Best Video Games of 1999

The N64 farm simulation RPG that many players consider the peak of the classic Harvest Moon formula. Harvest Moon 64's marriage system, friendship events, and seasonal festival calendar created the kind of living world that made skipping real-world activities to tend virtual crops feel entirely justified.

Sony's answer to Final Fantasy VII that has earned legendary cult status. The Legend of Dragoon's Addition combat system — requiring precise button timing during attacks — gives every battle active engagement. Its sweeping story of war, loss, and transformation across four discs is among the PS1's most ambitious RPG narratives.

Working Designs' lavishly produced PS1 re-release of the Sega CD classic tells the story of Alex, a village boy who dreams of becoming a Dragonmaster, and his companions including the headstrong Lucia. With anime FMV sequences, a beloved localization, and one of the JRPG genre's most romantic storylines, Lunar SSSC is a treasured PS1 classic.

The refined sequel that many consider the peak of the Mario Party series. Mario Party 2 added themed boards with costume changes, more balanced minigames, and new Items that made the experience deeper and more strategic than the original.

Jill Valentine vs Nemesis — RE3's titular pursuer is an indestructible bioweapon that can appear in any non-safe room at any time, creating the series' most relentless survival horror experience.

Yu Suzuki's open-world narrative game effectively invented the interactive drama genre — Shenmue's Yokosuka setting, fully simulated daily schedules, forklift racing minigame, and obsessive environmental detail created the blueprint for the living-world design philosophy that Grand Theft Auto III would later popularize for mass audiences. Ryo Hazuki's revenge quest against Lan Di unfolds with a patience and deliberateness that remains singular in game design history.

Sony's answer to GoldenEye — Gabe Logan's third-person action-stealth shooter featured a sprawling conspiracy narrative, diverse mission objectives, and over 20 weapons in one of the PS1's best action games.

AKI Corporation's 1999 N64 wrestling game and the predecessor to WWF No Mercy — WrestleMania 2000 uses the same refined grapple engine, includes a deeper create-a-wrestler system with more attribute customization, and features Road to WrestleMania career mode with the peak Attitude Era roster including Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H.

The anarchic open-city cab game — scored by The Offspring and Bad Religion in a punk soundtrack that made quiet play impossible — channels pure arcade energy into a timer-driven frenzy of shortcuts, near-misses, and absurd customer physics that made it the Dreamcast's most-played arcade conversion. Hitmaker's design strips away every pretension and delivers exactly what it promises: maximum speed, maximum noise, and maximum chaos across a sun-drenched California city.

Rare's ambitious collectathon platformer sent Donkey Kong and four Kong companions through eight enormous worlds in pursuit of 3,821 collectibles. Technically impressive and generously sized, DK64's scope is both its greatest strength and its most criticized aspect — a game of extraordinary content that some consider bloated.

One of the most beloved and unique games in the Pokemon franchise. Pokemon Snap places you in a research vehicle on Pokemon Island, tasking you with photographing 63 Pokemon in their natural habitats. The scoring system rewards creativity and discovery, making every run through each stage feel fresh.

Sony's answer to Metal Gear Solid: a third-person action-stealth game starring covert operative Gabe Logan investigating the Syphon Filter virus. More action-oriented than Konami's game, with memorable taser-on-fire mechanics and a solid PS1 exclusive that spawned multiple sequels.

The PS1 open-city driving game that bridged OutRun and Grand Theft Auto. Driver's four-city sandbox, 70s car chase film aesthetic, and cinematic replay editor created an experience that felt uniquely adult on PS1 hardware — its undercover cop narrative and chase mechanics made it the most compelling open-world driving game before GTA III.

The most creative Pokemon spin-off of the Game Boy era. Pokemon Pinball wraps a fully-featured pinball engine around catching all 151 original Pokemon, with two tables (Red and Blue), Pokemon-catching mechanics integrated directly into pinball physics, and an evolution system that rewards longer play sessions. One of the GBC's most addictive games and the only Nintendo product to ship with a built-in rumble pak.

The N64 racing game based on the Phantom Menace podracer sequence that many players consider better than the film that inspired it. Star Wars Episode I: Racer adapted the frenetic podrace mechanics into a full game with 25 racers, 21 courses, and an upgrade economy that rewarded skilled play with increasingly capable podracers.

Iguana Entertainment's 1999 PS1 wrestling game capturing the WWF's Attitude Era — WWF Attitude includes a roster of 40+ wrestlers, a career mode following a created wrestler through the WWF hierarchy, voice-over commentary by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, and match types including Hell in a Cell and Ladder matches from the most commercially successful period in pro wrestling history.

Rare's N64 third-person shooter — Juno, Vela, and Lupus fight through insectoid armies to rescue enslaved Tribals across 13 planets in one of the N64's most visually impressive and ambitiously scaled games.

SNK's 1999 Neo Geo fighting game and the transition entry that introduced the Striker System — The King of Fighters '99 adds a fourth team member as an Assist Striker (a character called in for a single attack), introduces K' (Kay Dash) as the series' new protagonist replacing Kyo Kusanagi, and begins the NESTS Chronicles story arc that would run through KOF 2001.

The most unconventional and artistic Mana game, Legend of Mana abandons traditional linear storytelling for a non-linear world built by the player through artifact placement. Featuring watercolor visual design, a story told through dozens of loosely connected vignettes, and one of gaming's greatest soundtracks, it's either a masterpiece or a confusing relic depending on the player.

The PS1 WWII shooter conceived by Steven Spielberg during Saving Private Ryan production. Medal of Honor's immersive first-person perspective, authentic wartime setting, and mission-based structure made it the PS1's most compelling shooter — and the direct ancestor of the military FPS genre that would dominate the following decade.

Capcom's arena fighter built around collecting three Power Stones to trigger dramatic mid-fight character transformations — shifting the entire power dynamic in seconds — across dynamic 3D arenas with destructible environments and item-based combat that were meaningfully ahead of their time. Power Stone's accessible controls masked genuine mechanical depth, and its design philosophy of environmental interaction as a combat resource would take the broader fighting game genre another decade to fully absorb.

Capcom's dinosaur-based survival horror — essentially Resident Evil redesigned for faster, smarter predators — features real-time creature AI that makes the Velociraptors genuinely terrifying rather than scripted obstacles. Regina's infiltration mission in Secret Operation Wipeout demonstrated that the studio's survival horror formula could absorb a radically different threat profile without losing any of its tension, and the game stands as the PS1's finest horror experience outside of Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill.

Contrail's 1999 PS1 JRPG with a distinctive combo-building combat system where players input directional sequences to construct custom attack strings. Legend of Legaia's Ra-Seru symbiont mechanic and fighting-game-inspired battle system created a unique combat identity in a crowded PS1 RPG market.

The enhanced version of Castlevania 64 with two new characters — Cornell the werewolf and Henry the Crusader — plus additional stages, improved engine performance, and the complete content of the original game. Legacy of Darkness is the definitive N64 Castlevania experience for players willing to engage with early 3D adventure design.