1996 was a revolutionary year for the industry. We more or less saw the end of 2D gaming as the third dimension rose to prominence, and with that rise of 3D gaming we were introduced to some new faces, while some old names got well needed face lifts.

In 1996 we saw the first real evolution of the Game Boy, the Game Boy Pocket. The handheld was nearly 1/3rd the size of its big brother, and was an immediate success. Nintendo also released its challenger to the Sony PlayStation, the Nintendo 64.

A few of the big name games released in 1996 that you won’t find on this list include one of the two or three decent games for the Sega Saturn, Nights into Dreams…, while Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire saw its release on the Nintendo 64 and PC as part of what would become one of, if not the absolute, largest cross-media projects in the history of LucasArts. Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, a buggy, lagged down preview of what fans could expect a few years later with the masterful Morrowind.

Video game megasites GameSpot and GameFAQs launched in 1996, and several video game companies would be founded, including Black Isle Studios (Fallout), Blizzard North (Diablo), Red Storm Entertainment (any and everything Tom Clancy), and Firaxis Games (Civilization III).

Oh, and the Tamagotchi was released in 1996. I owned one. You owned one. Let us never speak of it again. To the list!

And remember, if you want to get caught up with all the other years we’ve recapped up to this point, just click one and tell JW just how much of a bitch he is for not including Command & Conquer:

Top Ten Games of 1995
Top Ten Games of 1994
Top Ten Games of 1993
Top Ten Games of 1992
Top Ten Games of 1991
Top Ten Games of 1990

10.) Mr. Bones

Contrary to popular belief, there were some decent games on the Sega Saturn. Nights into Dreams…, Virtua Fighter 2 and… um… well, those are the only two besides Mr. Bones, so let’s just get to the game.

You play as, and you’d never guess this, Mr. Bones. Bones is a dead blues musician who is resurrected to battle an evil vampire called Da Goulian, with the fate of the whole world at stake. Bones battled the dark power of Da Goulian with a magical guitar given to him by a blind guitarist played by a true guitar legend, Ronnie Montrose. Bones quickly discovers that by playing the guitar, he can break Da Goulian’s spells.

In other words: You fight an evil vampire warlock with the power of blues, baby!

What made Mr. Bones an immediate cult classic for the Saturn was that no two levels played alike. One level could play like a typical 2D platformer that has you jumping from platform to platform, trying to avoid environmental hazards and enemies. The next level could play like a game of Simon Says, only with drums. The level after that? A side-scrolling shooter. When you combine the variety of gameplay with the quirky story, memorable characters and downright abysmal acting, it’s easy to see why Mr. Bones still continues to be a classic, even if it never got the mainstream attention it deserved.

And yes, we’re saying Mr. Bones is better than Nights into Dreams…. Deal with it.

9.) Duke Nukem 3D

“Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shootin’ up my ride.” With those words, the masses were at long last introduced to 1980s action hero stereotype, Duke Nukem; an arrogant, quick-witted beefcake whose only passion greater than kicking ass is the company of a busty babe. In fact, there was a whole game devoted to Duke’s love of women, 2000s Land of the Babes (which will not be on our list).

As we all know, Duke Nukem 3D is one of those games that revels in its controversy. When the game was first released, the game was chastised for its mocking views of American consumerism, sex in the media and the growing influence of “Hollywood culture”. As we can see by the prevalence of Perez Hilton, TMZ and E! Network in American popular culture, 3D Realms obviously had no idea what the hell they were going on about. /sarcasm

Duke Nukem 3D, along with Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein and other First-Person Shooters, was eventually banned in Brazil, and versions of the game released in Australia and Germany had to be censured.

While the game saw a good share of controversy, the character of Duke Nukem came under heavy fire from one of the men whom the character emulated: Speaking with IGN, Evil Dead and Jack of All Trades star Bruce Campbell expressed his obvious distaste for the character:

Well, they’re rip-off artists. Let them get their own damn material. It’s called hiring a writer. They’re blatantly ripping it off and if I was any kind of litigious guy they would’ve gotten a phone call by now. It’s depressing and I think it’s wrong. That’s why Tachyon: The Fringe will kick little Duke’s ass any day.

Ouch.

If you haven’t played Duke Nukem 3D in a while, or just don’t feel like spending your hard-earned Microsoft Points on the Xbox LIVE Arcade port, you should know that the game is free for download on 3D Realms website. Good luck if you run Vista, though – getting the game to work properly is a damn nightmare.

8.) Final Doom

When the list for 1994 went up, I got a lot of flack from you guys for not having Doom II on the list. Well, as you can plainly see, there is a method to my madness as Final Doom is without a doubt the definitive sequel to the original classic.

Let’s forget for a minute that the fans were furious with id Software for not releasing ‘Evilution’ as a free download and focus on what made Final Doom a staple for any old-school FPS fan: Plutonia. The Plutonia Experiments was a new series of levels which many fans remember as being unforgiving, to say the very least. A more accurate description would be “[censored for the kiddies] impossible!” Why were the levels made so hard? Blame Dario Casli, the designer of the levels. When he was working on the game, he would play through the levels he had designed, and if he found that they were too easy he’d go back, stick the needle in Doom’s ass and juice the stage up to play through again.

You can’t mention Final Doom without mentioning the excellent PlayStation port. Sure, the difficulty levels may have been toned down a lot, and there may have been some framerate issues, but when you consider the complexity of the game in its level design and the lack of experience developing for the PlayStation, and it be3comes easy to see just how impressive Final Doom truly is.

7.) Mario Kart 64

Back in 1992 we ranked Super Mario Kart for the SNES #3. I’m just warning you right now, you’re going to see at least one more Mario Kart game on a future list, so you can imagine how highly we hold this series around the BGUB (Binge Gamer Underground Bunker). Mario Kart 64 is included not just because it was an amazing game in and of itself, but because it completed the vision Nintendo originally had for the SNES game, but were unable to do with Mode 7.

Everything about Mario Kart 64 was ultimately better: The 3D graphics allowed for more dynamic courses, the power-ups were more balanced, and Nintendo realized that nobody gave a damn about Donkey Kong Jr. and replaced him with Daddy Donkey (Kong). However, DK wasn’t the original choice for the coveted 8th spot. That title originally belonged to Magikoopa, as you can see from this screenshot that appeared in Nintendo Power:

Now, Mario Kart 64 wasn’t perfect, by any stretch. While it was a great convenience for most of the game’s save files to be stored on the cartridge, Nintendo decided that Time Trials would be saved on the Controller Pak, I assume because they wanted you to take it to a friends house and challenge their times or something. Sure, cool, whatever. The problem comes in the fact that the Time Trials data takes up 121 out of 123 “pages” on a standard Controller Pak. You literally could save nothing else on the damn thing if you wanted to save your Time Trials, erm, times.

Who the hell plays through Time Trials, anyways?

6.) Crash Bandicoot

The original Crash Bandicoot was just what the fledgling new console from Sony needed. A 3D platformer that was both simple and fun, you were tasked with playing through twenty-five (27 if you count hidden stages) levels, jumping and spinning your way through Doctor Neo Cortex’s minions until eventually facing down the mad scientist himself. As you progressed through each level, you were rewarded for smashing every crate you could find, collecting apples, tokens, and on the rare occasion, the Aku Aku mask, which may or may not have been inspired by the Loki Mask featured in The Mask.

Just like all things, Crash Bandicoot had its share of growing pains. Very close to the games release, the Japanese distributors demanded that the games music needed to be rewritten to sound more “video game-like”, and gave composer Josh Mancell only one day to do it. Obviously, he was successful.

Crash Bandicoot was more than a game for the PlayStation. The lead character, Crash, would become the unofficial mascot of the PlayStation brand. However, Sony (wisely) had stopped using the character for their marketing by the time the franchises original developer, future Jak and Daxter creator Naughty Dog, dropped the franchise.

5.) Tomb Raider

You know, before Core Design become known for being the developer who nearly killed Lara Croft, they were known as the developer who gave birth to Lara Croft. Weird how that works, innit? Anyways, back in 1996 Tomb Raider was the first game that truly showcased what the PlayStation was capable of. Large, open environments and detailed (for the time) characters only enhanced the cinema-quality presentation that captivated most gamers.

There is quite an interesting story behind Croft’s birth. At first the game was being developed for the Sega Saturn… and she was a dude. Then when Core Design decided to go with a female lead she was “Laura Cruz”. When Core Design started to think that Americans may not be ready to jump for joy over a Latina protagonist, “Cruz” became “Croft”, the buxom Brit that we all know today.

Also, she was a complete bitch.

Lara Croft would go on to star in fourteen more games and expansions. Core Design would work on nine of these games until the infamous Angel of Darkness would finally push game publisher Eidos over the edge, taking the franchise Core created away from them and handing it off to Legacy of Kain developer Crystal Dynamics.

As somebody who has had a crush on Lara Croft since I was nine… thank you, Eidos.

4.) Pilotwings 64

Hmm, a Nintendo game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto on a top ten list. Who would have ever thought that, eh? Much like the original Pilotwings (which just missed our ‘1991′ list) Pilotwings 64 tasks you with completing tasks and missions while flying a wide variety of aircraft. The missions were noted for their variety, with the player easily going from dropping bombs to taking pictures.

When I played this game as a youth, I found myself captivated with simply flying around the environments, objectives be damned.

If you read a lot of Nintendo Power growing up, you probably know who Nester is. Nester was the central character in a series of comic strips that ran in the magazine from 1991 to 1993. In addition to his comic strip, Nester has appeared in one way or another in several video games, even starring in Nester’s Funky Bowling for the Virtual Boy. What some people don’t realize is that Nester, with his name changed to Lark, is one of the playable pilots in Pilotwings 64.

3.) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

The Midas touch of Miyamoto strikes again, this time with the help of Squaresoft. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was many things: The first RPG to star our favorite Italian plumber, the first “3D” Mario title (beating Mario 64 by a few months), and the last game Squaresoft would release on a Nintendo console for six years.

The easiest way to describe Super Mario RPG is to just imagine Super Mario Bros. and Final Fantasy VI having some kind of evil mutant lovechild that just smells of win. If you want to be technical, the exploration and game world navigation felt more like Sonic 3D Blast than anything else – minus the suck, of course. The combat played out much as it would in any Squaresoft turn-based RPG where you selected the actions for your party members by navigating menu systems.

The original Super Mario RPG never saw a sequel. However, both the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi franchises are considered to be spiritual successors. Hell, the original working title for Paper Mario was Super Mario RPG 2. The name was only changed because, well, Squaresoft (now known as SquareEnix) wasn’t involved. So a direct sequel without their consent could have made Nintendo liable for a lawsuit.

Oh, and you know how we always mock companies for screwing over Europe? Try this: Europe didn’t get Super Mario RPG until August 22nd, 2008. And we thought Harmonix and their delay of Rock Band in Australia was bad…

2.) Resident Evil

Say what you will about the infamous “acting”, Resident Evil for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn is still one of the most important games ever made. Sure that may sound like a rather big statement, but keep one thing in mind: Survival Horror as we know it today would not exist without the original Resident Evil.

We all know about the gameplay of the old Resident Evil games, so let’s just get to the good, fun, weird stuff. When the game was brought over from Japan, several edits were made to make the game less offensive to us weak, easily offended Americans. All instances of Chris Redfield smoking, and scenes that SCEA considered to be “grotesquely violent” were cut out of the opening cinematic, which was turned black and white. The full video would be left uncut for the PC port.

Resident Evil was re-released a year later as Resident Evil: Director’s Cut, a game with just enough new content for fans of the series to not notice that Resident Evil 2 had been delayed. The re-release was released a short time after called Resident Evil: Director’s Cut – Dual Shock Version, which allowed you to play with the Dual Shock controller.

Ultimately, Resident Evil would appear in one form or another on the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC, Nintendo DS, be remade for the Nintendo GameCube, and have a port for the Game Boy Advance canceled.

1.) Super Mario 64

You know, I’m starting to think that Shigeru Miyamoto used a past girlfriend for the relationship between Mario and Princess Peach. After all, it could only be the undying love of a woman that would drive a guy to go through hell and high water to be with her. Hell, Mario can’t even drop by Peach’s crib for a slice of cake without somebody (Bowser) coming along and fuckin’ up his whole day. But alas, Peach lets her ass get kidnapped again, and Mario has to go save her again.

Mario’s first second foray into 3D was nothing short of glorious, as you can plainly see in the awards the game has won, and has been listed on several “greatest games of all time” lists – including this one. Obviously. Developed alongside The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, some of the puzzles that were designed for the second game were actually taken to be used in Super Mario 64. Mario 64 also inspired other would-be megahits for the Nintendo 64, the most notable of which being GoldenEye 007 and its use of mission variety within a single stage.

Ultimately, it’s easy to see why Super Mario 64 remains one of the most respected works in the industry. It’s use of a free camera, while little more than broken by todays standards, was a giant leap in gamemaking for its time, and the use of an analog stick to control Mario gave the player unprecedented control. Throw in near-flawless gameplay and a wide array of missions and collectibles, and Super Mario 64 easily kept fans happy while they waited the six long years before seeing Super Mario Sunshine on the Nintendo GameCube.

You can currently play Super Mario 64 on the Wii Virtual Console, and you can get a partially re-imagined game with Super Mario 64 DS for the Nintendo DS – where you can finally play as Luigi, Mario’s brother and long-rumored to be unlockable in Super Mario 64.

Just to clarify, he isn’t.

Worst Game of 1996:
Star Trek Borg

I love Q. Really, I do. John de Lancie is one of my favorite actors, and the character of Q reminds me of… well, me. Minus the omnipotence and what have you, but all the same. It is such a shame that DeLancie is now and forever will be associated with what may very well be the worst piece of software to ever have the audacity to call itself a video game.

Star Trek Borg is a devious little piece of software. Oh, sure. You install it on your PC like you would a video game. You set up your video card options like you would a video game.

And that’s where the similarities with a video game abruptly stops. From the moment the opening cinematic begins to play, you slowly feel the realization creeping up on you that this “game” isn’t so much a game as it is a bad choose your own adventure story that only has one correct path, and the slightest deviation from said path results in instant death. However, when you die you aren’t really punished. You simply go back and pick again… and again… and again, until you get it right.

Then again, when you couple that with acting that would make Keanu Reeves look like Marlon Brando, you could consider that punishment enough. Don’t get me wrong, de Lancie knocks it out of the park as he often does, but the rest of the cast is just… yeah. It’s easy to see why their roles on Voyager and Deep Space Nine were all NON-SPEAKING!

Simply put it’s not a video game. It never could be considered a video game. If you have a friend who is a Trekkie and they try to defend this as a “Myst-style” adventure game, you hit them!

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