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

[Relaxing Dragon]

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

Perhaps a downloadable patch? Or an expansion pack? Remember those?

[Zombie Monty]

Pak just needed one of these babies to tweak the List.

[Raven]

Sucks that the list got messed up, but Bonus Entries are cool too.

Anyway, Dragon Warrior IV was my favorite in the series and probably one of my top 3 NES games.  I loaned my copy to a friend who lost it and then refused to replace it because "the game sucked anyway."  I'm having a hard time remembering if I actually finished it or not.  I may have to get an emulator for my phone or something. 

Right there with you on FF VIII Pak.  I tried to give it a fair shake but after a couple of hours I decided I pretty much hated it.  Haven't played another Final Fantasy since.  I even quit playing VII when I found out you were supposed to get Aries back and they didn't bother to put that into the US release.   I've played through my II and III on the SNES a bunch though.

[Pak-Man]

OK. Let's try that again:

#50 –Final Fantasy Tactics

(26 Points) 3 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #6 – Cjones

Names don't matter. What's important is how you live your life.

Release Date:  June 20, 1997
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Final Fantasy Tactics is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Sony PlayStation video game console. It is the first game of the Final Fantasy Tactics series and was released in Japan in June 1997 and in the United States in January 1998. The game combines thematic elements of the Final Fantasy video game series with a game engine and battle system unlike those previously seen in the franchise. In contrast to other 32-bit era Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy Tactics uses a 3D, isometric, rotatable playing field, with bitmap sprite characters.
 
Final Fantasy Tactics is set in a fictional medieval-inspired kingdom called Ivalice created by Yasumi Matsuno. The game's story follows Ramza Beoulve, a highborn cadet who finds himself thrust into the middle of an intricate military conflict known as The Lion War, where two opposing noble factions are coveting the throne of the kingdom. As the story progresses, Ramza and his allies discover a sinister plot behind the war.
 
A spinoff title, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, was released for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2003 and a sequel to that title, Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, was released in 2007 for the Nintendo DS. Various other games have also utilized the Ivalice setting, including Vagrant Story for the PlayStation and Final Fantasy XII for the PlayStation 2. An enhanced port of Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, was released in 2007 as part of Square Enix's Ivalice Alliance project. Overall, the game received positive reviews from gaming magazines and websites and has become a cult classic since its release.

The gameplay of Final Fantasy Tactics differs in several key areas from other titles in the Final Fantasy series. Instead of a generic battle screen, with the player's characters on one side and the enemies on the other, encounters take place on three-dimensional, isometric fields. Characters move on a battlefield composed of square tiles; movement and action ranges are determined by the character's statistics and job class.

 Pak's Thoughts – Tactics and Final Fantasy are two great tastes that taste great together. I never made it as far into this game as I would have liked, thanks to me being in college at the time, but I have the PSP remake just waiting for me…

[Pak-Man]

#49 –Worms Armageddon

(27 Points) 2 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #11 - Gojikranz

His tail was split, and his energy lost.
 How many more will this dreaded war cost?

Release Date:  May 31, 1999
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Worms Armageddon is an artillery strategy game developed by Team17 and part of the Worms series. The player controls a team of up to eight worms in combat against opposing teams.
 
Gameplay is turn-based, with each team moving in sequence (which is determined randomly) across two-dimensional terrain. During a single turn, a team can only move one of its worms (unless the Select Worm item is used). Worms can walk and jump, as well as (when the proper items are available) swing by rope, parachute, teleport, and bungee. The objective of a traditional match is to defeat all opposing teams by killing their worms, although in the campaign some missions have other objectives (such as collecting a specific crate).
 
Each worm begins the round with a specific amount of health (which is predefined by the chosen game options or by scripting in campaign levels). When hit with a weapon, the worm will lose health depending on the power of the weapon and the directness of the hit. A worm can be killed either by having its health reduced to zero or being knocked into the water around and below the level.
The game includes a wide variety of weapons, including melee, projectile, and explosive weapons, as well as airstrike-based attacks. Some are based on real-life arms, such as the shotgun, bazooka, and hand grenade. Others are more fanciful and cartoonish, such as the sheep, which serves as a mobile explosive, or the skunk, which releases poisonous gas.
 
In addition to normal weapons, each team (during team creation) chooses a special weapon which becomes available to them after a certain number of turns. The special weapons are more powerful than regular weapons and often offer special abilities. Also, super weapons will rarely fall in weapon crates. These weapons are often based on cartoonish themes (such as the French Sheep Strike) and usually devastating in power.
 
In homage to the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of the game weapons is a Holy Hand Grenade, with a sound-effect reminiscent of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.

Pak's Thoughts – This game will always be extra-special to me because it was the first game I got to play with Tyrant during our long-distance relationship days. The real fun of Worms isn’t in how much damage you can do to your opponent, but in how much damage you can do to yourself. You think you have the perfect shot, but you misjudge the wind, or it bounces off a teeny bit of terrain, or you just couldn’t get far away enough in time, and BOOM. Everything backfires and you’ve taken out half of your own squadron. Hilarity ensues.

[Pak-Man]

#48 –Earthbound

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

There are many difficult times ahead, but you must keep your sense of humor.

Release Date:  August 27, 1994

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
EarthBound, originally released as Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It was designed by Shigesato Itoi, who also developed its predecessor, the Japan-exclusive Mother. The game was released as Mother 2 in Japan on August 27, 1994, and rebranded as EarthBound for its June 5, 1995 North American release.[2] Despite its poor sales figures, the game has been lauded by gamers for its humorous depictions of American culture and parody of the role-playing video game genre, and has since become a cult classic. The game was rereleased on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan on March 20, 2013 and was released for North America and, for the first time, Europe and Australia, on July 18, 2013.

EarthBound roughly takes place in the 1990s. Throughout the game, four characters, known as the Chosen Four, come to compose the party in the game. The player is able to change the default name of these four characters.
 
The player controls Ness, a young boy possessing strong psychic abilities. Early in the story, he meets an alien named Buzz Buzz with the appearance of a bee, who explains the quest that Ness must embark on. Over the course of his quest, Ness is joined by three other children his age: Paula, another powerful psychic; Jeff, a mechanical genius and child prodigy; and Poo, a martial arts master with some psychic ability.
 
The game's main antagonist is Giygas, an alien from a distant galaxy with the power to influence people using their own evil nature. While he is extremely powerful, the true extent of his own power has destroyed his capacity for rational thought, rendering him unable to control his power on his own.

 Pak's Thoughts – I love this game so much. It’s so refreshing to play an RPG that doesn’t take place in the distant future or a magical version of the past, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The epic boss battle at the end is easily one of the most disturbing and memorable moments in gaming history.

[Pak-Man]

#47 –Mortal Kombat

(27 Points) 3 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #11 – Raven

Get over here!

Release Date:  October 8, 1992
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Mortal Kombat is a 1992 arcade fighting game developed and published by Midway as the first title in the Mortal Kombat series. It introduced many key aspects of the series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves. The game focuses on the journey of the monk Liu Kang to save Earth from the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung, ending with their confrontation on the tournament known as Mortal Kombat.
 
The game spawned numerous sequels, as well as a successful 1995 film adaptation, and is one of the most popular fighting games to date. Mortal Kombat was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home video game platform of the time and became a best-selling game, as well as one of the most controversial video games for its depiction of gore and violence using realistic digitized graphics, fermenting the ESRB rating M17+.

The game takes place in Earthrealm, where a tournament is being held at Shang Tsung's Island, on which seven of its locations serve as stages in the game. The player receives information about the characters in biographies displayed during the attract mode. Additional information about the characters and their motivations for entering the tournament is received upon completion of the game with each character.
 
The original Mortal Kombat is the only game in the series to not have an introduction video explaining its plot. The story was fully explained in subsequent games, starting with Mortal Kombat II. The introduction to Mortal Kombat II explains that Shang Tsung was banished to Earthrealm 500 years ago and with the help of the monstrous Goro is able to seize control of the Mortal Kombat tournament in an attempt to doom the realm.
 
The storyline of the first Mortal Kombat was later adapted into Paul W. S. Anderson's film Mortal Kombat, including an animated prequel titled Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins, released direct-to-video.
Mortal Kombat included seven playable characters, all of which would eventually become trademark characters and appear in sequels. The game was developed with digitized sprites based on actors. The protagonist of the game is the Shaolin martial artist Liu Kang, played by Ho Sung Pak, who enters the tournament to defeat sorcerer Shang Tsung, the main antagonist and final boss (also played by Sung Pak).
 
Elizabeth Malecki played the Special Forces agent Sonya Blade, who is pursuing the Black Dragon mercenary Kano (played by Richard Divizio). Carlos Pesina played Raiden, the god of Thunder, while his brother Daniel Pesina played Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage and the Lin-Kuei warrior Sub-Zero as well as the game's two other ninja characters. The blue color of Sub-Zero's costume was changed to yellow to create the ninja specter Scorpion and to green for the game's secret character Reptile (though the costume used for motion capturing was actually red). Mortal Kombat would become famous for these palette swaps, and later games would continue it.
 
The four-armed Shokan warrior Goro serves as the sub boss of the game, being a half-human, half-dragon beast much stronger than the other characters, and unaffected by some of their maneuvers. The character's stop motion model was created by Curt Chiarelli. When fighting on the Pit stage, the player could qualify to fight the secret character Reptile by meeting a special set of conditions. Goro, Shang Tsung, and Reptile were not playable in the original game, but would become playable in sequels. The Masked Guard in the Courtyard stage was portrayed by Mortal Kombat developer John Vogel.

Pak's Thoughts – Mortal Kombat is way too stiff for my taste. It just doesn’t flow like many of the other fighting games out there. It did make for a fun weekend to rent it, put it in 2-player mode and try to pull off all the fatalities, though.

[Pak-Man]

#46 –The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

(29 Points) 3 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #10 – Rainbow Dash

We were born of nightmares... To take over this world, we made the Wind Fish sleep endlessly!

Release Date:  June 6, 1993

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a 1993 action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is the fourth installment in the Legend of Zelda series, and the first for a handheld game console.
 
Link's Awakening began as a port of the Super Nintendo title The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, developed after-hours by Nintendo staff. It grew into an original project under the direction of Takashi Tezuka, with a story and script created by Yoshiaki Koizumi and Kensuke Tanabe. It is one of the few Zelda games not to take place in the fictional land of Hyrule, and does not feature Princess Zelda or the fictitious Triforce relic. Instead, protagonist Link begins the game stranded on Koholint Island, a place guarded by a creature called the Wind Fish. Assuming the role of Link, the player fights monsters and solves puzzles while searching for eight musical instruments that will awaken the sleeping Wind Fish and allow him to escape from the island.
 
Link's Awakening was critically and commercially successful. Critics praised the game's depth and number of features; complaints focused on its control scheme and monochrome graphics. A remake called The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX was released for the Game Boy Color in 1998; it features color graphics, compatibility with the Game Boy Printer, and an exclusive color-based dungeon. Together, the two versions of the game have sold more than six million units worldwide, and have appeared on multiple game publications' lists of the best games of all time.

Link's Awakening began as an unsanctioned side project; programmer Kazuaki Morita created a Zelda-like game with one of the first Game Boy development kits, and used it to experiment with the platform's capabilities. Other staff members of the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development division joined him after-hours, and worked on the game in what seemed to them like an "afterschool club". The results of these experiments with the Game Boy started to look promising, and following the 1991 release of the Super Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, director Takashi Tezuka asked permission to develop a handheld Zelda title; he intended it to be a port of A Link to the Past, but it evolved into an original game. The majority of the team that had created the Super Nintendo Zelda game was reassembled to advance this new project. Altogether, it took them one and a half years to develop Link's Awakening.

 Pak's Thoughts – It took a special kind of game to get me to spend hours at a time with the original Gameboy. The old LCD screen meant finding just the right spot in the house with just the right light and holding it at just the right angle. Despite the protests of my wrists, I couldn’t put this game down. Not until I had every heart-container, unlocked the master sword, and beat the game.
That’s all for tonight! Hopefully I’ll have time tomorrow to play catch-up!

[Relaxing Dragon]

I'm reasonably certain that Link's Awakening was the first Zelda game I ever encountered, seeing as I had a Game Boy before I got an N64. Some of my fondest early gaming memories come from slowly figuring my way through all the dungeons, getting all the photographs, figuring out where that last heart piece was... and then there's the general craziness (and slight depression, if you think about it), that is the ending. It's sorta weird looking when you look back now, but that version of the Link sprite stuck with me for quite a long time. To say nothing of a lot of the original enemies (like those little Like Likes, those little Orc things that shot fireballs, and even Chain Chomp making a cameo).

And also the nifty color dungeon for those of us who played this on the Game Boy Color.

Meanwhile, I probably should get around to playing Earthbound.

[Pak-Man]

#45 –Rollercoaster Tycoon

(30 Points) 2 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #7 –Relaxing Dragon

Deep in the forest, build a thriving theme park in a large cleared area.

Release Date:  March 31, 1999
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
RollerCoaster Tycoon is a construction and management simulation video game that simulates amusement park management. Developed by MicroProse and Chris Sawyer and published by Hasbro Interactive, the game was released for Microsoft Windows on March 31, 1999 and was later ported to the Xbox game console. It will be ported to iOS and Android OS in Q3 2013. It is the first game in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series and is followed by RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D.

RollerCoaster Tycoon itself has received two expansion packs: Added Attractions (released in the US as Corkscrew Follies) in 1999, and Loopy Landscapes in 2000. Two special editions were released: RollerCoaster Tycoon Gold/Totally RollerCoaster in 2002, which contained the original game, Corkscrew Follies, and Loopy Landscapes; and RollerCoaster Tycoon Deluxe in 2003, which contained the content in Gold plus more designs for the different customizable rides.

The premise of the game is to complete a series of preset scenarios by successfully building and maintaining amusement parks through business ownership as a theme park entrepreneur. The key to any park is building a large amount and diverse range of rides for the visitors. Players can choose from dozens of roller coaster types and can also build log flumes, carousels, bumper cars, haunted houses, go karts, ferris wheels and swinging ships, among other rides. The player also has the option of building their own roller coaster designs as well as other rides by laying out individual track pieces, choosing the direction, height, and steepness, and adding such elements as zero g rolls, corkscrews, vertical loops, and even on-ride photos, using a tile-based construction system. The intensity and type of rides must be balanced, as visitors' preferences vary significantly from person to person. For example, some guests prefer exciting rides and have high nausea tolerance levels, while other guests are just the opposite.
 
Roller coasters must be designed carefully so that they do not crash. Rides must be properly maintained, for example by increasing ride inspection time, or the chance of a crash caused by ride malfunction increases (very old attractions are also highly susceptible to such malfunctions). When a crash happens, and the player opens the ride without any modifications, the guests will not enter the ride for their safety. In the event of a crash, park guests will die, which will drastically decrease the park rating and will lower the park's popularity.

Chris Sawyer originally wanted to create a sequel to his highly successful Transport Tycoon, but after becoming obsessed with roller coasters, he changed the project into RollerCoaster Tycoon. Sawyer wrote RollerCoaster Tycoon in assembly language, which was rare for a game published in the late 1990s. Some functions were written in C to interface with the Windows operating system.
 
The game was to be called White Knuckle for the majority of the game's development. However, to follow the tradition of the Tycoon titles, the game was renamed accordingly.
 
For his efforts, Sawyer received over $30 million of the $180 million brought in by the highly popular game.
 
A feature length movie adaptation is set to begin production, as Sony Pictures Animation has pre-emptively picked up rights to the video game. Harald Zwart is spearheading the development of the big-screen adaptation as a possible directing project and will executive produce. David Ronn and Jay Scherick are attached to write what will be a live-action/CGI hybrid. Chris Sawyer is represented by London based interactive rights agency, Marjacq Micro Ltd.

Pak's Thoughts – I’m a sucker for a good tycoon game, and Rollercoaster Tycoon is easily the best. Every time I go to an amusement park, I come home with an insatiable urge to play this game.

[Pak-Man]

#44 –Dark Forces

(31 Points) 2 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #5 - Gojikranz

A new type of stormtrooper that can take out a Rebel base that quickly? I should have kept working for the Empire. 

Release Date:  February 15, 1995

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Star Wars: Dark Forces is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by LucasArts. It was released in 1995 for DOS and Apple Macintosh, and in 1996 for the PlayStation. The storyline of Dark Forces is set in the Star Wars fictional universe and follows the character Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working on behalf of the Rebel Alliance. He discovers the Empire's "Dark Trooper Project", which involves the development of a series of powerful new battle droids and power-armored stormtroopers.
 
Dark Forces uses the Jedi game engine, which was developed specifically for the game. The engine adds gameplay features to the first-person shooter genre which were uncommon at the time of release. These features include level designs with multiple floors and the ability to look up and down.
 
Critics gave very favorable reviews to the DOS and Macintosh versions of Dark Forces, but not to the PlayStation version. The DOS and Macintosh versions were praised for the level design and technological advances. The PlayStation version was criticized for having poor graphics and slow frame rates, reducing the playability of the game. A sequel to Dark Forces, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, followed in 1997.

Dark Forces is a first-person shooter (FPS). The player controls protagonist Kyle Katarn from a first-person perspective, with a focus on combat against various creatures and characters from the Star Wars universe, although the game also includes environmental puzzles and hazards. Dark Forces follows a central storyline outlined in mission briefings and cutscenes. Each mission includes specific objectives which are related to the story.[3] The missions take place in a variety of environments across the Star Wars universe, including a Star Destroyer interior, Jabba the Hutt's space yacht, and the planet Coruscant, where the player must infiltrate a computer vault.[4]
 
Dark Forces gameplay expands on the FPS standards set by Doom (1993) and features gameplay elements that are now common in the FPS genre. These include the ability to look up and down, duck, and jump. A variety of power-ups are made available to the player, including health, shields, weapons and ammunition. The game also features several non-combat items to aid the player. The head lamp illuminates the area in front of the player, but will reveal the player's position to enemies in dark rooms. Ice cleats provide traction in icy areas, and an air mask protects the player from areas with toxic atmosphere. Many inventory items are powered by batteries (separate from weapon ammunition types) which can be found around the levels.
 
For combat, the player may use fists, explosive land mines and thermal detonators, as well as blasters and other ranged weapons. Gameplay leans towards ranged combat, although some enemies have melee attacks such as punching, biting, and using axes. All player weapons except the fist require ammunition, which can be collected in power-ups. Many weapons also offer an alternate fire mode. The player has health and shields which are damaged by enemy attacks and some environmental hazards, and may be replenished through power-ups.
 
In addition to combat, Dark Forces provides physical obstacles for the character, such as jumping from ledges or traversing across flowing rivers, and includes multi-step puzzles such as mazes controlled by switches.

Pak's Thoughts – It was pretty much Doom with a Star Wars skin, but it was the first game to really immerse you in the Star Wars universe. Blasters (to me) are way more fun than machine guns, and I’ll take aliens over demons any day.

[Pak-Man]

#43 –Super Star Wars

(31 Points) 2 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #4 - Monty

A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away…

Release Date:  June 1, 1992

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Super Star Wars is a Super NES game based on the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope which was released in 1992 and re-released on the Virtual Console in 2009. It is the SNES equivalent of the Star Wars NES game. Super Star Wars features mostly run and gun gameplay, although it has stages which feature other challenges, such as driving a landspeeder or piloting an X-wing. It also features multiple playable characters with different abilities.
 
The game was followed by two sequels based on the subsequent Star Wars films, Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

Super Star Wars generally follows the plot of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, although some allowances were made to adapt the story to suit an action game. For example, instead of simply buying C-3PO and R2-D2 from the Jawas, Luke Skywalker must fight his way to the top of a Jawa sandcrawler while leaping from a series of moving conveyor belts. Brief cutscenes between levels tell an abbreviated version of the film's story. Later stages allow the player to control smuggler and pilot Han Solo or Chewbacca the Wookiee. The game also features several vehicle-based levels in which the player takes control of an X-Wing or a landspeeder.
 
Most the stages consist of run and gun gameplay, with several different upgrades available to the standard blaster weapon. Luke can also wield a lightsaber after acquiring it from Obi Wan Kenobi. The end of the game has players reenacting Luke's Death Star trench run to destroy the Death Star, with Darth Vader confronting the player in his TIE Advanced x1.

Originally, the game design was planned to give the characters a dark black outline around their bodies, similar to Ultima VIII: Pagan. However, this idea was abandoned, as it was thought to make the characters too cartoonish-looking.
 
There was a trash compactor level that was deleted from the game due to memory constraints. An image was published in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly around the time of the game's release.
 
A PC port of Super Star Wars was in the works since 1994, by a Danish game company Brain Bug and produced by Softgold. This version would deliver an enhanced audio-visual experience compared to the SNES version, with the levels and gameplay left intact. The game was almost completed but in 1995 LucasArts decided to halt the development and cancel the release. This unreleased version is available on the Internet.

Pak's Thoughts – I had trouble understanding the term “Play Control” in video game reviews until I played this game. Everything is so fluid and Luke does exactly what I want him to. I think this might be my favorite “run-and-gun” game ever, and I played the entire trilogy start to finish. The liberties taken to make the original trilogy into an action game were a hoot, too. Luke probably killed more Jawas than the Empire, and more Sand People than his dad!

[Pak-Man]

#42–Mortal Kombat II

(31 Points) 2 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #3 - Raven

Toasty!

Release Date:  1993

Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Mortal Kombat II (commonly abbreviated as MKII) is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in 1993 and then ported to multiple home systems, including the PC, Amiga, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, SNES and the various PlayStation consoles.
 
Mortal Kombat II was the second game in the Mortal Kombat series, improving the gameplay and expanding the mythos of the 1992's original Mortal Kombat, notably introducing multiple and varied Fatalities and several iconic characters, such as Kitana, Kung Lao, Mileena and the series' recurring villain, Shao Kahn. The game's plot continues on from the first part, featuring the next Mortal Kombat tournament being set in the otherdimensional realm of Outworld, with the Outworld and Earthrealm representatives fighting each other on the way to the evil emperor of Outworld, Shao Kahn.
 
The game was an unprecedented commercial success and was generally acclaimed by critics, including receiving many annual awards and being featured in various top lists in the years to come, but also sparked a major video game controversy due to its over-the-top violent content. Its legacy include a spin-off game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks and having the greatest influence on the 2011 reboot game Mortal Kombat, as well as inspiring numerous video game clones.

The game marked introduction of multiple Fatalities (post-match animations of the victorious characters executing their defeated foes) as well as additional, non-lethal finishing moves to the franchise: Babalities (turning the opponent into a crying baby), Friendships (a non-malicious interaction, such as dancing or giving a gift to the defeated opponent) and additional stage-specific Fatalities (the winner uppercutting his or her opponent into an abyss below, spikes in the ceiling, or a pool of acid in the background). Finishing moves, however, can not be performed against the defeated bosses and secret characters who do not have finishing moves.

As in the case of the first Mortal Kombat game, the absurdly bloody content of Mortal Kombat II became the subject of a great deal of controversy regarding violent video games. According to IGN, "Mortal Kombat II wore its notoriety as a badge of honor, boasting about it in promotional materials, and even parodying it in-game." MKII was put in the index of the works allegedly harmful to young people by the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPjM) and all versions of the game except this for the Game Boy were subjected to being confiscated from the nation's market for violating the German Penal Code by showing excessive violence and cruel acts against representions of human beings. Due to regional censorship, the game was also released with green-colored blood and black-and-white Fatality sequences in Japan. In 2012, Boon recalled: "I've always had the position that the rating system was a good idea and should be put in place. Once Mortal Kombat II came out, there was a rating system in place. We were an M-rated game, and everybody knew the content that was in there, so it became almost a non-issue." Tobias agreed, saying that they "were content with the M for mature on our packaging."
 
Pak's Thoughts – I don’t have much to say about this one that I didn’t say about the first, but I do remember this setting off a huge mess of violent-for-the-sake-of-violence video games. It seemed like every other game that came out after this one had blood-splatter options. I never really objected to violence in video games, but they needed something more to draw me in.

[Pak-Man]

#39 – ToeJam & Earl

(32 Points) 2 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #7 - Raven

Funnnn-ky!

Release Date:  1991
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
ToeJam & Earl is an action video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega for the Mega Drive video game console. Released in 1991, it centers on the titular ToeJam and Earl—alien rappers who have crash-landed on Earth. As they attempt to escape the planet, players assume the role of either character and collect pieces of their wrecked spacecraft. ToeJam & Earl's design was heavily influenced by the role-playing video game Rogue, and took from it such features as the random generation of levels and items. It references and parodies 1980s urban culture and is set to a funk soundtrack.
 
The game was positively received by critics, who praised its originality, soundtrack, humor and two-player cooperative mode. It attained sleeper hit status despite low initial sales, and its protagonists were used as mascots by Sega. The game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in December 2006 and re-released again on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in November 2012.
ToeJam & Earl takes place from a top-down perspective in a 2D game world. Its gameplay mechanics were inspired by Rogue, which has led to its description as a Roguelike or dungeon-crawl game. The game contains both single-player and two-player cooperative modes. The latter displays a single screen when both characters are near each other, but splits it apart when they are not. Playing the game with two players reveals dialogue and jokes between the characters not heard in the single player game.
 
The game is set on Earth, which is represented by randomly generated islands that float in space, each one a layer above the last. They are connected by elevators. Some islands contain pieces of spacecraft wreckage, of which the player must collect 10 to win the game. The player character drops to the island below if he falls from an island's edge, which necessitates that the player again locate an elevator. Each island is populated by antagonistic "Earthlings", such as phantom ice-cream trucks, aggressive packs of "nerds", giant hamsters, Bogeymen, man-eating mailboxes, and chickens armed with mortars that shoot tomatoes. Certain Earthlings aid the player. The game has been described as "largely non-violent", as the protagonists can only attack enemies with thrown tomatoes—one of many temporary, randomly generated power-ups.
 
Power-ups are contained in wrapped presents, which are categorized by appearance. The contents of a present are unknown to the player until it is opened; afterwards, all presents of that appearance are identified. Identification of presents' contents is a central gameplay mechanic. Each power-up has a unique effect: while one might increase the player characters' running speed, another distracts enemies. Certain presents contain harmful power-ups, such the loss of a "life", or the "randomizer", which hides the identity of all presents. In the game's cooperative mode, if one player character opens a present in the vicinity of the other, its contents affect both characters. As players open more presents, the chances of accidentally opening the randomizer are increased, which prevents the game from becoming easier as more presents are identified.

ToeJam & Earl creator Greg Johnson became a fan of Rogue as a university student. After he left university, he worked on games for Electronic Arts, including Starflight (1986). After the completion of Starflight 2, Johnson conceived ToeJam & Earl—first the characters, then the plot—while on a beach in Hawaii. The idea was a combination of Rogue's gameplay concepts and a lighter version of Starflight's science-fiction themes. Johnson met programmer Mark Voorsanger through a mutual friend, while walking on Mount Tam in 1989. He related the concept of ToeJam & Earl to Voorsanger, and the two resolved to make the game together. They formed Johnson Voorsanger Productions, and serious work on the game began soon after. Their status as commercial game designers allowed them to meet with Sega of America, and they used cards covered in landscape drawings to demonstrate their idea of randomly generated levels. Sega marketing manager Hugh Bowen was immediately interested in the concept and he enlisted the aid of producer Scott Berfield to sell the game to management; Sega wanted innovative games and new mascots to compete with Nintendo.
 
The game's small development team was composed of Johnson's previous colleagues, and its music was composed by John Baker. The team's goal was to make a humorous game that was "original, easy to understand and offered an immediate response to the player's actions". The designers wanted to include a two-player mode so that they could play together, and considered ToeJam & Earl "a two player game with a one player option." While Sega believed that hardware issues would prevent the feature from working, Voorsanger successfully implemented it. In a 1992 interview with Sega Visions, Johnson stated that the characters ToeJam and Earl evolved as reflections of his and Voorsanger's personalities. Voorsanger disagreed, and called the characters "two different aspects of Greg's personality". Steve Purcell (Of Sam & Max Fame) has stated that he contributed character designs to the game.
 
 Pak's Thoughts – This game holds up insanely well. If you ever enjoyed it, pick it up and play it. You’ll feel just as compelled to rebuild ToeJam & Earl’s ship as you were back then.  The sense of humor is great too, and multiplayer is a blast.

That’s it for now! I’ll try to get another 5 up later tonight!

[Darth Geek]

#45 –Rollercoaster Tycoon

I LOVED this game! If I had submitted a list, it would have been #1 easily (I'm not a gamer). I used to play this as a complete sociopath. To the point where it kinda scared me after a while.
  I once built a park on a mostly watery area completely out of boardwalks. Then when it was heavily populated, removed the segments to get to the Information booth (where people had to go to register complaints). Then proceeded to delete all the boardwalk parts as people were on them, letting them all drown. Because they couldn't get to the booth to make complaints, everyone died yet I had a perfect score because I had no complaints.
  I would also build really cool rollercoasters that got very popular so there would be a long line. Then shut it down, but most of the people would stay in line. Remove some of the pieces, so that the ride would be guaranteed to crash (this works best for coasters that have vertical portions where the cars go up then stop and then backwards). Then open it back up again and it will fill up with people that were already in line (and presumably saw me do this), where they will subsequently crash hilariously and die.
  I would play normally most of the time, of course. And it was really satisfying to get a very popular park paying attention to all the management stuff. But man, I remember that game as proof positive I have a fucked up side.