This is GAMING X HISTORY EX, the weekly show that looks at birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates. Join host Cyril Lachel as he chronicles the best (and worst) events that happened this week in video game history. New episodes go live every
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It's August 12th, the day Cleopatra the 7th committed suicide and Casey Affleck was born. Coincidence? You decide. But you're not here to learn about celebrity gossip, because this is a show about video game history. We don't have much time, so let's see what happened this week in video game history.
First things first, we there were two major game systems released this week. On second thought, there was only one ... and the Virtual Boy.
On August 14, 1989, Sega released the Genesis, the first 16-bit game system to hit American shores. It launched with Altered Beast, Last Battle, Space Harrier II, Thunder Force II and Tommy Lasorda Baseball. It would take nearly two full years for Sega to release Sonic the Hedgehog.
In other console news,
August 14 also saw the release of Nintendo's Virtual Boy. It launched with Mario's Tennis as a pack-in and only three other games -- Galactic Pinball, Red Alarm and Teleroboxing. Seven months later, Nintendo officially discontinued the quirky system.
On to games celebrating birthdays this week, we have the original Metroid enjoying being 26 years old. It's the
25th anniversary of Life Force, which was sold to Americans as a sequel to Gradius (and not Salamander, like in Japan).
This week also marks the birthday of Dragon Warrior, the Americanized version of Dragon Quest. Nintendo Power once gave this game away for free.
Street Fighter II Turbo is celebrating the big 2-0 this week. Not the arcade game, but rather the Super NES update to Street Fighter II. It received glowing reviews, most hailing it as the ultimate arcade port.
Speaking of Capcom and twentieth birthdays,
Journey into Darkness: Strider Returns hit store shelves this week. For what it's worth, Capcom had nothing to do with this disastrous sequel and the company completely ignored it when making 1999's Strider 2 (which was not released this week).
As we near the end of the 16-bit era, we find that
Ecco Jr. is celebrating his 18th birthday. Despite loving the first couple Ecco games, critics turned on this simplified sequel in a big way. Thankfully this late-generation Genesis game didn't kill the franchise. But the Dreamcast game did.
Skipping ahead to the PlayStation,
August 16, 1999, saw the release of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. This sequel is widely considered the best installment, though many gamers waited a few weeks for the graphically superior Dreamcast version.
Over on the magazine side, Next Generation talked up Sega's next big thing in 1997. Unfortunately the "thing" in question was a Jurassic Park arcade game. The other "big things" include Top Skater and Last Bronx, neither of which had the staying power Next Gen had prediction.
In that same issue of Next Generation, the unnamed critics gave four stars to Star Fox 64. Only one game received a higher score, and that game is International Superstar Soccer by Konami.
This week also saw Electronic Gaming Monthly's infamous Resident Evil cover. This hand drawn design is still regarded as one of the worst magazine covers of all time, and EGM editors even apologized for it years later. In their defense, they were trying something different ... to not selling any issues that month.
And just in case you're wondering, Donkey Kong managed to muscle out Super Street Fighter II for EGM's 1994 game of the month. I guess they hadn't played International Superstar Soccer.
And that brings us to the end of our very first week. That's a lot of information to process, so go ahead and watch this video fifteen or sixteen times to really soak it in. Then recommend it to all your friends, give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel and then, after all that, you have my permission to call me a dumbass for missing your favorite August 12th anniversary. I'll be back next Monday for another exciting episode of Gaming X History EX.
