Andy Naylor looks back at 20 years of consoles and the games that made them…
The Xbox One (the name is still amusingly stupid) and the PS4 have been out for nearly a year, and to date, neither console has managed to produce a game that is generation defining, something that makes other people say, “I need a PS4 because it’s got [insert whatever game name here] for it!” True, it’s very early in the life cycle for both consoles, but at the moment there is nothing mind-blowing enough to encourage people still playing the last generation of consoles to upgrade any sooner. That thought made me look back at previous consoles, what games attracted their user base and what games became synonymous with the console’s name…
SEGA MASTER SYSTEM – Alex Kidd in Miracle World
It’s very easy to associate this game with the Master System, mainly because it came built in to the Master System II. It was a glorious little 2D platformer, which is still a very underrated to this day. The blend of puzzles, interesting level design and the rock, paper, scissors boss fights kept gamers coming back for more, in a day when you lost all your lives you had to start all over again.
SNES – Super Mario Kart
I can already hear the fanboy fury at this choice. “WHAT?! NO SUPER F***ING MARIO WORLD?! HEATHEN!” But to be honest, for the SNES you can pick between so many stunning games that are solely identifiable with the SNES that it can only come down to a choice of personal preference, as I sunk well more hours into Super Mario Kart than any other SNES game, that gets my vote. There’s pretty much no wrong answer here between 5-10 different games (Super Mario World, Super Mario All Stars, Street Fighter 2, the list goes on!), and it’s why the SNES is arguably the most loved gaming console of all time. It’s also a huge indicator to how far Nintendo have fallen in the gaming wars.
SEGA MEGA DRIVE – Sonic the Hedgehog 2
The Mega Drive’s problem was the level of competition it faced. How can any console expect to compete against the SNES, which (as discussed) had a plethora of outstanding games. Sega decided to take on the big boy head on, creating the Sonic franchise. You know what? It very nearly did it. Sonic was a fast paced 2D platformer jam-packed with attitude, and it appealed to the target demographic. It also helped that it was genuinely a great game in it’s own right and pushed the Mario games hard for best game of the era. Sadly, it’s a gulf away from the depth to where the franchise has sunk in recent times.
N64 – GoldenEye
When I asked the Flickering Myth writing staff for their favourite game on each console, this was the only unanimous choice. Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem and Doom may have been the forefathers of the modern FPS, but GoldenEye on the N64 revolutionised multiplayer. With the odd exception, up until that point, console gaming was seen as a solo past-time, GoldenEye changed all that and opened up a new avenue for developers to pursue. Can you imagine your PS3 or PS4 without COD or Battlefield? No, neither can I and GoldenEye is the reason.
PLAYSTATION – Final Fantasy VII
The only other potential king to the SNES for greatest console ever made is the original PlayStation. Sony spun the gaming world on it’s head when it was released. Much like the SNES it suffers from the same problem, which game to pick?! There are so many classic PS1 games to choose from that you could ask 20 different people, get 20 different answers and agree with all of them (Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, to name just a few). That being said, I bought a PS1 after seeing one game, that game was and still is the absolute pinnacle in the RPG genre – Final Fantasy VII. Unique identifiable characters, stunning graphics and FMVs (at the time), a story that mirrored the social conscious of the small man protecting the planet against the big bad global corporation – it had simply everything you could possibly ask for and so much more. If they ever remake it for a modern console, they couldn’t take my money fast enough.
Originally published September 20, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
