Editors note: This opinion-piece does not represent the opinion of Beaver’s Digest but rather it reflects the personal opinions and observations of the writer.
As people grow older, they start to cling to nostalgia and yearn to experience the good old days. For the ones in between Millennials and Gen Z, they want to experience the untamed wasteland that was the 2000s.
In a world where creative minds let themselves run, so many eccentric ideas were at the forefront. “I ❤ ️ Boobies” bracelets on the wrists of middle schoolers because they totally support the cause and the i-Dog being the pinnacle of technology are nostalgic staples.
However, the most interesting thing is that gaming has been considered to have peaked in the 2000s. Just go on any gaming subreddit and you’ll find a sea of posts complaining about the current state of gaming and how it was better back then. Although these posts are mainly for the sake of karma farming, there is something to be said about how different video games and its culture was back then.
One thing that people bring up is the fact that local multiplayer is not as much of a priority for AAA game developers with modern releases with some exceptions like 2025’s Kirby Air Riders, a follow up to the 2003 game known for being a hit at sleepovers.
“Playing online’s cool, but the local vibes just hit different, ya know?,” Smash Bros Enthusiast Sean Kennedy said.
The game that my brain immediately goes to when I think of fun 2000s multiplayer is 2008’s “Super Smash Bros. Brawl”. The third game in the Super Smash Bros series, it aimed to be a fun party game while also having a distinct edginess factor in terms of its graphics and character models that had a hint of realism at the time.
The debut of Final Smashes, an ultimate attack a character can do when they grab a Smash Ball was also eye-catching at the time due to flashy visuals that make players feel powerful. Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake were also crazy inclusions at the time due to them being characters not created by Nintendo. Playing Sudden Death mode with the Superspicy Curry effect and fast mode is a must.
The Gaming Club at Oregon State University also runs weekly tournaments for the latest entry, “Super Smash Bros Ultimate” every Friday of the term. The Gaming Club is always eager to have new members and has a discord students can join and is a great way to bring the feeling of locals to our online age. In addition, they run tournaments for older games of all genres as well according to the main officers in the discord.
Another thing about the 2000s is that developers were not afraid to experiment with crazy ideas compared to developers playing it safe with yearly Call of Duty releases being the epitome of this safety.
A game that embodies this line of thinking is 2007’s “The World Ends with You,” a game for the Nintendo DS. The game takes place in Shibuya, Japan and combat is done through rhythmically tapping buttons or the touch screen to deal damage, heal, etc. with the help of pins the player can find.
Not only is the gameplay unorthodox compared to other games of its genre but it also represents the fashion trends of the era with clothing that the player can equip onto your characters to boost their stats with an even bigger bonus if the clothing is all the same brand.
One example is a brand in the game known as Lapin Angelique, which represents goth and scene fashion that became popular in the 2000s with things like pleated skirts and platform shoes. Think of it like that game’s Hot Topic.
The 2000s were also defined by the rise of the emo genre, which bled into the music and tone of some video games.
2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog went into this head first by giving the titular the ability to use various guns in the game and even included mild swear words in an attempt to have a more gritty tone. This is a game that comes to mind when people look back on the cringe aspects of the 2000s, but it’s still nostalgic to some and the line “Where’s that damn fourth Chaos Emerald?” has become a massive meme in some circles.
“It may be looked at as a cringy effort, but there’s a lot of passion behind it, so there’s still some charm to it that feels authentic,” Kaden Delgado-Comstock, a student at OSU, said.
Gaming is now more popular than ever and will only get more popular, so these are some examples of a few games that have the spirit of the 2000s imbued within them and are a great way to experience what the 2000s had to offer.
