What is the best game to come out of the 90s?
Part one: What is the best game to come out of the 80s?
This is the second part of the series. This is eventually all going to get compiled into one megathread for people who want gaming recommendations from Chapos specifically. Other decades and consoles will come in sporadic subsequent threads.
Expanding on your choice is definitely a plus.
Doom. The answer is Doom. Why? Because it sold more copies than Windows.
That isn't enough? None of these games listed had spawned an entire genre named after them 'Doom-clones' before consolidating into First Person Shooters.
Most importantly tho, it's a game that still has a heavy following with massive sweeping mods and fan support that are still discussed to this day. To my mind, it is the pinnacle of proof that if people weren't specifically paid to develop video games, they'd still make them anyway. Art is beautiful. Turning demons into a fine, gristly, paste is art.
Planescape Torment
Mechanically a pretty clunky RPG with an even wonkier interpretation of the already-wonky D&D 2e rules, but it didn't really matter because the setting and the story and the characters were so amazing. The beautiful painted backgrounds mean it really still holds up really well now too.
I have tried to play that game so many times over the years and every time something in my life gets in the way of me finishing it.
I broke down and just read plot spoilers for the story and characters... and wow.... super impressed. Also like how a huge amount of the "level progression" seemed based around talking to NPC's instead of killing NPC's.
If you decide to give it another go, the enhanced edition makes really good use of the higher resolution to show more of a location at once, and give a better feel for the places
And yeah I love that the combat very much takes a back seat to all the dialogue and exploration (and much of the combat can be skipped). Baldur's Gate 2 is much better as a "proper" RPG but I think everything else makes Torment the much better game
Fully agreed. One of these rare games that can touch you as profoundly as a great book.
Chrono Trigger is probably the best JRPG ever made, and I would argue out of the 90s as well. Perfectly balanced difficulty with great and varied characters, a fun combat system, and some timeline fuckery that doesn't feel contrived.
I've logged more hours into Smash than I have from any other game from that decade however.
Pretty much everything Lucasarts made during that decade
R.I.P.
Final Fantasy 7 seems a pretty solid pick. New graphics, lots of things to do in the game, some replay ability. Story about eco-freedom fighters going after a company whose operations will literally destroy the world. Got some circle of life stuff going on in the lore. There's something about aliens (I thought Aeris was supposed to be the last descendant of them) I think that never seemed to go anywhere. Cosmo Canyon. Unreliable narrator in the main character was a pretty interesting twist to teenage me.
Honorable mentions to:
Resident Evil 2, to quote myself from decades ago, "Holy crap, I'm playing in a movie."
Xenogears, had a novel combat system for an RPG and the a chunk of the reveal in the story is how the entire human(?) race on the planet was created by some advanced civilization's planet killer weapon that got loose, crashed on a planet, and was slowly trying to rebuild itself over thousands of years by using the population in subtle ways. Also, the weapon was being worshipped as God, the creator.... Which, to my atheistic self was just cheffs kiss at the time.
Armored Core, I have no idea what is going on with the story but I could never get into Mechwarrior and this scratched that itch.
Colony Wars, was an off brand "Star Wars" X-Wing/Tie Fighter type game. Solid space fighter with James Earl Jones as the narrator. And you're tiny fighter got to fly around big capital ships and watch them explode in terrible plygons with limited shading.
My picks are overly simple so don't hate.
I don't know if it's the best or most groundbreaking or anything, but I def played Golden Eye 007 the most at the time. Getting people around the neighborhood to come play was always fun.
Runner up for me is probably mario kart for N64. I played it some at the time, but I played it a lot more when I was in high school and my friends would "drink & drive" which we would set up so you had to drink a full beer before you crossed the finish line. Which was also fun. Lol.
I loved Mario Kart as a kid. I could never quite beat 150cc though. My reflexes were always and still are terrible.
Sonic 2
It's got to be Pokemon RBY & GS. G*mers go suck a lemon.
Honourable mentions are everything by LucasArts, Fallout, Goldeneye & Age of Empires
Also Codemaster's Colin Mcrae Rally
Road Rash 64
Earthbound + Chrono Trigger
Doom was already mentioned, but definitely Doom. More specifically, Doom 2 nightmare deathwatch on brit11.wad.
idk about best for sure, theres some tough competition here. but my favorite is UFO: Enemy Unknown / X-Com: Enemy Unknown / X-Com: UFO Defense (depending on localization). It's a fantastic strategy game that I don't think the reboot games ever really captured the feel of, though they did give it a good try.
Edit: Wait I'm wrong. I forgot Thief: The Dark Project actually counts. Barely squeezed into the 90s at 1998. That is actually my favorite 90s game, and I'd go so far as to say I'm pretty sure it's the best. Absolutely fantastic game, to this day it is the best game in its genre.
The best? probably Doom or Diablo, but my favorite will always be Heroes of Might and Magic III
Oo fuck, really difficult question to answer. Final Fantasy Tactics? Chrono Trigger? Final Fantasy 6? Final Fantasy 7? Super Metroid? Sonic 3 and Knuckles? Super Mario RPG? Zelda a Link to the Past? Ocarina of Time? Seiken Densetsu 3? Megaman X 1-3? Illusion of Gaia? Kirby's Dream Course? Demon's Crest? Castlevania Rondo of Blood? Shadowrun? Breath of Fire 2 or 3? Terranigma?
Sonic Adventure, I can't justify this at all because it's objectively a flawed video game and Sonic Adventure 2 is better than it in every respect (except for some minor stuff like screwing up the Treasure Hunting/Mech gameplay) but.,, idk man I just really like sonic in general and Sonic Adventure-06 era sonic specifically.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is still undefeated in it's genre. Played that game a silly amount.
Honorable mention to Caesar 3, AoE2 and RollerCoaster Tycoon. Love those games as well. 1999 was a strong year.
Seeing a lot of right answers. Some I haven't seen that are certainly in the running: Zelda: A Link to the Past, Half Life, Super Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, Chrono Trigger, NBA Jam.
It's an interesting decade since it saw the jump from 16 to 64 bit gaming.
Not sure if the best, but I haven't seen Grim Fandango mentioned yet, and that should definitely be up there. Excellent writing and voice acting, and basically the pinnacle of 90s point and click adventure games.
wheel of time was pretty dope as a kid.
Probably gotta go with Starcraft though
This? Honestly, I'm surprised the Wheel of Time series even started coming out as early as 1990.
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Snatcher.
System Shock 2 or Spyro the Dragon.
Super Metroid, Half-Life, Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds.
Final Fantasy 6, Doom, Sonic 2, Thief: The Dark Project, System Shock 2, TIE Fighter, Dungeon Keeper, Suikoden, Legend of Dragoon squeaks in there if we go by JP release date, Breath of Fire 3
The nineties was great for games
Imma go with the likes of:
Alpha Centauri
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Grim Fandango
Beneath a Steel Sky
Syndicate/Syndicate Wars
Planescape: Torment
Darklands
Stonekeep
Dungeon Keeper 2
Fallout/Fallout 2
Sanitarium
The Longest Journey
Gabriel Knight
Omikron
System Shock 2
XCOM
roller coaster tycoon isnt mentioned yet? 😔
I forgot that you could do tabletop, so Magic the Gathering.
Nobody mentioned Starcraft and I’m immensely disappointed.
Personal fave is this game called Starflight. It's a predecessor to Mass Effect in so many ways and I encourage people to try it on emulator (specifically the Sega Genesis version). Amazing game for it's time.
Dude you'd probably love Star Control 2 then
Maybe post this on the 80s post instead?
Earlier versions on older consoles came out in the 80s but the Genesis version was '91.
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War Earthbound Super Mario World
Too many to list here
You'll be in the megathread as the person who couldn't commit
but there's so maaaaany! Stop nagging me, mom!
OK fine:
Ocarina of Time
Final Fantasy 4,6 and 7
Chrono Trigger
Earthbound
Pokemon
Metal Slug
Yoshi's Island (the Super Nintendo one)
Super Mario 64
Super Metroid
Secret of Monkey Island 1, 2 and 3
Star Control 2
Sonic 2, 3&K
Half Life
Nights Into Dreams
A million others I probably forgot to mention.
It's Soul Blazer, a Zelda-style from Enix before they merged with Square. You can enter the dreams of plants and animals and the last boss is the guy who got the king addicted to converting souls into gold.
