10 Best Games Of 1997

[@Djordje_Jovanovic]

As always dear people, here are some honorable mentions: Blood Breath of Fire III Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back Diablo Diddy Kong Racing Fallout Gran Turismo Hexen II Klonoa: Door to Phantomile Mario Kart 64 MDK Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee Quake II Star Fox 64 (or Lylat Wars if you want to get PAL about this.) The Curse of Monkey Island The King of Fighters '97 Tomb Raider II Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

[@James-rf2ln]

Age of Empires PC?

[@robertmazurowski5974]

Fallout, Quake 2 should definately be on the list

[@shenloken2]

1997 was a crucial year of gaming! Symphony if the Night and Final Fantasy VII had some biggest impacts on me as a gamer! The memories of those games still burn bright in my mind.

[@KatarnCrusader]

Im so glad that Dark Forces: Jedi-Knight got some love! Not only the finest chapter in the Dark Forces / Jedi Knight series but also the best Star Wars Game ever made imo. I absolutely adore its gloomy, despairing atmosphere. The dark, brutalistic and gigantic labyrinth-esque level design and the sombre re-editing of John Williams classical scores is absolutely stunning. If there ever was something that felt like Star Wars Neo-Noir - it is this (kinda overshadowed/forgotten) masterpiece of a game! I also highly recommend its expansion pack "Mysteries of the Sith". PS: I know that the full motion video sequences did not age gracefully and today they look like a cheesy, at some points even cringy (looking at you Christopher Neame!) fan-film but back in 1997 they were quite impressive and meaningful to the fandom, as for example this was the first time that fans had seen lightsaber effects on film since 1983 in an official Star Wars product. So yeah nowadays, those sequences are cheesy and dated - but they are also a charming product of their time.

[@mrdth1987]

WHAT can’t believe Tomb Raider 2 didn’t make the top 10 that game was a fantastic and still my top 10 today

[@ScarecrowTransformed]

Was thinking the same thing

[@slingshotdon]

Because it didn't get a high enough rating watch the video

[@mrdth1987]

@@slingshotdon I said I can’t believe not “why”

[@fukngroovnkc3700]

Yeah I believe he missed that one remember how many commercials there were, u couldn't go an hour without seeing Larra Croft somewhere

[@dardrex777]

Because the controls are terrible in age

[@Ellthom]

That fact you put Blast Corps on this list puts a massive smile to my face because its often a very overlooked and forgotten game. But I loved this game. Was happy that I finally unlocked the A-Team Van as a kid too :P

[@ramrodbldm9876]

Quit putting smiley faces on mens videos. And you do it quite often smh super sus.

[@beefyappa]

@@ramrodbldm9876 you sound like lots of fun at parties : D

[@AFourEyedGeek]

​@@ramrodbldm9876 you a child?

[@Justforvisit]

@@ramrodbldm9876 Dude, what is wrong with you? :O

[@freddiejohnson6137]

1997 was one of my favourite years it had so many games that really started showing what that generation of consoles could do. I spent way too much time playing Goldeneye against my brother that Christmas.

[@gakk8658]

SOTN is seriously one of the best games of all time, I play through on thief mode at least every couple of years. I might actually go start another one, it still holds up completely because it's just a really great 2D game instead of early 3D jank. Plus the soundtrack is legitimately great.

[@erakfishfishfish]

The GBA and DS Castlevanias were really good too. Not as good as SotN of course, but solid in their own regard (my favorite of the handhelds was Portrait of Ruin)

[@MichaelODonoghueMOD]

What a great year. We also had Total Annihilation, Dungeon Keeper, Diddy Kong Racing, Turok 1, Theme Hospital, Tomb Raider 2 and Quake 2. What will people remember 2022 for other than Ragnarok?

[@laughlan]

Quake 2 - wow the hours sunk into that…

[@mrdth1987]

Tomb Raider 2 is still one of my favourite games

[@Space79be]

goldeney vs quake 2...disappointing to see an overrated goldeneye at 1

[@Christian_Sandoval]

I remember it like it was yesterday. All the hype for GoldenEye and how it was considered better than FF7 and SoTN. I couldn't understand what's supposed to be so good about GoldenEye then and I understand it even less now. Even that Star Wars FPS in this list seems way more interesting. This so far is the biggest gaming travesti in my lifetime. FF7 should reign.

[@chriscollins550]

Golden eye was and still is an amazing game and a breakthrough one at that, so many developers followed it's game play and design. The only reason I got a N64.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

It's aged terribly, but that just says a lot more about how far the genre has come since vs. what it offered console gamers then. Really, even FFVII has aged terribly, and it takes a lot of nostalgia to ignore those graphics and that translation. Even back in the 90's, they weren't exactly state of the art for more than a moment. Going from Panzer Dragoon Saga to that? It took some time to lower my expectations...

[@erakfishfishfish]

Goldeneye was the first couch death match FPS to really hit it big (similar to how FF7 was the first JRPG to take the genre into the mainstream). I was in high school at the tim and it seemed like everyone played nothing but 4p rounds of Goldeneye for 2 straight years.

[@monkeyinalamborghini]

FF7 basically killed nintendo so it gets backlash from fans. That's why N64 and zelda started getting overrated. If you look at reviews from the time a lot of them are really biased. Zelda was suddenly the greatest game of all time and the people who made chrono trigger, FF6 and super mario rpg, magically lost their touch.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@monkeyinalamborghini Cute theory. Sorry, kid. But as a Saturn owner during the 90's? Who eventually owned (and loved) my PSone long before I ever touched an N64? FF7 suffered from Square trying to keep English translation duties in Japan. It also suffered from early 3d growing pains, compared to the refinement of 2d pixel art. Panzer Dragoon Saga was released a short time after, and it blows Square out of the water on a console that's a lot harder to code for. And wow, does FFVII have pacing issues and questionable creative choices at times. None of which can be blamed on technical limitations. FF8's story was a thousand times worse. Still - If you want to fantasize about a world where all the critics are just jealous of FFVII's blinding perfection, go nuts. But since even Square agrees that predatory gay stereotypes, bad Engrish, and the ugliest chibi arms in videogame history are a bad look, you're going to have to go deep into denial to get there. I suggest crying about wokeness until idiots throw money at you. Or, if you give a single damn about the story and themes it was actually going for, you can use all that energy to try to protect the environment instead.

[@NickBLeaveIt]

Ironically, Cod liver oil was historically given to kids to prevent rickets, so in that sense Ben's still a youngin...

[@jamesage100]

Ah Symphony of the night & ff7.... some of my happiest memories.

[@fukngroovnkc3700]

☯️🙏 💯☯️

[@MrMattyG]

You know you're old when you vividly remember playing Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 in 1997 😮‍💨 . On my first PC that my dad bought for one thousand quid!

[@listerofsmeg884]

Nice to see Colony Wars up there. Great game with a fantastic soundtrack and brilliant narration from some guy who sure as hell sounded like , but wasn't, James Earl Jones. It wasn't 'intergalactic war' though. All the action took place within the milky way on a fairly believable scale of just a few planetary systems.

[@sarabevan11]

Wow.....a very tough list to get on! No quake 2, Mario and star fox 64 or tomb raider 2. Hats off to these games! I grew up with split screen multilayer goldeneye 🥰

[@fukngroovnkc3700]

It's amazing how fun star fox 64 was

[@rayceeya8659]

Blastcorps deserves a remake. That game was so much fun.

[@N3XUSP0LARIS]

Didnt Realize Playstation had so many bangers. Very happy to see Rare Bookending it all with Blast Corps and Goldeneye. 1997 was a solid year in gaming

[@thochaos13]

This was my last year of high school so I feel really old now. But a really fantastic year for gaming. So many great titles. I'm going to play a couple now.

[@l33g3ndar33]

So many great games and memories! I was 10 in 97 and spent a great deal of time playing games when I could, as an escape from what life was like during those years. First time I've heard Colony Wars mentioned in Idk how many years. I was the only one in my friend group who had it. I got SotN on my PS4 Pro recently and love playing it again. Final Fantasy VII is my favorite game of all time and made a huge impact on my life, due to what was going on in my life. Shout out to Goldeneye as well, especially multiplayer. Great video guys!

[@segue2ant395]

Solid list. All the numbers. In the right order. Some funny bits. Yup. Solid list.

[@jamesmoss3424]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is number one on my list. 😀👍🎮

[@Luna_Rafael99]

I'm surprised they didn't make a Dark Souls joke when Soul Edge came up

[@steveosk8s]

I was 10 years old in 1997, so I definitely remember that year fondly lol

[@Babl069]

Alundra in my opinion is the best game of that year and to this day one of my top 5 games of all time. A more mature and darker take of the 2D Zelda games.

[@zdp-189]

Love Blast Corps. One of my favorite original N64 games I had as a kid, and still own today! Also own Star Wars: Dark Forces on PS1 still, never played sequel though- I definitely will give that a try on my PC. Then there's PaRappa! Bought the PS4 remaster disc recently, but never played original. Do have PaRappa 2 on PS2 and Um Jammer Lammy PS1 though, loved that one.

[@mattfiorello1885]

Hi Triplejump I Hope Those Games Gets A Physical Release For All Game Systems In The Future

[@2097xl]

I can indeed, as someone born in 1997, confirm it was a quarter a century ago

[@tec5x5]

A damn fine year shocked at seeing Colony Wars though its so forgotten now I love CW and CW Vengeance

[@steelcurtain187]

This was one of my favorite years for gaming ever for sure

[@cmoreskylines]

Such an incredible year for game releases. Jedi Knight & Goldeneye were the games of the year for me. So glad to see Dark Forces 2 get the love it deserves. I played the heck out of it.

[@lilhanhan]

Damn, 1997 was a great year as I can name dozens of games which I was expecting on this list which surprisingly don't appear (Tomb Raider II comes to mind)! Also, pointless fun fact - Two voice actors who starred in the original Resident Evil appear in two separate games in this list, try to guess which they are!

[@bigbaddawg101]

Final Fantasy 7 was the first PS1 game I ever owned. I even had that rare unofficial strategy guide.

[@JerichotheSplendid]

Entered this list confident FF7 was number one. How wrong I was.

[@cfly87]

I was a huge fan syndicate wars. That game was doing things with missions and interactions that I hadn't experienced before.

[@valetboy21]

Colony Wars also had one of the best voice acting performances of the generation. Burt Caesar does a voice so close to James Earl Jones that I didn't know it wasn't until years later.

[@speedy316uk]

Colony Wars was amazing, don't think I ever beat it however

[@Sly88Frye]

Golden I was such an incredible game to play back in the day.. it has engaged the greatest but it is still fun to play lto this day. Still it's spiritual successor that came out three years later perfect dark is even better. Really cool to see soul blade on here as well. I also enjoyed that game too back in the day. Blast corps I didn't play but I do remember seeing my older brothers play it it did look like fun. It must have been a rental from Hollywood Video.

[@SheepRaider]

1. Goldeneye / 2. Final Fantasy VII / 3. Star Fox 64.... the "rest" aka Symphony of the Night... anywhere under

[@ShowdeQuetzal]

I only played Golden Eye when I visited a cousing, but man what a game

[@britneyspearsvillarosa]

Final fantasy VII is the favorite game of mine from 1997

[@wadeintonature2975]

The reason why star wars Jedi dark forces isn't that known is because it was at the time when having a decent PC you needed a six figure annual salary.

[@lennychurch]

My own favourites are Final Fantasy VII, The Curse of Monkey Island and Putt Putt Travels Through Time.

[@infiniteorder902]

I'm surprised there's no Gran Turismo or Crash Bandicoot 2 in this list. Those games are great IMO

[@blunderingfool]

No ports... but Soul Blade is a port of the arcade game isn't it?

[@koby_mitchell]

Here's my top favourite games of 1997 1 Castlevania Symphony Of The Night 2 Final Fantasy VII 3 Diddy Kong Racing 4 Tekken 3 5 Darkstalkers 3 6 Megaman X4 7 Megaman 8 8 King Of Fighters 97 9 Goldeneye 007 10 Street fighter III: The New Generation

[@StewNWT]

Blastcorps was fucking AWESOME and I cannot think of a game other than Chrono Trigger that more deserves a proper sequel

[@Nbflowers1989]

Final. Fantasy. 7. Life changing game.

[@karnov27]

I never understood the praises for goldeneye 64, almost every games on this list aged well not Goldeneye

[@erakfishfishfish]

Goldeneye was revolutionary when it came out. FPS games weren’t big on consoles yet, let alone a 4p couch death match FPS. So many games have surpassed it since, but it’s because of Goldeneye’s contributions.

[@vic7939]

Loved Darklight Conflict back in the day.

[@graymars1097]

I always wonder what else Rare would given us, on newer consoles, if Microsoft never bought it 😢 I effing love blast corps

[@freddiejohnson6137]

By the time Microsoft owned them the vast majority of people who made most of the games during the late Snes and N64 period had already left which is probably why Nintendo wasn't all that reluctant to sell their stake in them.

[@graymars1097]

@@freddiejohnson6137 it’s not just people. It’s the IP. A simple port of blast corps on newer Nintendo consoles becomes impossible now. U get me? Yeah of course those people still develop games like yooka-laylee but the Rare IP like Conker is out of their hands now.

[@freddiejohnson6137]

@@graymars1097 a port of Blast Corps is probably very likely at some point on the Switch online service since Banjo Kazooie is on there and Goldeneye is coming soon. So Microsoft who owns the Rare made games is probably more open to making them available on Switch at some point.

[@SvenElven]

@@freddiejohnson6137 Yes. You can say a lot about Microsoft, but at least they aren't Sony!

[@V3ntilator]

Need for Speed III PC version were among the best in 1997. PS1 Version were unplayable due to giant pixels and wobble geometry.

[@Roboterpunk]

For a PS1 game, colony wars looks incredible.

[@NickBLeaveIt]

3:55 That's 13 out of 12...

[@youtuber6193]

I enjoyed watching you eat your cod liver oil tablet like a Canadian.

[@GornoBiggs]

No mention of Blood?

[@theguyinthere]

just about everything came out in 97 tomb raider 2 crash 2 armored core tomba gran tarismo final fantasy 7 shoot the list goes on......

[@СергейКонцов-г8г]

Тут достаточно мало комментариев, поэтому могу написать. Я почти ничего не понимаю, но боже, какой у вас крутой английский! Харизматичнее некуда! Смотрю вас давно, плохо говорю по английски, и это вообще не мешает наслаждаться просмотром. Жесточайше мало подписчиков, желаю Вашей замечательной команде как минимум 1 миллион подписчиков! - There are not enough comments here, so I can write. I understand almost nothing, but God, what a cool English you have! More charismatic than ever! I have been watching you for a long time, I speak English poorly, and this does not prevent me from enjoying watching at all. Cruelly few subscribers, I wish your wonderful team at least 1 million subscribers!

[@StewNWT]

SoulBlade is my favourite fighting game of all time!

[@Bellpipe41]

Blood came out in ‘97. I can only assume that you thought it came out in a different year. Also… Total Annihilation

[@jollymanbigboy]

Do we tell him what Alucard backwards is?

[@erakfishfishfish]

He knows, it’s why he thinks it’s dumb.

[@tjtweedy3189]

Perfect dark was my favorite N64 game by Rare.

[@somethingboss]

My fave game of 1997... GRANDIA!!

[@Aevilbeast]

Gotta admit, Loved the list but was bit disappointed that fallout 2 (I think it was 2) was shown at the beginning but failed to make it to the list! Such an amazing game! Hands down one of my favorite games of all time and one that I still occasionally play to this day! \ The only game that actually ever rivaled it is ATOM RPG, which I HIGHLY recommend anyone who was a fan of the Fallout 1 & 2 to play it. It's like fallout but in Russia! IMO, it's actually better than Wastetland 2 or 3. Wasteland 2 was alright, but Wasteland 3 was a HUGE let-down for me and was bordering on actually being pretty bad. It had a ton of promise with old wasteland team behind it but honestly felt really unfinished and really needed a lot more substance to it. Kinda felt like a DLC than a full-on sequel.

[@LowKeyTired-q7d]

Yee hee ... a great year for me (considering how I'm widely disliked and so forth ...) I left school the following year ...

[@rmRAMbo3521]

i disagree about your comment on goldeneye. i dont know if you played video games in the late 90's or early 2000's but at that point in time movie based video games were extremely popular and were always awesome. i can think of so many ie: lion king, alladin, star wars, a bugs life, die hard, and literally so many more.

[@anonmouse15]

No Gran Turismo?

[@retrovideogamejunkie]

Yep, ff7 best localization ever....

[@wadeintonature2975]

Final fantasy 7 should have been number 1!!!

[@pelecyphora1]

I wish we had pixel gfx again.

[@Skaliton]

I really do hate how sotn lost out here. It is a great game even today. goldeneye is prime nostalgia glasses - it isn't a bad game but if it was released on pc it wouldn't have been memorable at all. It isn't a 'pc master race' comment but rather they didn't really do anything to make it special besides being a movie tie in game that released on the 'right' place

[@SheepRaider]

shut up, stop with the jugglery to impose your personal taste , SOTN is nothing special and Goldeneye remains a blast to play

[@aeris2001]

It pleases me that FF7 got the love it deserved

[@JD1010101110]

Where is Curse of Monkey Island?

[@James-rf2ln]

Age of Empires 1 - PC

[@andu1854]

I didn’t like Goldeneye,

[@chrisbridston3438]

Colony Wars was awesome ! Then they came out with the sequels 🤮

[@j.pearce3981]

boy someone looks on a few of these with rose colored glasses....parappa was cool but broken af. unplayable almost in its hit detection. eventually you would win just by mashing buttons.

[@SvenElven]

The ranking is based on the official reviews the respective games got at the time of release.

[@j.pearce3981]

@@SvenElven I understand that but who put parappa up there with ff7 and sotn? Lol who didn't break their controller failing time and again

[@SvenElven]

@@j.pearce3981 The reviewers, apparently. I dunno, I never played the game.

[@j.pearce3981]

@@SvenElven you should try it. It was innovative I'll give it that. And the songs were good but even the last emulator I played still had that massive button delay

[@aliensweathands]

👽

[@LowKeyTired-q7d]

Yee hee, yee hee, yee hee ... etc.

[@SheepRaider]

Symphony of the Night is extremely overrated... SOTN fans are extremely toxic and do jugglery to say this is the best game compared to much stronger and bigger hits like Goldeneye, Final Fantasy VII and Star Fox 64 saying these 3D games aged badly, when SOTN is the one with the lesser production values of all... what a joke

[@johnnyhopper1285]

First

[@theironfox2756]

All N64 games suck....except when they are the greatest games of all time.

[@9latinumStudioz]

Luv Golden Eye 🩸 ban-ban bahhn ban-ban bahhn badan badan badan❗smashing goodtime 💢