When I say Launch year , I'm refering to the time period of October 26th 2000 through to December 31st 2001, it's actually 14 months and some change, just FYI, I'm aware not everyone loves the launch day lineup
I'll preface this with a shout out to Maximillions twitch channel, his recent playthrough of The Bouncer spurred these nostalgic thoughts.
Of all things to recall fondly, let's all take a trip down memory lane to the North American Launch of the greatest selling home videogame console of all time (ALL TIME).
October 26th 2000 was a grand day for those who managed to secure a pre-order for Sony's second home system. You had over 2 dozen games to choose from but chances were high there weren't any memory cards (even third party) to go around so whatever you decided to buy would have to go without a save file for at least a few weeks. But man, the choices you had back then - 29 titles available in 1 day. Every genre you can think of was represented with at least 1 game, most with 2-3 titles. There may not have been a stand out MUST OWN title in the bunch but the quality of the launch was generally pretty good. Like many others, I was always partial to SSX but hell, over the course of the year after launch (I didn't buy the system myself until the following March) I played most of these games. I had a generous friend that got one on launch day, it was one of the few nights I pulled an all nighter and myself along with a few other people stayed up and unlocked every costume in DOA2 hardcore despite not having any way to save our progress .
Armored Core 2 - Tactical shooting action
DOA2: Hardcore - fighting
Dynasty Warriors 2 - beat em up with hundreds of troops
ESPN International Track & Field - sports
ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding - sports
Eternal Ring - RPG
Evergrace - RPG
FantaVision - Arcade/puzzle
Gungriffon Blaze - Shooting action
Kessen - strategy
Madden NFL 2001 - sports
Midnight Club: Street Racing - racing
Moto GP - racing
NHL 2001 - sports
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery - arcade QTE filled movie game
Q-Ball: Billiards Master - pool
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 - fighting
Ridge Racer V - racing
Silent Scope - arcade shooting
Smuggler's Run - arcade mission racing
SSX - arcade racing/sports
Street Fighter EX3 - fighting
Summoner - RPG
Swing Away Golf - arcade sports
Tekken Tag Tournament - fighting
TimeSplitters - shooting
Unreal Tournament - shooting
Wild Wild Racing - platform racing
X-Squad - squad based shooting
The fun didn't stop there , 2001 was a fantastic year for the PS2 just in terms of how many games came out for it that are now considered genre defining classics or even just expensive mistakes.
Silent Hill 2 came out in February followed shortly thereafter by The Bouncer and when March did roll around it brought with it the first Onimusha Game as well as Zone of the Enders which included a copy of the most played demo ever - Metal Gear Solid 2. Resident Evil Code veronica was finally ported off the dreamcast that summer and included a playable demo of Devil May cry. Another summer survival horror game was the mostly forgotten Extermination.ALSO released over the summer of 2001 - Gran Tourismo 3 - the reason many people probably bought the console. As well, Twisted Metal Black saw the return of the TM1/2 developers to the franchise. Fumito Ueda brought us his first big release with Ico later in the fall.
But the biggest games were yet to come October 2001 brought with it Devil May Cry and Grand Theft auto 3 and finally, in November we got Metal Gear Solid 2. Just as you thought the year might be done with big hits- Square manages to translate Final Fantasy X and have it out just before Christmas.
And thus, 2001 finally came to a close and earns a spot in the history books alongside other defining years like 1998. It's strange to me because 2001 was the year I really loved my PS2 but by 2002 I'd also purchased an Xbox and eventually a gamecube , this split my gaming time up enough that my PS2 usage dropped down to mostly a glorified dvd player outside of a few games. It could be argued it took quite some time before the PS2 had a year of quality hits like 2001 again. What are your own experiences gaf ?
I'll preface this with a shout out to Maximillions twitch channel, his recent playthrough of The Bouncer spurred these nostalgic thoughts.
Of all things to recall fondly, let's all take a trip down memory lane to the North American Launch of the greatest selling home videogame console of all time (ALL TIME).
October 26th 2000 was a grand day for those who managed to secure a pre-order for Sony's second home system. You had over 2 dozen games to choose from but chances were high there weren't any memory cards (even third party) to go around so whatever you decided to buy would have to go without a save file for at least a few weeks. But man, the choices you had back then - 29 titles available in 1 day. Every genre you can think of was represented with at least 1 game, most with 2-3 titles. There may not have been a stand out MUST OWN title in the bunch but the quality of the launch was generally pretty good. Like many others, I was always partial to SSX but hell, over the course of the year after launch (I didn't buy the system myself until the following March) I played most of these games. I had a generous friend that got one on launch day, it was one of the few nights I pulled an all nighter and myself along with a few other people stayed up and unlocked every costume in DOA2 hardcore despite not having any way to save our progress .
Armored Core 2 - Tactical shooting action
DOA2: Hardcore - fighting
Dynasty Warriors 2 - beat em up with hundreds of troops
ESPN International Track & Field - sports
ESPN Winter X Games Snowboarding - sports
Eternal Ring - RPG
Evergrace - RPG
FantaVision - Arcade/puzzle
Gungriffon Blaze - Shooting action
Kessen - strategy
Madden NFL 2001 - sports
Midnight Club: Street Racing - racing
Moto GP - racing
NHL 2001 - sports
Orphen: Scion of Sorcery - arcade QTE filled movie game
Q-Ball: Billiards Master - pool
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 - fighting
Ridge Racer V - racing
Silent Scope - arcade shooting
Smuggler's Run - arcade mission racing
SSX - arcade racing/sports
Street Fighter EX3 - fighting
Summoner - RPG
Swing Away Golf - arcade sports
Tekken Tag Tournament - fighting
TimeSplitters - shooting
Unreal Tournament - shooting
Wild Wild Racing - platform racing
X-Squad - squad based shooting
The fun didn't stop there , 2001 was a fantastic year for the PS2 just in terms of how many games came out for it that are now considered genre defining classics or even just expensive mistakes.
Silent Hill 2 came out in February followed shortly thereafter by The Bouncer and when March did roll around it brought with it the first Onimusha Game as well as Zone of the Enders which included a copy of the most played demo ever - Metal Gear Solid 2. Resident Evil Code veronica was finally ported off the dreamcast that summer and included a playable demo of Devil May cry. Another summer survival horror game was the mostly forgotten Extermination.ALSO released over the summer of 2001 - Gran Tourismo 3 - the reason many people probably bought the console. As well, Twisted Metal Black saw the return of the TM1/2 developers to the franchise. Fumito Ueda brought us his first big release with Ico later in the fall.
But the biggest games were yet to come October 2001 brought with it Devil May Cry and Grand Theft auto 3 and finally, in November we got Metal Gear Solid 2. Just as you thought the year might be done with big hits- Square manages to translate Final Fantasy X and have it out just before Christmas.
And thus, 2001 finally came to a close and earns a spot in the history books alongside other defining years like 1998. It's strange to me because 2001 was the year I really loved my PS2 but by 2002 I'd also purchased an Xbox and eventually a gamecube , this split my gaming time up enough that my PS2 usage dropped down to mostly a glorified dvd player outside of a few games. It could be argued it took quite some time before the PS2 had a year of quality hits like 2001 again. What are your own experiences gaf ?