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Most revolutionary game of the 90s for you personally? Which game blew your mind and broadened gaming as you knew it the most?
- Thread starter Discontent
- Start date
While OoT is the reason I love adventure titles, but Mario 64 is the reason I developed a passion for games and one of the first console games I ever played. I still remember playing Mario 64 for the first time at a Shriners hospital waiting room in Tampa.
Last time I heard they still had it lying around somewhere. I really wish I could nab it before it goes in the trash. If it's still even there...
Last time I heard they still had it lying around somewhere. I really wish I could nab it before it goes in the trash. If it's still even there...
It always fascinates me when I see Metal Gear Solid talked about like this. Not that it isn't deserving, but because it's one franchise that's always been the domain of "internet people" only to me, whereas games like Doom, Street Fighter, or Mario were wider cultural events. Like I specifically associate MGS with ERA/GAF only in my mind.
Literally none of my friends played or talked about it at the time, and I don't even remember that much buzz about it in whatever press that I assimilated at the time either.
Literally none of my friends played or talked about it at the time, and I don't even remember that much buzz about it in whatever press that I assimilated at the time either.
Half Life was a revelatory experience. I had played Quake and Doom before it, but this was the first time I remember feeling like I was playing on singular experience. Going from one place to another. The AI seemed to know exactly when I was trying to flank or reload, fights were dynamic and enemies scary. Groundbreaking in so many ways.
Don't forget the clever use of live action footage! A small thing but crucial to the element of 'realism' that made the game so engaging.
it was huge. the anticipation for mgs2 was insane because of it. it was literally the biggest event in gaming at the time. (mgs2)
Robocop 3(D) was unveiled in 1990 and released in 1991 :)
The console games were released in 1993 though
Not a platformer but 3D control in 6 axises was alive and well on PC much earlier with games like X-Wing in 1993 and joysticks.
I feel like the first Virtua Fighter should be on this list. That games immense popularity has been cited as a major reason Sony decided to make sure the PlayStation was adept at 3D graphics. It of course was also a major influence on all 3D fighting games that followed it.
www.wired.com
How Virtua Fighter Saved PlayStation's Bacon
Sega's Virtua Fighter inspired Sony, then one of its chief rivals, to make the PlayStation a 3-D gaming machine.
It was impressive but System Shock 2 and Deus Ex did a much better job of world building and story telling just a couple of years later.
Kind of a stretch to include MGS2 in the topic at hand when it's a late 2001 release.
It's Mario 64 and it's not even close (even tho OoT is my 2nd favorite game ever)
The first time I laid hands on it, and realized that I could walk slower or faster depending on how much I pushed the stick forward, was a truly groundbraking moment for me. I'll never forget the first time I played it. 10 year old me could not grasp what was going on for a while.
It really was a "IS THIS REAL LIFE?" moment for me. Unbelievable. And the game played (hell, still plays) like a fucking dream.
Mario 64 is the king.
The first time I laid hands on it, and realized that I could walk slower or faster depending on how much I pushed the stick forward, was a truly groundbraking moment for me. I'll never forget the first time I played it. 10 year old me could not grasp what was going on for a while.
It really was a "IS THIS REAL LIFE?" moment for me. Unbelievable. And the game played (hell, still plays) like a fucking dream.
Mario 64 is the king.
Street Fighter 2 for sure. That's all I wanted to play every morning, and I'd play it at a local gas station that had a side room with three arcade cabinets, at the arcade, and at the game room at our local college. Once it came to the SNES, I played it at home, and at the arcade, and then when MK, Tekken and Killer Instinct hit, I was playing all of those as well. Street Fighter 2 basically introduced me to a new genre. Sure, I had already played stuff like Karate Champ, and Yie Ar Kung-Fu, but those weren't really on the same level, and while Mario 64 is great and all, it wasn't really a new genre, just a new perspective on an older one.
Runner up would be Warcraft 2, which I came to a bit late, but it allowed me to get my bearings pretty easily with StarCraft when that hit.
Not my favorite, but I owned it, and one of my best friends just couldn't get enough of it.
Runner up would be Warcraft 2, which I came to a bit late, but it allowed me to get my bearings pretty easily with StarCraft when that hit.
Not my favorite, but I owned it, and one of my best friends just couldn't get enough of it.
Doom made a bigger splash but it was basically a Wolfenstein reskin.
Virtua Fighter is a good call, and Mario 64 was revolutionary.
One I'll add for me personally is WipEout.
In 1995-96 I interviewed for a job at a design agency and the guy took me into their break room where they had a PlayStation hooked up to a projector.
He pulled out WipEout and said, "have you seen this?" I said no, so he fired it up and I watched him play through a quick race.
Here in front of me was a melding of video games, electronic music and graphic design. Three of my passions all coming together.
I bought a PlayStation very shortly after that.
It might not be the typical answer but it completely blew me away... I was 15 or 16 when I played it and literally became obsessed with it, but would only allow myself to play it at night with all the lights off and everyone else in the house in bed.
I had a notebook that I took notes in about the lore, environment, etc. and literally went to every corner of the map I could looking for more... It is definitely in my top 3 gaming experiences of all time.
Silent Hill 2 taught me that Video Game stories are something that can be just as good, if not better, than a movie.
No doubt, but the closest I'd come to personally experiencing an analogous experience on PC up to that point probably would've been Doom.
And a huge part of the impact was just the look and feel of the movement (in addition, of course, to the 3-dimensional and - for the time - highly expressive rendering of this iconic character I'd grown up with), as well as the complexity of the move set. 25 years later and I think the game still feels great to play, which is extraordinary (that camera, though...).
It's probably the best use of the gaming medium to tell a story you could only truly experience as a player. Absolutely brilliant. It didn't come out in the 90's though. Late 2001.
It might not be the typical answer but it completely blew me away... I was 15 or 16 when I played it and literally became obsessed with it, but would only allow myself to play it at night with all the lights off and everyone else in the house in bed.
I had a notebook that I took notes in about the lore, environment, etc. and literally went to every corner of the map I could looking for more... It is definitely in my top 3 gaming experiences of all time.
Silent Hill 2 taught me that Video Game stories are something that can be just as good, if not better, than a movie.
Not just presenting a 3D world but offering the player multiple ways to advance using real world logic. It was essentially the first true immersive sim even though that genre term obviously didn't exist yet. It's definitely a strong contender for most revolutionary game of the '90s.
Someone [their username is deleted now] made a great thread on it:
Ultima Underworld: Its historical significance and why you should still play it today
Crossposted from elsewhere (on a related note, come join us in the RPG Era Community OT or in the Discord Hidden content): Well Underworld: Ascendant was a complete bust so I've been drowning my sorrows in retrospective videos about Ultima Underworld. As I was doing so, it occurred to me that...
www.resetera.com
I didn't fully appreciate Ultima Underworld when it came out but System Shock ended blowing my mind and it's my personal choice for this thread. It was way ahead of its time in 1994 in terms of 3d "metroidvania" world design, character movement, physics, interactive story-telling, difficulty options for both action and puzzles, and it even had VR support for the VFX-1 headgear.
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They're not trying to include MGS2 into this topic, they're just saying MGS was so big a deal that its sequel was probably THE most anticipated game.
Banjo Kazooie was for me the "OMG, real-time 3D!" moment that Mario 64 was for a lot of other people, because I played Banjo Kazooie first. And since N64 was the first console I owned, I didn't have much of a prior attachment to Mario to really feel the "2D - 3D transformation" experience across the same IP. But before I got a N64 I'd played a few PC games (well, Mac games, so my options were limited) so I'd already seen some 3D, so I think even then it wasn't quite as "Wow!" to me as it may have been for others.
From a more technical standpoint:
released in 1995. Of course kids would stick to their N64s back then.
EF2000 is a combat flight simulator of the Eurofighter Typhoon (EF2000) aircraft, featuring detailed terrain of the Baltic region. It supports virtual reality goggles. Graphics features included naturally irregular topography, clouds and darkening skies at high altitudes.
released in 1995. Of course kids would stick to their N64s back then.
EF2000 is a combat flight simulator of the Eurofighter Typhoon (EF2000) aircraft, featuring detailed terrain of the Baltic region. It supports virtual reality goggles. Graphics features included naturally irregular topography, clouds and darkening skies at high altitudes.
Game uses an evolved version of the Robocop 3(D) engine I mentioned earlier ;-) also used in Tornado and TFXFrom a more technical standpoint:
released in 1995. Of course kids would stick to their N64s back then.
EF2000 is a combat flight simulator of the Eurofighter Typhoon (EF2000) aircraft, featuring detailed terrain of the Baltic region. It supports virtual reality goggles. Graphics features included naturally irregular topography, clouds and darkening skies at high altitudes.
Doom from that list (or Half Life), but probably Ultima VI (June 1990) for biggest impact overall. Console side Link to the Past or FFVI had the biggest impacts.
Doom defined the FPS, HL revolutionized it. Ultima VI created an open world that feels more alive than even Skyrim decades later. Link to the Past had just so many things that blew me away from the get go. FFVI was just a seemingly endless rollercoaster of things to do, find, see.
I've replayed all of these at some point in the past decade (save for maybe Ultima VI).
Quake II also fits in because it was the first game I played with a graphics card and with colored lighting. I would run up to walls and stare at them.
Doom defined the FPS, HL revolutionized it. Ultima VI created an open world that feels more alive than even Skyrim decades later. Link to the Past had just so many things that blew me away from the get go. FFVI was just a seemingly endless rollercoaster of things to do, find, see.
I've replayed all of these at some point in the past decade (save for maybe Ultima VI).
Quake II also fits in because it was the first game I played with a graphics card and with colored lighting. I would run up to walls and stare at them.
Interstate 76' was a huge one for me. It's not a sandbox game, but it was way more open than most games at the time. It's the first game I remember playing that really put effort into the voice acting and overall story. Combine that with the variety of cars and customization options, a bot mode, a great funk soundtrack and the ability to radio your partner to have him read you a poem, and the whole game was just so goddamn good. I wish someone would dust it off and do a good remake.
Unfortunately I had not played or watched games on the later Amiga models so I did not have the chance to see Robocop back then
But I was impressed by that flight sim. Still have that huge manual.
Doom and it lead to Quake/Cod/HL/CS considering that id tech software engine was modified heavily to make while keeping core components say like how the network operated. Wasd originated in Doom when thresh made it viable in lan tournaments. Mario adds a lot so does doom, gran turismo, and ff7 all which pushed similar numbers and had their own influences on gaming we still see in bits today.
Doom had bigger numbers before mario 64 even existed.
Doom had bigger numbers before mario 64 even existed.
DOOM is pretty much why we nowadays have FPS games, mods and online multiplayer. It's also what made Windows and the IBM-PC the default place for computer games and the reason why there's no other PCs today other than it. The impact DOOM had in gaming can't be understated.
Had to sell my psx (bought another eventually) at the time to be able to afford a n64, just to play Mario 64. Only game l ever did such a thing for and it was more than worth it.
Zelda got me in love with music beyond the usual. I would turn that game on just to hear the music of different areas. The first game I would turn on to do something other than progress.
I mean, it has to be Mario 64 objectively speaking, just because it flawlessly executed the switch to the third dimension without breaking a sweat. It's honestly miraculous how well it plays even today.
But if we're talking subjectively, for me it has to be the following:
But if we're talking subjectively, for me it has to be the following:
- Tomb Raider
- Ocarina of Time
- Metal Gear Solid
Mario 64 ushered in the age of analog stick controls in 3d space. Though I would say out but Mario 64 it is.