10 Things About Gaming in the 2000s Kids Don't Get Today

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 10 things about 2000s gaming that kids will never understand.

The Big Leap

The jump from N64 and PS1 to GameCube, PS2, and Xbox was massive. Characters weren’t looking super polygonal, textures were getting more detailed, and lighting was evolving. We saw another massive advancement in technology when we jumped from those consoles to PS3, Xbox 360, and, to some extent, the Wii. These were historical moments for the medium as we reached for more visual and audio fidelity. In today’s world, the leaps across generations have been mild. Yeah, we have faster load times and more storage space, but nothing has really taken full advantage of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The increase in power has been used in some capacity, though nothing has come out that’s shown why these consoles are needed. A lot of games we’ve seen have been cross-gen or are so simple they could run on older hardware.

An Era of Peripherals

Throughout the 2000s, we saw a plethora of games try to cram peripherals into our collections. There were a number of solid titles that made great party games like “Guitar Hero,” “Rock Band,” and even the “Buzz!” trivia games. However, for every peripheral-based game that was decent fun, there were about five awful ones. How many of us were stuck with games like “Babysitting Mama,” “Tony Hawk: Ride,” or “Scene It?” There were plenty of companies trying unique stuff, but overall, there was a lot of plastic going to waste. With many of these charging almost a hundred bucks when they barely worked with a game, we’re almost glad that most of the industry has abandoned peripherals. Well… until those guitars for “Fortnite” launch or whenever Xbox decides we need a new “Guitar Hero” from Activision.

DS Download Play

Honestly, those of us who grew up in the 2000s might feel bad for the current generation of kids. Games are so pricey these days, and many of the free-to-play titles charge exorbitant amounts of money for the most minute cosmetics. It's gotten to the point where kids with less money get picked on for not having certain skins in “Fortnite.” Back in the day, those of us with Nintendo DS’s got to utilize a unique feature known as “Download Play.” Say you and three friends wanted to play “Mario Kart DS” together, but only one of you had a copy. Well, that player could set up a lobby from within the game while the other three simply needed to boot up their DS and detect the host’s console. Even though the three would be limited to playing as Shy Guys, all four of you could play some “Mario Kart” together! It was a great way to include everyone in the fun without kids worrying about sacrificing a big birthday or Christmas wish… or Mom and Dad possibly breaking the bank for a forty-dollar game.

The Midnight Hour

One of the most exciting aspects of 2000s gaming was the midnight launch of a big game. For us kids at the time, we may not have all gotten to experience this, but if you're as old as Aaron, this was the highlight of launch week. Standing around with your fellow players, eager to get your hands on the newest “God of War” just so you can skip work the next day. This was an awesome way for some of us to socialize and meet new people in town while bonding over our favorite games. The geek energy might be a bit much for some, but this was all we had outside of the occasional convention. Nowadays, folks just pre-order games digitally if they want to play at midnight and then argue the next day about whether the game is a 10 or a 9.5 after two hours of play.

Motion Control Frenzy

Honestly, this might have been the most definitive moment in 2000s gaming. When the Nintendo Wii was first revealed at E3 2006, the world quickly saw how revolutionary this console was about to become. Motion controls had long been a dream in the tech world generally, and to some, it seemed like that future was never within reach. But as word of mouth spread about how fun it was to play “Wii Sports,” the frenzy grew more unstable. Lines stretched around buildings on the Wii’s launch day, demo kiosks caused congestion around shopping malls, and people were willing to pay significant premiums just to get their hands on one. The fervor was so intense that you could barely find a Wii within the first two years of the console. That was all without a pandemic to hinder its availability, which is what the PS5 went through during its first couple of years. The only difference between them is that the PS5 didn’t come with a wave of videos of people breaking their TVs.

Play N Trade

With GameStop swallowing up EB Games in 2005 via acquisition, it seemed as though GameStop had a firm foothold on the market, at least when looking at stores that specifically specialized in video game products. In comes Play N Trade. Founded in 2000 in San Clemente, California, Play N Trade tried to establish itself as a competitor to GameStop. Not only could you nab new games, you could find a wealth of retro titles from these stores stretching all the way back to the NES. On top of that, they were known to have way more fair trade-in deals than what GameStop was shelling out at the time. Unfortunately, this is probably what led to its downfall. As we approached the 2010s, Play N Trades across the US were shutting down left and right. To this day, the company only has a few locations remaining and has pivoted towards being more of a net cafe where customers can rent consoles and games to play in-store or compete in local tournaments.

The Online Explosion

For console players, online gaming seemed like it was going to forever be a PC-only thing. While the PlayStation 2 and Xbox had ethernet ports, online games weren’t the most stable yet. However, that all changed in the glory days of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. As soon as “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” dropped, everyone was hopping online. Everyone was grabbing an Xbox Gold membership just to play with their friends and talk smack. Some took it way too far, of course. But when randos weren’t dropping slurs and yelling at teammates, this was a period where for once, it felt like the world was united and social. You can find various posts online about how people wound up meeting their best friends or even their significant others just from playing “Modern Warfare” or “Halo” with others. There are even still videos you can watch of people meeting each other in person for the first time outside of their games. Today, playing online feels like you’re just painting a target on your back.

Xbox Live Arcade

While Sony did have the PlayStation Network, there was a different energy in Xbox Live Arcade. This was the network that would help birth the indie gaming scene as it highlighted new games you couldn’t get anywhere else. Some of these titles were ports of older games from bigger publishers, but then you had gems like “Alien Hominid,” “Rock of Ages,” and “The Maw.” Of course, not all of them were heavy hitters, but for the most part, it was an awesome storefront that encouraged even the big companies to experiment with smaller titles. And we aren’t getting much of that here in the 2020s.

Getting What You Paid For

Now, here’s one aspect of the 2000s we certainly do not miss: third-party hardware. We still have some of that today, but most of it is done through actual partnerships with console manufacturers. It’s a way to assure customers that you are getting a quality product and that the manufacturer themselves is endorsing the product. Back then, it was a guessing game that all depended on what you could afford. Do you fork over the extra dough just for a new PS2 controller that came straight from Sony? Or do you spend only twenty bucks and risk grabbing the Mad Catz controller? More often than not, these controllers were uncomfortable, cheaply made, and were much more prone to breaking than first-party controllers. For the most part, many controller manufacturers do take the craft more seriously than those before it. We got a ton of cosmetic options available to us as well as modular pieces for different analog sticks and backpedals.

E3: A Gaming Christmas

Throughout the 2010s, E3 was getting super cringey in how it was desperately trying to be trendy and meme-worthy. And now, it’s just dead. But in the mid-to-late-2000s, E3 was a different beast. There was something more humble in how presentations were kept to showing the product off. “We have an announcement, here is a demo, oops - the game crashed, sorry, and okay, here is when you can expect it.” There wasn’t all this talk of “when we saw the world of Scrubbanut, we knew we needed to tell this story as players will want to keep coming back to it years after launch. Please be patient as we try to figure out what the hell we actually plan to sell you once we’re eighteen months out from launch.” During these days of E3, the studios were ready to GO, GO, GO! None of the same four buzzwords and phrases - just games. Yes, there were still some blunders here and there, but there was more fun in watching these instead of being berated with hashtags and celebrity appearances. Everyone is media-trained to the nth degree, and Twitter frequently gets Nintendo Direct trending for lols.

What do you think was the best or worst part about gaming in the 2000s? Did it make our list? Share your memories with us down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos every day!