Best Games of 1993
NBA Jam and peak 90's basketball collide for a fun arcade game while adventure games reach their zenith. Oh, and some game named "Doom" came out.
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From fighting Nazis in Wolfenstein to shooting demons, id Software definitely knew the hell the they were doing to get the blood pumping.
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The focus on New Orleans, that music, and an interesting look look at the cultures of the city make Gabriel Knight unlike anything that had come out before or anything that would come out until the rise of indie games over a decade later. A wonderful game that made you feel a sense of place and also educated you. With some unfortunate adventure tropes, the game struggled without a guide, but is otherwise a great mystery book to unravel.
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S&M:HtR and MM:DotT are the greatest early 90's LucasArts titles that just simply need to be experienced by everyone. If you haven't played them, go do it. Please.
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The conceit was lame but I appreciated this game despite it not quite hitting the same level of overwhelming excellence that was LttP.
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I'm sure there are a lot of people that enjoyed Mega Man 4-on but those games destroyed some of the strategy by making things a charged-up blaster-fest. Mega Man X reset the series in a good way and I liked the futuristic look. The next couple of X games were good too, but they didn't refresh and reignite interest in Mega Man quite like X1.
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Going back to this game now highlights the graphical issues with this game. It definitely looked better in nostalgic mind's eye. I also feel like when I played as a kid, there was music during the game, but I must have made this up in my head. Still, NBA Jam was really fun and approachable for casual sports gamers. This plus NHL 94 made this year a golden era of sports video games.
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You could feel the checking and hits in this game! I feel like this must have been an inspiration for the Blitz series.
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If this game ended 10 hours earlier with some revelations about Rune put closer to the middle of the game, I think PSIV would have been much higher on this list. When you have a player character death that is so impactful and leads you on revenge, removing that motivation and telling the player "haha that enemy you were pissed about isn't even the true evil!" feels like toying with my emotions. Maybe an interlude to reset the motivations and stakes would have been helpful there.
But PSIV was a vast improvement on the third entry and memorable in its own right. It was also better than some of the other JRPG offerings this year as Illusion of Gaia was too E D G Y, and the first entries of Breath of Fire and Lufia struggled to hold my attention with their stories.
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It's hard for me to think of Secret of Mana for anything other than what it could have been. If it hadn't been essentially rushed out the door and did something different other than an inventory wheel, this game would be closer to a masterpiece. Still, a beautiful looking game that made good use of co-op play that was innovative and unique.
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More blood, guts, and shock value - but hey, it was still fun to play.
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