“1994 in Video Games: Celebrating 30th Anniversaries in 2024!”

It’s hard to believe it’s been thirty years since 1994. I was 9. I enjoyed eating fish, watching Disney in the afternoons and Nickelodeon evening (only during summer breaks at grandma’s house), climbing trees, drawing characters, and playing my Super Nintendo. I never realized just how idyllic and carefree childhood really was, even with its hardships of poverty and divorce. Nothing says how good we had it, if you grew up around that time, than the slew of video games we were treated to. 1994 marked an incredible year in gaming history when the last officially-licensed NES game launched at the same time that video games were coming out on compact discs. The sheer range and variety of options seem like they can only be appreciated in their fullness today, thanks to the internet and quick reference information at hand. I admit to hardly knowing that half of 1994’s games even existed at the time.

These are a few of my standout titles from 1994 in video games.

Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors

I have this vivid memory of beating older kids at the arcades on this cabinet. Rikuo was my main, a fish-man inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Preying upon my affection from a young age for the classic Universal movie monsters, Capcom’s horror-themed tourney fighter was a feast for the eyes and ears, and I got pretty good at it. Still know how to pull off Tricky Fish, a backward dodge turning into an anti-air kick. Always catches opponents off guard! There was an older boy who was about to put his token in when a friend told him “don’t bother, that game is [censored].” Well, that just made me love it even more and I had Pyron all to myself.

Demon’s Crest

The game I had to hide from mom. In fact, I hid it so well that I never found it again. I think we moved and it must’ve been left under the house. Hopefully the mongeese enjoyed it. What a shame, considering the game goes for a hefty sum these days and it’s not too shabby of a game at that. Capcom knew how to do horror and Gothic pretty well, and this quasi-Metroidvania airborne action-platformer had plenty of areas to explore and power-ups to grab.

SimCity 2000

By far the game that I played the most of. SimCity 2000 represented everything great about getting out of school, heading to the library’s computer lab, and sucking up the air conditioning. I didn’t think of it as educational or additional schooling. Something about building entire worlds and controlling vast cities likely developed into the megalomania that I enjoy today. This may be the most played city-sim of my entire gaming career! Decades later, I’m still all about reticulating splines.

Donkey Kong Country

3D games were hitting shelves but DKC comes out and it seemed at the time like a marriage between two universes. It boasted tight 2D platforming that I had cut my teeth on previously as well as a new art style that seemed to leap right out of the television. You know those old hyperbolic ’90s commercials where the kids are getting their hats blown off by the exploding screens. It was kinda like that. Maybe you had to be there. The graphics aren’t as impressive in today’s context anymore but the gameplay is still tops. Speaking of, DKC would only be topped by its own sequel, DKC2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, which I came to love even more.

Point Blank

I could’ve flooded this list with arcade titles (arcades were like my babysitter and maybe, in retrospect, were a huge reason why mom never had extra money) but I only wanted to pick out a couple of titles. Besides fighting games like Darkstalkers, games like Point Blank were among my favorites. This was kind of a collection of mini-games in which you did a lot more than shoot clay pigeons. For instance, you might have to shoot at piranhas to prevent them from chowing down on a guy escaping via rope. Creative and cartoonish, just the way I like it.

Earthworm Jim

Few could be as creative and cartoonish as Earthworm Jim. The invertebrate turned superhero stood out from the ’90s gross out humor with a colorful cast, interesting levels, surreal imagery, and excellent music. I even managed to catch some episodes of the animated series, which was okay. It just made me want to play the game again. To this day, it’s an annual playthrough for me.

Breath of Fire

You will have noticed that Japanese titles Mother 2 and Final Fantasy VI are in the collage above. Their North American counterparts belonged to other years. Instead, I wanted to give the RPG shout out to Breath of Fire. It’s not my favorite in its series. In fact, it’s not even in my top five on the SNES. It’s rough around the edges and a bit of a drag, somewhat ugly, slow-paced, and antiquated. However, it launched one of my favorite RPG series and spending my formative years with it was an experience I wouldn’t exchange for the world. Part of that experience involved strapping a hard plastic vest to my chest that reacted with harsh vibrations whenever the game audio made a noise, some kind of weird peripheral they made to “feel” the games back then. Problem is it also shocked you if you coughed or sneezed. Not the most pleasant companion to Breath of Fire but for some reason I never forgot it.

That’s 1994 in video games! What are some of your favorite games from that year? Which games are missing from our collage?

Happy 30th, you super stars~

Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.