What the hell were we thinking?!?!

Nobody bothered defending the year 2000 online. Must've been a Y2K bug. At first blush, this year looked fractured and confused for gamers. Sony finished partying like it was 1999 and introduced the PlayStation 2 across the globe (October 26 in the US). Sony's PS2 quickly crushed the competition in terms of hardware sales despite a weak lineup of launch titles - something to remember as we look forward to a similar situation with the upcoming PlayStation 3 launch.

With a ho-hum list of launch peers for the PS2, it's not easy to overlook SSX and TimeSplitters as two of the best launch titles, ever. Absurdly thrilling and addictive, SSX painted our friends bright green when they saw us pulling mad snowboarding tricks on our poppin' fresh new systems. And TimeSplitters' knockout style and self-mocking story put PS2 shooters squarely on the map. But it's the iconic fighters that we remember most that year. Tekken Tag Tournament leapt from the arcades to our living rooms, and Team Ninja's Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore had us juggling our jiggling opponents night after night.

Console gamers not yet about to send their original PlayStations into retirement were gifted with role-playing gems from future partners: Vagrant Story and the beautiful and deep Chrono Cross by Square and Co., and the ugly-but-lovely 100-hour marathon Dragon Warrior VII from Enix. Sony also got into the RPG act with The Legend of Dragoon. And Tony Hawk still seemed fresh while grinding to the tunes of Papa Roach during long bouts of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2.