Oh man the late 90s were absolutely killer! Although my pick was Pokémon Gold/Silver, I had to mention some others that just missed the cut in no particular order.

Unreal Tournament/Quake III Arena (I usually lump these 2 together lol)
Age of Empires II
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
DK64
Crash Team Racing

Pokemon though……I would hardly ever put those games down! No matter where I was. Even got the games confiscated at school several times xD one of my most nostalgic titles.

Yeah, I had to vote "other" this time for the Dreamcast version of Soul Calibur simply because there's not much else here I'm big on and it wins handily.

One game in 1999 changed my life completely, a turning point and imo the best game of all time.

But first other great releases in 1999:

Starting with some amazing racing titles that came out in 1999, first Crazy Taxi (Arcade, DreamCast 2000 release)

A game I played to death on DreamCast. This was simply amazing to play on my projector back then, better than in the Arcade lol. However for some reason my projector didn't like the input signal levels of DC so I had to connect the DreamCast to my PC which upscaled the game to 800x600 then send it back out as S-VHS signal to my projector. The added lag wasn't even notice-able and the result was amazing. Crazy Taxi on a 72" screen was very addictive.

Re-Volt came out in 1999 on DreamCast

A super fun micro racer with a great track selection and 4 player split-screen. Perfect to play on the wall but also a hit at work. I took the DreamCast so we could have 4 player battles at lunch break in the break room. 4 people crowding around a little TV, too much fun. (We stretched the lunch hours a bit lol)

Yet Driver on Playstation was revolutionary and a wish come through. Realistic or rather weighty feeling driving through open world city with lots of car chases. So smooth, tough but great handling, perfect risk vs reward balance.

We also played the survival mode hot seat style, trying to avoid the cops for as long as possible. Doing donuts in the park was the best solution, turning it into a ballet of cars sliding around trying to out manoever the cops for as long as possible.
What a game, ahead of its time as GTA3 didn't release until 2001.

1999 is also part of the golden years of RTS which lasted on until the mid 2000s with Age of Empires 2 of course

The height of the series and still amazing to play today. This might be the prettiest isometric view game I have played.

Homeworld was a great surprise in 1999, RTS in 3D space, brilliant


It was awesome to watch the space battles p0lay out, all the little ships buzzing around the bigger ships doing attack runs and dodging returning fire.

A classic that still holds up today as well.

Command & Conquer kept going strong as well with Tiberian Sun


Yet the best RTS on 1999 was something completely different, Rollercoaster Tycoon

It got me super addicted to making the best park ever with intertwining rides and synchronized roller coasters. It's also the first game I uploaded save games from to share and downloaded other people's creations. I wish I could find that site again (likely gone) as I lost my save games in a HDD failure. I miss my perfect park lol, only lives on in my memories now. Just like Transport Tycoon you could adjust the terrain to fit to your park to make it all look even better.

Btw, cleaning up vomit, that was Theme Park. Rollercoaster Tycoon gave you all the feedback needed not to have people throw up on your rides, and also feedback how to build the most popular rides. Working to get that excitement score up and the thrill score as close to but under the vomit limit meant a lot of rewarding tinkering. And intertwining rides was the best way to bring that excitement score up.
 
Simply amazing what you could build with it and it all kept working brilliantly.

1999 also arguably had the best 4X game in Space with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Great tech tree, great factions, all the addictive game play of Civilization in basically a direct sequel as setting out for Alpha Centauri is one of the victory conditions of Civilization. This needs a sequel or remake. It sort of did get one in Beyond Earth but imo Alpha Centauri is still better.

For multiplayer FPS Unreal Tournament set the bar so high, it's still my favorite multiplayer fps.

If this doesn't look familiar, you have missed out! Another title we played to death at work in LAN setting, alternating with HL Death match as our 6 to 7 o'clock fun before heading home. The included maps were awesome, the controls were perfect, great weapon selection and power ups. Just pure fun.
Then there was a treasure trove of extra maps to be found online. Plus it had some neat balancing options like making your character bigger (easier to hit) when you were dominating (great announcer as well!) or thinner into a stick figure when struggling.
I've played this at home in LAN setting a lot as well, later with UT2004 when I had multiple PCs at home for work. Actual playing online worked great but was never as much fun as at home or at work. I held up pretty well online but playing with random people is just not very fun imo.

Adventure games were in rapid decline but there were still some gems like The Longest Journey:

Reminds me, I still have Dreamfall Chapters installed and ready to play, on the back log. Another Kickstarter project that actually came through, however the laptop I had at the time couldn't run it very well. Should be fine now, just need to make time for it. (Games are too long nowadays)

Another one that sits shamefully on my backlog, I still have the PC box and all, Planescape Torment

It slipped through the cracks as I had started with the GOAT already which soaked up most of my time.
I will get to Planescape someday, along with Fallout 1 and 2.

I'll buy it again from GoG as I don't have a CD slot anymore to install my box copy lol.

Looks great on modern hardware as well.

Not listed, but obviously Ogre Battle 64 is the only right answer here.

Pokemon Crystal is my favorite Pokémon, easily the handheld game I've played the most ever.

Gran Turismo 2 is my favorite Gran Turismo, also easily the racing game I've played the most.

Resident Evil 3 Nemesis was one of the coolest things to play as a boy, every time me and friends would reach a place where Nemesis would appear it was always so tense, and cool!

Age of Empires 2 was such a blast to play in my friend's PC, easily one of my favorite PC games ever.

GTA 2 is one of the games I've replayed the most, even as the 3D ones are obviously better, 2 holds a special place in my heart.

Roller Coaster Tycoon was the PC game that impressed me the most as a kid, I could not believe you could build massive Roller Coasters just like you wanted, sadly I've had very limited contact with it back then.

And there was also a lot of other great games up there, such a great year.

But... none of that remotely matters.

The Legend of Dragoon is just the best game ever made.

And then the best game ever released, Everquest, an unforgiving MMORPG yet so rewarding to play

Souls games are easy compared to the original Everquest, at first I didn't think I would ever get beyond lvl 10 since death takes your experience right back and you could easily lose your level again, as well as lose access to abilities and spells from the new levels.

There was zero hand holding, everything you needed to learn from fellow players. There were quests yet the only way to find them is to talk to unmarked NPCs and say (type) the right key words to them, then figure out what you needed to find where to have in your inventory and talk to the NPC again.

The game was huge already at the start, it literally took an hour or more to get to the other side of the world. You also needed to take a ship to cross between continents, a ship you had to wait for as it ran on a schedule. Also while fighting there was a lot of down time, meditating to regain mana and heal up. Yet all this downtime is what made the game. It really was more of a chat room with game play rather than a game with communication options.

I started the game in Qeynos playing an Erudite Enchanter. Which was actually my second character as I wanted a challenge and Enchanters were (are) by far the hardest class to play. The game was balanced to be played with 5 or 6 player groups, playing alone really wasn't an option, definitely not for enchanters as they were the ultimate support class. I was doing all the buffs, make warriors fight faster, make casters regain mana faster, protection buffs and remove status effects yet most importantly the Enchanter was responsible for traffic control.

The typical way to play was to join a group and pick a spot to camp so all the casters could regain mana while the warrior would look around and pull enemies to camp. The enchanter would then stun and mezz the enemies, slow their attacks and then the group could take them on one by one. That may sound easy but what kept it hard and engaging was that everything was still chance based as well as the duration of mezz (hold spell) and managing agro was extremely important. I also had spells to make enemies forget me as being traffic control make the enchanter the biggest target and easiest to die. I died so much lol.

Also because charm made for the best allies. Charming a high level enemy to help in combat was the ultimate risk vs reward, yet charm like so many other spells had a random duration. And as soon as it broke, this no super angry fully buffed mob would come right for me. That's where teamwork, hot keys and quick reflexes made all the difference. A druid in the group could snare the target giving me time to get the mob under control again. And otherwise the cleric in the group could resurrect me as it usually only took one hit to kill me. Resurrection gave 90% of the lost xp back so it wasn't that painful to die as long as you had a high level cleric around.

Anyway after I hit level 10 again in Qeynos a friend escorted me to Freeport, a long dangerous journey, to see what it was like there. That first journey across half the world is still fresh in my mind. There in Freeport I started grouping up with Shazzon in East Commonlands

That's the first screenshot I have with Shazzon in the text chat, who I have been married to now for 19 happy years. Yep all that down time had people chat a lot and you got to know each other really well while playing the game. Also the game was played by a lot of girls and couples, it was a very social game. My wife started the game in Butcherblock mountains, opposite side of the world. She took the boat to Freeport around at the same time I as I ended up there which made us meet up in the Commonlands. We started chatting, sharing our life stories and gradually fell in love.

Her preferred character was Reindrop, a wizard she made a bit later

A perfect combination where we could duo zones as well with perfect timing. I would mezz a mob while she nuked it with high damage spells. Basically blast and mezz right after each other. But it was always easy to find a group for us, enchanters and wizards were in high demand.

So much we ended up in the top 10 in the Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion

An expansion with instanced themed dungeons, shorter adventures for alternative xp (a second leveling up system for special upgrades)

By this time we were playing side by side as she is who prompted me to move to Canada. After a long immigration process (18 months) I packed my bags and emigrated to Canada in 2002. There I worked from home (kept my job in the Netherlands flying back 3 or 4 times a year for a week) and we had our PCs right next to each other to play Everquest together.

The best was leading groups through old Sebilis, pulling all the mobs in range and chain stunning them while wizard area of effect kill whole groups. With 3 levels of stun I could keep up to 30 mobs under control while the group unleashed powerful aeo spells.

It was also the best method for power leveling. Every time my friends wanted to start a new character I quickly got them up to speed by pulling half the zone and keeping the mobs stunned while they used their aoe spells to get all the experience. As long as I didn't damage the mobs, all xp would go to them.

We made a lot of friends in the game. It also allowed us to stay in contact with friends. One of my best friends and colleagues at work moved back to the UK when I moved to Canada. He had a friend in Seattle he hooked up with and we all played together every night. Bulk and Gnomey


Oh yeah I had illusion spells as well, so we often played as scarecrows or frogs.

Eyevonna and Autumnist, two more friends we met in the game. Autumnist used to always be with Luwen, but he cheated on her and their marriage fell apart :( We continued playing with Autumnist, my wife will not play with cheaters. Yeah you got all the good and the bad of people's life while playing the game.

What an amazing game, what an adventure


From playing together as a duo to massive raids that could last up to half a day

Definitely my game of all time as it gave me everything, a new life with the girl of my dreams.

And arguably also the best supported game of all time

We played the first 8 expansions, until Dragons of Norrath. Our friends were moving over to WoW at the time and we were curious about that as well. So in 2005 we made the switch after just over 5 years of playing Everquest. WoW was great as well but never reached the heights of Everquest. The almost forced grouping is what made Everquest special. WoW was too easy to go at it alone and we often just played together without a group. Also WoW had a 5 player limit on groups while in EQ we could play as 3 couples which we often did. WoW was fun as yet the group dynamics in Everquest were the best part. Creating a balanced well oiled group was the recipe to success, which fostered strong bonds and people looking for each other to play together. WoW didn't have that as much and lost a lot of the social charm.

My vote goes to Everquest this year. And we're still planning to go back to it after the kids leave the house.
2019 also saw the birth of Everquest project 1999

You can still play the original game, awesome!

Gen 2 is my favorite Pokemon of ones I've played (first 4 gens).

Several games I've enjoyed and as eternal Sega fanboy I'm tempted to vote Shenmue, but this time nothing can beat Pokemon.

A lot of A-/B+ games this year, by that I mean a lot of great games, but not a lot in my 50 games of all time. Chrono Cross is my favorite game of the year, but Donkey Kong 64, Legend of Dragoon, Smash Brothers, Harvest Moon, Tony Hawk, and NFL 2K are all good fun games.

First year since 94 which I think will be an interesting race.

For me, just look at my username and you know I'm picking Shenmue! It really is THE game that pushed the industry forward here though: the open world, the level of interactivity, the attention to detail (ie replicating the exact weather of each day in Yokosuka back in the 80s + the individual lives and schedules of every single NPC in the game). All of this was leagues ahead of any other game in the 90s, and there are still things done in Shenmue that haven't been replicated even to this day

I don't think it'll win because a a lot of other games/franchises are far more mainstream today (for one, they still exist), but Shenmue was truly the last hurrah for Sega as a leader and pioneer in the industry and so for me, Shenmue is the clear winner

I know there is a lot there and probably people won't read it all, but I still remember you once saying you have met your wife in this game, which I just confirmed now again, lol.

Such a nice read there, amazing story bro.