I was seven in 2000, in a time of bulky family desktops with dedicated rooms, back when you’d go to a friend’s house explicitly to ‘go on the computer’. My family had just moved, and the moms on our new street made their kids let my brother and me into the fold.
Weekdays after school in 2000 were spent either playing on someone’s computer or with my Nintendo 64, while weekends were relegated to time at my cousin’s house enjoying his PlayStation. Thankfully, for Christmas that year, Santa brought me several of the games I wanted most.
Majora’s Mask: For Those Who Wanted More Zelda
Ocarina of Time was the first lengthy adventure game I ever played as a kid. Sure, I soft-locked myself in the Water Temple, but the only boy in my new neighborhood, David, loaned me his glossy, printed walkthrough for the game. I followed it to the letter and beat the game effortlessly – weird that I write guides for a living now, huh?
Afterwards, I yearned for more questing with Link, and I got it tenfold with The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for Christmas in 2000. Thematically much darker than the 1998 game by which it was preceded, Majora’s Mask quickly became a favorite for Zelda fans. Its three-day time limit feels almost claustrophobic in a world as vast as Termina, and that dreadful sense of urgency with the clock ticking down and the moon looming ever closer really can’t be beat.
The Sims: For Those Who Wanted A Digital Dollhouse
When David loaned me his Ocarina of Time walkthrough, my dog chewed it up. My parents immediately bought a new one and all was as new, but David, oddly enough, suggested we hang out at his house more often. It was there, where we spent hours playing different computer games, that I was introduced to a future favorite, a game I loved so much that Santa brought it to me for Christmas so that I could play it even more at home.
All of us took turns making ourselves as adults who pursued lavish careers and lived in a shared mansion that was rectangular and comically oversized, a box home that took so long to walk across that we’d miss the carpool to work half the time. Don’t worry about what happened to the Sim we made of the neighborhood bully kid, or why there was a tombstone next to our mansion’s ladder-less swimming pool…
Mario Tennis: For Those Who Wanted More Sports Spin-Offs
Once Nintendo had everyone loving its mustachioed mascot, the late ‘90s and early ‘00s were rife with Mario spin-off games. When he wasn’t on mainline adventures saving Peach from Bowser, the three of them joined the rest of the Mario crew to race go-karts, have board game parties, and play just about every sport you can think of.
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2000 brought us Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64, and for a young tomboy who loved playing as the girl characters but didn’t see herself much in Peach, having Daisy enter the mix for the first time was a game-changer for me. She became my favorite Nintendo princess immediately, a crown she’s worn now for 24 straight Christmases.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2: For Those Who Wanted To Shred
Speaking of sports hobbies, skateboarding had American culture in a vice grip in 2000. I could never do anything more impressive than go in an almost straight line, but when given a controller and my cousin’s copy of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 for his PS1, I was unstoppable.
We didn’t have a PlayStation at my house, but Santa was generous to my cousin that year. Our parents went out together on weekends, and my brother and I always looked forward to hanging out with our cousin so we could take turns doing cool skate tricks. Not only was the gameplay endlessly amusing, but the soundtracks for the Tony Hawk games were always iconic – I constantly point out to my partner that “this song was in Tony Hawk” when they come on the radio in his car more than two decades on.
Tamagotchi: For Practically Everyone
The biggest gaming craze of this era, though, was Tamagotchis, everyone’s favorite pet watch. You’d get a little plastic keychain and discover an egg, which would then hatch into a pet you’d need to care for. These little pixel pals had to be fed and kept happy to ensure they stayed in good health, and you could even train them, too.
Between my neighborhood group of friends, my family, and all the kids at school, most of us got a Tamagotchi for Christmas in 2000 if we didn’t already have one, and those little guys came everywhere with us. Your pets would literally die if you didn’t take care of them, so not only did Santa give us a fun digital toy that year, he gave us a responsibility.
The Sims
- Released
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February 4, 2000
- Developer(s)
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Maxis
- Engine
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SmartSim
- ESRB
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t
- How Long To Beat
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35 Hours