The best game of all-time, one of the best JRPGs, the best fighter, and one of the best beat-em-up games ever made 1991 a top-heavy but unforgettable year. Plus, we saw the Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden series master their control schemes while space sims started to flex their storytelling prowess.
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This is the perfect game. Controls, challenge, graphics, music - everything about this game is stellar.
This is the first JRPG where I really felt like I had a "party" of unique, distinct characters who grew together over the course of the game. I just wish several moments of sacrifice stayed permanent and there were too many moments of mind control and deus ex machina. To be fair, these weren't cliches yet, but the writers went back to this well too many times by the end of the game. Credit should go to Hiroyuki Ito for developing the idea of the active battle system, Takashi Tokita for leaving a career of acting to create this opera of a game and for streamlining the script, Yoshitaka Amano for the character design and, of course, Nobuo Uematsu for the awesome music.
Pretty sure I still throw a quarter at any arcade version of Street Fighter II that I see. What a great roster of fighters, memorable music, and the different fighting mechanics made each character stand out.
Beat em up games were really fun and great for an afternoon with a buddy. Streets of Rage improved on combat and graphics compared to Double Dragon and drew on the right lessons learned from Final Fight. I think Streets of Rage is the culmination of the beat em up genre that the sequel would only improve upon.
Yes, the sequel had better graphics and sprites, but the first game just surprised me and made me laugh more. Still, a very fun and one of the best point-and-click adventure games.
I am not the biggest Castlevania series fan. The first three have sluggish controls and I can't handle the restrictions on jumping. But SCIV fixed these mistakes and made the combat (thank God for that whip) more bearable. Later, Rondo of Blood was a surprising step-back for control even though it had a better support character and music, so I think SCIV surprisingly ends up as my favorite NES/SNES era Castlevania game.
Honestly, the flying in this game made my head spin a little too much, but I just can't overlook how great this game's story was. This game is essentially tied with Ninja Gaiden 3 which had the opposite problems (bad story, better controls).
Ninja Gaiden 3 controlled a LOT better than the two previous installments. The level design was also better because the enemies did not respawn. You could actually breathe and feel each enemy kill was an accomplishment. It's a shame this game had the worst story and setting of the three, though.
The "Chumbawamba" of video games. You kept getting knocked down and then get up again. A story of sacrifice and a good JRPG for the handheld Game Boy.
A good conclusion to an underappreciated trilogy. However, the second entry was better.