1998 Was A Great Year For Gaming

1998 was an rockin' year for for video game releases, especially if you're now in the 35+ category. The N64, PS1, and Windows were dropping hit, after hit, after hit. There were certainly some bangers for Saturn, Dreamcast and both GB & GBC, too, but I didn't know too many people with those consoles so we'll focus on the first 3.

For the N64 we got:

• 1080 Snowboarding

• Banjo-Kazooie

• F-Zero X

• Gex: Enter the Gecko

• Pokemon Stadium

• WWF Warzone

• NFL Blitz

• Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

• Mario Party

Look, I still maintain that Cool Boarders 2 was better than 1080 but when you added the latter into a birthday party rotation, it was siiick! Pokemon Stadium being the first console Pokemon game (internationally) was awesome. I was never huge into portable consoles because I simply just liked bigger screens, so this was a gamechanger. NFL Blitz will go down as one of my favourite sports games of all time. It was revolutionary! I would love modern ports, or at least sports games with this style to be made more often. Mario Party may have been the true beginning of raging, familial battles. I still want to punch my cousin in the face for getting that 4th star in Rainbow Castle on his last turn of the game.

For the PS1 we got:

• Resident Evil 2

• Tekken 3

• Parasite Eve

• Vigilante 8

• Metal Gear Solid

• Spyro the Dragon

• MediEvil

• Tomb Raider III

• Suikoden II

• Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

Resident Evil 2, easily in the top 3 games for the franchise. I mean, it only lost out to Metal Gear Solid for best Playstation game of the year. Both the original and the remake are excellent and ate up tons of my time as a kid. Parasite Eve, another legend in the horror realm from Playstation. We still haven't anything quite like it and I hope we eventually get a remake. Metal Gear Solid was a blast... there aren't many gamers, especially PS fans, that will tell you this game is anything less than honoured. Suikoden II, a noble Konami release that still holds up. For RPG lovers, this entry is one of the best in the series and required you to be a bit of a tactician.

For Windows we got:

• StarCraft

• Unreal

• Rainbow Six

• Delta Force

• Grim Fandango

• Fallout 2

• Half-Life

• Baldur's Gate

I remember being so excited about StarCraft and hadn't looked forward to an RTS that much since Red Alert. It added to a genre I loved so much and was another excuse for me to drone in front of my PC. In the FPS sector, Unreal was... Unreal! Lots of memories playing it and even it's sequel on the original Xbox, Unreal 2: The Awakening. Even though the adjacent series Unreal Tournament is where I logged the most of my time, the original was all the rage on release. Now for the game that probably took up the vast majority of my time as a teen; Half-Life. Aside from playing the campaign countless times, it led to me being completely addicted to Team Fortress Classic and even Counter-Strike. To this day the Half-Life Umbrella is probably where I've logged the most hours.

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These among other stellar games were unleashed to the public, sending gamers into a euphoric frenzy. Between Mario Party, RE2 and Half-Life, I barely saw the sun that year. It's shocking I didn't get the beetus, crushing big gulps by the litre and eating my local 7/11 damn near out of business. What an amazing time to be alive and capable of enjoying these titles as they came out. Gaming was evolving at such a rapid rate that these games always felt like we couldn't get any better. Nothing but time and good friends (and a Blockbuster!), no wonder people miss those days!