15 Best Months To Be A Gamer (Since 2000)

13. October 2002 €“ Sunshine, TimeSplitting And Vice...

By this point in time, the Nintendo Gamecube had been out for over a year in Europe but it was missing a certain moustachioed plumber. Enter Super Mario Sunshine, an indirect follow-up to gaming classic Super Mario 64. While it lacked the difficult platforming sections of earlier Mario games, the variety of colourful worlds and length of the game's campaign meant people were sucked in all over again.

One of gaming's forgotten classics was released this month too; TimeSplitters 2 is a time-hopping FPS which stole hearts and minds for its insanely fun multiplayer. It could easily be the best local multiplayer experience in the whole FPS genre (yes, it might even better Goldeneye). The story was great fun too (who can forget the ridiculously haunting Mansion?) but the multiplayer established TimeSplitters 2 as one of the greatest titles of its generation.

If that wasn't enough, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was also released in October 2002; a game that many would argue is the best that the PlayStation 2 has to offer. GTA3 might have revolutionised the series but Vice City gave it a cool 80s twist and more importantly; introduced the idea of a talking protagonist to the series.

Metacritic Roundup: Super Mario Sunshine, 92. TimeSplitters 2, 90. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, 95. Average: 92.34.