS. Bullet Time is the most important of these, and with a carefully-performed shootdodge, Max can dive from cover to cover and use the environment while turning the tables on his opponents. It's unbelievable satisfying to clear rooms with these techniques, and it all contributes to the overall style of the package, along with the famous comic book cutscenes. Max Payne is full of great, well-executed ideas, only expanded upon by the sequels.
3 Grand Theft Auto 3
The Start Of 3D Grand Theft Auto
By 2001, Grand Theft Auto fans had already had around four years of isometric mayhem. They'd played gangs off against each other, traveled to 1960s London in an expansion for the original title, and armed their favorite vehicles with proximity mines at the garage in Grand Theft Auto 2. Next, the series had to take its boldest step yet: Adjusting to the world of 3D.
Grand Theft Auto 3 introduced Claude, who joins both the Leone Mafia and (when relations break down) the yakuza during the game's events. The carnage that unfolds as characters betray and battle each other is nothing new for the series, but it's the scale of Liberty City that really shows how far things have come. We're so accustomed to open-world experiences now, but in 2001, this was an urban playground on a scale never really seen before. It was alive with colorful characters and citizens going about their daily business, and the stunt jumps, sidequests and other challenges helped establish the series' formula. However vast and life-changing Grand Theft Auto 6 proves to be, Rockstar wouldn't have got to that point without this game.
2 Halo: Combat Evolved
Master Chief's Saga Begins
In the world of Xbox gaming, there probably isn't a character more iconic than Master Chief. This heavily-armored elite warrior has appeared in everything from graphic novels to Netflix shows, and they all have their roots in Halo: Combat Evolved, the FPS that started it all.
With launch games, developers want to really demonstrate what a system is capable of, to make a statement about the kinds of titles players can expect. Halo was a fantastic way to do that, ushering in the age of the Xbox with a visually impressive, action-packed campaign. Wasting no time at all, we're dragged into the war against the Covenant, which will define the series just as the conflict against the Locust Horde defines Gears of War. In this title, The Chief is a critical part of the assault on the ring world, which housed terrible measures intended to hold back the horrifying Flood. The story ends with a perfect setup for much more from the series' narrative, but for those who were able to gather enough players for it, the competitive multiplayer was revolutionary too.
1 Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon
You've Got To Play Your Cards Right
The Castlevania games are as committed to vanquishing Dracula as the Super Mario titles are to taking down Bowser. Both have been the ultimate aim of their respective series for console generations now. What really differs between games is the journey to get there. By the Game Boy Advance era of Castlevania, we were firmly in Metroidvania territory (as distinct from the earlier more straightforward platformers), and Circle of the Moon introduced some new wrinkles of its own.
The game is set in 1830, at a castle in Austria where Dracula has been revived by his acolytes yet again. Shortly after he emerges, legendary vampire hunter Morris Baldwin arrives on the scene with two young apprentices, his son Hugh Baldwin and Nathan Graves. The latter is the game's protagonist, and after being discarded to the depths of the castle, he must find his way back to his master and ultimately banish Dracula himself. This was an early take on the Metroidvania formula, but it has aged quite well and it's still a lot of fun to explore the varied locales of the castle and experiment with Nathan's growing abilities. Particularly creative is the Dual Set-Up System, in which the player combines cards they've created with different attributes to select Nathan's skills. You don't play as an all-powerful Belmont this time, but Nathan absolutely has what it takes to seal evil away yet again.
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