Groundbreaking 16-bit titles

[Arkaign]

I was going through stacks of old Snes, Genesis, and TG-16 games, and noticed a few games that really took me in at the time with their unique aspects. I might even be so bold as to call them 'ground-breaking'. Comment on these or add your own ;)

1) Herzog Zwei - Sega Genesis. This was a really cool and strange title. Above view, almost a RTS game, sort of a shooter, this title let you battle head to head against the computer or another player. Complete with a variety of maps, decent music, a variety of units (that you could program to do different tasks!), etc .. it had a bit of a learning curve but I found it *very* rewarding. I remember laughing at the review in EGM, they gave it like 3s,4s, and 5s (on a 10 scale), and I could tell that they just didn't *get* it.

2) Actraiser - SNES. Another odd one, had oustanding graphics for the time, and great music. Had a side-scrolling slasher mode that was very well animated and detailed, sort of like Legendary Axe, and then it had a great strategy/rpg kind of above view mode. Really well produced. Had a disappointing but playabel sequel.

3) Silent Debuggers - TG16. Not a fantastic title, but interesting nonetheless. I remember playing this through on a TurboExpress handheld while sitting in the backseat of a very long road trip. Was a sort of FPS, with a variety of weapons. The sound FX were pretty cool, it actually had sort of an 'Aliens' vibe with the whole life-scanner thing beeping faster or slower depending on what was around you. Cool touches like a map and little cinemas helped a lot. It's probably too dated now to sit through after seeing what FPS became, but it's interesting to see an early attempt at adding some complexity and atmosphere to the console FPS genre of the time (nearly nonexistent).

Well, of the major 3 16-bit consoles, those came to my mind .. how bout you?

*I apologize if there's another thread covering this exact idea, but with 200+ pages, it's confusing to accurately verify in advance.*

[Haoie]

In terms of cart size, I'm thinking Tales of Phantasia [1 of my all time favs] as well as all the SDD1 chip games like Star Ocean.

[Trebuken]

Isn't Tales of Phantasia Japanese? I suppose theres a translation patch for it....anyway

Yours :

Actraiser - yeah this game got me too. It was just so different then anything I had played before and it used some of the SNES tech to good effect. Gamneplay was solid too.

Herzog Zwei - Had this but didn't play it much. A friend of mine could not get enough of it though.

Mine:
Military Madenss - This was the my first real strategy title. Had me hooked for a long time...been playing Advance Wars DS lately, quite a resemblance...

Sonic the Hedgehog - Obviously. Got this as soon as it came out. Was in awe of how fast the gameplay was. Probably was less inspiring to those who came upon it later.

Gates Of Thunder - See newest issue of Hardcore Gamer - the sound was insane. CD audio on the TG-16 embarassed the Genesis and SNES...

Many others...

Trebuken

[smokehouse]

My vote goes for Final Fantasy III. This game pushed the limits of a small size cartridge. At 32 megabits this game was only 4 megabytes.

-The graphics were some of the best to found on a 16-bit system with colors everywhere and amazing magic effects.
-The sound was phenomenal for a game of that size.
-Finally the game was HUGE! All the side quests and contend was amazing.

How they crammed all that into a small meg game I’ll never know.

[Doonzmore]

Aladdin on Genesis.

[mr_pollock]

I think Final Fantasy IV was more of a groundbreaker than FFVI. (I personally think VI is a better game though)

It really introduced the classic console-RPG game to America. It had a decent story, good character development, good music, good gameplay and it was quite epic.

FFVI just went above and beyond of all that to create the finest game ever made.

[kainemaxwell]

I'd put Tales of Phantasia pretty high up there maybe alongside FF3. The graphics and sound were near PSX quality and the game actually had voices in it. Question, was Super Metroid the first SNES title with some voices?

[Simply Dave]

I'd put Tales of Phantasia pretty high up there maybe alongside FF3. The graphics and sound were near PSX quality and the game actually had voices in it. Question, was Super Metroid the first SNES title with some voices?

I'm not sure but I clearly remember the first time I played Super Metroid and I heard that voice. "The last Metroid is..."
Man, that was exciting stuff.

[kainemaxwell]

I'm not sure but I clearly remember the first time I played Super Metroid and I heard that voice. "The last Metroid is..."
Man, that was exciting stuff.
Same here, I was surprised and happy there was some voice in the game, I ended up resetting my game just to make sure the game wasn't playing a trick on me!

[intvsama]

I'd have to go with Super Metroid being up there with the big groundbreakers. Everything about that game was enormous, sprites, enviornments, action, adventure. It set the bar for future adventure games (CV:SotN, anyone?)

[whoisKeel]

No way Super Metroid was the first with voices, but I can't deny its awesomeness. Didn't the first Street Fighter II have voices? I'm sure there were even more before that. (I know some of the Sports Talk series for Genesis came out around that time)

Speaking of which, I think Street Figher II was a pretty groundbreaking game, even just considering how well it was ported. It opened the doors for the fighting game fever. I sometimes wonder if Capcom had screwed up SF2 as a port, if fighting games would've been as big as they were.

I remember F-Zero looking absolutely cool as *#$% when it came out, it's Mode7 fueled Mario Kart, which in turn fueled a whole genre of cart racing.

[Zing]

Super Metroid won my award for the gayest (literally) voice I have ever heard in a video game.

"The galaxy is at peath..."

[Damaramu]

Perhaps you've forgotten the annoucer's voice for Super Street Fighter II/Turbo?

WTF did they do to Guile's voice? And most importantly, what were they thinking? x_x LOL

[Ed Oscuro]

If only Silent Debuggers was playable...

For my part, I'd have to say that Gain Ground broke some new ground, in its own way.

[Damon Plus]

Perhaps you've forgotten the annoucer's voice for Super Street Fighter II/Turbo?

WTF did they do to Guile's voice? And most importantly, what were they thinking? x_x LOL

Altered Beast had voices, and it was the first Genesis game. Did the T-16 have a game with voices before that one?

Also, groundbreaking titles would be games like Virtua Racing and Starfox. And what about Sonic?

[Sotenga]

I put my bid towards Super Castlevania IV. It's not just because I'm biased towards Castlevania... though, that is part of the reason. Heh... but seriously, this game had some of the most incredible graphical effects, musical compositions, dead-on play control, and overall solid gameplay. All for a freaking 1991 SNES launch title. I think it was way ahead of its time, and it kinda cemented my decision to snag a SNES. :)

[bazariah]

I put my bid towards Super Castlevania IV. It's not just because I'm biased towards Castlevania... though, that is part of the reason. Heh... but seriously, this game had some of the most incredible graphical effects, musical compositions, dead-on play control, and overall solid gameplay. All for a freaking 1991 SNES launch title. I think it was way ahead of its time, and it kinda cemented my decision to snag a SNES. :)

im thinking the same.. it's probably the only snes game i'd play day in day out without getting bored

also contra3/ contra spirits/ super probotector (dependent on location :D), the end area reminded me of both aliens (by the level design and enemies) and predator (because of the music) truley a game worthy of any accolade for greatness

[Graham Mitchell]

I felt the first 3 launch titles for the SNES, Super Mario World, F-Zero, and Pilotwings were totally groundbreaking. The Mode 7 effects absolutely blew my mind, and the wavetable sounds were unlike anything else I'd seen on a console. It was the first time I realized that it was possible to have arcade-quality games on a home system.

Everybody's going to groan but I also thought Drakkhen was pretty ground-breaking. That was the first time I'd seen a first-person, polygon-based game that wasn't Hard Drivin'. The game never gets credited with being groundbreaking because it wasn't well-recieved, but I think it's a classic, despite its flaws. Admit it; the music and sound effects can be pretty convincing at times.

I also thought Y's Book I and II for the TG-16 CD was pretty incredible. That's probably the first CD-based RPG we saw in the states. After spending an hour with the game I was absolutely convinced that CD's were the medium that games should all be using.

[poloplayr]

My vote goes for Final Fantasy III. This game pushed the limits of a small size cartridge. At 32 megabits this game was only 4 megabytes.


I'm pretty sure FF3 is only 24mbits. Hmm.

[Amy Rose]

I'd put Tales of Phantasia pretty high up there maybe alongside FF3. The graphics and sound were near PSX quality and the game actually had voices in it. Question, was Super Metroid the first SNES title with some voices?
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars has voice in it. FIND THE MIRACLE BALL.

Sonic was the big one for me. It got me into gaming and I've never been able to escape :)

[Arkaign]

Some cool games mentioned here .. omg I can't believe someone mentioned Military Madness .. I just replayed that the other day, truly a fun turn-based-strategy game for a console!

[Blanka789]

Both of the Lunar games for the Sega CD featured great music, gameplay, and movies. Oh, and who can forget Donkey Kong Country?

[tritium]

Revolutionary? Sonic & Knuckles.

Its an upgrade and a game all in one!

De-evolutionary? 32x.

I do have to say the one game that made me go WOW in the 16-bit era that wasn't an upgraded genre from another time prior (platformer, run&gun, etc). Sim Ant.

Yes I'm an odd person, I know....

[Ed Oscuro]

Altered Beast had voices, and it was the first Genesis game. Did the T-16 have a game with voices before that one?
I know an old, old Sunsoft RPG from '85 had NES-voice in it (sorta sounded like a Japanese guy yelling, rather incredible to hear it coming from the NES - I think they "composed" it, as it's not recorded sound)...

[Arkaign]

I agree about the post on SF2 to SNES ports. They were really solid, amazingly complete for an arcade game that was still red-hot .. I imported the Super Famicom version and was initially confused when I saw Balrog and M. Bison's names switched :D

[Apossum]

Definitely SF2. that game was a freaking religion in my town. the Snes version made it even more popular and paved the way for a ton of knock offs. Kids in my grade were ditching school just to play it, which was a big deal at 11 years old.

and from the "depending on the way you look at it" dept.:

MK2 (snes)-- first Nintendo game to contain excessive amounts of gore and violence. that was kind of a big deal at the time.

MK1 (Genesis)-- made a huge splash in the media, made it okay for games to be extremely violent, thanks to the rating system.

[zerohero]

Super Metriod

Contra III

SF2/turbo

Lttp

[XxMe2NiKxX]

Sonic the Hedgehog. Provided a mascot that was actually cool (ie not an ugly midget named Alex or an overweight plumber), and reinvented the platforming genre by injecting a lot of speed into it, not to mention the fact that it looks goregous.

[segarocks30]

Streets of Rage 2. This game defined the genre of Beat Em Ups. Yuzo Koshiro made one of the best soundtracks ever for this game. Now forget all the Final Fantasies, this game is groundbreaking, and to me, it has aged well.

[Graham Mitchell]

Streets of Rage 2. This game defined the genre of Beat Em Ups. Yuzo Koshiro made one of the best soundtracks ever for this game. Now forget all the Final Fantasies, this game is groundbreaking, and to me, it has aged well.

I played through SOR2 on Friday night, and I agree that the soundtrack is absolutely incredible, and it has aged very well. It's always been one of my favorite Genesis games.

However, I feel that the groundbreaking beat-em-up from the 16-bit era is probably Final Fight, which was released a few years before SOR2. In fact, SOR1 was sort of Sega's answer to Final Fight. The reason I felt it was groundbreaking is that it reduced all the attacks down to one button, essentially. You could just mash the one button for hours and still be getting the full experience of the game, whereas Double Dragon and Renegade had more buttons and required (only slightly) more brainpower, and in some ways the earlier games weren't as fun. Most beat-em-ups that came after FF were shameless clones. The SOR series is great because they did more with it than just follow the leader, but it was not the first of its kind.

[CaryMG]

"Donkey Kong Country" - SNES
Ray-Traced Graphics On A 16-Bit Console ?
WHOA ....

"StuntRace FX" - SNES
The Worlds First -- It Beat "Virtua Racing" To Market By A Few Months -- Freely Explorable Polygonal Game On A 16-Bit Console.

"DOOM" - SNES
Did What Was Said Couldn't Be Done On A 16-Bit Console.


Later!
:) :) :)

[Mr_Elimin8]

Sonic for the genesis.

[Arkaign]

I bought Sonic the day it came out, there was a lot of hype about it. I couldn't really get into it. I had already been spoiled by Super Mario World and it's incredible depth of play and gargantuan size (in comparison).

The only thing I could discern that was fresh about Sonic was the speed. I *hated* that all three buttons did the same thing, and there were little to no techniques to use or alternate paths along the way.

To me it just felt linear, repetitive, and bland. And I was a genesis fan, I loved Forgotten Worlds, Ghouls n Ghosts, Phantasy Star II, Herzog Zwei, Target Earth, etc.

Nothing against anyone who loved Sonic, but it just didn't gel for me. I never bought another Sonic game again, though I rented them to see how they progressed.

[Graham Mitchell]

"Donkey Kong Country" - SNES
Ray-Traced Graphics On A 16-Bit Console ?
WHOA ....


That was a trick, though. The SNES didn't really process the rendered images. They were little digitized sprites made on an SGI workstation that somebody arranged into animation sequences. The imagery is truly only slightly more evolved that Super Mario World, and the gameplay isn't nearly as interesting.


I bought Sonic the day it came out, there was a lot of hype about it. I couldn't really get into it. I had already been spoiled by Super Mario World and it's incredible depth of play and gargantuan size (in comparison).

The only thing I could discern that was fresh about Sonic was the speed. I *hated* that all three buttons did the same thing, and there were little to no techniques to use or alternate paths along the way.

To me it just felt linear, repetitive, and bland. And I was a genesis fan, I loved Forgotten Worlds, Ghouls n Ghosts, Phantasy Star II, Herzog Zwei, Target Earth, etc.

Nothing against anyone who loved Sonic, but it just didn't gel for me. I never bought another Sonic game again, though I rented them to see how they progressed.

I'm in complete agreement. I never found Sonic to be that fascinating, and I loved all the Genesis games you mentioned. To me, games like Target Earth, Burning Force, Thunder Force II and the Valis games were the meat of that system.

[Arkaign]

Oh, sweet, I forgot about Thunder Force II, that had some AMAZING graphics for the era, and moved smoothly, had good variety, all in all a great shooter. I played Thunder Force III as well, was also pretty good.

A relief to find someone that also didn't think Sonic was all that hot. :-D

[Push Upstairs]

However, I feel that the groundbreaking beat-em-up from the 16-bit era is probably Final Fight, which was released a few years before SOR2. In fact, SOR1 was sort of Sega's answer to Final Fight. The reason I felt it was groundbreaking is that it reduced all the attacks down to one button, essentially. You could just mash the one button for hours and still be getting the full experience of the game, whereas Double Dragon and Renegade had more buttons and required (only slightly) more brainpower, and in some ways the earlier games weren't as fun. Most beat-em-ups that came after FF were shameless clones. The SOR series is great because they did more with it than just follow the leader, but it was not the first of its kind.

Double Dragon has some (IMO) terrible controls and "Final Fight" feels very stiff...even 2 & 3.

I tend to feel that SOR2 is where everything came together. The control was smooth and spot on & the moves were great. Which is probably the reason why any other game thats similar gets compared to SOR2.

FF came first but SOR2 did it right.

[Ed Oscuro]

"Donkey Kong Country" - SNES
Ray-Traced Graphics On A 16-Bit Console ?
WHOA ....
That was a trick, though. The SNES didn't really process the rendered images. They were little digitized sprites made on an SGI workstation that somebody arranged into animation sequences. The imagery is truly only slightly more evolved that Super Mario World, and the gameplay isn't nearly as interesting.
Way to destroy all our cherished memories man!

Of course, NO system has sported true ray-traced graphics in realtime...the next generation of consoles probably won't, either...

[Arkaign]

Oh I remember something that was really unique for a 16-bit system, the Super Game Boy thing to play Gameboy games on the Snes. I guess it doesn't qualify as a game though. I still have fond memories of replaying Gargoyles Quest on it tho.

[Graham Mitchell]

"Donkey Kong Country" - SNES
Ray-Traced Graphics On A 16-Bit Console ?
WHOA ....
That was a trick, though. The SNES didn't really process the rendered images. They were little digitized sprites made on an SGI workstation that somebody arranged into animation sequences. The imagery is truly only slightly more evolved that Super Mario World, and the gameplay isn't nearly as interesting.
Way to destroy all our cherished memories man!

Of course, NO system has sported true ray-traced graphics in realtime...the next generation of consoles probably won't, either...

Just doing my part! LOL

I think even Shigeru agrees with me on that, though.

As for the whole Streets of Rage thing, I don't want anybody to think I was knocking SOR2, because it's my favorite beat-em-up. But I've also noticed that if I try to talk about that game with people who aren't DP members, they have no idea what I'm talking about. But I think Final Fight, Double Dragon, etc., are the games that broke through and got attention from the mainstream because they were available in arcades. SOR did have somewhat of a niche audience, despite it's grandeur (are you really surprised, though? How many of your peers have played Snatcher?)

Speaking of which, there's another groundbreaking 16-bit game; Snatcher! Unfortunately, it's ground that will probably never be covered again, but it's still pretty cool.

[prismra]

Hmmm, I think we're forgetting something important...


OH YEAH!

Super Mario World. That game was mind-blowing when it came out. The huge world, multi-layered backgrounds, Mode-7 effects on the enemies, ALL the secrets, the transparencies...the music (I bet all of you could hum the title theme right now!)

[Push Upstairs]

I really find "Super Mario World" to not be all that great because 90% of what went into it can also be found in Mario 3.

Flying, castles, Koopa Kids, overworld map (for the different worlds at least)...this stuff was started in 3 and carried over to World.

SMW is a fun game and i enjoy some of the touches that were added to it, but it didnt add enough to the SMB3 formula for me to consider it "light years" better than its predecessor.

[kevin_psx]

"Donkey Kong Country" - SNES
Ray-Traced Graphics On A 16-Bit Console ?
WHOA ....



Where d'ya get this crap? They were sprites - nothing more. Nothing special about 2D sprites.

[le geek]

Voices were nothing new. Many old 8-bit computer games have voices in them. For example, Space Taxi (1984), Ghostbusters (1984), Impossible Mission (1984), Beach-Head II (1985)...

But back on topic the 16-bit games that blew me away were Super Metroid, Out of this World, Final Fantasy II/IV, Gunstar Heroes and Donkey Kong Country.

Cheers,
Ben

[n8littlefield]

The 16-bit games that really blew me away that come to mind were:


Sonic 1: The added colors and shading gave such a 3d-ish look compared to the NES

Ecco: Simply beautiful - possibly my favorite game ever.

Beyond Oasis: I didn't have a SNES, this was really my 16bit Zelda.

[kevin_psx]

Dragon's Lair and Space Ace for the Amiga 500 blew me away! Impressive graphics for a 7 megahertz 800 kilobyte floppy system developed in 1986!

http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/the_fairway/game_pages/screen_shots/spaceaceshot2.gif

[Teknik_SE-R]

I gotta say

secret of mana
chrono trigger (could never get past the forest)
EVO
ignited my love for RPGs (FF was never my thing and I'd never experienced true RPGs on the NES)

also:
super metriod- incredible depth of play
mariokart/F zero- amazing graphics
mortal kombat/streetfighter- intro of fighting genre
final fight/SOR-next gen double dragon
super star wars- finally a decent star wars game game
earthworm jim-intro of goofy platformer genre
lemmings- intro of goofy strategy game genre (pik-min's grand-dad)

I never knew there was a pilot wings for snes. I loved it on 64. simplicity... ahhhh...

[7th lutz]

Phantasy Star 2- This game was ground breaking for having sad ending, one of your main Characters died and a planet blown up. This was standard of tragedy in rpg's.

Shining force, Act Raiser, Sonic, Sonic & knockles, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Conro Trigger, Super Mario Kart, and Contra Contra 3.

[B - Mark]

My list.

Games for Mega Drive / Genesis
- Phantasy Star II
- Phantasy Star: The End of Millenium
- Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse
- Quackshot starring Donald Duck
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic & Knuckles
- Streets of Rage 2
- Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition ( Street Fighter II Plus Champion Edition in Japan )
- Road Rash

Games for Super NES
- Super Mario World
- Super Mario All Stars
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link of the Past
- Actraizer
- Mortal Kombat II
- Secret of Mana
- Chrono Trigger
- Street Fighter II
- Street Fighter II Turbo

[B - Mark]

My list.

Games for Mega Drive / Genesis
- Phantasy Star II
- Phantasy Star: The End of Millenium
- Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse
- Quackshot starring Donald Duck
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Sonic & Knuckles
- Streets of Rage 2
- Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition ( Street Fighter II Plus Champion Edition in Japan )
- Road Rash
- Shinning Force

Games for Super NES
- Super Mario World
- Super Mario All Stars
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link of the Past
- Actraizer
- Mortal Kombat II
- Secret of Mana
- Chrono Trigger
- Street Fighter II
- Street Fighter II Turbo