1995: Caught in the Middle

Erik Kubik, Associate Writer

April 7, 2010

For console gamers, the year 1995 meant immersion into the world of CD-based gaming. 1995 was significant to gamers due to the release of the Sega Saturn, the Atari Jaguar, and the Playstation 1. The Playstation 1 was the only console that would make a long-term impact on the gaming industry. Nintendo continued to support the SNES, and Sega tried to balance its multitude of Genesis add-ons and the Saturn, but it was time for Sony to make its way into the world. This was a fair year for console gamers, it wasn't anything epic, but there were quite a few titles published that would evolve into franchises many of us enjoy today.

Games like Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Phantasy Star IV, X-Men Children of the Apocalypse, Earthbound, Comix Zone, Knuckles Chaotix, Chrono Trigger, Virtual Fighter 2, Twisted Metal, Warhawk, Tekken, Vectorman, Kirby's Superstar, and Killer Instinct were just some of the great games released in 1995.

Out of all the consoles, the SNES had the best release year. Games like Earthbound and Chrono Trigger changed the way gamers felt about RPGS. Chrono Trigger is still a blast to play today, with a deep story, interesting characters, and multiple endings. Back in my college days we would put aside weekends to try to finish the game in one sitting between three or four of us.

Earthbound, granted we've only seen one of the games in the series come stateside but it was such a fun and unique RPG at the time. It was the kind of game your parents would let you have without any questions after seeing the cute characters. I liked the non-conventional ideas in Earthbound; hopefully Nintendo will bring all the games to the Wii's VC.

Yoshis's Island was an interesting game, not what fans expected as it was a Super Mario Sequel. Who knew Yoshi's Island would be successful enough to garner a huge cult following? The game had kid friendly crayon graphics; who can resist multi-colored Yoshis? The series has since evolved into an excellent franchise but the original is still king.

The Playstation 1 was also successful, as Sony moved toward 3D games. Games like Tekken, Twisted Metal, and Warhawk. All of these games have aged horribly by today's standards, but that doesn't mean they weren't groundbreaking for the time. Twisted Metal, a favorite series of mine in which vehicular carnage ruled. You had to beat it as every character just to see the endings. The game went on to sell 5 million copies.

Tekken, a 3D fighting game that took the idea of combos and juggling opponents to the next level, the revolutionary idea of dedicating buttons to each limb vs. the heavy and light attacks of Street Fighter. Tekken's unique systems made finding specials more of an instinct vs. button mashing. Warhawk was a game that reminded me of Descent for the PC. The one thing I remember about the game is that there wasn't any sort of save system, just passwords. An annoying feature that developers could not get away from fast enough.

Sega did not have the success Sony and Nintendo had. They did have a few notable titles in 1995. X-Men Children of the Atom for the Saturn, a near perfect arcade port of an epic 2D fighter. A game I wasted many hours on at the nearby pizza joint. This game's success and popularity paved the way for the amazing X-Men vs. titles.

Virtual Fighter was another almost-perfect arcade port to the Saturn. Running at a crisp 60 fps per second was one of the reasons I preferred it over Tekken. The other reason was the fighting mechanics were simpler and if I needed, I could get a ring out to win.

One of the last great games for the Genesis was Vectorman. Vectorman was the answer to SNES' Donkey Kong Country. I would say it's one of the best 2D platform games on the Genesis right behind Sonic 3. The 3D character models looked great back then, and still look decent today. Nothing's more fun than morphing into a bomb and blowing through waves of enemies. The Sega 32x and Sega CD had a lot of releases in 1995, but nothing was very memorable. Many of the games were ports of earlier Sega Genesis releases. But 1995 did see the release of Fahrenheit, a game that played on both the 32x and the Sega CD. An FPS with quirky gameplay consisting of putting out fires and rescuing people made it stand out in 1995. The other Sega 32x title worth mentioning is Knuckles Chaotix, a Sonic game without Sonic. Instead, the game focused on a team of characters lead by Knuckles. The biggest thing about the game is that it supported two players who were connected at all times, unlike Sonic 2 where Tails was in and out of the level if he didn't keep up. I really hope they bring this game to the Virtual Console/Xbox Live/PSN, since most copies are very expensive and are difficult to find.

1995 for consoles was a transition year for consoles; Playstation was getting wind in its sails while the Sega Saturn, Genesis, and SNES continued to prod along. If anything, 1995 was a push towards games evolving from 2D to 3D. On the horizon was 1996, which would prove to be a much better year for gamers.