Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (Nintendo 64, 2000)

Previously on The Three Decade Project, I talked about Ehrgeiz for the Playstation. Ehrgeiz is a game that hits close to home for many internet tough guys and keyboard warriors. This is because in addition to having had sex with a multitude of models, the average internet tough guy already has his hands registered as lethal weapons.

Now, we send it back over to the Nintendo 64. While the Playstation had adult fare like Metal Gear Solid, the N64 was now cornering the kids market. With "play it loud" out the window, Nintendo's new M.O. consisted of having no RPGs or games that appealed to grown-ups, instead relying on trotting out the same superstar franchises of the past to keep fans happy. It was just like modern WWE.

Ehrgeiz (Playstation, 1999)

1999 was a big year. People partied like it was, well, 1999. It was Bill Clinton's last full year of being president, most of which he spent battling impeachment charges over whether or not he lied about having sex. While many men lie about having sex, it is a rare thing indeed for a guy to lie about not having sex. But I digress. In the game world, the Sony Playstation was in a roll, riding a momentum wave that was driven partly by Squaresoft putting out the same kind of quality games that had been a huge boon to the Super NES years prior. Meanwhile, over on the other side... the Nintendo 64 existed, and was riding high with...uh... Ocarina of Time and Other.

Ehrgeiz is one of Square's better Playstation efforts. It isn't an RPG (well...mostly) but rather a fighting game. Square has always flirted a bit with the fighting genre, releasing Tobal No. 1 and Bushido Blade prior to this. However, I'd argue that Ehrgeiz was their best run at it for a long time.

Metal Gear Solid (Playstation, 1998)

Get ready, because 1998's game is one of the most iconic of all time. A year earlier, Final Fantasy VII steered the N64/Playstation war toward a Sony win. That game single-handedly drew the massive RPG fanbase - which Nintendo at one time had a lock on - away from the N64. Sony managed to keep them there by, you know, having RPGs (something the N64, for the most part, did not). Nintendo fired back with the awesome Ocarina of Time, but Sony was ready and countered its holiday release with Metal Gear Solid. Nintendo had finally met its match, it seemed.

Star Fox 64 (Nintendo 64, 1997)

This is quite the evolution of the shooter genre. Say what you will about Nintendo, but they're the masters of having first-party franchises that people really care about... even if that isn't as much the case in the modern era. For the N64, all they had to do was bring back beloved SNES franchises, add a 64 to the end of the title, and they had a guaranteed hit. This is one of the more shining examples of this practice; Star Fox 64 is a fine game.

Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 1996)

SUPERRRR MARIO 64.