Gadgetory

the year is 1991 and it is a big year for gaming hardware wise the Super Nintendo has finally arrived to the US and in Japan Sega releases the mega CD but what's even more important about this year is what games came out because this is when we saw the release of a few games that either started whole new franchises or completely revolutionize the genre as they were in and here are 5 of the best to start let's take a look at a sequel to one of the best games I talked about for 1990 and that Secret of Monkey Island 2 now what made the first game great was its new approach to storytelling and puzzle solving that set it apart from other point-and-click adventure games but what made 2 even more amazing was how it refined in streamlined pretty much every single aspect of the first game with better visuals better puzzles easier controls the option of an easy mode that was still fairly challenging and an overall story and adventure that was much greater in scope than the first not to mention still being hilarious making it quite possibly the best point-and-click adventure game of all time one of the sad aspects about this game though is that it has a cliffhanger ending that's never really properly resolved as the third game in the series was made by a new team that basically ignored the plot and direction to was going in it's still completely worth playing though if you haven't yet and just like the original you can grab a remake of it super easily for PC that displays in both the old and redone visuals next up is the first game to land on the SNES from one of the NES is largest hits in Japan final fantasy for this game set a new standard for the console RPG genre and introduced the active Time battle system a combat mechanic that would be in every Final Fantasy up until 10 which made combat a lot more frantic and timing moves a lot more important it was also the first Final Fantasy to have a set group of heroes who not only had established personalities but also specific jobs and play styles whereas the earlier ones had blank slates with classes or heroes that were basically Jack's of all trades this was also the first Final Fantasy to come stateside since the original leading to a bit of confusion as SNES copies here are called a Final Fantasy 2 not to mention the game was heavily modified into what's referred to as easy as it featured reduced difficulty fewer abilities for each character and a different final boss we'd eventually get the real version of this game when it was ported to PlayStation and later got remade imported again and again and again for Game Boy Advance DSP SP mobile devices and PC making it the most remade file fantasy of them all now third up is arguably the most important game that came out this year because it completely revolutionized the fighting game genre and is pretty much responsible for a rebirth in arcades during the early 90s and that's Street Fighter 2 the first Street Fighter was an OK arcade game that gave players one single playable character and allowed for two player mirror matching whereas SF 2 introduced and basically set up the entire format most fighting games till this day are built around having a cast of distinct stylized characters with ridiculous moves coming from all across the world several of which handled very differently from one another it also accidentally created the idea of a combo system as players discovered through bugs that they were able to chain moves together for continued free hits which ended up becoming a mainstay feature in pretty much every fighter since the game ended up being remade several times with five official different versions in arcades and several console ports including three different Super Nintendo games and the franchise has experienced continued success with several spin-offs and crossover fighters and four more core games released afterwards the most recent being Street Fighter 5 now as the 80s ended and the 90s just began Sega has been scrambling to create or find a mascot of their own to compete with the Nintendo's wildly successful Mario and in 91 they finally found that character Sonic the Hedgehog rather than try to make a similar clone or another platforming game focused on jumping on enemies and avoiding pits of death Sonic instead chose to tweak the platforming genre by speeding everything up after building up some momentum Sonic could cover stages and ground way faster than Mario with skilled players being capable vaulting through whole stages extremely fast more traditional platforming mechanics of course found their way in but the resulting games stood apart from what all the rest were doing slap on a good soundtrack and impressive visuals for its time and it's easy to see why Sonic became Sega's shining beacon with a huge number of sequels spin-offs and reinventions happening over years not to mention the battle between Mario and Sonic has been an iconic representation of gaming in the 90s and even with Sega no longer being a console manufacturer this rivalry lives on through crossover games like Mario and Sonic at the Olympics or Sonic's appearance in Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers series now last but not least is my personal favorite on this year's list one of the most iconic Super Nintendo games ever made The Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past after the middling and Confused sequel that was links adventure a Link to the Past went back to the formula used for the first game and refined it a bunch having a much more cohesive albeit still bare-bones story incredible dungeon design and while the game had a linear path to the end it featured a fairly open world with tons to explore including all kinds of hidden goodies to prepare link for his adventure really this is just one of those games that serves as a great example of something that just knocked it out of the park in every way possible visuals gameplay story sound music pacing controls it was all just so perfect especially for its time the first Legend of Zelda may be a classic for the NES but it was this game that ensured the series would become one of Nintendo's largest