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[Theslammer]

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Hey all!

We're visiting 1995 with this edition of the series. The Playstation and Saturn were out at this time, but the SNES and Genesis were still getting many games. Some big hitters released in the arcades as well (once again, this might not be comprehensive, so if you see missing arcade games that are notable that I missed, just let me know! I think I got the biggest hitters, though), plus PC as always (one of them in particular was my jam: I'm looking at you, Warcraft II).

Enjoy the trip down memory lane.

3D Lemmings (PC)
Alien Odyssey (PC)
Alpine Racer (Arcade)
Apache (PC)
Apache Longbow (PC)
Area 51 (Arcade)
Astal (SAT)
Aquanaut's Holiday (PS)

Battle Arena Toshinden (PS)
Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (Arcade)
Brain Dead 13 (MS-DOS)
Breath of Fire II (SNES)
Bug! (SAT)
Bust-a-Move (SNES)
Captain Commando (SNES)
Castlevania: Dracula X (SNES)

]

Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Clockwork Knight 2 (SAT)
Coach K College Basketball (GEN)

Comix Zone (GEN)
Command & Conquer (PC)
Cool Riders (PC)
Crusader: No Remorse (PC)

Daytona USA (SAT)
Descent (PC)
Desert Demolition (GEN)
Destruction Derby (PS, PC)
Discworld (PC)
Disney's Toy Story (GEN, SNES)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
Doom (PS, SNES)
Dragon Quest VI (SNES only in Japan)

EarthBound (SNES)
Earthworm Jim 2 (GEN, SNES)
Earthworm Jim: Special Edition (SCD)
EF2000 (PC)
FIFA Soccer 96 (PS, GEN, SNES, PC)
Final Fight 3 (SNES)
Flight Unlimited (PC)
Football Pro '96 (PC)
Front Mission (SNES only in Japan)

Full Throttle (PC)
Gargoyles (GEN)
Head-On Soccer (SNES)
Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest (PC)
Indy 500 (Arcade)

Jumping Flash! (PS)
Killer Instinct (SNES)
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB)
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (PC)
Light Crusader (GEN)
Loaded (PS)
Madden NFL 96 (GEN)
Marathan 2: Durandal (MAC)
Mario's Picross (GB)

Marvel Super Heroes (Arcade)
MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (PC)
Mega Man 7 (SNES)
Mega Man X2 (SNES)
Metal Max Returns (SNES)
Metal Warriors (SNES)
Micro Machines (GB)
Micro Machines Turbo Tournament 96 (GEN)
Mission Critical (PC)

Mortal Kombat 3 (GEN, SNES, PS, Arcade, GB)
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Arcade)
Myst (3DO)
NBA Jam Tournament Edition (PS, GEN)
NBA Live '96 (GEN, SNES, PC)
NFL Quarterback Club 96 (SNES)
NHL 95 (GEN)
NHL 96 (GEN)
NHL Faceoff (PS)
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (SNES)
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES)

Panzer Dragoon (SAT)
PGA Tour 96 (PS)
PGA Tour Golf (PC)

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium (GEN)
Phantom 2040 (GEN, SNES)
Popful Mail (SCD)
Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (PC)
Rayman (PS, SAT)

Ridge Racer (PS)
Ristar (GEN)
Road Rash III (GEN)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire (SNES, SAT)
Romancing Sa-Ga 3 (SNES)
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus: Space Exploration Game (GEN)
Screamer (PC)
Secret of Evermore (SNES)
Sega Rally Championship (SAT)
Shadow Squadron (32X)
Shinobi Legions (SAT)

SimCity 2000 (PC)
Star Trek: Judgment Rites (PC)
Star Wars: Dark Forces (PC)
Star Wars TIE Fighter: Collector's CD-ROM (PC)
Steel Panthers (PC)

Street Fighter Alpha (Arcade)
Super Bomberman 3 (SNES)
Super Bonk 2 (SNES)
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Surging Aura (GEN)
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (SNES in Japan only)
Tales of Phantasia (SNES)

Tekken (PS)
Tekken 2 (Arcade)
Terranigma (SNES in Japan)
The Adventures of Batman & Robin (GEN, SNES)
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (PC)
The Dig (PC)
The Legend of Sword and Fairy (SAT, PC in Taiwan)
The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain (PC)
Theme Park (PS, SAT)
The Need for Speed (PC)
The Terminator: Future Shock (PC)
The Ultimate Doom (PC)
Time Crisis (Arcade)
Touche: The Adventures of teh Fifth Musketeer (PC)
Triple Play 96 (GEN)
True Lies (GEN)

Twisted Metal (PS)
Vectorman (GEN)
Virtua Cop (SAT)
Virtua Fighter 2 (SAT, Arcade)
Virtua Fighter Remix (SAT)

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC)
Warhawk (PS)
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (PC)
Wipeout (PS)
Wirehead (SCD)
World Series Baseball (SAT)
Worms (PS, GEN, PC, Amiga)
X-COM: UFO Defense (PS)
X-COM: Terror From the Deep (PC)

X-Men 2: Clones Wars (GEN)
You Don't Know Jack (1995) (PC)
Zoop (GEN, SNES, PC)

 

[killatopak]

Chrono Trigger
Daytona
Doom
Earthworm Jim
Earthbound
Tekken 2
Twisted Metal


Out of those my favorite is CT.

 

[ULTROS!]

Chrono Trigger
Earthbound
Phantasy Star IV

Great year for great JRPGs.

 

[Zero83]

Yoshi's Island and DKC 2

 

[sir_bumble_bee]

Gotta be Chrono Trigger.

 

[KodaRuss]

Warcraft 2 for sure. Command and Conquer after that.

 

[Vital Tundra]

DKC 2 Bitch.

 

[Jiffster]

Omg SIM city 2000 with disasters... Too much of my uni days stolen from me by this!

 

[FelipeMGM]

Top5 for me

Chrono Trigger
Earthbound
Donkey Kong Country 2
SMW 2: Yoshi's Island
Mega Man 7

 

[sixteen-bit]

Chrono Trigger was magical

 

[Prisoner KSC2-303]

DKC2
Killer Instinct
Ridge Racer
Tekken
Destruction Derby

Destruction Derby was probably my favourite at the time though, as it seemed like something genuinely new. I was fascinated by the physics and destruction model.

 

[TheMoon]

Terranigma came out in Japan so, default mention.
Donkey Kong Country 2
Yoshi's Island


Mind blowing stuff.

 

[deadstar72]

Wipeout all day, every day. It's not even close

 

[sleepydeer]

Stars! - PC 4X space conquest game. No screenshots since it was basically an interactive spreadsheet with dots for planets and triangles for fleets - I think it worked better that way by leaving room for imagination, and it certainly helped it age well, I played it on and off for 15 years and will probably come back to it again some day.

e: Real shame it isn't on GOG. Looks like the publishing rights are with a dead company.

 

[ajjow]

Is that real?

Man, best year in gaming if true.

Yoshi Island
Daytona
DkC2
Chronno fucking Trigger
Warcraft 2
StreetFighter Aplha
Killer Stinct
Marvel Super Heroes (where everything began)
Toy Story
And Mega Man 7



Man! Amazing stuff

 

[Glen Tennis]

Rayman! It was the first game I finished and boy was it hard at the time. I recently bought the iphone version and it's still great. Sim City 2000 gets a special mention, soundtrack was crazy and is stuck in my head forever.

 

[Diablohead]

Jumping Flash and Ridge Racer are two games burned into my brain and I love them

 

[mrmickfran]

Yoshi's Island <3

 

[kmfdmpig]

Chrono Trigger
Doom
Command and Conquer
Tekken 2
Mechwarrior 2
Warcraft 2

Another great year for gaming

 

[Elandyll]

Mechwarrior 2 and Wip3Out, there can be no others. (For me)

Oh, and C&C and Warcraft 2.

And that's it, for sure.

 

[qcf x2]

Easily the best gaming year of all time. You actually were missing out if you didn't have access to a Genesis, SNES, Saturn, PC, PSX and arcade at the same time. Friends were made


Chrono Trigger is my pick, but at least half of the games on that list belong in the hall of fame.

 

[Black Mantis]

Sega Rally

 

[JustSomeone]

Wing commander 4

 

[lazygecko]

95 was a robust, if a bit modest year (compared to what would come later anyway) for kicking off the PS1, a transformative year for PC gaming, and also a surprisingly strong twilight year for the Genesis in spite of Sega's efforts to promptly abandon it, with lots of the best and most unique titles on the system all coming out that year.

Didn't know X-Men 2: Clones Wars had Trunks from DBZ and Billy Kane from Fatal Fury. Man, that game is packed!

 

[Dweebo]

At the time DKC2, but after playing Chrono Trigger for the first time in 2015 I'm going to have to give it to that.

 

[OneUh8]

Command & Conquer and Sim City 2000. Played them both a TON.

 

[Theslammer]

Is that real?

Man, best year in gaming if true.

It's real and true. =P

I feel like we get this comment for most of the threads, but that's not a knock on you: I think a lot of us forget how much came out in any given year until it's put together like this. Developers do a lot of work for us! xD

Didn't know X-Men 2: Clones Wars had Trunks from DBZ and Billy Kane from Fatal Fury. Man, that game is packed!

Bahahahaha! Oh man, I didn't even notice that when I was getting pictures together.

Changed it to something that's not modded or whatever that was. =D

 

[Altazor]

1) Donkey Kong Country 2
2) Chrono Trigger (this was absurdly close)
3) Megaman 7 (not my favorite MM game, but it's the one I had as a kid and thus nostalgia overload)
4) Yoshi's Island

What a year. Damn.

 

[takoyaki]

1) Earthbound & Chrono Trigger
2) Time Crisis & Virtua Cop

95 was a bit before I got into gaming, but I tried to catch up with the classics over the years. Earthbound and Chrono Trigger hold up incredibly well, still some of the best RPGs ever made.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Best game ever

I remember renting OgreBattle based off the box art.

I eventually tracked down a copy.

 

[woopWOOP]

Man, there's a lot more of these threads around than I thought. Missed over half of them!

For this year the standouts for me (listed here atleast) are:
- Donkey Kong Country 2
- EarthBound
- Front Mission
- Full Throttle
- Ristar
- Sim City 2000
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- Terranigma
- Warcraft II
Only DKC2, SMW2 and WC2 I actually played around the year of release.

It's hard to pick a #1 favourite, for me it's definitely split between Terrangima and Earthbound.
Terranigma because of the multiple memorable scenes, despite wonky translation at times. I really did not expect that ending and I felt pretty down for a couple of days because of it, something I only experienced two times with games so far.
Earthbound because I just really loved the quirky world and characters, to the point that I imported a NTSC SNES and bought an original copy of Earthbound to replay it in front of my TV the legit way.
It took me over a year of taking breaks and continueing later down the line before I finally beat both games the first time, so to me both these games will always feel like they were a massive undertaking to get through. Ohyeah, and the soundtracks of both games are wonderful. Some of the best soundtracks coming out of that SNES system.

 

[JosephManderley]

Sim City 2000 was brilliant, played it way too much!

There was an Alpine Racer machine in the Student's Union at my Uni, and I played that most lunches. It was a dark day when they swapped it for a dodgy Time Crisis clone...

 

[Strike]

Vectorman

 

[Textured Monk]

Reading that list makes me realize that 1995 was a hell of a year, gaming-wise. The obvious choices have been touched on, so I'll just share this picture of Terranigma's ending that gets posted every thread.

 

[Bishop89]

Chrono Trigger
Command & Conquer
Daytona USA
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Killer Instinct
Marvel Super Heroes
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Tekken 2
Wipeout

these are my top games of that year based on op's list.

i say dkc2 would be my goty

 

[oneida]

not listed:
Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn)

One of the best games on the console.
For me, the best game on the console.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

Definitely Chrono Trigger.

But only because I didn't get to play DQ6 in 95.

 

[JustSurvive]

EarthBound, it's my favorite of all-time.

Chrono Trigger, DKC2, EarthBound, Earthworm Jim 2, Killer Instinct, MK3 and Secret of Evermore all in '95? Damn SNES had a killer year.

Also have to acknowledge both Area 51 and Time Crisis, two arcade titles I put far too many quarters in as a kid.

 

[Coin Return]

Chrono Trigger, my first and favorite JRPG.

I bought it the day of release for $80 at Toys 'R' Us. Nintendo Power and EGM had me hyped!

 

[hiptanaka]

C&C Tiberian Dawn and DKC2.

 

[tootie923]

Chrono Trigger, although I don't think I played it that much until I bought the cart years later on eBay.

 

[Maxim726X]

Well... The best game of all time was released this year, so it's an easy question:

Chrono Trigger. Da GOAT.

 

[Outrun]

Lol, has there ever been a bad year in gaming?

Played a ton of Daytona USA,Virtua Fighter, and a crap load of fighters.

I will be honest and say I never got into Chrono Trigger.

 

[Finnroth]

Albion, one of my favourite RPGs released that year in Germany, though the international release was 1996, so I am not sure if it counts.

 

[Bedameister]

Command & Conquer

 

[orava]

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat

It was life.

 

[mrmickfran]

Yoshi's Island, Ristar, Donkey Kong Country 2, Mega Man X2 and Rayman

What a fantastic year for Platformers.

 

[Possumowner]

Easy pair for me this year,Full Throttle and The Dig,two of my all time favourite point n clicks

 

[petran79]

NBA Live 95 (MS-DOS):
It included CD Music, pre-game and post-game commentator voice and Hi-Res character portraits
FIFA 96 (MS-DOS)
Virtua Fighter 2
Bubble Memories
Puzzle Bobble 2
Pang 3
Psycho Pinball
Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare
Tyrian 2000
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (MS-DOS)
Mortal Kombat 3
Primal Rage (MS-DOS)
Terminator: Future Shock
Bioforge
Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
Phantasmagoria
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

 

[momshotdad]

Great year, but I gotta give it to Earthbound.