The best video games of the early '90s
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The best video games of the early '90s
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This week on The Resties: Required Reading List, 1990-94
Image: Earthbound via Fantasyanime.com
[Listen to this week’s episode.]
It’s the penultimate episode of The Resties Required Reading list! If you're new to the series, that’s okay! This episode is a fine place to join. And if you’ve listened to the whole series? Welcome back!
Our goal is to collect a “required reading” list of 25 games from Pac-Man to the modern day — 1980 to 2020. This list isn’t filled with the “best” games or even our favorite games. They’re the games we feel everyone should play if they want to have a fundamental appreciation of the medium.
Think of it like a playable syllabus for Video Games 101. They’re the games that will give you a foundation to enjoy and appreciate every major genre and era. The list will be intentionally limited, both to emphasize the importance of each game and to make playing the full list a relatively doable achievement.
Each episode focuses on five years of video game history. So far, we’ve picked 21 games. Before the end of this year, we will take the list of picks and add or subtract where necessary to create our official final selection.
How would you create a video games required reading list? We’d love to hear your picks in the comments!
Games discussed:
1990 - Super Mario World
1991 - Street Fighter 2
1992 - Link to the Past
1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog
1992 - Super Mario Kart
1993 - Mortal Kombat
1993 - NBA Jam
1993 - DOOM
1993 - Myst
1994 - Donkey Kong Country
1994 - Final Fantasy 6
1994 - Earthbound
1994 - X-COM: UFO Defense
1994 - Super Metroid
1994 - System Shock
The complete Required Reading list, including this week:
80-84 - To be announced in the final Required Reading episode.
85-89 - Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, SimCity
90-94 - Street Fighter 2, DOOM, Super Metroid
95-99 - Super Mario 64, Pokemon Red and Blue, Final Fantasy 7, Starcraft
00-04 - Counter-Strike, GTA3, WoW
05-09 - Resident Evil 4, Wii Sports, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Demon’s Souls
10-14 - Minecraft, Spelunky HD, Hearthstone
15-20 - Stardew Valley, Fortnite, Breath of the Wild, Outer Wilds
Have questions for The Besties?
Drop them in the comments or reply to this e-mail!
Next week on The Besties and The Resties:
This Friday on The Besties: The end-of-summer grab bag!
Next time on The Resties: Sea of Stars!
Bonus links:
It’s almost spooky season, so Plante started reading The Three-Body Problem
Polygon’s review of Baldur’s Gate 3
Retro Game Corps made a video on the “ultimate starter handheld”
The best video games of the early '90s
Have you thought about doing the final show of the series as a regular Besties episode? It would be fun to get Justin and Griffin's point of view as outside observers to this whole process.
Also some ideas for follow-up series:
- The best game for each genre. If I've never played a Metroidvania before, which one should I check out today in 2023? What about fighters, RPGs, RTS's, etc.
- The best games for each platform, especially now that retro emulation handhelds are getting so popular. I've never owned a PS1, what should I check out? Same with Dreamcast, N64…
I think it would be great to have a revisiting of this list but replace each game with the most fun version of that game.