Chewers' 200 Best Video Games of the 90's - Page 6

Revolution X!  I still sink quarters in this!  My time share has this in its arcade.

As a lifelong gamer, I'm really enjoying both of these threads, thanks to all who've dusted off some real classics as well as grabbed my curiosity with titles I am not familiar with!

I'm working on turning a PC into a Hyperspin Arcade and these are great places to start.

I would LOVE to see a thread dedicated to Japanese video games for any systems!!!  Would we be able to do that?
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

180. Revolution X (Arcade)

 

 

Did you know Aerosmith had an arcade game in the 90's.   Did you know that it didn't suck?   This is essentially a reskinned version of the Terminator 2 arcade game that was out a few years earlier.   What makes it worthy of inclusion is the frantic pace, the cheesiness of the concept and the soundtrack.   I'm not ashamed to say I spent alot of money on this game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi 

 

I never got a chance to play "Sunset Riders" because it seemed to be rare for some reason, even when it was relatively new. I think it was probably always rare, as it's currently going for really high prices on E-bay. Anyone know what the deal is with that?

That... couldn't be any further from the opposite of my experience with that game in the 90's. That arcade machine was everywhere. Bowling alleys, malls, movie theaters, pizza joints. It was about as common a sight as the Konami X-Men and TMNT games. Pretty much every kid I knew that was into video games at the time knew the game quite well and had played the hell out of it. Seemed like it was among the more popular titles of the time.

With that thought of rareness in mind though;

181. Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen (Sega Genesis, 1994)

Fighting games based on shonen anime licenses have a nasty reputation. For damn good reason, as the vast majority of them tend to have a chronic case of sucking ass. There are exceptions though.

This game here isn't just an exception: it stands well, well far apart from and high above every single solitary anime licensed game, fighting or otherwise as something truly masterful and genre defining.

Its made by Treasure: same people behind Gunstar Heroes, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, etc. With that kind of pedigree, right off the bat you know that you're in for something utterly mind blowing, anime license be damned.

In my post on Guardian Heroes I singled out that game's versus mode as being pretty much almost a whole other game unto itself, a free for all arena fighting game along the lines of Smash Bros, but totally outdoing that game several times over while predating it by years. Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen predates Guardian Heroes by two years and is unquestionably the direct inspiration for Guardian Heroes' versus mode. The similarities are undeniable and impossible to miss.

At a glance, this game would appear to seem to be a slightly more primitive dry run for versus Guardian Heroes. Its up to four players simultaneous rather than six, and it has two planes of fighting (background and foreground) rather than three (back, middle, and fore). There's also only 11 playable fighters as opposed to the dizzyingly countless dozens that Guardian Heroes sports, and those 11 characters on the surface all appear to have far less moves than the principal characters of GH. The controls and fighting mechanics are incredibly comparable, and skimming this game on a surface level one could be forgiven for mistaking it as simply a less refined predecessor to a game that would take the ideas here and further polish them.

But make no mistake, one would be grossly, grossly incorrect in making that assumption. This game might just be the single greatest fighting game that next to nobody outside of Japan has ever played or heard of. Hell, it might just be the single greatest fighting game ever made. That's not at all hyperbole. I'm completely serious.

The versus game in Guardian Heroes is sublime, but at the end of the day it is a secondary mode to the primary game which is a branching path beat em up first and foremost. Makyo Toitsusen IS a free for all arena fighter and nothing else, and thus it puts ALL its focus on being just that. This is Guardian Heroes' phenomenal sub-game put front and center and given a laser-focus that simply isn't present in versus GH.

The number of playable characters here may be dwarfed by the staggering amount found in GH, but as I said in my post on GH a decent chunk of those characters are joke or novelty characters with nothing much in the way of depth to them. Not here. Each and every single one of the playable characters here are here for a reason. They also may have seemingly far less moves than the main cast of GH, but each and every single one of the moves they do have are clogged to the gills with hidden depths and versatility of a level not found in even the most complex playing GH character.

In fact that's kind of the fundamental principle as to what makes this game the masterpiece of flawless design that it is: deceptive simplicity masking incredible amounts of depth.

Fighting games enjoyed enormous popularity in the 90's and in the flourishing arcade scene of the time, but as arcades declined and died at the turn of the following decade, the genre also crashed and burned in a big way. A whole new generation of gamers not reared on the genre during its heyday found it to be way too over-complex to the point of being impenetrable.

Think about it: how many people do you guys know who seem to always decline playing fighting games with the general excuse of “I suck at them” or “I can never understand how the moves work”? Hell, how many of you guys ARE that type of gamer yourselves? This is a genre that is often hypocritically criticized as being simultaneously too dumb and simplistic compared to other genres (“all you do is punch each other; there's no strategy like in a game like Civilization”) and too complicated and skill-driven for the average layman to understand or get good at.

The genius behind Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen is that it COMPLETELY circumvents this whole paradigm. This game, on the outside and on its most immediate surface level, is RIDICULOUSLY simple. There are generally only between about three to five special moves per character and the motions to pull off the moves are so ludicrously simple and easy to perform (and many times often shared between characters) that you'd have to have something physically wrong with your hands to not be able to do them right. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say that you could easily put this game in the hands of a pre-schooler and they could probably figure out all the basics in about a half hour or so.

Now this is the point where hardcore fighting gamers (like myself) would balk at such a game and call it “baby's first fighting game” or something similarly disparaging and dismissive and go back to playing Street Fighter III or any of the Virtua Fighter games. But nope, that would be totally wrong also. For all this game's surface level simplicity, it also hides INCREDIBLE depths of a kind that give even the most technical Capcom and SNK fighters a run for their money. You get a feel for the basic moves of a given character, and its a hop skip and a jump from there to figuring out how all kinds of INSANE combos and juggles work for that character. Advanced combos that just about anybody with half a brain and who takes the game seriously and plays it even semi-regularly will be able to understand and pull off. And for a roster of characters with only three to five special moves apiece, each and every single one of those moves has a mind boggling degree of versatility to them. Any ONE special move in this game has about 30 or 40 different uses depending on a given situation.

The character balance is among the absolute best of any fighting game I have ever played (and I've played a whopping FUCKTON of them, believe me). Nobody in this game has any kind of unfair advantage over anyone, and nobody is useless or has a single useless technique between them. Each and every single punch, kick, dive, dash attack, and fireball present in this game is there for a very good reason and will have about a dozen different opportunities to shine in any given fight. The incredible economy of the movesets for these characters is so perfect, so without flaw, you just want to cry. And the fact that an arsenal of such amazing, impressively deep techniques in a fighting game are so goddamned universally beginner friendly is more than outstanding: its to be celebrated by anyone with a hint of genuine love and passion for the pure, technical gameplay aspect of video games. And of course the controls are so flawless, so tight and spot on that half the game's addictiveness comes from just the sheer joy of controlling the character. 

The other half surely comes from the manic, breathless pace of the fights. It is a testament to the fighting engine's masterful craft and care of its construction that the game can be this user friendly and beginner welcoming while still being as insanely fast and relentlessly frenetic as it is. For those coming at this game from the perspective of being someone who is intimidated by the fast pace of fighting games and the complex technicality of some of them, do NOT for a microsecond be put off by how breathlessly paced the fighting is here. Trust me: give the game a few minutes of your time, learn the fundamentals of how it works, and you too will be able to hang with the psychotic, fast and furious brawling like nothing's nothing. Just like Guardian Heroes, this game is controlled chaos personified: for all the madness and explosions and fists flying and bodies sent hurtling every which way, you will always be able to track exactly who you are, where your character is, and what they're doing. Always.

This game isn't merely a great fighting game for people who are normally intimidated by the genre; it absolutely WELCOMES anybody, of ANY skill level to play it and have immense fun with it, and it does so without ever for one fleeting instant feeling like its dumbing anything down or pandering to non-gamers or non-fans of the genre at the expense of experienced expert players. It alienates nobody and acts as a welcome invitation for any player of any genre persuasion to see why this genre is so popular and beloved. Frankly speaking, THIS is how you properly introduce non-fans to a game genre without marginalizing its established base. This is how it should be done always. Textbook.

This game is the epitome of the phrase "easy to learn, difficult to master". It manages the incredible balancing act of being universally accessible while completely satisfying even the most hardened and technical of fighting gamers. And the most awe inspiring thing is that it handles that balance while making it look so goddamned easy and effortless.

And oh what fun this game is. This is easily and without the slightest doubt my immediate go-to pick for the single most fun multiplayer game I have EVER touched in well over 25 years of gaming. Get four people in a room with this game, and they are guaranteed to have an absolute fucking blast with it. Even if two of them are Fighters Evolution snobs and two of them can barely handle a Smash Bros. game, Makyo Toitsusen is without question that flawless Rosetta Stone fighting game that can be universally beloved and appreciated by anybody. Absolutely anybody. Hell, the matches are so hectic and insane, the game is oftentimes just fun to WATCH other people playing it. A factor which further invites people to want to play it and learn how it plays: the fun factor is so high here, you can feel it permeating from the game just from WATCHING it be played. Look up any youtube clip of a 4 player match in this game and see what I mean. This game is an outstanding masterwork of the best game designers the industry has ever seen firing on all cylinders.

Even on a non-gameplay level, the game is astounding. The fact that it supports up to 4 players at once (via multitap of course) and the fact that the fights are so hectic and insane and fast paced does not at all for one moment affect its performance. Similar to Wild Guns on the SNES, there is NO slowdown. There is NO glitching. Not even to a remote, minor degree. Not ever. At all. At. All. No matter how many characters are flying about, how many ki beams and explosions are filling the screen, it is never running at anything less than optimum performance at all times. That the graphics and sprites are so detailed and the sound and music so crisp (by Genesis standards mind you; that system was notorious for having far from the greatest sound chip) and the backgrounds filled with insane visual effects that one would think were far beyond the Genesis' programming capacity (and all these factors combining to push the Genesis' hardware above and beyond what must have surely been its absolute breaking point), this game is a miracle of expert programming. This is the work of true prodigies of game coding. And this is on 16 bit fucking hardware. In 1994.

Indeed the one and ONLY negative aspect of the game has absolutely nothing to do with the game itself. Its the game's availability. It was never released anywhere other than Japan and Brazil (where it was known in the latter's case as “Yu Yu Hakusho: Sunset Fighters”). And even then it was produced in tragically limited quantities. Trying to obtain a physical copy of this game below triple digit figures is an exercise in heartbreaking futility. Legend also has it that beyond the game's general rarity, the other reason that so few copies seem to crop up for sale is that the vast overwhelming majority of Japanese gamers who bought and own copies of this on its original release love the game so much that they're still to this day unwilling to part with their copy for any price. I'm not entirely sure how true that is, but in all honesty I have no problems believing it. If ever there was a game that is utterly CRYING for a re-release with online capabilities, this here is that game. If you have any experience with or knowledge of emulation, by ALL means this is a game to put at the absolute top of your must-play priority list.

Ignore the fact that its based on a popular Shonen Jump anime. Ignore the stigma that such games carry. Forget every awful Naruto or Dragon Ball Z fighting game you ever might have had the misfortune to touch. This game here isn't even in the same galaxy as those games, much less the same solar system, much less the same planet, much less the same league. You need absolutely NO familiarity with the license whatsoever to play and love this game. You don't even need to like anime itself at all to recognize the beauty of this game.

This isn't just a timeless classic of the fighting game genre. Its a work of art. And that the vast overwhelming majority of people playing video games today will likely never be able to so much as touch it (outside of emulation) let alone give it the proper recognition that it truly deserves, is a real tragedy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

 

That... couldn't be any further from the opposite of my experience with that game in the 90's. That arcade machine was everywhere. Bowling alleys, malls, movie theaters, pizza joints. It was about as common a sight as the Konami X-Men and TMNT games. Pretty much every kid I knew that was into video games at the time knew the game quite well and had played the hell out of it. Seemed like it was among the more popular titles of the time.

 

I should clarify that I was referring to the home console version (specifically the SNES one) seeming to be rare and going for exorbitant prices on E-bay these days. I wasn't a big arcade guy. There were certain games I remember being big at my local arcade at particular times (i.e. "The Simpsons Arcade Game", "Terminator 2", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game", "Mortal Kombat", "Mortal Kombat 2", "Revolution X", "Crusin' U.S.A.").

I guess I missed out on the period when "Sunset Riders" was an arcade hit. I just remember video game magazines being enamoured with its home version, wondering what the hell it was (since it wasn't a recognizable franchise) and being really curious/anxious to play it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

 

178. The Outfoxies (Arcade, 1994)

 

 

 

Simultaneously one of the greatest and most obscure games of the 90's, this was a fabulous and way ahead of its time arcade game that deserves way more love than it'll probably ever get.

 

You pick one of seven freakishly weird professional assassins, and you have to outwit and kill the other six one by one in head to head combat. And when I say “freakishly weird” I'm not kidding: the playable assassins range from a crippled Chinese scientist in a high tech, futuristic, weapons-filled wheelchair, a pair of creepy Omen-like twin brother and sister children who move about the levels skipping while holding hands, and even a chimpanzee. No really, one of them is a chimpanzee. And not even an anthropomorphic one, just a plain old chimpanzee. Wearing a tuxedo and a top hat.

 

The gameplay is deceptively simple: chase your opponent all around one of 8 gigantic, free-roaming arenas, and kill them any way you can using any means available to you. And once again when I say “using any means” I mean exactly that; there are an ABSURD array of weapons and random items scattered about each level that you can use.

 

And oh my god the levels. You have an airship that if you break into the cockpit, you can actually commandeer control of it and steer the thing wildly in any direction you feel like (even doing flips and loops and nosedives) all in the name of knocking around your opponent who will surely be elsewhere in the bowels of the ship, and sending all the usable weapons and items skidding to and fro, hopefully someplace out of their reach. Another level is a boat lost in the middle of the sea and in the midst of a huge storm. Besides being able to knock your opponent overboard (and vice versa) the ship will periodically flood with water from the storm and submerge beneath the waves forcing the both of you to swim about.

 

There's an aquarium caught in a chain reaction of explosions that's rupturing all the tanks one by one and causing the whole building to slowly flood and setting loose a variety of deadly fish from piranha to sharks to electric eels. As more of the building is gradually destroyed around you, some rooms you were previously able to venture in become cut off and others that were formerly cut off can now be explored. There's a train level where besides moving from car to car, you can also venture outside and on the roof of the train where a helicopter will occasionally appear to drop down more weapons; remaining outside too long can be a problem as the train occasionally enters overpasses, smashing to a pulp anyone unlucky enough to still be tooling about on the roof of the train. And there's an office building with a water tower a chopper parked up on the roof that can be blown up, causing the entire roof to cave in on the building and flood it with water from the water tower and the chopper to crash and blow up in a huge wreck inside the building, with the wreckage even able to fall through several floors of the building causing you problems even when you venture down into the deeper levels to get away from the crash. And I didn't even get into the circus level with a whole fully functional trapeze setup.

 

And so on and so forth. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of how insane the levels get. And you and your opponent can venture as far away from one another as you wish, with the screen allowing this by way of Samurai Shodown-esque zooming, so you're never chained to any particular spot. And virtually everything around you is totally destructible, from glass windows to railings and bits of floor and ceiling, pretty much all the levels will likely be absolutely trashed the longer the fights go on.

 

Beyond the levels, as said before, there are a near infinite amount of ways the two players can maim or kill one another. This has much to do with the fact that just about EVERY random, seemingly innocuous item laying around in the background can be picked up and made into a weapon. No really: ANY. THING. There's swords, rocket launchers, grenades, pistols, machine guns, flamethrowers, throwing knives, lion tamer whips; you can pick up crates and boxes, trash cans, chairs, and vases and hurl them at one another. There's even a dining hall where you can pick up plates of hot soup and throw them at the other player. You can use just about any random background object against the other player as a deathtrap, from knocking them into an electrical fuse box to shooting a gas main besides them and blowing them to bits, or causing a chandelier to fall on them. And of course when all else fails, you can just run up to one another and bash each other upside the face with your bare fists until one of you drops. If you ever wondered who would win in a no holds barred, knock down, drag out fistfight between two tiny blonde children and a chimp in a tux, this is the game you've been waiting for to answer that burning question.

 

The controls are great and the gameplay is fast paced, fun, and hectic at all times. This easily belongs in any list of the greatest, most fun competitive multiplayer games ever made. Winning is fifty percent skill and fifty percent luck, pending the items available to you and the turn of the situation at hand via random environmental hazards. A match can be over in as little as a second or take as long as many minutes (similar to the above cited Bushido Blade, another fantastic 90's classic that I'm glad someone mentioned).

 

Many people usually refer to the late 70's and early 80's as the golden age of the arcade, but for me it was the 90's without question. There were TONS of fantastic, innovative gems just like this coming out of the 90's arcade industry, usually hidden on the farthest fringes from mainstream gaming. The Outfoxies is but one of many great examples of this and a window into a surprisingly large world of quality gaming that for me further solidifies the 90's as the absolute best decade for video games.

I have never even heard of this, and now I have to find it.  This sounds like it was made up in a fever dream.  It has to be the timing as the main reason I've never seen it, while I lived near an arcade in 1994 there weren't a lot of them left at that point in time.  When I was a kid there were 3 within biking distance.  In 1994 there was 1 within driving distance and it was also an indoor mini golf course and pizza joint.  This sounds absolutely insane in all the right ways though.
 

Holy shit, Jacquio...

I think I've played that Yu Yu Hakusho game on an emulator.  I recall it being pretty fun. 

But despite you knocking on Dragonball games, I'm gonna have to add...

182.  Dragonball Z: Hyper Dimension

Gorgeous graphics.  Smooth controls.  Epic desperation attacks.  It was a change-up from the split-screen antics of the first 3 DBZ fighting games, but for this Dragonball fan, it was a DREAM.  

183. Chaos Strikes Back

It's the sequel to the best game of the 80s, and it's great...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcnooj82 

Holy shit, Jacquio...

 

I think I've played that Yu Yu Hakusho game on an emulator.  I recall it being pretty fun. 

 

But despite you knocking on Dragonball games, I'm gonna have to add...

 

182.  Dragonball Z: Hyper Dimension

 

Gorgeous graphics.  Smooth controls.  Epic desperation attacks.  It was a change-up from the split-screen antics of the first 3 DBZ fighting games, but for this Dragonball fan, it was a DREAM.  

 

Oh don't misunderstand me: I said earlier that there were exceptions to most shonen anime licensed games sucking. DBZ Hyper Dimension is by all means one of those exceptions, both in terms of anime license games in general and in terms of Dragon Ball games in particular. That game is indeed excellent and by all means deserves to be here. Very good call there. The gameplay is spectacular and while I'm by no means a graphics guy usually (at least in a technical sense), holy fuck does that game deserve praise for its graphics which are WELL beyond what the SNES was designed to handle and are at times borderline PS1 quality.

Hyper Dimension also used to be rather infamous in emulation circles for its graphics being so high end that it would totally crash most emulators that attempted to run it until sometime within about the early/mid-ish 2000's when emulators finally started advancing enough to be capable of actually handling the game without having a seizure. Within a license not usually known for hitting it out of the park all that much (while admittedly at least always attempting to be very different and to innovate, even if its success rate as such tends to be spotty at best: I've always given the DBZ game franchise that much even and especially back in the 90's), that game is definitely a marvel.

I have my share of Dragon Ball games I've liked (though granted most of them wouldn't make this list: again Hyper Dimension is a particularly exceptional example that stands well above its brethren), but on the whole, there's a TON of DBZ games that are just awful. But yes in spite of that, special credit where its do to those few, proud examples that buck the trend and are actually worthwhile.

185. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX, 1990)

Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 was of course mentioned earlier in here and by all means it of course deserves to be recognized for the impact that it had on gaming. However while that game can be called many things, groundbreaking and innovative are actually NOT among them and there's a very good reason for that: this game existed nearly a decade earlier and did pretty much damn near EVERYTHING that that game did in almost exactly the same way that it did them... and all within the midst of the fucking 8 bit era. Sadly though this game was never released anywhere outside of Japan (the second Metal Gear game some of you may be thinking of that was on the NES is in fact a totally different game that is completely unrelated to this one), so if PS1 Metal Gear Solid deserves any credit for anything then its for duplicating this game's innovations, giving the whole package a 32 bit spit shine, and thrusting it in front of an international audience to give it the 8 year belated recognition that it deserved.

I'm completely serious: forget that this was 1990. Forget that this was on an 8 bit platform. As unbelievable as this may sound, Metal Gear 2 on the MSX in terms of gameplay is COMPLETELY IDENTICAL to Metal Gear Solid on PS1 in virtually every single way. Minus polygonal graphics and a souped up presentation, the two games are virtual xeroxed clones of one another. Let the ramifications of that sink in for a bit. To call this game “ahead of its time” is to venture into an entirely new realm of understatement not yet explored by most men. This game is by far and away the world heavyweight champion of video game concepts and mechanics that were light years ahead of the bell curve.

Everything you could do in Metal Gear Solid on PS1, you could do in this game 8 years earlier. I'm serious. Every. Single. Thing. No matter how small or minute of a detail. Pretty much every amazing concept that you thought MGS had been the first to bring to the table, this game did it first a whopping three whole console gens earlier. Stealth based gameplay that punishes wannabe John Rambo players? Check. Radar that shows the positions and movements of all enemies in the immediate area? Check. A "dual item" system where you can have one weapon and one item "equipped" from your larger inventory pool at any one time? Check. Crawling through mazes of air vents? Check. Grated metal or creaking wood floors that when walked on too fast makes a loud racket that alerts nearby enemies? Check. Knocking on a wall that you're pressed up against to draw the attention of a nearby soldier? Check. Using cigarette smoke to reveal invisible laser alarms? Check. Said cigarette slowly depleting your health the longer you smoke it? Check.

Hiding inside a cardboard box as the most goofy means of camouflage ever attempted? Check. Hiding inside said cardboard box while in the back of transport trucks to get carted about quicker to farther areas of the base you're infiltrating? Check. Security cameras? Check. Remote controlled and stinger missiles? Check. Crawling underneath tables and vehicles and inside vents and boxes and whatever other hiding spots one can find close at hand to escape from enemies giving chase? Check. Lists of interesting characters that you contact via different frequencies on “codec” and who do anything from give you crucial bits of information to advance the plot, or minor helpful tips, or just random chit chat about amusing nonsense that fleshes out their characters? Check. Cheap comic relief involving a naked guard with his naughty parts mosaiced? Check.

Melodramatic character deaths and twisty revelations about secret identities and hidden motives? Check. A special, crack team unit of soldiers acting as the game's bosses, each one with a distinctive code name and specialty or gimmick, and each one requiring that you figure out a special trick to defeat (and who knows, try chatting up someone on your list of codec frequencies: they may just be able to give you the hint you need to win while also filling you in on the boss' background storyline to give them some added personality)? Check. And on and on and on.

Oh and it doesn't just stop at the basic gameplay either. Oh no no no. The sameness between MSX Metal Gear 2 and PS1 Metal Gear Solid run as deep down as even to the story points and the various setpieces and puzzles you come across. Remember that awful bit late in MGS1 where you were given a key made of “shape memory alloy” that changed its shape based on the room's temperature and this forced you to backtrack waaaaaaay back to damn near the beginning areas of the base to find a suitably hot enough room? Yep, that was done here first. Or hey, remember that really intriguing bit where you happened across a minefield and were contacted on codec by a mysterious stranger claiming to be “one of your fans” who informed you that you needed a mine detector? Uh huh, that's here to, right down to the “one of your fans” line.

Or hey, who can forget the part where you had to search for a major female supporting character disguised as a male enemy soldier and could only identify her based either on her feminine gait or until you followed her around long enough that she wandered into the ladies room? Different female character, same exact situation here. That badass boss fight against a Hind D helicopter that required use of stinger missiles? Yep, that's here, right down to the helicopter being a Hind D. The bit where Snake automatically triggers an alarm and is chased up many floors of a tower via a circular stairway by legions of enemy soldiers? Right here once again.

Guiding a remote controllable missile through a series of narrow hallways and vents to hit an out of reach control box that shuts off an electrified floor? Once again, right here. A climactic fight against the titular Metal Gear mech that leads into a hand to hand fistfight with its pilot in a small, narrow island of an area where wandering too close to the edge means death? Right here exactly. A boss fight against a cybernetic ninja that turns out to be a character from a previous game that Snake thought was already dead? Definitely nowhere near as cool here as it was on MGS for sure, but still here all the same. And on and on and on and on like this.

This game even pioneered what I like to call “getting Kojima'ed” (named of course after the Metal Gear franchise's creator and series director, Hideo Kojima). You know those quirky, 4^th wall breaking parts of a Metal Gear Solid game where the game has you stumped on how to get through a particular puzzle or boss fight or finding a particular item within the game when all along the solution turns out to be something you're expected to do in real life? Such as when fighting Psycho Mantis, to block out his telepathic ability to read your moves you have to switch controller ports in your PS1? Or when you're told that to find a certain codec frequency that you need to progress “look on the back of the CD case” and after wasting hours trying to examine an in-game CD case you realize its talking about the actual physical real life CD case that the game came in?

Yeah you know. Getting Kojima'ed.

Well this game did that first as well in a particularly brutal puzzle where you need to get in touch with a scientist being held prisoner via his codec. Problem is, only the scientist knows the frequency and he can't just tell it to you when you find the room he's being held in because he's completely walled in with no doors or windows to speak to you through. Anytime you go in the room adjacent to his walled off cell you're met by a perplexing pattern of tapping noises. Wanna guess what the solution to the puzzle is?

Turns out, that tapping noise is the scientist knocking on the wall in Morse code used by POWs trying to give you his codec frequency. So how are you supposed to figure out what numbers he's trying to feed you? Yeah that's right: you're expected to know actual, real life Morse code ( or at least a close enough approximation of it). Don't know Morse code? Go look that shit up. Congratulations. You just got Kojima'ed. And I didn't even go into the puzzle where you're on a high rooftop chasing after a carrier pigeon trying to find the right flavor of ration food to lure it to you. Or the bit where you stumble into a room filled with lifelike mannequins modeling the enemy soldiers' uniforms, but perhaps one or two of those mannequins might just in fact be an actual enemy solider. And I'm certainly not even mentioning countless other surprises that this game has. This game is stuffed to its pores with all kinds of idiosyncratic, brain teasing, 4^th wall destroying puzzles and easter eggs and setpieces that have since become perhaps the most infamous and distinctive trademark of Hideo Kojima.

Now in fairness, the PS1 Metal Gear Solid did add a tiny few little twists of its own to the mix. The major one being the ability to look around in first person (a luxury afforded by the 32 bit polygonal nature of the graphics of course), which was mainly used for the game's sniper rifle (a weapon not found in the MSX game) as well as its binoculars and stinger missiles (items which are indeed found here, but work slightly differently to accommodate the 2D and strictly overhead nature of the game). And of course there was the stellar voice acting and blockbuster action movie-like music which further lent the game the feeling of playing an epic espionage film.

But first person view aside, all that stuff is ultimately fancy window dressing allowed by the advances in technology in the 8 years between games. In virtually EVERY other respect, this game completely beat Metal Gear Solid to its own punch by a cunt-hair shy of a full decade. The only reason we're heaping all the credit for “innovation” on MGS and not this game is due to the fact that for whatever awful, stupid reason this game never left Japan or was ported to anything else until a whopping 16 years later when it was finally re-released internationally (along with the original game) on the bonus disc that came with Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. And I guarantee that virtually everyone most likely ignored the game and never touched it anyway, either assuming it to be some dated, uninteresting relic or just plain not even noticing that it was there at all. HUGE mistake.

If you consider yourself a fan of the Metal Gear franchise, and of the first MGS on PS1 in particular, then if you own a copy of MGS3: Subsistence and still hung onto that bonus disc, do yourself a tremendous favor and PLAY THIS GAME. This is the REAL birth of virtually all the elements that people loved and latched onto in Metal Gear Solid. This is the REAL groundbreaker and innovator. MGS, as tremendous and important a game as it was, was basically at its core a complete rehash and reskinning that was necessary to introduce an international audience to the advances and ideas originally put forth by this game here. MGS may have dolled it all up in 32 bit action film bravado, but that in no way alters the fact that at the end of the day, Kojima was pretty much just remaking and repackaging the same exact game that he already made 8 years before.

I mean think about it. Think about all the things I listed above and think about how each one of these elements blew your mind in some way to some degree at the tail end of the 90's when you first played Metal Gear Solid. Now think to yourself holy shit, Metal Gear 2 on MSX did all that in 19-fucking-90. During the height of the NES era.

No list of important, greatest games of the 90's is complete without this one: as underplayed and under-recognized as it is, this one may just be the most singularly important and game changing title of them all.

#186- System Shock 2 (PC, 1999)

SHODAN was the nemesis you loved to hate...and then you even had to help the bitch.  So many ways to play, and so hard for the time.  Guns always broke at THE.WORST.TIMES.

Also even though it was mentioned waaaay back as #2, I'll take it one step further and mention the Battletech Tesla Pods.  Rumor has it they're still around in places, but before massive online gaming was available, they were great for group outings.

187. Demon's Crest (SNES, 1994)

Just about every gamer of the 90's had to at one point or another make that crucial, lifestyle defining, character building decision: Nintendo or Sega? Pound for pound, if I had to choose on the overall whole of things, I was and always shall remain first and foremost a Sega boy (half that reason is for Treasure, the other half for their arcade output, with the frosting on top being their general emphasis on gritty and edgy and violent over Nintendo's usual emphasis on cute and cuddly and family friendly). In spite of this however, if I had to pick what I felt was the single greatest console ever produced overall, then while there are some heavy duty contenders, its REALLY hard for me to pick anything other than the SNES. The primary reason being of course its library: at the end of the day screw graphics or fancy tech bullshit, what matters most beyond anything else are the games themselves and whether or not they're any damn good or fun to play. A console is only as good as its game library and the game library is what any console that's worth a damn will live and die on.

And the SNES has on the whole the greatest game library (in terms of both scale, depth, and diversity) of any console that has ever been made to date, with only the Sega Genesis or PS1 coming even remotely close to rivaling and dethroning it.

Now when I praise the SNES library, I of course am not merely talking about all the most well known and most talked about of the heavy hitters. Everyone knows Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Mega Man X, A Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, etc. and we've all discussed and felated those to death (and rightly so). But if all the system had to its name were those usual suspect titles, then while it would still be something beyond wonderful and without question a landmark of gaming that I'd appreciate as much as anyone, those games alone wouldn't put me so over the moon with it compared to some of my other favorite consoles. No, the factor that REALLY pushes the SNES well above and beyond all other consoles and into the stratosphere of legend are all those OTHER lesser sung masterpieces and underplayed hidden gems that few people seem to remember anymore.

The SNES, put simply, has by far and away THE BIGGEST, most fucking MASSIVE back catalog of rarely played, rarely discussed, hidden masterpieces of flawless game design and astounding innovation and expert craftsmanship of execution of any console ever made before or since its release. This console was a once in a lifetime bolt of lightning captured in a bottle of awesome creativity and un-pandering, truly intelligent and boundary pushing game design the likes of which we may never see happen again in our lifetimes.

I say all this in introduction to one of the greatest SNES titles that many of you have probably never even heard of, much less played: Demon's Crest, a tragically forgotten spin-off of Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins series. I'll spare you too many details because honestly I don't want to ruin the experience for those who have never played it. I'll just sum it up thusly: its Super Metroid meets Castlevania meets Mega Man X with some of the most gothic and moody sprite art and horror-inspired atmosphere of any game ever released on the system (that wasn't a Shin Megami Tensei game at least).

Yep that's right: Super Metroid crossed with Castlevania crossed with Mega Man X. With Satanic demons. In the best way possible. And made by Capcom. Go play this. Now.

Have we said Super Ghouls n Ghosts yet? You gotta have Super Ghouls n Ghosts.

WrestleFest (1991)

I played the shit out of this game when I used to frequent the local arcade.  My go to team was Mr. Perfect and Jake "The Snake" Roberts.  My friends still dread the announcer's calls of "MR. PERFECT, PERFECT PLEX!!!!" and "JAKE THE SNAKE, D-D-T!!!!"

Jaquio - I love your analyses and in depth look at these, but could you possibly put a summary or abstract?  Because I tend to do most of my CHUDing at work I don't get to read long entries in their entirety.

But I very much want to know what you think (especially as the games you are talking about are generally ones I've never heard of), so a shorter version for the time constrained (or attention deficited I guess) would be much appreciated :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zhukov 

Have we said Super Ghouls n Ghosts yet? You gotta have Super Ghouls n Ghosts.

Nope. Somehow we did not. We'll just mark that as 188 though cause yeah, it deserves a spot (and Wrestlefest I guess is 190: good arcade title there as well).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

Jaquio - I love your analyses and in depth look at these, but could you possibly put a summary or abstract?  Because I tend to do most of my CHUDing at work I don't get to read long entries in their entirety.

 

But I very much want to know what you think (especially as the games you are talking about are generally ones I've never heard of), so a shorter version for the time constrained (or attention deficited I guess) would be much appreciated :)

Fair enough, sorry. This'll be my last one of the longer sort, cause I already wrote it.

191. Beyond Oasis (Sega Genesis, 1994)

Here's where I completely flush away whatever meager gaming cred I may have gained from my posts in this thread: I've never been a big Zelda fan.

Now now, don't get me wrong: I played and loved more than my fair share of the original NES game as well as nearly all of the hand held Gameboy spinoffs, and I adore the crap out of A Link to the Past as much as anybody. But when Beyond Oasis hit the Genesis in '94 it sorta spoiled me from Zelda games for pretty much forever since then.

Bluntly speaking and totally setting aside things like nostalgia and Link's status as a gaming culture icon to almost borderline rival Mario, Beyond Oasis is just a WAY better Zelda game than most Zelda games.

It does everything that a great Zelda game does (overhead dungeon exploration, phenomenal action/adventure/RPG gameplay, and a generally lengthily quest) but with one key, crucial addition/improvement on the Zelda formula: combat.

What's the one thing about the vast overwhelming majority of Zelda games that's never really evolved? The main physical combat and swordplay. Oh sure, Link get's a ton of sub weapons and fancy items, but at the end of the day the combat in your typical Zelda title tends to be incredibly rote and basic. Mash the attack button and Link swings and swats his sword at shit. The end.

Beyond Oasis takes things MANY steps beyond just that. You're character Ali has a tremendous array of fighting game-like special moves and physical attacks and combos and juggles at his disposal in addition to the usual array of sub weapons and items and magic spells and so forth commonplace to these sorts of games, and all of them control fabulously with the hit detection and overall feel and flow of the combat never anything less than spot on and addictive. In a nutshell, Beyond Oasis is an upper tier Zelda game that also has actual combat depth to its name. Oh and yet again fantastic music here, among the best soundtracks you'll find on the Genesis' library.

And on a surface level, Beyond Oasis ditches the usual dry, samey, boring as hell Western medieval fantasy motif that so many of these kinds of games love and embrace 90% of the time (I should note here that I'm an avid, lifelong hater of MOST, but not necessarily all, things Tolkien-ish and straightforwardly Euro-medieval fantasy) in favor of a very cool Persian setting and game world. Extra points in its favor for doing something refreshingly different in a genre than can't let go of the same damned overused, played to death style of setting each and every fucking time out the gate.

But my stylistic preferences and biases aside, Beyond Oasis is in all honesty just an out and out technically BETTER game than the vast overwhelming majority of the Zelda franchise's output (the primary exception being A Link to the Past, and that's mainly just for the sheer staggering SCOPE of the game's size), with all the same strengths of those games along with infinitely more added depth to the actual fighting and combat mechanics. And the four elemental spirit helpers you gain along the way to aid you are really cool and fun and memorable and add another great, refreshing twist to the usual overhead, dungeon exploring Zelda formula. In spite of its advantages however, this game got a mere single sequel on the Saturn (which wasn't half bad) before being promptly forgotten by just about everyone, while the Zelda franchise just keeps on going and going and going and just gets more and more tired and boring and uninspired and played the fuck out to the tune of ever more perplexing and inexplicable fanfare. Such is life.

I'll always have this puppy though whenever I need a 16 bit dungeon crawling action/RPG fix.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

Jaquio - I love your analyses and in depth look at these, but could you possibly put a summary or abstract?  Because I tend to do most of my CHUDing at work I don't get to read long entries in their entirety.

 

But I very much want to know what you think (especially as the games you are talking about are generally ones I've never heard of), so a shorter version for the time constrained (or attention deficited I guess) would be much appreciated :)

Respectfully, I must disagree.  I am loving Jaquio's posts, they are entertaining and informative and filled with his love for these games.  Please continue or perhaps a Jacquio's Lost Video Game Treasures thread needs to be stickied?
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopTop 

Respectfully, I must disagree.  I am loving Jaquio's posts, they are entertaining and informative and filled with his love for these games.  Please continue or perhaps a Jacquio's Lost Video Game Treasures thread needs to be stickied?
 

 

Gah! Mixed messages. 

Well... eh I'll try and keep this next one a happy medium as best I can.

192. TIE: The Lost Vikings I and II (SNES, 1992 and 1997 respectively)

Not many people seem to remember this, but for awhile there in the early to mid 90's, Blizzard (a company primarily known for its PC titles, most prominent of them these days being the juggernaut MMO and destroyer of countless personal lives and relationships World of Warcraft) made its fair share of 16 bit console titles. The vast majority of them were quite good. And without question the most standout titles within that particular bunch are the two Lost Vikings games.

These games mark two of the best puzzle platformers on the SNES or any other console for that matter (including the many they've both been ported over to). The game's design and basic setup is ingenious: you freely toggle control between a trio of three viking warriors who in the first game are stuck in outer space aboard an alien spacecraft (and in the sequel return to Earth with cybernetic enhancements) with each viking having a different set of skills and weaknesses that contrast with one another.

The key to the game is teamwork: you have to be sure that each of the three vikings are using their individual strengths to compensate and cover for their various weaknesses. Maintaining this precarious balance between each of the three characters in order to overcome the game's many many puzzles and challenging logic problems is what puts these two games over as easily two of the greatest strategy-oriented platformers of the 90's or any other decade.

The icing on the cake is its humor: the beginning and endings of each level are punctuated by witty banter and bickering between the three vikings who all possess clashing personality types, and the writing is for the most part gut bustingly hilarious with some fantastic one liners exchanged by all of them. But above all I cannot stress enough just how palpably ADDICTIVE these two games are. There is no such thing as a brief stint on a Lost Vikings game: once you start playing one, you're glued to it for at least an entire afternoon as hours and hours seem to just melt away and every other outside stimuli just seems to drift away into a sort of vague echoing background noise. Neither of these games are meant to be played if you have something pressingly important that you need to shift your attention to at a later point in the day.

Once again, no list of great 90's classics is complete without either of these games. Both are equally tremendous and among the best titles of the 16 bit era that you'll ever play in terms of design, challenge, and overall fun factor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

Jaquio - I love your analyses and in depth look at these, but could you possibly put a summary or abstract?  Because I tend to do most of my CHUDing at work I don't get to read long entries in their entirety.

 

But I very much want to know what you think (especially as the games you are talking about are generally ones I've never heard of), so a shorter version for the time constrained (or attention deficited I guess) would be much appreciated :)

I sense a frustrated blogger personally.

Jaquio - you need a blog.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

 

Jaquio - you need a blog.

 

Seriously.

The dude* has owned this thread; he could start a prolific retro gaming blog just from these postings alone.

*I say "dude" but what do I know?

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Rain Dog 

I sense a frustrated blogger personally.

 

Jaquio - you need a blog.

 

I more probably need to learn to keep my big stupid trap nailed shut but permanently in all honesty.

Hey, watch me ignore my own advice for the remainder of this post.

193. TIE: Enix's Gaia Trilogy (Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma) (SNES, 1992, 1993 Japan/1994 U.S., and 1995 respectively)

Throughout the 90's Squaresoft were generally recognized in the U.S. as the undisputed kings of the JRPG genre. But while they indeed churned out some of the greatest and most genre defining RPGs of the day, Enix not only produced a stable of titles worthy enough to match them (Brain Lord and The 7^th Saga are games that probably also deserve spots on this list), they were the ones who pretty much CREATED the genre in the first place with their seminal and legendary Dragon Quest/Warrior franchise which dates back to the really early days of the NES.

And for my money, Enix's non-Dragon Quest related masterpiece RPG series was its Gaia trilogy. All three of these games (the latter two Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma in particular) stand as some of the most splendid action/adventure RPGs ever put to a console. Every bit as grand, dense, and excellent as even the best Square titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, the Gaia Trilogy unquestionably belonged in any serious SNES fan's library.

Somehow in spite of Illusion of Gaia being a remarkably HUGE, megahyped title in its day, this series, like so many other fantastic games, goes forgotten and unspoken of in most serious game discussions these days (90's-centric or otherwise). It might in part be because Terranigma came just a hair's breadth away from a U.S. release (to the point of having a full English translation already completely prepared and even used for its European release) before it was quietly canceled for no good reason at the last possible second. It might in part be because modern gamers are fickle, trend-obsessed creatures afflicted with chronic Memento-style Anterorade memory loss.

Whatever the reasons, these three games easily rank among the elite best JRPG's produced within the 90's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

I'm not asking for shorter articles, just the addition of a summary for people who don't have the time to read the whole thing
Far be it for me to tell people how to write.

My apologies, I misunderstood.  thanks to you as well for your tremendous contribution to this thread!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChopTop 

My apologies, I misunderstood.  thanks to you as well for your tremendous contribution to this thread!

 

cheers :)

Genuinely, I am in awe of Jaqio's stuff. I just wish I had the time to read it.  Hell, I wish I had the time to go and play these games again.

How in the fuck these two didn't get brought up at all this far in is beyond me. Chud I am deeply dissapoint.

194. TIE: Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue (Sega CD, 1992 Japan/1993 U.S. and 1994 Japan/1995 U.S. respectively).

Without question two of THE principal reasons to own a Sega CD and further proof positive that anyone who has ever trashed or continues to trash the Sega CD simply due to the glut of godawful, cheese-whiz FMV games that polluted its library while remaining blissfully oblivious to crown jewels such as these two games genuinely has no fucking idea what the hell they're talking about.

Translated and mercifully brought to the United States by Working Designs, a North American licensing outfit that was without a doubt one of the greatest gifts to Western gaming of the 90's who, besides this masterful little duology of JRPGs, were responsible for further bringing to our shores a whole slew of fantastic Japanese titles (primarily for the Sega CD and PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, two consoles infamously stuffed to the gills with mountains of incredible gems that have never left their native Eastern land) that would have in all likelihood otherwise remained in the Land of the Rising Sun without so much as a blip on the radar, and many of which probably deserve spots in this thread. Among them include Popful Mail, the Cosmic Fantasy games, and of course the Exile series, one of the finest JRPG series you'll find outside of the major consoles and infamous for (among other things) having its main and decidedly antihero protagonist be a fanatic Islamic terrorist/assassin (only pre-aughts would anyone so much as ENTERTAIN the idea of allowing such a game to exist on American store shelves much less be sold to children).

Two of the greatest JRPGs from an era that was without question the genre's renaissance, the Lunar games were all you needed to convert any doubters that there was indeed FAR more to the Sega CD than a few shitty Kriss Kross and INXS games. To borrow and paraphrase from a famous pull-quote used for Hard Boiled, the Lunar games were more epic and rich than a dozen Final Fantasies (well, maybe aside from VI). Both games were fabulously remade and re-released in the mid to late 90's on the Sega Saturn and PS1 (with only the PS1 versions making it to North America, once again by way of Working Designs), though tragically the franchise's brand name has since been sullied by ever increasingly shitty and saccharine spin-offs and side games on hand helds (but no direct sequel yet: that's long been a “when pigs fly” pipe dream of hardcore JRPG fans).

Nonetheless the original two games, in whatever version you play them, still stand triumphantly as a crucial piece of the high water mark era of Japanese RPGs that was the 90's.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

 

How in the fuck these two didn't get brought up at all this far in is beyond me. Chud I am deeply dissapoint.

 

194. TIE: Lunar: The Silver Star and Lunar: Eternal Blue (Sega CD, 1992 Japan/1993 U.S. and 1994 Japan/1995 U.S. respectively).

 

 

 

 

 

Without question two of THE principal reasons to own a Sega CD and further proof positive that anyone who has ever trashed or continues to trash the Sega CD simply due to the glut of godawful, cheese-whiz FMV games that polluted its library while remaining blissfully oblivious to crown jewels such as these two games genuinely has no fucking idea what the hell they're talking about.

 

Translated and mercifully brought to the United States by Working Designs, a North American licensing outfit that was without a doubt one of the greatest gifts to Western gaming of the 90's who, besides this masterful little duology of JRPGs, were responsible for further bringing to our shores a whole slew of fantastic Japanese titles (primarily for the Sega CD and PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, two consoles infamously stuffed to the gills with mountains of incredible gems that have never left their native Eastern land) that would have in all likelihood otherwise remained in the Land of the Rising Sun without so much as a blip on the radar, and many of which probably deserve spots in this thread. Among them include Popful Mail, the Cosmic Fantasy games, and of course the Exile series, one of the finest JRPG series you'll find outside of the major consoles and infamous for (among other things) having its main and decidedly antihero protagonist be a fanatic Islamic terrorist/assassin (only pre-aughts would anyone so much as ENTERTAIN the idea of allowing such a game to exist on American store shelves much less be sold to children).

 

Two of the greatest JRPGs from an era that was without question the genre's renaissance, the Lunar games were all you needed to convert any doubters that there was indeed FAR more to the Sega CD than a few shitty Kriss Kross and INXS games. To borrow and paraphrase from a famous pull-quote used for Hard Boiled, the Lunar games were more epic and rich than a dozen Final Fantasies (well, maybe aside from VI). Both games were fabulously remade and re-released in the mid to late 90's on the Sega Saturn and PS1 (with only the PS1 versions making it to North America, once again by way of Working Designs), though tragically the franchise's brand name has since been sullied by ever increasingly shitty and saccharine spin-offs and side games on hand helds (but no direct sequel yet: that's long been a “when pigs fly” pipe dream of hardcore JRPG fans).

 

Nonetheless the original two games, in whatever version you play them, still stand triumphantly as a crucial piece of the high water mark era of Japanese RPGs that was the 90's.

Never played the sequel but the first Lunar is a masterpiece.   And it was funny as hell.   I had Sega CD in mind for this list but this one somehow slipped my mind.   Never played the Gaia series since it never got over here but they look like worthy games.   Great contributions to this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

 Never played the Gaia series since it never got over here but they look like worthy games.   Great contributions to this thread.

To be clear, the first two games (Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia) did indeed make it to the U.S. Soul Blazer was quasi-obscure even back then (though it still got its share of coverage), but Illusion of Gaia was a huge, huge fucking deal even in America at the time of its release. Pretty much every major game magazine and gaming news outlet of the time was hyping it tremendously as the next big thing on SNES (it even made cover story and got a whole series of fucking colossal articles written about it in Nintendo Power) and it made a huge splash upon its release. It was only in the years following its original release that it somehow got inexplicably buried ever further in obscurity. Terranigma is the only one that never made it to U.S. shores, and even then like I said it only just barely missed coming here. It did get a European release where the full English translation that was going to be used in its American release was included, so any chewers that are from the UK might've played it.

#195. "WCW vs. nWo World Tour" (Nintendo 64, 1997)

With all the wrestling fans on this site, I can't believe this thread has gone on this long without any mention of the pro wrestling game with by far the best engine a pro wrestling game has ever had. The game play of this was so simple, yet so inventive. I don't understand why every pro wrestling game since hasn't just blatantly ripped the game play off, while updating the graphics. This was also the template/prototype for the greatest pro wrestling game of all time (2000's immortal "WWF No Mercy").

When a friend of mine first got this game...I don't think I was ever as jealous of someone for having a game as I was over this one. It was a wrestling fan's dream come true with all the moves available to do from North American, Mexican, and Japanese wrestling. The unbelievably dynamic control scheme was a huge leap forward from the arcade-style wrestling games on the 16-bit consoles.

When I finally got an N64 and WWF games came out with this engine, I played the hell out of them. There aren't many games I've spent more hours on than "WWF Wrestlemania 2000" and "WWF No Mercy". To this day, the latter is still my go-to-game for a few hours of mindless fun and to get some stress out by beating the hell out of people in endlessly creative ways.

196. Secret of Mana (SNES, 1993)

Released in America originally as its own original game, this was actually the direct sequel to a Gameboy RPG that was retitled and re-branded as a Final Fantasy spinoff in North America at a time when it seemed to be conventional wisdom among U.S. marketing suits that the only way a JRPG could sell in America was if it carried the Final Fantasy brand.

Secret of Mana is yet another of the many, many, endless major groundbreaking titles within the JRPG genre that Japan seemed to be cranking out during a time when it seemed like they'd never run out of ways to continuously reinvent, perfect, and innovate their formula (ahem, of course they eventually did, at least for the time being, but that's getting way ahead of things and is suited more to a gaming discussion regarding the decade immediately following this thread's target era).

One of the biggest, most densest quests you'll ever undertake in an RPG on ANY platform, 16 bit or otherwise, Mana's standout feature was the fact that it was multiplayer. Yep you read that right: a multiplayer JRPG. Unheard of right? It gets better: it actually supported up to THREE players via multitap. Three player Mana is an unbelievably fun, and absolutely required experience for classic JRPG dorks.

Again, this is required owning (and playing) for any truly serious SNES collector and is yet another title I'm stunned nobody thought to bring up until now. Like Gaia, this game was a big, big, big deal during its original release, deservedly so. And unlike Gaia it actually still retains a very good sized following (helped by the fact that the series its part of is still ongoing as of at least the previous console gen before present).

That its direct and equally masterful sequel (the third in its series, also on SNES) never left Japan at all much less got brought over the the U.S. is easily one of the single biggest disappointments of the later lifespan of Nintendo's 16 bit juggernaut.  

And since we're fast closing in on 200, I'm sneaking this next one in because it both deserves it and due to how much regard I hold for it.

197. Breath of Fire II (SNES, 1994 Japan/1995 U.S.)

Capcom's foray into JRPGs is an interesting one. The original Breath of Fire (also on SNES, and also worthy in its own right of inclusion on this list) was a joint production between Squaresoft and Capcom. Story goes that Squaresoft actually offered Capcom assistance with the game's development since Capcom had up till then been largely inexperienced with text-heavy RPGs of any sort.

Capcom certainly took whatever they learned from Square's brain trust to heart, since they not only didn't need any help developing this masterpiece, it stands as a gargantuan improvement over its predecessor in just about every way. This game sports ridiculously rewarding and incredibly deep gameplay evidenced within a number of its features: notably there's the Shaman Fusion system, whereupon you can fuse one of a number of different female shaman magicians with any of your party members to buff certain stats or possibly even create an entirely new, original character outright.

And of course there's the “Township” mechanic where you actually build your own town from scratch and populate it with a large array of random, homeless characters you happen across throughout the game. Some of these characters will open up special shops that offer you incredible items or services not found anywhere else in the game. Others... do dick all. And you only have a certain amount of real estate to offer before you run out of space to rent, so you have to choose very, very wisely who you let into your growing community at the risk that they might just be one of the deadbeats. And how you build your town even directly impacts the game's plot and dictates the outcome of one of its several endings.

Speaking of which, that's the other notable aspect of the game: its story. Or rather how it was treated when it was brought over to the U.S. Nintendo (particularly Nintendo of America) has always been infamous for its iron hand in maintaining its squeaky clean, family friendly image, often most negatively manifesting in their way overboard censorship standards. Somehow or another, Breath of Fire II made it to North America Nintendo of America approved and almost completely unscathed and without almost any alteration or censorship. Why is that notable you might ask?

Because the game's story DEEPLY centers around religion (one of the most taboo of taboo subjects that Nintendo was extra thorough in stamping out of their American released games at the time). Not only that, but the story is a rather blatant and barely disguised anti-Catholic and pro-Eastern religion screed. I'm completely serious. A game that is rather baseball-bat-to-the-face blunt in its message of “Catholics are vile, hateful psychopaths that brainwash, torture, and kill people while Eastern religions of the Buddhist/Taoist sort are completely innocent, innocuous, and harmless” being sold to completely oblivious, cherub faced children from wholesome, God-fearing homes under Nintendo of America's family values approved seal is one of those moments in 90's gaming that just brings a smile to my face and a tear to my eye.

I don't know how in the atomic powered fuck something of this Midwestern soccer mom-offending magnitude slipped under Nintendo of America's generally vigilant and Eagle-eyed radar, but I'm damned ecstatic that it did. And I'm doubly impressed that the game once again made it through A SECOND TIME without so much as a batted eye or a line of dialogue altered when it was ported over to and re-released on the GBA in the very early 2000's. You'd think if not the first time then DEFINITELY the second time somebody would've noticed, raised an eyebrow, and voiced concern, but for whatever reason... nope, anti-Catholicism is a-okay as presented here. Unreal.

Without question my second favorite JRPG of all time behind Phantasy Star IV (with Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Shining Force II rounding out the top 5).

#198 . SIM CITY (SNES 1991)

This game got me into the wonderful world of Sim City. It was wonderful, simple and just a blast to play.

I feel bad about hogging too many of these, but I couldn't let this close out without at least one entry from the Streets of Rage series making it on here.

199. TIE: Streets of Rage 2 and Bare Knuckle III (Streets of Rage III) (Sega Genesis, 1992 and 1994 respectively)

One of the finest and most technical playing beat em ups to ever grace a 16 bit console. Semi-famously there were a number of alterations made to the game from its transition from Japan the the U.S. Most of them were minor and cosmetic (including uglier color palettes for the main characters and a blatantly gay leather daddy stereotype of a mid boss getting axed), however there was one crucial alteration, and its the principal reason that the Japanese version (Streets of Rage was titled Bare Knuckle in its native Japan) gets top priority here over the U.S. version.

For some totally inexplicable reason, some moron at Sega of America saw fit to re-balance the game's difficulty and damage ratio, and without mincing words they did a sloppy, piss-poor job of it. The game in its original incarnation was already carefully balanced to absolute perfection, but the U.S. version makes the game stupidly over-hard, to a point bordering on unfair/fake difficulty. If you're a difficulty masochist (and admittedly I'm a proud one myself) the U.S. version is certainly good for some laughs. Otherwise its Japanese Bare Knuckle III all the way.

Streets of Rage in general is one of the greatest series of 16 bit brawlers of the decade and the games are practically synonymous with gaming in the 90's, with the third entry easily being the deepest and most refined of the bunch. My close second favorite 1^st party Sega franchise behind Shinobi.

EDIT: I decided upon further thinking it over that fuck it, Streets of Rage 2 deserves a mention also.

Because while the 3rd game may technically be the best in its original form, its horribly kneecapped U.S. release took a great amount of sheen off of it for many. SoR2 however did not have this issue and it stands perhaps as among the most iconic and widely beloved beat em ups of all time. And rightfully so: it may lack many of the refinements made to the gameplay by Bare Knuckle III, but it still stands out as a masterpiece of excellent beat em up goodness. The soundtrack in particular is among the greatest ever produced (and I mean within the whole damn medium of video games, never mind limiting things to just any one decade or platform or genre) and the levels and bosses themselves along with whole damn experience of playing it are simply unforgettable. This one's the definition of iconic within 90's gaming and its greatness is in no way artificially fluffed by nostalgia: it does all the heavy lifting just fine on its own on the strength of the obvious great care and craft that went into its design.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

I more probably need to learn to keep my big stupid trap nailed shut but permanently in all honesty.

 

No way!  Keep 'em coming!

And you really should consider writing a blog; you've already proven that you have an aptitude for writing about games.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

 

I feel bad about hogging too many of these, but I couldn't let this close out without at least one entry from the Streets of Rage series making it on here.

 

199. Bare Knuckle III (Streets of Rage III) (Sega Genesis, 1994)

 

 

 

One of the finest and most technical playing beat em ups to ever grace a 16 bit console. Semi-famously there were a number of alterations made to the game from its transition from Japan the the U.S. Most of them were minor and cosmetic (including uglier color palettes for the main characters and a blatantly gay leather daddy stereotype of a mid boss getting axed), however there was one crucial alteration, and its the principal reason that the Japanese version (Streets of Rage was titled Bare Knuckle in its native Japan) gets top priority here over the U.S. version.

 

For some totally inexplicable reason, some moron at Sega of America saw fit to re-balance the game's difficulty and damage ratio, and without mincing words they did a sloppy, piss-poor job of it. The game in its original incarnation was already carefully balanced to absolute perfection, but the U.S. version makes the game stupidly over-hard, to a point bordering on unfair/fake difficulty. If you're a difficulty masochist (and admittedly I'm a proud one myself) the U.S. version is certainly good for some laughs. Otherwise its Japanese Bare Knuckle III all the way.

 

Streets of Rage in general is one of the greatest series of 16 bit brawlers of the decade and the games are practically synonymous with gaming in the 90's, with the third entry easily being the deepest and most refined of the bunch. My close second favorite 1^st party Sega franchise behind Shinobi.

They also did a horrendous job with the story translation.

I still need to give the Japanese SoR3 an honest go, since I've only played up to the aforementioned leather daddy, so I wont say I disagree just yet. Bare Knuckle 3 might very well be a masterpiece compared to its gimped US cousin. But what i will remember most is Yuzo Koshiro handing in an atonal fucking mess of a score for a series that lives and dies by how amazing the score is. That hurts almost as much as the gameplay feeling all sorts of wrong.

Secret of Mana would be in the Top 3 of any videogame soundtrack reckoning, I think.

Also: SimCity2000 PC > SimCity SNES. I think any reasonable person would agree to this.

EDIT: Not try to be a jerk about it, of course. Let the debate commence!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

They also did a horrendous job with the story translation.

 

I still need to give the Japanese SoR3 an honest go, since I've only played up to the aforementioned leather daddy, so I wont say I disagree just yet. Bare Knuckle 3 might very well be a masterpiece compared to its gimped US cousin. But what i will remember most is Yuzo Koshiro handing in an atonal fucking mess of a score for a series that lives and dies by how amazing the score is. That hurts almost as much as the gameplay feeling all sorts of wrong.

I didn't even go into the story (bearing in mind that this is a brawler and how infinitesimally few people there must be in existence who play these things for the plot), but yeah assuming one pays attention to it the storyline in both games resemble one another in utterly no way, shape, or form. 

Take my word though if NOTHING else that Bare Knuckle III's gameplay is absolutely lightyears beyond either of its two predecessors. There's a dizzying amount of new moves and richly deep new gameplay tics added to the fighting engine, just about every single one of them enriching how the game plays in the most major and microscopic of ways. It's much harder to appreciate those things when the U.S. version is going well beyond out of its way to overload the game with enough blatantly artificial, table slanted, deck-stacked-against-you fake difficulty to almost (almost) rival even the most shamelessly cheap and shitty designed arcade title, but believe me when that's out of the way and no longer a factor (as it is in the Japanes BKIII), the game's super-nuanced mechanics shine right through front and center and its a joy to behold and play, putting this one easily ahead of its brethren (though all the same I'll always have a major, major soft spot for Streets of Rage II to the point where I almost considered tying that game with this one in my post). 

There's a damn, damn good reason why the recent (and utterly pants crappingly excellent) fan game Streets of Rage Remake based the majority of how its fighting engine works off of how Bare Knuckle III did things rather than the first two: because its just that much more advanced and rewarding.

And as far as the music goes: its no classic compared to the first two for sure, but I can't in good conscience hold a lesser soundtrack against a game that plays this fantastic. Great game music is something that I adore as much as the next person, but at no point does soundtrack (or any other attribute for that matter be it graphics or storyline) ever > over gameplay. Gameplay first. Always.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

 

And as far as the music goes: its no classic compared to the first two for sure, but I can't in good conscience hold a lesser soundtrack against a game that plays this fantastic. Great game music is something that I adore as much as the next person, but at no point does soundtrack (or any other attribute for that matter be it graphics or storyline) ever > over gameplay. Gameplay first. Always.

Truth. That said, part of what raised Street of Rage over its contemporaries for me was that soundtrack. This will sound like so much awful PR-speak, but while so many others tried feeling like some epic street battle was happening, its really one of the only video game series of the decade that at the time actually both felt and sounded URBAN. Part 3 just sticks out like a sore thumb in that regard.

Submitted for approval:

Not that music is that much a dealbreaker, especially if the gameplay was better, but in no way does 3's score evoke the mood of the first.

lol bitstep

Wait, forget I said that, lest it become a thing.

EDIT: TOO LATE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOx8J49O208&feature=related
 

  Well, I can live with it.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

Truth. That said, part of what raised Street of Rage over its contemporaries for me was that soundtrack. This will sound like so much awful PR-speak, but while so many others tried feeling like some epic street battle was happening, its really one of the only video game series of the decade that at the time actually both felt and sounded URBAN. Part 3 just sticks out like a sore thumb in that regard.

 

Submitted for approval:

 

This..... (Click to show)

 

 

 

 

 

Turned into....this. (Click to show)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not that music is that much a dealbreaker, especially if the gameplay was better, but in no way does 3's score evoke the mood of the first.

From one Streets of Rage fan to another, by all means when you get a chance do yourself a huge favor and download and play the fan game Streets of Rage Remake (Version 5). It isn't just an amazing fan project (and one of the most painstaking ones, with its origins going as far back as 2003 to its completion which was barely even a year ago: this was without a doubt a labor of immense love), they went ahead and made what is unquestionably not only THE ABSOLUTE GREATEST possible Streets of Rage game (that effortlessly outdoes all three of the original games in every possible way) but also one of the single greatest and densest beat em ups of all time. I couldn't be more serious here. Its THAT goddamned excellent and absolutely worth your time to track down and play ASAP.

If I gave you a rundown of all the options and gameplay enhancements that were made to the game, you frankly would not believe me at all and would think I was completely exaggerating or fluffing it up as a favor to someone. Except I wouldn't be at all. I'll say this though: they went ahead and not only remixed the entire soundtrack, they actually went and made it BETTER than the original. By miles. No, really.

Don't believe me? If you need some form of incentive beyond my pissing myself in ecstasy like a goon over the game, have a sample of some of the remixed tracks. For comparison's sake, here's the two original tracks (from SoR 2 and 1 respectively):

And now the two tracks, remixed and sexed up.

Lets put this another way: this thing's been out for about close to a year now and I'm STILL playing the hell out of it. Quite regularly. Its insanely addicting, infinitely replayable, and awesome beyond anyone's wildest imaginings.

Since we're almost done with the 90's, are we going to go up to 2012 for the next list?

My love for this game knows no Bounds.

Aw hell with it, I know I've been a motor mouth this whole thread, but since I don't see anyone else jumping at the chance to do so, I think I'll officially close this motherfucker out.

It was hard to pick a final entry since a LOT of terrific stuff got glossed over and missed entirely throughout this thread (and its a testament to what a tremendous decade filled bursting to the seams with quality the 90's were for gaming that so much stuff both important and just plain fantastic was completely passed over), but I figured I'll give another one of my favorite franchise's some proper recognition on here since only one entry in it (albeit one of the absolute best) made the list way back at the beginning. But as great as that iteration was, these next three are in their own ways just as phenomenal.

TIE: 200. Super Castlevania IV, Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, and Castlevania: Bloodlines (SNES, PC Engine, and Sega Genesis, 1991, 1993, and 1994 respectively).

Konami's landmark Castlevania franchise is among the finest and most influential 2D action platforming series among the upper echelons of classic gaming. Symphony of the Night on PS1 got its proper and well deserved due on this list, but all three of these belong alongside it for their own various reasons (as does Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on the NES, but I didn't include that because it only qualifies as a 90's title for its U.S. release: it came out in Japan in '89, putting it into an odd, hard to peg middle ground in terms of which decade its applicable to) and all of them form the absolute pinnacle of this incomparably excellent franchise.

Super Castlevania IV may well rank as the absolute best playing of all the “straightforward classic” Castlevania titles (it was certainly among my most played to death games growing up). Taking the NES formula and giving it the same magnitude of a kick in the ass that Sega gave their Shinobi franchise with Shinobi III, Super Castlevania IV does everything that the original classic series did in its 8 bit era, but WAY better an with more polish and extra features than ever before.

No pre-Metroid Castlevania controls as superbly or as flawlessly as this one, and the degree of movement freedom and array of attacks at Simon Belmont's disposal here is totally unmatched by any Castlevania up till Symphony (this being the first Castlevania to introduce, among many other things, multi-directional whipping and the ability to latch your whip onto hooks and swing across chasms, Indiana Jones-style).

And the level designs and boss battles also deserve special mention for just how amazing and unforgettable each and every one of them is, along with the soundtrack which does not disappoint and remains on the same high levels of craft as any of the best titles in the franchise, further establishing this series' reputation as having one of the singularly definitive and greatest composed of all video game soundtracks.

Not to be outdone, Rondo of Blood on the PC Engine (once again, that'd be the TurboGrafx-16 to the rest of us dwelling in North America) stands as among the greatest of the pre-Symphony Castlevanias, and also until very recently (when it was finally given a proper international release: twice over even on two different platforms!) perhaps the most tragically unknown and underplayed.

A legend among hardcore fans of this series and 2D gaming in general, Rondo of Blood was infamously and for many years one of the most sought after Holy Grails of excellent Japanese titles that went unreleased to a wider international audience (many a hardcore 90's gamer probably has ancient back issues of EGM lying around somewhere from back in the day with the pages of the articles on this game suspiciously stuck together: I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm no different there), largely due to the fact that it was on NEC's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16, one of the best consoles of the 16 bit era that sadly never got its due outside its home country since just about nearly every single one of the greatest games in its library was never given any kind of release outside Japan. The fact that outside of this, next to zero PC Engine titles were given any love here is a testament to how unfairly unrecognized that incredible console was and remains still, as there are so very, very many titles on it (almost none of which ever saw the light of day outside Japan) that are without a doubt among the absolute greatest and most defining games of the 90's and the 16 bit era of consoles.

Rondo of Blood is no exception: as a Castlevania title, it acts as a harbinger and a sort of trial run for the non-linear gameplay that would later be perfected to the hilt (with a whole lot of help and influence from Super Metroid) in PS1's Symphony of the Night, offering the player some of the biggest, most densest and ingeniously designed level layouts of any game in the Castlevania franchise or in 2D gaming as a whole up to the mid 90's, with many alternate routes and branching pathes and alternate boss battles to their credit. And beyond the stellar enemies and bosses (so stellar that a good chunk of them would be shamelessly sprite ripped and re-used wholesale for Symphony) the soundtrack also, once again, stands out (as is the case with virtually all quality Castlevania titles) as among the most epic and awesome you'll ever hear belting out of 16 bit hardware. It should since this is technically I believe the very first (and certainly of course not the last) Castlevania soundtrack to finally make use of CD quality redbook audio.

The game was technically “ported” onto the SNES in 1995, but “ported” isn't the right word to use so much as out and out remade and reworked from the ground up. Released in North America as simply Castlevania: Dracula X (and in Japan as Dracula XX to distinguish it from its PC Engine cousin, and in Europe as Castlevania V: Vampire's Kiss) this version of the game takes many of the same basic ideas and even borrows sprite art and attacks, but is virtually a whole different game unto itself. It has its charms; the background art is technically superior to its PC Engine counterpart, and the gameplay is very good and the challenge among the steepest in the series. But the lack of the magnificent level designs and alternating routes (and the insanely fun to use hidden playable character from the PC Egnine version, Maria Renard) puts this one in the shadow of its sister game, and while still great, it remains a footnote to the huge achievement in 2D action platforming that is the original Rondo.

Finally we come to the one and only Genesis entry in the series, Castlevania: Bloodlines. Easily the darkest, moodiest, and most graphically violent game in the series up to that point, Bloodlines backs up its brooding, creepy, grim-dark aesthetic with all the superb, flawless gameplay one would expect out of this series. Taking its cues slightly (but to nowhere near the same extent) from Rondo of Blood, there are occasionally a few bits in the levels that diverge from linearity for a spell: but primarily what puts this game up among the greats is its fantastic sense of gothic imagination, stellar gameplay, and boss battles that easily rival (if not arguably surpass) the show stoppers found on Super Castlevania IV, along with some of the coolest, most imaginatively psychedelic and unsettlingly trippy visuals and sprite effects ever seen on a 16 bit platform (with the Leaning Tower of Pisa level as a particular standout in that regard).

The Castlevania franchise is still among the most beloved and respected 2D action franchises of them all, and the 90's were IMMENSELY kind to it as a whole, with not only these titles, but also the crown jewel that is Symphony of the Night ranking among the great heavyweight titles that put the 90's over as still the standard setting era for the video game medium, and still unmatched as a whole in terms of creativity, execution, and innovation, regardless of all the superficially impressive (but generally hollow, uninteresting, and artistically bankrupt in terms of their overall use in this chewer's opinion) technology that would come about in the following decade.

EDIT: Fuck, I just noticed after I posted this that someone just posted Earthbound (another game that by all means deserves to be on here). Crap. Sorry. 

I love you, man.

I'm also happy someone else doesn't take a giant shit all over the SNES Dracula X. Next to Rondo of Blood, it's a pale imitator. Next to other 16-bit titles, it's pretty damned impressive, especially from the technical standpoint. I love the Irish funeral the SNES got, where it was basically Capcom and Konami basically saying "let's push this fucker as far as it'll go, prudence be damned."

And hallelujah, someone else gives Bloodlines its due. So fucking underrated. There are little gimmicks in that game I've still never seen topped, even by the newer Castlevania games. Namely, the split-level mirror trickery in the final stages.

Honorable Mention:

Best Pinball Game of the 90's:

Since this was a video game thread, this title wouldn't really qualify but this game probably took more tokens from me than many video games in the arcade.    What made it special was the board design, integration of theme and the crazy 6 ball multi-ball.   There might have been technically better pinball games out there but this one was FUN.  Here's a gameplay video that really doesn't do this justice....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

I love you, man.

 

I'm also happy someone else doesn't take a giant shit all over the SNES Dracula X. Next to Rondo of Blood, it's a pale imitator. Next to other 16-bit titles, it's pretty damned impressive, especially from the technical standpoint. I love the Irish funeral the SNES got, where it was basically Capcom and Konami basically saying "let's push this fucker as far as it'll go, prudence be damned."

 

And hallelujah, someone else gives Bloodlines its due. So fucking underrated. There are little gimmicks in that game I've still never seen topped, even by the newer Castlevania games. Namely, the split-level mirror trickery in the final stages.

In fairness, I USED to be one of those people who took a giant shit all over SNES Dracula X once upon a time. But you have to understand something about why that game gets so much hate: PC Engine Rondo of Blood was a RABIDLY sought after game in the early/mid-ish 90's importing scene. The SNES game got a North American release for a reason: people were CLAMORING for a U.S. release of Rondo like nobodies business. The game was deceptively billed (in the U.S. in particular) during the lead up to its release as in fact a straight up port of Rondo. When word came at the time that we were getting a port of this game on SNES, I was practically bouncing off of the fucking walls.

The disappointment and resentment felt by just about every Western Castlevania fan when that game turned out to be anything but a straight port of Rondo was fucking PALPABLE. Expectations and dishonest marketing are the source of the bile that gets thrown that game's way. I was myself an early fan of Rondo during its original release (I was heavily into video game importing all throughout the 90's) and wanted that game to get a real international release so badly I could scarcely contain myself. The SNES version turning out to be a fake-out caused me to spew no end of vile obscenities in that game's direction for years, and I certainly was not alone in that sentiment.

But time along with some distance and perspective heals all wounds, and it was only in the years following its original release that I came to understand, forgive, and love it for what it is rather than what myself and many others so desperately were hoping it would be.

Also a high five on the incredible blow-out that Konami and Capcom gave the SNES in its final couple of years. Remember Capcom's whole “God Bless the SNES” marketing campaign around late '95/early '96 or so? Sending that system off on a combination of games as orgasmically perfect as Final Fight 3, Breath of Fire II, and Mega Man X3 (yet another title that somebody deserves a punch in the face for not including: its not only my favorite Mega Man X game, its also my pick for the absolute greatest Mega Man game period of the whole damn franchise by a long shot) was the kind of thing that still kept me positively glued to my SNES, even as tons of exciting and awesome new stuff on the Saturn was first getting released (no love for the original Virtual On in this thread by the by: for shame again chewers).

And as far as Bloodlines go: well yeah. If you were a Genesis owner/collector and you didn't have that game sitting proudly up front, you frankly didn't know what was what about that system.

The 16 (and early to mid 32) bit era in particular (with special mention going to the later-most 8 bit era as well) stands out for me still as the single best golden age of gaming as a whole. You had the SNES and Genesis duking it out front and center for dominance with both consoles having some of the greatest third party support of any console in all of gaming history (Treasure, Squaresoft, Enix, Capcom, Konami, Natsume, Technos, Compile, and an endless parade more, all at the top of their game) and off to the sidelines you also had stuff like PC Engine, Sega CD, and Neo Geo filling in the margins with material that oftentimes could just as easily upstage what was going on with the main event consoles (let it be known that nowhere NEAR enough Neo Geo titles got their due on this list).

Arcades were still going strong and constantly innovating some damned impressive technology and gameplay ideas (we can thank Sega and their original Model 1 and Model 2 hardware for pretty much single handedly introducing the rest of gaming to polygonal graphics, changing the landscape forever) and all the best developers of that industry were at their technical and creative peaks from Namco, Irem, Data East, SNK, Capcom, Midway, Taito, Sega, and so on down the line. I will always, ALWAYS maintain that the late 80's into the late 90's were the REAL golden age of arcades, and not the late 70's and early 80's. Just because so many people these days don't seem to have heard of or played too many of the incredibly ahead of their time games that came out of the 90's arcade industry (especially from the Japanese developers) doesn't mean they didn't exist and it doesn't negate how fantastic and still timelessly playable so many of them remain still (as my MAME playlist will attest).

We had the widest array of genre diversity the industry has ever seen yet, with many of the best gaming genres at the top of their form and enjoying an incredible renaissance of creativity and constant innovation (JRPGs, fighting games, beat em ups, scrolling shooters, graphic adventure games, tactical strategy titles, puzzle games, and even first person shooters over on DOS PC back during a time when they weren't catering exclusively to morons). Handhelds still had a ways to go yet and were definitely the weak link in the 90's chain, but overall this was without question the single greatest, most fun and exciting time to be a gamer, and I thank my lucky stars that I was as deeply into it and a part of it as I was back then.

With the way things are going now, I doubt we'll see another high water mark of that magnitude ever again. Its sad, but I'll always treasure the time period and certainly enjoyed the absolute hell out of it while it lasted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

Also a high five on the incredible blow-out that Konami and Capcom gave the SNES in its final couple of years. Remember Capcom's whole “God Bless the SNES” marketing campaign around late '95/early '96 or so? Sending that system off on a combination of games as orgasmically perfect as Final Fight 3, Breath of Fire II, and Mega Man X3.

I also loved that Capcom was batshit crazy enough to try and fit Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the SNES, and ALMOST fucking pulled it off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

 

196. Secret of Mana (SNES, 1993)

 

 

 

 

Again, this is required owning (and playing) for any truly serious SNES collector and is yet another title I'm stunned nobody thought to bring up until now.

 

I genuinely cannot fekking believe I forgot this game, yet I remembered stuff like Dragon. Muppet.  This game was nothing short of amazing and yet it had completely left my brain. Shocking.

Yeah, we're at 200 and didn't even mention Daytona 500, the original Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, and so many other titles.   I think 200 is a good cut off but it just shows how incredible the 90's were that there's still some masterpieces not mentioned.

Shadow Man (1999)

only the Dreamcast one, which was the best, and didn't have the flaws that other versions had. Hugely atmospheric horror action game with a really cool apocalyptic storyline, great graphics and voice work, and amazing music. Sort of like Tomb Raider, if you replaced the tits and the archaeology with voodoo and serial killers. I AM THE LORD OF DEADSIDE!

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

Honorable Mention:

 

Best Pinball Game of the 90's:

 

 

 

Since this was a video game thread, this title wouldn't really qualify but this game probably took more tokens from me than many video games in the arcade.    What made it special was the board design, integration of theme and the crazy 6 ball multi-ball.   There might have been technically better pinball games out there but this one was FUN.  Here's a gameplay video that really doesn't do this justice....

 

No... there is another...

Final Fantasy Tactics (1998)

Definitely should have had a spot somewhere on this list. Yeah, it ripped off Tactics Ogre but it is still the best isometric TRPG ever made and features the kind of storytelling that Square Enix just stopped doing soon afterward.