Activisionis one of the industry’s largest publishers and has an expansive list of games under its belt. Ranging from first-person shooters to point-and-click adventures, it’s hard to find a genre that the studio hasn’t dipped its toes in.
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Many of Activision’s titles have seen such a wide array of success that they have spawned countless spin-offs, sequels, and similar games from other publishers, helping to define an entire generation’s definition of what fun is. This is all thanks to Activision’s involvement, with them managing and overseeing distribution and communicating with gaming news outlets to help hype up games and boost sales figures.
10Guitar Hero 2
It’s fair to say thatGuitar Hero2 not only had more features and covers than its predecessor but also had more of a cultural impact.
Guitar Hero’s whole gimmick is what lured people in and what gave it the sales numbers to warrant making a sequel, but Guitar Hero 2 went all out with merchandising and top-billing covers to skyrocket its popularity and make it so prominent in pop culture references.
This first-person arcade shooter would inspire generations of “Quake clones” and can be found mentioned across numerousbest FPS lists. Before the popularization of aiming down sites and taking cover, arcade shooters likeQuakehad you running around corners looking for your next opponent to throw down with.
When you found one, you didn’t duck back behind the corner, the two of you bounced about to dodge each other’s bullets while trying to predict where the other would land. This very fast-paced and high-octane gameplay is what makes the genre so desirable to such a wide audience, still to this very day.
8Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
BeforeCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfareburst onto the scene, first-person shooters were generally set during the second world war. It was the benchmark for the genre, until Modern Warfare became a turning point not just forCall of Duty, but for first-person shooters as a whole.
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Some hailed it as the greatest Call Of Duty for accomplishing this feat, but after 16 years of improvements and modern gaming mechanics, it shows its age compared to the Call of Duty games we have today. Still, this is a game that should always be honored and remembered.
7Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
While Lucas Arts published the game in the US, Activision held the rights to publish this belovedStar Warsgame overseas in a lot of regions.Knights Of The Old Republicfeatured a lot of RPG staples, such as building your party of different members gathered along the way and outfitting them with the gear they need to perform well enough to accomplish their goals.
Developed by Bioware, KOTOR would act as the precursor to the Mass Effect franchise, taking everything they had learned and modernizing the gameplay along with pulling the gameplay and mechanics away from Star Wars to its own intellectual property. This game’s villain still serves as one of thebest villains in the Star Wars mythos.
While publishing rights forDestiny 2now belong to Bungie, it started in the hands of Activision. Destiny was seen as the successor to the infamously well-known and well-received Halo franchise. It is a staple live service game for a lot of people to this very day. With constant waves of new content featured in both paid DLC and free updates, the game has a slew of story progression, weapons to acquire, and activities to perform.
5Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)
This is one of the rare instances of a “complete package” these days and features both a multiplayer experience that players have come to expect from a Call of Duty game, but also includes a fun and worthwhile campaign to play.
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The combat inModern Warfare 2is solid and tactical, making it a rewarding feeling for coming out on top. A lot of games have you open fire and reload, with Modern Warfare 2, you will need to be wary about running low on ammo, always reload when safe and not when someone could run from around a corner. The odds of making it out alive are very slim when you’re caught reloading.
4Call Of Duty: Warzone 2.0
This is Call Of Duty’s second entry in theoutlandishly popular battle royale genrethat has been dominated by games likeFortniteandApex Legends. Call of Duty wanted to enter themselves into this environment and they did so very well.
This mode is a free-to-play feature that is part of Modern Warfare 2 and was added with its first seasonal content update. This game has been praised for thinking up solutions that hindered other battle royale games such as redefining how it handles its loot. There is also a single-player experience called DMZ for players to give a whirl.
3Crash Bandicoot And Spyro The Dragon Remakes
The full remake phenomenon is in full swing these days, two perfect examples of how to make a remake are Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Both took everything about the original era-defining titles that appeared on the original PlayStation and - from the ground up - built gems that do the franchises justice and serve as templates of how to do a remake right.
Instead of just stopping at remaking everything that was in the originals, they added new cosmetics and features to enhance playthroughs and add replayability to make the games last longer than simply finishing the main storylines.
2Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The stealth genre can vary from game to game, and one of those game series is called Tenchu. It allowed players to take control of a Ninja and navigate across different maps, assassinating their targets from the shadows, and rewarding them for clearing them completely unseen.
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Sekriostarted as a sequel to the Tenchu games, but over time ended up being made into a Soulsborne-style game, which is certainly not a bad thing. While a lot of Tenchu fans would love to see a true Tenchu sequel, Sekiro still gets the formula right and is a real treat for fans of such a genre of the game, while making it more accessible to new players discovering the joys of how to be a stealthy assassin.
1Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
When this game released, it was when skateboarding was seen as the greatest of sports among the youths of Western culture. This made it a game that all the kids wanted their parents to get for them, and the sales figures rose outrageously well. The best part, it’s an incredibly fun game.
Movement and navigation are easy, looking around for places to explore is engaging, different objects allow you to grow your score in different ways, seeing collectibles and figuring out how you are supposed to get them is rewarding and everything just worked so well to string a single run together. Out of all the Pro Skater games, the level design isTony Hawk Pro Skater 2is still unmatched.
