25 Games That Defined the 1990s

After a triumphant return to form in the 1980s was brought about by the success of the NES/Famicom and a slew of popular home computers in Japan and Europe, the game industry was primed for its biggest decade yet in the 1990s. Sure enough, Nintendo, Sega, and even Sony all delivered, bringing the industry forward with not one but two new generations of home consoles, along with the incredible games that helped define them. But the games that defined the ’90s were more than what could be found on consoles, as PC gaming came into its own, particularly so thanks to the advancements made in first-person shooters, real-time strategy, and other genres that still thrive on the platform to this day.

• Release Date — March 4, 1994
• Developer — Midway
• Publisher — Midway, Acclaim
• Genre — Sports
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — Arcade, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, SNES

During the 1990s, arcades were still heavily patronized by gamers across the world, which made them one of the premier locations to try out new games that you’d dream of being available on console one day. While shooters, fighting games, and beat ’em ups took up the lion’s share of what was most popular in your local arcade, NBA Jam proved that competitive sports games deserved a spot at the table, too, inspiring a whole host of similarly-minded over-the-top sports simulations in its wake (NFL Blitz primary among them) that would go on to define the subsequent decade. There’s an entire generation of gamers who can see the NBA Jam logo and hear “BOOMSHAKALAKA!”.

• Release Date — September 28, 1998
• Developer — Game Freak
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 88% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — Game Boy

Even though it wouldn’t arrive in the West until near the end of the decade, it’s almost impossible to think about the impact of the Game Boy during the 1990s without also bringing up Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow. The Pokémon craze took hold of kids in America with full force not long after Red and Blue arrived in 1998, and the gaming landscape has never been the same since. And for a lot of gamers, especially those who were still young in the 90s or who called the Game Boy or Game Boy Color their first gaming console, Pokémon Red and Blue are likely two of the most formative games.

• Release Date — January 3, 1997
• Developer — Blizzard North
• Publisher — Blizzard Entertainment
• Genre — ARPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 94% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation

In addition to being a breeding ground for innovations in hardware, the 1990s were also host to the advent of several new gaming genres, as evidenced by the sheer number of groundbreaking titles that launched during the decade. One that occasionally gets forgotten is the original Diablo, which took the general concept of an “action RPG” and singlehandedly created what we now consider the “ARPG” with its greater emphasis on loot, buildcraft, and an incredibly challenging endgame loop. Along with some of the other definitive PC classics of the era, Diablo is one of the most important games of the decade.

• Release Date — October 24, 1996
• Developer — Core Design
• Publisher — Eidos Interactive
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn

Some of the most iconic games of a given era transcend the medium to become fixtures in the pop culture zeitgeist, which is certainly the case with Tomb Raider and its protagonist, Lara Croft. The game itself was a decent enough 3D action-adventure game that built on the foundation of other successful 3D titles that came before it, but the presence of a butt-kicking female protagonist helped make the game a genuine phenomenon among both players and non-players alike, bringing a lot of warranted attention to the game industry at a time when it was undergoing a massive paradigm shift.

• Release Date — December 14, 1996
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Driving/Racing
• Review Aggregate Score — 83% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 was an interesting move for Nintendo following the unprecedented success of both the NES and the SNES; choosing to stick with a proprietary cartridge format that was more expensive to produce and couldn’t meet the storage demands of cinematic 3D gaming was certainly a gamble. But the Nintendo 64 had it where it counts most — the games — and could claim its rightful place as the best multiplayer console on the market thanks to its four controller ports, which helped games like Mario Kart 64 become staples among friend groups across a wide range of ages. For anyone who was in middle school, high school, or college during the 90s, chances are you’ve still got a bitter rivalry that was born on the tracks of Mario Kart 64.

• Release Date — December 1, 1998
• Developer — Looking Glass Studios
• Publisher — Eidos Interactive
• Genre — Immersive Sim, Stealth
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PC

A small handful of genres can be traced back to a single creator and their body of work, which is the case with the immersive sim and Warren Spector. After working on the groundbreaking System Shock for Looking Glass Studios, Spector was given the reins to his own project, which ended up being Thief: The Dark Project. Not only did Thief revolutionize what was possible within the context of a first-person game, it practically wrote the book on how to implement player agency and emergent gameplay elements into a stealth title, giving the player unprecedented amounts of freedom to tackle the game’s objectives as they saw fit. It would also lay the groundwork for Spector’s next game, the 2000s-defining hit Deus Ex.

• Release Date — April 27, 1997
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Rail Shooter, Flight Combat
• Review Aggregate Score — 88% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — Nintendo 64

Another of the most iconic titles on the Nintendo 64 is one that many players seem to take for granted in the 21st Century, Star Fox 64. The original Star Fox on SNES was impressive but was ultimately more of a “proof of concept” than an actual enjoyable game, which made the “redo” on the 64 feel like the impressive 3D shooter we should’ve gotten all along. And, lest we forget, we have Nintendo and Star Fox 64 to thank for one of the decade’s most important contributions to the gaming industry: the force-feedback-enhancing Rumble Pak. Something that every single developer would try to implement in their games moving forward, forcing hardware manufacturers to catch up (including Sony’s production of the very first DualShock controller).

• Release Date — December 23, 1997
• Developer — Polyphony Digital
• Publisher — Sony Computer Entertainment
• Genre — Driving/Racing
• Review Aggregate Score — 96% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PlayStation

When people look back on the original PlayStation and think about the games that helped define the console (and, by proxy, the 5th generation of gaming and the 1990s), one of the first titles that’s going to come to mind is Gran Turismo. At the time of its release, Gran Turismo was the most visually stunning game to arrive on the PlayStation, leaving all other driving simulators in the dust and having the true-to-life physics in its gameplay to back up its top-notch presentation. It’s no wonder it would end up becoming the PlayStation’s all-time best-selling game, becoming a must-have title for just about everyone who owned a PS1.

• Release Date — December 15, 1992
• Developer — Sega
• Publisher — Sega
• Genre — Beat ’em Up
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — Sega Genesis

The beat ’em up is a genre that thrived during the 1990s, coming into its own in the early years of the decade and ultimately peaking before the end of the 5th generation. There are a whole host of games in the genre that could easily claim a spot on a list of the games that helped define the 90s, but Streets of Rage 2 stands out as the best of the bunch for a handful of reasons.

One, Streets of Rage 2 was one of the few beat ’em ups of the era not to have its origins in the arcade but instead on a home console. Two, Streets of Rage 2 is an incredibly solid beat ’em up with deep mechanics and an accessible skill on-ramp. Third and finally, if you want a solid time capsule to take a look at the cultural aesthetic of the 1990s, look no further than Streets of Rage 2.

• Release Date — November 21, 1990
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 94% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — SNES

When Nintendo started previewing the SNES, the gaming industry in North America had only just crawled back from its crash, thanks to the NES, which made consumers and retailers hesitant to pick up a new piece of hardware that was incompatible with an existing library of cartridges. But to its credit, Nintendo stuck to its guns because it knew it had something special, which it was able to easily showcase to the world with the system’s pack-in game: Super Mario World. Despite having just gotten Super Mario Bros. 3 not that long prior, Super Mario World felt like a quantum leap forward, not just for the series but for gaming in general. It ultimately served as a signal that the new generation of gaming was here, just in time for the turn of the decade.

• Release Date — September 29, 1999
• Developer — Neversoft
• Publisher — Activision
• Genre — Sports
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — PlayStation

The arrival of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999 could not have been more perfectly timed. The game arrived just as punk and skateboarding were reaching peak cultural saturation among one of gaming’s key demographics: 14- to 21-year-old males. It delivered what was, at the time, the most realistic approximation of skateboarding to ever appear in a video game. But more than its excellent mechanics, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater had a killer soundtrack and a strong sense of style that propelled it to become a mainstream success, securing the franchise’s place in gaming history as one of the most important sports titles ever made.

• Release Date — March 7, 1991
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Fighting
• Review Aggregate Score — 93% (Universal Acclaim)
• Platforms — Arcade, SNES

Circling back to the importance of arcades during the 1990s, it’s impossible to talk about the games that had the biggest impact on the decade without mentioning Street Fighter II. Capcom’s practically perfect fighting game was the most successful arcade title of the ’90s, and its home conversion pulled off a herculean feat by seamlessly transitioning the experience down to an SNES cartridge. If you grew up playing games in the 1990s, there’s zero chance that you didn’t either saddle up to a Street Fighter II cabinet to battle a friend or have the same experience in a living room passing an SNES controller around.

• Release Date — November 18, 1994
• Developer — Rare
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 92%
• Platforms — SNES

By the time 1994 was about to come to a close, the PlayStation and Sega Saturn had already made their Japanese launches, signaling that their arrival in the West was just around the corner. The promise of 3D graphics and new kinds of gaming experiences whet players’ appetites, but the SNES had more than a few tricks left up its sleeve, including one of the system’s greatest platformers: Donkey Kong Country. The ’90s were at least partially defined by the great platforming games of the era, namely Sonic and Mario, and Donkey Kong Country immediately cemented itself in that pantheon with some impressive visuals and pitch-perfect gameplay.

• Release Date — August 1992
• Developer — Midway
• Publisher — Midway, Acclaim
• Genre — Fighting
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)
• Platforms — Arcade, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis, SNES

The other great fighting game of the early 1990s arcade scene was none other than Mortal Kombat. And like a handful of other games on this list, it was no stranger to generating its fair share of controversy and pearl-clutching among the morally concerned adults of the world. Looking back on it now, it seems tame in comparison to the level of violence possible in today’s games, but at the time, it was shocking in a way that made it irresistible to most gamers. And much like Street Fighter II, the success of Mortal Kombat helped keep arcades afloat as the console business continued to grow, and helped pave the way for the IP becoming one of the most iconic in its genre.

• Release Date — November 21, 1992
• Developer — Sega Technical Institute
• Publisher — Sega
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 88%
• Platforms — Sega Genesis

Sega’s attempts to compete with Nintendo for a stronger stake in the Western gaming market prompted them to try and come up with a mascot of their own to rival Mario, giving birth to Sonic the Hedgehog. But while Sonic’s first outing was a solid attempt at a platformer, it was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that catapulted Sega and the Genesis into the spotlight, almost singlehandedly igniting the console wars, which Sega of America added fuel to the fire for with the “Sega does what Nintendon’t” ad campaign. When it comes to games that practically bleed “’90s attitude”, Sonic the Hedgehog and its spiky blue protagonist are at the top of the list.

• Release Date — September 3, 1998
• Developer — Konami Computer Entertainment Japan
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Action, Stealth
• Review Aggregate Score — 94%
• Platforms — PlayStation

The PlayStation may have been Sony’s first entry into the growing console market, but it quickly ended up leading the 5th generation pack thanks to its games offering the kinds of experiences that simply weren’t possible on older hardware. One of the most profound of those games was Metal Gear Solid, which both reinvented a beloved older franchise in 3D and helped move the industry forward when it came to storytelling in interactive media. Of the games that helped define the ’90s, few are as important as Metal Gear Solid in legitimizing the medium as a true art form.

• Release Date — March 22, 1996
• Developer — Capcom
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Survival Horror
• Review Aggregate Score — 91%
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn

Another of the PlayStation’s flagship titles that signaled a changing of the times was Resident Evil; both the first genuinely scary game and the mainstream breakthrough of a new genre that it helped coin the name for: survival horror. Games like Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid were both developed by their creators with a strong influence from cinema, emphasizing scene direction and framing as much as they did gameplay mechanics and interactive elements. Sure, Resident Evil was campy and corny, but it also challenged players and asserted itself as one of the PS1’s must-have titles, giving birth to what would eventually become Capcom’s best-selling franchise.

• Release Date — March 11, 1995
• Developer — Square
• Publisher — Square
• Genre — JRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 96%
• Platforms — SNES

After releasing one bona fide RPG hit after another on the SNES, Square did something unconventional by partnering with its main competitor, Enix, to put together a “dream team” project that would be the genre’s ultimate game. That game was none other than Chrono Trigger, dreamt up in collaboration between Final Fantasy‘s Hironobu Sakaguchi and Dragon Quest‘s Yuji Horii, who, together with Dragon Ball Z‘s Akira Toriyama and Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, would bring the world one of the greatest games ever made. Chrono Trigger is both a product of its time and ahead of it; a quintessential SNES game and one of the ’90s most important titles, but also an RPG that’s just as groundbreaking today, 30 years later.

• Release Date — November 21, 1998
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 99%
• Platforms — Nintendo 64

The transition from primarily 2D visuals to 3D during the 5th console generation was one that was handled more gracefully by some franchises than others, raising questions over which popular game series could survive in the new era. And much like Nintendo’s other great first-party IP, Mario, The Legend of Zelda franchise made one of the most significant attempts with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, brilliantly capturing the adventure the series was known for in an entirely new dimension. Ocarina of Time was so poignant and transformative an experience that it somehow remains the highest-reviewed game of all time more than 25 years later.

• Release Date — November 19, 1998
• Developer — Valve
• Publisher — Sierra Studios
• Genre — FPS
• Review Aggregate Score — 96%
• Platforms — PC

There were a lot of hugely important PC games in the late ’90s — Thief, System Shock 2, and Quake among them. But none were as pivotal and influential as Half-Life, which not only completely transformed the landscape of first-person shooters but also gave rise to Valve becoming one of the most important companies in the industry. And of course, we also have Half-Life to thank for the rise of competitive online gaming thanks to the game’s Counter-Strike mod — a fan-developed add-on that became so popular that Valve licensed it, giving rise to the world’s most popular competitive shooter.

• Release Date — August 23, 1997
• Developer — Rare
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — FPS
• Review Aggregate Score — 96%
• Platforms — Nintendo 64

GoldenEye 007‘s place as a quintessential cultural artifact of an entire generation’s childhoods only serves to underscore how important it was to both the Nintendo 64 and the decade as a whole, with an entire series of memes built around players’ nostalgia for staying up late playing endless matches of 4-player deathmatch. Multiplayer games were already popular among console gamers, but GoldenEye was the first game in the FPS genre to prove that competitive shooters could make their way into players’ living rooms, making it ground zero for the rise of gaming’s most popular and successful genre in subsequent decades.

• Release Date — January 31, 1997
• Developer — Square
• Publisher — Square
• Genre — JRPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 92%
• Platforms — PlayStation

The PlayStation and Final Fantasy VII are inextricable from one another, not only because it was one of the system’s most important exclusives, but also because it was a game that both helped define the console and pushed millions of people to purchase one. Like many of the other great games on this list that helped define the ’90s, playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time felt like getting a glimpse of the future, and the ways that it’s still impacting the gaming industry (including its stellar modern remake trilogy) prove that it was one of the most important games of its generation.

• Release Date — June 23, 1996
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 94%
• Platforms — Nintendo 64

There were other 3D platformers before Super Mario 64, but going hands-on with a Nintendo 64 for the first time and playing through that initial opening proved that they paled in comparison to what Nintendo had achieved with this legendary 1996 game. And after the gaming industry had dipped its toes into the future previously, Super Mario 64‘s innovations in 3D gameplay made it feel like we had all collectively dived in head-first. When it comes to titles that were pivotal in signaling a whole new era for the medium of video games, Super Mario 64 is at the top of the list, and it helped create an entire new generation of Nintendo faithful, like the original Super Mario Bros. had more than a decade earlier.

• Release Date — December 10, 1993
• Developer — id Software
• Publisher — id Software
• Genre — FPS
• Review Aggregate Score — N/A
• Platforms — PC

If we’re going to try and pick a game that is the title that defined the medium in the 1990s, the answer has to be Doom. So much of what made Doom a phenomenon, both within the industry and with wider pop culture, was a product of the early 1990s, a time when the internet was in its infancy and violent video games were still shocking enough to warrant government attention. But outside its controversy and cultural impact, Doom helped lay the foundation for the future of PC gaming and established the blueprint for the first-person shooter. After all, there’s a reason we still call the wave of shooters that arrived in its wake “Doom Clones”. Online multiplayer, mods, level creation tools; all of these are things synonymous with modern PC gaming, and they all can trace their origins back to Doom.