1994 in Gaming: A Retrospective
We’re about 3 months into 2009, and as our thoughts turn to the year that’s to come, I, as always, am turned around ass-backwards looking at stuff that happened 15 years ago.
That’s right, January 1st marked the 15th anniversary of 1994, long reputed by me to be…
The Greatest Year in
Gaming History.
I’d like to say that this is a nostalgic reminder of times long forgotten for me, but it just isn’t so; I think back about 1994 all the time. I was 6 and impressionable, so practically everything about that year made a huge impression on me. Here are some things that were important to me, and also to you, unless you mongle cock:
The Zenith of the Genesis
Although it’s never really noted by anyone other than EA Sports enthusiasts, Sega was kicking ass ninja-style in ’94. Some highlights:
Nintendo’s Year of the Cartridge
Yeah, yeah, I know, it was an advertising concept to deter people from thinking the CD was superior. Whatever, doesn’t matter. The SNES raped its competitors in ’94. Raped them to death. This brief list showcases just part of what is essentially the cornerstone for my love of 1994…
- Blackthorne and The Death and Return of Superman became 2 of the last games Blizzard would make before they discovered a secret knothole in the forest that led to the World of Warcraft. They made a couple of games about it. You may have heard of them in obscured forums and such.
- Final Fantasy III (VI Japan) was released in October, and is still my go-to game for people who doubt the Final Fantasy series. There are many cliches and problems associated with the series (which I personally don’t mind, but see complained about all the time), but this game managed to transcend all of them. Notably, it is missing the following things:
- A main character with giant ridiculous hair
- A miserable, sullen main character who hates everything
- A main character of any kind, for that matter
- A ridiculous sword of some kind
- An obvious love story (!!!)
- A battle system marked by 3-4 menu options and tedious repetition
So as you can see, that removes a great deal of the things that people stereotype the series for. Instead, FF6 boasts an original story, an incredible soundtrack, uniquely beautiful graphics, one of the best fictional villains ever, and what is likely the best script of the series. Before I get into a bitchy rant about how much I hate the modern games press’s handling of the Final Fantasy series, let’s move on to a game which is basically the polar opposite of Final Fantasy in every possible way except quality…
- Home Improvement: The Game.
- No, seriously though, it’s Super Punch-Out!!. Just like the first game in the series, anytime I fire up an emulator without any specific intentions, I’m probably starting this game. I can literally be entertained by simply making up a story for the game. For example, when I beat Gabby Jay by a regular KO without taking any hits (which is most of the time), I like to think that, rather than a regular knockout, Little Mac had simply beaten him to death with his bare hands. A TKO with Bear Hugger? No, I simply punched him so hard it caused his rectum to prolapse. This ability to create my own story is all thanks to a combination of some very well-drawn characters and some of the most bone-crushing hits I’ve ever seen in a game. I love the first game, but this is the game that makes me consider the Punch-Out!! series to be the most deserving of a new entry. Hopefully, the new Wii game will be just as violent as the storylines I made up about Little Mac’s brutality and ferocity.
- Mega Man X came out in January. I would say that it restarted and breathed new life into the series, but that’s not exactly true, because that series was still running like a freight train as far as I’m concerned (Mega Man 6 was released released shortly afterward, which is pretty difficult to fathom). That doesn’t change the fact that Mega Man X still rocked faces with it’s awesomeness. Still my favorite by far in the X sub-series, Mega Man X brought an unheard of smoothness and speed to SNES platforming. A deeper storyline and some new characters really brought the entire Mega Man series into the new age of gaming, when stories really started becoming the core of games. Also, it had Mega Man doing a hadoken. And that’s awesome.
- Donkey Kong Country was released and made people wonder why they were even thinking about 32-bit systems. It looks great even now, and is an absolutely immaculate platformer, easily one of the best ever. I can’t think of anything else interesting to say about it, so here’s this: Donkey Kong rhymes with MONKEY DONG.
- Super Metroid was released in April. This is actually a pretty unique memory for me, because to be honest, I didn’t completely understand Super Metroid, or its predecessor, for that matter. I knew the gameplay was fun, and there was something to do, but I just couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t from a lack of trying, though. I played the original Metroid for hours at a time, and rented Super Metroid all the time (it wasn’t until much later that I bought it). I mostly just ran around in circles, killing things, finding hidden passages, and getting pissed off at the absurd amounts of damage some enemies did. I even had a walkthrough for Super Metroid and I still couldn’t figure it out. It didn’t keep me from loving it though. It wasn’t until years later that I found how incredibly deep the gameplay in the game was. It’s now one of my favorite SNES games, and I didn’t even really grow up with it, at least not in the way most people did. That alone makes it deserving of inclusion in this list.
I would not be half the gamer I am today if it were not for the early-to-mid 90s. I love the whole 8-bit generation, I really do, but I don’t see how anyone could consider any generation to be the golden era of video games but the 16-bit generation. Of course, we don’t have to define eras so narrowly. I think the golden era lasted a few years before and a few years after that generation, and in 1994, that generation was at its brink.
IMNOTe
In perhaps a fitting way to end the year, Sony’s Playstation was released in Japan on December 3rd, 1994. It would be another 8 months before it reached American shores, but the message was clear: 1994 was the swan song of the 16-bit era. It was also in some ways the end of gaming’s innocence; in the years to come, games would become more mature, flashier, and based almost entirely on space marines. Simple, childlike games would (for the most part) be on their way out, leading to retarded 13-year-olds talking about how they don’t want to play anything colorful because it was “too kiddie”. Even at the time, at 6 and 7 years old (and in the years to come, and even now), I realized how fucking stupid this argument is. If you don’t want to play a game because it looks like it’s for kids than you are a fucking tool. There’s no way around it, no exception to the rule. You are insecure with your mental state. It’s kind of like the guys who beat women, work out all the time, and relax with a hot shower in the community male-only bathrooms at the gym. They’re obviously gay, and you obviously have trouble with people thinking you’re immature. Now, thanks to these asshats, we have brown, boring environments that are hailed as “beautiful enough to make a grown man cry”.
1994 may have been the apex of 16-bit gaming, but Nintendo and Sega still had some tricks up their sleeves. Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Comix Zone, Super Mario World 2, Ristar and many others were still waiting to be released. 1994 may be gone, but it left an indelible mark on myself and many other members of my generation, and the aftereffects will be seen for years.
Oh, apparently games were also released in the arcades and for PCs in 1994. I’ll, uh… get to those later.
