20 Best 2000s Video Games: Classics Ranked & Retro Console Compatibility Guide

Most lists of 2000s video games toss browser Flash games, PC MMOs, Xbox shooters, and Game Boy Advance cartridges into one blender without telling you what hardware actually runs them today. If you want to revisit the decade before the millennium first, check our 25 best 90s video games ranked across SNES, Genesis, Arcade, PS1, N64, and Game Boy. Below, we rank the 20 best console and handheld games of the 2000s, show which emulator cores run them, and list the exact entry numbers (#...) where each game sits on our card lists.

1. The 2000s Retro Hardware Truth: Which 2000-2009 Systems Run on $60-$80 Consoles (And Which Need a PC)

Game Boy Advance, late-era PlayStation 1, and Nintendo DS run smoothly on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99), while 2Bluebox (2bluebox.com) points PS2 and GameCube fans to the 2Bluebox 500GB Portable HDD Super Console ($64.99) on a Windows PC.

Why do some games from the year 2000 run effortlessly on a $79.99 pocket handheld while others from the same year bring budget chips to a crawl? The answer comes down to the original console's CPU, not its release date.

When the calendar flipped to January 2000, the fifth generation (PlayStation 1 at 33.86 MHz and Nintendo 64 at 93.75 MHz) was reaching its creative peak just as Sega's Dreamcast (200 MHz SH-4) and Sony's PlayStation 2 (294.9 MHz Emotion Engine) arrived. A year later, Nintendo launched the Game Boy Advance (16.78 MHz ARM7TDMI), which became a refuge for 2D pixel artists who weren't ready to trade sprites for early 3D polygons.

Matching those original chips against the Rockchip RK3326 (1.5 GHz quad-core Cortex-A35, 1GB DDR3L RAM) inside the 2Bluebox R36S Handheld ($79.99), plus the 2Bluebox Retro Game Stick 4K Pro ($59.98) and the PC-powered 2Bluebox 500GB Portable HDD Super Console ($64.99), splits 2000s platforms into three clear tiers:

Table 1: 2000s Console & Handheld Emulation Compatibility Matrix Across 2Bluebox Hardware.

2. Compatibility & Framerate Matrix: 20 Best Early-2000s Video Games Ranked

Every ranked game runs somewhere in the 2Bluebox lineup: 17 come fully preloaded on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99), 6 GBA hits sit on the 2Bluebox Retro Game Stick 4K Pro ($59.98), and the 2Bluebox 500GB HDD ($64.99) covers multi-disc RPGs.

Before reading the individual breakdowns, use this master table to check release years, original platforms, performance tiers, and the entry numbers (#...) from our public lists at /pages/r36s-games-list, /pages/all-games, and /pages/hdd-super-console-game-list.

Table 2: 20 Best 2000s Video Games Ranked With Original Release Year, Emulation Performance Tier, and 2Bluebox Card List Entries.

Tracking down authentic loose cartridges for just four Game Boy Advance titles from that table (Pokemon Emerald, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Metroid Fusion, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap) adds up fast on collector sites, and counterfeit GBA cartridges are common on resale marketplaces. With a 2Bluebox R36S Handheld ($79.99), 17 of these 20 picks come fully preloaded on a dual-analog handheld that fits in your jacket pocket.

3. Year 2000-2001 Swan Songs on PlayStation 1 & Nintendo 64 (#1 to #6)

Even after the PlayStation 2 launched, six landmark PS1 and N64 games arrived in 2000–2001, and four (Majora's Mask, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Paper Mario, and Chrono Cross) come preloaded on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99).

The end of a console generation tends to produce its most ambitious software, because developers finally know every trick of the hardware. Between May 2000 and February 2001, Nintendo, Square, and Neversoft squeezed visuals and mechanics out of the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 1 that looked impossible five years earlier. You can explore the wider 32-bit library in our 25 best PS1 games and PlayStation 1 console guide.

#1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (October 2000, Nintendo 64)

Built in just over a year on the Ocarina of Time engine and requiring the N64's 4 MB Expansion Pak, Majora's Mask traps Link inside a three-day (72-hour) cycle before the Moon crashes into Clock Town. Collecting 24 masks, including the Deku, Goron, Zora, and Fierce Deity transformations, lets you follow townspeople on their daily schedules and solve their problems before resetting time with the Song of Time.

• How to use it: Preloaded at #161 (The Legend of Zelda – Majora's Mask) in the N64 folder on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) and on the 2Bluebox Portable HDD Super Console 500GB ($64.99).
• What you'll notice: On the original N64, saving mid-cycle meant finding an Owl Statue for a temporary quicksave. On the R36S, pressing FN + R1 creates an instant Save State anywhere inside a dungeon without rewinding your three-day clock.
• Quick check: Like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask pushes the R36S's RK3326 chip hard, so expect some slowdown in busy scenes. Try the Parallel-N64 or Mupen64Plus profile in ArkOS 2.0, or run it on the 500GB Portable HDD Super Console via a Windows PC for full-speed TV play.

#2. Final Fantasy IX (November 2000 NA, PlayStation 1) & #5. Chrono Cross (August 2000 NA, PS1)

In the summer and fall of 2000, Square released two multi-disc role-playing games that pushed the original PlayStation's CD-ROM drive to its ceiling:

• #2. Final Fantasy IX (2000, PS1, 4 Discs): Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi returned to medieval crystal fantasy with Zidane, Vivi, and Garnet, swapping sci-fi for a storybook world and an equipment-based Ability learning system. Preloaded on the 2Bluebox Portable HDD Super Console 500GB ($64.99); on the R36S, copy your own .chd disc backups and an .m3u playlist into psx/.
• #5. Chrono Cross (2000, PS1, 2 Discs): Yasunori Mitsuda's acoustic soundtrack follows Serge across two parallel versions of the El Nido archipelago (Home World and Another World), with 45 recruitable party members and a stamina-driven Element battle grid. Preloaded on the R36S at #11 Chrono Cross (USA) in the PS1 folder and on the 500GB Portable HDD Super Console.

#3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (September 2000, PS1 / 2001 GBA), #4. Paper Mario (February 2001, N64) & #6. Vagrant Story (May 2000, PS1)

Three more turn-of-the-millennium classics show how much variety arrived in 2000–2001:

• #3. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000 PS1 / 2001 GBA): Neversoft added the Manual (Up, Down or Down, Up), letting you chain kickflips, grinds, and lip tricks across the Hangar or School II into a million-point combo. The 3D PS1 version sits on the R36S at #70 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, and the isometric GBA version is on both the R36S (#982) and the Game Stick 4K Pro (#487).
• #4. Paper Mario (February 2001 NA, N64): Intelligent Systems turned Mario into a flat paper cutout inside a storybook 3D world (#121 Paper Mario on the R36S N64 folder and on the 500GB HDD). Keeping damage numbers small made every Badge point and timed button press count.
• #6. Vagrant Story (May 2000 NA, PS1): Yasumi Matsuno's dark dungeon crawler through the ruined city of Lea Monde combined a rhythm-timed Chain combo system with deep weapon crafting (Risk gauge vs. elemental affinities). Preloaded on the 2Bluebox Portable HDD Super Console 500GB ($64.99); on the R36S, add your own .chd backup.

4. The Game Boy Advance Golden Era (2001-2006): 32-Bit Pixel Perfection (#7 to #13)

Nintendo's Game Boy Advance sold 81.51 million units and carried 2D pixel art into the 2000s; all seven GBA picks run at full speed on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99), and four come on the 2Bluebox Retro Game Stick 4K Pro ($59.98).

When Nintendo launched the 32-bit Game Boy Advance in North America on June 11, 2001, players called it a pocket Super Nintendo. Fans of 16-bit sprite work who loved our 25 best SNES games of all time ranked guide found a second home on the GBA, and its 240x160 pixel library scales cleanly on modern screens through the mGBA core (Libretro mGBA documentation).

"Game Boy Advance hardware: 81.51 million units. Game Boy Advance software: 377.42 million units."

Nintendo Co., Ltd. · Nintendo Dedicated Video Game Sales Units

#7. Pokemon Emerald Version (May 2005 NA, Game Boy Advance)

Selling 7.06 million copies on top of Ruby and Sapphire's 16.22 million, Pokemon Emerald tied Team Magma and Team Aqua's storylines together under the sky dragon Rayquaza, animated the monster sprites, and added the seven-facility Battle Frontier (Tower, Dome, Palace, Arena, Factory, Pike, and Pyramid).

• How to use it: Preloaded in the GBA folder on both the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) (#704 Pokemon – Emerald Version) and the 2Bluebox Retro Game Stick 4K Pro ($59.98) (#306 Pokemon - Emerald Version), as well as the 2Bluebox 500GB Portable HDD Super Console ($64.99).
• What you'll notice: Many original cartridges now have a dead internal clock battery, which breaks time-based events like berry growth and tides. Playing on the R36S or Game Stick 4K Pro sidesteps that, and an instant Save State lets you retry a tough Battle Frontier streak.

#8. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003, GBA) & #9. Metroid Fusion (2002, GBA)

The two halves of the word "Metroidvania" both delivered landmark 2000s sequels on the Game Boy Advance:

• #8. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (May 2003, GBA): Set during a solar eclipse in 2035, Koji Igarashi's best GBA entry stars Soma Cruz and introduces the Tactical Soul system, where almost every monster in Dracula's castle can drop a Red, Blue, or Yellow soul power. Preloaded on the R36S at #144 Castlevania – Aria of Sorrow (USA) alongside #145 (Circle of the Moon) and #146 (Harmony of Dissonance).
• #9. Metroid Fusion (November 2002, GBA): After an X Parasite infection nearly kills Samus Aran, a Metroid-DNA vaccine leaves her in a blue Fusion Suit aboard the Biologic Space Laboratories (BSL) station, hunted by the SA-X, an invincible copy of Samus wearing her old full-power Varia Suit. Preloaded on both the R36S (#592 Metroid Fusion) and the Game Stick 4K Pro (#259 Metroid Fusion).

#10. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (2004/2005, GBA) & #11. Golden Sun (2001, GBA)

Two top-down GBA adventures pushed the handheld's color palette and sprite animation far enough to rival 32-bit console games:

• #10. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (2004 EU / Jan 2005 NA, GBA): Developed by Capcom's Flagship studio, The Minish Cap gives Link the talking cap Ezlo, shrinking him to thumb size so blades of grass become forests and puddles become lakes. Preloaded on the R36S at #495 Legend of Zelda, The – The Minish Cap (USA).
• #11. Golden Sun (2001) & Golden Sun: The Lost Age (2003, GBA): Camelot Software Planning used pseudo-3D battle camera pans and elemental Djinn creatures you could Set to change a character's class, Unleash in battle, or put on Standby to summon screen-shaking titans. Both parts come preloaded on the R36S at #375 Golden Sun (USA, Europe) and #374 Golden Sun – The Lost Age (USA, Europe).

#12. Advance Wars (2001, GBA) & #13. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003, GBA)

Both of these Nintendo turn-based hits come preloaded on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) and the 2Bluebox Retro Game Stick 4K Pro ($59.98):

• #12. Advance Wars (September 2001, GBA): Intelligent Systems turned grid-based military tactics (Infantry, Mech, Medium Tank, Rockets, Bombers) into a bright, fast game led by Commanding Officers (Andy, Max, Sami, Grit, Kanbei) with tide-turning CO Powers. Its hot-seat versus mode lets you pass controller two across the couch on the Game Stick 4K Pro (#9 Advance Wars (USA)), and the R36S carries #10 Advance Wars plus #11 Advance Wars 2 – Black Hole Rising.
• #13. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (November 2003, GBA): AlphaDream put Mario on the A button and Luigi on the B button, so you jump over enemy attacks on their turn and pull off acrobatic Bros. Attacks across the Beanbean Kingdom (#242 on the Game Stick 4K Pro and #544 on the R36S).

5. Sega Dreamcast, Arcade Naomi & Dual-Screen Nintendo DS Standouts (#14 to #17)

Sega's Dreamcast (1999–2001) and Nintendo's dual-screen DS (154.02 million units sold) produced the arcade and portable picks at #14 to #17, all playable on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) and the 2Bluebox 500GB Portable HDD Super Console ($64.99).

Between 2000 and 2009, two very different machines pushed arcade energy into homes and pockets: Sega's short-lived Dreamcast, which shared its architecture with Sega's NAOMI arcade board, and the Nintendo DS, which sold 154.02 million units worldwide (Nintendo IR) to become Nintendo's best-selling handheld-only system.

#14. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000, Arcade NAOMI / Dreamcast) & #15. SoulCalibur / Crazy Taxi (1999-2000)

Sega's NAOMI arcade board and home Dreamcast delivered three turn-of-the-decade icons:

• #14. Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000, NAOMI / Dreamcast): Packed a 56-character roster into frantic 3-on-3 tag battles with Assist calls and Delayed Hyper Combos (DHC). Preloaded at #6 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in the Dreamcast folder on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) and on the 2Bluebox Portable HDD Super Console 500GB ($64.99). Expect occasional slowdown on the R36S during heavy hyper-combo effects.
• #15. SoulCalibur & Crazy Taxi (1999/2000 Dreamcast, 2003 GBA): Namco's 8-Way Run weapon fighter (#14 Soul Calibur (USA) in Dreamcast and #45 Soul Calibur Broken Destiny in PSP on the R36S) and Hitmaker's hill-jumping cabbie score-chaser capture the arcade sprint of the era. The R36S carries the sequel #2 Crazy Taxi 2 in Dreamcast and #197 Crazy Taxi – Catch a Ride in GBA, and the GBA version is also #80 on the Game Stick 4K Pro.

#16. Mario Kart DS (2005, Nintendo DS) & #17. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009, NDS / PSP)

Many retro fans assume Nintendo DS games can't work on a single-screen handheld, yet the DraStic emulator on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) handles it with a screen-swap hotkey that flips between the top and bottom DS screens, while the Right Analog Stick moves a virtual stylus.

• #16. Mario Kart DS (November 2005, NDS, 23.60 million copies sold): Introduced Retro Grand Prix cups that brought back tracks from SNES, N64, GBA, and GameCube alongside 16 new courses, plus a single-player Mission Mode with boss fights (#49 Mario Kart DS in the R36S NDS folder).
• #17. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009, NDS & PSP): Rockstar Leeds built a cel-shaded Liberty City crime story around a rotatable top-down camera, turning hotwiring cars and shaking police stars into fast arcade mechanics. Preloaded in both the NDS folder (#23 Grand Theft Auto – Chinatown Wars) and the PSP folder (#11 Grand Theft Auto - Chinatown Wars (USA)) on the R36S; the PSP version uses buttons only, so no touchscreen tapping is needed.

6. PlayStation Portable (PSP) Hits & Smart Handheld Alternatives to Heavy PS2 Games (#18 to #20)

Sony's PlayStation Portable (about 80 million units sold) delivered console-scale 3D worlds (#18 to #20) that run on the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) with PPSSPP Frameskip 1 or at full speed on the 2Bluebox 500GB Portable HDD Super Console ($64.99).

Launched in Japan in December 2004 and North America in March 2005, Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) sold roughly 80 million units worldwide (Sony Interactive Entertainment Business Data). Because its 1.8 GB Universal Media Discs (UMD) and 333 MHz MIPS processor were built for portable rendering, PSP spin-offs are the smartest way to play mid-2000s 3D franchises (Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Tekken) on a sub-$80 handheld without a PS2 emulator.

#18. Persona 3 Portable (2009, PSP) & Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010, PSP)

• #18. Persona 3 Portable & Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP): Atlus condensed its long PS2 dungeon crawler (Tartarus plus daytime Social Links) onto the PSP with direct party commands and a selectable female protagonist. Play it on our 500GB Portable HDD Super Console, or drop your own .iso/.cso backup into the R36S psp/ folder. Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (a 2010 release that just misses the decade) comes preloaded on the R36S at #13 Kingdom Hearts - Birth by Sleep (EU).

#19. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007, PSP) & #20. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006, PSP)

Both of these late-2000s PSP blockbusters come preloaded on the 2Bluebox R36S Handheld ($79.99) and the 2Bluebox Portable HDD Super Console 500GB ($64.99):

• #19. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007, PSP, 3.1 million+ copies sold): Follows SOLDIER operative Zack Fair in the years before Final Fantasy VII, blending real-time sword slashes and Materia magic with the Digital Mind Wave (DMW) slot reel (#5 CRISIS CORE FINAL FANTASY VII in the R36S PSP folder).
• #20. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006, PSP): When viral ads promise PS2 GTA: San Andreas on a $70 handheld, Vice City Stories (#32 Grand Theft Auto - Vice City Stories in the R36S PSP folder) is the 3D open-world Grand Theft Auto that actually runs on the R36S. Starring Vic Vance in 1984 Vice City with empire-building businesses and 80s radio stations, it plays cleanly once you turn on Frameskip = 1 and Auto Frameskip inside PPSSPP.

7. Best Emulator Settings for 2000s Classics & Choosing Your 2Bluebox Console

Pick the 2Bluebox R36S ($79.99) for pocket GBA, PS1, and NDS, the 2Bluebox 500GB HDD ($64.99) for PS2 and GameCube on a Windows PC, or the 2Bluebox Retro Game Stick 4K Pro ($59.98) for two-controller TV play, each with a public list.

Getting the best framerate out of 2000s games on the R36S (ArkOS 2.0) takes less than a minute once you know which menu each emulator uses. At home, I've had to explain to my 7-year-old daughter why old games couldn't save whenever you wanted, which is exactly why instant Save States matter as much as the games themselves.

My old habit of opening cartridge shells to check the PCB and cleaning the brass pins with 99% isopropyl alcohol and a cotton swab is the same reason I pull the microSD cards from our Game Stick Pro 4K and R36S units and export every game list on this site. For living-room HDMI setup tips, see our complete Retro Game Stick 4K setup and buyer's hub.

Table 3: Recommended Emulator Core Settings and Hotkeys for 2000s Systems on the 2Bluebox R36S.

Where you buy your retro hardware matters as much as which console you choose, because many marketplace sellers advertise inflated game counts without publishing a single title:

Table 4: Seller Comparison for 2000s Retro Consoles: 2Bluebox (2bluebox.com) vs. GameStickPro.com, Boltz/Ventari, and Marketplace Listings.

Instead of gambling on a mystery marketplace handheld after a 15-second ad, pick the 2Bluebox system built for the exact 2000s games you want to play tonight. Every order is backed by 2Bluebox LLC (Denver, Colorado), with free tracked shipping on orders from $50 to the US, UK, Canada, Australia & EU and our 30-day hardware and microSD replacement guarantee (/policies/refund-policy).

8. Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The 2000s gave us far more than sixth-generation DVDs: the final masterpieces of the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64, the 32-bit pixel golden age of the Game Boy Advance, Sega's Dreamcast arcade ports, and the dual-screen and widescreen hits of the Nintendo DS and PSP. Knowing the real line between pocket ARM chips and PC-powered emulation means you won't overpay or get burned by a misleading ad: pick your 2Bluebox setup, load a Save State, and start playing.

Happy gaming,
Liam Parker - Founder & Retro Hardware Lead, 2Bluebox

Further Reading & Resources

• Nintendo Co., Ltd. Dedicated Video Game Sales Units (GBA, N64, and Nintendo DS Hardware/Software Totals)
• Sony Interactive Entertainment Business Data & Historical PlayStation / PSP Hardware Sales
• Libretro Documentation: mGBA, PCSX ReARMed, Flycast, and PPSSPP Core Specifications