Top 5 games of 1992

I’ve been a gamer for most of my life, having lived through the third generation of gaming (NES)

upwards. Over 25 weeks, I will list my top 5 games from 1990 – 2015. To ensure consistency, here are the rules I will be following

• I will only write about games I’ve played (which means no Mario Kart)
• Even though I played most of these games a few years after they released, I will stick with the year they were released (otherwise this list will be all over the place)
• Some games may have been released at different times for different regions. When this happens, I will use the year related to the version I’ve played
• Due to the second rule, it does mean I won’t be able to list gems like Super Mario Brothers and Circus Charlie

This week I will highlight 1992

Mortal Kombat (Arcade)

This list was quite easy to compile (1992 was a bit of a dud year it seemed). The five games highlighted here were all quite special to me (except Darkwing Duck – it wasn’t really that good but I liked the show). When you’re a kid and your folks don’t take an active interest in what you play, you tend to play anything that’s cool. And Mortal Kombat was cool (maybe that should read Kool). You know what’s kool, being the inspiration for the Entertainment Software Rating Board forming (which explains why no one cared about age-ratings before). One of the things I liked about Mortal Kombat is that the developers wanted you to root for Lui Kang (the John Cena of the series) but everyone loved Sub Zero (cheap ice-balls) and Scorpion (because he was awesome). It was also responsible for a half-decent movie adaptation (with arguably the best theme song of the nineties, and every period since).

 

Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive)

Streets of Rage 2 is the pinnacle of side-scrolling beat-em-ups. It’s  been downhill since then. Don’t take my word for it (although I would really appreciate it as it cements me as an influencer) but ask any 30 something gamer who played Streets of Rage 2 when it was released and they will swear by it’s varied combat, eclectic cast, and kicking soundtrack. I completed it about fifty times and I can’t for the life of me remember the plot, but like all good beat-em-ups, it doesn’t matter at all, seriously, you could be pummeling a bunch of scientists who are 95 percent of the way to curing AIDS and it wouldn’t matter. Do check it out if you get a chance (it was reently re-released on the 3DS).

Sonic 2 (Mega Drive)

One of the biggest rivalries in the nineties was between two wrestling companies, WWF (now WWE) and WCW. The competition pushed them to upped their game every week and in so doing, create some of the most memorable television to date (think NOW and Stone Cold Steve Austin). Sega and Nintendo had one of these storied rivalries, with hit after hit being unleashed on our battered wallets. Sonic games were the Fifa titles of the early and mid-nineties as everyone seemed to have  it (there was also a TV show where you barked orders over the phone while someone played it poorly (I can’t remember what this was so please remind me). Sonic 2 added Tails to the mix, in a half-baked mutliplayer mode that was perfect for when you had to play with younger siblings (You weren’t dependent on Tails keeping up and he never actually died).

Darkwing Duck (Golden China/ NES)

Darkwing was a lesser-spotted duck of the nineties (it was actually a spin-off of talespin, which was a spin-off from Jungle Book – Disney Inception). As stated above, I was struggling to find a fifth game that I liked  in 1992 and Darkwing Duck does tick all my low expectations (licenced platformer), yet I haven’t tracked it down since to replay it (something I’ve done with the other four? Perhaps because it felt too much like a mega man game, or it relied on me loving the source material more than I did. I think the actual reason I didn’t like it was because it was tough. Like darksouls duck tough.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Mega Drive)

This game was very similar to 1991’s Turtles in Time, but like a good cinnabon with tea, it always hits the spot. This was the first game ported to the Mega Drive and it was all the more beautiful for it. It was the first time I noticed more frames in the sprite animation. There were fewer levels (these games were churned out annually like Call of Duty), but they were longer, so that helped.  The issue with beat-em-ups (including modern titles) is that as enemy types respawn, it becomes repetitive. This wasn’t really an issue in the TMNT games because the footsoldiers were these faceless entities anyway (stormtroopers of New York city) so it wasn’t too bad.

So these are my top five games that were released in 1992. Join me next week as I go through my favourite games from 1993. Leave a comment and let me know which were your favourite games from the nineties.

Top 5 games of 1991

I’ve been a gamer for most of my life, having lived through the third generation of gaming (NES) upwards. Over 25 weeks, I will list my top 5 games from 1990 – 2015. To ensure consistency, here are the rules I will be following

• I will only write about games I’ve played (which means no Super Mario World today)
• Even though I played most of these games a few years after they released, I will stick with the year they were released (otherwise this list will be all over the place)
• Some games may have been released at different times for different regions. When this happens, I will use the year related to the version I’ve played
• Due to the second rule, it does mean I won’t be able to list gems like Super Mario Brothers and Circus Charlie

This week I will highlight 1991

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Mega Drive)

Part of my infamous 8-in-1 (you can read about it here), Sonic led the charge like a blue Aragorn storming into the Mushroom Kingdom, a shot of attitude to counter Nintendo’s saccharine franchises.  ‘Attitude’ stood out in the little things, like Sonic tapping his foot impatiently if you didn’t touch the controller for a few seconds, coaxing you to get on with it. I dig the villain, Doctor Robotnik (proper doctor, not honorary). Sure the guy was evil, and turned critters into robots, but I got the sense he worked hard to build his evil empire. Let me know if my nostalgia-loving eardrums deceive me but I do think the theme music of Sonic is much more memorable than most games released these days.

Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior (Arcade and Mega Drive)

While not my favourite in the Street Fighter 2 series (that honour belongs to Super Street Fighter 2), Street Fighter 2 was my jam. That’s not to say I was any good at it (I was pretty much useless against anyone with working fingers). I didn’t let my countless defeats get to me, often blowing up to R5 at the arcade (I think It was 20 cents a go back then). Street Fighter was one of the first games to introduce me to lazy stereotypes (booga fire and all that), which was par for the course since it was published in the same era as Bloodsport.

Tiny Toon  Adventures (NES)

Keeping with the theme from last week’s list, platformers were a staple of my formative gaming years, with Tiny Toon Adventures being one of the stand-outs. A large part of the allure was that my friend had M-Net (which meant he had a lot of friends, most of who did not have M-Net…) so we would go to his place and watch it on KTV. I really liked that you could switch to another character when you picked up an orb, with each secondary character having their own unique skills (Plucky flew short distances, The Tasmanian devil broke stuff and the cat (Furball or something – not sure, limited exposure and all that) could climb walls. The only thing I could fault it on was difficulty – the game seemed a little tough. There were these stages where you were chased by this crazy person, and if she caught you, you had to start from the beginning (this is something Prince of Persia would try to recreate (unknowingly) with their Dahaka character in their not-as-great-as-sands-of-time sequel.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade)

I was a huge TMNT fan back in the day, which of itself is not newsworthy because it’s like someone saying they’re a huge Lionel Messi fan (doesn’t raise any eyebrows). I remember the arcade set-up at the Durban Beachfront (a questionable establishment that smelled like bubblegum ice cream, salt and wet towel), providing four cabinets for unrivalled co-op action (a joy I would only taste again half a decade later with Goldeneye, and now with Rocket League). I’m only just realizing how much I liked licensed games.

Sunset Riders (Arcade and Mega Drive)

We end 1991 with another co-op game, and what might possible be the last time I reference my notorious 8-in-1 mega drive cartridge. Sunset Riders is a side-scrolling western shoot-em-up in which you play as a bounty hunter killing outlaws and avoiding stampeding bulls. These games were really popular back then (Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs being among the more popular ones. Maybe not Cadillacs and Dinosaurs but that was pretty bad-ass). I replayed the mega drive version a few years ago – not too shabby.

So these are my top five games that were released in 1991. Join me next week as I go through my favourite games from 1992. Leave a comment and let me know which were your favourite games from the nineties.

Top 5 games of 1990

I’ve been a gamer for most of my life, having lived through the third generation of gaming (NES) upwards. Over the next 25 weeks, I will list my top 5 games from 1990 – 2015. To ensure consistency, here are the rules I will be following

• I will only write about games I’ve played
• Even though I played most of these games a few years after they released, I will stick with the year they were released (otherwise this list will be all over the place)
• Some games may have been released at different times for different regions. When this happens, I will use the year related to the version I’ve played
• Due to the second rule, it does mean I won’t be able to list gems like Super Mario Brothers and Circus Charlie

This week I will highlight 1990

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Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers (NES/ Golden China)

As a thirty-something year-old man, I tend to be a little jaded when it comes to licenced games, but as an eight-year old kid hooked on Disney cartoons during M-Net’s Sunday evening open time slot, I couldn’t get enough of it. Chip ‘n’ Dale was a fun platformer, improved by the option to play two-player (loved chucking Dale onto enemies). I never actually owned a NES, and did most of my gaming on a Golden China (had no idea I was playing pirated software), so with no option to save my progress, it actually worked in my favour that the game could be finished in a single sitting.

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Super Mario Bros 3 (NES/ Golden China)

You’re going to be seeing a LOT of Super Mario games in my lists. Arguably one of the greatest games ever made (having just been chosen as number 1 in IGN’s Greatest Games of all-time list), Super Mario Bros 3 was and still is an absolute joy to play. I recently booted it up for my nephew to play and within ten minutes I wrangled the controller from him and took over. A timeless game that every gamer should play.

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Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Sega Mega Drive)

I never actually owned an original Mega Drive. I got a knock-off at a flea-market along with an 8-in-1 cartridge that had Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, Flintstones, Columns, Mickey Mouse and a few more games. I did not know it was a knock-off at a time (8-in-1’s made sense compared to the previous 64-in-1’s I had in my previous knock-off). Like Chip ‘n’ Dale above, this was another Disney platformer I was really into in my youth. The game sees Mickey save Minnie from a witch named Mizrabel (ten points for name) who wanted to steal her youth (a theme we will see a few years later in a famous Rare game). The game was a mix of the first two Super Mario games, in that your attacks alternated between jumping on your enemies heads (like the first SMB) or throwing apples (like the second SMB).

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Snow Bros: Nick and Tom (Arcade)

The second co-op title in my list, Snow Bros was a spiritual successor to Bubble Bobble, and continued in its storied, manic tradition of encasing enemies and then killing them. I never thought I was actually killing them before I sat to type this piece. Games are simplistic like that, like old action movies. The game follows the exploits of these murderous siblings on their quest to save their girlfriends (I’m not sure if they were also siblings). These icy damsels happen to be princesses, and the bros happen to wear overalls. Coincidence? I replayed Snow Bros about six years ago, and it remains just as fun.

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Columns (Sega Mega Drive)

Confession time, I actually prefer columns to Tetris. This might seem blasphemous but some of my fondest memories of playing video games as a kid was playing columns while my granddad sat on the couch next to me, probably judging me for not using investing my time in better pursuits, like rubbing his feet or playing Carrom (check it out). For all the millenials reading this, Columns is the spiritual ancestor of bejeweled, or candy crush, without the annoying social media sharing.

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So these are my top five games that were released in 1990. Join me next Monday as I go through my favourite games from 1991. Leave a comment and let me know which were your favourite games from the past, and if you can guess the Rare game I referenced earlier.