Once again, we visit the world of genre kings throughout the years in part 2 of our journey. You can read the first part here if you missed it.
Since the 90’s saw a dramatic shift in gaming, I divided it into two parts. The early 90’s was home of 16-bit gaming and arcades. Gamers were itching for something new, and with a new media format of CDs, new possibilities opened up. When companies Panasonic, with its 3D0, Phillips CDi, Atari Jaguar (with CD add-on) and Sega CD tried to push the gaming direction with FMV (full motion video) games. With all this storage space, the thought was, “Why not fill it with real video to make everything come to life? A whole new reality for gaming!” Games like Sewer Shark, Night Trap, and Sherlock Holmes were at the fore-front. Boy did that fail. Hard. Two things went wrong. First, the price point was astronomical then. $600 for a console was outrageous back then, especially since the SNES debuted at $249. Second, people like to actually PLAY their games, not watch bad videos and click a button every now and then.
What could be the savior of the late 90’s then? Say hello to 3D gaming with the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn…well, mostly Playstation. A new door opened, and new genres emerged. Racing games became huge with hits like Ridge Racer and Twisted Metal. One in particular, though, started a new trend in realistic driving: Gran Turismo. So many other racers mimicked the idea of simulation driving since then. While it wasn’t the first “racing simulator” (Hard Driving was out before this), it was and still is its king.
The fighting genre took a new direction with 3D thanks to Virtua Fighter, but its true king is Tekken. That is the name that 90% of casual gamers will utter when they think 3D fighters. Still, both fighters were mimicked constantly over the years. Without them, the fighting genre may have died out much sooner.
Another new genre appeared that started a new trend: Survival Horror. When most people think of these, one game comes to mind: Resident Evil. Known as Biohazard in Japan, this game started a phenomenon that would last to this day. While it may not be the first in its genre, it sure got our attention. Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark, Fatal Frame more were to follow. Even with all those, the name that enters people’s minds is still Resident Evil, the true genre king of Survival Horror.
The PC front was all into the shooter craze in the 90s. We have to thank true genre kings Wolfenstein 3D and Doom for giving us the blueprint to how 3D shooters, and 3D gaming really took off from. Without them, First Person Shooters wouldn’t be the same. Actually, they may not have even came along. From that spawn all kinds of games from Duke Nukem 3D to lesser known titles such as Tek Wars. Let’s not forget strategy games, though. Two huge titles from Blizzard are still played to this day: the Warcraft series and Starcraft. What strategy game doesn’t involve elements from these games?
The Spider Mastermind is responsible for many kid’s nightmares. (taken from Gamespot)
Now for this century. Thanks to dual analog sticks the FPS genre has made its popularity into console gaming. Perhaps you’ve heard of Halo? Definitely a genre king of this era as far as console gaming is concerned, and more so for its control scheme which has been since used in just about every console shooter since. Action gaming saw a great boost as well. Gone are the days of clunky, tank movement and sluggish reaction time. We all have Devil May Cry to thank for it. Ever notice that every fast paced action game is always spoken of as “Devil May Cry” style gameplay? To be on the top of your market, that is exactly what you want, and this game did it beautifully.
As of today, it also looks like Gears of War just may become the next genre king. Hiding behind cover isn’t new to FPS, but now people are already relating it to Gears. This genre is still continuing to dominate consoles, and it will be interesting to see what happens. There is so much more I didn’t even get to cover, but I would be here all day if I mentioned everything. I didn’t even touch the music and interactive gaming with games like DDR, Guitar Hero, Samba de Amigo, and of course, the Wii. I’ll leave that open for comment. Feel free to comment with your own genre kings from yesteryear to today.
Damn Hans, when you post, you f’ing post!
and yes, i have heard of Halo.