When you were growing up, did you ever spend hours playing video games with your friends and family? Of course, you did! And when you look back on those memories, do you wish that some of the games were just a little more popular? While it’s true that the most popular 90s video games are certainly iconic in their own right, if they’d been even more successful, we would have had even more fun times growing up. Let’s take a look at the 10 most popular 90s video games that everyone played. Here at Duck Blogs, we are committed to giving you the best and most unbiased video game news, reviews, and tips to get you that edge you need. If you have any questions or ideas for new articles feel free to contact us or write in the comments today.
1) Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot was a video game series of three platform games, developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The games were released for the PlayStation, with the first two in 1996 and 1998 respectively, followed by a remastered trilogy in 2017. All three games were different from one another but followed the same story arc: protagonist Crash Bandicoot goes on a quest to save his girlfriend Tawna from Doctor Neo Cortex. Crash’s gameplay style was geared towards platforming and fast reflexes.
2) Gran Turismo
Gran Turismo was released in 1997 and became one of the most popular racing games of all time. The game sold over 14 million copies, making it one of the best-selling video games to date. The game is so popular that it has spawned a number of sequels, such as Gran Turismo 2, 3, and 4. In addition to being successful in sales, the game won several awards and accolades. In 1998, it won the Gold Prize award at Japan’s National ASCII Art Festival. It also won GameSpot’s 1999 Best Driving Game award.
Gran Turismo holds a Guinness World Record for having the most expensive production costs per minute of gameplay footage. The Guinness World Records organization estimates that each minute of footage for this title cost about $1 million!
3) Super Mario Kart
Super Mario Kart is a 1992 racing game developed and published by Nintendo. Players take on the role of one of eight characters and race around tracks in a variety of modes. The game has been praised for its multiplayer mode, simple controls, and visual style. It is considered to be one of the most popular video games of all time. In fact, it’s so good that it became the best-selling non-bundled video game ever at 25 million copies. However, not everyone can find a copy as it has gone out of production due to new regulations in electronic product safety standards from 2013. Despite this setback, players can still download this classic from Nintendo’s website for $9.99 or get a second-hand copy from sites like eBay for about $50-$70 USD.
4) Donkey Kong Country
Donkey Kong Country is one of the most popular video games from the 1990s. It was an adventure game that featured a hero named Donkey Kong and his sidekick, Diddy Kong, as they tried to recover their stolen banana hoard from King K. Rool and his Kremling henchmen. The game also introduced Mario’s brother, Luigi. The player could play with two players simultaneously or with a friend in a two-player mode where each person plays either Donkey Kong or Diddy Kong.
5) Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II was released in 1991 and became the best-selling game for the arcade. The game’s popularity grew further after being included in the 1992 film Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. It features 12 playable characters from four different countries (the U.S., Japan, China, and England), who each have their own special moves. There are no random elements in the gameplay of Street Fighter II, which makes it popular among hardcore gamers looking for a fair challenge.
6) Tomb Raider
This game was one of the first titles to feature a female protagonist, who is on a quest to find her lost lover. Players control Lara Croft as she navigates through dangerous tombs and ruins filled with traps, puzzles, and enemies. Tomb Raider was the first major video game series to feature a woman in the lead role. The heroine is an English archaeologist named Lara Croft, who must overcome physical obstacles such as boulders, pits of quicksand, and dead bodies to explore sprawling ancient ruins.
After finding special objects like keys or maps that can help progress further into the tomb, players would usually encounter large imposing statues of monsters or animals guarding doors or passages leading further inside the temple.
7) Theme Hospital
Theme Hospital is one of the most popular video games from the 1990s. The first Theme Hospital game was released in 1997, and it has gone on to spawn six sequels. This game is a simulation and management game where players take on the role of a hospital administrator. They must build and maintain a hospital that provides care for patients with various illnesses or injuries. The objective of the game is to cure all patients in hospitals as quickly as possible while maintaining an adequate amount of money to fund research, expansion, and operations.
8) Wipeout
Released in 1995, Wipeout was an arcade-style racing game that featured colorful graphics, a techno soundtrack, and the ability to play against up to three other players. To win the game, you had to cross the finish line first while also dodging obstacles along the way. The more opponents you beat, the better your score would be at the end of the race.
9) GoldenEye 007
GoldenEye 007 was a first-person shooter video game that revolutionized the genre and set a new standard for multiplayer video games. The game was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in 1997 for the Nintendo 64 console, and it was the first James Bond game to be released since the 1983 video game Octopussy. GoldenEye 007 features many characters from the James Bond universe, but players assume the role of Agent GoldenEye—an elite special agent—instead of James Bond himself.
10) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Released in 1998 and first released on the Nintendo 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was one of the most popular games of all time. It was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2016. Pokemon Red/Blue: Released in 1996 as a handheld game for Game Boy systems, Pokemon Red/Blue became a cultural phenomenon which lead to more than 275 million copies sold worldwide. Tetris (1984): Originally designed by Alexey Pajitnov, it became the game to have during the ’90s.