We’re slowly getting closer to catching up with the Nintendo Power Retrospectives, as we come to NextGen’s coverage of the N64 launch.
Cover: Video Games are old enough now that we’re starting to get Top 100 lists. NextGen’s list though, going from how it’s advertised on the cover, seems somewhat questionable, considering that they are billing games that have either just come out or haven’t been released yet.
Interview: We have the rise of the retro scene going on (though NextGen calls it a “cult), so tie in with that, we have an interview with Eugene Jarvis – designer of Robotron & Defender, and currently designing Crusin’ World. Jarvis gets into the rise of the arcade game, and the level of mechanical simplicity needed for an arcade game to succeed – you have to be able to pick up and get a handle on the game in 10 seconds, which can lead to some limitations in the evolution of the genre.
Now, Jarvis is impressed with what’s going on with first-person shooters, and what’s going on with network and internet-enabled multiplayer. I’ll say from the interview, he’s less into exploration+puzzle-based adventure games and RPGs, as his view is that the presence of a story reduces the game-play space. Fallout (which has already been previewed as GURPS), and Deus Ex (which is admittedly already a ways off) would beg to differ.
There is also some discussion of whether you need to be a gamer to design games. Jarvis says yes, though he also poo-poos prospective designers who ask about retirement & benefits. On the one hand, I understand this sentiment, because games at this time were still a young medium, and arguably still are. It’s just that now games are in a comparable space to the 1960s and maybe ‘70s now, while it was in the equivalent of the ‘20s and ‘30s then. However, because I also pay attention to the comics industry, I’ve also seen what’s happened to great comics artists like Gene Colan & Marv Wolfman, and how they struggled to pay for their medical expenses in their retirements – so that matters. This sentiment also definitely fits with the problem with normalizing crunch in the video game industry.
News: The N64 has launched in Japan, and will be coming out in the US soon. We have a bunch of coverage of that, but in the sidebar is one equally big story – Tom Kalinske is out at Sega of America.
Top 100 Games of All Time: On the one hand, the game industry, as of this issue, is barely old enough to drink, so this seems awfully pretensions, as much as I hate that word. On the other, with how short the age of the game industry is, what would be on this list hasn’t had a chance to ossify the way that more recent lists are more likely to have a lot of the same titles, in different orders. So, we’re more likely to have deep cuts that otherwise would have been lost to the ages, so to speak. Here is the ranking, with a few additional notes on some of the more obscure titles.
- Super Mario 64
- Tetris
- Super Bomberman 2
- Civilization (series)
- Mario (series)
- Virtua Fighter 2
- Street Fighter 2 (series)
- Lemmings
- Quake
- WarCraft II
- Virtua Racing
- Ms. Pac-Man
- Defender
- Elite
- Marble Madness
- Populous (series)
- Final Fantasy (series)
- Micro Machines
- Doom (series)
- Sonic (series)
- Daytona USA
- Tekken II
- X-Wing/TIE Fighter
- Lurking Horror – Horror text adventure game from Infocom based on King and Lovecraft
- Nights into Dreams
- X-COM: UFO Defense
- Sam & Max Hit the Rode
- NFL GameDay (‘95)
- Syndicate
- Madden Football (series)
- Herzog Zwei
- Wipeout XL
- SimCity 2000
- Nobunaga’s Ambition (series)
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Rescue Raiders/Armor Alley – sort of a hybrid RTS game with a Choplifter perspective, designed for the Apple II
- Super Mario Kart
- Zork (series)
- Asteroids
- NHL Powerplay
- “Snake Game”
- EF2000 – Flight sim where you control an Eurofighter
- Rolling Thunderbolt
- Spectre VR (multi-player tank combat game)
- Outrun
- Formula One Grand Preix 2
- Worldwide Soccer 2
- World Series Baseball (1995)
- Command & Conquer
- Donkey Kong
- Panzer General
- Spaceward Ho! – Space Simulation game
- The Sentinel – A 3D puzzle game.
- Mechwarrior 2
- Ultima (series)
- Dragon Warrior/Quest (series)
- Sega Rally
- Star Wars Arcade
- Super Sprint
- Wizardry (series)
- Ikari Warriors (the first one)
- The Bard’s Tale (series)
- Robotron
- Zelda (series)
- Bump ‘n Jump
- A Mind Forever Voyaging
- F/A-18 Hornet 2.0 – specifically the Mac version.
- Pong
- Links (‘91)
- Metroid (series)
- FIFA Soccer (‘94)
- Phantasy Star (series)
- AH64-D Longbow
- Tempest (original)
- Balance of Power – the Chris Crawford strategy game
- NBA Live ‘96
- Shining Force (series – not including the other Shining games)
- Track & field (Konami series)
- King’s Quest (series)
- Falcon Gold
- River Raid
- Virtua Cop (series)
- Joust
- Centipede
- Leisure Suit Larry (series)
- Jumping Flash
- Discs of Tron
- Knight Lore – isometric game from Rare (when they were Ultimate) for the ZX Spectrum
- The Epyx Games series (Summer/Winter/California)
- Xevious
- Resident Evil
- Hard Hat Mac – PC Platformer from EA
- Burning Force – shooter for the Genesis
- Rave Racer (not the other games in the Ridge Racer series.
- Strike (series)
- Galaga
- Space Invaders
- R-Type (just the first one)
- NBA Jam (series)
- Trinity – a Text adventure game about stopping the Trinity nuclear tests.
Now, a lot of the list is solid. While the inclusion of some very new titles is questionable, even then some of the titles are solid picks, such as with Quake. I also don’t mind the combination of some games into series – as it helps mitigate some of the issues like trying to decide which of the Dragon Warrior games is the best for your ranking – and it works well for this era of Madden, considering that sports games tend to live and die by calculated, incremental improvements. And, even in cases where a series goes through a clear ongoing decline, I could see picking a range of games in the series to pick. That said, I do think there should have been a restriction for sticking with just one game or game series per real world sport.
Alphas (Previews): We have a preview of Ultima Online, which, even more than AOL’s Neverwinter, will kick off the era of the MMORPG, and lead to a shift in popularity from MUDs to that genre. We also have a bunch of interviews with game developers and execs – particularly Brian Fargo, who is focusing on Engage (Interplay’s online matchmaking service) and “Wild Bill” Stanley (formerly of Microprose) who is starting his new company, Interactive Magic.
Finals (Reviews): We have our first N64 reviews, with Pilotwings 64 and Super Mario 64, with both games getting 5 stars. On the Playstation side, Delphine has a new cinematic action game in 3D with Fade to Black, and the first Namco Museum collection. The Saturn has an action RPG with Legend of Oasis, and the PC has Chaos Overlords and the Earthworm Jim collection.
Letters: We have a letter from Doug Millikan, who is actively working on some research on force feedback – Millikan did the force feedback setup for the Hard Drivin’ arcade cabinet.
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