Gaming in 2001
2001 was something of the adage "Out with the old, in with the new." for Nintendo and Sony as both wrapped up the life cycles of the Ultra NES and PS1. For Nintendo, the end of the line did come with a few notable gems such as
Conker's Bad Fur Day,
Dinosaur Planet and a localized release for
Fire Emblem: The Archenean Starlord. They also gained a port of the first
Mega Man Legends title, dubbed
Mega Man Legends: Ultra and a few first and 2nd party titles such as
Mario Party 3,
Pokemon Stadium 2 and
Dr. Mario Ultra.
For Sony, the PS1's end came with
Mega Man X5 and
X6, Castlevania Chronicles, Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, Time Crisis: Project Titan and most infamously,
The Simpsons Wrestling.
However, the two were rolling out hits for their newer consoles. On the Giga NES, there was
Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi the Fearful: The Poltergeist Chateau, and
Pikmin. Along with those were
Mega Man X: The First Maverick Hunters, Pro-Am Racing: The Rare Circuit, Timu's Golden Journey and more.
The PS2 had a number of major releases;
Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, Twisted Metal: Black, Ico, Grand Theft Auto III, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and many more.
Meanwhile, Sega was rolling on with the Neptune, releasing new Sonic games such as
Sonic Shuffle and
Sonic Adventure 2. Along with Sonic was the racing game
Daytona USA,
Crazy Taxi 2,
Shenmue II, the online RPG
Phantasy Star Online and its updated
Version 2, the strange horror game
Illbleed,
Dead Or Alive 3,
Super Monkey Ball and
Gunstar Heroes: The Third Eye for the Pluto.
A number of games went to multiple platforms:
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 on the PS2, PS2 and GNES.
Dragon Warrior VII on the PS1 and Neptune.
Final Fantasy X on the PS2, GNES and Neptune.
SSX Tricky on the PS2, GNES and Neptune. Finally, there was
Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 and Neptune.
However, a major player in the midst of these was
Halo: Combat Evolved, released on Mac and PC. The third person shooter, starring an armored space marine known as the Master Chief battling against the alien forces of the Covenant, was a big hit in the PC gaming space and would gain enough success for Take-Two Interactive to come knocking. In exchange for releasing their games on MacOS, Take-Two would get the publishing rights to Halo on consoles.
