This Week in Gaming History provides GameRevolution’s readers with a blast from the past, going back in time to outline all the biggest news stories from this week in games. Every week, we will take a look at some things that happened this week in video game history over the past three decades.
Last week we saw studios formed, iconic games released, and much more. This week, we will celebrate the anniversary of some recent games, see a few old-time games, and a lot more. So without further adieu, let’s take a look at this week in gaming history for the week of April 15-21.
April 16, 2002 | Spider-Man releases
Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman starred in his own game the released on the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox on April 16, 2002. Spider-Man features none other than, well, Spider-man!
It is loosely based on the movie Spider-Man that released just a few days later on April 29, 2002. The game was developed by Treyarch, who is now well known for the Black Ops series. Spider-Man was considered the best Spiderman game yet by critics and got sequels to help promote the upcoming movies Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. This game also no doubt inspired the popular 2018 PlayStation 4 exclusive game, Marvel’s Spider-Man which is considered by many to be one of the best games of 2018.
April 18, 2000 | Legoland releases
Legoland is a construction simulation game that was released on April 18. 2000 for Windows. It is similar to that of the Roller Coaster Tycoon games, in which you are the manager of the park and have to keep everyone happy. You can create your own lego world and share your creations with happy (hopefully anyways) park attendees. Legoland was inspired by the real-life Legoland theme park, which originally opened in Denmark, but has since expanded to a couple of different locations, with the most popular one being in Windsor, England.
April 18, 2011 | Portal 2 releases
Portal 2 is an iconic first-person puzzle game that is widely considered as one of the best games of all time. Serving as a sequel to Portal, also a highly respected game, Portal 2 was released on April 18, 2011, and is highly regarded by critics. With an average Metacritic score of 95, Portal 2 is praised for its gameplay, writing, voice acting, and pretty much every other imaginable feature. It is so unique due to the games portal mechanics, in which players jump through different colored portals that allow them to teleport to different locations.
Portal 2 actually planned to abandon the portal mechanic, but then after five months of development, pulled an audible and decided to add portals into the game. It’s crazy to think that such a beloved game was really close to not having one of its main and most well-known features.
April 19, 1987 | Rocky releases on the SEGA Master System
April 20, 2018 | God of War releases
I know that this date is only one year ago, but it’s still important. God of War released as a PS4 exclusive and dominated the year 2018. It won Game of the Year at The Game Awards and from multiple gaming outlets. It was the eighth installment in the God of War series and possibly the best one yet. It is considered as a reimagining of the franchise and follows the personal journey of Kratos and his son Atreus.
God of War was praised for its intriguing narrative, world design, gameplay, and more. It is considered by most to be one of the greatest games of this console generation, so it is only right that we take a minute to celebrate the one year anniversary of God of War, and remember its impact on the series, but also on narrative-driven games as a whole.
