Agree for C&C:RA. I easily spent hundreds of hours playing that game. But would you believe they were all on the PS1? (family didn't have a PC in the 90s 🫤)
Hard to pick one but if I had to I'd go with Final Fantasy VII since it was the game that got me into RPGs, and I got some good memories of watching my brother play it when we were kids.
@[email protected]@[email protected] Those are some excellent choices. I'd pick quake for multiplayer - and SS2 for single. Honorable mention to Dune 2.
My favorite games as a child growing up in the 90s:
Zelda OoT
Super Mario 64
Pokemon Red
Zelda OoA/OoS
Though after later playing Final Fantasy 7 in 2003 that quickly captivated me and became really special to me. It was my first Final Fantasy I ever played and one of my most cherished games to this day.
Also, while I never played the original 90s game, I absolutely adored Black Mesa and the Half Life franchise. It was damn impressive what Valve accomplished with the original Half Life back then.
Yes, I spent many years with red/blue/yellow, but I have to say, gold/silver were the most bang for the buck. I remember reading so many articles about what the new game would have (day night cycle, radio with daily lottery system, weekly events, new pokeball types, holding/berry systems, etc.) and they delivered on absolutely everything in spades. It was only after I beat the elite four that I realized you could go back to kanto and do 8 more gyms! It was by far the most satisfied I have ever been with a new release to a series. I have since read that the devs were under the impression that it would be the last game in the franchise (lol!) so they poured everything into it. And it shows.
World was a little friendlier, especially with the extra power up and Yoshis. But it's the kind of game I can't go back and play anymore. I played it a ton back then and I'm satisfied with it to never want to play it again. But 3, I can't get enough of.
Pretty sure you can get a modern copy of TA. Either on steam or gog.
And if you like the general style but want to broaden your horizons a bit, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and Planetary Annihilation: Titans are both good options!
Fallout. I'm yet to play the second part and people say it's even better.
You just don't see such game design anymore, I can't say modern or old one is better, both have their advantages but playing Fallout was totally worth it
I replayed Spyro recently, and honestly, I felt like it didn't hold up. It felt like the objective was to get all of the gems, but there was no reward for getting gems. And maybe because it was a kids game, I just felt like it was way too easy. You could basically just walk to the end of each level, skip any gems and dragons that weren't in the main path to the exit of the level, and finish the game in a couple of hours. I also felt like the level design was kind of wonky. Like, there were paths where you would follow to a dead end just to get gems, and there was nothing else there. That's fine if that happens a couple of times in the game, but it was like this like 4 or 5 time per level.
Spyro 2 was a huge improvement to this formula, because you use the gems to buy upgrades and unlock new paths, or pay the dude to let you use the elevator and such. It made getting gems - and therefore the rest of the game - feel a lot less pointless.
I think those adventure games deserve the accolade considering they really were the pinnacle of the genre, and it hasn't even really continued since then.
They died with the transition to 3D and have resurrected and blossomed into a lot of new games and subgenres like with Disco Elysium, the Tell Tale games, The Talos Principle, Life is Strange, Monument Valley, VA-11 Hall-A... even The Stanley Parable is a point and click narrative driven game.
I played those 2 because my mom could afford the consoles after much saving, but not much else. Those are the 2 games I got to choose. I even had to play ffvii without a memory card. Sooooo many hours restarting after a power outage or someone turning off the PlayStation. I'm a very very patient person now.
For me it is probably a tie between Sid Meier's Civilization and Doom. Both were groundbreaking in their genres and they had immense influence on the type of games I since became interested in playing.
Man that's a tough one. The 90s covered a huge spectrum of games and consoles.
Perhaps at the time, Final Fantasy VII was my favorite. No other game absorbed me like it did. I spent so much time playing it. But it's aged badly now.
But as far as games that I would still go back and play? I'd say probably twisted metal 2. The game is just so good. The music, the characters, the vibe of the game.
I got it working on Linux just so I could play it on steam deck. Side bonus! It's so old integrated graphics can more than handle it at modern resolutions. I put that game on every laptop I own.
Old business machines are great for that purpose, snag one on recycle day, install Nobara, install Elite Force.
One day I'm going to have a dedicated LAN match room exclusively for this game.
Was looking for Street Fighter II on here. That game set me back DM150 and it was worth every bit of it.
Possibly surpassed by Virtua Fighter II eventually,
The 90s were peak gaming for me - a lot a creative things were going on, new genres being explored. And we were spoilt for choice with all the blatant piracy.
But if I had to choose one game that really blew me away, that would be Thief.
There is a shocking lack of Star Control 2 in here. Easily the best game I have ever played, period. It frequently gets name dropped in lists of game developers' favorite games of all time. Later space epics like Mass Effect stood on Star Control 2's shoulders to reach the heights they did.
Good news! The devs released it to the open source community under the name The Ur-Quan Masters. You can play it now for free! And they're developing a sequel as we speak over at Pistol Shrimp Games
Oh this one is good. I have like 12 hours stuck in an empty community college lounge today. I found an APK for Android and I've been playing for a solid 4 hours. It's a lot of fun even just gathering resources and upgrading the flagship.
How do I find tech upgrades? My lander needs some environmental resistance for sure.
I don't think I can choose between games like Alpha Centauri, Marathon, Chrono Trigger, Homeworld, Quake, Counter-Strike (I played the beta in '99, does that count?), not to mention King of Fighters '98, Half-Life, Star Craft... wow it really was the golden era of gaming wasn't it?
I loved the game Tomba! 2 The Evil Swine Return, it was creative, intricate, and very far ahead of its time, I would love to see the series get a reboot or a remaster
I don't really know what to pick so I'm going to go with something kind of obscure, "The Adventures of Bouapha: Spooky Castle". The gameplay is a little hard to explain but it kind of plays like Zelda but you can pickup upgrades for your main weapon that allows it to be thrown in many directions and it has sub-weapons that can either be found or dropped by enemies and they have limited ammo.
I actually forgot this game existed until itch recommended me "Hamsandwich", which is a free and open-source collection of updated versions of a bunch of old Hamumu Software games. There are mods available for specific games and it's available for Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android and any other OS/device that can play the online version.
Shattered Galaxy, it marketed itself as an mmorpgrts. The depth of gameplay was fantastic. While the graphics look a little dated, I would still play it if there was any server population left.
I wish they could do something with the franchise. I spent so much time pouring over different mercenaries and guns. Atheist as much time as actually playing.
If 1998 in Japan and 1999 everywhere else is too close to the '00s (and in the context of what SA1 meant for the Sonic franchise I wouldn't blame you,) Sonic CD.
So many amazing games to choose from such as all the D&D based ones, Morrowind, the SimCity ones and the Championship Manager games, but my absolute favorite was Fallout 2 for sure!
Technically 2000, but Sacrifice. It's still one of the most unique games I've ever played, and is my top wish for a remake/remaster.
It's a hybrid action RPG and RTS, which isn't completely unheard of, but even in its niche genre it's unlike anything else. You play a wizard with a range of both spells and summonable units, which can be ordered around to a limited degree, or more commonly used as a personal escort. Both the units and your own spells are very creative, and the higher level ones can be ridiculously powerful. In a glorious early celebration of terrain deformation, many of the high level spells will create volcanoes, mountains, craters, or even gaping voids in the already surreal landscapes. The story mode is also very weird and funny, with some top level voice actors.
Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Super Mario 64 was my first "3D" so to speak, but OoT took that to the next level. The feeling of wonder when I first left the Lost Woods and came out into the field will never be topped.
Sid Meier's Colonisation, my 10 year old laptop that I replaced last year only had enough power to play that game and I put so many hours into it when I didn't have access to my main pc. It's just a shame that my new laptop doesn't upscale dosbox the same way my old one did but I think that's just because of the differences between MacOS and Windows.
Titanic: Adventure out of Time
The game had quite the ambiance (Smethelles awkward FMV face & that haunting D deck music still haunts my dreams sometimes). In addition, I really liked the laid back mystery solving gameplay that it provided... I feel like it was pretty unique and haven't found anything that quite scratches that same itch.
A lot of the greats have already been mentioned by others, but Myst (1993) and Riven (1997) deserve to be up there.
Not only for the immersive worlds you got to experience through masterfully crafted imagery, sound and music, but also combined they held the record for best selling game series until they were surpassed by The Sims.
So unfortunately I didn't play video games until about 2001 when I turned 5 and got an N64 for my first Christmas in the USA. The game itself is from 2000 though.
Mickey's Speedway USA for the N64.
Goddamn I loved that game. I have so many fun memories with it.
Doom 2
Wolf3D
StarCraft
Warcraft 2
Chrono Trigger
F15 Strike Eagle 2 (might be late 80s though)
Super Mario World
Shadowrun (Sega Genesis)
Sonic
Of all those, StarCraft on BattleNet changed my life. What an amazing thing, to play against people from around the world. So it's hard to rank when we're mixing platforms and online and whatnot.