Top 10 Video Games of the 90s

Here, we will take a look at the top 10 video games of the 1990s.From the highly addictive games sprite-based graphicsof NES to the comparatively highly advanced 3D graphics of Dreamcast, this decade encompassed four generations of innovative gaming. Filled with ska music and ragged shirts, this was the era which also gave games with unique abilities and high replay value. So lets go through some of the games which set the foundation stone for the home consoles prevalent today.

#10 Resident Evil 1996

Playstation would be nowhere without this game’s advent as the horror and gore genre has been a trademark for Playstation over the years and it was marked by Resident Evil in 1997 when all other such games were seeming too cartoon-like.

Release by Capcom, it could truly frighten a player and was very much matured for its time. It’s not a big surprise that its success resulted in many comic books, novels and novelizations, sound dramas and movies coming out on the same subject.

#9 Cricket 97

Amongst all action-packed or adventure games, the sports genre was dying in the gaming industry. In came Cricket 97, developed by Melbourne House and published by EA Sports.

With some enriching commentary from legends Richie Benaud and Ian Botham, the game still is the only game which included video interludes of commentators between key incidents during a match. Though the players remaines as patchy cartoon figures, there was a massive improvement in terms of the stadiums being three-dimensional.

#8 Myst

At a time when PC games were meeting a downfall, Myst was the first game to be released on CD-Roms and its graphics were much ahead of its time. The game’s visual precision was such that the gamer actually felt that he was in that world.

And the main aspect of the game was the environment which was the only interaction that the player’s character could have with the world. It turned out to be one of the best-selling PC games of that era, along with Doom.

#7 Doom

Some of the movie afficionados may remember Dwayne Johnson acting in a movie by the same name. For the unknown, this movie was adapted by this thrilling game of the 90’s which , developed by idSoftware had everything that action games have in the present scenario – blood, guns (LOTS OF THEM) and, most importantly, aliens (AGAIN, LOTS OF THEM!). The innovative storyline of the game made it a primary forerunner in the best critical game of the 90s.

#6 Donkey Kong Country

Released on November 21, 1994 in North America, it was the first game under this franchise which was not developed by the original creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. And it paid off, with the game selling over nine milliion copies around the world, along with garnering humungous critical success.

The prime objective of this game is to complete forty different leveles and recover the banana treasure of the Kong, stolen by the Kremlings. Such was the popularity of the game that it was re-released in 2000 for GameBoy Colour.

#5 Pokemon Red/Blue

In comes the franchise which revolutionized the era of cartoons and lives of many children with a number of commercial products being sold with its name – Pokemon. Starting this legacy was GameFreak who developed this game and Nintendo, who published it.

Here, the player controls the character from an overhead camera, trying to fulfil the primary goal of becoming the champion of the Pokemon League by defeating the eight Gym Leaders. The exciting Pokedex is one of the many other additional challeneges that the game has to offer, making it an enthralling franchise for the avid gamer.

#4 Super Mario 64

Awarded the Game of the Year in 1996, Super Mario 64 is the best -selling Nintendo 64 game of all-time. It established the fundamentals of 3D gaming with a story and setting that was interesting and visually impressive.

It was also the first game to use the free camera where the player could control it from the character itself. Such was the widespread reception of this game that by June 2007, it became the second most popular title on Wii’s Virtual Console.

#3 Street Fighter II

Developed by Capcom in 1991, this game was touted as one of the best in gameplay as it was the first game to invole multiplayer action through a single medium rather than just concentrating on high-scores.

Along with the perfect accuracy of the joystick, the graphics were accurately detailed as well. The widely-acclaimed franchise also had a combo mechanic introduced in it which was an instant success. It’s impact matched that of Pacman in the 80’s, which is saying a lot.

#2 Tetris

Having a close fight for the no.1 position, Tetris was developed by The Bullet-Proof software in collaboration with Nintendo and was the first compatible game for the Game Boy Game Link Cable, used for the multiplay option between two GameBoys.

In this game, a pseudorandom sequence of shapes composed of four square blocks of each fall on the playing field and the objective of the gamer is to manipulate these blocks in a way that they form a straight line, which then disappears. Once the gamer creates enough straight lines to make the whole playing field dissappear, the player wins.

#1 The Legend Of Zelda

Personally, this game just had to be at the top of the list even though it was developed slightly earlier but still maintained its position at the gaming pinnacle in the 90s. Developed and published by Nintendo in 1986, The Legend of Zelda is a highly popular action-fantasy themed franchise., whose story centres around the main character Link who has to rescue Princess Zelda and Hyrule from Ganondorf, the main antagonist of the game.

The popularity of the game was such that an animated series based on the games was aired in USA in 1989, while individual Manga adaptations were construed officially with Nintendo’s permission in 1997.