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What Gamers Got For Christmas In 1994
1993 was a year packed with character. In ‘93 you’d see the youth stomping around in Doc Martens and flannel was having its big moment, finally extending its reach beyond the lumberjacks. All of this was linked to the grunge movement, which was peaking with massive releases such as The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream and Nirvana’s In Utero. Finally, the Talkboy, a voice recorder popularized by 1992’s Home Alone 2, was themust-havetoy. You could slow down voices and stuff! Look, they were simpler times.
But beyond all the disaffected malaise and voice recorder shenanigans, 1993 was ruled by one thing more than anything else: video games. The 16-bit era of consoles was officially hitting its stride, and big releases were making their way to store shelves. Whether you were looking to duke it out in a fight to the death or take to space in a dog fight fought by foxes, the Christmas of ‘93 was an excellent year for gamers of all shapes and sizes.
The Christmas When We Got A New Challenger
Fighting games were thoroughly mainstream. First and foremost,Street Fighter 2 Turbowas storming the homes. This sped-up version of The World Warriors is, to this day, among the most important fighting game releases ever. While many an argument was had over the number of times it is acceptable to sweep your brothers with Vega or Dhalsim, Street Fighter 2 Turbo was the reason for kids to congregate in basements and huddle around CRTs. Just don’t throw too many times in a row. Your older brothers may rough you up a little, and they’rewaybigger than you.
However, while Street Fighter 2 Turbo was the most important fighting game to release that year, it wasn’t necessarily the most popular. My brothers and I were thoroughly ensorcelled by a more violent upstart that was taking the world by storm:Mortal Kombat. We celebrated the festive season by taking turns ripping each other’s heads off: as it should be.
Mortal Kombat may not have been thebestfighting game to release in 1993, but my nine-year-old self didn’t seem to mind. He was too busy uppercutting ninjas off bridges and ripping out hearts. Thankfully, we had a Genesis as well as a Super Nintendo, so we were able to get the version that had the red, gooeygoodstuff. This was a rough moment for those who only had the SNES and had to pretend that their goreless version of Mortal Kombat was just as good.
The Year When We Got A Little Bit Genghis Khan
When we weren’t murdering each other in one-on-one combat, we were waging war. Genghis Khan 2: Clan of the Gray Wolfmay not be one of the big games people think of nowadays, but it took our household by storm. It was definitely above me at that point, as it had nation-building which involved, get this,reading!YUCK! However, despite not really ‘getting it’ I do remember watching my brothers play it and jamming out to the music. Eventually, I decided that reading wasn’t just for squares and learned the joy of conquest as well. However, in ‘93 I mainly just resented it for taking up the TV.
A Gunstar Hero To Save Us From Boredom
Run and gun fans also had something to celebrate this year, asGunstar Heroesalso released on the Genesis (man, the Genesis was cooking the year). This side-scrolling classic is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the genre, and it isn’t hard to see why. It allowed you to mix, match, and combine weapons to customize your own loadout and dramatically change the way you play the game. Well, you still shoot things, while running, but you shoot them differently. Add to that excellent level design packed with set-piece moments, and some of the most creative boss fights in the genre, and hearts were guaranteed to be filled with merry and cheer.
The Year We Did A Barrel Roll!
But Nintendo wasn’t sitting on its hands this holiday season.Star Foxreleased and blew our minds with its polygonal graphics. Sure, that bird kept dunking on us, but we were too busy being impressed to care. Well, busy being amazing and saving that frog. Get it together, Slippy! And while the Nintendo Entertainment System was on the way out, one of the console’s best platformers inDarkwing Duckreleased for it this year, as did the iconicKirby’s Adventure. And the Game Boy was doing Game Boy things and releasing bangers, such as the incredibleKid Dracula. So Nintendo fans had plenty to play.
Yes, we know you don’t ‘do a barrel roll’ in Star Fox, but ‘do an aileron roll’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?
Aladdin Was Showing Us A Whole New World
This year also saw the release of the iconicAladdingames. However, while Aladdin released on the two big platforms, the games couldn’t have been more different. The Genesis version most certainly impressed with its smooth animations, but the Super Nintendo game had the better feel and more engaging level structure. Needless to say,the playground was rife with disagreement about which version was better, but I’d say that both ended up cementing themselves as classics.
The Final Turbo Charged Christmas
Notably, 1993 was the final Christmas when theTurboGrafx-16was still an active competitor (read: alive). I myself got one this year. I can still remember the big reveal, too. I opened up a box to find nothing but bricks. It was the ol’ bait and switch, of course. My mom then told me to head downstairs, where I’d find my brand-new TurboGrafx-16. It was hooked up to the basement television and ready to go. NEC would officially lay this unappreciated console to rest in the West just a few months later.
While that all sounds vaguely tragic, I think this was the present that brought me themostjoy. The TG-16 felt like the best-kept secret in all of gaming. Few people knew it existed, and even fewer owned one. But fromAlien Crush to Splatterhouse to Air Zonk, this was a console with games thatslapped. I remember getting a decent number of games with the console as well. I assume that was because they were being sold at a hefty discount. I didn’t ask questions, I just sat my butt down and enjoyed classics like Legendary Axe and Dungeon Explorer.
A High-Stakes Release To Close Out The Year
But hey, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for NEC’s ill-fated console, as it was actually thriving in Japan - under the PC-E moniker. And it just so happens to be that 1993 is the year ofCastlevania: Rondo of Blood- often cited as being the best Castlevania game ever made. Being tethered to the PC-E’s CD-based add-on, few Canucks were going to find that one under their tree, but we were reading about it in our GamePro magazines and salivating over it.
The first official release of Rondo in the West wouldn’t come until the PSP remaster launched 14 years later in 2007 - andwhat a Christmas that was.
