Arcade Games of the 90's - Part 7: 1996

[@chiissu]

32 games I'd like to try , 15 I knew were in Arcades, and 5 I own on various ports. Good list. Makes me with Arcades were still around

[@sonicmania9993]

Another cool Steamkey, Gary! It's TESLA FORCE, top-down shooter that just came out a few months ago in Nov 2020. Super colorful and action packed, I can't wait to try it -- cheers!

[@oesmanthus_channel1289]

Very useful！！Found many old games that i can play again rn. But sad i still cant found 1 of my favorite old game from part 1 - here 😭

[@maxz1689]

Thanks for another awesome video Gary!!! 😎👍🎮

[@rcadenow7543]

amazing year for arcade games.

[@DenverGamer]

Great video Gary!

[@brutaljustin1349]

Ahhhhh Mouse Attack, the staple every Chuck E Cheese's back in the 90's.

[@sonicmania9993]

Thanks for this 96 video, Gary! Love travelling through time like this. Standouts are the shmups (amazing period here!), racing games (especially Namco & Sega), and fighting games (both 2D & 3D are excellent by this point). Tons of stacking games -- wow! Hard to believe they all used to get played, but I know they were very popular in Japan for some time. A bunch of games from this video I’d like to try to play (no home conversions that I know of). For shmups, it must be said that many of the best ones are available on Saturn. Also 19XX, Aero Fighters Special, Raiden Fighters, and Tengai have come to modern consoles. But I’d still like to try Air Attack, Air Gallet, Gratia, Hotdog Storm, Storm Blade/Zero Fighter. Racing games in the late 90s were great on home console, but I’d love to play some of these Namco racers that were never ported, like Ace Driver, Alpine Racer 2, Aqua Jet … as well as the other jetski racers Wave Runner (Sega) & Wave Shark (Konami). It’s a crime that Sega never brought Scud Race / Super GT to Saturn/Dreamcast! That game is universally admired by arcade racing fans. For fighters, I believe that all of the best ones in this video made it home, and I’ve played them a bunch over the last 20-25 years. DOA, Last Bronx, Star Gladiator, and X-Men vs Street Fighter are particular favorites. The main games we are missing at home are Capcom’s amazing Red Earth/Warzard (never converted, even though there were other quirky action fighters like this on Saturn and it would have fit right in), and Heaven’s Gate which looks like a pretty crappy fighter but I *love* the colorful 5th gen aesthetic. Amazing games, I loved the videogame world in 1996. My favorite period of console gaming has always been 95-03, and 96 might just be my #1 year. At home we were getting great JRPGs, platformers, three of my top 5 or 6 favorite games of all time (Nights into Dreams, Tomb Raider & Super Mario 64), and tons of arcade conversions … especially on Saturn & Neo Geo. I was lucky enough to have a couple of import connections for Saturn games, so I was able to play a bunch of killer JP-only Saturn shmups & fighters in 1996; felt so awesome to play with friends on our TVs! I never had a Neo Geo back then (way too pricey). Still, since 90% of its library has been made cheaply available via ports to other consoles in the years since, I feel like I know its library almost as well as if I’d actually owned the system. Really fun stuff. Looking forward to 1997 video, whenever you have time to get to it! I know there will be several games that made it to Saturn/Dreamcast & NeoGeo … but I’ll enjoy seeing those familiar games as well as learning about a few arcade-only lovely dinosaurs.

[@GaryRetroGamer]

Hotdog Storm gets a personal recommendation - just for its name alone! Red Earth did sort of make an appearance - a few of its fighters made it into Capcom Fighting Evolution, which was a crossover of various Capcom properties, released in 2004. Having said that, the saturation of the market with fighters is pretty clear. A good sign of this is when decent/good examples of the genre become lost in the shuffle just because there are so many of then... Indeed, the racers had a strong showing! It appeared that the developers got the hand of this 3D thing and were able to really make fun experiences with them (check out those dolphins swimming by in Sega's Wave Runner). Along the lines of your observations, I believe 1996 was peak convergence of consoles and arcades - where you could, as you say, get both the "home" and "arcade" experience on one console - in the home. After 1996 there was a marked shift as big companies switched to focusing more on consoles - and companies that still focused only on arcades start to die off. I think as we get into 1997, we're going to see a sharp drop off in arcade experiences...

[@whatsup3820]

Sega, Capcom and Namco were so ahead of their time.

[@skildertwoo]

6:24 🔝🔝

[@elsenorburns889]

Thanks Gary. You re The best!

[@Hurry_Revive_Me]

Yoyo! New vid this morning!

[@gallowaygaming75]

Some weird and wonderful games in this list gary mate. Great stuff 😊

[@jymfiskburk2256]

Picture this, someone had a long day at work and its tired, pass by his favorite bar in town to play this 5:49 Edit: the game at 7:26 is playing "Miracle girl" opening from the Yawara! Anime, highly recommended

[@raimondonocco6623]

Woooow lot of wonderful games that year

[@theGodfollower99]

Dude!! You started the video with Gangsta’s Paradise?!? I JUST listened to it while working out!! Cool!! Also, I’m already eager to check this one out because of Red Earth in the thumbnail, that game is awesome! 👍

[@GaryRetroGamer]

Yes! Good ear. Gangsta's Paradise was big in 1996, so it seemed fitting for the video!

[@ramonayala4726]

Gary your videos are good

[@JonJuju95]

13:29 Magical Date was made by Taito, not Konami.

[@morolo6665]

Gran año, Great year.

[@afonline2004]

RIP LLcool J 😭

[@lilwyvern4]

How many racing games did Namco release?!

[@skildertwoo]

14:45 🔝🔝🔝

[@skildertwoo]

28:45 🔝🔝🔝🔝❤️

[@Max-qz4tw]

Street fighter puzzle fighter is straight up crack for the female race. Cute characters, lound noises, ok soundtrack, easy to learn but hard to master, and stacking and organizing for some reason just speaks to the female soul...plus, it's hella fun. Play for who gets dinners, or favors.

[@JONATHANMAZZINI]

😮👌👏👏👏👏

[@skildertwoo]

31:38 🔝🔝🔝

[@joeladrian33]

👍🏽

[@massiveprogressive9488]

Hai Perso!