Best Video Games of 1998

Widely considered the greatest video game ever made, Ocarina of Time translated the Zelda formula into three dimensions with such perfection that it redefined what action-adventure games could achieve. Its Z-targeting system, time-travel narrative, and extraordinary dungeon design set standards that remain unsurpassed.

Hideo Kojima's stealth masterpiece redefined what video games could achieve narratively and mechanically. Metal Gear Solid blended Hollywood-caliber presentation with innovative stealth gameplay and fourth-wall-breaking moments that players still discuss 25 years later.

The greatest survival horror game ever made — RE2's dual protagonist system, the Raccoon City Police Department, and the relentless Mr. X pursuer combined with two fully interconnected campaigns to create the series peak.

One of the rarest and most extraordinary RPGs ever made, Panzer Dragoon Saga combined rail-shooter combat with deep RPG mechanics in a richly imagined post-apocalyptic world. Its western release of only 30,000 copies makes original versions highly valuable, but its reputation as a lost masterpiece is entirely deserved.

Frequently called the greatest JRPG story ever written — Suikoden II follows a young soldier through war, betrayal, and friendship across a 108-character recruitment epic with multiple endings.

Rare's charming 3D platformer masterpiece sent a bear and a bird through nine inventive worlds brimming with collectibles, clever puzzles, and an irresistible sense of fun. Banjo-Kazooie refined the collectathon formula with exceptional world design and remains one of the N64's finest games.

Ivalice's tactical RPG masterpiece tasks players with mastering over 400 abilities across a sprawling job system while navigating a political story — class warfare, religious corruption, and betrayal — dark enough to genuinely shock players in 1998. Yasumi Matsuno's design philosophy rewards methodical planning over brute force, and the depth of unit customization has kept Final Fantasy Tactics in active competitive discussion for nearly three decades.

The commercial peak of the Crash Bandicoot series — Warped's time-travel premise introduces motorbikes, planes, sea-doos, and baby T-rex riding across 30 time-period stages, making it the most varied entry in the trilogy.

The N64 F-Zero — 30 racers simultaneously at impossible speeds, no textures (for consistent 60fps), and a track design so precise that every shortcut and bump matters at 1,000km/h.

The consensus peak of SNK's team-based fighting franchise and one of the most competitively balanced fighting games ever made. KOF '98's 38-character roster represented the best of the KOF series to that point, and its defensive mechanics — rolls, emergency escapes, and the advanced guard — created a depth of competitive play that kept the game in arcades and tournaments for years.

Square's most ambitious PS1 RPG — a philosophical science fiction epic about god, free will, and humanity's cycle of war, combining mech combat (Gears), hand-to-hand combo combat, and a narrative depth that influenced dozens of subsequent JRPGs.

The anime-tie-in Pokémon game — Yellow starts players with Pikachu who follows them on-screen (like the anime), features Team Rocket's Jessie and James, and allows catching all three original starters.

Insomniac Games' gem-collecting adventure placed players in the wings of a young purple dragon exploring vast, colorful worlds. Spyro the Dragon's open, exploratory design and warm personality made it an instant PlayStation classic and launched one of gaming's most beloved franchises.

The Dragon Quest monster-collection RPG that beat Pokémon at its own game for many fans — 215 monsters to collect, breed, and battle across randomly generated dungeons with a deep genetic inheritance system.

The sequel expanded the roster to four characters and introduced the alien transformation mechanic that would define the series. Metal Slug 2's visual spectacle surpassed the original with mummies, tanks, and elaborate boss sequences — though its legendary slowdown was addressed in the bug-fixed Metal Slug X revision.

The Game Boy sequel that established Wario as one of Nintendo's most inventive platformer protagonists. Wario Land 2's invulnerability mechanic — Wario can't die, but getting hurt transforms him in useful ways — and its multiple branching story paths through the same levels encouraged complete exploration and replay.

Nintendo's snowboarding game built physics-based trick mechanics and courses designed around realistic mountain topography into a package that felt fundamentally different from the arcade snowboarders competing for the same market. The Legendary Eagle course remains one of the most technically impressive N64 tracks — a long, branching descent that rewards knowledge of its hazards and delivers a genuine sense of mountain speed that was unmatched on home hardware in 1998.

Square's survival horror RPG blends cinematic storytelling with turn-based combat and real-time enemy positioning in a mitochondrial horror story set across New York City — from Carnegie Hall to the Natural History Museum. The Active Time Battle-derived combat system, where protagonist Aya Brea repositions mid-combat to optimize attacks and avoid enemy abilities, created a genuinely novel hybrid that neither pure RPG nor pure horror games had attempted before.

Factor 5's landmark N64 flight action game — pilot iconic Star Wars vehicles across 16 missions recreating battles from the original trilogy, with an Expansion Pak mode that pushed N64 hardware to its visual limit.

The first Pokemon game to bring the franchise to 3D. Pokemon Stadium let players transfer their Game Boy teams to battle on the N64 in glorious rendered combat, watch Pokemon move realistically, and prove their mastery across five cups. The Stadium mode, Gym Leader Castle, and beloved minigames made it essential.

The light-gun arcade shooter that became the Dreamcast's best peripheral showcase. House of the Dead 2's branching narrative paths, cooperative two-player zombie-blasting, and gloriously cheesy voiced cutscenes — 'Goldman! Suffer like G did?' became gaming's most quoted bad dialogue — made it essential for Dreamcast party sessions.

The party game that defined competitive friendship destruction. Mario Party's board game structure combined with 50 minigames created an entirely new genre. The N64 game that turns any gathering into a lively tournament, complete with Bowser stealing stars and the infamous stick-spinning mini-games.

The definitive digital adaptation of the Pokémon card game for Game Boy Color. Featuring 226 cards and a complete campaign against eight Club Masters, the Pokémon TCG GB introduced millions of players to the strategic depth of the physical card game in a format accessible without needing cards or an opponent.

Sonic's first fully realized 3D platformer and the Dreamcast's defining launch title brought six playable characters — each with distinct gameplay styles — a sprawling adventure hub world, and the Chao Garden life-simulation system into what became the most content-rich Sonic game ever released. Sonic Team's ambition occasionally outpaced the hardware's capabilities, but the sheer energy of the speed stages and the scope of the game's construction left an impression that defined what 3D Sonic could aspire to be.

The N64 dinosaur hunter sequel with some of the most memorable weapons in FPS history. Turok 2's Cerebral Bore — a tracking rocket that drills into enemies' skulls — became legendary, and its expansive levels, diverse enemies, and cooperative multiplayer made it the definitive Turok experience despite brutal early-game difficulty.

DMA Design's creative N64 puzzle-platformer where players control a microchip that possesses animal robots. Each animal — from bulldogs to polar bears to hamsters — has unique abilities needed to solve environmentally distinct puzzles. Space Station Silicon Valley's humor, inventiveness, and the chip-possession mechanic made it one of N64's most original games.

A direct predecessor to the Grand Theft Auto open-world formula from the same studio, Body Harvest drops a time-traveling soldier into sprawling free-roaming environments spanning multiple eras of human history under alien invasion. DMA Design's ambitious scope — hijack any vehicle, explore vast maps, battle massive alien bosses — resulted in a game rougher than its ambitions but historically fascinating as the missing link between top-down GTA and the 3D open-world games that followed.