Whether they’re games from your childhood or games your parents played in their childhood, thirty years is a long time, and it may be hard to fathom just how long ago that was. Take a journey back in time as we look at thirty games from the late 1900s.
1994
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
The game that launched the franchise that launched an MMORPG that launched the profession of gold farming. The original Warcraft is often credited as starting the real-time strategy (RTS) boom of the 90s, cementing its place as a multiplayer genre. What’s a real-time strategy game? It’s like a MOBA – actually MOBAs started as RTS mods and…look, just ask your dad.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
No, not that one. The game! Shadow wasn’t even in that one and wouldn’t appear for another seven years. We did get Knuckles the same year though in the form of Sonic & Knuckles which was a cartridge that you could also plug Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Sonic the Hedgehog 3 into to play as Knuckles in them. He wasn’t voiced by Idris Elba though. The 1990s were a rough time.
Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong’s big debut as the one you know today was in 1994. The grandson of the original Donkey Kong from the–hang on, the Donkey Kong arcade machine released in 1981. So more time has passed between the debut of the modern DK than between his debut and the debut of the original DK who became Cranky Kong. Why isn’t this Donkey Kong a grandfather by now? Or a great grandfather?
Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures
In 1994, Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures came onto the scene and immediately disappointed everyone who played it expecting a traditional Pac-Man or even a good game. This was before we could watch Twitch or YouTube let’s plays to find out what a game was.
Wolverine: Adamantium Rage
Speaking of games to trick your friends into playing, Wolverine: Adamantium Rage was horrible. You had to read slow-loading dossiers to figure out boss weaknesses, deal with awful controls, and hurry through some levels, otherwise an android made to look like a little girl in a pink dress flying around with rocket shoes would catch up to you and self-destruct.
Seriously. Her name was Elsie Dee. This is what Wolverine used to have for villains.
Super Metroid
Now played by speedrunners who weren’t even alive when it was released, Super Metroid is still one of the greatest Metroidvanias. If you were around when this game first released, you probably played it for hundreds of hours. And you have arthritis now. Worth it.
1993
Myst
Puzzle games used to be a lot different. 1993 saw the release of Myst, a game that fell into the “adventure” genre. There were no on-screen tutorials or hint systems that popped up if you were on the wrong path. The only hints you got were in burnt books sitting on the shelf in a library. Some of those books had people inside who talked to you like they were on a Discord call with a bad connection. Or, you know, Skype.
Mega Man X
The first Mega Man game on the Super Nintendo featured a new era with new villains and a new protagonist, X (no, not that one). It was actually the start of a whole new series that lasted all the way into 2004 even though it really really shouldn’t have.
Bomberman ‘94
Wait, Bomberman ‘94 came out in 1993? That can’t be right.
Yeah, released in Japan in December of 1993. Maybe it was ready sooner than they thought it would be or it was like how the “2025 football” season started in 2024, and that’s why we got Madden NFL 25 in August of…2013? And again in August 2024?
Fine, moving on.
SimCity 2000
Oh, come on! You know, we had a simple and easy to follow thing going on with putting numbers at the end of game titles and movie titles. I guess calling it SimCity 2 or SimCity 1993 wasn’t cool enough. Or maybe game companies have never known what year it is. Relatable.
Doom
No, not that one. Before game companies started to name their sequels the same thing they named their first game, we had the 1993 version of Doom. A game so influential, there was a time when first person shooters were called “Doom Clones”. Thank this game for your Halos and your Call of Dutys and your sequels that are also named Doom – respect your elders, kids.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
It’s not really a case of “no, not that one” if the other one is a remake of the one you’re talking about. Sure, you could just play the Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, but what if you could play one with a smaller resolution, worse graphics, and everything is shades of green? It’s like when TV was in black and white – ask your grandparents.
1992
Super Mario Kart
Once upon a time, Mario Kart was a lot different. The original only had eight characters, and no blue shells, and it wasn’t even real 3D. We didn’t have fancy polygons back in the day, we had Mode 7 which was a fancy way of making environments look 3D even though they were really 2D backgrounds. Your friend could still hit you with a red shell or drop a banana in your path on Rainbow Road, ending that friendship forever. Okay, maybe Super Mario Kart wasn’t that different.
Mortal Kombat
The first Mortal Kombat hit arcades in 1992. By today’s standards, the blood and gore is hilariously tame, but back then it was so brutal and controversial, it was one of the reasons for the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) two years later. If you haven’t played it yourself and you’re curious, search for “original Mortal Kombat”, not “Mortal Kombat 1”. The latter just gives you the 12th game in the series. Video games have terrible naming conventions.
Alone In the Dark
Before 2024’s Alone In the Dark and 2008’s Alone In the Dark, and the 2005 film Alone In the Dark, there was Alone In the Dark. It was the game that basically launched the survival horror genre, helping to set a standard and shape many of the games that came after. Elements like fixed camera perspectives, tank controls, and other things that were complained about and abandoned as staples of the genre.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
One of the old LucasArts point-and-click adventure games, Fate of Atlantis was a far cry from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. No fancy graphics, no first person perspective, and no Troy Baker. This game’s “great circle” was the maze-like city of Atlantis and the gameplay revolved around exhausting dialog options and using everything in your inventory on everything in the environment until progress happened. They don’t make them like they used to.
Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge
Today you have Marvel Rivals, but back in 1992, we had a team-up game that put an omega-level weather goddess exclusively in underwater levels. This game only exists to trick your friends or favorite streamers into playing another terrible LJN game.
Kirby’s Dream Land
Oh, you don’t think that’s Kirby? You think Kirby is pink? You think that’s just an inexplicably smiling Boo? Nope, that’s what greeted anyone who bought the first Kirby game on the Game Boy. If they played it, they’d see that he was green – like everything else in the game. It was only the sequels that turned him pink. If that happened today, you’d see a lot of YouTube videos from reactionaries complaining about “white erasure” or something.
1991
Civilization
Hard to believe civilization only just started in 1991 and now it’s going to end in 2025. We’d say we had a good run, but…no.
Street Fighter II (arcade)
Get in the comments and say this screenshot is from the wrong Street Fighter II – you won’t. You know why? Nobody can tell the three thousand different versions of Street Fighter II apart. All that’s left is for Capcom to do a soft reboot of the series, naming it simply Street Fighter and then make a sequel.
Oh, and the game is really good and influential and still holds up today or something. You’ve already gone back to playing Street Fighter VI so who cares?
Battletoads
There are two types of Battletoads players: those who beat the game back in 1991, and goddamn liars. You think your Elden Ring or your Ghosts of Tsushima are difficult? Turbo Tunnel and Clinger Winger send their regards. The pause music slapped though.
Duke Nukem
Duke didn’t always have sunglasses, the voice acting of Jon St. John, and one-liners stolen from movies. The original was a sidescroller that barely resembles where the series ended up. It got some good sequels over the years before taking fourteen years to develop the game that was the final nail in the coffin in 2011. These days if a sequel to a game is terrible, you just have to wait till next year’s sequel.
Final Fantasy II – err, Final Fantasy IV
The one with Cecil and Golbez. Yeah, Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III weren’t originally localized in North America, so to avoid confusion, Final Fantasy IV got renamed to Final Fantasy II. But then Final Fantasy V didn’t get localized and Final Fantasy VI was localized as Final Fantasy III before Final Fantasy VII released and set the sequel numbers right.
This wasn’t complicated, it was very simple to understand. Totally different from the modern day sequel naming problems.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Arguably one of the more influential games in the series, A Link to the Past introduced a lot of elements that would be present in many of the following games. Oh sure, now it’s only played by streamers playing randomizers, but back in the day, this game was king. Ugh, zoomers and their randomizers. Enjoy getting 20 rupees over and over before ever finding a sword, nerd.
1990
Mega Man 3
The Mega Man game that introduced sliding and completely lost the plot when it came to boss weaknesses. There was no internet to look this stuff up either. If you didn’t have a subscription to Nintendo Power, you probably had no clue what a top or a gemini were weak to. Not much else to say about it other than Mega Man’s face on the stage select screen is a whole mood.
King’s Quest V
Gamers today don’t get to talk about annoying characters or cheap deaths in games. Not unless they’ve dealt with Cedric the owl or clicking exactly the right pixel to walk along a path and not throw themselves off a mountain.
Dr. Mario
No, Dr. Mario isn’t just a joke character in Smash Bros., there was a puzzle game in 1990 where he threw pills in a bottle full of viruses. Where did he get a medical degree? Why did he go back to plumbing? You know, we didn’t ask these questions. We didn’t need “lore” or “timelines” or “continuity.” You want to figure it out? Play it on your Nintendo Switch online library and make a Game Theory video about it.
Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers
Before games had inventories and upgrade systems and all of that nonsense, we had boss fights with giant enemies and a little red ball we were supposed to throw at them. The good old days when licensed games had almost nothing to do with their source material. At least it was simple – the type of game you could play these days while multitasking.
Super Mario World
There was really no following Super Mario Bros. 3, but Super Mario World tried. If you ever wonder where Yoshi came from, it’s this game. If you ever wonder why Nintendo started and then immediately stopped putting multiple exits in Mario levels, it’s this game.
The Secret of Monkey Island
Okay, you want to talk about stupid puzzles in point-and-click adventure games? Kids these days don’t know how good they have it being able to look up answers online. They can watch YouTube videos to figure out how to defeat bosses and solve puzzles for their $70 games. We should have listened to Guybrush’s words from the ending.
And that’s our 30 Over 30 list. If you’ve never played some of these, try to track down copies to see how gaming was in the early to mid-90s. And if you played these games when they were new, call your doctor and get your prostate checked.
