Fourth generation of video game consoles

See also: Console wars

In the history of computer and video games, the fourth generation (more commonly referred to as the 16-bit era) of games consoles began on October 30, 1987 with the Japanese release of Nippon Electric Company's (NEC) PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America). Although NEC released the first fourth generation console, and was second to the SNES in Japan, this era's sales were mostly dominated by the rivalry between Nintendo and Sega's consoles in North America: the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (the Super Famicom in Japan) and the Mega Drive (named the Sega Genesis in North America due to trademark issues). Nintendo was able to capitalize on its previous success in the third generation and managed to win the largest worldwide market share in the fourth generation as well. Sega was extremely successful in this generation and began a new franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog, to compete with Nintendo's Mario series of games. Several other companies released consoles in this generation, but none of them were widely successful. Nevertheless, several other companies started to take notice of the maturing video game industry and began making plans to release consoles of their own in the future.

Some features that distinguished fourth generation consoles from third generation consoles include:

• More powerful microprocessor (typically 16-bit)
• Multi-button controllers (up to 8 buttons)
• Complex parallax and multi-layer scrolling backgrounds
• Large sprites, scalable on-the-fly
• Elaborate color, typically 64 to 256 colors on screen (from palettes of 512 (9-bit) color to 32,768 (15-bit) color)
• Stereo audio, with multiple channels and digital audio playback
• Advanced music synthesis (FM or wavetable)

Home systems

PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16/TurboGrafx

TurboGrafx

Main article: TurboGrafx-16

The PC Engine was the result of a collaboration between Hudson Soft and NEC and launched in Japan on October 30, 1987. It launched in North America during August 1989, under the name TurboGrafx-16.

Initially, the PC Engine was quite successful in Japan, partly due to titles available on the then-new CD-ROM format. NEC released a CD add-on in 1990 and by 1992 had released a combination TurboGrafx and CD-ROM system known as the Turbo Duo.

In the USA, NEC used Bonk, a head-banging caveman, as their mascot and featured him in most of the TurboGrafx advertising from 1990 to 1994. The platform was well received initially, especially in larger markets, but failed to make inroads into the smaller metropolitan areas where NEC did not have as many store representatives or as focused in-store promotion.

The TurboGrafx-16 failed to maintain its sales momentum or to make a strong impact in North America. The TurboGrafx-16 and its CD combination system, the Turbo Duo, ceased manufacturing in North America by 1994, though a small amount of software continued to trickle out for the platform.

In Japan, a number of more adult titles were also available for the PC-Engine, such as a variety of strip mahjong games (such as the Super Real Mahjong series), which set it apart from its competitors.

Mega Drive/Sega Genesis

Second revision of the Sega Genesis

Main article: Sega Genesis

The Mega Drive was released in Japan on October 29, 1988. The console was released in New York City and Los Angeles on August 14, 1989 under the name Sega Genesis, and in the rest of North America later that year. It was launched in Europe and Australia on November 30, 1990 under its original name.

Sega initially had a hard time overcoming Nintendo's ubiquitous presence in the American consumer's home. That changed in late 1991, as Sega built their marketing campaign around their new mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, pushing the Genesis as the "cooler" alternative to Nintendo's console and inventing the term "Blast Processing" to suggest that the Genesis was capable of handling games with faster motion than the SNES. Their advertising was often directly adversarial, leading to commercials such as "Genesis does what Nintendon't" and the "'SEGA!' scream".

When the arcade game Mortal Kombat was ported for home release on the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo decided to censor the game's gore, but Sega kept the content in the game, via a code entered at the start screen (A,B,A,C,A,B,B). Sega's gamble paid off, as its version of Mortal Kombat received generally higher and more favorable reviews in the gaming press and outsold the SNES version three to one. This violence also led to Congressional hearings to investigate the marketing of violent video games to children, and to the creation of the Interactive Digital Software Association and the Entertainment Software Rating Board. With the new ESRB rating system in place, Nintendo reconsidered its position for the release of Mortal Kombat II, and this time became the preferred version among reviewers. Sega, however, ran into a minor roadblock with the popularity of fighting games with advanced controls, because its controller only featured three action buttons. In response to the upcoming Street Fighter 2 Special Champion Edition and Mortal Kombat, Sega introduced a 6-button controller. Most new games could still be played with the original 3-button controller however, but the company suggested its gamers buy and adopt the new 6-button model.

Despite the Genesis' and Mega Drive's success in North America and Europe, the console was never popular in Japan (being regularly outsold by the PC Engine), but it still managed to sell 40 million units worldwide. By late 1995, Sega was supporting five different consoles and two add-ons, and Sega of Japan chose to discontinue the Mega Drive in Japan to concentrate on the new Sega Saturn. While this made perfect sense for the Japanese market, it was disastrous in North America: the market for Genesis games was much larger than for the Saturn, but Sega was left without the inventory or software to meet demand.

Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System, second revision.

Main article: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo executives were initially reluctant to design a new system, but as the market transitioned to the newer hardware, Nintendo saw the erosion of the commanding market share it had built up with the Famicom (called Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan). Nintendo's fourth-generation console, the Super Famicom, was released in Japan on November 21, 1990; Nintendo's initial shipment of 300,000 units sold out within hours. The machine reached North America as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on August 23, 1991, and Europe and Australia in April 1992.

Despite stiff competition from the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis console, the Super Famicom/SNES eventually took the top selling position, selling 49.10 million units worldwide, and would even remain popular well into the 32-bit generation. Nintendo's market position was defined by their machine's increased video and sound capabilities, as well as exclusive first-party franchise titles such as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past and Super Metroid. Later titles such as Star Fox and Donkey Kong Country would keep the Super Famicom/SNES relevant well into the "fifth generation" era of 32- and 64-bit consoles.

Compact Disc Interactive (CD-i)

The CD-i format was announced in the late 80s. With machines being compatible with the format finally being released in 1991. The Phillips CD-i main selling point was that it was more than a game machine and could be used for multimedia needs. Due to an agreement between Nintendo in Philips about an abortive CD add-on for the SNES, Philips also had rights to use some of Nintendo franchises. The CD-i was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1998. Selling only 1 million units world wide despite a lot of partners and multiple versions of the device, some made by other manufacturers.

Neo Geo

Neo-Geo

Main article: Neo Geo (console)

Released by SNK in 1990, the Neo Geo was a home console version of the major arcade platform. Compared to its console competition, the Neo Geo had much better graphics and sound, but the prohibitively expensive launch price of US$649.99 made the console only accessible to a niche market. A less expensive version, retailing for $399.99, did not include a memory card, pack-in game or extra joystick.

Add-ons

Nintendo, NEC and Sega also competed with hardware peripherals for their consoles in this generation. NEC was the first with the release of the TurboGrafx CD system in 1990. Retailing for $499.99 at release, the CD add-on was not a popular purchase, but was largely responsible for the platform's success in Japan. Sega made two attempts: the Mega-CD (renamed Sega CD in North America) and the Sega 32X. The Sega CD was plagued by a high price tag ($300 at its release) and a limited library of games. The 32X faced a number of problems, primarily technical and commercial: the peripheral would occasionally not work with some consoles, and some retailers were not able to meet the initial demand for the add-on, leading to shortages. A unique add-on for the Sega console was Sega Channel, a subscription based service hosted by local television providers. It required hardware that plugged into a cable line and the Genesis.

Nintendo also made two attempts: the Satellaview and the Super Game Boy. The Satellaview was a satellite service released only in Japan and the Super Game Boy was an adapter for the Super Famicom and SNES that allowed Game Boy games to be displayed on a TV in color. Nintendo, working along with Sony, also had plans to create a CD-ROM drive for the SNES (plans that resulted in a prototype called the "Play Station"), but eventually decided not to go through with that project, opting to team up with Philips in the development of the add-on instead (contrary to popular belief, the CD-i was largely unrelated to the project). Sony decided to go ahead with the CD-ROM development and used the name "PlayStation" for their own standalone CD-based console, overseen by former Super Famicom sound-chip engineer, Ken Kutaragi. That console would be released in the 5th generation of consoles.

• 
  PC Engine Super CD-ROM²
• 
  Sega CD
• 
  Sega 32X
• 
  Satellaview
• 
  Super Game Boy

European and Australian importing

green - NTSC, blue - PAL, or switching to PAL, orange - SECAM, olive - no information

The fourth generation was also the era when the act of buying imported US games became more established in Europe, and regular stores began to carry them. This was perhaps because the PAL region has a refresh rate of 50 Hz (compared with 60 Hz for NTSC) and a vertical resolution of 625 interlaced lines (576 effective), compared with 525/480 for NTSC. This means that a game designed for the NTSC standard without any modification would run 17% slower and have black bars at the top and bottom when played on a PAL television. Developers often had a hard time converting games designed for the American and Japanese NTSC standard to the European and Australian PAL standard. Companies such as Konami, with large budgets and a healthy following in Europe and Australia, readily optimized several games (such as the International Superstar Soccer series) for this audience, while most smaller developers did not.

Also, few RPGs were released in Europe because they would have needed to be translated into many different languages. RPGs tend to contain much more text than other genres, so one of the biggest problems was simply fitting all of the full translations into one cartridge. The cost of creating multiple full translations was also prohibitive. Only the UK and Australia saw any number of RPG releases, and even then the number was a fraction of what was being released in Japan. For the Mega Drive, there were numerous PAL releases of RPGs. Examples include Phantasy Star II, III and IV, Shining in the Darkness and its sequels Shining Force I and II, Sword of Vermilion, Super Hydlide, Landstalker, Story of Thor, Soleil and Light Crusader. A few of them received French and German translations.

Popular US games imported at this time included Final Fantasy IV (known in the USA as Final Fantasy II), Final Fantasy VI (known in the USA as Final Fantasy III), Secret of Mana, Street Fighter II, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG. Secret of Mana and Street Fighter II would eventually receive official release in Europe.

Comparison

Name	PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16	Sega Mega Drive/Genesis	Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System	Neo Geo AES
Manufacturer	NEC/Hudson Soft	Sega	Nintendo	SNK
Console
Launch prices (USD)	US$199.99 (equivalent to $492.00 in 2024)	US$189.99 (equivalent to $467.00 in 2024)	US$199.99 (equivalent to $447.00 in 2024)	US$649.99 (Gold version) (equivalent to $1,454 in 2024) US$399.99 (Silver version) (equivalent to $895.00 in 2024)
Release date
Media	HuCard (card-shaped cartridge) CD-ROM (Turbo CD add-on)	Cartridge CD-ROM (Mega-CD add-on) Data card (Power Base Converter add-on)	Cartridge Magnetic disc (Japan only)	Cartridge Data card (Japan/Europe)
Best-selling games	Bonk's Adventure	Sonic the Hedgehog (15 million)	Super Mario World, 20 million (as of June 25, 2007)	Samurai Shodown
Backward compatibility	No	Sega Master System (using Power Base Converter)	Nintendo Entertainment System (unlicensed, using Super 8) Game Boy (using Super Game Boy)	No
Accessories (retail)	PC Engine CD-ROM²/TurboGrafx-CD TurboTap TurboStick System Card Super System Card TurboBooster TurboBooster Plus Arcade Card	Mega-CD/Sega CD Sega 32X Mouse Menacer Power Base Converter Sega Activator Super Multitap	Super Scope Multitap Super Game Boy Super Famicom/SNES Mouse Super Advantage	Neo Geo Controller Pro Neo Geo Memory Card
CPU	Hudson Soft HuC6280A (based on 8-bit 65SC02) 1.79 MHz (0.77 MIPS) or 7.16 MHz (3.08 MIPS)	Motorola 68000 (16/32-bit CISC) 7.67 MHz (7.61 MHz PAL) (1.4 MIPS) Zilog Z80 (8/16-bit) 3.58 MHz (0.52 MIPS) Add-ons: CD: Motorola 68000 @ 12.5 MHz (2.19 MIPS) 32X: 2× Hitachi SH-2 (32-bit RISC) @ 23 MHz (60 MIPS)	Nintendo custom Ricoh 5A22 (based on 16-bit 65C816) 3.58 MHz (3.55 MHz PAL) (1.5 MIPS) SA-1 enhancement chip: Nintendo custom 65C816 10.74 MHz (4.5 MIPS)	Motorola 68000 (16/32-bit CISC) 12 MHz (2.1 MIPS) Zilog Z80 (8/16-bit) 4 MHz (0.58 MIPS)
GPU	Hudson Soft HuC6260 (16-bit) Hudson Soft HuC6270A (16-bit)	Yamaha YM7101 VDP Upgrades: SVP chip: Samsung SSP1601 DSP @ 23 MHz (25 MIPS) CD add-on: Sega ASIC Coprocessor	Ricoh PPU1 & PPU2 Enhancement chips: DSP (NEC µPD77C25 @ 8 MHz Super FX @ 10.5 MHz (10 MIPS) to 21.477 MHz (21 MIPS) Capcom Cx4 (Hitachi HG51B169 DSP)	SNK LSPC2-A2 (line sprite generator & VRAM interface) SNK PRO-B0 (palette arbiter)
Memory	8 KB work RAM 64 KB video RAM Add-ons: CD: 64 KB work DRAM, 64 KB audio DRAM Super System Card: 64 KB DRAM, 192 KB SRAM Arcade Card: 2048 KB FPM DRAM, 192 KB SRAM	64 KB main PSRAM 64 KB video DRAM 8 KB audio SRAM Upgrades: SVP chip: 128 KB DRAM, 2 KB cache, 1 KB DSP RAM CD add-on: 768 KB work RAM, 64 KB audio RAM, 16 KB cache 32X add-on: 256 KB work RAM, 256 KB video RAM	128 KB main DRAM 64 KB video SRAM 64 KB audio SRAM Enhancement chips: SA-1: 2 KB RAM Super FX: 32 to 128 KB SRAM	64 KB main SRAM 74 KB video SRAM 2 KB audio SRAM
Video	Resolution: 256×224 to 565×242 (progressive), 256×448 to 565×484 (interlaced) Sprites: 64 on screen, 16 per scanline, 16×16 to 32×64 pixels, 16 colors per sprite Tilemap: 1 scrolling background with line scroll effect Colors on screen: 482 (241 for backgrounds, 241 for sprites) Color palette: 512 (9-bit color) CD add-on: Full motion video (FMV)	Resolution: 256×224 to 320×240 (progressive), 320×448 to 320×480 (interlaced) Sprites: 80 on screen, 20 per scanline, 8×8 to 32×32 pixels, 16 colors per sprite, integer sprite zoom Tilemaps: 2 parallax scrolling planes with line & row scroll effects Colors on screen: 64 to 75 (standard), 192 (shadow/highlight), 512 (160×224 resolution) Color palette: 512 (standard), 1536 (shadow/highlight) Upgrades: SVP chip: 9000 quad polygons/sec CD add-on: Sprite/tilemap scaling & rotation, FMV plane with 256 on-screen colors 32X add-on: 32,768 colors on screen, 50,000 quad polygons/sec	Resolution: 256×224 to 256×239 (progressive), 512×448 to 512×478 (interlaced) Sprites: 128 on screen, 32 per scanline, 8×8 to 64×64 pixels, 16 colors per sprite Tilemaps: 2-4 parallax scrolling planes (lo-res), or 1-2 scrolling planes (hi-res), or 1 scaling/rotating plane (Mode 7) Colors on screen: 256 (1-3 lo-res planes), 128 (4 lo-res planes), 128 to 160 (hi-res) Color palette: 32,768 (15-bit high color) Enhancement chips: Super FX: Polygon graphics, sprite scaling Capcom Cx4: Sprite rotation	Resolution: 320×224 to 320×240 (progressive) Sprites: 380 on screen, 96 per scanline, 16×16 to 16×512 pixels, 16 colors per sprite, sprite scaling Tilemaps: 1 static plane, and 1-3 parallax scrolling planes with line & column scroll effects Colors on screen: 4096 Color palette: 65,536 (16-bit high color)
Audio	Stereo audio with: Six programmable WS channels/voices Square, sine, sawtooth, triangle and other waveforms White noise generation on two channels LFO or FM on two channels CD add-on: One ADPCM channel, 12-bit audio, 32 kHz sampling rate One streaming CD-DA channel, 16-bit CD audio, 44.1 kHz sampling rate	Stereo audio with: Six FM synthesis channels/voices Three square wave channels/voices Sine wave LFO One PCM channel, 8-bit samples, 22 kHz sampling rate Upgrades: SVP chip: Two PWM channels CD add-on: Eight PCM channels (16-bit, 32 kHz sampling), one streaming CD-DA channel (16-bit, 44.1 kHz sampling)	Stereo audio with: Eight ADPCM channels 16-bit audio, 32 kHz sampling rate	Stereo audio with: Four FM synthesis channels/voices Three square wave channels/voices One white noise generator Six ADPCM channels at 18.5 kHz sampling rate One ADPCM channel at 1.8 to 55.5 kHz sampling rate

Other consoles

• 
  PC Engine SuperGrafx
  Released in 1989
• 
  PC Engine Duo/TurboDuo
  Released in 1991
• 
  Commodore CDTV
  Released in 1991
• 
  Philips CD-i
  1991-1998
• 
  Pioneer LaserActive by Pioneer
  Released in 1993
• 
  Neo Geo CD by SNK
  Released in 1994
• 
  Super A'Can
  Released in 1995

Worldwide sales standings

See also: List of best-selling game consoles

Console	Units sold
Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System	49.10 million
Mega Drive/Sega Genesis	40 million
PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16	10 million
Neo Geo AES	390,000
CD-i	570,000

Handheld systems

See also: Comparison of handheld game consoles

The first handheld game console released in the fourth generation was the Game Boy, on April 21, 1989. It went on to dominate handheld sales by an extremely large margin, despite featuring a low-contrast, unlit monochrome screen while all three of its leading competitors had color. Three major franchises made their debut on the Game Boy: Tetris, the Game Boy's killer application; Pokémon; and Kirby. With some design (Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light) and hardware (Game Boy Color) changes, it continued in production in some form until 2008, enjoying a better than 18-year run.

The Atari Lynx included hardware-accelerated color graphics, a backlight, and the ability to link up to sixteen units together in an early example of network play when its competitors could only link 2 or 4 consoles (or none at all), but its comparatively short battery life (approximately 4.5 hours on a set of alkaline cells, versus 35 hours for the Game Boy), high price, and weak games library made it one of the worst-selling handheld game systems of all time, with less than 500,000 units sold.

The third major handheld of the fourth generation was the Sega Game Gear. It featured graphics capabilities roughly comparable to the Master System (better colours, but lower resolution), a ready made games library by using the "Master-Gear" adaptor to play cartridges from the older console, and the opportunity to be converted into a portable TV using a cheap tuner adaptor, but it also suffered some of the same shortcomings as the Lynx. While it sold more than twenty times as many units as the Lynx, its bulky design - slightly larger than even the original Game Boy; relatively poor battery life - only a little better than the Lynx; and later arrival in the marketplace - competing for sales amongst the remaining buyers who didn't already have a Game Boy - hampered its overall popularity despite being more closely competitive to the Nintendo in terms of price and breadth of software library. Sega eventually retired the Game Gear in 1997, a year before Nintendo released the first examples of the Game Boy Color, to focus on the Nomad and non-portable console products.

Other handheld consoles released during the fourth generation included the TurboExpress, a handheld version of the TurboGrafx-16 released by NEC in 1990, and the Game Boy Pocket, an improved model of the Game Boy released about two years before the debut of the Game Boy Color. While the TurboExpress was another early pioneer of color handheld gaming technology and had the added benefit of using the same game cartridges or 'HuCards' as the TurboGrafx16, it had even worse battery life than the Lynx and Game Gear - about three hours on six contemporary AA batteries - selling only 1.5 million units.

List of handheld consoles

Console	Game Boy	Atari Lynx	Sega Game Gear	TurboExpress
Manufacturer	Nintendo	Atari	Sega	NEC
Image
Launch price	¥12,500 US$89.95 (equivalent to $218.76 in 2024)	US$189.99 (equivalent to $464.56 in 2024)	¥14,500 US$149.99 (equivalent to $333.31 in 2024) A$155 (equivalent to $330.00 in 2024)	US$299.99 (equivalent to $668.86 in 2024)
Release date	April 21, 1989 July 31, 1989 1990	September 1989 1990	October 6, 1990 April 26, 1991 April 26, 1991 1992	November 16, 1990 1991
Units sold	118.69 million (as of December 31, 2009), including Game Boy Color units	<1 million	11 million	1.5 million
Media	Cartridge	Cartridge	Cartridge	Datacard
Best-selling games	Tetris, 35 million (pack-in / separately). Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green, approximately 20.08 million combined (in Japan and the US) (details).	Unknown	Sonic the Hedgehog 2	Bonk's Adventure
Backward compatibility	— (Original Cartridges compatible with later models)	—	Sega Master System (using Cartridge Adapter)	TurboGrafx-16
CPU	Sharp LR35902 4.19 MHz	MOS 65SC02 4 MHz maximum, average 3.6 MHz "Suzy", custom CMOS chip 16 MHz	Zilog Z80 3.5 MHz	HuC6280A (modified 65SC02) 1.79 or 7.16 MHz
Memory	8 KiB internal S-RAM, up to 32 KiB 8 KiB internal video RAM	64 KiB DRAM	8 KiB main RAM 16 KiB video RAM	8 KiB work RAM 64 KiB video RAM
Video	160x144 4 shades of olive green	160x102 16 simultaneous colors per scanline; can be increased by changing palettes after each scanline 4096 color palette	160x144 32 simultaneous colors 4096 color palette	400x270 64 sprites, 16 per scanline 482 simultaneous colors (241 each for backgrounds and sprites) 512 color palette
Audio	Stereo audio (using headphones), with: Two square wave voices One programmable WS voice One white noise generator Optional sampling through the WS channel	Stereo audio with: Four square wave voices A built-in DAC for each channel	Stereo audio (using headphones), with: Three square wave voices One white noise generator	Mono audio with: Six programmable WS voices White noise generation Optional streaming of samples

Other

• 
  Gamate
  Released in 1991
• 
  Watara Supervision
  Released in 1992
• 
  Mega Duck/Cougar Boy
  Released in 1993
• Hartung Game Master Released in 1990
  Hartung Game Master
  Released in 1990

Software

Main article: List of console game franchises

Milestone titles

• Chrono Trigger (SNES) by Square is frequently listed among the greatest video games of all time.
• Dragon Quest V and VI (SFC) by Chunsoft, Heartbeat, and Enix were released on the Japanese Super Famicom, as well as remakes of the first three games originally released for the NES and a dungeon crawler spin-off: Torneko's Great Adventure, which started Chun Soft's popular Fushigi no Dungeon series.
• Donkey Kong Country (SNES) by Rare Ltd. and Nintendo turned the tide of the console war in favor of Nintendo and became the best-selling game since Super Mario Bros. 3, largely due to its impressive graphics.
• Final Fantasy V was released only in Japan, while Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI (SNES) by Square were released in North America with their original numeration shifted. While the series was very successful in Japan early on, it was not until the release of Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation that it reached blockbuster status outside Japan.
• Gunstar Heroes (Genesis) by Treasure and Sega is considered one of the best action games of the generation.
• John Madden Football (1990) (Genesis, SNES) by Park Place Productions and EA Sports played an important role in the early success of both the Genesis console and Electronic Arts.
• Super Metroid (SNES) by Nintendo Research & Development 1 and Nintendo is still regarded by many gaming organizations as one of the "best games of all time."
• Mortal Kombat (Arcade, Genesis, SNES) by Midway Games garnered heated controversy over its violent themes, with the uncensored Genesis version outselling the SNES version by nearly three-to-one, ultimately leading to a U.S. Congressional hearing and the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
• NHLPA Hockey '93 (Genesis, SNES) by Park Place Productions and EA Sports is considered one of the most outstanding sports games ever made.
• Phantasy Star II (Genesis) by Sega Consumer Development Division 2 and Sega has been cited as one of the best and most influential console RPGs.
• Secret of Mana (SNES) by Square reintroduced the Seiken Densetsu series, originally conceived as a Final Fantasy spin-off, to Europe and North America.
• Shining Force 2 (Genesis) by Sonic! Software Planning and Sega has been cited as one of the greatest games ever made.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis) by Sonic Team and Sega was Sega's bid to compete head-to head with Nintendo's Mario franchise, played a critical role in the success of the Genesis, and received widespread critical acclaim as one of the greatest games ever made.
• Street Fighter II (Arcade, Genesis, SNES) by Capcom was the second game in the series to produce a lasting fanbase and set many of the trends seen in fighting games today, most notably its colorful selection of playable fighters from different countries across the globe. As of 2008, it is Capcom's best-selling consumer game of all time.
• Streets of Rage 2 (Arcade, Genesis) by Sega AM7 and Sega is considered the best beat 'em up of the generation.
• Super Monaco GP (Arcade, Genesis) by Sega set a new standard for realism in console racing games.
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES) by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (Nintendo EAD) and Nintendo is considered perhaps the finest 2D platformer.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) by Nintendo EAD and Nintendo courted popularity that was larger than that of its predecessors on the NES. It was one of the few action-adventures to be released early in the SNES's lifecycle. Zelda II on the NES had been mostly action-based and was side-scrolling, while A Link to the Past drew more inspiration from the original Zelda game with its top-down adventure format.
• Ys Book I & II (TurboGrafx) by Nihon Falcom was among the first video games mass released on CD-ROM, when released in Japan in 1989 and in North America in 1990. In addition to receiving praise for its story and gameplay, the game pioneered several technical features, such as voice acting, animated cut scenes, and pre-recorded soundtracks, which would become industry standards later in the decade.