LoC 73 - Top 50 Video Games of the '90s

[Pak-Man]

Top 50 Video Games of the '90s

Here's the ol' Cut n' Paste!

Participants were asked to send a list of their 25 Favorite video games from January 1st 1990 to December 31st 2013. 18 ballots were received with 185 unique entries, and those ranked on a point system allowing 25 points for a #1 choice, 24 for a #2, and all the way down to 1 point for #25. The points were added up, and what follows are the selections.

Tiebreakers work like such: If two games have equal pointage, the game that appeared on the most lists ranks higher. If those games appeared on the same amount of lists, then the game ranked higher on the individual list got the higher spot. A game that was someone's #4 beats another person's #6, for example. If there was still a tie, then the one with more top votes got the bump. (2 #3 votes beat out 1 #3 vote) And then if the game was still tied, alphabetical order reigned supreme. Since there was a tie at the bottom of the list, the top 52 choices were represented.

Incidentally, this was already done with the top games of the ‘80s (And Before). If you would like to stroll down memory lane, you can see that list here: http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php?topic=22337.0

Without further ado, enjoy the top 50 games of the ‘90s!

[Pak-Man]

BONUS ENTRY – Star Control 2

(24 Points) 1 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #2 - CJones

We come in peace, and with good will.
But if you make one false move, you’re vapor!

Release Date:  November 1992

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Star Control II is a critically acclaimed science fiction video game, the second game in the Star Control trilogy. It was developed by Toys for Bob (Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for PC; it was later ported to the 3DO with an enhanced multimedia presentation, allowed by the CD technology. The source code of the 3DO port was licensed under the GNU GPL in 2002. The game was then remade, with the project being called "The Ur-Quan Masters".

Star Control II added a large number of species and ship types to the already diverse cast and replaced the first game's strategy-based scenarios with a story-driven space exploration adventure game that included diplomacy with the inhabitants of the galaxy, some resource gathering sub-sections, and instances of the melee combat of the first game whenever diplomacy fails.

As typical of the adventure game genre, the player must explore the game world with little direction and make discoveries and connections independently. Interaction with the various alien species is a chief part of the adventure game; the backstory of both the species from the first games and new ones were fleshed out considerably. There are hours of dialogue, each species bringing out their characteristic conversational quirks, music, and even display fonts.

A two-player mode is available, named Super Mêlée, consisting solely of the ship-to-ship combat. All ships from the first game are available, even if they made no appearance in the story, along with a number of new ones.

The contents of the soundtrack of the PC version were determined by running a contest which anybody could participate in, composing tracks based on a description of the game. Included on the soundtrack are compositions of Aaron Grier, Erol Otus, Eric E. Berge, Riku Nuottajärvi and Dan Nicholson, the president and founding member of The Kosmic Free Music Foundation.

Star Control II was highly influenced, both in story and game design, by the games Starflight (1986) and Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula (1989), developed by Binary Systems and released on a variety of platforms by Electronic Arts. Indeed Greg Johnson, StarFlight's lead designer, helped write dialog for Star Control II and Paul Reiche III contributed to the earlier game's alien communication system. David Brin's science fiction series about the Uplift Universe is also often mentioned as inspiration for the Star Control II universe, as well as Larry Niven's Known Space universe.

Pak's Thoughts – I never played this game, but I’ve got a copy of this installed on my computer right now. I picked it up on GOG a couple months ago and never got around to it. I might just give it a try and come back and add my thoughts, when I get a chance.

[Pak-Man]

BONUS ENTRY –The Neverhood

(24 Points) 1 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #2 – Pak-Man

It all start with Hoborg, a being who had to create, because... he had to!

Release Date:  October 31, 1996

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
The Neverhood (released in Japan as Klaymen Klaymen) is a 1996 PC CD-ROM point-and-click adventure game created by animator Doug TenNapel, produced by the Neverhood, Inc. and released by DreamWorks Studios. It features claymation graphics and music by composer Terry Scott Taylor.

The Neverhood received positive reviews, but was a commercial failure. Its release coincided with the mid-1990s decline of adventure games that also caused the failure of other critically acclaimed games such as Grim Fandango, which were composed in the three-dimensional animation that was mainstream at the time.

Doug TenNapel came up with the idea of a plasticine world in 1988, creating approximately 17 structures. Due to his dissatisfaction with the way David Perry ran Shiny Entertainment TenNapel left the company in 1995. Two weeks later he announced at E3 that he started his own company The Neverhood, Inc., which consisted of a number of men who worked on Earthworm Jim 1 and 2. Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Interactive, which just started in that time, needed fresh and unusual projects, and TenNapel approached Spielberg with the idea of a claymation game, with Spielberg accepting it for publication. The Neverhood, Inc. made a deal with DreamWorks Interactive and Microsoft, and the game went for development. After a year of work, The Neverhood was finally released to the public in 1996. The game elements were shot entirely on beta versions of the Minolta RD-175, making The Neverhood the first stop motion production to use consumer digital cameras for professional use.

Pak's Thoughts – This game pushes all the right buttons for me. I love the stop-motion animation, the penchant for surrealism, and the awesomely unique soundtrack. Most of you probably know (In case you didn’t hear me scream it on a thousand different threads when it was news) that a spiritual successor starring our own Michael J. Nelson is forthcoming. I can’t wait!

[Pak-Man]

BONUS ENTRY –Final Fantasy VIII

(24 Points) 1 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #2 – Charles Hussein Castle

There are no guarantees in the future. That's why TODAY, the time we have now, is important.

Release Date:  February 11, 1999

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Final Fantasy VIII is a role-playing video game released for the PlayStation in 1999 and Windows-based personal computers in 2000. It was developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) as the Final Fantasy series' eighth title, removing magic point-based spell-casting and the first title to consistently use realistically proportioned characters. The game became available on PlayStation Network as a PSone Classics title in 2009.

The game follows the story of a group of mercenaries, who are part of an organization named "SeeD". Their main goal in the game is to stop a sorceress from the future (named Ultimecia) from compressing time.

The development of Final Fantasy VIII began in 1997, during the English localization process of Final Fantasy VII. The music was scored by Nobuo Uematsu, series regular, and in a series first, the theme music is a vocal piece, "Eyes on Me", performed by Faye Wong. The game was positively received by critics and was a commercial success. It was voted the 22nd-best game of all time by readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu. 13 weeks after its release, Final Fantasy VIII had earned more than US$50 million in sales, making it the fastest-selling Final Fantasy title of all time until Final Fantasy XIII, a multi-platform release. The game has shipped 8.15 million copies worldwide as of March 31, 2003.

Like any Final Fantasy before it, Final Fantasy VIII consists of three main modes of play: the world map, field map, and battle screen. The world map is a 3D display in which the player may navigate freely across a small-scale rendering of the game world. Characters travel across the world map in a variety of ways, including by foot, car, Chocobo, train, and airship. The field map consists of controllable 3D characters overlaid on one or more 2D pre-rendered backgrounds, which represent environmental locations such as towns or forests. The battle screen is a 3D model of a location such as a street or room, where turn-based fights between playable characters and CPU-controlled enemies take place. The interface is menu-driven, as in previous titles, but with the typical weapon and armor systems removed and new features present, such as the Junction system. Also featured is a collectible card-based minigame called "Triple Triad".

Pak's Thoughts – I tried, but I just couldn’t get past the first few hours of this game. The more futuristic Final Fantasy gets, the harder time I have getting into it. Not sure why. There’s no denying the game was beautiful and the story was compelling. It just never grabbed me.

[Pak-Man]

BONUS ENTRY –Dragon Warrior IV

(24 Points) 1 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #2 – Raven

Hero, let’s fight together and save the world!

Release Date:  February 11, 1990

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Dragon Warrior IV is a role-playing video game and the fourth installment of the Dragon Quest video game series developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix (now Square Enix). It was originally released for the Famicom on 11 February 1990 in Japan. A North American version followed in October 1992, and would be the last Dragon Quest game localized and published by Enix's Enix America Corporation subsidiary prior to its closure in November 1995.

Dragon Quest IV differs from the rest of the series by breaking up the game into five distinct chapters, each of which focuses on a different protagonist or protagonists. The first four are told from the perspective of the Hero's future companions and the fifth one, from the hero's perspective, brings all the characters together as they start their journey to save the world.

In addition to the new chapter-based storylines, an artificial intelligence system called "Tactics" was implemented that allowed the player to provide strategies to the party members (who become NPCs in the final chapter) while maintaining full control of the Hero.

Pak's Thoughts – I loved the Dragon Warrior series, and Dragon Warrior IV’s multiple diverging plots was some mind-blowing storytelling in its day. Unfortunately, due to its limited release at the very end of the NES’ life, I never had my own copy. I had to play what I could by renting it countless times from the local supermarket. I never did play through the whole thing (Although I have the DS remake just staring at me from my game shelf…)

[Pak-Man]

BONUS ENTRY–Star Fox

(24 Points) 2 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #12 – Monty

Prepare to launch!

Release Date:  February 21, 1993

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Star Fox, released as Starwing in Europe due to a game of the same name and subsequent trademark issues in that region, is the first game in the Star Fox series of video games, released on February 21, 1993 in Japan, on March 23, 1993 in North America, and on June 3, 1993 in Europe for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the second three-dimensional Nintendo-developed game and it included the Super FX chip, a coprocessor used to accelerate graphics display, which became Nintendo's first game to use 3D polygon graphics. The complex display of three-dimensional models with polygons was still new and uncommon in console video games, and the game was much-hyped as a result.

Star Fox featured anthropomorphic character designs by Nintendo artist Takaya Imamura, music composed by Hajime Hirasawa and obstacle course style gameplay. Star Fox was developed by Nintendo EAD with assistance by Argonaut Software, and was published by Nintendo. The game was a critical and commercial success, which established Star Fox as one of Nintendo's flagship franchises.

The storyline involves Fox McCloud and the rest of the Star Fox team, who must defend their homeworld of Corneria against the attacking forces of Andross.

Star Fox is a rail shooter in a third-person and first-person 3D perspective. The player must navigate Fox's spacecraft, an Arwing, through environments while various enemies (spaceships, robots, creatures, etc.) attack him. Along the way various power-ups are placed in the stage to help the player. The player receives a score on each level based on how many enemies destroyed and how well the player has defended his/her teammates. At the end of each level there is a boss that the player must defeat before

In each level, the player is accompanied by three computer-controlled wingmen: Peppy Hare, Slippy Toad, and Falco Lombardi. At certain pre-scripted points, one will fly into the player's view, often either chasing an enemy or being chased and asking for assistance. Ignoring a wingman's pleas will result in him taking damage, or being shot down. They cannot be damaged by the player's own lasers (they will notice it nonetheless). Regardless of their survival, wingmen are not present during boss battles but rejoin the player before the next stage. A player may help his or her wingmen when they ask for assistance, as they will engage some of the enemies not destroyed by the player, and thereby make it easier to achieve maximum score in a given level. If a wingman gets shot down, he will not return for the rest of the game.

Pak's Thoughts – I still remember being blown away the first time I started a game of Star Fox and saw the scramble sequence. I also remember spending hours trying to unlock the secret level, which was awesomely insane and featured asteroids with creepy faces.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Weirdly enough, I think You Don't Know Jack is the only game so far I'm familiar with. For whatever reason, it was included in a pack of game CDs for our computer back in the day. I'm not sure how much time I put into it, as I was more interested in the likes of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and whatever that Titanic adventure game was.

[goflyblind]

uhm... i had YDKJ at number 9, and warcraft II at number 10. did you not get my list?

[Thrifty Version II]

I can't believe I forgot Dragon Warrior 4.  Maybe cause it was earlier in the decade and was an NES game.  I always loved the Poker minigame, and a few months ago I programmed my own version of the Double-or-Nothing section of it.

Not to mention The Neverhood.  That was one crazy game.  Remember that part with the wall that described the history of the entire game world?  I read that whole thing.  I think the lore was that in the beginning was Father.  Father created one being: Quatar.  Quatar created like 8 kids, one of them being Hoborg, the one you're there to save.

I loved that near the end you had an actual choice to save Hoborg or steal the crown for yourself, that it wasn't a forced, foregone conclusion that you would do the right thing.

The main point of The Everhood is to go around collecting all the story cartridges that you slide into these viewports around the world.  The cartridges tell you what's going on and when you have them all, you confront Klogg.  Here's the whole thing:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/5fYzq4OELhI" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/5fYzq4OELhI</a>

[Pak-Man]

uhm... i had YDKJ at number 9, and warcraft II at number 10. did you not get my list?

Arrrgh!

MEGA-ERROR ALERT!

I got goflyblind's list and somehow it did not make it into the talley at all. This is going to affect some things... I have to bolt to work, so I won't be able to fix this right away, but by the day's end, we'll have the real bottom 5+.

Sorry, all!

[goflyblind]

[Tyrant]

That's cold, man. What did poor gofly ever do to you?

[CJones]

Well, while we're on a temporary break, I STRONGLY recommend people check out "The Ur-Quan Masters". As Pak said, it's a PC port of the 3DO version of Star Control 2. The notable difference between this and the original PC version is that this version has full voice acting. Mostly decent, some laughably bad, but it really adds a lot to the ambiance.

Back when we had the "favorite fictional species" LoC, I had Ur-Quan at #1. They have the best villain backstory I've ever heard

It's 100% free, and can be found here: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

An HD version is also in the works. http://sourceforge.net/projects/urquanmastershd/

[Pak-Man]

Well that changed EVERYTHING.

I.. found some time to do some preliminary calculations. Turns out I skipped gojikranz's list for the same reason. (Sorry!) The #50 entry now has 26 points, which means the 24- and 25-pointers don't make the cut anymore.

As it happens, I've written up all of the 24-pointers (They were the bottom 7), and the 25-pointers were going to make up all of tonight's entries.

Tell ya what I'm gonna do. Starting tonight, we'll begin the REAL Top 50. The 24-pointers I wrote up are now bonus entries. Enjoy them. We'll be seeing the 2 entries that got voted up later on. I've deleted them. I'm going to do all of the 25-pointers as additional bonus-entries at some point, because I hate to see these titles get bumped off of the list. Especially after writing up the 24-pointers.

Sorry for the confusion!

[goflyblind]

i would make a joke about the updated list being DLC, but that wasn't around in the nineties.