1990s games may already give you a nostalgic tingle as you think about the consoles from this time, the 90s were a golden era for gaming, with many classics hitting the scene and capturing the imaginations of players. Gaming technology made amazing progress in a decade, and there were some interesting and amazing stories that came out of the era. Some games even spawned film franchises and are still popular a quarter of a century (or longer) in the future.
A good game is a good game. It doesn’t matter the era, and we’re also seeing loads of remastered games. Originally, games for the PS1 or Dreamcast may now even be playable on a new-age console or an emulator on PC.
Online Slot Games
Slot games are different from casino games, but like so many other forms of gaming, the 90s were pivotal in the evolution. Slot games first came to the internet in this era, and though they weren’t as smooth as they are today, slot games were popular. Modern slot games have a huge number of themes and different gameplay features.
What happened in the 90s was a switch from physical slot machines to games that were made using code. This meant that there was a load of other potential gameplay features that could be added, not relying on a physical machine. Minigames and other slot features eventually crept into the industry.
Casino games had a big peak around the year 2000, but with the addition of cryptocurrency, we’re seeing a similar level of growth again now. People are playing these games on their mobiles and tablets, something else they’d not have been able to do in the 1990s when technology just wasn’t there for this. Smartphones changed gaming in general, and slots are an ideal example.
Final Fantasy Franchise
Final Fantasy games were distributed on multiple discs because they were huge files! This goes to show what a change has been made in under 30 years.
Final Fantasy VII changed everything, bringing Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) to a global audience and proving to be one of the most popular games in the whole of the 1990s.
Cloud Strife and his companions were the characters who took on the evil corporation Shinra, and players liked its deep narrative and innovative gameplay.
Guess what? Final Fantasy is still going. Final Fantasy 14 was released in 2010. Players are still looking for tips today and playing regularly as it was turned into an MMORPG. People are still playing this game, graphics may have come a long way since we first met Cloud Strife, but the Japanese franchise is massive in the US and elsewhere around the world.
Resident Evil
Resident Evil is a huge franchise, that began in 1996, and it defined the survival horror genre for a load of players. Puzzle-solving, tense gameplay, and resource management were a groundbreaking thing to include in games and people found that it was original (and a bit scary).
Horror games tend to have fanatical fanbase. Resident Evil’s impact was absolutely massive. Since the 1990s there have been loads of sequels, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard took the series back to its horror roots with a first-person perspective. Remasters of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 have also proved to be pretty popular.
Command and Conquer
Real-time strategy (RTS) games owe a lot to the Command & Conquer series, which started out in 1995. Innovative gameplay and the chance to test your wits on the virtual battleground were massive for some players.
Strategy game fanatics may play the remastered collections and dedicated fan communities that keep the competitive spirit alive, and companies know there’s a dedicated fan base here, taking advantage by releasing new games; Command & Conquer: Rivals came out in 2018 and this is another version of the franchise, a free game that can be played on mobile devices and has in-game purchases.
Strategy franchises are often some of the most long-standing. It is hard to say why. Age of Empires and The Sims are two franchises that show the fact people still play these kinds of games. Computing power has made them much more in-depth and changed the way the games are played. AI is now having a similar impact on strategy games. People are delving into more of a realistic world than they did in the 1990s when they played these games, but the stories are often similar. Good principles for games tend to work whatever the decade is.
Conclusion
Franchises are a holy grail for gaming companies. Success in one game often means equals can come out and have similar levels of success and sales!
You’ll find that the ideas from the 90s were often impressive, and computing power finally reached a point where it could change games permanently. Players went online in their masses, and some of the games are still being played today.
