The Test of Time: Video Games That Have Survived Since the 1990s

People often talk about the newest things and the most recent innovations in the world of gaming. Some people always want to play the latest AAA game, but this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for retro games or older games.

On top of that, consider the fact that some of the latest games were actually conceived as far back as the 90s. Loads of game franchises that launched in this decade have stuck around in one way or another as the industry has changed. Good ideas for a game are universal and can continue to be popular even if they aren’t at the cutting edge of technology. These games have truly stood the test of time.

Games Surviving The Ages

A concept for a game is sometimes the main thing that allows it to survive the ages. There are even ancient games still played today. Chess is thought to date to the 6th century so it has shown some real staying power. Games like this don’t have to involve HD graphics to be playable and people are more focused on the concept of the game than anything else.

We see the same with a lot of casino games that first became popular in the 1990s. This was the decade when the first casinos actually went online and though the landscape has changed a lot since then it is a good demonstration of how certain games thrive through time. Many have been on quite the journey.

Roulette underlines this point, too. The game was initially played exclusively in person but the 1990s changed things. The first gaming interfaces were released at this time and allowed people to play roulette online. Eventually, there would be varieties of the game as well as some other ways of playing such as with a live dealer via a video feed.

Roulette went mobile along with most of the casino industry after smartphones became so popular and people can play roulette online for real money even while they are on public transport or in a waiting room (or just at home). People may have more options of how they play the game and which varieties of the game they play but the concept remains very similar.

Of course, these games have more history than just dating back to the 1990s but this was the first time they were digitalized in the same way.

Gaming Franchises From the 90s

Final Fantasy’s inclusion on our list may be up for debate. Technically, the franchise first launched in 1987, but nobody can deny it was the 1990s that cemented its status as one of the most beloved RPG series ever. Final Fantasy VII which came out in 1997 and still holds up today, is often credited with bringing the Japanese RPG genre to the global stage. The series has continued to evolve and there are new installments regularly hitting the market, each one progressing on the last.

This is one of the few games to get a remake that reimagined the original game with visuals that suited a more modern set of consoles – plus expanded story elements.

Horror games were also first played by a huge audience at the time and Resident Evil was first released in 1996 (so it definitely qualifies as a 90s game). It practically invented the survival horror genre. RE is tense and has rarely been outdone when it comes to horror games. It quickly spawned a series of sequels and even a successful film franchise – mixed reviews followed on the film front but that may still have helped the games to stay relevant for so many years.

Strategy games from the 1990s also provided us with quite a lot of franchises we still see today. SimCity and The Sims are two examples. Military strategy games first became popular in this era, too.

Some game concepts don’t rely on things like complex gameplay or graphics. There’s even a trend of people playing basic games with stickman graphics so they don’t have to look true to life for people to play them. Table games are similar, and not many people are looking for ultra-HD versions of chess or checkers games – it is the game itself that matters.

Naturally, graphics can be important and some games have continued to be popular thanks to the ability to adapt to the changes we see in the world of gaming. All the core elements that made these games successful have remained intact but they’ve also been updated to meet the expectations of modern audiences and the power of modern consoles.

Conclusion

It is easy to think that the 1990s was such a long time ago! It is fair to say a lot has changed since then. Nobody had even conceived of the smartphone or heard of brands like Android back then, and now they are commonplace. Console brands have survived the test of time, and a lot of the same manufacturers are still leading the way, with some familiar titles that have existed since the 90s, too.