5 Games From the 1990s You Forgot Were Awesome

by

The 1990s gave us a lot of fantastic games, many of which launched hugely popular franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat, and Resident Evil. However, while those titles are still well-known, a lot of other great games from that decade have faded from memory. The following list isn’t exhaustive – there were many overlooked gems – but it offers a glimpse into some of the best games from important genres that people just don’t discuss much anymore. Hopefully, these games will get rediscovered, though some might remain forgotten for a long time.

Here are five awesome ‘90s games that deserve more love.

5) Wetrix

  • Release Date: June 12th, 1998
  • Platforms: Nintendo 64, PC, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast

When the video store in my town closed down in the late 1990s, my grandpa surprised me by buying a bunch of Nintendo 64 games, knowing how much I enjoyed them. I later discovered that among those 20 or so games, he’d actually bought two copies of Wetrix.

You might be asking why I needed two copies of the game Wetrix, and honestly, I didn’t really need them. But having two meant I could share it with friends at school without being afraid someone would keep it and never give it back.

Wetrix is a unique puzzle game that combines elements of Tetris with more complex challenges. Water droplets fall onto a landscape, and your goal is to keep them contained. You do this by strategically raising and lowering the terrain using blocks, creating dips and valleys where the water can collect.

While not a commercial success, Wetrix stands out as a uniquely creative puzzle game for its time. Its PlayStation 2 follow-up, Aqua Aqua, is also enjoyable, though it was released in 2000, just outside the scope of this selection.

4) Road Rash 2

  • Release Date: December 1992
  • Platform: Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Boy Color (2000)

Electronic Arts quickly realized the first Road Rash was a hit. While it looked like a standard motorcycle racing game, Road Rash let players use clubs to attack and knock other racers off their bikes, creating a unique and aggressive path to victory.

The original game’s intense crashes and collisions really appealed to players, and the sequel took that excitement even further. A key addition was local split-screen multiplayer, letting you race against friends. EA also enhanced the combat racing with new features like a nitrous boost and a chain, building on the weapons from the first game.

While the Road Rash series continued with several sequels, none have matched the quality of the second game. Attempts to recreate its appeal with Road Redemption and Road Rage haven’t been successful.

3) Wing Commander

  • Release Date: September 26, 1990
  • Platforms: MS-DOS, SNES, Amiga, CD32, Sega CD, Mac, Windows

Wing Commander is by far the most well-known game here. Created by Chris Roberts, it became a huge franchise, expanding beyond gaming to include ten additional games, novels, a TV show featuring Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell, a 1999 movie starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard, and even a collectible card game.

Considering everything, it’s surprising to realize the last Wing Commander game directed by Chris Roberts was released in 1996. The most recent Wing Commander game overall came out in 2007. It’s odd that no new games in the series have been made since then.

Perhaps it’s not so surprising that Chris Roberts is working on another space game. After completing Wing Commander 4, he created two more space simulations, Starlancer and Freelancer. In 2011, he announced Star Citizen, which became a hugely successful Kickstarter project. Though still under development after fourteen years, the single-player campaign, Squadron 42, is currently slated for release in 2026.

2) Turok 2: Seeds of Evil

  • Release Date: December 10, 1998
  • Platforms: N64, PC

While Turok 2 has some flaws – like a shaky frame rate and limited visibility cleverly masked by fog – it’s still an exciting game. Seeing enemies like the Cerebral Bore in action easily overshadows any technical shortcomings.

This powerful gun fires a missile that automatically tracks and attaches to an enemy’s head. It then penetrates their skull, displaying a shockingly graphic scene of brain matter splattering. While GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark might be stronger games in terms of shooting mechanics, none of them had the same level of sheer coolness as Seeds of Evil.

Despite its age, the Turok franchise has made a few attempts at comebacks. There was a fairly average shooter for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and a cute, action-adventure game inspired by the original comics. Most fans would probably prefer to forget those, but the upcoming Turok: Origins aims to bring back the excitement of the classic Seeds of Evil game.

1) Primal Rage

  • Release Date: August 1994
  • Platforms: Arcade, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, MS-DOS, 32X, 3DO, PlayStation, Jaguar CD, Amiga, Saturn

Man, if I had to pick one game that screams the ’90s, it’d probably be Primal Rage. It came out when everyone was obsessed with fighting games, right after Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 blew up. Plus, Jurassic Park was huge in ’93, so dinosaurs were everywhere! It was the perfect storm for a game like that.

Man, I remember Primal Rage! It was awesome – dinosaurs beating each other up in a fighting game? Genius! It blew up in the arcades, and Atari really pushed it hard with all sorts of merchandise. Honestly, it feels like they made more money from t-shirts and toys than they did from people actually playing the game, which is kinda wild!

The original Primal Rage game spawned action figures and a comic book that were both very popular. Despite the console versions of the first game not being great, Atari began planning a sequel in 1995. Primal Rage 2 was intended to have more complex controls with six buttons and a much larger cast of characters – seventeen in total, up from seven. However, the sequel was never officially released, only appearing on fan-made emulators. Still, Atari wanted to capitalize on the story, so they commissioned a novel adaptation in 1997, written by John Vornholt.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/5-horror-games-from-the-1990s-that-are-still-scarier-than-anything-today/embed/#

Read More

2025-11-03 00:42