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1990s in video gaming
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==Genre innovation== Many technically innovative and genre-defining games were developed during the 1990s, largely due to the impact of 3D graphics allowing three-dimensional environments as well as optical discs which allowed much greater storage capacity. ===Fighting games=== The release of ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' in 1991 is often considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. Yoshiki Okamoto's team developed the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine in the genre thus far. This allowed players to reliably execute multi-button special moves, which had previously required an element of luck. The game was also highly successful because its graphics took advantage of Capcom's [[CPS]] arcade chipset, with highly detailed characters and stages. Whereas previous games allowed players to combat a variety of computer-controlled fighters, ''Street Fighter II'' allowed players to play against each other. The popularity of ''Street Fighter II'' surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-sfhistory_4-0">[5]</sup> [[SNK]] released ''[[Fatal Fury: King of Fighters]]'' a few months later, adding a two-plane system where characters could step into the foreground or background. Meanwhile, SEGA experimented with ''[[Dark Edge]]'', an early attempt at a 3D fighting game where characters could move in all directions. SEGA however, never released the game outside of Japan because it felt that unrestrained 3D fighting games were unenjoyable. Several fighting games achieved greater commercial success, including SNK's ''[[Art of Fighting]]'' and ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' as well as SEGA's ''[[Eternal Champions]]''. Nevertheless, ''Street Fighter II'' remained the most popular, spawning a special ''[[Street Fighter II: Champion Edition|Champion Edition]]'' that improved game balance and allowed players to use additional characters. The popularity of ''Street Fighter II'' led it to be released for home game consoles and allowed it to define the template for fighting games. [[SEGA]] began to attract attention with the 1993 release of ''[[Virtua Fighter]]'' in arcades. It was the first fighting game with 3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. By the time the game was released for the [[SEGA Saturn]] in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio. In 1994, SNK released ''[[The King of Fighters '94]]'' in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one. A follow-up to ''Street Fighter II'', ''[[Street Fighter Alpha]]'', was released in 1995 but was unable to match the popularity of its predecessor. Throughout this period, the fighting game was the dominant genre in competitive video gaming, with enthusiasts popularly attending arcades in order to find human opponents. The fighting game genre continued to evolve as several strong 3D fighting games emerged in the late 1990s. [[Namco|Namco's]] ''[[Tekken]]'' (released in [[arcade]]s in 1994 and on the [[PlayStation]] in 1995) proved critical to the PlayStation's early success, with its sequels also becoming some of the console's most important titles. The [[Soul series|''Soul'' series]] of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1997's ''[[Soul Edge]]''. [[Tecmo|Tecmo's]] ''[[Dead or Alive]]'' (released in 1996 in Japanese [[arcade]]s and 1998 on the PlayStation) spawned a long-running franchise, known for its fast paced control system and innovative counterattacks. The series again included titles important to the success of their respective consoles. ===First-person shooters=== [[First-person shooter video games]] typically feature the player as the protagonist. Sometimes, the player does not see the face of whom they are playing as, but will always see the weapon of choice located in the players hand in the lower left or right hand corner. First-person shooters are usually violent and feature blood and gore, which has sparked controversy from parent groups. With the introduction of the fifth generation of games, 3-D graphics become the standard by end of decade. Although FPSs had been some of the first games to become 3-D. ''[[DOOM]]'' (1993) bursts onto the world scene and instantly popularizes the FPS genre, and even how games are played, as Doom is among the first games to feature multi-player capabilities. It is not until ''[[Quake]]'' (1996), however, that game developers begin to take multi-player features into serious consideration when making games. ''[[Quake II]]'' (1997), ''[[Unreal]]'' (1998) and ''[[Half-Life]]'' (1998) feature the next evolutionary step in the genre with continual progression of the game (no levels in the traditional sense) and an entirely in-person view, and become one of the most popular computer games in history. ===Interactive movies=== In the early-to-mid 1990s, several video game developers experimented with plot twists and providing alternative storylines and endings into their games. They even went as far as to film live action scenes and scripted popular actors to play the parts. ''[[Night Trap]]'', released in 1992, was highly acclaimed for implementing live action scenes into video games and later the Wing Commander series dove into live action as well. ''[[Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom]]'' was given an unheard of budget of US$12 million and starred [[Mark Hamill]] of ''Star Wars'' fame. The [[Wing Commander (series)|''Wing Commander'' series]] was known for providing several alternate endings depending on how the player followed the story and interacted with the characters. ===Platform games=== The platform game genre evolved through several distinct phases throughout the 1990s. The first was an evolutionary step during the fifth generation in the early 1990s, followed by a complete transformation of the genre during the sixth generation in the late 1990s. === Second-generation side-scrollers=== The advent of 16-bit home consoles in the early 1990s marked an evolutionary step for the genre. By the time the [[Mega Drive]] and [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] launched, platform games were the most popular genre in home console gaming and were seen as vital for winning the console war. There was a particular emphasis on having a flagship platform title exclusive to a format, featuring a "mascot" character. SEGA's ''[[Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle]]'' (1989) was only modestly successful, and SEGA realized it needed a stronger mascot to move Genesis units. In 1990, Hudson Soft released ''[[Bonk's Adventure]]'' featuring a character that would be positioned as [[NEC|NEC's]] mascot. 1990 marked the release of the Super NES, along with the much awaited ''[[Super Mario World]]''. In order to fend off the new competition, SEGA released ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. Whereas Nintendo's offering featured a conservative design, true to the ''Mario'' tradition, ''Sonic'' showcased a new style of design made possible by a new generation of hardware. ''Sonic'' featured large fields that scrolled effortlessly in all directions, as well as all manner of uneven terrain, curved hills, and a complex physics system that allowed players to rush through its levels with well-placed jumps and rolls. It proved to be a massive hit, was a successful pack-in with new systems, and cemented the view that platform games would make or break a console. The [[Sonic the Hedgehog (character)|Sonic character]] was also seen as a new model for mascots in the early 1990s, particularly for his perceived "attitude," which characterized him as a rebel from the status quo. This "attitude" would soon become the status quo, as companies attempted to duplicate Sonic's success with their own brightly-colored anthropomorphisms. Very frequently these were characterized by impatience, sarcasm, and frequent quipping to give them personality. These mascots, which included the likes of ''[[Gex]]'', ''[[Bug!]]'', and ''[[Bubsy]]'', have mostly faded from relevance. Another notable platform game from this time period include ''[[Prince of Persia]]'' which featured an unprecedented level of animation. Frequently, console games based on film, television, and comic book licenses would be platformers, such as those based on ''[[Aladdin]]'', ''Jurassic Park'', ''James Bond'', and ''Mickey Mouse''. ===3D platformers=== In 1996, Nintendo released ''[[Super Mario 64]]''. Until this time there had been no established archetype for bringing platform games into 3D. ''Mario 64'' set a new standard and would be imitated by many [[3D platformer]]s to follow. Its gameplay allowed players to explore open 3D environments with greater freedom than any previous attempt at a 3D platform game. To aid this, Nintendo incorporated an analog control stick to their standard [[Nintendo 64]] controller, something which had not been included in a standard console controller since the [[Vectrex]] (and since incorporated into the [[DualShock]] among other controllers). This allowed for the finer precision needed for a free perspective. Players no longer followed a linear path to the ends of levels, either, with most levels providing objective-based goals. There were, however, a handful of "boss" levels that offered more traditional platforming, and showed what a more direct conversion to 3D might have been like. Some argue that many modern 3D platformers, especially those influenced heavily by ''Super Mario 64'', are not platformers at all, or at least are not really an extension of 2D platformers. ''Super Mario 64'' brought a change in the goals of some platformers. In most 2D platformers, the player only had to reach a single goal to complete a level, but in many 3D platformers, each level had to be combed for collectible items such as puzzle pieces (''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'') or stars (''[[Super Mario 64]]''). This allowed for more efficient use of large 3D areas and rewarded the player for thorough exploration, but they also often involved more elements of action-adventure games, and less jumping on platforms. ===Racing games=== In 1992, Sega produced ''[[Virtua Racing]]'', one of the first games with full 3D graphics. It was able to combine the best features of games at the time, along with multi-player machine linking and clean 3D graphics to produce a game that was above and beyond the arcade market standard of its time. Also, [[Nintendo]] broke new ground by introducing the [[Mario Kart series]] on the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]] with ''[[Super Mario Kart]]''. Using the familiar characters from the Mario franchise, the game not only departed from the realism paradigm by using small karts for the players to drive, but also featured bright, colourful environments and allowed the players to pick up power-ups to improve performance or hamper other racers. This franchise also spawned multiple sequels. In 1993, [[Namco]] struck back with ''[[Ridge Racer]]'', and thus began the polygonal war of driving games. [[SEGA]] struck back in 1994 with ''[[Daytona USA]]'', while [[Midway]] introduced ''[[Crusin' USA]]''. [[Atari]] didn't join the 3D craze until 1997, when it introduced ''[[San Francisco Rush]]''. In 1996, [[Konami]] introduced [[GTI Club]] which allowed free roaming of the environment - something of a revolution that had only been done in 3D before in [[Hard Drivin']]. In 1997, ''[[Gran Turismo]]'' was released for the [[PlayStation]]. It was considered the most realistic racing simulation game in its time, combined with playability, enabling players of all skill levels to play. The [[Gran Turismo (series)|''Gran Turismo'' series]] has since become one of the most popular racing franchises ever, with the series selling more than 50 million copies worldwide. ''[[Colin McRae Rally]]'' was introduced in 1998 to the PC world, and was a successful semi-simulation of the world of rally driving (previously only available in SEGA's less serious [[SEGA Rally Championship]]). ''[[Motorhead]]'', a PC game, was later adapted back to arcade. 1999 marked a change of games into more "free form" worlds. ''[[Midtown Madness]]'' allows the player to explore a simplified version of the city of Chicago using a variety of vehicles and any path that they desire. In the arcade world, Sega introduced ''[[Crazy Taxi]]'', where you are a taxi driver that needed to get the client to the destination in the shortest amount of time. A similar game also from SEGA is ''[[Emergency Ambulance Driver]]'', with almost the same gameplay (pick up patient, drop off at hospital, as fast as possible). ===Role-playing games=== The 1990s saw the emergence of several distinct sub-genres of the [[role-playing game]] genre.
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