Xbox 360
The fourth generation of gaming is something a bittersweet chapter in the history of the industry. While the medium was growing more prominent after the near miss that was the 1983 industry crash, it was a time that would once again see many game developers and hardware manufacturers become a little too confident. After all, it was only a matter of time before games made the jump into the third dimension and no one really knew what to expect. The heralding of 3D gaming effectively killed off many companies, while exciting new names popped up and are still with us today.
To look forward, we must first look back to the launch of Sega's golden ticket, namely the Mega Drive. While the developer had been a driving force of arcade gaming with hits ranging from Shadow Dancer, Golden Axe and Outrun, Sinclair's Spectrum and the Commodore 64 still had a place in the hearts of gamers, who had since grown accustomed to 30 minute loading times and games on tape. Sega wanted a slice of the action after its 8-bit Master System console, while successful in its own right, took a bit of a drubbing from Nintendo's NES.
Released in 1990, Mega Drive was the console they needed and Sonic the Hedgehog would prove to be the ying to Mario and Nintendo's yang. Sega quickly carved out a niche as an edgier, more mature games developer, with a manner of action and fighting games like the impeccable brawler Streets of Rage 2, that squeezed as much power as it could muster out of the console. Like the early 80's before it, this was another great generation to be a gamer.
The industry's success during these years was almost certainly helped along by the bitter rivalry that would ensure between Nintendo and Sega, both fighting for dominance of the 16-bit market. Released in 1992, the SNES wowed gamers with its rich colour palette, impressive roster of games and remarkable use of Mode 7 graphical trickery. The console has given us some of the best treasures of gaming, from Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past to Super Metroid and Mario Kart. The list goes on.
You couldn't open up an issue of gaming magazines Nintendo Power or Mean Machines without seeing pictures young readers had sent in depicting Mario and Sonic killing each other. Speaking of killing, concerned parents even found a new scapegoat of the season in the form of Midway's Mortal Kombat. The uproar around the game was unprecedented, sparking furious debate in parliament over the effect of games on kids. Compare the game to something today like Gears of War 2 or Madworld and it looks pathetically tame, but at the time, there had never been such a ‘realistic' portrayal of violence in games before.
This success trundled on for many years. Years that saw EA begin its transformation into the powerhouse that it is today off the back of their first licensed Madden American football game and years that saw Scottish-based DMA design create puzzle title Lemmings, the same coding house that would go on to create a little title called Grand Theft Auto several years later. The wheels were now firmly in motion, no one believed that the industry could ever suffer a downfall the likes of the 1983 crash and in a sense they were right, but that's not to say things wouldn't take a slight turn for the worse.
With both Sega and Nintendo trying to out-do one another, the attempts to squeeze more and more life out of their respective consoles started having an adverse affect on the quality of games they were producing. First Sega released the 32X expansion device that allowed 32-bit cartridges to run on Mega Drive. The format proved very highly unsuccessful with no major releases, hinting that game quality had taken a back seat over graphical prowess. Even then most games failed to excited players.
From Knuckles Chaotix to a shocking port of Doom, the device felt like a hasty response to Nintendo's Super FX Chip, which itself was a doomed project. The chip enabled Nintendo to create some pretty stunning 3D graphics in its games, initially, the superb space shoot-em-up Starfox. The game looked and played brilliantly, but the rest of the three paltry Super FX titles did not. Sega also attempted, failed rather, to bring disc-based titles to the home market through its Mega CD expansion, the less said about this the better.
However, Sega were indeed onto something. While Full Motion Video titles such as Night Trap, which saw a vampire run around a mansion chasing slumber partying teens (yes, feel free to shake your head) looked, played and sounded ropey as hell, there were some exceptional titles, including Metal Gear Solid director Hideo Kojima's Snatcher, a superb cyberpunk detective game. The game is a cult classic, but wasn't enough to warrant purchase of the Mega CD.
Not wanting to be fall behind, Nintendo matched Sega like-for-like and announce it was working on a CD-based expansion for the SNES. Rather than work on the device in-house, the developer turned to Japanese electronics giant Sony to build the new disc drive. After what is reported to be a long period of development hell, legal misunderstandings and bitterness, the two companies went their separate ways. Nintendo was left expansion-less, while Sony had a seemingly futureless bit of kit called the Play Station.
Gaming history was made that day as Sony would go on to remove the space between the moniker and release the Playstation in 1995, thus marking the start of the fifth generation of gaming, a generation that would see the good fortunes of Sega and Nintendo begin to fall apart. History and more importantly, hindsight can be a total bitch can't it?