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In the early 1990's, video games experienced what is regarded by many to be the swan song of 2D gaming. The NES built up a lot of steam in the late 1980's with its 8 bits of processing power, but their competitor Sega wasn't going to just sit back and watch Nintendo cash in on all the console sales. Instead, they began a new generation of video gaming known as the 16-bit era by releasing a console known as the Genesis. It was inevitable then that in order to maintain their foothold in the home video game industry, Nintendo would have to release new hardware as well. In 1991, Nintendo launches the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES.

Magnavox started the video game revolution in 1972 with the release of the Odyssey, the world's first home video game system. For the next five years, the company released a number of standalone consoles in the Odyssey line, giving them numerical suffixes like Odyssey 100, Odyssey 400, and so on. Finally, in 1977, Magnavox signaled a new generation of Odyssey by announcing the Odyssey², a dedicated unit that was to contain 24 games and accommodate four simultaneous players. However, the bottom was quickly dropping out of the over-saturated dedicated console market, and Magnavox scrapped the 24-game Odyssey² in favor of an expandable cartridge-based model. The company released it in 1978, touting it as "The Ultimate Computer Video Game System."

The 2000s was a massive decade for the video game business. Over that span video games overtook movies as an entertainment medium, with some of the most powerful game franchises earning hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The past ten years has seen PC software giant Microsoft throw their hat in the video game ring with the successful launch of their Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. Nintendo faded in the early part of the decade, but game back stronger than ever following the reason of their handheld touch-screen DS and DSi, and their massively popular, ground-breaking Wii console. The decade also saw the release of the best video games of all time, and many of those games will be long remembered in video game history for their innovative gameplay. Trying to pick the greatest of these games was a daunting challenge, and I'm sure the fanboys will be out in full force to defend their consoles of choice. Here are my picks for the best video games of the 2000s...

In the world of action-RPGs, Falcom's Ys series is the sad underdog. Despite the fact that the Japanese practically have a annual holiday for it, Ys has remained unfortunately obscure outside of its homeland. Maybe this due to the burden of being saddled with a slightly unpronounceable name (hint: it sounds like "ease"), and its full title - Ancient Ys Vanished Omens - is a grammatical quandary of tremendous proportions. Or maybe it's because they never really appeared on mainsteam systems in America - the original games were released on the Master System and Turbografx-16 CD, hardly places for them to truly show gamers what they're all about - fast paced action and adventure in faraway lands, damsels in distress, and some of the best music in the history of all video gaming.

The Legend of Zelda game series may very well be the single most venerated series in all of gaming. The original NES classic was recently seen in the number one spot of GameInformer Magazine's 200 Greatest Games of All Time. Every time a new entry is announced the gaming community seems to lose it's mind. The games appeal to all gamers of all skill level and all ages. Many say that there never truly been a bad game in the series. And yet not all the impact from these games has been positive. Unfortunately there are a few areas in which The Legend of Zelda pioneered some very regrettable trends that gamers are still forced to deal with.

The Atari 7800 never had a chance. Stacked against the dominant NES and a stubborn Master System, Atari's competitor was doomed to fail. The console was created in 1983 for full release the following year, but the faltering videogame market forced Atari to full it back. The ascension of the NES proved that consoles were still quite viable (if marketed correctly with good games), so Atari dusted off its shelved system. By the time it was released in 1986, the 7800 was saddled with tech a few years behind the curve. The comparisons between the 7800's launch library - which was also completed in 1984 - and the games burning up the NES and SMS were dismal. The system suffered little third-party support. It was eventually binned in 1991.

After producing many games for early home videogame consoles, Sega decided to develop a console system of its own. The SG-1000 and Mark III were available in Japan in the mid-1980s, but when Sega witnessed the early success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the company knew it wanted a share of the American console market. So, Sega redesigned the Mark III, renamed it the Sega Master System (SMS for short), and released it in 1986, not long after the NES first came out. Unfortunately for Sega, the SMS wiped out in the wake of Nintendo's wave of popularity.

In celebration to the 20th Anniversary of the release of Famico (known as NES in North America) in Japan, Nintendo released a line of Famico games emulated on the Game Boy Advance. Less than half of the titles managed to travel overseas for a domestic U.S. release. They were known as the Classic NES titles. Keep in mind the NES was the console where many of the most recognizable video game franchises started. It is the virtual who-who's of the gaming industry. Here are the top five Classic NES titles for the Gameboy Advance.

These reviews are only my personal opinion. Yours may vary depending on taste, expectations, and other criteria. Mine is not the absolute, only what I like. These reviews are here for your enjoyment and to help give you an idea of what games are good and what games to avoid (again based on my personal opinion, worth about two cents, give or take a penny). All games are rated with the simple school grading method (with an "A+" being the best and an "F" being the worst). All games are rated in comparison to other games of the same era. In other words, a game on the 2600 may get a great rating compared to other 2600 games and comparable systems (Odyssey II, Emerson Arcadia, etc..) and may not be as highly rated if compared to a Nintendo game. So keep this in mind. Look for more reviews to be added in the future. Please e-mail your favorite games, reviews you agree or disagree with, or reviews of your own. Thanks and enjoy!

Before Sega made wave with the Genesis/Megadrive in the 16-bit era, it had its first international console release with the Sega Master System.  It didn't have nearly the success in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System, but it had large market share in Europe and Brazil and still has quite a following.  We'll try to cover all the basics about the Master System, but if you have any other tips or tidbits of info about this little machine, feel free to share it in the comments below.

Nintendo took their sweet time in bringing a console to match the Saturn, Playstation and the other 3D "powerhouses" that were popping up in the console market.    And of course, back in the later half of the 1990's many of us made fun of Nintendo as they stuck with the cartridge format instead of joining in on the CD-ROM bandwagon and the multimedia revolution that came with it.  However, for all it's limitations, it is interesting to see some of the things that were capable on the N64 and its aging format.   There are also a number of great games that only Nintendo and Rareware could provide that you just won't find anywhere else.

In the 1980s, video arcades were a major part of the existence of teens and preteens. Many a weekly allowance would be converted to quarters and fed into machines in order to play the latest game. Although business has slowed for arcades in recent years, the effect of arcades on the video game industry still can't be ignored. The following is a list of the top five arcade games of all time in chronological order.

Beat'em ups, which are also known as Brawlers (and belt scroll games in Japan), generally focus on one player taking on a large number of enemies in some form of melee oriented combat.  The beat'em up genre is also well known for offering co-op gameplay for 2-4 players, which for some people is a big part of the genre's appeal.  The genre should not be confused with one on one fighting games inspired by Street Fighter II, which is a common mistake some gamers make.  Though there is some shared history and crossover between the two genres in terms of characters and certain gameplay elements, they are not the same.

The PC Engine Software Bible is a comprehensive listing of games for NEC's PC Engine console, released in 1987 in Japan, and two years later as the TurboGrafx-16 in America. On this site you will find reviews, screenshots, videos, music tracks and many more extras.

Welcome ghouls and goblins to a special feature of NES Player. Well, it is that time again. A short-lived period of realization that summer has long died and we are forcibly accepting the changes that follow. Fall has made itself feel comfortable in our lives until the coldness of late November sneaks up close behind on us. This is the time of year when we celebrate autumn by placing seasonal corn stalks, haystacks, and pumpkins in and outside of our homes in the season's tradition. Let's not dance around the subject, though. We all know that October is best known for one day and one day alone. A certain holiday that has evolved through the generations -- the event we refer to as all hollow's eve.

In an industry where an obese plumber can become a cultural icon, it's no wonder that in video games, weird is normal. However nutty they get, these oddities were never as strange as the ones for the Atari 2600. Ironically the most bizarre of these came out around the crash of the video game industry, causing most of them to go unnoticed in the rubble of a once great gaming console. Take a look weirdest Games you'll ever see, all for the Atari 2600.

The Atari 2600 was not without software. The first mainstream videogame console sold over 30 million units on the strength of both its newness and the breadth of its game library, which numbered in the hundreds... as in, several hundreds. But the rush to publish games for the Atari 2600 was also the system's greatest weakness, as consumer confidence in the Atari 2600 -- and the entire industry -- was severely damaged by scores of high-profile bad games.

These are some of the very best freeware adventure games I've played. I don't claim to have played every freeware adventure game ever made, but I've played quite a few in my time. These, in my opinion, are the ten best (subject to change, in no particular order...)

The "last" commercial game for the ZX Spectrum was Dr. Who - Dalek Attack in July of 1993. Although the straight decline was easily noticeable from the beginning of that same year, which can be measured by the number of published software. From this year's spring software companies did not accept any new Spectrum games from developers as well the last of Speccy magazines disappeared. New games release section of still alive press were practically empty, or even cancelled. In May Sinclair User, and in September Your Sinclair was also exiting.