When we think about older RPG’s from the late 90’s-early 00’s time period there were many classics from that era of gaming including FFVII, FFVIII, Suikoden II, Xenogears, Grandia II and many others. But when comes down to popular 3D JRPG’s from ‘99-‘00 there were games such as Chrono Cross & Skies Of Arcadia that deserved sequels but never received them. Chrono Cross was first released on the PS1 in Japan back in November 1999 before coming to America in August 2000. Chrono Cross was the critically acclaimed sequel to the iconic 16-bit Chrono Trigger game for the SNES from ‘95. Despite, the Chrono Cross received for its storytelling, visuals and battle battle system Square Co./ Square Enix was unable to produce a sequel. It has been mentioned by Hiromichi Tanaka who worked as the producer for Chrono Cross many years ago that ideas on creating a sequel were tossed around at some point. While the idea for creating a new Chrono game was eventually dropped on the early 00’s Shinji Hashimoto from Square Enix seemingly expresses frustration about the matter at E9 2009. Hashimoto may have believed that the overall sales for Chrono Cross was too low and that the fan support for another installment was not high enough for Square Enix to care.
Skies Of Arcadia which was developed by Overworks initially appeared on Sega Dreamcast in ‘00 was quite possibly the best RPG to have appeared on that console. Initially, a sequel for Skies Of Arcadia was planned around ‘03 but apparently it never materialized. Back in January 2020 one of the developers Kenji Hiruta who worked on Skies Of Arcadia had expressed interest on Twitter in developing a direct sequel to the ‘00’s RPG classic. The likelihood of seeing a sequel for Skies Of Arcadia is not too different from the possibility of Square Enix producing another Chrono game. Following the 90’s the Chrono series has seemingly lost its appeal with Chrono Trigger from ‘95 being the most high profile game in the series. Skies Of Arcadia was one of the most captivating RPG’s of the 00’s decade and at this point it seems like the only way will get a sequel is through a Kickstarter campaign. As far as which game is more deserving of a sequel between Chrono Cross & Skies Of Arcadia is definitely one that is open to debate.
As many people know the MegaMan series is legendary and has been around since the NES era of gaming from the 80’s. While the more famous titles within the series includes MegaMan I-V along with the MMX series from ‘93-‘01 a lot of people seemingly forget about the Legends from ‘97. MegaMan Legend last was the first ever 3D installment within the entire series. Following its release Mega Man Legends generally received positive reviews from critics and gamers alike. However, it seems like MegaMan Legends from ‘97 is not remembered to the same extent as the other installments from the 90’s. While MegaMan Legends had appeared on multiple game systems back including Nintendo 64, Microsoft Windows and PlayStation Portable; it never received an official HD remake of any sort for game systems such as PS3, Xbox 360, etc. While the gameplay from Mega Man Legends deviated from the fast paced run n gun action seen in 2D MM installments the storytelling aspect was considered a strong point among many.
The idea of having a 3D action-adventure third person shooter MegaMan game was pretty unique especially since some people had doubts on whether or not Capcom could pull it off. While we recently got to see the release of the MegaMan Legacy Collections 1 & 2 back in ‘18 Mega Man Legends was absent and hardly anyone complained about it at all. The demand to see an HD Remake of MegaMan Legends is not strong enough among gamers for Capcom to make that a reality; that also goes for its successors MegaMan Legends 2 from 2000. The fact that MegaMan Legends 3 which was supposed to appear on the Nintendo 3DS in 2010 was cancelled tells you that there was very little interest within that series in general. While MegaMan Legends was pretty unique in its own right it still was not as memorable or fun as the 2D run n gun titles from the NES/SNES era from the 80’s & 90’s.
When it comes down to classic arcade games from the early 90’s one of the more memorable from that time period that comes to mind is WWF Royal Rumble from 1993. WWF Royale Rumble was developed by Sculptured Software and published by Acclaim Entertainment and was released for the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was one that looked and left significantly different than what people saw in the WWF Wrestlefest title from ‘91 since it deviated away the arcade styled look and gameplay which Technos Japan had created. Instead WWF Royal Rumble added some realism in terms of gameplay mainly in relation to its grappling system. Also, it was one of the first pro wrestling games where players could utilize illegal tactics after accidentally knocking out a referee. WWF Royal Rumble included multiple game modes such as Singles Match, Tag Team Match, Triple Threat Tag-Team and Royal Rumble all features which added to the games overall replay value. Also, WWF Royal Rumble featured an all-star roster of some of biggest names in pro wrestling including Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Randy Savage, Lex Luger, Razor Ramon and more depending on which version of the game was purchased.
The SNES version of WWF Royal Rumble included the likes of Ric Flair, Ted DiBiase, Mr. Perfect and Yokozuna. The Genesis version of WWF Royal Rumble featured exclusive characters such as: Hulk Hogan, Rick Martel and IRS making it tough for people to choose one version over the other. WWF Royal Rumble in general was seen as a upgrade from the WWF Super Wrestlemania game from ‘92. WWF Royal Rumble was eventually followed by two sequels including Rage in the Cage for Sega CD in ‘93 and WWF Raw from ‘94. While there are some who preferred the cartoonish arcade like gameplay that titles such as WWF Wrestlefest & WWF Wrestlemania Arcade; there was fair portion of pro wrestling fans who admired the emphasis on realism in games such as WWF Royal Rumble. While it may not have been the most high profile wrestling game from the 90’s its still seen as a classic by many people today.
When down to memorable old school wrestling games from the early 90’s one of the few titles from that time period that comes to mind is the arcade classic known as Saturday Night Slam Masters. This was game that was both developed and published by Capcom and released back in ‘93 before it was ported to the Super NES and the Sega Genesis. Saturday Night Slam Masters was an exciting button mashing video game where each character had two special attacks in addition to finishing maneuver. Similar to just about another other wrestling game ever made players had to defeat their opponents via pinfall or submission. Saturday Night Slam Masters included game modes such as Singles Match and Team Battle Royale that involved players battling a series of CPU controlled opponents. The game included at least ten different characters to choose from including Mike Haggar from the Final Fight series.
The gameplay & graphics for Saturday Night Slam Saturday was solid overall and it ended up becoming one of the most popular arcade fighting titles of the mid 90’s. Despite, not being on the same level of popularity as WWF Wrestlefest from ‘91; Saturday Night Slam Masters had features such as 4-player gameplay that was also present in the arcade smash WWF Wrestlefest. Despite, Saturday Night Slam Masters not being as successful as WWF Wrestlefest it was still a arcade styled fighting game that appealed to both kids and adults. While the Genesis version of Saturday Night Slam Masters was viewed once a negative light the Super NES version of the game shined slightly more; despite not being as good as the original arcade version of the game due to console limitations. While it might not be considered one of the most high profile pro wrestling titles of the 90’s; Saturday Night Slam Masters was without doubt one of the most underrated games within that genre as it pertains to that decade in general.
As far as unique video games from the early 90’s are concerned the Total Carnage title from ‘91 was a game that was quite interesting to many people. For those who do not know Total Carnage was initially developed and published by Midway prior its arcade release before being ported to multiple game systems including the SNES, Game Boy, Amiga, MS-DOS and other game systems. Total Carnage was a overhead multidirectional shooter game that was very similar to Smash TV from 1990. Games like Total Carnage along with its spiritual prequel Smash TV were seen as innovative back in the early 90’s because it differed from the 2D side scrolling run n gun games that often appeared on the NES during the 80’s. While the arcade version of Total Carnage was praisedthere were some minor criticisms of the SNES version of the game since it was seen as inferior in terms of quality. Total Carnage was a pretty cool game with a basic plot that involved two player gameplay; people could choose either Captain Carnage or Major Mayhem as they try to stop dictator General Akhboob from conquering the world.
Total Carnage gave players a variety of weapons to use including a rapid fire gun, rocket launchers and flamethrowers as they destroyed various foes in each level. In fact, the stages in Total Carnage were so long that there were only three of them each with a challenging boss battle at the end. The cool thing about Total Carnage was the fact that players got to pick up where they left off by using as special passcode after a game over. Total Carnage stood out in arcade centers back in the early 90’s especially considering the fact that shooter games were somewhat popular during that time period. While Total Carnage was not a huge success financially but it was considered to be a game that was every bit as fun as Smash TV was in arcade centers in the early 90’s.
The Super Mario Bros series has been around since the mid 80’s during the NES days of gaming. When it comes down to popularity the very first Super Mario Bros game is quite possibly one greatest video games of all-time not only because it helped shape the platform genre of gaming but it was also very successful as well. The original Super Mario Bros game has reportedly sold over 40 million worldwide since its original release and the series itself had only grew in popularity as time passed. While Super Mario Bros 2 was a pretty fun game that allowed players to choose multiple characters including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad it was not as successful as its prequel. Despite, the improvements in gameplay featured in Super Mario Bros 2 it sold less than both its predecessor and successor and was often seen as the black sheep of the trilogy. While the original Super Mario Bros 2 game reach over 7.4 million in sales since ‘88; Super Mario Bros 3 managed to reach over 13 million in sales and was almost every bit as popular as the very first installment within the series. Super Mario World from 1990 which appeared on the SNES was arguably the best game within its series during the 90’s in general.
Super Mario World had a beautiful overworld along nice looking 2D sprites, stages and animation with the inclusion of Yoshi. Players could spend days, weeks or even months trying to complete Super Mario World since the game itself had multiple overworld maps and became more challenging towards the end of the game. Super Mario World ended up reaching over 20 million in sales since appearing on the 16-bit SNES console and is considered to be of the greatest installments within the entire series. We then got Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES which was a 16-bit remastered collection of the first three NES Mario games from the 80’s; with the addition of Mario Lost Levels. Super Mario All-Stars was a huge success sales wise and sold over 10 million copies worldwide since ‘93. We also got to see other 2D classics on the SNES & Game Boy throughout the 90’s such as Super Mario Land 1 & 2, Yoshi’s Island and Super Mario RPG which were all critically acclaimed classics that sold millions worldwide as well. The Super Mario Kart game from ‘92 was a nostalgic classic where players were introduced to iconic stages such as: Koopa Beach, Choco Valley and Rainbow Road. By the mid 90’s the world got to see Super Mario 64 & Mario Kart 64 two games that are legendary among the gaming community. While Super Mario 64 managed to sell roughly under 12 million copies for the N64 Mario Kart 64 arguably had the best soundtracks that one would ever hear in a racing game.
While the Mario games from the 90’s were more iconic there was no doubt that in terms of quality the titles we have seen from the 00’s onwards were far more superior games in comparison. In fact, the 00’s was the decade where we got to see the releases of titles such as Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Mario Kart Wii along with Super Mario Galaxy. The New Super Mario Bros series was like a breath of fresh air to many people during the mid to late 00’s because the 2D gameplay was reminiscent to the older installments within the series from the mid 80’s-early 90’s. However, the New Super Mario Bros games provided players with 2D gameplay with 3D visuals in a addition to simultaneous multiplayer mode which not he done on the NES/SNES during the 80’s or 90’s. The New Super Mario Bros game from ‘06 along with its Wii sequel from ‘09 sold over 30 million copies individually and are among the best selling titles within the entire series. We also got to see the release of Mario Kart Wii in ‘08 which became the second best selling Mario game of all-time reaching over 37 million in sales. While Mario Kart Wii might not be the most memorable installment within the Mario racing series it was highly successful due to popularity of Nintendo’s Wii console from late 2006. Prior to the release Mario Kart Wii Nintendo released Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii console in November 2007; Super Mario Galaxy was a critically acclaimed 3D platformer with a fantastic soundtrack and a and a solid plot where the setting takes place in multiple galaxies opposed to Mushroom Kingdom. Super Mario Galaxy had reached roughly under 12 million copies in sales since its Wii release back in late ‘07 is considered to be one the best 3D platformers within the series along with Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Odyssey.
We then look at the 10’s decade and Nintendo gave us some outstanding games such as: Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Super Mario Maker along with Super Mario Odyssey. Despite, being exclusively on the Nintendo DS Mario Kart 7 reached over 11 million units in sales following its release in 2011. It was also in ‘11 where Super Mario 3D Land was released for the Nintendo 3DS and managed to reach roughly under 13 million in sales. Super Mario 3D Land in some ways felt like a prelude to Super Mario 3D World which included multiplayer gameplay where players could select Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad. Super Mario 3D World was the type of platform multiplayer game that Nintendo fans wanted to see in the Super Mario series since 90’s. Despite, being an incredible 3D platformer Super Mario 3D World had only reached over 5.8 million in sales which overall is pretty good. However, the Wii-U console was considered to be a flop sales wise in comparison to its competitors along with previous consoles that Nintendo had released with the exception of GameCube. Super Mario Odyssey from ‘17 was without a doubt the best Mario platform game that we got from Nintendo during the 10’s decade. Super Mario Odyssey felt like the 10’s version of Super Mario 64 and included cinematic cutscenes and soundtracks that made the game feel somewhat like a kids movie. Super Mario Odyssey not only received praise from various gaming publications but it also managed to reach over 18 million units in sales since its release in late 2017.
While the 80’s & 90’s may have been the period where Nintendo released its most iconic Mario games the overall quality of the titles that came out during the 00’s-10’s decade was without a doubt more superior. In fact, many would probably agree that the Mario series has aged like fine wine since the 80’s. It seemed like Nintendo has released more successful Mario games within the past two decades than they did in the 80’s & 90’s. Despite, Nintendo producing more successful Mario games during the 00’s & 10’s decade the very first game from ‘85 is still the most popular game within the entire series after being around for 35 years. While everyone has their own respective opinions on which decade was the best for in relation to the Mario series; everyone can agree that Nintendo has done an incredible job on the series fresh for over three decades which is an incredible milestone within the gaming world.
As far as big 16-bit sequels from the 90’s that the world never got to see are concerned Phantasy Star V is one that may be on the top of the list of many people who are retro gamers. As many people know the first two Phantasy Star games that appeared on the Mega Drive between ‘87-‘89 were concerned to be very popular. The Genesis/Mega Drive console was not was not well known for its RPG’s but the visual presentation of titles such as the Phantasy Star or the Shining series were pretty unique. Even though, the Phantasy Star games from the late 80’s-early 90’s were not as much of an attraction as the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy on Sega’s 16-bit console; they were seen as worthy competitors to the Final Fantasy titles which appeared on Nintendo consoles during 8/16-bit era of gaming. While Phantasy Star IV from ‘93 was the final 16-bit installment within the series that appeared on the Genesis console many believe that Sega could have released a sequel on that system between ‘95-96. However, its common knowledge that 16-bit gaming was starting to decline in popularity around the mid 90’s due to the rise in popularity of 3D gameplay on consoles such as PS1 along with the N64.
Even though, Phantasy Star IV was critically acclaimed for the most part the game was on the receiving end of criticism for its flawed storyline despite the game being just as good as Phantasy Star II from ‘89. In fact, there had been criticism of Phantasy Star IV being too much like PSII in the sense where the graphics for the game felt outdated. While the visuals for Phantasy Star IV may have looked better than its ‘90 prequel; a carbon copy of Phantasy Star II with a different story & characters felt like somewhat of a step backwards in the eyes of some critics to what was overall a very solid JRPG. As far as a sequel to Phantasy Star IV is concerned it would have been interesting if Sega had released one for the Saturn console between ‘95-‘97. Despite, the Sega Saturn not achieving the same level of success as the Genesis console a Phantasy Star V game could have been a bigger attraction than the likes of Sonic 3D Blast or Shining Force III. If Sega had decided to utilize the offline action RPG gameplay from Phantasy Star Online for a Phantasy Star V game on the Saturn console during the mid 90’s it definitely could have been a huge attraction. After Phantasy Star IV from ‘94 the series needed something completely new and refreshing to fans of the series and the Phantasy Star Online game from 00’s was simply that. While Phantasy IV may have deserved a 2D sequel back in the 90’s a 3D Phantasy Star V game for the Sega Saturn or even Dreamcast would have been epic.
SM64 is considered to be one of the most legendary 3D Super Mario games of all-time especially since it was the very first that we got to see within the series in general. Super Mario 64 from the mid 90’s was remembered for its critically acclaimed gameplay, graphics and soundtrack making it the second best selling video game for the Nintendo 64. Since its release back in ‘96 Super Mario 64 had reached over 9.8 million copies in terms of worldwide sales before the N64 was ultimately discontinued in 2001. As far as soundtracks are concerned Nintendo arguably produced some of its best work with Super Mario 64 with legendary soundtracks for different levels such as: Koopa’s Road, Bomb-Omb Battlefield and Dire Dire Docks. The soundtracks in SM64 seemed far better than anything from the 2D Mario installments from the NES/SNES era of gaming. Also, there are hardly any 3D Mario games that came after SM64 that had a memorable soundtrack that was on the same level in terms of quality with Super Mario Galaxy from ‘07 possibly being an exception.
The soundtracks in SM64 blended naturally with each level and the amount of creativity that went into the game itself added to its overall replay value. While the soundtrack for SM64 was awesome it should be noted that Nintendo had produced many memorable music scores especially during the 90’s in general. In fact, some would put Mario Kart 64 above SM64 in terms of having more memorable soundtracks with likes of Rainbow Road, Toad’s Turnpike and Raceways. There was definitely a magical aura that some of the N64 Mario games had back then that we rarely see nowadays and its something that long time fans of the series still cherish to this day. While everyone has their own respective opinion on which Mario game has the best soundtracks there is no doubt that SN64 would have to be in the top five on many people’s list.
Back in the late 90’s WWF WarZone was considered to be one of the top wrestling games for the PS1 following its initial release during the summer of 1998. WWF Warzone was published by Acclaim Sports and developed by Iguana West for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation; it outshined the likes of WCW Nitro which was also released in ‘98 for the PS1 and was considered to be very innovative in terms of gameplay for its time. Even though, WWF Warzone was released in ‘98 the roster for the game was a bit outdate since it heavily reflected that of ‘97; which ended up being one of the few minor issues that people had with the game itself. In general there were more positives than negatives with WWF Warzone because the game had introduced a variety of features that had never been seen in a wrestling title prior to ‘98. WWF Warzone was one of the first wrestling titles to include in-game features such as create-a-wrestler; something that people did not see inWCW games until ‘99 onwards. Also, the single-player Challenge mode which included cinematic cutscenes and wrestlers cutting revenge promos before grudge matches added life to the game itself. Players had the opportunity to win the European, Intercontinental along with the World title throughout Challenge Mode with the game increasing in difficulty over time.
There also a variety of different matches that players had the opportunity to choose from outside of Challenge Mode including Single, Versus, Cage, Hardcore, Tornado and Battle Royal. WWF Warzone presented players with at least sixteen different characters to choose from along including likes of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Undertaker, HHH, The Rock, Mankind and more; while each characters had their own character profiles and attributes that would uniquely distinguish them from one another. WWF Warzone was quite possibly the first wrestling game where characters had 3D entrances alongside their theme music which was a pretty cool feature to see on either the N64 or the PS1 back then. WWF Warzone has received praise from wrestling fans and critics alike following its initial ‘98 release; especially since the game came out during time where the company itself was arguably at its peak during the 90’s decade. There is no doubt the 1998 was a great time to be a fan of pro-wrestling and games like WWF Warzone were among the many reasons why. While the WWF Attitude game from 1999 was considered to be a more superior version of Its prequel in terms of game modes and roster depth Warzone is still regarded by many retro gamers as iconic.
When it comes down to old school wrestling games from the 90’s one of the few titles that some people might remember is the WCW Thunder game from ‘99developed by Inland Productions and published by THQ. The game looked and played similar to that of the WCW Nitro game which also appeared on the PS1 back in back ‘98. However, unlike the WCW Nitro game from ‘98 there were some new characters such as Bret Hart who were in the game; along new match types such as: Cage Match and Battle Royale which added to the appeal of WCW Thunder over its ‘98 predecessor WCW Nitro. The ability for players to utilize weapons during matches along with being able to assign wrestlers to different stables was also seen as a positive in WCW Thunder; despite the game itself receiving mediocre to average reviews in comparison to the 3D WWF games that came out for the PS1. It should also be noted that WCW Thunder was a PS1 exclusive unlike WCW Nitro and it also included pre-recorded television entrances that lasted for a few seconds before each match started. Some of the improvements seen in WCW Thunder showed that the developers put a little more effort into the production of the game despite being a mostly carbon copy of WCW Nitro itself.
WCW Thunder was released in a year where World Championship Wrestling was still popular in terms of television. However, ‘99 was also the same year World Championship Wrestling was starting to go downhill and was beginning to decline in ratings during the Monday Night ratings war against WWF as well. While some might argue that WCW Thunder was a game that may have been overshadowed by the likes of WWF Attitude, WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and WWF Smackdown which also came in ‘99 as well. However, the WWF games that were released in ‘99 were far more superior in gameplay and more successful overall. If a game like WCW Thunder was released anytime between ‘94-‘96 it could have more popular than it was in ‘99. While WCW Thunder seemed decent at best but it was no where as good as WCW: World Tour or WCW/NWO Revenge for the N64 which were considered among the best wrestling games from the 90’s overall.
